Andrew Smith is a Professor of Urban Experiences at the University of Westminster and lead the University's inter-disciplinary research community dedicated to Sustainable Cities and the Urban Environment. His research addresses city events and urban tourism from a place based perspective. He also has a strong interest in urban regeneration and public spaces, particularly public parks.

He's author of  two books 'Events and Urban Regeneration: the Strategic Use of Events to Revitalise Cities', and 'Events in the City: Using Public Spaces as Event Venues'. He is currently part of a major research project - FESTSPACE - which examines how festivals and events affect the inclusiveness of urban public spaces.

We have our first returning guest on the podcast, the incredibly talented and humble Gurmeet Sian. Gurmeet has designed some really beautiful and carefully constructed community spaces which can be the stage for activities that foster belonging. We wanted to talk to Gurmeet about the role and importance of these secular community buildings as providing shared spaces for people to build connection.

He’s a delight and I am excited to have him back so I hope you enjoy.

Welcome back to the make:good Placeholder Podcast Season 3.  We’re continuing with the topic of Belonging in this episode and will be talking to Akim Scafe-Smith and Seth Scafe-Smith , the founders of Resolve Collective an interdisciplinary design collective that combines architecture, engineering, technology and art to address social challenges.  

We hope you enjoy listening to this episode and if you want to find out more about their work, you can find links in the show notes.

Kathryn’s journey with Global Generation started in 2017 when she joined their very first cohort of Generators at their Paper Garden in Canada Water. Since then, she has volunteered, interned and freelanced with them until her role now. 

Kathryn is studying Business and Management at the University of Kent and is with Global Generation as part of her Year in Industry for her degree. She’s always had an interest in unpacking the processes behind tackling community issues. She now feels she is learning to bring both corporate and charity perspectives together in her role where she is working with Global Generations corporate partners.

A conversation about belonging, gardening and empowering of community. 

Tim Gill is an independent scholar, writer and consultant on childhood, and a global advocate for children’s play and mobility.

Tim’s book Urban Playground: How child-friendly urban planning and design can save cities was published in 2021 by RIBA Publishing. His book No Fear: Growing up in a risk averse society, published by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, came out in 2007.

Tim’s work cuts across public policy, education, child care, planning, transport, urban design and play-work. It engages with academics, practitioners, policy makers, the media and the wider public. Tim is a Design Council Ambassador, and a former director of the Children’s Play Council (now Play England).

In 2009, Alice and her neighbour Amy Rose came up with the idea of temporarily transforming their Bristol street into a safe ‘shared space’ where children could play freely outside their front door, simply by closing the road to through-traffic for a short time. They saw this as a step towards restoring children’s freedom to play out in their communities as a vital part of a happy, healthy childhood.  Alice is now co-Director of Playing Out CIC, supporting the growing national parent-led play streets movement of over 1000 street communities across 100 local authority areas.   

Find her on Twitter @aliceplayingout

Follow Playing Out CIC on Instagram @playingoutcic and Twitter @playingout  

What do you get when you cross a Playworker, PE teacher and Play Therapist? Keyo Yendi, who leads on the very cool pop-up play activities happening at Gillett Square in Dalston. We're sticking to the topic of Play in this episode and will be talking about 'play without boundaries' in this unique public space.

Join us for the latest in a series of podcasts getting to know some of the known and not so well known people working to create a more joyful special and inclusive public realm. 

The first of our episodes on the theme of Play features the formidable Dinah Bornat of ZCD Architects, an expert in child-friendly cities and youth participation in the built environment. We talk about about our responsibility to protect the right to play for children and how we can genuinely consider the needs of all in play spaces, such as teenagers and neurodivergent young people.

Join us for the latest in a series of podcasts getting to know some of the known and not so well known people working to create a more joyful special and inclusive public realm. 

In this episode we are joined by Carole Wright @Blak_Outside. Carole is a community garden manager, beekeeper and proud South Londoner who is working tirelessly to create more inclusive spaces for BIPOC and communities of colour to explore nature and the outdoors. We spoke to Carole about the roots of her passion, the joy of exploring London's green spaces and how the outdoors can really help to bring people together. We hope you enjoy listening to this half as much as we enjoyed recording it. We look forward to collaborating with Carole again in future

In this episode, we chat with Sophia de Sousa, CEO of The Glass-House and champion of all things engagement. A leader on community-led, participatory and co-design practices, Sophia shares some of the merits and challenges of keeping people at the heart of everything you do. We discuss terminology, influence and how to get it right, as well as how it can go wrong when trying to reach different groups. We loved recording this episode and thank Sophia for joining us. Sophia was instrumental in the early days of m:g and we love that we can share this space.