Dott 07

This international design camp, led by Steve Messam, brought together teams of young designers, senior students, visual artists, architects and young professionals to develop sustainable tourism ideas for (and with) specific North East locations and communities.

Participants came from eight different countries and spanned many disciplines. Their projects looked at everything from urban camping to the structures that are likely to emerge with the advent of geothermal energy, and the decoration of landscape using the tools and patterns of agriculture.

The teams were allocated to four locations across the North East of England and asked to investigate how sustainable tourism might be developed and implemented there. They worked with local partners to document the features of value in the area.

Tasks included:

• Describing how visitors might experience this feature in new ways
• Creating an opportunity map of places, or services, to be designed
• Creating artefacts and/or a storyboard of a proposed new service or situation
• Describing the business or enterprise model that would make their proposal truly sustainable.

Throughout the 10-day camp, the teams worked with co-ordinators and the local community to tackle the design challenges. Various experts from around the world acted as mentors to the teams through a series of day and evening sessions.

See the sustainable tourism blog to find out what happened during Design Camp.

PROJECTS

• Urban Camping
  Exploring the concept of urban camping and ‘camp&ride’ schemes as a model for sustainable urban tourism.
• Allendale Industrial Heritage
  Working with the rural community and industrial heritage of the North Pennines to see how tourism can be developed sustainably in this remote spot.
• Landlines
  How can minor changes to farming procedures change the face of the landscape? Working with farmers using existing resources to change the view from the windows of mainline trains throughout the northeast, revealing the roles of farmers as producers of the landscape.
• Wind Power in the Landscape
  Exploring the concept of power generation as visual spectacle and tourist attraction. Can wind power have a positive effect on the landscape and tourism?

Dott's Design Camp was a unique opportunity to exchange ideas and practice with designers and artists from other countries, engage with international domain experts and leaders in a variety of design fields and develop a real-life, sustainable project.

Design Camp ran in North East England from the 12 – 21 July 2007.

Design Camp Leader: Steve Messam
Programme Director: John Thackara