Creative Mornings

30/01/2012 Written by: Tracy Hobson No comments

David Barrie is excited by the power of people, by crowds, by communities, by communication and by change. Speaking at the Sense Creative Mornings London, sponsored by Sense Worldwide and hosted by Buro Happold, he outlined his plan to make the world a better place, one small step at a time.

An experienced documentary film-maker, he believes strongly in the impact of the “Tiny Epic” – a small, unusual story, that grips people’s imagination and makes them see the world a little differently (think Subo, or Extreme Makeover – Home Edition). This has shaped his approach to community development projects with tiny budgets.

Barrie talked through some of his most successful projects to date, including the “People’s Supermarket” in Camden, which is now inspiring similar projects across the country, Dott07 Urban Farming which saw over a thousand people growing food on unused green spaces across Middlesborough and is still growing beautifully (if you’ll excuse the pun) and Shiregreen Neighbourhood Challenge in Sheffield which is helping residents to transform run down community facilities, deliver local services and create jobs.

He said that straight talking and a genuine passion for getting people “associating with each other” are the keys to his success when working with people who are often deprived and disengaged. Joking that a London-based, public school educated, media type was exactly the type of bloke they wanted to see on a run-down estate in Yorkshire (not), he explained that by avoiding the airy-fairy, aspiration language often used by consultants (“community engagement”, “economic inclusion”, that sort of thing) and making straight-forward offers (“do this to get your food cheaper”), he’s been able to win people’s trust, so they have got involved and stayed involved.

Barrie often works in partnership with big developers and public / private partnerships, who may sometimes have brought him in just to tick the “Social” box on their contract form, but their investment can often pay off in real, noticeable and lasting improvements. In response to a question about the localism agenda, he warned of the danger of slipping into a whirl of PR, strategy & spin and forgetting that the important thing is to start Doing and keep Doing!

Many deep thinkers have said it before, but Barrie really does subscribe to the view that every journey starts with a single step and his enthusiasm for re-energising our most disengaged communities is infectious!

Here at Buro Happold, we have a long history of supporting those people at the very start of their engineering careers to grow and develop and become the best that they can.

Through The Happold Trust we support student engineers across the globe, with sponsorship and summer internships at our worldwide offices. Within the company we hold regular Design Crits, enabling teams to present their project ideas to audiences drawn from all levels of the company, discussing alternative approaches and benefiting from the expertise of all those present. Finally, we recognise that no-one has got all the answers, so through activities such as Creative Mornings, we keep the doors wide open to new ideas and expertise, for the benefit of both our staff and our clients.