During 2013 I spent three months assisting the late Ben Hamilton-Baillie, UK’s leading expert on shared spaces through a combination of place-making and cognitive psychology. I helped Ben in developing the proposals for Long Ashton, a village outside of Bristol.
The work I was involved in was a hybrid of street regeneration and experimental traffic engineering. This valuable placement gave me the initial experience of negotiating my salary, coordinating self-conducted site visits with external consultants or clients, as well as assessing, discussing and responding to formal policy documents.
The highlight of the placement was to independently represent the practice at a meeting with North Somerset County Council officials, where I was required to defend HBA’s and Long Ashton Parish council’s interests.
The visual output produced by myself (example to the right) and practice’s CGI artist supplemented Ben’s eloquently worded reports and persuasive public presentations. Having been fortunate to be present in a few of these, I made an effort to learn to design through words. Ben’s provocative and unconventional thinking has remained inspirational to me since this placement.
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