The Power of the Co-Design ProcessBuilding shared ownership through participation, storytelling and delivery-focused engagement

At ACT, we believe successful regenerative placemaking cannot be delivered through top-down planning alone.

Too often, public consultation is reduced to a single drop-in event or a late-stage feedback exercise when many key decisions have already been made.

Co-design offers a different approach. It creates a more open, collaborative and democratic process where local knowledge, lived experience and community aspirations help shape projects from the very beginning.

Across our work, from Town Centre First Plans and climate adaptation strategies to public realm and architectural projects, ACT use co-design to create proposals that are not only technically robust, but also socially grounded, locally informed and supported by the communities they are intended to benefit.

Our approach is structured around a simple three-stage methodology that moves from understanding a place, to imagining future possibilities, to identifying realistic pathways for delivery.

Workshop #1: Storytelling Understanding place through lived experience

Every place contains layers of memory, identity, heritage and experience that cannot be understood through technical analysis alone.

The people who live, work and spend time in a place are its true experts. The first stage of our process therefore focuses on listening. Through mapping exercises, walking audits, live surveys and conversations, we work with communities and stakeholders to understand both the opportunities and challenges facing a place.

This process often reveals social, cultural and environmental insights that conventional planning approaches can miss, helping ensure that projects reflect the identity, aspirations and everyday realities of the community.

Workshop #2: Visualising Futures Exploring future possibilities together

The second stage focuses on exploring what the future of a place could become.

Using concept ideas, visualisations, precedent studies, maps and spatial scenarios, we help communities engage with complex ideas in accessible and meaningful ways.

Rather than presenting finished proposals, visualisation becomes a tool for discussion. It allows people to react to ideas, identify priorities, discuss trade-offs and collectively shape emerging proposals.

By making ideas tangible, communities can move beyond abstract discussions and engage in practical future focused conversations about housing, biodiversity, mobility, public space, community infrastructure, resilience and everyday life.

Workshop #3: Pathways to Delivery Turning ideas into action

A common criticism of engagement is that participation ends once a vision has been created.

The final stage of our methodology focuses on implementation. Together, we identify realistic pathways, the low hanging fruit project versus long term projects, that can translate community aspirations into deliverable projects and long-term change.

By connecting ideas to funding opportunities, policy frameworks and practical delivery mechanisms, the process helps ensure that engagement leads to action rather than simply producing another report.

Importantly, this stage also creates transparency around what can realistically be achieved and how change can happen over time.

Designing more inclusive participation Alongside workshops and face-to-face engagement, ACT integrates digital tools and online engagement methods designed to make participation more transparent, accessible and inclusive.

A key part of this approach is the use of StoryMaps as live digital repositories throughout the project lifecycle. These platforms allow communities and stakeholders to view chronologically the project's development including project information, workshop video presentations, maps, workshop outputs, research findings and evolving proposals in an open and transparent format throughout the process. Rather than engagement material disappearing after workshops, StoryMaps create continuity, accountability and shared access to information.

We also use considered judgement presentations ahead of workshops and surveys. These provide participants with accessible baseline information and project context before the tailored engagement activities begin. This helps create more informed and constructive participation, allowing people to engage with a clearer understanding of the opportunities, constraints and wider context shaping a project.

Together, these tools and methods help broaden participation beyond traditional workshop attendance and ensure more people can contribute to shaping their place.

You can view one of our completed StoryMaps here.

Co-design as a foundation for long-term change

For ACT, co-design is ultimately about building trust, strengthening participation and creating shared ownership.

The combination of storytelling, future visualisation and delivery-focused engagement helps create projects that are more resilient, inclusive and grounded in place. It also helps communities, stakeholders and public bodies move beyond consultation towards genuine long term collaboration.

Because lasting change is strongest when it is collectively imagined, collectively understood and collectively owned.