Inclusive Cities: Shaped by Everyone

Thank you to everyone who joined us — both in person in London and as part of our global online audience — for a powerful evening of conversation, insight and inspiration.

We heard from three brilliant speakers, each offering a different lens on inclusion in the built environment:

• Neil Pinder focused on ‘voices before vision’, emphasising the importance of listening to the indigenous people of a place before shaping its future.
• Jennie Savage reminded us that listening to women and girls means more than just designing for safety, without diminishing how vital that is.
• Konstantina Chrysostomou brought a grounded, technical perspective on co-creation in public space.

Together, they challenged us to rethink how we design, by listening, collaborating, and shaping spaces with communities rather than for them.

🎥 Watch the event recordings

💛 With thanks to:

• SOM for generously hosting the event in their London offices
• Dark Falcon Productions for their seamless livestreaming
• Caroline Cole for chairing
• And to all of our speakers for sharing practical, thoughtful and inspiring work

This event was part of our work on the DivAirCity project — exploring how cities can be made more inclusive, sustainable, and citizen-led.

A reminder of who was on the panel:

Neil Pinder

Neil is a passionate advocate for architectural education and diversity in the built environment. As Head of Architecture at Graveney School in South London, he has been a trailblazer in bringing architecture into the school curriculum—helping students see design as a tool for change, expression, and equity. Over the past 25+ years, Neil has inspired thousands of young people, many from underrepresented backgrounds, to engage with the built environment and consider careers in architecture and design. His students have gone on to win major competitions, including the Design Future London 2024 awards. Neil is also the founder of Celebrating Architecture and HomeGrown Plus, initiatives that champion inclusive architectural education and support young people from diverse communities to enter and thrive in the profession.

Jennie Savage

Jennie is an urbanist, creative thinker and social researcher specialising in human-centred design and place shaping. Her work explores how people shape places—and how places shape people—by grounding big-picture strategies in the lived realities of communities. She leads projects that span co-produced spatial strategies, vision documents, and inclusive design guidance. Key works include This is for the Majority, a gender-inclusive design guide co-created with women and girls in Tower Hamlets, and Future Stories, a placemaking project reimagining town centres in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, UK. Jennie is known for her sensitive, solution-driven approach, her ability to hold space for complexity, and her skill in building consensus. She is a Public Practice alumna and an Royal Town Planning Institute Woman of Influence.

Konstantina Chrysostomou

Konstantina is a social architect and worker-member of Estel Cooperative, where she leads projects at the intersection of public space design, civic cooperation, and gender-inclusive planning. With over a decade of experience, she focuses on creating cooperative urban processes that connect institutions and communities, and empower underrepresented groups—especially youth and women. Her work spans urban regeneration, public space transformation, and inclusive planning, always grounded in care-centered governance and intersectional justice. She has co-authored manuals on gender-equal cities and led numerous participatory processes across Europe. For Konstantina, architecture is a tool for dialogue, listening, and collective agency—helping communities shape cities that reflect their needs and values.