Co-Designing the Future: Embracing Collaborative Urban Design

This month, the ACD's Josh Buckingham had the pleasure of chatting to Tom Sale, a Senior Urban Designer at Sustrans, a charity that works for and with communities, helping them come to life by walking, wheeling and cycling to create healthier places and happier lives for everyone. In his role, he primarily focuses on street and public realm design projects, integrating public engagement and collaborative design underpinned by inclusive principles. With over ten years of experience in the UK and internationally, Tom’s thought-provoking insights into co-design and engagement make for an inspiring read.

The Journey into Urban Design and Co-Design

Tom discovered his passion for designing spaces in collaboration with communities during a live project in the Cumberlands Basin in Hotwells, Bristol, as part of his master's degree in architecture. The project required engaging with a diverse range of people from the community, testing ideas, and prototyping solutions. This experience, he noted, aligned perfectly with his personality and strengths.

After completing his postgraduate degree, Tom took some time to travel and landed a job at Doh Eain, a participatory urban design practice in Myanmar. There, he witnessed how human-centred design could transform spaces and communities. The experience allowed him to understand the true potential of community-led design. Upon returning to England, Tom worked as an Urban Designer for a short period at Streets Reimagined and then freelanced as a Facilitator at Play:Disrupt. He then worked for Swindon Council as an Urban Design Officer whilst continuing to freelance with Play:Disrupt, then later joined Sustrans.

Sustrans: Implementation of Co-Design

Sustrans is a charity which helps more people walk, cycle or use a mobility aid for short journeys. It works with communities to make streets safer, easier and more attractive to travel without a car, including creating outdoor spaces for people to relax and play. The organisation emphasises community engagement, believing that involving locals in the design process from the start leads to better, more inclusive outcomes. According to Tom, Sustrans fosters an environment like that he experienced in Myanmar - innovative, collaborative, and open to trying new approaches without the constant need to justify ideas internally.

“Everyone at Sustrans is on the same page, working toward the common goal of improving the built environment with the people who use it.”

Co-Design in Action

One of the exciting projects Tom is currently involved in is the School Streets initiative in Cornwall. This project aims to improve the environment around schools by reducing traffic and creating safer, more accessible spaces. Tom explains that the key to success in this project, and in all community-led urban design, is engaging a broad range of people through multiple methods. In Cornwall, they’ve used a range of methods, including traffic analysis and site observation, to online surveys and workshops with students, staff, parents and local residents. This way, Tom and his team gather a wealth of insights, allowing them to identify common themes and concerns that can then be integrated into the vision and design briefs. These are then used as a reference for participants in the co-design events to design too, as students, parents and local residents become design team members with the support of the technical design facilitators. This approach ensures that the design is aligned with the needs of those who will be using the space.

Sustrans often looks to deliver a three-step process in its collaborative design work: Co-Discover, Co-Design, and Co-Refine. In the Co-Discover phase, the team seeks to understand the issues people face and where these often occur is appropriate. In the Co-Design phase, the team presents the findings from the previous stage, which often include design briefs, vision statement and idea example. Working with the same groups against, participants are asked to engage with the process, using a variety of materials to express their ideas with the urban design toolkit. As active design team members in the events, technical design facilitators collaborate with participants to design proposals together. The final phase, Co-Refine, involves refining the design. This involves showing what the design proposals are and asking for community feedback to make sure the team has accurately integrated local input.

Throughout this process, Tom emphasises the importance of balancing openness to new ideas with a clear understanding of practical constraints, such as budget and legislation. The goal is to empower participants to shape the space while ensuring that the final design remains feasible, contextual and effective.

The Future of Co-Design in Urban Planning

Looking ahead, Tom is optimistic about the future of co-design practice in the built environment professions. However, he believes that for collaborative design to become more mainstream, there needs to be a shift in the planning process. Specifically, urban designers and planners must distinguish between what is “required” and what is simply “guidance.”

Raising awareness about the benefits of co-design is crucial, and Tom points to the Engagement Overlay to the RIBA Plan of Work as a step in the right direction. This tool helps legitimise and start to mainstream collaborative design within the professional sphere, making it easier for architects, landscape architects and urban designers to embrace participatory practices.

Ultimately, Tom notes, the key to growing the acceptance of co-design across urban design and other built environment professions lies in demonstrating its success through concrete case studies. Housing developers, in particular, are often hesitant to adopt collaborative practices due to concerns about potential resistance from the community towards their plans and motivations. However, showcasing examples where co-design has led to positive outcomes may help mitigate this barrier.

Tom also highlights the importance of expanding participation in how local people in their neighbourhoods, villages, towns and cities can get involved in deliberate democracy. This can be achieved through methods like citizen assemblies and participatory budgeting. These approaches, which involve more people in the decision-making process, can enhance democracy and lead to more informed, equitable choices for our future.

Tom’s dedication to co-design and community engagement, championed by Sustrans, highlights the profound value and impact these processes have on the communities they serve.

A sincere thank you to Tom for generously sharing his time and for his ongoing support of the ACD.