A New Home For Paces

A vision for the future. A sense of togetherness.  A new home for Paces – three key outcomes of this Live Project.

Paces is an organisation providing­­ specialist education for children and adults with cerebral palsy and other neurological conditions. They practice conductive education – a holistic approach encouraging neurological development through repeated movements.

Paces currently inhabit a repurposed secondary school building, which is not conducive to the pedagogy.  The fragmented and confused nature of this building has led to a physical and, in turn, psychological separation between the various groups that make up the Paces community.

The brief brought to the Live Project team by Paces was to explore options for a new building for the organisation.

Through rigorous and plentiful engagement with, but notwithstanding: school children; part-time & full-time adult service users; conducting & educating staff; parents; trustees & strategic charity staff – the team was able to obtain a greater understanding of the pedagogy and of Paces as an entity.  This research served as the grounding for all design development throughout the project.

This research was developed into a design through two strands: strategy & vision.

Strategy: investigated relationships and adjacencies of the building programme and considered development options on the suggested site.

Vision: provided a tangible representation of the atmosphere of key moments and spaces through the New Home for Paces.

Through the methods employed and the inclusive & participatory nature of the chosen process, a common attitude was established amongst the disparate groups at Paces. Establishing this group ethos, through providing a tangible vision, gave our client the necessary tools to continue on their journey for a new home, with a view to obtaining funding.

Project outputs reflected the complex nature of the brief.  Alongside the main document containing all research, strategy & vision is a document tailored to an audience of potential funders.  Also produced was: a precedent information book; a design development book; a website, with social media accounts and project branding.  In addition to these, exhibition material, including: presentation boards; a physical model & a wishing tree, will remain a permanent fixture in a new ‘project room’ at Paces.  Engaging everyone with our vision was an important part of this Live Project and we chose to do this by use of Virtual Reality. Backed up by recent research about the benefits of using virtual reality with people with cerebral palsy, we created each of our key spaces in virtual reality with corresponding QR codes, so that these can be accessed by anyone, anytime, anywhere.

Part of the original brief included a short story of a vision for the future, through the eyes of Billy, a pupil at Paces. We’ve developed this story alongside the above visuals to illustrate the spaces from a child’s perspective.