Camden Art Centre: Architects in Residence – participatory design and temporary interventions in a gallery garden

As part of a year-long residency at Camden Art Centre, Root And Erect collaborated with artist Ashley McCormick to explore how architectural practice could foster deeper relationships between people and place. Through a series of seasonal events, including a family overnight camp and an interpretive Pecha Kucha evening, the project invited the public to reimagine the garden not just as a backdrop, but as a living site for reflection, encounter and playful engagement. Guided walks led by choreographers, scientists, poets and psycho-geographers expanded the understanding of the garden’s spatial and sensory possibilities.

The residency culminated in an on-site public design week, during which visitors were invited to co-create interventions for a new nature trail. Using a generative system developed by Root And Erect, each participant’s model was built in response to a previous one, producing a chain of evolving ideas. Several propositions were constructed, marking the beginning of a participatory trail through the garden. The project pushed collaborative authorship to an extreme and demonstrated how small-scale, temporary structures can create lasting social and spatial resonance within a cultural landscape.