My placemaking practice is grounded in a radical, community-first ethos that honours the origins of placemaking as a people-led, socially just approach.

For me, placemaking is not a buzzword or a design fix—it is a method of civic and cultural transformation rooted in collective agency, care, and co-creation. It is both a political and practical act: a tool to redistribute power in the shaping of places and a means to surface the lived knowledge of communities as experts-in-place.

My global placemaking practice spans over two decades of strategic leadership, research, and implementation across civic, cultural, environmental, and governmental sectors. Whether convening citizens' assemblies, co-authoring national policy, or embedding community-led design in high street renewal, I remain committed to working with, and never on, communities. The projects I lead are participatory, collaborative, and co-produced, with deep integration of social practice methodologies.

I am particularly known for my work in social practice placemaking, where the tools of socially engaged art meet the structures of civic planning and local governance. This approach acknowledges emotion, memory, identity, and trauma as legitimate place data, and cultivates forms of participation that are inclusive, creative, and sustainable.

I have brought this approach to projects in the UK and internationally, working with public bodies, universities, NGOs, artists, and communities to embed creative, values-led, and place-specific approaches into strategy and delivery. From the trauma-informed placemaking model I co-developed with a global community of practice, to live policy development with Culture Commons and MHCLG, to my civic leadership work with the University of Derby, I continue to champion a model of placemaking that is accountable, ethical, and led by those who live and work in place.

COMING SOON

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'WHAT IS PLACEMAKING?' PRIMER & ESSAY

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COMING SOON ⋆ 'WHAT IS PLACEMAKING?' PRIMER & ESSAY ⋆

Courage & Galloway: Cultivating Cultural Landscapes

I am collaborating with garden designer Jude Galloway to create green spaces that bring together placemaking, ecological design, and the cultural life of institutions. With my background in placemaking, arts and cultural venues and spatial strategy, and Jude’s expertise in wilding, planting, and sensory landscape design, we work to design gardens that are more than ornamental, but active, living spaces for engagement, reflection, and connection.

We treat gardens as sculptural, collection-responsive extensions of the indoor experience, rooted in context and co-created with curators, learning teams, and communities. Our work supports visitor and audience development, programming, and long-term sustainability. Whether framing outdoor sculpture, echoing the themes of an exhibition, or creating moments of quiet connection, we design spaces that are both beautiful and purposeful.

For us, cultural gardens are places where nature and culture meet—places that grow meaning as well as plants, and that invite communities to take part in their care and story.

Some of my placemaking projects

  • Muscity

    Led consultation and co-curation of the inaugural London Festival alongside founder Nick Luscombe and a collaborative team of advisors, stakeholders, and community partners. The resulting multi-site festival unfolded across London over several days, bringing together musicians, sound artists, practitioners, and industry leaders in a series of participatory, public-facing events. I contributed to the festival’s curatorial vision by commissioning an emerging artist to create a site-specific sound walk and by leading an urban ramble connecting audiences with the festival’s spatial interventions through embodied exploration and place-based dialogue.

  • Threshold

    Threshold was a cross-disciplinary collective of Brighton & Hove architects, artists, designers, and placemakers that explored urban and suburban life through arts-led events, installations, and collaborative placemaking. Our core aim was to engage communities and stakeholders in shaping the built environment, using cultural learning, public realm commissions, and built environment education to support dialogue and inform urban design. Our work invited critical participation in the design of place, combining creative practice with spatial strategy. The team included myself, Olli Blair (a:b:i:r architects), Paul Nicholson (Chalk Architecture), Andy Parsons (Yelo Architects), architectural photographer Jim Stephenson, and placemaker/designer Richard Wolfstrome.

  • LookUp

    LookUp was a crowdsourced architecture and photography project designed to encourage people to pause and notice the built environment around them, especially in the places they called home. Prompting a shift from downward glances to upward curiosity, the project invited submissions of architectural details located at least one storey above ground, whether old or new, permanent or temporary. Originally launched in Brighton & Hove with a new post shared daily throughout 2013, LookUp grew to feature images from over 24 UK locations - including Leeds, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Margate, and Walthamstow - and 6 international cities, including Chicago, Dublin, Prague, San Francisco, and Toronto. The project received significant media coverage, was used in both formal and informal education, and evolved into a public workshop model based on urban wandering and collaborative gallery-making.

  • Modern Brighton & Hove

    The Modern Brighton and Hove Map was a curated guide to the city’s architecture from the past 100 years, featuring notable examples of Brutalist, Modernist, Art Deco, and contemporary buildings across domestic and commercial contexts. Launched in 2017, the map was accompanied by a programme of talks and guided walks encouraging public engagement with Brighton and Hove’s built environment. I co-developed the project with Conran & Partners, placemaker Richard Wolfstrome, and architectural photographer Jim Stephenson, drawing on shared interests in design, place and visual culture. The project was funded by RIBA Sussex and the Sussex branch of the RSA.

  • Brighton & Hove Urban Ramblers

    I founded Brighton and Hove Urban Ramblers, a walking group of nearly 1,000 members that explores the city and its surrounding urban landscapes, typically in groups of 20 to 30. I led the group for its first three years, and it now continues under the community’s stewardship, with Kevin Wilsher at the helm. My own walking placemaking practice continues, with walks curated as artistic, immersive experiences shaped by themes in architecture, art, social history, and contemporary culture.