Croydon Placemaking is a part of the exhibition Mission Neighbourhood – (Re)forming communities with the project Croydon Urban Room.

From shopfronts and high streets in south London, a multidisciplinary municipal team – Croydon Placemaking – are testing accessible and de-institutionalised forms of public engagement. These seek to facilitate meaningful, playful participation and co-creation and inspire civic agency in planning and city making processes through the Croydon Urban Room – a platform for fostering meaningful connection between people and place; past, present and future.

The Croydon Urban Room serves as both a physical and digital space for ideas exchange, collaboration, and everyday innovation. The project works in multiple ways; from action research to testing new forms of occupation in the high street; and providing a public space for reciprocal learning, exchanging ideas and experiences; celebrating diverse histories, and collectively imagining an inclusive and resilient future for Croydon that serves local needs and ambitions.

The Croydon Urban Room is a project led by the Croydon Placemaking team Anisha Jogani, Hannah Martin, Taylor Steel and Kate Riggs, who are part of the Spatial Planning, Growth Zone and Regeneration department of the local municipality in south London. The 2019 Pilot project also included past members of Croydon’s Spatial Planning department.

Croydon Placemaking is an award winning, multidisciplinary team of built environment practitioners working from strategic policy & masterplans through to detailed design and delivery of public projects. The team sits within the local municipality’s Spatial Planning, Growth Zone and Regeneration service and works across urban planning and design, architecture and landscape design, research, public engagement, public realm, public art and culture, heritage and conservation.

The team’s work has been highlighted in the Farrell Review as an exemplar for best practice in ‘proactive planning’, emphasising the unique role it plays in providing a range of design and placemaking services to internal & external clients including serving wider local communities. The team has gained recognition for innovative approaches to planning, design and regeneration with several awards, including for the Croydon Urban Room.