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This post develops what the community kitchen has to offer with street grown resources and community engagement. (We decided to present our narrative through social media and instagram posts as we wanted to showcase what individual experiences might be like when experiencing the future High Street. Each of our posts captures a different element of experience on the High Street to form a collective scenario.)

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Tiny acts of random kindness like picking up a dropped pen for someone else

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1 bench being used - lots unused?

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The interior of the community kitchen would be inviting and colourful to create a positive atmosphere. The colours were abstracted from one of our group collages of food. The kitchen counters are not considered as a back of house element; they have been combined with seating as we are trying to embrace the cooking process. The kitchen desk is designed in a way so multiple people can work together from all sides, with central storage for herbs. The facade of the kitchen contains a small window so food can be sold outside. We have also created a vertical herb garden so it can be used in the community kitchen. We wanted to keep these below eye-line so people outdoors have a clear view into what’s going on inside. This street section shows activity from the back of the community kitchen to the other end of the street and how all these elements are working coherently. The street is filled more with people rather than cars. We believe that the outdoor seating, more trees, canopies and street lights can attract people to connect with the High Street.

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These are stepping stones that we wanted to achieve, with a scale of intervention, starting with small changes that could still have a big impact e.g. street furniture. At the other end of the scale is topography, where larger adaptations can be made for what we want to achieve.

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Activity - people walking up and down the High Street

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Our collective vision for Dudley is to support a creative community that is connected through our internet of things; creating spaces that allow for the collection and redistribution of materials that locals can use to construct products with. Community engagement is central to this design network with local businesses encouraged to get involved in manufacturing. We decided to bring alive this vision through a series of pavilions positioned through the High Street, following a process through recycling, storing constructing and manufacturing. To take this idea further, we allocated several empty units along the High Street to become spaces involved in the open factory, from workshops, educational centres and co-working hubs. Since we wanted to show the journey people would be able to take, we decided to create a storyboard for our final visual. These visuals show how the pavilions could sit in the High Street, starting at the market place, past CoLab Dudley’s base, and ending up at Top Church. We wanted to show how people would be able to interact with these different spaces and navigate between them.

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Pile of bird seed on pavement makes me smile as I know there are signs near here saying don't feed the birds

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The third Stepping Stone project attempted to design the community kitchen in one of the empty shops on Dudley High Street. We all know that food is an essential factor in our life and eating and cooking the food is not an abstract activity we do, it is part of our everyday routine. In our initial research, we found that many people live alone in compact housing on the High Street. We thought the kitchen connect the residents with society. We decided to make the process of preparing food more enjoyable. As our aim was to grow food on the street wherever possible, we can use these vegetables for the community kitchen. This will encourage residents to come down onto the street and engage with it. This could also be a new experience for the visitors of the High Street.

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'Quick eating pigeon'

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Nowhere to sit?

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'Walking fast & hurriedly'

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Shopping in groups, families / friends

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Up high buddleia + fern waving in gentle breeze

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["Pretty sure I witnessed a drug deal and shoplift"]

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Tiny random acts of kindness like picking up blown away posters

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A lady waving to a child

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In this post, we captured the street’s atmosphere filled with colour, activity, and pedestrianised streets. (We decided to present our narrative through social media and instagram posts as we wanted to showcase what individual experiences might be like when experiencing the future High Street. Each of our posts captures a different element of experience on the High Street to form a collective scenario.)

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Activity - people walking up and down the High Street

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My purpose of my Gift to Dudley High Street is to encourage the users to become involved in the changes that occur in a place they use. The aim is to gain feedback from the users of the game to inform any progress made, this way, the focus of regeneration can come from the users themselves, becoming a collective collaboration. Through the users interacting with each other on the High Street using this game, the presence of users can be recognised, reminding the people of a sense of community to promote and celebrate going forward.

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Slowly walking couple - man helping older woman

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Only two people sitting on benches at this time

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Market people chatting under the shelter

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By utilising the passageway to display exhibition work from local institutions it would not only encourage them to create their crafts, it will celebrate their work and the range of crafts that Dudley has.

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A green wall facade across the passageway could create a bold landmark to attract people to the courtyard space.

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In this picture from 1914 in Dudley, you can just make out my grandfather. He's the small boy with the cap running across Wolverhampton Street in the days when the trams were still running. Years later we worked out that this day was probably a defining moment in his life, the day he chose never to have a second thought or to be bullied by others. You can see him running. This is because he had stolen the ham you can see him carrying under his arm. This one action started a chain of events for my grandfather that would go on to dominate his formative years. Petty larceny, theft, criminal activity that would shape him, turn him into one of the most notorious villains in the Black Country. When he died in 1972, this photograph turned up amongst his possessions, in a locked drawer of his bureau. We agreed amongst us that no one in the family had ever seen this photo before, curious as to its importance to him. On the back of the photo he had written the date and time, together with a brief note - "Me stealing ham from W.Smiths, butcher". He would have been 10 years old and this was perhaps his first, or at least one of his first criminal acts. We have no idea who took the photograph or how he had come to have the original print in his possession, but it appears that it held some significance for him as he kept it all of his life locked away in his bureau drawer.

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Slow car reversing into bay where I am sitting

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Activity - people walking up and down the High Street.

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Paper, card, soft plastics - I think people missed the bin!

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You can buy NEW clothes at Nico

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Activity - people walking up and down the High Street

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A sketch showing workshops utilising the empty spaces, street furniture, canopies on the side, and street art to brighten and liven the current High Street.

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Activity - people walking up and down the High Street

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Stepping Stone 2 is about making the High Street bespoke to Dudley through street furniture. We wanted to make the High Street more sociable and colourful. By providing outdoor seating areas, people would be invited to speak to each other and bring back a sense of community.

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By using the courtyard space as allotments, it will create a social hub for the local people and connect it to local businesses and stores.

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Happy playing football

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A day out in Dudley Time inside passes slow, So we went out for the day, My favourite place to go, The high street in Dudley I'm sure that you'd agree It's not like any other town, There is lots to do and see And there's space to run around There's a playground there Just in the middle of the street And fruit growing everywhere The strawberries taste so sweet There's lots of places for grown-ups Where they like to chat and sit They say 'hello ya right bab?' And then Tarra a bit. There is no need to in When it's black over bill's mother Because should the rain begin The canopy is the perfect cover The grown-ups pick the veggies And call come get some grub We jump down from our climbing trees And head over to the food hub We get the buz back home for tea And get it down our wazzin I look back on the day with glee My Dudley town is bostin.

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Social issues present ... between the two ends of the High Street, one recently improved in terms of materials, recreational areas and spaces for sitting, the other remains in disrepair and is heavily trafficked with completely transitional movement, lack of stopping and communication.

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Activity - people walking up and down the High Street

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Woman waiting

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Jack and his friends visited the High Street with their school teacher during a study trip. He learned a lot of things about sustainability, and how to grow food. He was so inspired. Atifa gave him some seeds from fruits on the street garden, and later he planted them in a small unused bucket. After a few months he came back to street to gift the kitchen some of the fruit from his tiny garden at home. Atifa felt so proud of the young generation of Dudley.

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Stepping Stone 4 adds layers to the High Street. Like the other visions, we wanted to use CoLab Dudley’s principles ‘use nature as a guidebook’ and ‘create conditions for curiosity and experimentation’. The main way we proposed to do this was adding a green canopy to provide shelter, create a hybrid indoor outdoor space welcoming to families and a more communal open space, and support ecosystems.

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Activity - people walking up and down the High Street

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Friendly intro chat to Lorna!

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People chatting & saying hi to someone passing in their car

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Men standing on grass - connecting with extra space on High Street - relaxing / watching the traffic

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This post promotes the opening of a community kitchen, supported by the Participatory City model. (We decided to present our narrative through social media and instagram posts as we wanted to showcase what individual experiences might be like when experiencing the future High Street. Each of our posts captures a different element of experience on the High Street to form a collective scenario.)

Imagining Collage Actions Change Colour Community Creativity Culture Curiosity Difference Food Friendliness Future Imagination Interacting Invitations Life Making Opportunity People Potential Stories Taste Learning Emotion

PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPE To create a safe family friendly pedestrianised space on Dudley's high street. By changing up the landscape and introducing micro ecosystem on the high street we aim to improve the health and well-being for the planet as well as the people of Dudley.

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