This meeting threw up some more interesting people, Nick Bird from ISIS and Pam who is an ethno-botanist.  Pam used to work at the Winterbourne Botanic Gardens, and is working with none other than Jon Sadler on his OPen Air Laboratories (OPAL) project.  Small world. We discussed RG and then ISIS' plans for Warwick Bar, all interspersed with more general comments on regen.  As there were fewer people this time I'll endeavour to group the things people said into distinct topics...

1. Families and long-term viability

ISIS are very concerned to attract families to their developments, as this ensures long term viability of projects.  The problem is that this requires all sorts of infrastructure that developers can't provide in isolation.  The need for good schools is perhaps one of the most intractable, and Pam has been doing some work with them in this vein.  She mentioned the work of Birmingham Futures, who have evidence that young pros would like to stay in the city centre when they have kids.  The need for long term viability is driven financially by the potential for pension funds to invest in developments that are seen as a safe long-term bet.  Assumedly ISIS are keenly aware of this because they are part-owned by the Igloo fund already.

2. The need for distinctive developments

The second key priority for ISIS is to create more distinctive developments.  The more generic developments aren't selling currently, a trend that is exacerbated by the credit crunch.  We actually discussed the kinds of things that would be useful for architects and designers to know about a place, and that RG might be able to deliver.  He was interested in local knowledge, like little stories about what buildings and what aspects of buildings matter, little routes that are used, special places and so forth.  Julia mentioned the development in Manchester that was branded and marketed around a rare water plant that was found on the site.

3. Use of emotional mapping

This is the stuff that Phil talks about in the last entry on the blog, where we sorted Steph out with a crude emotional sensor and let her loose in Eastside with a GPS.  The specifics have been covered, but it is worth noting how ISIS responded to the possibilities.  Nick could see the utility of being able to turn qualitative data into quantitative, and it was felt that if enough walks could be amalgamated to identify places that are generally liked or disliked then it would be a powerful tool to use to persuade planners to do things.  He mentioned the need to persuade them to spruce up Fazeley St.

4. Consultation over Warwick Bar

OK so this was where we first got an idea of what exactly it might be that we might do for these people.  They want to consult key stakeholders about Warwick Bar, both in general and in terms of the specific creative industry needs that the development might meet.  We now have a list of people who we need to do walking interviews with.  We discussed whether we would need to be more prescriptive about the interviewing process (e.g. confine them to Warwick Bar, tell them to focus on one or two topics), but it was felt that it would be more interesting and revealing if we stuck to the original format, and MADE followed up our work with more focused sedentary interviews.

5. Health and waterways

ISIS seemed quite interested in the idea of doing some research on how people use waterways recreationally, both on the water, and by the water on towpaths.  This started as a concern with the ways in whcih Warwick Bar is used, and developed into a discussion about the possibility of a more general nationwide research project.  in terms of Warwick Bar, Nick mentioned that Birmingham is Britain's 'canal city'.  Recreation and waterways also keys into a load of government research priorities - sustainable transport and climate change, fitness and obesity.  ISIS have projects in Manchester that they would be keen to get us involved with too.

There are a number of angles that could be taken on this research, ranging from description of usage to identifying motivations for use, to design issues that may be used to encourage use.  Then there are the different user categories, ranging from cyclists and joggers to fishermen and canal boaters.  Myself and Phil had a very brief chat afterwards about the possible ways to package the research.  A CASE studentship springs to mind, but I felt a more heavyweight project may be possible.  Either way, ISIS would be a great partner given the topic.  Note to self - email nick sketching some possibilities...

6.What to do for the Lab if we get no funding!

In general, do less for a shorter period of time! I need to talk to Dan about the portraits.  Julia rightly commented that these are potentailly very important, as they are like 'a personal invite' to participate further. She also mooted the idea of forming an artists group to liaise with the architects after the lab.  It was also suggested that Pam could provide photos of 'urban nature' from around Eastside to project at the lab, and she suggested that we could get groups of kids value mapping around Eastside.

As an aside, the book seemed to go down quite well, which has got to be a good sign too...