Practical toolkit launches to support integrating culture into placemaking
‘Culture in climate action: Integrating culture into 20-minute neighbourhoods’ toolkit draws on three years of cohort work by placemaking practitioners, cultural partners and policy specialists.
Culture is social infrastructure – it sustains wellbeing, shapes identity, and strengthens communities’ capacity to respond to climate and social challenges.
Despite the crucial role of culture in Scottish policy, it is often underrepresented in placemaking and planning frameworks. By failing to integrate culture, we miss out on enhancing community identity and cohesion, which can help create resilient and sustainable places.
The toolkit aims to broaden definitions to include everyday cultural life, develop tools and governance to support cultural practice in planning, and remove the barriers that limit community‑led work. These actions will strengthen community wellbeing and ensure that climate and infrastructure policies achieve lasting social outcomes.
Read ‘Culture in climate action: Integrating culture into 20-minute neighbourhoods’ toolkit
Eleanor White, Senior culture/SHIFT Officer at Culture for Climate Scotland says:
‘It’s been inspiring to convene this cohort and for our shared learnings to become an actionable toolkit for practitioners across culture, climate and placemaking, to ensure culture remains at the heart of vibrant communities.’
Pippa Cook, Architectural Assistant at Collective Architecture, says:
‘As the force that binds our communities, histories, identities and sense of belonging, culture is inextricably linked with place. In practice, it unites us through collective production and helps us understand one another through creative exchange. Culture is our social infrastructure and gives us a powerful tool to meet the challenges of the climate crisis together in a place-based way that recognises the inequities embedded in climate change.’
Lesley Anne Rose, Co-founder and Creative Director of Open Road says:
‘As an organisation that works with communities, we know the positive difference that culture makes to a place and the lives of people who live there. We’ve enjoyed working with the toolkit’s co-authors to combine on the ground experience with placemaking and planning expertise to create a resource that can be applied across sectors.’
To celebrate the launch of the toolkit, join us on 3 September, 5.30pm-7.30pm at Collective Architecture’s studio in Glasgow. The event will include a panel discussion exploring the essential role of culture in climate resilient placemaking. Register your space via Ticket Tailor.
Contact Eleanor White if you would like more information about the toolkit or the event: [email protected].
About the toolkit authors
Eleanor White is the Senior culture/SHIFT Officer at Culture for Climate Scotland, where she leads place-based work across SPRINGBOARD local assemblies for regional creative climate action, and embedded artist projects for community-led climate action.
Rebecca Dillon‑Robinson is Principal Urban Planner and Neighbourhoods & Communities Lead in Ramboll’s Regenerative Cities team, specialising in place‑based practice, stakeholder engagement and the 20‑minute neighbourhood concept.
Kate Wimpress is the Director of North Edinburgh Arts. The organisation is active in the local regeneration process, completing a Community Asset Transfer from the City of Edinburgh Council in 2022.
Pippa Cook is part of Collective Architecture’s Strategy team, specialising in community engagement and strategic planning. Collective Architecture is a 100% employee-owned studio, founded 25 years ago on principles of creative freedom, equity and sustainability.
Lesley Anne Rose is a Creative Producer, Writer and Co-Founder of Open Road, a company that unites her experience in senior cultural leadership, passion for stories about people and place, and commitment to the contribution that culture can make in creating a fairer, better world.
Photo credit: Becky Duncan/Open Aye
