As the cities expand and the governments evolve, the society is diversifying so are the processes, rules and regulations of inhabitation and democracy. More and more local councils are opting for devolution deals with the central government including Cambridge and Peterborough Combined Authority who signed the devolution deal with the government in 2016/17.

As part of the deal and the vision for the future, Cambridge and Peterborough signed the deal to transform public service delivery and utilise strong local partnerships of councils, businesses and public services that work together. Recent political statistics and trends show that there is political disengagement amongst public is at an all time high.

The project explores how the public service delivery could be transformed to ensure citizen engagement and awareness. As the governments expand and gain more power it is crucial to revolutionise interaction and communication between government and citizens. This includes an architectural infrastructure integrated with a digital interface that could could support the local government and become an example for the local councils to improve civic engagement.

The primary intention is to utilise design to improve participatory democracy to engage citizens and councillors in a meaningful conversation so the general citizens could have more power in decision making. The project takes a radical approach by placing a civic institution within a common land and bringing together formal and informal uses together within the proposed architecture. The approach aims to facilitate greater civic participation by creating an informal space within a public area to address the diversifying communities and encourage involvement regardless of age, race or social grade.

The proposed architecture will help to refresh the image of government by creating an informal, honest and direct relationship with the citizens and suit the trends and society of the twenty first century. Sustainability and energy efficiency will be at the heart of the architectural proposal. The architecture will comprise of a main pavilion building, a portable forum and a digital interface to keep the citizens and councillor’s up to date with all the information, events and meetings.