Aspirations and Avoidances Activity

To explore the clients' desires, wants and needs through an engaging activity.

Image of Aspirations and Avoidances activity in action

PURPOSE:

The overarching purpose of the exercise is to get the dialogue started between the stakeholders and the designers. Before the first public meeting, there is very little known from each side of the table. This exercise opens the door to the collaborative process that is design.

DESIGN PHASE:

(highlighted in bold are the phase or phases most applicable)

Vision and goals
Site exploration
Program development
Co-design
Design evaluation
Implementation

MATERIALS NEEDED:

One or two large pads of paper
Markers
Easel
Camera or smart phone for documentation

PREFERRED FORMAT:

This format can work in a workshop or focus group setting. Any setting where there are multiple people that could benefit from a collaborative brainstorming. At least thirty minutes should be devoted to the exercise.

SUGGESTIONS:

Do not push the wants/needs/desires in one way or another as the moderator, and let the audience guide the discussion.

Overview

The purpose of the exercise is to elicit ideas for the site. Another name for the exercise is the Desires, Wants and Needs exercise. The moderator should begin the exercise by asking the participants what their desires are for the site. These are the pie-in-the-sky desires and anything goes. This is followed by a slightly more grounded wants of the participants. And, finally, the needs, which is the most grounded portion of the exercise. Once the needs are expressed, this should illicit the things the participants do not want. This is all to get the dialogue going between the stakeholders and the designers. Not only that, but in some cases, it will get the conversation going between stakeholders who may have different ideas for the site. This exercise should help the designers get an idea of which way the design should go with materials, colors, textures and even sometimes a plant palate. The results are the boundaries within which the designers can begin to work. Having worked in the Athens-Clarke County Planning department for the past four years now, I have seen this activity in action on several occasions.

Organization and Process

Gather materials (see material list to the left)
Set up the room. Here you can set up just enough chairs for the preferred size of the group, or you can open it up to the entire room.
Set up the work station. Put the pad of paper on the easel.
Start asking about Desires and write down everything and anything that comes to the participants minds. This may start slowly, but once a few desires are said, it should begin to produce more ideas.
Move on to Wants. Here you can ask about colors, textures, plants. Keep any suggestions/ideas vague on your end. The participants should be running the exercise and the moderator is just recording.
Move on to Needs and do the same as Step 5.
Lastly, ask if there is anything that you do not want to see on the site. You may have to flip back and forth between the pages. Make sure to write down the ideas that correspond with the correct heading (Desires, Wants, Needs etc).

First Meeting Photo by Katherine Melcher

Case Example

The Brooklyn Cemetery has an established Board of Trustees and an engaged community of volunteers that work diligently with the upkeep of the cemetery. This group is heavily involved in the possible reinternment of remains found under Baldwin Hall at the University of Georgia during a recent excavation. Currently, these remains, which have been identified as West African slaves, have been reinterred at the Oconee Hills Cemetery -- roughly three miles away from the Brooklyn Cemetery. As a MLA studio course at UGA, we have been tasked with designing a small space within the cemetery to house these remains and create a model for the cemetery as funding becomes available. During our first public meeting with members of the Board of Trustees, volunteers and the public, we led the Aspirations and Avoidances exercise in order to better understand what the group wanted and did not want. Without much knowledge of the site or the people that were so invested in the site, we needed an exercise where we could learn as much as possible about both.

As a method, there is not much forethought that goes into it. It really relies on the execution. To prepare, is merely to get the materials ready and the first meeting implemented. Once everyone was gathered, we were able to jump right into the exercise. Our first thought was to divide the room in half and have each half working independently; however, the group of seven people was small enough to address everyone, which worked out best since everyone was able to feed off of every other persons ideas.

I do believe that the exercise was extremely helpful in eliciting not only ideas for the site, but getting an idea of who the clients were. Knowing their preferences as a group was beneficial to the overall design process. I found myself going back to the first meeting with each iteration of the design over the next several months.

Lessons Learned

The biggest mistake that I made when developing this activity was the lack of background that I presented in the first meeting prior to the activity. A description of the site (location, topography, natural features etc.) should have been detailed at the outset of the first meeting. Instead, I jumped write into introductions of the design team and the first activity, which was the Aspirations and Avoidances.

We did get a lot of great feedback that we went on to use in our designs. (See pictures of the posters below).

What I learned:

Take your time. Take your time in writing everything out. Do not rush through the exercise.
Don't assume anything. If you have a question do not hesitate to ask.
Be open to collaboration.
Have fun.
Be bold.

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