The Developer

There’s still time to register for the Part W x Festival of Place: Built Barriers Workshop.

🗓 3 December 2025 | ⏰ 1:00–3:00 PM GMT | 📍 Online

People across the UK face everyday obstacles in the built environment — from underlit public spaces to inaccessible facilities. Part W’s campaign, shaped by real examples shared by the public, is revealing how widespread and systemic these barriers really are.

This online workshop brings together built environment professionals, designers, planners, policymakers, students and allies to dig into the root causes of these barriers — including policy decisions, economic priorities and embedded design biases.

What to expect:

🔹 Insights from invited speakers

🔹 An interactive workshop facilitated by Part W

🔹 Collaborative exploration of systemic challenges

🔹 A chance to contribute to the next stage of the campaign

If you’re committed to creating more inclusive, equitable places, this is a session to be part of.

👉 There’s still time to register at https://www.airmeet.com/e/220b8800-c0b5-11f0-9be4-375c53bcf15c

If public buildings hold up a mirror to our society, what state are we in? Our next edition explores public buildings from lidos to parks to the library, and considers their role in creating liveable and loveable places. Anthropologist Caroline Bennett writes a placetest of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park with new photography by John Sturrock. Sarah Wigglesworth explores the past and future of civic architecture. Laura Mark visits new Amsterdam social housing. Teshome Douglas-Campbell takes in Sidcup's new public library. We'll peak inside markets, urban rooms, new public spaces and question the rise in green gentrification

The latest issue of The Developer magazine is on sale now. Get your copy: https://thedeveloper.live/purchase/an-uncommonly-beautiful-magazine

Family journeys to school: "It's life or death sometimes"

Parents Jasmine, Luke and Matt describe their concerns around their daily school journey with their children.

This film was created alongside a toolkit for practitioners working on traffic and street improvements to use as part of their engagement work with the public. It introduces the need for change by highlighting the impacts of traffic on health and wellbeing through the sharing of people’s direct experiences.

Watch it here: https://thedeveloper.live/film/family-journeys-to-school-its-life-or-death-sometimes

Would you like to join us on 3rd December for Part W x Festival of Place: Built Barriers – Online Workshop?

Hear from:

Leslie Kern,
Amanprit Arnold, Disability Urbanism®
Jordan Whitewood-Neal, Dis Collective
Phillippa Banister, Street Space
Elettra Bordonaro, Light Follows Behaviour
Hilary Satchwell, Tibbalds

Reserve your space to join us here: https://www.airmeet.com/e/220b8800-c0b5-11f0-9be4-375c53bcf15c

Part W

Is my project resilient for the future?

Architecture practice Hawkins\Brown now has a dedicated Foresight team helping developers embrace the unknowns of an increasingly unpredictable future, reports Harriet Saddington

Read the article here: https://thedeveloper.live/sponsored-features/is-my-project-resilient-for-the-future

Part W x Festival of Place: Built Barriers – Online Workshop
📅 3 December 2025 | ⏰ 1:00–3:00 PM GMT | 📍 Online

We’re excited to invite built environment professionals and allies to join us for the next stage of Part W ’s campaign—an online workshop exploring the everyday obstacles women face in the built environment, and the systemic forces that create them.

Since launching on International Women’s Day, and following a successful workshop at the London Festival of Architecture in June, the campaign has been crowdsourcing real examples of design barriers—from poorly lit public spaces to inaccessible facilities. These everyday features reveal deeper underlying issues.

This session will explore those root causes, including:
• Policy decisions
• Economic priorities
• Systemic and entrenched gender bias
• Wider cultural and structural factors shaping our cities

You’ll hear from a panel of insightful speakers who will share perspectives on the challenges identified so far, before joining an interactive workshop facilitated by Part W.

Who should attend?

Built environment practitioners, designers, planners, architects, policymakers, students, community voices and allies of all genders and backgrounds—anyone committed to more inclusive, equitable places.

Let’s work together to understand why persist and how we can begin to dismantle them.

👉 Join us on 3 December to be part of this important conversation. Get your free space here: https://www.airmeet.com/e/220b8800-c0b5-11f0-9be4-375c53bcf15c

Deadline extended: Final entries due 28 November for The Pineapples awards 2026

Submit your contribution to making better places by 21 November for consideration by newly announced judges, chairs and sponsor partners

Read more: https://thedeveloper.live/reportage/deadline-extended-final-entries-due-28-november-for-the-pineapples-awards-2026

"In the frenzy to attract private money, government must ensure regeneration projects are not driven solely by the expectations of global capitula."

"The necessity of adopting a holistic and interventionist approach to urban policy becomes increasingly apparent. Sustainable urban transformation requires not only the regulation of market forces but also the proactive engagement of public authorities to safeguard social justice and spatial equity"

To continue reading, pre-order your copy here: https://thedeveloper.live/purchase/an-uncommonly-beautiful-magazine

Who can enter The Pineapples Awards? Anyone who’s helped make a great place.

Clients, local authorities, developers, architects, designers or any part of the project team can submit, as long as you have permission (and access for the judging visit if needed).

If your work has created or transformed a place that welcomes people, large or small, it deserves recognition. This is your moment to share how design, planning, and collaboration have made lives better.

Entries close 21 November → https://www.festivalofplace.co.uk/thepineapples-categories

At the Camden Inspire festival, people came together to make, repair and rethink their surroundings, with the BID acting as a convener rather than manager in an evolution of the BID model, writes Simon Pitkeathley

Read more here: https://bit.ly/3X5AvQF

In one teaspoon of soil, there are more living organisms than people on the planet and yet we dispose of it like rubbish, reports Kimberley France

It all starts with soil as Civic and Lancaster University shared facts on the importance of soil sustainability at Festival of Place: Climate Resilience. Watch the session here: https://bit.ly/4hCjMya

To put the Wellbeing Economy into practice, we need to have deeper conversations to uncover the complex, knotty, place-specific challenges that designing for wellbeing poses, Milly Warner reports

Full article: https://bit.ly/3WLJ6br