Key principles of co-design – Learnings from Co-design in London
Key principles of co-design – Learnings from Co-design in LondonKey Principles for Community Co-design
Co-design is the practice of community engagement that challenges conventional power dynamics by meaningfully involving community participants in partnership or collaboration with public bodies. It is becoming an increasingly common approach taken by public authorities. This reflects the growing desire to give more agency and influence over project outcomes to the communities they represent.
When carried out with care and consideration, co-design allows a diversity of knowledge and experience, both professional and lived, to shape a project from its fundamentals. Through this process, community ownership is grown and sustained. When done well, co-design can achieve outcomes beyond the scope of traditional methods of engagement. Although it must be acknowledged that not every project can be co-designed, it should be the benchmark to which all commissioning authorities aspire.
Key principles to help guide co-design thinking which emerged out of CLEVER Cities and specifically the London case study are illustrated here. More information on how these principles were put into action in the CLEVER Cities partner city of London are described in this brief.