A Space for Making Good Decisions About Place

This installation by Helena Fitzgerald proposes a way of thinking about the places where we live. It is a prototype, describing an approach to how we can make good decisions for the future. The space has been assembled in response to the pressing need to make good decisions at a local level, so that we can act to address biodiversity loss and climate change.

Drawing on Fitzgerald’s participatory practice as an architect, and further refined through research, the space is proposed as an easily understood model for good decision making to be communicated widely; a decision making shortcut to allow us to act quickly – like the 2m social distancing rule adopted during the pandemic – to protect our health and wellbeing and to bring about effective action at a local level. Drawing on observation and experience of the co-creation of integrated landscape management plans, A Space for Making Good Decisions About Place is proposed as a space for bringing together different types of knowledge and different life experiences, a space where useful knowledge can be shared. The installation is focussed on the activation of evidence-based, local responses to achieve the 'national climate objective'. Its operation – which will be explored through a programme of interactive events during the installation at VISUAL – is expected to reveal difficulties in accessing the useful knowledge and place-specific data needed to allow these good decisions to be made.