PlaceLabs Podcast PlaceLabs Collective

In this episode, rather than looking at a theme in placemaking as we normally do, we look at PlaceLabs itself. What was the idea behind it? What drives us, what do we hope to achieve? Introducing ourselves – the people behind PlaceLabs – we also reflect on previous events and episodes. Hopefully this will inspire you to join the conversation. Please do!


The PlaceLabs Collective is made up of Sam Oxley, Dan Moscrop, Julien Clin and today's three guests: Payal Wadhwa, Lisa Jones and Rosanna Vitiello. You can find out more about the PlaceLabs Collective – and read up about the previous events and episodes that we mention – on our website: www.placelabs.co.uk


This episode was produced and presented by the PlaceLabs Collective.
Edited and music by Lisa Jones.

In this extra session, we continue to explore the theme of ‘Hyperlocal’. PlaceLabs’s own Rosanna Vitiello is talking to Neill Gaddes about how the local is represented in Shenzhen, China, and in Ao-tearoa as New Zealand is called in Maori.


Neill is originally from New Zealand but is now based in Shenzhen, where he co-founded SANS. SANS is a place-led agency that develops strategies for changing cities. In today’s episode, he also discusses the link between cultural signifiers and community, as well as the role of placemakers.

In this, our first EXTRA session, we continue to explore the theme of “Hyperlocal” with Prof Peter Rees.


Peter was the Chief Planning Officer for the City of London for nearly 30 years. During his tenure, he oversaw the transformation of the Square Mile -- both in its physical appearance, with the Eastern Cluster of skyscrapers redefining the skyline, and in its appeal to attract hard-working and hard-playing talent. Peter has long been an advocate of local places and, now a Professor of Places and City Planning at UCL’s Bartlett School in London, his basic philosophy is “make better places and stay in them.”


In our interview, we address his conception of the local, who makes places (“people, not planners or architects, make places”) and how we can begin to foster our connections with our local (“travel less and more meaningfully”, “contribute to, rather than only consume, place”).

We have been living in global villages for a while now. 2020 has made this more apparent than ever before: circumstances have forced us into -- or perhaps accelerated a trend towards -- drastically local thinking and living.


But what does this new hyperlocalism mean for communities? How do we build -- or should that be: go back to building -- communities around local places? And, indeed, in a world that is as much virtual as it is physical, what does hyperlocal even mean?


Guests:
Nicola Read is the founder of Host of Leyton, a retail, event and coworking space which actively seeks to contribute to the creation of a local community in East London, where she also built her own home. Nicola has years of experience practicing and teaching architecture, and she was Deputy Director of the London School of Architecture from 2016 to 2019.


Dr Kate Baker is a research fellow at the university of Exeter, where she focuses on water management. But she also has a particular interest in community engagement. Kate is the co-founder of Agile Rabbit, an organization that helps academics engage their research with the public using quirky events and community radio.


Shriya Malhotra, an artist and placemaker whose work looks at policy. Now back in India, she has lived and practiced in Moscow, New York, Buenos Aires and other cities. This experience of cultural, environmental and economic processes in different places around the world feeds into Shriya’s thoughts about the link between place and quality of life, and about what makes a place a home.

In this episode, we’re asking how different our cities and towns would look if we challenged our assumptions.


Do we need to move towards more “mindful assuming”? Towards an awareness for when and what we are assuming. Towards an understanding for what’s a reasonable assumption, and what isn’t? What can we learn from other industries who ask, test and prototype before they build? Or is there, perhaps, even a possibility to embrace uncertainty – to build adaptability into our urban environment?


Our guests are:


Jessica Lax - an urban planner and civic-sector strategist based in New York. She partners with cities and communities internationally on issues including criminal justice, climate change, and national memorials. Her work seeks to have a lasting impact on policy, and to transform public realms.


Neil Onions - the founder and CEO of Beyond the Box Consultants, his work centres around co-design with young people and community engagement. Beyond The Box is based in London and works to unlock creativity and empower young people to become agents of change.


Elin Eyborg - an architect and a performance maker from Copenhagen. She has worked for big and small design companies such as Abe Rogers Design and Foster + Partners. She lectures at the University of Greenwich, and studies for a PhD at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Her projects use movement to question the role of architects today.


Presented by Julien Clin.
Produced by the PlaceLabs Collective.
Edited by Lisa Jones.
Music by Lisa Jones.

Using lockdown as a Pause, as a moment of introspection to look at where we came from (even before the pandemic). But, especially, as a moment to think about where we would like to go.
The futurist Peter Ellyard says, “the future is not a probably place we are being taken to, but a preferred place we are creating.” In this episode, we dream up future homes, commerce and public places.


Guests:
Ivana Stanisic – an Associate and architect at JTP Architects whose work ranges from master-planning residential and mixed-use neighbourhoods, to the detailed design of homes.
Will Sandy – an interdisciplinary designer, architect and strategist who works on socially-driven public realm projects to redefine Place Value. Will is also an Associate at McGregor Coxall.
Paul Hanegraaf – a creative navigator at Milligan Retail and the founder of CreativeTrade. Paul’s focus is the future of commerce in mixed-used communities.


Presented by Julien Clin.
Produced by the PlaceLabs Collective.
Edited by Lisa Jones.