Community Explorations 1

A5 Work in Progress

how can a small business become common?

Overview

‘A5 work in progress‘ is a series of design activities in the community emerged from a collaboration with Arlington 5 (A5) - a local coffee-house.

The main aim was to engage A5’s community in a collective process of understanding A5's current role within the neighbourhood and for its community, and to explore together what A5 could become through collective engagement and contribution.

A5 also wanted to strengthening its role as a space for promoting critical awareness of everyday life in the city, for expressing different and diverse perspectives, and as a promoter of socio-cultural and sustainable innovations.

keywords: community-based participatory design, commons

Arlington 5, the partner organization, is a small local coffee house located in downtown Ottawa; it opened its doors in 2015 to create a place for community building. It is a space for meeting and developing social relationships (i.e., the “Story night” and “Belong” initiatives, the open design of the space, etc.); for discussing and addressing socio-cultural issues (i.e., gender rights, black communities’ rights, etc.); and for providing healthy food choices and supporting the emergence of healthy habits (i.e., the “Dry night” initiative promoting a culture of alcohol-free drinks, the reusable cup library, the introduction of vegan options, etc.).
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Arlington 5, like many small businesses, has suffered a significant reduction in income and in opportunities for being a place for community building.
COVID-19 has amplified the existing need of small businesses to find a more sustainable service offer and business model and to strengthen their role as catalysts and drivers for sustainable, resilient, and inclusive communities.
A new service offers and business model is needed to allow A5 to thrive as a community space and as a place for inclusion and sustainability and to provide a financial infrastructure resilient to economic fluctuations.
To be successful and considering what needs to be achieved, this type of service offer, and business model must be the result of community support and engagement and must be co-designed together with the local community.
Considering that several local businesses face the same financial issue and have the same social potential, the results of this research can be further applied locally and benefit the urban context more widely.
This is an action-based research project that, through a participatory design process has been involving a variety of local stakeholders and the local community in a collective dialogue on the present, in discovering shared needs, opportunities, desires and resources and in imagining and rethinking A5’s role and contribution to the local context.
The process started in January 2022 and consists of 2 main phases:
1. Understanding of the present
2. Re-discovering the community.

A series of collaborative and interactive activities were designed to promote dialogue between A5 and its community and to discover together who WE (=A5’s community) are, what we value, what we dream, what we need, and why we like A5. The activities included community sketchbooks that prompted reflection to share, draw, and write ideas, tags to share A5 experiences, and a playful weaving activity to share who we are and our relationship with A5.