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Taking Care...

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 08:21:08 GMT

...Of ourselves, each other and the world around us.

There’s a subtle shift at this time of year. More light, more time outside, and small changes that are easy to miss if we’re moving quickly, but grounding when we slow down enough to notice them. It’s also a moment where conversations around stress, creativity and the environment come into focus—different themes on the surface, but closely connected in how they shape our everyday experience.

Care isn’t always something visible or deliberate. Much of it happens quietly, through the routines we return to and the environments we move through each day. Creative practices often sit here—not as output, but as process. Drawing, writing, making or simply noticing can help us reset and regulate. The same is true of time spent outside; it doesn’t need to be significant to be meaningful. A short walk, fresh air, a shift in light—these small interactions have a cumulative effect on how we feel.

Care is also something we share. It shows up in how we relate to one another, often in informal and unstructured ways—a conversation, a gesture, a shared activity that creates space for connection without pressure. Creativity can play an important role here, offering accessible ways for people to come together, soften boundaries and feel part of something, even briefly. These moments are often simple, but they rely on a sense of openness and ease.

Across all of this, one thing becomes clear: care needs space. Space to pause, to connect, and to engage with something beyond the immediate demands of daily life. And yet, these kinds of spaces aren’t always easy to access or evenly available. When they are present—whether through access to nature, shared environments, or opportunities for creative engagement—they tend to support wellbeing in ways that are consistent and long-term, rather than reactive.

This is where our thinking continues to sit. Not in defining care as an abstract idea, but in considering how it can be more naturally supported through the places and structures that shape everyday life. When care is easier to access, it becomes part of a rhythm rather than an effort—and from there, it begins to influence how we feel, how we connect, and how we look after the world around us.

Culture, Nature, and our urban creative health…

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 09:29:08 GMT

Designing for Culture, Nature and Wellbeing.

In cities across the UK and around the world, health systems are increasingly recognising that wellbeing isn’t only created in clinics...

Arts, culture, and engagement with nature are increasingly recognised as part of how we stay well—not just individually, but collectively. Social prescribing continues to grow, with people being referred to creative activities, cultural spaces, and time outdoors to support mental health and connection. It’s a shift that feels long overdue, but there’s still a gap between what we know works, and what we’re actually building.

We KNOW that engaging with nature can reduce anxiety and depression, and that creative activity can strengthen social bonds and support mental health. However, this isn’t only about parks or formal arts venues, it’s about the everyday spaces in between:

places to sit, gather, and talk
somewhere for children to play
shared courtyards and gardens
balconies and thresholds that open up to air, daylight, and planting
spaces that invite people to pause, create or connect over a shared interest

These are the places where wellbeing happens quietly, as part of daily life.

A GAP in how we plan

Even with all the evidence, these kinds of cultural connection spaces are still often treated as optional amenities rather than essential infrastructure. Yes, it's of course encouraging to see more people acknowlegding that art and green space 'must be valued as more than 'nice-to-haves' but, in most cases, they’re still the first to shrink when budgets tighten or land becomes more valuable. And yet, they’re exactly what makes social prescribing—and the wider creative health movement—even possible in practice!

The result? The very spaces needed to deliver social prescribing and creative health outcomes are inconsistently available and the same time, we’re seeing increasing emphasis on “placemaking”—on activation, programming, and meanwhile use.

When spaces aren’t designed to support gathering, creativity, or interaction with nature or cultural from the outset, these activities become harder to deliver—and even harder to sustain.

Design first, then activate.

When places are designed with culture, nature, and wellbeing in mind from the beginning, the programming becomes easier (and cheaper!), the activation feels more natural and use is more consistent—and more meaningful. Because the space already invites it.

In that sense, placemaking works best not as a layer added later, but as something embedded in the physical and social fabric of a place.

Looking further afield

It's fantastic to see The Greater London Authority is mapping and protecting cultural infrastructure as part of city growth and looking abroad other cities are starting to move in this direction. In Singapore, the “City in Nature” approach integrates greenery into everyday urban life.

And across Paris, Melbourne and Copenhagen, we’re seeing increasing integration of public space, culture, and nature—designed for participation as much as access.

Perhaps the shift is this:

Instead of asking “How do we activate this place?”, we start by asking “How will people spend time here?”

If we begin there, we naturally create spaces that support gathering, play, creativity, and connection to life.

And from that foundation, everything else—programming, cultural activity, community use—has somewhere to grow.

Structure as support: making space for creative work to last

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 14:26:11 GMT

Structure often carries a reputation for being restrictive —

something that sits in opposition to creativity. But in practice, the absence of structure is far more likely to limit what creative work can become.

Across cultural projects, structure shows up most usefully as support. It provides clarity around roles, responsibilities, and decision-making, allowing artists, partners, and teams to focus on the work itself rather than navigating uncertainty.

For artists working in the public realm or with multiple stakeholders, structure can be the difference between a project that feels precarious and one that feels possible. Clear agreements, realistic timelines, and shared expectations create the conditions where creative thinking can develop with confidence.

In place-based contexts, structure helps cultural ambition move from intention into action. It allows programmes to be phased, partnerships to function, and ideas to be carried forward over time rather than collapsing under their own weight.

When structure is approached as something that holds work in place — rather than controls it — it becomes an enabler rather than a constraint. It creates continuity, trust, and space for collaboration.

Seen this way, structure is not the opposite of flow.
It is often what allows flow to continue.

Flow rather than Force : how cultural work builds over time

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 14:21:59 GMT

At the start of the year, there is often an expectation to reset —

to define plans, priorities, and outcomes clearly and quickly. But much of the cultural work we see gaining real momentum grows in a quieter way. It builds through threads.

Across projects and programmes, flow often emerges not from a single moment or intervention, but from a series of connected actions that gather meaning over time. What matters less is the headline activity, and more how one thing leads naturally to the next.

For artists, flow can mean being able to follow a line of enquiry without constantly stopping to reframe or justify it. When practice is allowed to develop in layers, ideas can deepen, shift, and return, rather than feeling fragmented or rushed.

In place-based work, flow is often created through layered programming, shaped collaboratively over time. Rather than one-off moments, cultural activity unfolds in phases, building familiarity and presence through repeated engagement.

This kind of flow depends on attention rather than urgency. It involves noticing what is already present, where energy is building, and how ideas can be carried forward rather than replaced.

When cultural work is supported in this way, it creates continuity — for artists, for partners, and for places themselves. Culture becomes something people recognise and return to, not just something they encounter once.

Flow, in this sense, is not about speed or efficiency.
It is about holding a line, and allowing work to unfold.

January 2026

What this year reinforced about culture, place, and practice

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 14:15:48 GMT

As the year draws to a close, attention often turns to what has been achieved.

But in our experience, it is just as useful to reflect on what has been reinforced.

Working across culture, place, and delivery brings the same lessons back into view. They tend to surface quietly and repeatedly, often through collaboration rather than celebration, and most clearly in the more complex moments of a project.

One of the strongest reminders this year has been that culture works best when it is part of the fabric of a project, shaped through partnership rather than added at the end. When cultural thinking is involved early, held consistently, and shared across teams, it creates connection almost without effort.

Another recurring theme has been the importance of translation. Artists, property teams, local authorities, and funders are often working towards the same outcome, but from different perspectives. The work that feels most successful is usually the work where time is taken to build understanding, align expectations, and support collaboration across those differences.

This year has also reinforced that not everything meaningful is immediately visible. Some of the most valuable moments are quiet ones: a conversation that builds trust between partners, a framework that gives an artist confidence, or a collective decision to pause rather than push.

As the year closes, we are carrying forward a renewed respect for clarity over complexity, relationships over rhetoric, and long-term value over short-term visibility. We are also letting go of the idea that good cultural work needs to be constantly explained or justified. Often, it simply needs to be supported well, shared openly, and allowed to unfold.