CPD Civic Design

Applications for 2024 are now open.

New dates for the Civic Design CPD 2024:

Part 1 (10 week Online Course): Monday 8th January to Friday 22nd March
Part 2 (4 Day Face-to-Face Workshop): Wednesday 24th April to Saturday 27th April

About the course

This is a blended course for planners, urban designers and architects working in practice, consultancy, as freelancers, or in local authorities. The course is ideal for those involved in co-design processes and community engagement.

Civic engagement is now considered to be a key process in urban design and planning practice. For avoiding ‘box-ticking’ engagement processes that do not genuinely involve communities in decision making, it is essential to learn and experience how to work in collaboration with communities.

Delivered in collaboration with community groups across London, the UCL Civic Design CPD course will:

Equip participants with methods and tools to run co-design processes, enable civic engagement and involve communities in decision-making.
Expose participants to the direct experience of working in collaboration with community groups.

During the course you will undertake a group project together with a London community group. The brief for the course will be previously agreed with the community groups and it will address some of the current needs of the community. The project is guided by tutors from the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL and offers you the opportunity to learn through direct experience of including communities in the decision-making process.

This course is delivered in collaboration with CivicWise (http://civicwise.org), an international community of professionals working on tools and projects for civic engagement. The course will provide participants the opportunity to connect with this network of professionals.

Course dates

The course is now live for new registrations. You can find all the details and book your place below.

The full course fee is £595, and there is a 20% discount if you register by 31^st October using the code earlybird20 (enter this code into the ‘voucher’ box at the checkout).

A 30% discount is available to UCL students and alumni who register by 31^st October. If you have previously studied at UCL, please email pablo.sendra@ucl.ac.uk with the details (your course and year) to receive a code to access the discount.

Apply now

Who should apply?

Planners and urban designers working for local authorities who wish to develop their skills on community engagement.
Urban designers, architects and planners working in practice, private consultancies, or as freelancers who want to learn and experience methods for running co-design processes and other forms of community engagement and co-production with communities.
Students of architecture, planning and urban design who want to develop applicable skills for their prospective careers on how to better work in collaboration with communities.

How will this course affect my career?

For planners / urban designers working in local authorities: the course will equip you with the skills to work in a role that requires engagement and collaboration with communities in your local authority.
For urban designers, architects and planners working in practice and consultancy: the course will equip you with the skills to run co-design processes with community groups.
Add this course to your RTPI CPD record.

Certificate and Assessment

The assessment will consist of a final report to be submitted through the UCLeXtend platform. The report will address the brief previously agreed with community groups. They will be assessed according to:

Quality and rigour of the analysis.
Capacity of collaboration with community groups and responding to the brief.
Originality of the proposals/outcomes.

You will receive a certificate of attendance after completing the course and the final assessment. This certificate will accredit the skills acquired in the course and can be used to demonstrate Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

Fees and discounts

Early bird registrations (Until the 31^st of October):

20% discount: £476 (use discount code earlybird20)
30% discount (£416.50) for UCL students and alumni (email pablo.sendra@ucl.ac.uk to request a 30% discount code)

After 31^st of October:

Full price £595.
20% discount (£476) for UCL students and alumni (email pablo.sendra@ucl.ac.uk to request a 20% discount code).

More information

Browse the sections below for more detailed course information

Structure

The course has two parts. The first part is a ten-week online course with weekly pre-recorded lectures and live discussions. The second part is a four-day intensive face-to-face workshop, based in London, and delivered in collaboration with a community group. For the online course, you are expected to watch approximately one hour of pre-recorded lecture content and participate in a one-hour long live discussion per week. For the four-day intensive workshop, you are expected to coming morning and afternoon, so you should take these days off work.

Content

Introdution to civic design
Participatory Action Research Methods
Protocols for working with community groups and ethics
Tools for collaborative mapping
Running a co-design process
Civic Design Method
Introduction to CivicWise

Intensive workshop:

Guided visits with community representatives
Practice-based collaborative work with community groups

Learning outcomes

During this course you will:

Learn innovative methods and practical tools to run co-design processes, enable civic engagement and work in collaboration with community groups;
Learn analytical methods to co-produce knowledge and data collection with community-groups; Learn tools for collaborative mapping;
Train to foster a more inclusive approach to civic engagement; Understand key concepts of collaborative urbanism and the relevance of community engagement in planning and urban design;
Develop skills to work collaboratively with peers, including professionals from different disciplines;
Engage with a hybrid digital and physical learning environment, which brings opportunities for collaborative projects.

Staff

Course coordinator:

Course coordinator:

Dr Pablo Sendra is Associate Professor in Planning and Urban Design and Director of the Urban Design & City Planning MSc programme at The Bartlett School of Planning, UCL. He teaches at the MSc in Urban Design and City Planning. He combines his academic career with professional practice in urban design. He is co-founder of the urban design practice Lugadero, which works in collaborative processes for designing public spaces. With Lugadero, he has run a co-design process for designing public spaces in Wimbledon, London. He has been involved in CivicWise since its foundation and co-editor (with Maria J Pita and CivicWise) of the book Civic Practices. He is also co-author (with Richard Sennett) of Designing Disorder and co-author (with Daniel Fitzpatrick) of Community-Led Regeneration.

Other contributors:

Domenico Di Siena (CivicWise) is an architect, civic designer and researcher. He designs and develops processes and tools to help local authorities, organizations and universities to collaborate with citizens for the common good. He promotes a culture of collaboration with the use of new technologies for Situated Collective Intelligence processes, where citizens (re) become protagonists of the actions that determine the identity and character of the territory they inhabit. Domenico is the instigator of CivicWise, a distributed and open community that empowers citizens by fostering collaborative urbanism, promoting civic innovation and inspiring better civic engagement.