Title: The Wicker Commons
Author: Dulcie Foster Finn
Year: 2021
Abstract: Isn’t it about time we made our governance work for everyone?
Imagine this:
It’s the year 2035 in Sheffield and The Wicker Commons has been operating as a place for local governance for 3 years. As a response to the failing centralised political system, the Wicker Community Land Trust pioneered a new way of doing things. They rejected the prevailing capitalist system and instead sought to cultivate a truly inclusive development model, in which the needs and desires of all local people have the agency to shape and govern their community. Now, the Wicker is a thriving, distinctive and sustainable urban neighbourhood, catalysing a radical move towards community-led governance across the United Kingdom.
This thesis project is a culmination of on ongoing and deep dissatisfaction with the Westminster system, which has only intensified in the midst of recent events. Through The Wicker Commons, the author wants to explore how a feminist approach to architecture – and the production of it – can actively cultivate civic agency to create diverse, vibrant and resilient communities.
This is a hopeful vision for the future.
It will be available to download soon.