Revoe Public Square
Lee Ivett
Ecaterina Stefanescu
Other People’s Dreams is based within the Grenfell-Baines Institute of Architecture at the University of Lancashire and operates simultaneously as a live action research office and Master of Architecture course. OPD engages in a critical and durational way with community organisations in the northwest region of England, exploring modes of participation with marginalised groups, situations and ideas in order to rethink the potential of people and place. We explore that which is often 'unseen' within architectural education and practice: everyday life as experienced by everyday people, born and often made peripheral through birth, migration and circumstance.
We re-evaluate the concept of an architect as facilitator for other people's dreams. We question what it is to dream and to what extent our individual aspirations and dreams align with collective need and desire?
OPD currently comprises of designers and academics Lee Ivett, Ecaterina Stefanescu and Sam Eadington.
The Revoe Public Square is an ongoing project that explores and prototypes new forms of civic space in a marginalised community, while testing new methodologies of reuse and fabrication with community participants. The project engages local people from the Revoe area of Blackpool, England, in the development and application of a new temporary public space on the site of the former George Hotel.
Once a pub that was central to the area’s social fabric, the land is now privately owned, was fenced off, and left to grow wild. In a neighbourhood marked for partial demolition and redevelopment, the project gives residents the opportunity to make visible their own ideas and potential impact within these processes and builds a case for local agency, autonomy and ownership within the context of existing and proposed top-down regeneration.
The first intervention is a circular platform, designed for community interpretation and use. Workshops held on-site revealed a desire for a visually striking object that would subtly invite engagement. The result was a 10m-diameter circle with a 3m hole, which functions as a bench, gathering space, and outdoor performance venue. The design incorporates octagonal and square panels made from decking boards and bespoke concrete terrazzo slabs that were produced with participants at the local community centre over summer 2024. The concrete recycles demolition rubble, glass from the site, and seashells, with colours referencing the former pub, the sea and sky, and the beach.
The development and delivery of the project included members from the local British and Romanian community and asylum seekers. At a time of heightened tension across the UK amongst settled and migrant communities, this project has demonstrated how simple acts of collaborative making can bring people together through shared objectives and providing a safe and supportive context through which to raise and address potential points of conflict.