The Eclective
Approach
Eclective’s approach is rooted in research, participation, urban interventions, and food.
Our research process is formed by years of experimentation with different tools and techniques. We love to play the role of ‘explorer’, meeting local people, taking pictures, drawing maps, collecting stories, hosting interviews and sampling local fare. We explore a place through the lens of both ‘insiders’ (local residents and other key stakeholders), and ‘outsiders’ (visitors and passers-by).
Participation and engagement are the lifeblood of our projects. We use games, storytelling and collective feasts to bring people together and encourage involvement. Our goal is to unearth our participants’ perceptions, aspirations, humour, and histories, and to build a greater understanding of the places we are exploring. We document findings by creating maps, illustrations and books.
Lastly, we design ‘urban interventions’ in response to the unique findings we uncover through research and participation. We often collaborate with others to think up design solutions that can help improve a city environment. These design solutions can be practical, playful, metaphorical, or imaginary. They almost always involve public space.
The Team
Beverley White
Explorer/placemaker
Beverley’s work spans urban planning, spatial design and civic engagement. She uses narrative techniques to draw out stories important to people and place, feeding this into the planning and design process.
Beverley enjoys exploring cities and learning from other cultures. Past experiences have included contributing to a community development project in south India, leading community planning processes on large-scale developments in London, and spatial design projects in Cyprus and China. Beverley currently resides in Canada and works as an urban planner for City of Vancouver.
In her spare time Beverley volunteers with the Vancouver Public Space Network, enjoys hiking the Canadian mountains and exploring local neighbourhoods.
Caroline Westhart
Thinker/placemaker
Caroline is a participatory planning specialist with a background in urban design.
She has worked in both the private and public sectors on complex projects big and small – and has continuously found that urban interventions work best when shaped by locals themselves.
Caroline grew up in Southern California. She moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to study city planning and urban design at the University of California, Berkeley before moving to London in 2013 to pursue her Masters Degree at the Bartlett School of Planning.
In her spare time she loafs around the city with her dog Tina, exploring London’s many wonderful green spaces and dog-friendly neighbourhoods.
Despina Hadjilouca
Thinker/explorer
Despina’s interests lie in participatory and socially engaged design. Despina is one of the co-curators of Narrative in Practice, a biannual design symposium which explores the role of narrative in everyday design practice.
She is also one of the founding members of Schedia, a design collective aiming to promote socially engaged design amongst young creative thinkers in Cyprus.
Although she has been advised repeatedly to avoid multidisciplinary behavior, she still thinks it is more fulfilling working across areas, taking up different roles according to the needs of each project.
Rachel Mikulsky
Maker/doer
Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Rachel moved to the UK in 2005 to study Sustainable Development at the University of St. Andrews. After moving to London, she began to work in both commercial and in community-based art projects while pursuing her Masters Degree at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.
Rachel loves working with diverse groups of people and collaboratively with other professionals. She now lives in San Diego, California, enjoying the surf and sunshine.
Yukie A Nagasawa
Maker/explorer
Yukie is an explorer and maker with a background in interior, spatial and display design. Her multidisciplinary skills range from creating urban interventions, mapping, story-telling, illustration, crafts, and sewing.
Her interests lie in understanding the physical barriers and social relationships of a place and its people. She captures the micro and macro stories of everyday life, helping to build a portrait of each place she studies. She worked as a community engagement specialist in London for over four years, developing methodologies and tools to actively engage the public while exploring the social value of a place.
Having spent most of her life in the UK and the United States, Yukie moved to Japan at the end of 2017 to explore ways of creating a better environment to live and work through community engagement and craftsmanship (& enjoy delicious food!). To read more about her thoughts and experiences so far: ecl-blog-jp.tumblr.com