Project Summary

The People Changing Places (PCP) programme engaged the general public in the regeneration of their city of York. PCP was a 12-month creative programme that aimed to raise awareness and people’s aspirations about good design in the public realm and provide opportunities for multi-disciplinary working.

Beam worked with key stakeholders who identified Exhibition Square in York as a site that is full of potential but currently underused and undervalued. A number of workshops and events were delivered to consult the local community on their feelings about the site and engage them in the development of YourSpace (a creative intervention in the square) and numerous seminars and conferences to disseminate good practice. All the feedback and consultation from the PCP programme will inform the public realm strategy that the City of York Council are developing. 

“YourSpace has become a symbol of a creative way of engaging” stakeholders and the community. The programme’s “great strengths were its flexibility, using local talent, variety of the programme and building relationships” and the Council felt that PCP was “Instrumental in getting the directorate to work in different ways … and helping to make place important.”

York City Council.

What did we do?

The first event scheduled was a public drop-in event based on Placecheck and a number of key themes emerged – Delight, Sustainability and Wayfinding. These themes were then integrated into the rest of the programme. A Grand Day Out to Sheffield was the second workshop designed to inspire and inform participants about placemaking. We wanted to know more about the public’s ideas for how the Exhibition Square could be transformed so in anticipation of YourSpace, the ‘Hopes, Dreams and Designs’ workshop built upon previous events to inform the content of the Transformation.

YourSpace was a key milestone when Exhibition Square in York was transformed for one weekend with over 1,000 orange cardboard boxes, a team of performers, and interactive sound and light installations. A seminar targeting York delegates was held to promote investment in the public realm and a national conference was held to share good practice from the PCP programme and showcase examples of community led regeneration from across the UK.

What did we achieve?

We had a consistent number of people from the local community participating throughout and good support from Council members and officers who also benefitted. YourSpace made people think differently about Exhibition Square and recognised the value of the public space and how much free space is available. The combination of the visual, physical and interactive elements resulted in an accessible way for the general public to engage and input into regeneration issues in their city.

PCP was approved as part of the Homes and Communities Agency Placemaking Recognition Scheme. “An innovative and interesting programme based on a ‘Design journey’ which addresses the place-making agenda by seeking to improve regional demand and capacity for high quality design in place-making and raising awareness of the importance of community engagement in place-making.” Expert panel comments.

For more detailed information visit the People Changing Places website.