CIVIC SQUARE is demonstrating neighbourhood-scale civic infrastructure for social, ecological, economic and climate transition together with many people and partners in Ladywood, Birmingham UK.
Principally they are working to demonstrate how the climate transition and deep retrofit of our homes, streets and neighbourhoods can be designed, owned and governed by the people who live there now in systemic, tangible and participatory ways.
Whilst embedded in place, they are openly designing to discover and distribute new forms of public and civic infrastructure that is relevant at a nationally and internationally scale.
To do this, they simultaneously continue to develop, maintain and build out three interconnected system demonstrators, all born directly out of their work so far:
Neighbourhood Public Square Co-building and democratising access to the spaces, tools, resources and infrastructure that neighbourhoods need to co-lead the social, ecological, economic and climate transition of the 21st century, through a significant demonstrator and capital project for the many layers of regenerative redesign around land stewardship, finance, governance, building design and more.
Neighbourhood Doughnut A 21st century compass to orient us to the scale of challenge and opportunity in the face of interconnected challenges, democratising knowledge, data, and collective neighbourhood research practices grounded in the everyday as we mobilise around shared metrics for social and ecological flourishing.
Neighbourhood Transitions A street- based systemic demonstration of carbon, energy, ecological, and built transitions that are designed, owned and governed by the people who live there, going beyond a single household approach to retrofit and into designing from the starting point of our streets as living systems, where agency to meet challenges is highest.
