The research poses the following primary research questions:\nWHY? / Given the agreed need for wider social participation in the design process, why is there limited communication between research into and practice of the subject?\nWHO? - Who gets involved and how does the user/architect role affect the client/architect role, and within this the client-user relationship?\nWHAT? / What activities in design are participated in, and to what extent does the architect see this role as guiding the user as opposed to investigating the user's existing interests/awareness?\nHOW? / How social and technical tools for participation can be used. How can non-specialised language and tools be used to communicate more openly in the process, and how will this affect use of resources?\nWHERE? / Which types of buildings might be more or less suited to participation of users and the general public in the design process?\n\nThe research questions identified above will be investigated through:\n- a review of past and current trends and examples in wider social engagement in the architectural design process, whether 'community', 'individual' or other \n- identification of key social and technical methods of widening participation, drawing from allied areas of the built environment \n- identification of good practice case studies and key informants referring to a Steering Group\n- identification of key institutions with potential interests \n- isolating good practice and possibilities/constraints for wider social involvement in the architecture design process, through case studies\n- identifying implications of the research findings for the profession, institutions and the wider public, including issues for future development\n- making specific recommendations for research development activities and assisting in setting agendas for future activities to promote more systematic and wider social involvement in the architecture design process\n\nThe research methods include:\na) setting up a participatory process, based on a steering group, for confirmation of key issues, identification of case studies and relevant techniques\nb) undertaking an international literature review of participation in design of the built environment;\nc) implementing in-depth investigation of representative case studies from a broad initial sample where user or wider public participation has been engaged in the architectural design process across the UK, using semi-structured interviews and focus group meetings to identify how these have been assessed\nd) undertaking a review of visualisation techniques currently used or in development and their actual / potential role in widening participation in building design \ne) implementing a series of interviews with relevant organisations engaged in issues of public interest in design for new and existing buildings concerning initial findings.\n\nThe research is speculative in that it seeks to establish a consensual agenda for future research and action by Government and professional bodies. The proposal is essentially exploratory, but the outcomes have the potential to be of particular value to the research community as well as other relevant audiences and constituencies. The study may well assist in challenging existing models of architectural design and perceptions of how wider social participation can be incorporated into these, or change these. In addition it will permit an assessment of the feasibility of tools and techniques (some new and some relatively new to architecture). Finally it is seen as a scoping study for further development work, including research possibilities as well as practical application in the profession.

Testing Sci-Fi Hot Tub' aims to develop a method of testing the effect of an artwork on its audience. The intention is to produce a generally applicable method by focusing research on one specific artwork. 'Sci-Fi Hot Tub' is intended by the artist Zoe Walker to operate as a catalyst for wellbeing to all who encounter It. It will be a sculptural object in the form of an inflatable hot tub island to cocoon a number of participants in warmth and comfort whilst floating in sublime and sometimes hostile environments, increasing their emotional and physical wellbeing. A team composed of artists and medical scientists led by Zoe Walker one half of the artistic duo Walker & Bromwich will undertake the research. The research forms part of the wider project 'Panacea: the art of wellbeing' an evolving touring exhibition and events program which proposes ways in which art can act as a panacea healing the ills of society. Panacea has toured venues in England and France and has received substantial funding from The Welcome Trust, Arts Council England and others. The intention is to adopt the methodology of drugs testing to test the effect of Sci-Fi Hot Tub on a group of healthy volunteer subjects. A clinical pharmacologist, Dr Mark Down, with ten years' experience of working on drugs trials, will work under Zoe Walker to develop and implement the testing method. He will monitor and record the psychological state of the subjects before, during and after experiencing the artwork, using best clinical practice. Professor Adrian Renton Director Institute for Health and Human Development, University of East London will analyse the results of this process. The tests will be carried out at three contrasting venues. The first, Kielder Water in Northumberland, Is a vast, bleak reservoir. The second, Victoria Baths in Manchester, is an ornate Edwardian bath house in course of restoration which will be filled for the first time in twenty years to float Sci-Fi Hot Tub. The third environment is Comer house, Manchester, a 'white-cube' gallery space which might seem the natural home of an art object This is essentially practice led research and without going through the process it is impossible to know what will be discovered. Testing Sci-Fi Hot Tub will function as a participatory art event at each of the three venues, experienced by a wider audience as well as the test group. This is Waker & Bromwich's established way of working, developed in recent years though events such as Celestial Radio and The Friendly Frontier Picnic. As with these previous projects, a fundamental aspect of Testing Sci-Fi Hot Tub is the production of a documentary video that follows the progress of the testing procedure, capturing the essentially visual nature of the event at each venue. The DVD and a complementary written account of the research findings will be published in an integrated format and distributed in Jan 2008 along with the book produced to document Panacea: the art of wellbeing.

Green infrastructure (GI) is recognised globally as an essential component of liveable and sustainable places. It is generally defined as encompassing most vegetated elements in the built environment, for example trees, shrubs, wetlands and other planting. It is widely acknowledged that GI provides numerous benefits to health and well-being and there is a substantial body of research demonstrating these benefits. Despite this there is still considerable uncertainty amongst the multiple stakeholders of 'what good GI is'. Currently, there is no overarching benchmark or standard for GI. This Innovation Fund will address this by developing a national benchmark for GI. The Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments at the University of the West of England, Bristol are already developing a local benchmark for GI with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership. This benchmark is, however, focussed on local priorities in Gloucestershire and the West of England. This Innovation Fund will expand the local benchmark to ensure it can be used across England in a wider range of GI initiatives. This benchmark will allow an assessment of the process of GI creation, from policy, through to planning, design, delivery and long-term management, ensuring that current good practice has been adopted at all stages. The stakeholders, or end-users, for the national benchmark include planners, property developers, ecologists, urban designers, landscape architects, engineers, public health professionals, urban foresters, community safety officers and maintenance contractors. The objectives are as follows: - To work with a range of end-users to expand the local benchmark into a national benchmark and ensure that it is fit-for-purpose and user-friendly. - To apply this national benchmark to a series of GI demonstration projects including new commercial and residential developments and retrofitting initiatives across England to demonstrate its effectiveness. The national benchmark will then be formally launched and made available online for anyone to use for free. User documentation and reports detailing the demonstration projects will be available on a website for the benchmark. The outcome of the Innovation Fund is ultimately the delivery of high quality GI. This will maximise the benefits provided by GI including to nature conservation, health and well-being, economic growth, climate change adaptation and resilience. The key impacts include: Allowing developers to demonstrate to planning authorities, stakeholders and customers that they are providing high quality GI, which will act as a selling point for their developments. Enabling local authorities to communicate their expectations for GI in new developments and retrofitting projects (e.g. of social housing) and its maintenance; easily identify those planning applications that are meeting their requirements for the GI elements of developments; and demonstrate the quality of their own GI assets. Allowing built environment consultants to demonstrate compliance with a respected and recognised benchmark to their clients. Enabling policy makers to develop more effective policies, by being able to specify their expectations for GI at a national and local level in a range of contexts. This will improve clarity on the requirements for GI. Benefit residents and communities in both new and existing neighbourhoods who will gain from the provision of high quality GI and the associated benefits. This will ultimately improve, for example, their quality of life, health and well-being, environmental quality, resilience to climate change and the local economy. Benefit broader society which will have more consistent access to high quality GI and the associated positive outcomes from this including, for example, improved population health and well-being, inward investment, biodiversity, climate change adaptation and environmental justice.

Through a variety of co-produced public facing and academic activities this project will commemorate the network of women and their collaborators who have had a major impact on shaping the post-war designed landscapes of the British Welfare State. The project will challenge existing approaches in landscape history that focus on individual designers and key flagship design projects. 'Women of the Welfare Landscape' will shift attention to networks of professionals, their work as educators, campaigners and advocates, and projects of the everyday: landscapes in service of communities. As opposed to an object-focused analysis of exemplary private gardens, this project will analyse landscapes of public housing, public and country parks funded by municipalities and landscapes of infrastructure commissioned by publicly owned, nationalised industries, as material examples of landscapes for social benefits and 'fair share for all': a key objective of Welfare Planning. The project will examine whether the growing importance of the landscape profession in the post-war period, its shifting focus from private clients towards communities and a more available education system, led to a change in the professional habitus and social background of landscape architects. By using a contextual biographical approach, the project will place the collaborations and networks of Brenda Colvin (1897-1981) at the centre of the research, through which the wider questions will be explored. Brenda Colvin was born in India and, after being educated in Swanley Horticultural College, started her independent practice in 1922. She was the first woman to be elected president of any leading built environment institute, when she took on the role of President of the Institute of Landscape Architects in 1951. Her work not only defined the future of the Institute - and the profession - but also had lasting impact on the education of landscape architects. Her collaboration with Hal Moggridge through their practice Colvin & Moggridge ensured the lasting legacy of her work: the practice is now the longest running in the country and will celebrate its centenary in 2022. While the academic angle of the research will analyse and map Colvin's networks in a national and international professional, as well as British imperial context, a series of public facing events will commemorate the centenary of her practice and will contextualise this body of work within the questions of female leadership, the changing profession of landscape architecture, and the role of these landscapes in the current debates around accessibility of green spaces highlighted by the COVID19 pandemic and the Climate Crisis.

Imagine how fantastic it would be to be able to make a tangible three dimensional 'sketch' of a design concept. An outcome of the Tacitus Research Project is a prototype '3D sketching' software application using the Reachin Haptic (touch) system which gives users real experience of working within a more natural environment where they can 'feel' virtual objects. The creative process, particularly germinal phase activities (sketching, modelling, playing, exploring) and "intelligent making" (formal/tacit knowledge, physical and mental skill, contextual awareness, personal creative autonomy), is central to the aim of improving the experience of computer aided designing through combining a more intuitive expressible interface, and the benefits that haptics (touch) and computing offers. Artist Claude Heath was Invited to experiment with the '3D sketching' application to create a 3 dimensional interactive sketch of Ben Nevis which was premiered at the Tacitus 2004 Symposium 'Creative Digital Interactions' held in Sept 2004. He demonstrated the sketch's true 3 dimensional qualities by fully rotating the projected image, panning, zooming and flying around and through the sketch using a mouse. In addition to achievements regarding human interaction Issues, this was a very exciting event particularly as the consensus of the delegates was that the composition Claude had created was, in an entirely aesthetic sense, a work of art in its own right regardless of how technologically it had been produced. How fantastic then to be able to make a tangible three dimensional 'sketch'. Aims of the proposed activity: discover scope and potential for creating new 3D designs and producing real tangible objects by fusing two technologies - digital 3D sketching and rapid prototyping (RP) use activity to inspire new groups of designer makers/young creatives to engage with design, technology and digital media illustrate how new virtual media and RP technology offers not only new tools but also the prospect of entirely new ways of thinking and working Objectives: to generate genuine high quality, exciting three dimensional digital sketches 3D digital sketches with prototyping potential '3D sketched' objects made tangible through rapid prototyping technology documentation on the creation processes 6 designers will be invited to create sketch designs (using the 3D sketching application/Reach in haptic system). Approximately 6 will be prototyped as objects. Dissemination activities: 1. Exhibition (display objects, project 3D sketches for interaction, illustrate process with story boarding/video). 2. Conference paper and presentation, tutorials/discussion forums (designers, teaching/research staff, students).