Participatory Design and Regeneration

Regeneration remains one of the key issues in contemporary architecture and urban planning. The importance of community-led, participatory projects has long been acknowledged in theory - but how successfully has this been translated into actual practice? The Learning City provides a comprehensive answer to this question.

Combining theoretical analysis with concrete guidance, the book covers all stages of community-based co-production and place-making, from conception to development, execution, and post-occupancy evaluation. Part 1 provides an introduction to the key issues and challenges. Part 2 features fifty highly-illustrated case studies, drawn primarily from projects in the north of England, but offering lessons for urban and rural areas much further afield. These are accompanied by critical voices from professionals, clients, citizens, policy-makers and academics. Part 3 introduces a range of practical tools for enabling creative participation, such as mapping, games, walkabouts, narratives, open source design and social media.

Based on the author's experience of almost twenty years of practising, researching, teaching and participating in innovative regeneration, the book will provoke new ideas and provide inspiration for professional architects, students of architecture and urban planning, as well as stakeholders engaged in community-led regeneration.