The NoiseBin came out of work by approximately fifty young Darlington people participating in community design workshops in 2021 and 2022.
Young Designer Workshops
In early 2021 some Darlington residents were discussing how encourage container recycling in the lower recreation area.
They were interested in a deposit bin visitors could interact with, to encourage good recycling habits.
There was a belief that this would be most likely to succeed if young people were involved in the design process, not merely 'consulted'.
Locals Rosie Logie and Ian Crawford took a proposal to the Shire of Mundaring for the Youth Engagement Partnership Programme, and raised a $10,000 grant for workshops with the young people of Darlington.
A terrific group of organisers and skilled workers were recruited, and the project was welcomed by Darlington Primary School where it ran after school for two hours each week, then continued on at Treetops Montessori School.
We had terrific support from Principals Andrew Newhouse and Stuart Harris, as well as Mike Smith, Jennifer Woods and Peter Zylstra.
Cathy Levett from Millenium Kids facilitated the first round of workshops where the young people discussed what they appreciate most about living in Darlington, and chose a project to protect and improve their community / environment.
A fabulous team of experts took the young people for skill-building exercises including:
- design with computer software (Vince Austin),
- community consultation (Geoff Barker),
- 3D drawing (Kevin Norris),
- sound recording (Nick Kenworthy and Rosie Logie),
- electronics and computer code (Ian Crawford, Graeme Gordon)
The young designers worked alone and in small groups to expand the design field to around 150 card-sized ideas for their community project
They then conducted a huge triage and physical ranking exercise to focus on the best ideas. This took up almost the entire floor area of the assembly hall!.
The Awesome Seven
(Most Awesome Ideas)
The Most Awesome seven ideas were adopted as the basis for our NoiseBin design. They are shown at left.
As you can see, our designers imagined an exciting, interactive Containers For Change bin, that would engage our community in multiple ways and encourage their recycling habits.