The 2024/25 WEdesign series, Sharing Place invited participants to reflect on and reimagine how we share our places and spaces. It brought people together to explore and propose more equitable ways of sharing, not just physical spaces, but also experiences, skills and the things we value most, through thoughtful and collaborative placemaking.
THE STORY
Sharing Place was the theme of the 2024/25 WEdesign series, The Glass-House’s annual programme of free public events exploring collaborative design in placemaking. In partnership with universities, students and guest contributors across the UK, we hosted a national conversation on how we can reshape the ways we share place, physically, emotionally, socially and environmentally.
In a time marked by socio-political division and inequities, the theme emerged as a timely provocation. We explored how place can act as a platform for sharing experiences, stories, skills and resources. We looked at how public space can foster dialogue, nurture empathy, and enable community-led action.
Our in-person events took place in Sheffield, Glasgow, Newcastle and London, co-designed with our university partners and students. Online, our Debate, Chat and Closing events brought together voices from across the UK and beyond, sparking bold questions and fresh ideas. Our Think Piece series created space for contributors to challenge the status quo and propose new ways of thinking about shared environments.
Students stepped beyond their studies, working alongside people of all ages, backgrounds and disciplines to co-facilitate creative spaces for discussion and hands-on design. They helped shape environments where participants felt encouraged to listen and share, to challenge and co-create.
Participants ranged from their teens to their eighties and valued the opportunity to connect in inclusive and playful spaces. They spoke to the value of meeting as equals, sharing stories and shaping shared futures through design.
Supported by The Ove Arup Foundation, this year’s series was not just a conversation, but a network of safe ‘sharing places’, online and in-person, where diverse people came together to co-design more inclusive, equitable and imaginative futures for shared environments.
Online programme
Sharing Place: The Debate
Our Sharing Place Debate event set the tone, featuring speakers who questioned how we value space, whose needs we prioritise, and how we might rethink inclusion in placemaking. Their stories invited us all to consider “What if…” and challenged us to move from reflection to action.
The speakers were:
Zac Tudor, Associate Director for Place Resilience at Arup
Nana Biamah-Ofosu, architect, educator and Director of YAA Projects
Yashmin Harun, founder of the Muslimah Sports Association
Pat Scrutton, Coordinator of the Intergenerational National Network
We invited our four speakers to offer their thoughts and provocations on the theme, Sharing Place, through a series of five-minute presentations.
This was followed by a stimulating and thought-provoking discussion with generous contributions from the event attendees.
The Debate was chaired by Sophia de Sousa, Chief Executive at The Glass-House.
You can read more about Sharing Place: The Debate here.
Glass-House Chats: Sharing Place
Our Sharing Place Chat was a special edition, forming part of our WEdesign 2024/25 series, Sharing Place. Unlike other WEdesign events, it offered a more intimate, participant-led space for open discussion. Together, we explored how policies and practices can support the sharing of not just physical spaces, but also skills, stories, and experiences.
Key themes included the value of creativity for its own sake, the importance of informal spaces for sharing, and designing places that foster genuine human connection. Participants also generously shared insights from community-led projects.
You can read more about Glass-House Chats: Sharing Place here.
Sharing Place: Think Pieces
This year, we continued our successful Think Piece series. Running from January to April, we featured guest contributors from a range of sectors and backgrounds, sharing their reflections, ideas, and provocations on the theme of Sharing Place.
This included:
Sophia de Sousa, Chief Executive of The Glass-House, kicks off the series with a personal think piece on place equity.
Stephen Hill, an independent urban regeneration practitioner, positions collaborative placemaking in the realm of direct political action, enabling citizens to shape how they live with each other.
Leslie Barson, co-founder of Granville Community Kitchen, explores the difference between space and land, and the power structures that influence our relationships with our local places and with each other.
Ben Derbyshire, architect, shares reflections from visiting inspiring shared places on his visits with the Historic England Historic Places Panel, which he chairs.
Neil Onions from Beyond the Box, explores the power of community-led placemaking, agency and stewardship of our shared spaces.
Adrian Sinclair, a social activist, reflects on his experience of working with communities to shape shared spaces, and the complex local narratives that weave through all our places.
The Architecture Foundation Young Trustees explore the notion of ‘inside’ and ‘outside‘ in both our discourse and decision-making around how we shape our places.
Peter Hetherington, a journalist, explores the link between democracy and place, and how political structures can influence how we shape our places.
George Lovesmith, a placemaking practitioner, explores the importance of our sense of belonging in how we relate to places and each other.
Malcolm Hamilton and Amy Rose from Play:Disrupt talk about the power of play and imagination in shaping spaces with children and young people – and what we can all learn from it.
Tijmen Kuyper, Dutch co-housing expert explores the relationship between architecture, community, and the global rise of populism.
Our Sharing Place: Think Pieces series is available to read in full on our website here.
In-person co-design events
Common Ground – Live Works, Sheffield
27 February 2025
For our first in-person event, we travelled to Sheffield, working again with our long time collaborator Leo Care and his students from University of Sheffield’s School of Architecture and Landscape. Hosted by the urban room Live Works, we explored both our understanding of common ground, and what this might mean in the context of placemaking that puts the co-existence of people and planet at its core.
The conversation illustrated that despite starting from different lenses at the various tables, there were some key shared values and principles emerging across the groups:
- Permission to fail: Fear of failure stifles creativity; experimentation and unexpected outcomes are valuable.
- Learning is messy: Solutions can come from confusion and unpredictable journeys.
- More in common: Conversations across differences reveal shared values.
- Spaces for connection: Safe spaces and time for dialogue are vital.
- Shared responsibility: Collaboration requires effort across boundaries.
This event planted seeds of thought, motivated our participants to take action, and to connect with others. There was a consensus in the room that we had all benefitted from speaking across generations and experiences, sharing a great deal of common ground.
Read about Common Ground in our summary blog here.
Living in Agreement – Civic House, Glasgow
5 March 2025
We were delighted to return to Civic House in Glasgow for Living in Agreement, delivered in partnership with students and tutors from the Mackintosh School of Architecture and Missing in Architecture. Held on a grey and damp evening in Glasgow, the event brought together a multigenerational group from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to explore new approaches to care, and the sharing of resources, goods, and skills in placemaking.
Through the discussion, several key themes emerged across all four tables:
- Empathy and collaboration: Breaking down individual egos to engage in larger, collective conversations about the built environment.
- The power of shared spaces: Recognising the importance of places where people can come together, interact, and build relationships.
- Challenging the status quo: Encouraging creative and political engagement within the built environment to disrupt existing systems that prevent innovation and inclusivity.
- Memory and storytelling: Acknowledging the cultural and historical narratives embedded within our buildings and spaces.
- Respect for nature: Designing cities that embrace ecological integration rather than resisting it.
One participant summed up the evening with a powerful observation: “We don’t have enough space just to be with other people and have these conversations. This is what we need more of.”
Read about Living in Agreement in our summary blog here.
Read our university partner Kirsty Lees’ blog here.
The Healthy City – Alan Baxter Gallery, London
17 March 2025
On 17 March, we gathered in London for The Healthy City, the third in-person event in this year’s Sharing Place series, in collaboration with tutors and students from the Bartlett School of Planning at UCL and hosted by the Alan Baxter Gallery. The event explored what health citizenship means today and how community-led actions and effective governance can create a more holistic approach to health and well-being in placemaking.
Key points included;
- Ecology is human: Nature and human connection are part of the ecosystem.
- Places are tapestries: We must weave social, physical and natural elements holistically.
- Bridges not walls: Build links to services, between communities, and form connections.
- Think long-term: Plan with future generations in mind.
- Collective role: Healthier places require shared responsibility.
As one of our student facilitators put it, “Everyone left with interesting questions on their minds.”
Read about The Healthy City in our summary blog here.
Read our university partner Lucy Natarajan’s blog here.
Read event participant and Glass-House Enabler Stephen Smith’s blog here.
Communities of Care – Newcastle University, Newcastle
24 March 2025
On 24 March, we were hosted at The Boiler House, Newcastle University, for the final in-person event of our WEdesign series: Communities of Care. In collaboration with tutors and students from Newcastle University’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, the event explored how care can shape sustainable ways of living. Through discussion and interactive activities, we focused on mutual support, resource sharing and collective well-being.
The Communities of Care event brought together diverse voices and sparked meaningful conversations on how to challenge the status quo and create change at every level.
Key takeaways included:
- Breaking barriers: Between people, nature, communities, and decision-makers.
- Empowering individuals: Everyone can shape their environment.
- Small acts, big change: Guerrilla gardening, reclaiming public space, and grassroots education show how local action can transform communities.
- Grass-roots policy making – empowering diverse communities to shape the policies that affect us all.
Read about Communities of Care in our summary blog here.
Read a blog by participating student Sam Kershaw here.
Gallery
IMPACT
Amid deepening inequalities, disconnection, and growing pressure on land and resources, this year’s WEdesign series, Sharing Place, explored how we can reshape our environments to better support collective wellbeing, equity and care.
From housing and green space access to sharing stories, skills and power, our events brought together diverse people across generations, sectors and lived experience to explore what it means to share place today.
Through in-person co-design events and online debates, we created spaces for reflection, learning and connection. Our Think Piece series offered provocations that sparked rich, cross-sector discussions.
We expanded our WEdesign Student Programme, giving more students the chance to co-lead and engage with public audiences. University partners described it as a valued part of student learning.
Key themes emerged: environments must be shaped with, not for communities; collaboration begins with honest dialogue; and shared access and agency can unlock transformation. From guerrilla gardening to faith-led placemaking, multigenerational collaboration to playful design, Sharing Place showed that creating kinder, healthier, more equitable places starts with listening, sharing, and collective responsibility.
In many ways, the WEdesign series this year, became a sharing place in its own right.
Series Voices
“Everybody is talking about change, but they don’t talk to each other. How do we make everyone talk to each other?”
“Kinder Cities make kinder people.”
“There are many barriers to creating communities and it will take all of us to dismantle them.”
“We should be building for generations ahead.”
“Ecology is linked to everything. We cannot live without it.”
“It has highlighted my role in policy and how I can find “roots” into it.”
“Interdependence of different stakeholders for a positive and healthy environment.”
“We’re all in this together! To collaborate and share ideas / knowledge is to succeed.”
EXPLORE
Sharing Place, Summary Publication here.
Sharing Place Event Blogs:
Sharing Place: The Debate by Louise Dennison
Common Ground by Sophia de Sousa
Living in Agreement by Louise Dennison
The Healthy City by Sophia de Sousa
Communities of Care by Louise Dennison
Glass-House Chats: Sharing Place by Louise Dennison
Sharing Place: Participant Blogs
The full collection of Sharing Place participants blogs is available here
Living in Agreement by Kirsty Lees
The Healthy City by Lucy Natarajan
The Healthy City by Stephen Smith
Communities of Care by Sam Kershaw
A Letter to Future Placemakers by Louis Cook
Sharing Place: Think Pieces:
Our Sharing Place: Think Pieces publication is available to read in full on our website here.
