Agency by Design

About the model

The Embedded Social Model (ESK) was developed in my PhD to accommodate the lived-experience method to establish a collective vision of what prison environments would be to support successful reintegration to the community. It aligns with the call by the International Red Cross for a design process to be ‘dynamic, iterative, and inclusive’, quoted in Baggio et al. (2018, p. 87). The intention of the ESK model is to develop a vision for a future built environment that responds to strategic issues of a particular social context. The information constructed from this model would be part of a project proposal where the conceptualised design scenarios inform the client of the array of qualities desired for a range of functions for their project. To arrive at a vision for a project, any number of issues or concerns can be investigated through the model. Numerous models could be run concurrently within the design process and will be subject to a scoping brief from the Strategy stage. 

The significance of this model is it offers future desired qualities of a new facility of the viewpoint from ‘the periphery and the depths’ (Haraway 1988, pp. 583-4) 

Model Stages

The following stages of the model are:

• Starting with the topic or function in question – this component is the entry point to the ‘visioning’ design development (Baggio et al. 2018, p. 87). There is no limit to a topic or function or scale. It needs to be defined from the outset as a base point.
• Developing knowledge through co-produced research — the qualitative research/practice component. Its role as a qualitative investigation is to address the past and establish an anticipation of the future that can be then scripted in the following activity (Patton 1990, p. 137). It is expected any research will have a constructivist epistemological/ontological base for its knowledge construction on the particular topic.
• Telling shared stories: Participatory scripting. In this part, where issues or concerns are being described as a script, continuous involvement with the participant cohort to the process is important. Ideally, the previous research would be presented by the design facilitator in a workshop environment where participants could have input and form ideas. It is also feasible to incorporate a visual exercise as part of the participatory scripting, to diminish the mystery and impact of the inevitable creative leap by the design team (Cross 2006, pp. 43-4).
• Visualising the collective: Design scenarios — these are design vignettes that interpret and articulate the collective viewpoint of the participant cohort. They are a mechanism that interprets and visualises the collective concerns for a particular topic and provides a medium for discussion. Their purpose is to evoke images of possibilities to address concerns rather them being prescriptive of a design outcome. 
• Sharing visions of the collective's view of a vuture state: The Exhibition — town hall exhibition. An exhibition is suggested as a form of checking the findings. The manner of exhibition will depend on the nature, scale, and scope of a project. A project may be for a single space or a whole facility. It is important in this stage to ensure continuous engagement with stakeholder participants and a broader affected audience, if deemed appropriate to the project. 
• Consolidating Design into Agreed Vision: Finalise design scenarios and write up concepts that address original concerns. The role performs a visual reference for a desired future and strategic goals that can be included in the programming documentation of a new project (Baggio et al. 2018, p. 74) and offer insights to the qualities and functionality of a particular part of the design.