Co-hosted with Carolyn Butterworth, Urban Rooms Network
Urban Rooms are popping up all over the UK. With a focus on our shared built environment, they create a welcoming space where people can come together through creative activities to talk about the past, present and future of their town and city, and the streets, public spaces and neighbourhoods that we inhabit. Often taking up space in empty shops and disused buildings, Urban Rooms are demonstrating how high streets can become places for visible, everyday co-production.
Our co-host for this Chat is Carolyn Butterworth, Co-Chair of the Urban Rooms Network, which brings together organisations who are involved in Urban Rooms across the UK. Together we’ll explore the diversity of this network, which has members from the arts, planning, architecture, education, heritage, community and local government, and of the spaces they create. We’ll also look at the qualities of the most successful Urban Rooms, hoping to inspire those who join to get involved in shaping one for their area. Join us to learn more and to share your experiences of this movement.
About Glass-House Chats
Glass-House Chats are monthly hour-long online spaces for conversation and connection, to ask questions and explore ideas, approaches and methods, share learning and meet others.
Once again, Series 7 sees us collaborating with a range of inspiring people and organisations who will co-host sessions with us. Each guest co-host will help us bring focus, expertise and experience to conversations about different aspects of the design of places. This year we’ll be looking at design in a range of contexts, including community farms, urban rooms, place-based networks, higher education and development. We’ll explore the role of enabling, engagement, third spaces, making, policy and community panels.
About our Co-host
Carolyn is an architect and educator with many years’ experience in design, architectural education and public engagement. She is a passionate advocate for the value of building long-term partnerships with local communities through on-site creative co-production to build urban capacity, catalyse new projects and develop strategies of climate resilience.
She is the Founding Chair and now Co-Chair of the interdisciplinary Urban Rooms Network, established in 2015. She supports local councils, universities, arts, heritage and community groups to engage local people in the past, present and future of their place. In 2022 she authored the Urban Rooms Toolkit, the first public resource to disseminate best practice on urban rooms.
As Director of Live Works, The University of Sheffield’s pioneering urban room and architecture project office, Carolyn delivered student live projects, civic engagement and participatory research with external partners for the benefit of community and civic organisations in Sheffield, across the UK and internationally.
How to Take Part
Glass-House Chats are open to anyone with an interest in the event topic. No specific experience or expertise is required to join the conversation. We believe that our Chats only benefit from a wide mix of voices, interests and experiences.
These free online events are kept intentionally small so that everyone taking part can jump in and join the conversation. Where possible, we encourage participants to keep their cameras and microphones on, to pose questions and ideas, and to share stories and links.
To create a safe space for open discussion, Chatham House Rules are applied. Key discussion points are collated, anonymised and shared on The Glass-House Blog after each session.
How to Book
Glass-House Chats are free events, but places are limited, so please register only if you plan to attend.
Book your place here.
Useful Links
A journal article focussing on the role of Urban Rooms as place-based dialogical spaces where diverse communities can inform urban futures:
Akbil, E., & Butterworth, C. (2025). Urban rooms and the expanded ecology of urban living labs. Buildings and Cities, 6(1), pp. 544–560. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.607