ABSTRACT
Protohome was a self-build housing installation, built over four months and temporarily sited in the Ouseburn area of Newcastle upon Tyne, occupying a site owned by a local development trust and open to the public from May to August 2016. In successful collaboration the processes and methods for participating as well as the quality and degree of the participation result in in-depth contributions from both practice and research. There are many ways that the collaborative and participatory process can be improved. There is a need to critically evaluate whose voices are being heard and whose are being left out, and whether people are really being empowered, by undertaking an ongoing, cyclical process of reflection. Slow-burning projects may also have more transformative potential, as opposed to fleeting projects like Protohome, where transformation might be difficult to sustain. People might fall back into old routines when the project ends, or when the resources are no longer available or present.
