Creative Spaces: A toolkit for participatory urban design

Creative Spaces disseminated the methods developed by the AF's Roadshow programme (1998-1999); a pioneering exercise in participatory urban design that served as a catalyst to regenerate nineteen dysfunctional sites across three London boroughs. With increasing pressure and legislation for consultation and participation within urban regeneration, this project aimed to inspire through imaginative and tested methods of participatory urban design. Using methods from theatre and video to design festivals, live art and schools workshops, local people worked with architects to come up with new design ideas for their area. Creative Spaces includes a practical illustrated 'toolkit' of methods, 'site stories' from each of the Roadshow sites, and a national database of useful contacts.

The 'sites stories' contained in Creative Spaces show how involving architects and urban design professionals at the very early stages of brief-setting by the community can produce visionary statements for a local area that are clear, understandable and shared. It points to ways of using the regeneration framework so that it is not so much design-led as design-fed from the start, therefore ensuring that the best urban design skills are matched to local needs and aspirations.' 

-Jon Rouse, Chief Executive of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE)

The knowledge from the Creative Spaces project was also disseminated in a series of touring workshops, throughout the UK.