As part of Maru’s Masters in Service Design, she’s working on a project with Camden Council to help limit the impact of extensive construction in London’s Euston area.
One of their ideas is to fill construction hoardings—which are the large, boarded fences keeping people out of construction sites—with artwork to help the local area feel more lively, and less like a construction site.
These artworks would form meanwhile spaces—which are unused sites temporarily lent to the public sector, arts organisations, charities, or start-ups for community-oriented activities.
A big part of her programme is prototyping and experimentation. So her group decided to make their own origami art pieces and place them on construction hoardings in the Camden area to gauge the reactions from local residents.
We spent Sunday evening folding our origami, and set out early Monday morning to put up our little creation. Our fingers were frozen stiff, and we worked quickly—perhaps a little afraid of the peering eyes of the nearby construction workers.
Soon after we finished, we heard a mother and son walking past and the son asking if they could pause and take a photo of all the bright colours. Success!
When a concept alone is insufficient, or the bells-and-whistles solution isn’t possible, sometimes you just have to prototype and do it yourself.
