Practical. Thinking.
Would you ask a convicted armed robber to help you move house? Of course not. Yet a social enterprise in Manchester has been getting some of the city’s most prolific offenders to do just that. Trafford Housing Trust’s CleanStart project looks after empty properties and prepares them for new tenants. It also does removals. More than 200 [...]
After a summer of report writing, a busy autumn of events is coming up – and nearly a year after the Portas review of the high streets, there’s still huge interest in what should happen in our town and city centres. Last week I was asked to take part in Make:Shift, a two-day workshop organised [...]
Eighteen months ago Gillian Newlove struggled to leave her house. Her confidence was at rock bottom and she did all she could to avoid meeting people. Last Christmas couldn’t have been more different. Her paintings were exhibited at Accrington Town Hall, she met the mayor and visitors were enquiring about buying her work. The change [...]
‘This is not just an ex-mining valley – it’s an outdoor experience valley,’ says Dave Lewis, community director at Groundwork Merthyr and Rhondda Cynon Taff in south Wales. Dave is showing off the climbing centre at the heart of the Taff Bargoed valley, in the middle of a site once deemed too polluted and dangerous [...]
A few years ago the Joseph Rowntree Foundation produced a report entitled Person or place-based policies to tackle disadvantage? Not knowing what works. The title was a fitting, if depressing, summary of more than two decades of research and practice. The current government has decided that the answer to this conundrum is to stop looking [...]
A guest blog from the Caravanserai team Traditional Caravanserais were vital, busy compounds along the Silk Road, places with some greenery, water and shelter, to take a break from traveling. Once rested, people of different backgrounds, nationalities and races would exchange goods and stories. They were cities in miniature, bustling with trade & activity, vibrant [...]
If you thought we were all deserting local shops, think again. Apparently nearly four-fifths of us believe our high streets depend on local butchers and bakers, according to the Local Government Association. A new poll shows just how deep this care for local retailers lies, especially among older people: Nearly eight in 10 local people [...]
Imagining Alternative High Street Futures from Architecture + Design Scotland on Vimeo. Where can you find an Association of Town Agitators, a ‘framework for mess’ and a high street Truth and Reconciliation Commission? Answer: Glasgow, where around 40 people gathered to ‘imagine alternative high street futures’ on Tuesday. We blogged some thoughts here earlier this [...]
One of the best things about the current exhibition about high streets at the Lighthouse in Glasgow is the way it looks creatively at the possible futures for the high street as well as indulging nostalgia with artefacts and film clips from the past. Many of its ideas about possible futures echo suggestions in The [...]
In recent weeks we’ve been visiting parks, gardens and open spaces in England and Wales as part of a project with Groundwork UK, hearing inspiring stories of change but alsoseeing people battling against the odds to preserve spaces and activities that funders no longer see as a priority. We’re also reviewing the huge volume [...]
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