Putting People in their Place

People, Place and Value: Reflections from The Glass-House Debate Series 2012/13

People and place are inextricably bound. We shape our places and our places shape us. What happens when we introduce the concept of value into the mix? What value do we attach to our places? How does their social, economic and environmental value change over time and with the interventions of people?

The Glass-House debate series, held annually since 2007, provides an excellent opportunity for everyone with an interest in shaping great places to engage in an honest discussion and debate and learn from one another.

Putting People in their Place, the 2012/13 debate series in partnership with the Academy of Urbanism, brought together people from different backgrounds and sectors in Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool and London, to explore the relationship between people, place and value.

At all of the debates, we spoke of shifting power and leadership and of seizing new opportunities. There was a clear sense that we need to be more collaborative and creative if we are to shape places that bring value, and pleasure, to the people who use and invest in them.

These key issues raised by a broad spectrum of voices are summarised in the pages that follow, by the chairs of our four debates.

How can great places create value for local people?Kevin Murray AoU, Director of Kevin Murray Associates

• There are different kinds of value that can be created, embracing ‘hard’ (monetary) and ‘soft’ (community benefits). Value can be created by bringing beauty, culture, education, activity, jobs and recreational enjoyment. Places can also create their own ‘value revenue stream’ too.

• If crap places kill people… then great places bring life, affirm life, and reinforce life.

• Places of real value are not just about the ‘design steps’ or the planning decisions around ‘development’. They are built around a bigger ‘social livability’ concept. Great places succeed over the long term – they are multi-generational over 3–4 generations.

• There is still an important role for technical capability, creative engagement and responsible leadership – this includes a positive role for local authorities alongside the community.

• We need to re-cast the philosophies, education and training of designers and other so-called ‘professionals’. How do we build up new capacity, trust and confidence around intelligent local co-production, whilst challenging the old silo-ised professional mindsets, all at a time of diminished resources?

Glasgow / 10 October 2012 Speakers: Christopher Rowe (Love Milton), Brian Evans (Gillespies) & Christopher Breslin (ISIS Regeneration).

Crap places kill people.Christopher Rowe, Glasgow

Imagine you are building for someone you love.Audience member, Liverpool

What value do local people bring to placemaking?Cllr. Josef Ransley, Chair of Kirdford Parish Neighbourhood Plan

• Places are defined, not necessarily by recognised civic or natural boundaries, but by local social groups and networks.

• Many local people lack knowledge of the placemaking process and of support available for it, and feel a role in placemaking is beyond their grasp.

• There is a need for, and recognition that leaders should be facilitators, rather than determining detailed solutions.

• How do we reach out and engage people who are passionate about a place but struggle to make their voice heard? We need to go and find them in the places that have meaning for them as a community.

• The greatest challenge at local level is process. One of the newest placemaking processes, neighbourhood planning, requires a fusion of the skills of planner, designer, developer with those of local people.

Leeds / 21 November 2012 Speakers: Peter McGurn (Goodwin Development Trust), Roy Donson (Barratt Developments Plc.), John Worthington (DEGW founder & Director of the Academy of Urbanism).

Local people will always have a unique perspective on place.Glass-House Enabler Richard Crutchley, on our blog

It’s the small things that stop people taking power / It happens all the time where I live. Audience member, Leeds

Does involving local people in placemaking make good business sense?Pam Alexander AoU, Non-Executive Director, Crest Nicholson

• Value is created by people who love a place and who live in it; they create communities of value.

• Developers who take time to be part of the place they are creating and to look to long-term value find the local communities a free and creative research tool as well as a source of value.

• The best builders don’t cut corners if they think of “building for people they love”. We should all do that.

• Old regeneration models only work with large public subsidies or for city centres with high values and high densities. We need new models or “we are putting the icing on the cupcake - but there is no cupcake”. Prosperous city cores are not sustainable without prosperous hinterlands; trickle down is a fallacy.

• Mutual respect breeds trust and trust is the essential basis for successful collaboration.

Liverpool / 5 February 2013 Speakers: Guy Butler (Grosvenor), Iona Horsburgh (FACT) & Andrew Teage (BDP).

It costs a lot of money not to talk to people. Audience member, Liverpool

Respect for community is a strength not a weakness in development.from Twitter, London

People, place and value: the golden triangle?Tom Dyckhoff, Writer and Broadcaster

• Our processes need to change. Policy comes from a good place but deliverability is not thought through. We need to bring people into the room together and create space for conversation.

• How local is local? Local communities include those who live, work, study and play in that place.

• Local authorities are the glue. With the removal of regional governance, local authorities are more important than ever as facilitators of great placemaking.

• We need quality places that are life affirming and turn our attention from NIMBY (not in my back yard) to demanding QIMBY (quality in my back yard).

• It costs a lot of money not to talk to people. Those leading development should learn to listen better and take language back to basics.

London / 20 March 2013 Speakers: Series chairs Kevin Murray, Josef Ransley, Pam Alexander with Glass-House Chief Executive Sophia de Sousa.

It takes a long time to build a place.Roy Donson, Leeds

Community need to be change makers. Architects make the spaces, facilitating the people to make the place.from Twitter, Leeds

What next, what if…?The Glass-House debate series is one step in our mission to make great places a reality for everyone.

In the coming year, The Glass-House will continue this conversation with a range of partners and communities, and encourage and support a more collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to placemaking. If you would like to be involved in that conversation, we would love to hear from you.

We hope that you will be inspired by some of the reflections from the series and that you will start to consider new ways of working, of contributing and of shaping our places. We all have a role to play.

Learn from the experiences and stories of others, but also dare to try new processes and practices. Dare to ask yourself and others ‘What if…?’

Find us at www.theglasshouse.org.uk, follow us at GlassHouseCLD on Twitter & Facebook or join the new online hub for community led design - www.communitydesignexchange.org

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The Glass-House Community Led Design, a national charity supporting and promoting public participation and leadership in the design of the built environment. We champion great placemaking built on collaboration, and we bring people together through design to develop a shared path to better places.

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