Co-creation in City Making
This cluster explores how collaborative urban practices can reshape our understanding, design, and experience of cities. Grounded in the view of cities as complex socio-economic, spatial, environmental and political systems, the cluster advances long-term, integrated and critically engaged approaches to contemporary urban challenges. At its core, the cluster investigates participatory and co-design processes that position citizens as active agents in (re)shaping their urban environments. It examines how diverse communities, policymakers, practitioners and researchers negotiate knowledge, power and responsibility in the production of spaces.
Urban well-being and sustainability are central to this agenda. The cluster foregrounds the interdependencies between spatial design, wellbeing, climate resilience and social justice, advocating for holistic frameworks that recognise everyday life as a key site of urban innovation. Cities are understood not only as infrastructures and economies, but as lived environments that shape, and are shaped by, care, safety, mobility, work and belonging.
An inclusive and gender-sensitive perspective informs this work. By engaging with the social and political dimensions of urban space, the cluster explores whose voices are heard, whose contributions are recognised and how different people experience safety, access and belonging in the city. Through interdisciplinary collaborations, it develops evidence-based and creative methodologies that respond to diverse lived experiences and contribute to more equitable urban futures. Ultimately, Co-Creation in City Making champions active citizenship and socially just transformation. It seeks to demonstrate that collaborative, inclusive, and reflexive urban practices are essential to building sustainable cities that support plural identities and foster inclusive futures.
Members:
Prof. Silvia Gullino Silvia.Gullino@bcu.ac.uk (strand lead)
Prof. Rachel Sara Rachel.sara@bcu.ac.uk
Dr Sana Malik sana.malik@bcu.ac.uk
Dr Anastasia Nikologianni Anastasia.Nikologianni@bcu.ac.uk
Dr Senem Zeybekoglu Sadri Senem.ZeybekogluSadri@bcu.ac.uk
Alessandro Columbano Alessandro.Columbano@bcu.ac.uk
Eccles Ng Sze.Ng@bcu.ac.uk
Holly Doron, Colab Dudley (External Member)
Projects:
Empowering local communities for placemaking: working with mothers and youth
Sustainable and Affordable Housing in Rapidly Growing Urban Contexts