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Projects
At Social Place, we undertake a diverse range of projects that involve various stakeholders from different sectors. Our work spans small-scale projects, including short workshop series and one-off research reports, to larger multi-year engagement work and research projects. We are committed to meaningfully contributing to equitable places in ways that meet the unique needs of each site, community, or project.
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Wesley Playing Fields, OPDC (2024)
This engagement and design project in Ealing explored with a group of local teenaged girls how to make Wesley Playing Fields a better space for girls and young women. Over a series of workshopping sessions which took place in Autumn/ Winter 2024 in the park and at OPDC offices, the eight participants aged 15-18 studied the way they moved around and used the green space and surrounding area, how they wished they could use it and what design improvements could contribute to their feeling more welcomed in the green space.
Lancaster West Young Ambassadors (2024)
This research, engagement and design project based on the Lancaster West estate, in West London, has seen to hiring three young women residents as ambassadors for the estate to investigate their and their local communities' experiences of their estate and to inform how things could be made better.
Broomfield Park Making Space for Girls (2024)
This engagement project, in Broomfield Park, in the London Borough of Enfield explored with a group of local teenaged girls how to make the park a more welcoming space for girls and young women. Over a series of five workshopping sessions which took place in Spring 2024 in the park and nearby, the ten participants aged 13-18 studied the way they moved around and used the green space and surrounding area, how they wished they could use it and what design improvements could contribute to their feeling more welcomed in the green space.
The Old Library Public Engagement (2024)
This research and engagement project consisted of running the initial public consultation with members of staff, students and the general public for the multi-million pound refurbishment of the Old Library building in Cardiff on behalf of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and in partnership with Flanagan and Lawrence architects.
A Place for Us, Essex (2024)
This engagement and design project includes a series of three projects in Chelmsford, Broomfield, and Maldon, Essex, and was run in collaboration with Make Space for Girls and Essex County Council. It saw to working with individuals who identify as girls, young women, trans-men and gender diverse to explore their experiences of and design suggestions for a series of public spaces in their local areas an urban park in Chelmsford; a local green space in Broomfield; and a skatepark in Maldon.
Cambridge Beyond Consultation (2023-2024)
This engagement project worked with a group of teenage young women and non-binary young people in Cambridge to come up with a series of design proposals and recommendations to make the public realm more welcoming to a constituent of un-catered for young people.
Reimagining Sewage Infrastructure (Design Museum) (2023-2024)
This research and design project, run at the Design Museum (Future Observatory) with SOS Whitstable, and AHRC funded explored ways to mitigate the impact of water pollution on the north Kent coast through a series of design interventions that were innovated not only to decrease sewage pollution, but to also create novel community infrastructures.
Young Researchers-in-Residence (2022-2023)
This research and engagement project explored young people’s, notably young women’s, public realm experiences and spatial peer-research methodologies in various locations in and around London throughout 2022 and 2023. It hired 29 young people, in particular young women, a constituency normally excluded from planning and development processes, as young researchers at the LSE.
Spencer's Park Engagement (2022)
This research and engagement program run in Summer 2022 saw to researching and evidencing the amenities, facilities and assets in Hemel Hempstead for young people and subsequently working with a group of year 9 local girls over four workshopping days to understand how they used and experienced the public realm local to the proposed development at Spencer’s Park, Hemel Hempstead and to discover what their perspective of “good” public realm looks like. It was a partnership programme between LSE Cities, Make Space for Girls, working with the Astley Cooper School, HTA Architects and funded by Countryside Partnerships.
Samovar Space (2022)
Samovar Space, Olympic Way, Wembley (London) is first of four spaces to receive input from the young people involved in the Apprenticeship in City Design programme. The Apprentices’ overarching intention was to create a place for young people to ‘just be’ and a place to ‘hang out’ without needing to spend any money.
Making Space for Girls (2022)
This peer research and engagement project explored methods of ‘peer research’ with nine girls and young women aged 16-24 in Trowbridge and Crewe UK. By hiring nine young women as LSE researchers, it further aimed to evidence young women's often ignored experiences of public space.
Apprenticeship in City Design (2020-2023)
This research, engagement and design project engaged with five young adults from the London Borough of Brent over 26 months to learn through practice at LSE. They were hired and trained in social and spatial techniques to understand the potential and imagine the future of new public spaces in the Wembley Park development, and to co-design a piece of public realm, Samovar Space, outside Wembley Arena.
Seen and Heard (2019-2020)
This research and engagement project aimed to give young people (aged 16-24) a voice in the design and management of their local public spaces. Run with Brent Youth Parliament and the Blueprint Collective and commissioned by Brent London Borough of Culture, at the heart of the project was the vital question: “where is my space in this big city?”
Beyond Banglatown (2018-2020)
This research project explored the changing fortunes of Banglatown’s restaurants, and the implications of this change for the Bangladeshi community in East London and for Brick Lane itself. Through visual mapping, face-to-face surveys, a qualitative survey, and in-depth interviews with Bangladeshi restaurant owners, and key stakeholders, the project aimed to capture some of the complexity of Brick Lane and Banglatown at a moment of transformation and uncertainty.
Governing Infrastructure Interfaces (2023-2024)
This research project, run at the LSE, investigates the governance of urban infrastructure (transport and sanitation) interfaces in two Ethiopian cities, the capital Addis Ababa and the second largest city Dire Dawa to investigate the relationship between development goals and the contribution made by new infrastructure.
High Streets for All (2017)
This research project takes one of the most commonplace and everyday experiences of the city – the high street – and explores its social value from the perspective of Londoners. Social value is most commonly understood to be made up of economic, social and environmental aspects. Together with existing knowledge and new primary research, the study uses this evidence to set out the strategic case for advocacy, intervention and investment in London’s high streets.
The Skip Garden (2016)
This design project was a temporary garden in London’s Kings Cross, growing food and community and designed and built by undergraduate architecture students.
Super Diverse Streets (2015-2018)
This research project, run at the LSE, was an ESRC-funded research exploration of the intersections between city streets, social diversity and economic adaptations in the context of accelerated migration.
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