YEAR IN REVIEW
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This year we are celebrating extraordinary resilience and recovery in our cities, in the cultural sector, and at Publica too. In very hard times there have been themes of hope in our sector in 2023, and a renewed interest in doing things better. We have loved watching London coming back to life. We too have worked hard to make a remarkable recovery this year that we are proud of. We have worked with amazing clients, communities, spaces and places and continue to enjoy brilliant collaborations across this great city and beyond.

Here is our summary of our highlights. We look forward to working with you in 2024.

Hamburg Domachse / Eccleston Yards by day / Eccleston Yards by night / Baker Street and Marylebone Area / Ongoing GLA Night time work / Heart of London Evening and Night time Strategy / OPDC Planning Guidance / Publica CIC / GLA Safety in Public Space Phase Two / Right to the Streets / Walthamstow Public Realm and Lighting Improvements / Hanover Square Completion & West End Projects Film / Communications and Events / Publica Team 

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HAMBURG domachse
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In October, Publica was invited by Hamburg City Council to investigate the future of the “Domachse”, a series of streets connecting the city centre to HafenCity, Europe’s largest inner-city waterfront development project as part of an international design charrette.

After an intensive six weeks of design work and workshops with local stakeholders, we presented Publica’s proposal to the Council and the public. These proposals, developed in collaboration with Professor Daniel Talesnik, imagined a cultural strategy activating the route with a programme of events and public realm interventions that define its civic purpose and identity within Hamburg.

We designed the scheme to be flexibly implemented, to allow the people of Hamburg to take part and influence its future.

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eccleston yards: DAYTIME AND PLANTING
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In September 2023 we completed the lighting and landscape improvements to Eccleston Yards, working with Grosvenor and Stiff + Trevillion architects.

Once an industrial yard, the site was redeveloped in 2017 to provide more restaurants, retail and leisure. Our proposal draws inspiration from the context of Belgravia to increase the visibility of Eccleston Yards, celebrate its identity and create a unified sense of place across the different entrances and within the Yards. New soft landscape has successfully enhanced routes in and out and increased the site’s biodiversity.

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eccleston yardS: NIGHT TIME AND LIGHTING
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After dark, the enhancements to the lighting have helped improve legibility and strengthened the industrial character of the space, while remaining sensitive to the context of the area. The design was developed with on site testing including full size mock-ups. Two new large-format lanterns – inspired by the mantles used in traditional gas lights – breathe gently to address long views, announcing the arrival at the yards to those passing by. 

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A PLACEMAKING STRATEGY FOR THE BAKER STREET AND MARYLEBONE AREA
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The Baker Street and the Marylebone area is a special part of central London with a rich history and a collection of some of London’s most beautiful streets and squares. A mixture of business, residential, educational, and cultural communities provide the components essential to a vibrant neighbourhood. The area faces challenges common to all cities, including battling the effects of climate change and increasing societal and economic inequality. The strategy sets out place-specific recommendations that work to address these challenges, while strengthening the unique identity and sense of place of the area.

The strategy was developed through extensive dialogue and engagement, led by the specialist consultant Soundings. We worked with people who live, work, and study in the area, as well as local amenity groups and representatives from Westminster City Council and Transport for London.

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ongoing gla night time work
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Publica continues to work closely with the Greater London Authority’s 24-hour London team to support London boroughs looking to develop evening and night time strategies. We were delighted to see Wandsworth become the first London borough to adopt a holistic night time strategy.

Publica also enjoyed organising and attending the inaugural London at Night Conference in January and we’ve been supporting the GLA with the management of the Night Time Enterprise Zone programme in Woolwich, Bromley and Vauxhall as local authorities test new and innovative events and programmes in high streets and town centres after 6pm. We have also been working with the GLA and Night Czar Amy Lamé organising night surgeries in Hackney, Islington, Bromley, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham and Kensington and Chelsea.

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HEART OF LONDON EVENING AND NIGHT TIME PLACEMAKING STRATEGY

In March we celebrated the launch of our Evening and Night Time Vision, Strategy and Action Plan for the Heart of London Business Alliance, marking over four years of strategic thinking and collaborative work in London’s most renowned area for culture and nightlife.

As a key part of the West End, the area and its visitors, residents and night workers are both a fundamental part of London as a 24-hour world city and a unique local ecosystem – a microcosm of the dynamism of the city’s culture, diversity, night time employment and late night activity.

We continue to work with HoLBA and its ENTE Advisory Board to build on the objectives and look forward to progressing actions in 2024.

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OPDC PLANNING GUIDANCE DOCUMENTS
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This year we have been working closely with the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation on a suite of visualisations which illustrate and communicate emerging innovative planning guidance – the Industrial Sites SPD and Public Realm and Green Infrastructure SPD. Informed by a research phase, and developed though an iterative process with our clients, we developed a highly detailed set of drawings which show different types of places, at all times of the day – articulating visions for mixed-use neighbourhoods that build on existing character and enrich the area with new civic infrastructure and translate detailed design guidance at building scale to create more inclusive and sustainable streets and spaces.

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PUBLICA CIC
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Publica’s Community Interest Company exists because we recognise the urgent need to address inequality in our public realm. It was set up as a sister organisation to Publica Associates to offer our urban design and policy expertise around issues of urban marginalisation. Our first area of focus is gender inclusive public space. Over the past year we are proud to have reached over 7000 people through our talks and events, delivered training to hundreds of built environment professionals and partnered with postgraduate research students on women’s safety on campus.

We are also delighted to have appointed a phenomenal board who are committed to supporting us in taking this work to the next level. If you would like to sponsor our work or collaborate in any way, please contact Ellie Cosgrave.

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GLA safety in public space, PHASE TWO 
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Following the publication of our design guidelines on Safety in Public Space for Women, Girls and Gender Diverse People, commissioned by The Mayor of London, we were delighted to be commissioned to test these guidelines on ten projects across the capital. To do this we trained project teams in gender inclusive design principles and supported them through a set of workshops alongside Mayor’s Design Advocates. We also learnt from pioneering projects who had already undertaken a considerable body of work on gender inclusion at their sites.

Projects included the new Museum of London development, the new Crystal Palace National Sports Centre , Kilburn Mews, Brixton Station Road, Blackhorse View and Kidbrooke Station Square. Learning from these real-life applications, and what insights and guidance helps project team the most, we have re-written the guidance which will be published in 2024.

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RIGHT TO THE STREETS
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The Right to the Streets initiative is founded on the belief that everyone has a role to play in making our streets and public spaces safer and more joyful. We worked in partnership with a local organisation in Trafford to take tangible strides for change on the issues that restrict the freedom of women, girls and gender diverse people in public space.

We conducted a literature review drawing on many years of feminist scholarship, research and action, to outline the underpinning framework for the programme. We also produced infographics, interviews and blog posts to accompany the Right to the Streets podcast, covering topics such as active lives, culture and nightlife, and public health. Finally we produced and play-tested a set of games to help anyone to explore the issues that affect women’s safety everyday.

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WALTHAMSTOW PUBLIC REALM AND LIGHTING PROJECTS
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We continued to deliver of a suite of public realm projects and lighting interventions that support the creation of a new Cultural Quarter in Walthamstow Central, and the opening of Soho Theatre. Our sustainable public realm improvements revitalised Cairo Place - including tree planting, playful seating, improved accessibility to an historic mews and a 'stage' made from a recycled marbled terrazzo. The lighting of key landmarks and integration of projections will create a theatrical environment after dark, programmed to coincide with showtimes at the new theatre.

We have been working in close collaboration with LB Waltham Forest and local communities including a community planting day to celebrate the ‘topping out’ of Cairo Place.

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publica team
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This year, Lucy Musgrave set herself the challenge of doing a cartwheel everyday to raise money for the nurses at UCLH who helped save her life. Please help and sponsor this amazing cause if you can!

We have moved! Although we are sad to say goodbye to our home overlooking the river, Hamilton House, we are very excited to move into our beautiful new space at Smithfield Market in the early new year.

We are very happy to welcome new members to our team: Inez de Rijke as Graphic Designer, Jemima Ashton-Harris as Urban Designer, Torben Lillegraven as Urban Design Assistant, and Angela Cheung and Lorna Reed, our new Studio Managers. We are also welcoming back Lou Elena Bouey as an Urban Designer after completing her studies at Cambridge University.