Agenda 6 - High Streets + Civic Spaces
We enhance the distinctiveness of a high street or public space, it is the unique character of each place that brings people there and we work to enhance this. We have particular expertise in ensuring that these important parts of our built environment continue to be a key asset to our communities.
We are focused on innovation and solutions for high streets. All 5410 high streets in Britain are experiencing increased competition from online retail, undermining their economic foundations, testing local businesses, and challenging optimism. This is why we have worked with organisations to research new and innovative models that test economic systems, ownership structures, and business support networks. We see high streets as places of great potential, for development of local businesses, for entrepreneurs to test new ways of working and selling, and for communities to re-purpose space. In spite of the challenges they face, high streets have become catalysts for change, places of invention, ideas and innovation.
High Streets are not just places to shop; they are also places of social, cultural and political exchange and in an era of ageing populations, the climate crisis, and cost of living crisis, these are the fundamental spaces for exploring our collective sustainable future. Creating new alliances between public, private and civic participants provide strong fundamental shortcuts to viable high streets and civic spaces. We see our role as a connector, identifying opportunities for nurture.
We design and develop high street and public space strategies with the communities that use them, identifying where small steps are being made, how the unseen structures can nurture them, and how to plan for change. We catalyse piecemeal efforts into a greater whole, inject momentum into strategies and introduce new actors. We know that the success of these spaces is defined by the experience of them.
High streets concern everyone. The sheer number and diversity of stakeholders can make it very difficult to intervene sensitively and effectively. The need to build understanding and consensus around a common vision is all the greater as we consider how the high street moves beyond traditional retail.
For us, civic space includes interior spaces, like empty shops, libraries and community centres. We recognise the value of the informal, the inherent creative potential of the ad-hoc and of improvisation. What makes urban space civic is not the actual ownership model, but its capacity to provide for the diverse needs of people.
