The City at Eye Level & Placemaking Training 2025 – London

Join us in June for the City at Eye Level & Placemaking Training, and learn about a human-scale centred approach to urban development, places for people, co-creation with communities, social life, and great public spaces.

The three-day training takes place in London, June 25-27, 2025. To fully benefit from the in-person sessions, participants are required (or prompted) to complete over 10 online training videos at their own pace before attending.

The training is meant for professionals in urban planning, urban development, urban regeneration, public space, street management, co-creation and community building; planners, designers, developers, civic leaders, municipalities, project managers, community builders, BID managers.

In this training you:

• Deepen your theoretical insights in:
  • the “software”: how to create vibrant places with social life and social quality; how people experience place; urban psychology and urban anthropology.
  • the “hardware”: the city at eye level and placemaking criteria; human-scale development; public spaces at the heart of urban transformation and densification.
  • the “orgware”: how to work on systemic change in co-creation with tactical urbanism; combining long-term vision with short-term action; place management and Business Improvement Districts (BIDs); new funding mechanisms.
• Work on systemic transitions towards healthy urban environments, social quality, green & safe neighbourhoods, densification and transformation with human-scale equity and new mobility.
• Learn to implement practical step-by-step tools from our toolbox.
• Engage in interactive workshops where you can bring in your own cases.
• Visit exciting sites of best practice in London with local guest speakers.

The training is hosted by STIPO, team for better cities and sustainable growth, initiator of The City at Eye Level books and knowledge programme and co-founder of Placemaking Europe. We collaborate internationally with PlacemakingX and Placemaking Europe, and locally with Opportunity Kensington BID, The London Festival of Architecture and Place Collective UK. As part of the Festival, Opportunity Kensington will temporarily close Phillimore Walk to traffic, activate it for pedestrians and invite participants to visit during the training.

Alongside this, Place Collective UK will run a field trip to the area and a social event for other placemakers across their network.

For more information contact us at dimitra.zouni@stipo.nl 

“The weekend after the training I visited Haarlem and found myself observing with completely different eyes. Why do I like this street so much? What makes me feel welcome? All of a sudden I’m analyzing much more.”
— Anh, project manager at the City of Almere

Cities worldwide face challenges to improve the quality of urban development and public spaces. How do we create great streets and places where people want to be, where people can live a healthy lifestyle? How do we create green areas with great social and economic quality, diversity and equity, mixed in use and at human scale? How do we co-create the environment together with local communities?

ELEMENTS IN THE TRAINING

• The City at Eye Level: Creating human-scale streets with interaction between buildings and streets. Learn about the criteria for better streets and the mechanisms for creating great and active ground floors.
• Placemaking: Transform public spaces into engaging social meeting places where people feel at home.
• Placemaking as Part of a Larger, Long-Term Approach: The journey from Placemaking to Place-Led Development and Place Management. What is the business case for placemaking to drive systemic change?
• How to co-create, engaging the community in the design of public space in an inclusive and sustainable manner.
• Learning by Doing: Hands-on tools such as the Eye Level Game, the Place Game, the Anchors of Life method and urban anthropology; tools to study public life and analyse the quality of a place; tools to co-create with the local community and tools to measure impact. We will apply the tools to local cases in London.
• Knowledge Exchange: Plenty of space for knowledge exchange. Apply your own experience to practical examples and the challenges you encounter in your work.
• Site Visits & Local Guest Speakers: Experience London’s public spaces and hear from local experts.
• Online Videos: Before the three-day training, access 10+ online videos covering essential theory and then conduct online exercises. This approach allows participants to dive straight into applying the theory during the training, maximising the value and the practical learning experience.
• Networking and Relaxation: Get to know your fellow participants, inspire each other and become part of the City at Eye Level and Placemaking community. Enjoy good food & drink and have fun together.

LEARN FROM

The founding partners of STIPO: Hans Karssenberg and Vivian Doumpa. Through our global network of partners we help cities develop strategies for a better City at Eye Level. 

For this training we are proud to collaborate with:

• Opportunity Kensington BID
• The Association of Town and City Management (ATCM)
• New London Architecture (NLA)
• Place Collective UK (PCUK)
• Placemaking Europe
• PlacemakingX

These networks bring you innovative expertise in city and street management, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and in place and placemaking.

Kensington High Street and Phillimore Walk will be cases, with Opportunity Kensington BID

STIPO works on better, more inclusive and more sustainable cities. We shaped our approach by studying the characteristics of areas that last. We are value-driven and our vision is summarised in six core values: long lasting quality, soul of the place, public quality, mixed use, mental ownership by the users and human scale. We have existed for 30+ years and are based in Amsterdam, Athens and Milan. We are the leading training centre for the City at Eye Level and placemaking in Europe.
https://stipo.nl/core-values/?lang=en
https://thecityateyelevel.com/ 

Among STIPO’s core partners are Placemaking Europe and the global network PlacemakingX. We have a wide range of local partners with whom we collaborate for locally-rooted knowledge and networks.

Placemaking Europe is the European network that connects practitioners, academics, community leaders, market players and policy makers across the field of placemaking; a network of front-runners, who together accelerate placemaking as a way to create healthy, inclusive, and beloved communities. To make the spaces we live into places we love. The network has 14,000 participants throughout Europe. placemaking-europe.eu

PlacemakingX is a global cooperative network of placemaking thought leaders, public space activists, regional network leaders, and professionals from all over the world, currently formed by 100+ leaders and 1,500+ advocates from 85+ countries around the world. It builds a collective impact network to amplify and accelerate the placemaking movement globally, and locally. https://www.placemakingx.org/ 

Opportunity Kensington BID provides services and initiatives that support and improve the area centred around Kensington High Street. The BID’s vision is to ‘Bring the Fun Back’ by creating a shared vision for Kensington that celebrates, connects and supports its businesses, its people and places. Business Improvement Districts (BID) are not-for-profit partnerships that allow local businesses to invest together into their local area. There are now around 70 in London and over 300 across the UK.
www.opportunitykensington.co.uk 

Association for Centre and Town Management (ATCM) is a not-for-profit membership organisation, one of the largest dedicated to promoting the vitality and viability of urban centres across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. This includes nearly 500 practitioners and partnerships. The  members develop and implement shared visions, strategies and action plans for hundreds of district, town and city centres. www.atcm.org/ 

New London Architecture (NLA) is London’s built environment community, a cross-sector membership organisation for everyone committed to shaping a better city. The 30,000+ members work across all aspects of city governance, planning, design, development, and management, spanning public and private sectors. The New London Agenda is the best practice framework for city-making, forming new ideas and partnerships, enhancing lifelong skills, and empowering a more diverse workforce.
nla.london

Place Collective UK (PCUK) is a free, volunteer-run network providing a safe space for sharing and discussion. Grown out of a group of urban environment specialists and placemakers, wanting to build a network of people which could explore changing places across the UK, consider collaborative work models and share best practice, the network has grown to 1,600 members from across the country. PCUK is a not for profit volunteer ran group, offering free memberships, making the Collective accessible to everyone.
www.placemaking.org.uk 

“During the training I developed a more holistic view on how you can connect city, neighbourhood and street. Not just as a collection of buildings and residents, but as one living system.” — Lieke, Social entrepreneur in Rotterdam

FOR WHO

• Professionals in urban planning, urban development and urban regeneration
• Experts working on improving streets, squares and parks in cities
• Civic leaders engaged in placemaking and community-driven approaches
• Politicians looking to enhance public space
• Entrepreneurs, real estate owners and developers
• Young professionals aiming to develop their skills in placemaking

WE OFFER

• The three-day training in London (“learning by doing”) including three lunches
• Site visits to see best practice examples in London, accompanied  by local experts
• Three months access online videos and exercises: Why placemaking?, How Did We Lose Sense of Place?, The City at Eye Level, Human Scale Development – Placemaking Practice Tools, Software: Social Life, Uses and Activities, Hardware: Human Scale Design, Orgware: Long-term Co-creation & Short-term Action.
• Access to all our open source resources, including a hard copy of The City at Eye Level book, background materials and the toolbox from The City at Eye Level, Placemaking Europe, Project for Public Spaces, and STIPO
• Membership to the international City at Eye Level community.

TRAINING LOCATION

The training will take place at the Holland Park Ecology Centre, a purpose-built base for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Ecology Service. The centre is an invaluable environmental education resource for schools and residents to enjoy and learn about the natural environment. The centre also provides a unique space for our training.
www.rbkc.gov.uk/environment/holland-park-ecology-centre/holland-park-ecology-centre

Address of the training venue:
Holland Park Ecology Centre
Holland Park
Ilchester Place
W8 6LU
London

PRICE

Fee includes lectures, book, materials, lunches and closing drinks (on the last day):

• £ 1,200 *: freelancers covering their own costs, non-profits and smaller organisations up to 5 employees.
• £ 1,400 *: organisations of more than 5 employees.
• Reduced prices of £ 990 apply for members of Opportunity Kensington, ATCM, NLA and PCUK. Please ask us for a code.

* Prices exclude Eventbrite registration fee. Does your organization need an invoice? Please contact us.

Please, check also the Eventbrite for our Refund & Cancellation policy.

SIGN UP NOW!

Register at our Eventbrite page or request an invoice for your organisation by sending an email to: dimitra.zouni@stipo.nl. Doubt whether you qualify? Or would you like to apply for a partner network reduction code? Please send us an email.

TRAINING BROCHURE

Want to share this opportunity? Feel free to download and share with your network the brochure of the training. 

ORGANISED BY

STIPO. Find more info: www.stipo.nl. In collaboration with PlacemakingX, Placemaking Europe, Opportunity Kensington, Association for Town and Centre Management, New London Architecture and Place Collective UK.