Making places: Working with people and their high streets

Join us at Making places: Working with people and their high streets to explore town centre regeneration with Studio resident Alicja Borkowska from YOU&ME Architecture.

Alicja is an architect and co-founder at YOU&ME Architecture, a multi-disciplinary architecture practice based in Bath and Athens. They specialise in high street regeneration and public realm place-making, community buildings and heritage projects.

This talk will present case studies at different scales to illustrate how we work within town centres. This will include live project Filwood Community Centre in Knowle West, our work in Luton’s Hat District Cultural Quarter — re-modelling listed hat factories into a new community hub and workspace — and our high street work in Thornton Heath, London.

“Our portfolio includes Heritage Action Zone High Street projects, delivering over 150 shopfronts, artworks, and landscape improvements in London and SW (including recent work in Yeovil, Midsomer Norton, and Keynsham); our colourful ‘Living Room’ pavilion outside the new British Council offices in Stratford London; and ‘Urban Beach’ public art commission for English Heritage and the National Trust.

For us it is about the interface of these scales and how architecture, art and public space can be stitched together to create animated and loved places. We have a strong interest in heritage-led regeneration and the process in which urban environments can enhance their local identity and sense of place through community participation. Consultation and co-design is key to our approach. For us it is all about this collaborative process, the way we work with each other and everyone involved in any one project.  YOU&ME: YOU&US.”

February 11th 2025. 1pm – 2pm. The Studio. 10 Palace Yard Mews.