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How do you develop a new town hall and civic hub in a context of mistrust?

“All you can do is listen,” says James Stockdale, Development Director at Muse, developer of Your New Town Hall in Brixton, the project to restore the Grade II-listed Lambeth town hall and create housing and modern workspaces for the council

From the margins to lead consultant: Is this the year of the landscape architect?

As regulations on biodiversity net gain and sustainable drainage become mandatory, Carolin Göhler, president-elect of the Landscape Institute, explains why the role of the landscape architect is as vital as it is misunderstood

Net Zero: “Progress is being hindered by central government”

Local councils are leading on net zero in spite of a lack of power and clarity from central government, but with budgets in crisis, funding and regulation is needed

We need to talk about SLOAPs: Sites Leftover After Planning

SLOAPs are everywhere. The climate emergency gives us the imperative to put this land to use. Soham De, co-founder of EcoResponsive Environments and Valerie Beirne, founder of Where Pathways Meet, have teamed up to highlight their potential

Turds in the plaza: How do we fix public art?

Art for public spaces has long been an area of hot debate. Is community engagement the answer to better commissioning and a positive legacy?

Painting the town: What street art brings to public spaces

Dr Lee Bofkin, co-founder of Global Street Art and the London Mural Festival on the role of public art and murals in the city

100th episode: Food and the architecture of a good life

The Developer Podcast celebrates its 100th episode with a special conversation hosted by leading thinker on food and cities Carolyn Steel about how we design spaces for dignity and sociability in an age of loneliness

Could the adventure playground hold the solution to the construction skills shortage?

Adventure playgrounds are not a new concept, but their longstanding tradition of giving children the tools, skills and materials to build their own play structures holds fresh resonance in an industry facing a skills, diversity and inclusivity gap

More sheds please: Why London councils are heeding the call for industrial intensification

Industrial uses aren’t underused brownfield or greyfield sites, they’re essential to local economies and communities, as well as a climate resilient future

Camden Highline: Inside the campaign to green the tracks

How a North London BID campaigned, developed and won planning to transform a disused viaduct into a new park

Breaking the cycle of demolish, rebuild

Linda Thiel tells the story of White Arkitekter and Civic Engineers’ investigation into the feasibility of retrofit in lieu of demolition for the final phases of the Gascoigne Estate housing project to conserve carbon and avoid the trauma of decanting

Cultural compact: How to fund grassroots arts and boost wellbeing in deprived places

Alan Waters, Culture Lead for Key Cities and previous leader of Norwich City Council and Sarie Mairs Slee, who previously led the Salford Culture and Place Partnership, discuss how the Cultural Compact, which partners institutions with artists and grassroots initiatives, can help unlock investment

Co-designing Horatio's Garden: "The planting is informed by different ways of seeing"

Harris Bugg and McMullan Studio discuss the process of listening to patients and staff in creating a garden and pod for Horatio’s Garden, a charity that creates green spaces for wellbeing at NHS spinal centres. Horatio’s Garden Chelsea was awarded the coveted Best in Show title at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023

Paul Monaghan on the Office for Place: Beauty is not shorthand for ‘traditional’

The architect and co-founder of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris talks about his role on the advisory board for The Office for Place, a government body helping to shape design codes and neighbourhood plans in England

The death and life of city trees: What's gone wrong?

Under biodiversity and net zero targets, dead city trees are not inevitable, nor just an inconvenience: “It’s greenwashing,” says landscape architect Elaine Cresswell, founder of reShaped

Urban quilting: How Better Bankside BID stitched a place in time

Incremental placemaking is more rich, nimble and participatory, says Valerie Beirne, founder of Where Pathways Meet, who worked at Better Bankside for 14 years

A new almshouse for London: “We’ve never had pushback on stacking them up”

Could a new almshouse in Blackfriars be a future model for independent, affordable living for older Londoners? Chris Wilson, CEO of Southwark Charities and Justin Nicholls, founding director of Fathom Architects share their vision

“We want radiators, not drains” – How to foster community in an office space

The alchemy of a great office requires the right people, a shorter lease, good management and inspiring places and spaces, says Richard Pearce, founder and director TCN in this interview for The Developer Podcast

Tom Chance on community land trusts: “It’s about giving communities ownership and power over the land”

Few people may know what a Community Land Trust is, but the benefits of the model are too big to ignore, Tom Chance, chief executive of the Community Land Trust Network says in this interview for The Developer Podcast

Urbanistas: “It’s a playground to explore authentic leadership as a woman”

Founders Rachel Fisher and Liane Hartley talk about Urbanistas and its role as a “playground for exploring authentic leadership as a woman” as they celebrate the network’s 10th anniversary

Mount Anvil: “The cost-of-living issue is fundamental to our sustainability strategy”

Listening to residents is informing change at Mount Anvil, including the pressing need to address the energy-cost crisis and their approach community engagement itself. In conversation with Marcus Bate, Partnerships and Communities Director

Queer Spaces: “Flowers blossoming in the desert of Modernity”

Artist Adam Nathaniel Furman and architectural historian Joshua Mardell talk about their book Queer Spaces: An Atlas of LGBTQIA+ Places and Spaces and the curation of an architectural canon of queer design

Frasers Property: “We need to rise to these challenges”

The business park fell out of popularity because they became sterile environments, says Ilaria del Beato, CEO of Frasers Property in the UK, who believes connectivity and leisure amenities are key to their comeback

Local Space: “Improving thermal efficiency is the best thing we can do to help”

Josie Parsons, CEO of Local Space, speaks about their unique business model as a housing provider, persistent myths about homeless people and the cost-of-living crisis in her interview for The Developer Podcast

Socius on Milton Keynes: “Why is anybody doing greenfield development?”

Barry Jessup, Managing Director and Olaide Oboh, Director of developer Socius talk about Milton Keynes, B Corporations and why brownfield development is the only way to go

"The centre of our communities don't need to die"

Roger Wade, CEO, Boxpark calls on government to level the playing field between online and physical retailers in this podcast of his interview at the Festival of Place

What can people with dementia teach us about the liveability of our places?

People with dementia are often excluded from the conversation about the future design of places, but Dr Samantha Biglieri’s research seeks to change that

Stockport’s Weir Mill: These buildings have stories to tell

Turning historic buildings to new use, Tim Heatley, co-founder of developer Capital&Central, and Mark Braund, architect director at BDP talk about creating a new community out of an historic mill and bringing apartment-living to the suburbs

Gentrification: What's the alternative?

How do we genuinely level up while renewing urban places, and ensure existing communities feel the benefit? Podcast featuring Alisha Morenike Fisher and Prof Loretta Lees

The social value of good design

When Michael Riebel, researcher at Hawkins\Brown, reviewed the growing number of social value metrics out there, he found there wasn’t anything that quantified the value of design. How do we add it up? Christine Murray asks

Want to tackle representation? Here's what not to do

Beware of getting involved in initiatives that give the appearance of change without actually doing anything meaningful, says Dr Leslie Kern, author of Feminist City

Developers on climate: “We can’t change policy, but we can not make things worse”

In spite of a lack of government action, some developers are seeking to democratise public spaces, make a meaningful social impact and tackle the climate emergency – and Covid has helped gain public support

With attacks on the rise, can we design public spaces to prevent hate crime?

Prof Pippa Catterall, Professor of History and Policy at the University of Westminster, talks to The Developer about how an inclusive city can mean helping us feel less ‘seen’

“The office will be much more pay-as-you-go”

Maverick serial entrepreneur and tech cluster expert Claire Cockerton on how Covid is reshaping the office, what makes a great tech cluster and how to make innovation centres more women-founder-friendly

“Councils spend more on dog waste than teenage girls”

Make Space for Girls wants councils to stop and consider whether girls are using the skateparks and MUGAs they’re building – and say it’s a breach of the Equality Act if they don’t

“Greater Manchester is on the up, but not all of it”

Inequality is not just about race and income, it’s also about place, explains Andrew Westwood, commissioner of the Greater Manchester Independent Inequalities Commission

“We hope to get people's unfiltered opinions” – Ascha Lychett Pedersen

How can we empower citizens to reimagine our cities as greener places? That’s the question Ascha Lychett Pedersen is addressing with the development of her app Wild Streets

“We're throwing away a thousand Boeing 747s every day” – May Al-Karooni

May Al-Karooni, the inspirational founder and CEO of Globechain, on how she spotted the need for a reuse marketplace and sold the idea of circularity to the construction and retail industry

“Small cities, if we do them well, can be prototypes” – Reif Larsen

Reif Larsen, founder of the Future of Small Cities Institute, talks to The Developer Podcast about the rise of small cities in America, the challenge of going car-free, and the question of equity, displacement and gentrification

“When the places that made us are no longer made by us, how do we continue as an 'us'?” Omeasoo Wahpasiw

For the positive human need for identity, space and place matters, not only how it’s designed, but more importantly who designs it and who builds it, says Dr. Omeasoo Wãhpãsiw

“We see ourselves as social impact developers” Adam Higgins, Capital & Centric

When they started Capital & Centric, they wanted to create award-winning architecture, says co-founder Adam Higgins. Ten years on, it’s about more than that

David Cowans, Places for People: “Competing about climate change is a zero sum game”

Group chief executive of Places for People David Cowans on net zero, retrofitting homes and why the UK industry needs to come together and collaborate to combat climate change

Marvin Rees: “It's solving a problem we haven't got”

Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees talks planning, protest, housing and why we need to tell the fuller story of our places

Leslie Kern: “The lockdowns have brought a whole new lens on our cities”

The crisis has revealed that our housing is not fit for purpose, our social safety-nets are full of holes, and care work is in crisis, Kern says. What is this ’economy’ we are protecting, and why is its foundation so fragile?

Both offices and people are migrating: Where are they going?

Working remotely, it turns out, is more focused, customer-oriented, supportive of professional development, and less boring. But where does that leave office space and the city centre? Steve Taylor reports

First Base: "Social-based outcomes help you sleep at night"

In conversation with Barry Jessup and Olaide Oboh from First Base, a mixed-use developer working across the UK, about their social value statement, measuring social value and making promises to communities.

Radical rethink: How to run a radical business

You want to do things differently. You’ve written your mission statement. But how do you ensure your business isn’t just paying lip-service to change? How do your values manifest themselves in your business culture and practice?

Radical rethink: Why now?

The industry is locked in competitive silos, landscape architecture has been marginalised, communities lack a mechanism for meaningful involvement, policy is not shifting in the right direction

Chelsea Barracks: “The pendulum has swung back”

Lee Hallman, former Head of Design for Qatari Diar Europe, speaks in this podcast about Chelsea Barracks, the 13-acre development that found itself at the heart of a new style war, as revealed in the Prince of Wales’ Black Spider Memos.

“We call it ‘worthwhile use’ because meanwhile feels a bit temporary”

James Heather, U+I’s development director for Mayfield in Manchester, talks about how they are drawing locals to their 24-acre site in the heart of the city

Mayor of Hackney: 'Don't assume that everyone thinks like you'

Philip Glanville explains why people who believe in active travel shouldn’t assume that the lockdown has created a new consensus for sustainable transport. It still needs to be fought for. Interview by Christine Murray

“Re-engineer from first principles: what and how you build”

Citu has gone from straight-up developer to bringing the whole design and manufacturing process in-house. In this interview, managing director Chris Thompson talks timber, trades and system change

Glasgow: a tale of two cities

With intense pockets of deprivation cheek-by-jowl with overheated housing markets, Kevin Rush, director of regional growth at Glasgow City Region, is striving to close the gap with the City Deal

Proactive landscapes: Can urban design clean air and water?

We need to make urban landscapes work harder, says Kevin Barton, who is making playgrounds that prevent floods and roadside plantings that clean water

Selling with nature: Why the Berkeley Group committed to biodiversity net gain

In this podcast, Louise Clarke, head of sustainable places at the Berkeley Group, explains how investing in natural environments adds value to its sites

Made in Dagenham: the Ford-less future of £1bn Beam Park

You might think a brownfield site makes for a smooth development run, but Beam Park proves there’s no such thing as an easy site, writes Christine Murray

Flooding in Leeds: Martin Farrington on the moveable weir

How did Leeds tackle a flood risk and create public space at the same time? Martin Farrington, Director of City Development at Leeds City Council

De Urbanisten: From drain to sponge city

New Podcast: We need to ‘depave’ our cities street by street, says De Urbanisten’s Dirk van Peijpe, whose famous water squares combine climate resilience with public space.

“It will be our homes that are flooded”

Insurers, investors and developers agree that resilience needs to be at the forefront of our thinking, so what are the blockers to change? Christine Murray reports

Portsmouth: “How do we get people to stay a little bit longer?”

Natascha McIntyre Hall from Portsmouth City Council on people-first development, car-free cities and using council powers for good

“Capital is at risk and people in finance do not like that”

Banks and investors are now leading the charge on climate change risk-mitigation, says Alastair Mant, Head of Business Transformation at UKGBC

placetests

Placetest: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

Anthropologist Caroline Bennett speaks to locals with photography by John Sturrock

Placetest: New Poundbury

Its Royal patron makes Poundbury the focus of much attention, and the development is not even ...

Placetest: Nine Elms

What is the experience of this nascent place and its people? Anthropologist Caroline Bennett visits ...

Placetest: Liverpool One

In this exclusive placetest, anthropologist Rebecca Toop explores the user experience of L...

Placetest: King's Crescent Estate

Placetest King’s Crescent Estate: A part-demolished estate in Stoke Newington is enjoying an ...

Placetest: MediaCityUK

Placetest MediaCityUK: What is it like to live and work in Peel’s MediaCityUK and has it brought ...

Placetest: King’s Cross

Placetest King’s Cross: How does it work, who is there – and who isn’t? How does the masterplan ...

talks & events

Rain gardens: “It's not just an engineering solution. It's also landscape. It’s biodiversity”

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Thanks to our organisation members

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris	HUB	shedkm
a-r-c-s	LDA Design	Socius
Are You?	LocatED	Stride Treglown
BDP	Morris+Company	Studio Egret West
Buro Happold	Muse	Sustrans
Cadogan	National Trust	Tibbalds
Civic Engineers	Notting Hill Genesis	Urban&Civic
Commonplace	Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation	Vestre
EPR Architects	Places for London	Whittam Cox Architects
Essex County Council	Poplar HARCA
Fathom Architects	Quintain
Furnitubes	Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Griffiths & Armour	Related Argent
Hawkins\Brown	Ryder Architecture