EVENING Talk: Neighbourhood Planning: for sustainable development, 12 March, 6.30pm

This is the third in a series of Architecture Centre Network talks exploring community engagement in the built environment.

Sophia de Sousa, Chief Executive of The Glass-House Community Led Design will focus on ‘Can community led design enhance sustainability?’ With the emerging Localism Act, there are both new opportunities and challenges for community engagement and leadership in planned development and regeneration. She will explore how community led design and planning can support locally informed, inclusive and creative steps toward a more sustainable built environment.

Robert Offord, Planner & Urban Designer, Kent Architecture Centre will present on ‘Partnering Perspectives - the role of local people and professionals in delivering neighbourhood design’. Calling on the centre’s experience of working with local communities Robert will explain how the managed use of high level professional expertise can get the best from local volunteer and community resources.  Exploring how pairing the two outlooks and approaches can enhance each other and lead to high quality, locally responsive design/planning solutions.  He will illustrate the benefits of this approach with reference to current projects with Design Council Cabe and local communities across the South East.

David Tittle, Chief Executive of MADE will explain MADE’s approach to working with communities under the banner of ‘raising aspirations for people and place’. He will describe some projects they are currently delivering with support from Design Council CABE, the Skills Funding Agency and Locality.

Sophia joined The Glass-House in June 2005, and led the transformation from what was an Architecture Foundation project to an independent national charity. As Chief Executive, Sophia works to ensure that community participation and leadership in physical regeneration is not a token gesture, but a valuable means of informing good, sustainable design that benefits local people and that will lead to the long-term improvement of neighbourhoods. Sophia is an advocate of cross sector partnerships and believes them essential to the success of regeneration and of community empowerment.

Robert joined Kent Architecture Centre in 2006 as a Design Adviser, having worked in local government in London. He has particular expertise in setting up local design support initiatives and leading workshop facilitation as well as delivering design training.  Robert is also responsible for managing the South East Design Panel. In addition to this, Robert works on the centre’s design and regeneration projects. Robert is an accredited Spaceshaper facilitator and has a particular interest in the social and cultural aspects of placemaking and using creative planning and design interventions to help foster robust, people-friendly places.

MADE is dedicated to improving the quality of our towns, cities and villages in the West Midlands. As Chief Executive, David has overall responsibility for MADE's programmes, people and finances. David has been involved in community engagement in the built environment since working for the Civic Trust from 2001 to 2003.  He later founded R99, a company specialising in urban design training and community engagement. He has worked for MADE for four years. He is a committee member of the Coventry Society, trustee of a local building preservation trust and a trustee of Civic Voice. He is a fellow of the RSA.

Further information: www.architecturecentre.net

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