Watch this space…

"The 3 P’s of Placemaking: People, Places …and Photos!"

This month we welcomed Anna Sabine and Dr Harriet Shortt from BiBO to talk about their work. How are placemaking strategies really engaging with communities and what role can photography play in this? In this short talk, Harriet and Anna will be sharing how ‘participant-led photography’ can be used as a tool in public engagement, and will draw on a variety of examples from their own research and commercial work.

For anyone who couldn't make it, here is the recording.

"Prototyping for Wellbeing: A Bodily Approach to Urban Design."

This month we heard from Shannon Stussy, Design Analyst and Qualitative Researcher. She shared her investigations into ways to approach prototyping processes in urban design in order to design for improved wellbeing in public spaces. Using a public square in Copenhagen as a case study, she asks: How can we expand upon existing prototyping processes within urban design in order to increase urban wellbeing?

For anyone who couldn't make it, here is the recording.

"Ideals under construction in the Sharing Economy"

Lea Møller Svendsen from IS IT A BIRD spoke about the sharing economy and its impact on the city of Vancouver! Lea will unfold insights from three months fieldwork in Vancouver exploring how the sharing economy is both creating and reflecting transformation.

For anyone who couldn't make it, here is the recording.

“Psychology in Architecture and Design: The Case for Urban Lighting”

Thank you, Richard Jedon, for a great presentation on the power of light in public spaces! His theory of how light can affect our psychological and physical states was fascinating. Definitely worth a watch if you weren't able to attend live!

Watch the talk here.

"Future of Work: What are we trying to design for now?"

Our speakers were Jacob Culbertson and Luke Ward of Gensler. Their talk covered a wide range of topics, including the 'why' and 'what' of work... They argued:

• Employees now seek purpose at work. "Purpose is the new amenity". "Purpose begins with work culture".

• We need new methods to study work. "Anthropology teaches you *not* to take at face value what people say about their own lives".

• Cities must be more 'liveable'. "The future lies in our autonomy over time, and less so over space".

We highly recommend this talk for anyone with an interest in the future of work and workplace design .

Interested in hearing more? Here is a link to the recording.

“Considerate Urbanism: Centring Emotion and Empathy in the Development of Place and Acknowledging the Spatial Self”.

We heard about Liane Hartley's latest thinking and research. Liane is a long-time friend and pioneer, spearheading conversations about feminist approaches to placemaking through her consultancy and community networks.

Liane is a town planner by background and a recognised thought leader on creating socially sustainable and inclusive cities. She writes about the emergence of the ‘Social City’ and combines her personal interest in the social dynamics of how people live in cities and the future of cities, with her professional skills in strategy, policy, collaboration, and delivery. 

Listen to her talk here.

"Bringing the Regenerative Workplace to Life: Anthropology and the Future of the Hybrid Office"

Flore Pradere, Research Director at JLL. She has 15 years’ experience in marketing research and has a strong expertise in decoding employees expectations and work-styles. She is passionate about the new ways of working and the office of the future. Her favourite topics deal with Human Experience and Human Performance.

Check out her report here: https://www.us.jll.com/en/trends-and-insights/research/bringing-the-regenerative-workplace-to-life

For those who missed her talk, here is the recording.

"Ethnography for Business: Why immersive studies pay dividends"

In her talk, Felicity Heathcote-Márcz explored the value of ethnography to business, how it is different from market and UX research, and even gave us an elevator pitch to promote it within your organisation! We had some excellent questions from the floor, ranging from how to address bias in ethnographic research to how to take notes and do analysis in a corporate setting.

Felicity is Head of Behavioural Research for SimpleUsability, part of CDS. She is a trained ethnographer and has spent several years providing ethnographic and other research services to clients in the commercial sector. Felicity has specialised in conducting ethnographic work for government, transport, infrastructure and defence clients, and her Ph.D. project involved two years of immersive fieldwork at one of the U.K.’s largest bank technology centres.

For those of you who missed her talk, do check out the recording.

"Culturally Charged Placemaking: The strategic application of cultural insights to connect brand, place and people"

Crowd DNA, explores the use of different strategic methodologies - including trend forecasting, semiotics, qualitative research, social intelligence and more - in placemaking. It dives into unique approaches and frameworks for empowering clients to act on cultural change and tap into human needs in the commercial development of both places and place brands, with case studies from global retail giants to cities being built in the Arabian desert.

Watch the recording here.

Here is the recording of Gerda Stelpstra’s talk, “Anthropology in the Workplace: A Living Lab example of holistic research into the future of work”.

Gerda is Head of Total Workplace (Netherlands) at Cushman & Wakefield. As an anthropologist, Gerda brings a unique people and organisation focus to the corporate real estate sector. She likes to be a thought provoker, inspiring people to look at topics from different angles. As a strategist, she uses anthropological principles to guide organisations in their workplace development. She looks at workplace trends from a holistic perspective, considering the system, rituals and behaviours that influence them.

She is an introverted extravert, enjoys working in a team with a good balance of individual time, and lives by the principle "under promise, over deliver´". She dislikes hierarchy, bureaucracy and unrealistic expectations.

We heard from Maayan Matz Ashkenazi, anthropologist, designer and urbanist, and the way in which she's applied socio-spatial approaches to a range of architectural and strategic design projects.

For those of you who missed her talk, check out the recording here.

Maayan uses her training in medical anthropology to bring the socio-spatial together with anthropology. She explores the relations we have with our own bodies, the relationships we have with others, and the ephemeral, shared imagination through which we are cultural beings. She talks about care, and the act of relating. Finally, she examines the quality of being that affords change in terms of 'relation-centred' design, and interrogates what can actually be affected in the spatial realm.

Having established the role of anthropologist urban designer at one of the UK’s foremost studios, Maayan now consults as an independent advisor and is engaged in academic research into urbanisation and health. She has been involved with a number of high-profile projects in central London, developing interdisciplinary strategies to promote vibrancy, wellbeing and socio-economic sustainability.

For those who missed Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman's talk on Thursday 24th March, check out the recording of her talk!

Katrina is Founder and Director of THINK.urban, an urban consulting company specialising in research and analysis of behaviour in public space. Katrina has a background in social anthropology and works with urban planners to design heart-centred places. In her talk, she drew on her knowledge of ancient cities to challenge the dichotomy between public/private and individual/collective, advocating for cities that foster kindness. She talked about "spatial ethnography", a term that she coined to describe how she gets to know the people in a place. We particularly loved her reference to archaeology, and the way she studies waste to understand contemporary human behaviour. She's a fan of the American sociologist Willian H. Whyte, and believes that he and Jane Jacobs are the people who have influenced her most. Overall, she advocates for a non-linear approach to the city and would like to see more curvy placemaking.