Neighbourhoods of the Future

07/10/2025 55 min Temporada 4 Episodio 6
Neighbourhoods of the Future

Listen "Neighbourhoods of the Future"

Episode Synopsis

In this episode Tom interviews Charlie Edmonds from Civic Square, an organisation demonstrating neighbourhood-scale civic infrastructure for social, ecological, economic, and climate transition.
Together Tom and Charlie discuss the gap between the idealistic vision of architecture students are taught at university vs the profit driven private practice they work in. Charlie outlines his own journey from architect to Mission Co-Lead for Neighbourhood transitions.
Charlie outlines the three demonstrators Civic Square are building:

Neighbourhood Doughnut 
Neighbourhood Transitions 
Neighbourhood Public Square

The conversation across this episode tells a really important story: neighbourhood buy-in and co-design are essential for navigating climate change. 
Head to Civic Square’s website to see what projects they are working on: https://civicsquare.cc/
Attend free events hosted by Civic Square: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/civic-square-30350377814 
Read Civic Square and Dark Matter Lab’s report into the impact that rising temperatures will have on urban settings in the UK over the next 100 years: https://medium.com/neighbourhood-public-square/3%C2%BAc-neighbourhood-582903b050b2
Read Civic Square and Dark Matter Lab’s chapter on Endowing the Future: https://medium.com/neighbourhood-public-square/endowing-the-future-65041b0f88cd 
Civic Square’s work is based around Dan Hill’s Designing Missions: https://shorturl.at/uFcSO 
Civic Square’s Doughnut Demonstrator is based off Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics: https://www.waterstones.com/book/doughnut-economics/kate-raworth/9781847941398 
The Danish project Doughnut for Economic Development: https://www.effekt.dk/doughnut-for-urban-development 
You can follow Tom’s work via his Substack: https://tomspare.substack.com/
Keep up to date with Spare a Thought via Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spareathoughtmedia/
You can listen to all previous episodes of the show wherever you get your podcasts or head to https://spareathought.podbean.com/.
Spare a Thought is a Be the change. Media Network production.