SwaF Home

How does
home feel like?

Start with a Friend (SwaF) creates personal encounters between people with and without refugee or migration experience, building shared spaces for learning, participation, and empowerment. SwaF Home is envisioned as a place for connection, for experiencing art and culture together, and for engaging in political dialogue. A place shaped by everyone who walks through its doors.

Creating a space for connection through co‑creation

As specialists in co‑creative processes, we supported Start with a Friend in developing the concept for SwaF Home. Through the workshop series “SwaF Home – A place by the community, for the community,” we guided the SwaF community in exploring their needs and wishes for this space — and in shaping the spatial concept based on those insights.Together with the SwaF team and participants, we developed guiding questions around inclusion, interior design, community interaction, and programming. We designed the co‑creative process and connected the SwaF community with relevant experts.

The concept development for SwaF Home was also accompanied by ELIMU. As a counseling center for anti‑discrimination‑sensitive education, they helped ensure that the collaborative work was grounded in an awareness of discrimination from the very beginning.

START WITH A FRIEND:

»What should SwaF Home look like? Which colors, shapes, and materials make you feel at ease? How should the space sound? And what matters most to you when it comes to how we come together?«

Projektpartner:in

Start with a Friend

Teilnehmer:innen

SwaF team and members of the SwaF community, selected experts

Tools

Miro, Zoom and analogue workshops

Time period

2022

BI-Leadcoaching
‍
Equity‑centered user research
Design Thinking
Creative Prototyping

START WITH A FRIEND:

Stories and visions of SwaF Home emerged; a rich collection of images took shape, and memories of meaningful places were shared.

Creative User Research:
What needs are emerging?

In the first phase, we explored the community’s needs and wishes for a future SwaF Home together with members of the SwaF community. We worked with questions such as:

Which places make you feel comfortable — and which don’t? What would you like to experience at SwaF Home? Which pieces of furniture are essential? How might your ideas come to life if anything were possible?

Using a range of user‑research methods, we supported participants in thinking freely, letting go of perceived limitations, and playfully immersing themselves in the future space. Together with artist Martin K., we created a series of soundscapes that take listeners on a journey from the bustle of Berlin into the calm oasis of SwaF Home. We also designed entire SwaF planets and wrote vivid stories imagining a day spent inside SwaF Home.

Concept:
How can we meet diverse needs?

Building on the insights and impulses gathered in the first phase, a SwaF working group began developing the spatial concept. Once again, we brought in additional expertise: together with spatial designer Bastian Braun, the team crafted a hands‑on spatial concept — scissors, glue, and all — that responds to the wide range of needs and wishes expressed by the SwaF community.

To ensure that everyone feels welcome and safe in SwaF Home, we used visual thinking methods to translate the community’s wishes for how they want to interact into a visual Community Agreement. We also filled a one‑month event calendar and developed a programming concept. Each week, cultural events, political discussions, and a variety of community gatherings are planned to create a sense of belonging and joy.

OUR QUESTIONS

We developed answers to questions such as: How can we represent the community’s diverse identities within the space? How can we gather community feedback and create opportunities for ongoing co‑creation? And how can we ensure that the agreement we design together is truly upheld in practice.

Results and reflections

With the concept developed in the workshops, SwaF Home has moved one step closer to becoming a reality. The space will continue to evolve through participatory processes and be continuously shaped around the community’s needs. And that is exactly why accompanying this project brings us so much joy: a co‑creative, discrimination‑aware, and imaginative approach — by the community, for the community.

We look forward to future collaborations with Start with a Friend and are already excited to visit the real SwaF Home soon. The development of the SwaF Home concept was made possible for Start with a Friend through the support of the Deutsche Postcode Lotterie and the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.