Public Practice is a not-for-profit social enterprise that selects talented built-environment experts from disciplines such as architecture, planning, urban design and community engagement, and places them for a year in public authorities, to build up the public sector’s capacity for proactive planning.
Six months on from placing its first ‘cohort’ of creative placemakers in local-authority planning departments, the ground-breaking Public Practice is now looking to place a new batch of practitioners across London, the South East and the East of England.
The first 17 placements began in London and the South East in April this year and set to work delivering or improving almost 25,000 homes, creating public realm, accelerating delivery of public infrastructure and engaging with stakeholders.
Public Practice points out that the skills gap is currently the single biggest barrier to councils playing a more active role in housing delivery. In London, 91% of local authorities must use temporary staffing to cover planning capacity needs on an occasional or even a routine basis.
This week, Public Practice announced a call for applications for a second wave of placements of expert practitioners within local authorities. It is now inviting applications from built-environment practitioners across a wide range of disciplines to be employed on a 12-month fixed-term contract, or on secondment from their existing employer.
‘The quality, ambition, and importance of the work the first cohort are doing together with their colleagues is inspiring,’ enthuses Finn Williams, the Co-Founder and Chief Executive. ‘From designing new approaches to engaging communities to delivering more genuinely affordable homes, they are making a real difference on the ground.’
One of Public Practice’s Associates, as the practitioners on placement are known, is Rachel Hearn, who joined the London Borough of Havering as Principal Urban Designer. There, she commissioned a new masterplan for Romford Town Centre, provided design advice on estate regeneration, ran surgeries to give feedback on pre-applications for strategic sites and set up Havering’s first ever design review panel.
‘Public Practice provided me with the opportunity to work in the public sector in exactly the role I was looking for but didn’t know how to find. For a while I’d been keen to find a way to work with the people who create the opportunities for change in the city and to work in design further upstream with policymakers, planners, and the regeneration and housing team,’ says Hearn.
‘I now know more about what it takes to make things happen. The best bit, which fills me with confidence for the future, is the huge network of like-minded, passionate people that I’ve got to know who want to make cities better. Collectively there is a real energy, a feeling that change is possible.’
Mike Kiely, Chair of the Planning Officers Society and Planning and Development Advisor to Havering, credits Hearn with transforming the way the borough specifies, assesses and determines urban design in all its strategic schemes.
Most Associates find the placement to be an education in its own right. Jennifer Gutteridge, Design Advisor at the Royal Docks Team (a joint delivery team of Newham and the Greater London Authority) was already working in local government but was attracted by the idea of a role that could improve design capacity.
‘Public Practice has boosted my skills set through training, and the ongoing support offered by the cohort group has been fantastic as we all share new challenges, experience and knowledge,’ reports Gutteridge.
‘The role has given me some great exposure to the growing trend of the public sector taking a more significant role in managing the long-term future of public land, as the team sets out on a highly ambitious regeneration initiative across the Royal Docks.’
An open evening at Build Studios in Waterloo will be held on 6 November 2018 for potential applicants to meet the Public Practice team and current Associates. The deadline for applications is 26 November 2018.
Expressions of interest to host placements are also invited from local authorities and other publicly led delivery agencies in London, the South East and East of England (deadline 29 November).
There are detailed prospectuses for both practitioners and public authorities at www.publicpractice.org.uk
Public Practice Chief Executive Finn Williams and fellow Director and Co-Founder Pooja Agrawal are the creative directors of ‘Guerrilla Tactics 2018: Expanding Practice: Navigating the Architecture of Planning, Procurement and Property’, which takes place at the RIBA on 13–14 November 2018.
Thanks to Rachel Hearn, Principal Urban Designer, London Borough of Havering; and Jennifer Gutteridge, Design Advisor, Royal Docks Team.
By Neal Morris. This is a Professional Feature edited by the RIBA Practice team. Send us your feedback and ideas
RIBA Core Curriculum Topic: Places, planning and communities.
As part of the flexible RIBA CPD programme, Professional Features count as microlearning. See further information on the updated RIBA CPD Core Curriculum and on fulfilling your CPD requirements as an RIBA Chartered Member.
Posted on 4 October 2018.
