The first of a series of ‘Urban Room Roadshow Workshops’ was successfully hosted by KSAP and Medway Council. The workshop was designed and led by Urban Room Network Directors, Carolyn Butterworth and Diane Dever.
The workshop was held at the Command House in Chatham and facilitated a collective brainstorm to set out a roadmap for setting up an Urban Room for Medway, considering the potential location(s), partners, participants, activities and funding opportunities.
We had an excellent attendance from new Medway Councillors and local leaders across Medway Council, University of Kent and local businesses and not-for-profit organisations. The outcomes were fascinating and it was clear how much dialogue is already taking place in relation to the future of Medway and placemaking objectives, and that a bottom-up approach to Urban Room programming that builds on existing networks and platforms, and branches out into existing community facilities is crucial.But equally, it was clear that establishing an Urban Room as a central ‘hub’ repository for public participation in placemaking, with a dedicated lead, could help better support and coordinate these activities already underway. Most importantly, the Urban Room could help to address the need for widening participation in these debates, and allow a greater focus on ‘impact’; thereby ensuring the outputs of all these dialogues are made visible, and can actively feed into local policy and design proposals.
Many thanks to everyone who attended last Thursday, and for generously dedicating their time to this important project. And a special thanks to Carolyn Butterworth, Kristie McReavey and Diane Dever for running such an excellent event!
Keep updated with the progress of the Urban Room Roadshow Workshops on the Intra Chatam website