- 1. ReportSustainable Places = Sustainable Communities Tuesday
30 March 2010 Context The People Changing Places programme aims to
improve regional demand and capacity for high quality urban design
by engaging communities in an intensive and cohesive programme of
creative and practical activities. The City of York Council wants
to improve public realm in the city and will be creating a public
realm strategy to support this.Sustainable Places = Sustainable
Communities was the culmination of the one-year People Changing
Places programme based in York. This event was the final milestone
to share good practice from the programme and from across the
country to a national audience.Overview The aim of the conference
was to explore how to creatively engage communities in the
regeneration of their towns and cities.Objectives Raise awareness
about Yorks future vision and the PCP programme Raise awareness
about sustainable communities Provide an opportunity for a cross
section of professionals and community members tonetwork Explore
how local talents and energies can be unlocked in our cities
Deliver a practical and creative conferenceDelegates The conference
attracted 64 delegates from across the country including: York,
Derby, North East Lincolnshire, Newcastle, Kirklees, Coventry,
Lancashire, Calderdale, Burnley and Leeds amongst others.Delegates
included representatives from: arts, culture, heritage,
regeneration, Local Authorities (traffic, environment, planning,
development, business, economics), renaissance, built environment,
landscape architecture, community leaders, Society for Blind
People, community based services amongst others.Interaction Prior
to the conference delegates were asked to bring an image
representing their community which were then displayed throughout
the day to stimulate more conversations.
2. Beam also created a tag on Twitter adding links to speaker
websites and interesting case studies. Throughout the event Mike
Cooper from Cooper Creative interviewed delegates and speakers and
uploaded key quotes from speakers and questions from delegates.
This enabled others to interact with the conference and add their
own questions and case studies even when they couldnt be there and
has the possibility to act as a space for further debate for
delegates after the event. Over 2,500 people saw the tweets with a
number of interactive responses.Speakers Beam invited built
environment professionals and community leaders to contribute:Helen
Farrar, CABE Regional Representative Chaired the conference. After
introducing the event the Chair talked about the Egan Wheel for
Sustainable Communities and tasked delegates with creating a new
wheel for Sustainable Places by the end of the day.David Warburton,
Head of Design and Conservation and Sustainable Development for the
City of York Council provided a warm welcome to delegates and an
overview of their approach to the sustainable development of
York.David Hills, Architect DSDHA and Jane Field, Head of
Programmes and Services Beam presented good practice from the
People Changing Places programme focussing on the YourSpace event.
Alison Sinclair who participated throughout most of the PCP
programme talked about her experience. After participating in the
programme I came to the conclusion that it would be wrong to put it
back to how it was and Im now open to taking it forward Alison
Sinclair PCP participant.Martyn Coltman, Chairman of the
Bridlington Renaissance Partnership and Bridlington Town Team
delivered an interesting presentation about investing in the public
realm focusing on the Town Team/renaissance approach. Culture leads
Renaissance Martyn Coltman.Alison Drake, Chairman of the Castleford
Heritage Trust delivered an inspirational presentation about
communities taking the lead and her personal role as a champion.
Get people behind a dream Alison Drake.Keynote speaker George
Ferguson, Former President RIBA and Chairman Acanthus Ferguson Mann
Architects explored how to create sustainable places and engage
people in the design process. My only rule is dont be afraid to
break the rules George Ferguson. All speaker presentations can be
found at: http://www.slideshare.net/BeamOrangery/presentations or
http://p-c-p.squarespace.com 3. Workshops Within all the workshops,
delegates were tasked with considering three key elements that
could feed into a new wheel for Sustainable Places. Creative
Engagement was facilitated by David Hills and Jane Field. Delegates
were given a scenario for a large development site where there was
a lot of resistance from the local community. Delegates worked in
groups to develop a programme of creative engagement. Key comments
from the session: Engaging with schools young people and through
them parents Local design competitions to decide own futures
Specific events to engage all a road show to take consultation out
to people Unlocking local characters over a longer period to make
it sustainable Dont let professionals drive what was coming out of
the communityOne delegate stated they had gained an understanding
of consultation and another said they gained a view of the process
from a different angle.Unlocking Local Talents, Alison Drake
Delegates went speed dating to find out everyones perspective on
how to unlock local talents. After this delegates participated in a
group discussion. Key comments from the session: Value the local
culture and dont be afraid to call it a talent/gift Be prepared to
share power (even with money) Shared ownership - all in together
the good and bad elements Open up communication flow listen to
people with talent Recognise everyones talents and gifts artistic,
business, local knowledge etc Collective memory of
individualsFeedback included delegates Gaining an understanding of
the passion and talent that exists in not only communities but also
in professionals in their desire to make sure talents are seen and
heard.The Impact of Investing in Public Spaces, Martyn Coltman
Martyn provided a more detailed insight about the investment in
Bridlington and then delegates explored key issues in pairs. Key
comments from the session: Leadership based around individual
Succession how will it be sustained? Assets identify current assets
Have a legacy develop ownership and memory 4. Never run out of
projects If it comes from the community then it sustains interest
and involvementOne delegate stated that Succession was the most key
point and the most difficult to achieve.Sustainable Futures, George
Fergusson Delegates were asked to consider pros and cons for a new
edge-of-town supermarket and explore how this would affect the
local community. Key comments from the session: Ensure unbiased
creative engagement Sustainable principles of energy, waste,
resources, transport. Connectivity and communication Ameliorate
impact by mix of uses. Restrict impact.One delegate commented that
they had gained an understanding of how building design should not
just concentrate on a limited space, but should also engage the
surrounding area and people and another stated It was helpful
because I found out more about sustainability, I understand that if
we want quality of life we need to continue improvement.New Wheel
for Creating Sustainable Places * Created by delegates 5. Feedback
The majority of people felt that the content was relevant and that
the conference was delivered in a format that suited their learning
style. All delegates rated the event as a 4/5 as enjoyable and
informative. Most delegates stated that the workshops they attended
were well facilitated.Nearly all delegates said they had heard
examples of different approaches to engaging communities in the
regeneration of their towns and cities. One delegate commented that
it was interesting to hear speakers talking about their own
experiences and that they were inspiring.One key element of the
event was bringing a cross section of people together and all
delegates who fed back felt that they had the opportunity to
network with people from different sectors and from across the
country. One person commented that they had met an architect and
others that shared opinions about sustainability and getting to
know what their process is and they have offered help if I have any
queries in the future.We also asked delegates what they felt they
had gained from attending the event and how they would use what
they had learned. We received a number of comments about how the
speakers were inspirational which had given them the confidence to
share ideas, push forward community policies and encourage people
to really engage communities in regeneration. Others stated that
they will cascade the information to their colleagues and that the
event had broadened my knowledge about the importance of involving
communities and sustainable issues in design.Other comments
included that the event was well organised, informative and
friendly.We also questioned those who had previously participated
in the PCP programme about their experience: has broadened my
outlook, Inspirational, enlightening, enjoyable and good
networking. However, there was one delegate who felt that the
YourSpace structure had no relevance to its environment.Conclusions
At the end of the conference Helen Farrar posted the question How
do you keep vision going? and commented that the idea of town team
has important role to play. The Chair reminded delegates to learn
from one another and most importantly use what is already there but
make sustainable.