London Development Weekend

The second of our residential development programmes was held in London on 14th - 16th October 2009. We all stayed at the Strand Palace Hotel. We were promised a less intense timetable then the Cranage Hall event by the King's Fund Team - they lied!!! After meeting at King's Fund HQ on Cavendish Square, all the teams were split and visited a number of previous King's Fund projects.

We were all very inspired by what we saw. We were able to identify a few similar developments to our's as well as spot a number possible problems with our design. Some of the areas we need to look at again are our way finding solutions, indoor planting, seating in waiting room area, Rob was particulally taken by the wooden panelling at St George's Hospital. After a long day touring the London sites we arrived back at the hotel giving us just enough time for a quick shower then out the the theatre where we saw Wicked and dinner later.

Day two, a whole day at Tate Modern. Rob represented Humber Team in the juggling competition. Armed with the juggling balls provided on the grassy area in front of the gallery, all the team representatives were judged, X factor style, on their preformance. Rob was through to the final!!! We all wondered what the Tate Education Team had panned for us. Each team were asked to give resume of their project. Sue volunteered for this impromtu presentation. After this the team members were taken in various groups by the art experts who discussed art works, explored and stretched our understanding of art and even had us creating our own small artworks. We eventually had a little time together as a team to look reflect on how our ideas may enhance our project, or in fact swamp it.... we needed to re-think. Tired but inspired we returned to the hotel, bursting with ideas.

Dinner that evening was held at the King's Fund HQ, and was attended by Dr Gillard. Sue was asked to speak as the representative of the dementia projects. She spoke passionately about the project and expressed the commitment of our team. Day Three: Rob took part in the grand final of the juggling competition - he managed to win a bottle of wine to drink on the train home by coming fourth! All the teams were asked to present "their story so far." After a feedback session on our presentation skills (eekkkk) and lunch we were then asked to reflect on our own feelings on what we brought to the team - a sort of personal stregnths and weaknesses!! I personally found this very enlightening exercise, I think a lot of us in the team had got to that stage of asking "why am I here" By 3pm we were all ready to be heading home - it was as we sat on the train home we all realised how exhausting the 3 day programme had been. I for one slept fort most of the journey back to Hull!

User consultation of first design draft

24th September 2009 saw the launch of the consultation process to seek opinions on our first design brief. Our first group were the staff of the building who took the opportunity to comment on Rob's first, very detailed drawings, and some samples of glass art. The second wave of consultation will continue throughout October giving the team chance spend some time with all user groups, staff, clients and outside agencies who currently use the clinic. To date, the comments have been mostly favourable and constructive. We seem to have addressed all of the priority issues highlighted during our first wave of consultation. Positive remarks include :- - more ‘approachable reception.’ - seating to wait for taxi’s to stop them and the staff having to nip in and out. - very open feel to design. - like the idea of having technologies to play with they don’t seem so baffling then. - like the gallery idea- give something to look at. Additional ideas - a place to keep memories of people or mementos of people – perhaps by giving a donation to buy something little in memory of someone - a planting area / indoor garden