LSE-led youth project wins Eurocities award
Seen and Heard, a project led by Dr Julia King, a Policy Fellow at LSE Cities, has won a Eurocities Awards for its pioneering work with young people.
The Eurocities Awards recognise cities’ outstanding achievements in improving quality of life for local people. Seen and Heard, a research and engagement project which worked with Brent Council Youth Parliament and the Blueprint Collective, won London the Young people co-creating public spaces category. The project, named as an exemplar of how to involve young people in the design of public space in the Mayor of London’s new Public London Charter, worked closely with young people aged 16-24 in Brent to explore their place in public spaces.
Through a summer-school style of workshop days, the project considered how public spaces were being used, and could be used better, by young people – a demographic often unconsidered in architectural design. Working alongside a group of young people from the borough of Brent in London, the project opened up discussions about racism, crime, gentrification, and other issues affecting their shared cultural life. It also connected the participants with developers working on the Wembley Park development, engaging them in all elements of urban design, including the building models to better explore how public space could ideally work for them.
As a result of the project, the Wembley Park development now includes a co-designed space for young people, alongside a set of policy recommendations that the young people and LSE researchers hope will be used wider afield to ensure that the needs of young people are properly considered during the design of new public spaces.
The award also recognises the Apprenticeship Programme in City Design, a legacy project of Seen and Heard. The apprenticeship aims to provide young people with both academic and practical experience in urban design. It has already worked with five young adults from Brent, providing them with paid research work at LSE Cities as well as over two years of online and in-person learning.
Dr Julia King, who led both projects, said: “Public spaces are vital for young people but so often their needs and wants are forgotten in the process. Through these projects we have sought not just to understand how we can better design public spaces for young adults, but to increase young people’s awareness, knowledge and understanding of design and the built environment.
“By training young people in how to apply methodologies and tools to understand the potential and imagine the future of new public spaces such as the Wembley Park development, we hope to inspire the next generation of urban designers and city architects, and I am delighted that these projects have been recognised with the Euroecities awards.”
Loshini Suben, who was involved in Seen and Heard before becoming one of the design apprentices with LSE Cities, travelled to Brussels to accept the award. She said: “In 2019, the Seen and Heard project began, born out of the Brent Borough of Culture 2020, which involved elevating the voices of young people in public space… In 2022, after all the hard work of the apprentices, architects, developers and artists, one of our designed spaces came to life! Samovar Space, situated in front of Wembley Stadium is named after the Persian Samovar: a kettle that is always hot with tea which often brought the community together…. Now in June 2023 I am incredibly grateful to announce that our project won a Eurocities Award!”
The Eurocities Awards 2023 were announced at the Euroecities’ Brussels Urban Summit.