Making Better Places

Design Workshops

Working towards solutions for particular sites or neigbourhood-wide schemes Northern Architecture can facilitate practical workshops for residents to identify priorities and develop ideas and proposals with support from professionals. 

Celebrating Places

When places change, things that are valued by a community can be overlooked and easily be lost. Likewise, opportunities to create truly special places get missed. Northern Architecture can develop projects with residents of all ages to ensure that planners, developers and policy-makers have a better understanding of the identity and assets of the neighbourhood as well as the challenges that are faced by the community so that new plans can support these. 

Place Assessments

Using a range of methods including walking tours, film-making, photography and mapping, Northern Architecture can work with particular groups or a range of community representatives to audit and assess how the built environment in their neigbourhoods is functioning and where changes might bring most benefit. 

This includes Spaceshaper and Spaceshaper 9-14, toolkits for involving a wide range of residents in thinking critically about how the shared spaces in their neighbourhoods are functioning and to identify and prioritise improvements. These workshops are an ideal starting point for public consultation, particularly in putting forward the views of young people or as a way for residents to inform and lead on the redevelopment of a shared space in their neighbourhoods.

Consultation

Public consultation is important and mandatory but the process can often be unappealing, inaccessible and involving only a few residents. Northern Architecture can devise and deliver programmes that capture crucial information whilst being easy to engage with, tailored and targeted to include groups that don't usually get their voices heard. Avoiding box-ticking and form-filling, we start with the basis that everyone's experience and opinion is important.

For more information please contact Lowri by email or on 0191 260 2191.