1. DESIS UK: Case studies
Leeds Love It Share It CIC
Margins Within the City project
Katie Jane Hill
September 2013

2. Margins within the city
Pilot for new regeneration methodology
more on: loveitshareit.org.uk
Organisation: Leeds Love It Share It CIC
Including BLA Architects, Permaculture Association, Leeds
Metropolitan University Design Department, Leeds
University School of Geography, Media and Arts
Partnership
Funders: Yorkshire Forward, Local Enterprise Growth
Initiative
Place: Leeds, West Yorkshire
Keywords: neighbourhoods, local resource valorization

3. Inner city neighbourhoods, in the ‘rim’, identified as deprived and
problematic, needed new ways to identify and understand
resources and possibilities for positive change in the context of
triple crunch – climate, economic and energy crises. Redesigning
how we do ‘regeneration’.

4. Creative research methodology produced:
•Report used by local activists and local authority
•Mapping that visualised new understandings of the area
•Images and stories of people, places and organisations
•Toolkit for undertaking resource mapping

5. 7 Leeds based professionals concerned about the strategic
direction of the city
Combined design, architecture, public art, permaculture design
and geography
Devised a project and approached funders, with the aim of
engaging local activists and authorities in re-thinking approaches
to disadvantaged neighbourhoods in the context of climate change

6. Attributes of actors:
Commitment to locality
Activist – reaction to city branding
Flexible employment / mixed economy
Organisational resources – staff, space, students
Professional profile
Shared design thinking

7. Process was to collect information on the themes of skills, resources
and spaces, lots of time was spent talking, planning, developing the
process as this was the main ‘output’

8. We had learning days where the project team, other organisations,
participants and the public joined in reflecting and planning through
drawing,

9. We worked with photographers and a story teller to collect individual
stories about life in the neighbourhood

10. The Role of Design was evident in the way of conceptualising the
process and in imagining the possibilities of resources rather than
focussing on what was missing. Visualisation was a key tool that
made the messages different and powerful.

11. Project output and impact:
•Report used by local activists and local authority
•Maps that visualised issues within the area
•Images and stories of people and organisations
•Toolkit for undertaking resource mapping
•Set of relationships and networks
Follow on:
Supporting local activists
working with local authority
producing community engagement tool
Connected Communities work

12. Legacy:
Evaluation during process but not after
Tangible and intangible outputs – report and relationships
Benefits sustained through presence in the city and people
Project and benefits transferable:
The aim was to design a transferrable methodology but on
reflection what I think is most transferrable is the message that
designers can find ways to address the problems of their own
neighbourhoods. In the context of the triple crunch everywhere
is in crisis, it’s no longer just about deprived or problematised
neighbourhoods, all neighbourhoods need to rethink how they
develop to become more sustainable.

13. Successes and Shortcomings/ Barriers and Enablers
Strength: Started conversations, stirred debate, connected people
Weakness: Dissemination and communication was difficult
Barriers: Time, speed, openness of authority, closure of funder
Enablers: open brief for funding, commitment to context, sharing of
practice, part of long term practices in the city