This webinar explores and explains the purpose, value and practice of placemaking. It will discuss the objectives of placemaking in the shaping of services and projects, the opportunities for placemaking in Scotland afforded by a place-based funding programme and how to deliver effective placemaking in practice.
Across the public sector, there is a growing focus on place and placemaking which recognises two important principles. Public sector investment which reflects holistic planning across agency and service boundaries is more likely to be successful and better value for money. Decisions on services and projects which are informed and driven by the communities they are designed for will have higher levels of engagement and use.
Delivering effective placemaking requires a seamless approach across the public sector. Such an approach looks at how public assets can be deployed collaboratively to deliver joined up services, give communities better outcomes, realise savings and efficiencies and facilitate greater economic growth. So what are the practical steps in terms of policy, funding and processes which will support placemaking in Scotland? How will placemaking principles be embedded into public sector service design and spending practices? What mechanisms will be used to facilitate the co-production of place projects across agencies and between consumers and providers of services?
Diarmaid Lawlor will consider the philosophy and purpose of placemaking. Sam Cassels will discuss a place-based programme for services and communities. David Welsh will reflect on what the design and delivery of placemaking looks like in practice.
Key points
Place Principle Advisor
Scottish Government
Associate Director – Place, Housing & Economic Investment
Scottish Futures Trust
Director
Connected Places Catapult
Director
MainStreet Consulting
Sam Cassels
Place Principle Advisor
Scottish Government
Sam is a strategic designer and facilitator with a focus on collaborative storytelling and place-making. He has worked on investment programmes for over 100 organisations internationally across the public and private sectors, helping them make well informed decisions about shaping the future. He has over 30 years of experience and has qualifications in architecture and economics.
Diarmaid Lawlor
Associate Director – Place, Housing & Economic Investment
Scottish Futures Trust
Diarmaid is the Associate Director for Place, Housing & Economic Investment at the Scottish Futures Trust.
He was previously Head of Urbanism with Architecture and Design Scotland. An urbanist, with a multi disciplinary background, he has worked on projects involving the shaping and implementation of change for clients in Ireland, the UK and Europe, for the public, private and tertiary sectors. He has almost 20 years' experience of helping clients make well informed decisions about complex, connected urban policy and investment challenges. He is an educator, communicator and collaborator who writes and speaks on creative approaches to making better places.
Steve Turner
Director
Connected Places Catapult
Steve is Director for Devolved Authorities at the Connected Places Catapult. As a recognised leader in innovation and sustainability he has over 25 years of experience working in both the public and private sector. As Director at the Connected Places Catapult he works at the interface between local government and business, using his extensive knowledge and experience to help harness technology to deliver wider economic, social and environmental objectives. Prior to joining the Connected Places Catapult he was Digital Cities Leader for Arup where he delivered Smart City strategies for some of the largest developments in the UK, Europe and the Middle East, representing £billions of investment. As Head of Future Cities at Manchester City Council he set up Manchester’s widely admired Smart City innovation programmes, Triangulum and CityVerve securing over £50m of inward investment for the city, as well as establishing it as the UK’s first Low Carbon Economic Area.
David Welsh
Director
MainStreet Consulting
David is an experienced management consultant. After many years working as a senior manager and Director in big advisory firms like Deloitte, Turner & Townsend and iMPOWER, he set up MainStreet Consulting in 2013. With colleagues there, he has now supported 50+ organisations in Scotland and the UK to make important decisions about their priorities, services, people and budgets – across IT & business support, Public Realm & Place, and in social care.
In 2010, he helped establish a charity providing feeding programmes and other health and counselling services for school children living in poverty in Kenya (kipawa.org.uk) and continues to contribute as a trustee. He is also a voluntary board member of Port Of Leith Housing Association.
He is a Glaswegian-in-exile, living now in Leith with his wife and daughter. Any spare time he has is wasted watching hapless football or buying obscure and often unlistenable records from the 1960s and 70s.
