Engagement: We must listen to communities – and recognise participation as labour

P laces are not only shaped by their physical conditions like climate, orientation, density and proximity to infrastructure, but by local practices, traditions, and patterns of use. These forms of knowledge are often invisible in conventional planning processes, yet they are essential to designing places that work for the people who will live with them and that can endure for generations to come.

 

Listening to the community from the earliest stages of development is not simply a procedural step or a courteous thing to do – it’s fundamental to producing better outcomes. Taking this approach significantly deepens our understanding of a place, enabling us to preserve what is valuable and enhance what already exists before introducing something new.

 

The opposite can lead to significant and costly controversy, while also missing opportunities to create developments and places that are enriched by the social and cultural qualities that already exist. Debates surrounding the redevelopment of Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre, which prompted increased recognition of the importance of London’s largest Latin American commercial and cultural centre, and Brixton Market, have demonstrated that the value of these places extends far beyond their physical fabric to independent businesses, social networks and cultural practices.

 

 

In contrast, where early listening has been embedded, the benefits can be striking. Regenerative design is concerned not only with retaining physical fabric and reducing carbon, but with understanding and supporting the ecological, social and cultural systems that already exist. Better engagement leads to better briefs, more intelligent design decisions, stronger long-term stewardship, and ultimately more successful development outcomes, creating places that are more resilient, and more valued over the long term. However, ‘community engagement’ often remains a superficial process, carried out after key decisions have already been made.

 

Meaningful co-design also plays an important role in building trust and long-term goodwill when it starts from the understanding that local knowledge is a form of expertise equivalent to professional knowledge. Residents understand how spaces are used, where people feel safe or excluded, and which aspects of a place hold cultural and social value. Created together with the RIBA and UCL in 2023, our co-design toolkit Towards Spatial Justice is aimed at designers, individuals and community groups and local authorities and demonstrates how meaningful participation can be embedded within projects from outset. 

 

Some great examples can be found in community-led housing. At Citizens House in Lewisham, London Community Land Trust worked with Archio and future residents to co-design 11 genuinely affordable homes on council-owned land. Residents were involved in key decisions throughout the process, demonstrating how participation can directly shape housing that reflects local needs and long-term social value.

 

Large-scale masterplans often take many years, sometimes decades, to deliver and they can be disruptive for local residents and businesses. Increasingly, architects, developers and local authorities see the benefits of embedding co-design from the outset.

 

 

At White Horse Square in Wembley, a project we undertook for Quintain, Dr Julia King and RESOLVE Collective ran a layered engagement process aimed at local young people aged 15–19. The workshops, mapping exercises, site-based activities, and informal discussions revealed experiences of exclusion and lack of belonging within public space, directly informing the design of the square’s playable landscape and social spaces.

 

A similar approach was championed by ZCD Architects at Earls Court, where a newly established Public Realm Inclusivity Panel, brought together disabled people, carers, young people, and older residents to shape the masterplan through ongoing workshops and review sessions. The project demonstrated how sustained engagement structures can enable groups often excluded from traditional consultation to meaningfully influence large-scale regeneration.

 

Crucially, meaningful co-design also means recognising participation as labour. Compensating people for their time broadens participation and signals that lived experience is being taken seriously. We saw this in our ongoing work on the Central Somers Town masterplan, where Camden Council supported the collaboration with EDIT and local young people on the design of Purchese Street Social Space, with participants paid London Living Wage rates for their involvement.