Stephanie Edwards: 0:00

I'm the co-founder of Urban Symbiotics. People make places and we really just want to make sure they're right at the forefront of everything that we do. I guess if I look back to myself at, say, 17 years old, doing A-levels in biology, art and psychology, I mean it makes sense now. But If you don't see people that look like you or there is that kind of trodden path ahead of you, it's quite hard to see a trajectory. What really appealed to me was this understanding of how space can really affect your emotions. You might not always like you, and that's fine. Our hope for our business is to actually just make a real meaningful change and a big impact that goes beyond, probably, the work that we're doing. If I've gone against my gut, something bad has generally happened. It's not just a building that makes a community or a space or a neighbourhood. It's about how it works together. It isn't always about net profitability instantly, but Hello and welcome to the Thriving Construction podcast.

Darren Evans: 0:56

Today my guest, stephanie Edwards, has joined us. Stephanie, welcome, thanks for coming, thank you Thanks for having me. I'm excited to catch up with you. We've met quite a few times over the years and I remember the first time we met being very impressed with your perspective and the journey you've been on. So really looking forward to delve in a little bit deeper into things today and get into know you a bit better.

Stephanie Edwards: 1:24

Yeah, same, we had a really good time. So, yeah, looking forward to the podcast moving forward.

Darren Evans: 1:30

Good, good. Can you, for everyone else's benefit, just go through what it is that you do? You're a founder of an architects firm, but talk a little bit about what you do and what your firm is all about.

Stephanie Edwards: 1:42

Yeah, sure, so I'm the co-founder of Urban Symbiotics and so I'm an architect and urban designer, but Urban Symbiotics is very much a pairing of myself as an architect and urban designer and James Stewart, the other co-founder, who's a product designer, and so we're really looking at how you can take a product design approach to the built environment, and what I mean by that is how we can really make it user-focused, how we can work directly with the end user, with communities, with residents the people that are really using buildings and spaces in a way that's really meaningful but can also lead to innovation. So we're very much focused on community-focused design from architecture, urban design and the built environment at all different scales.

Darren Evans: 2:35

I love that Great concept. Who came up with that idea? I know you said that you're a co-founder and I don't want you to get in trouble with your other co-founder, but where did that concept come from?

Stephanie Edwards: 2:45

It was very much, I guess, a pairing between us, both coming from very different perspectives. James, being a product designer, developing products are always focused on what does the end user need from focus group, paid focus groups, demographically represented and representative, really helping to shape products or at least form the bruce. And so we'd speak over the years about design and architecture and homes and high streets and why we don't take the same approach. It seems sensible, actually, why don't we see how it's working or how aspects aren't working, and work directly with the people who are the most important in these spaces? So we came up with also urban symbiotics, as the name is. There is this symbiotic relationship between what a client might need, what a user might need, and also there's a real sweet spot in the middle about that, whether that's from economic value to social value and just interesting and more innovative and fun and inclusive, meaningful, I mean. I can add loads of adjectives and vowels in this.

Darren Evans: 3:59

You want to roll? I think we add adjectives. That comes out your mouth. The smile just gets bigger.

Stephanie Edwards: 4:05

Exactly Just better places right. It's people make places, and we really just want to make sure they're right at the forefront of everything that we do. So, whether that's through co-design, co-creation or even co-formulating briefs at the get-go, we're very much focused on getting all voices involved right at the beginning and throughout projects.

Darren Evans: 4:27

There are lots of people that I've spoken to in the industry that have been in the industry for a long time but I don't think really fully understand what the architect does and where everything all starts out, and the things that you've said. I can see and hear people nodding, saying that sounds really, really good, but then there's this thing in the back of their mind that says but what does it actually look like and where does it start?

Stephanie Edwards: 4:52

Yes, it's interesting actually, I guess, as an architect and urban designer, we are traditionally a generally given briefs from the client this is your site, this is what we want to add to the site, whether it's like residential or mixed use, or looking at the mountain of open space. And then you use that brief and you really start to look at concepts and start to look at I need this amount of open space, or, if it's depending on a building, how many units, how many residential units or commercial floor space, and you start to look at that from a very creative perspective, how you can start to look at form making shifting, the way that buildings might interact with each other or open spaces are linked from an urban design perspective very much, looking at how buildings and uses come together and how people inhabit both these public spaces and built spaces. And interestingly, I guess from us, from Urban Symbiotics, we want to go a bit further by really starting to delve into what that brief is. So, before we get that, as designers, how can we start to inform Well, you have this high street that might be failing. How can we start to look at a brief for this that actually works? How can we look at doing our research, essentially with looking at desktop research, but also interviewing, understanding from people how they use it, what's working, what isn't, and starting to build that brief.

Stephanie Edwards: 6:24

Because from us at Urban Symbiotics, also from this product perspective, we realize it's not just about the physical, which of course architects and urban designers are focused on, but it's about the social. What do you also need to add to that brief? How can you create spaces of connection? How can you also add maybe a layer of the digital or services to that? How can you start to look at the ingredients that really make a place? And so we start to look at OK, what are the priorities, what are needed, what's needed as part of this to create a successful place, whether that's a building, a neighborhood, a high street and then we work with that and do the creative process. So we do a lot of work with the brief formulation in the first place and then go through that kind of concept, building that co-design, working with people about, you know, actually finding solutions to some of the issues that we commonly have and throughout the industry and, as you may know, as for your work too, that's great and I think that that approach it just sounds to me extremely refreshing.

Darren Evans: 7:25

It's not a common approach for architects to take that type of brief from a client. At least in the experience that I've got in my consultancy, it's rare to see that happen Not incredibly rare that you never see it but it's not common.

Stephanie Edwards: 7:42

Yeah, no, we really enjoy it. I think it's the most exciting part actually.

Darren Evans: 7:46

That's great. How did you get to this place where you have thought that broadly? That contact with your co-founder when did that start? Where did that relationship with him? And those ideas flying around, when did that get going?

Stephanie Edwards: 8:06

Do you want me to start in the recent history or from the beginning, about how I got into what?

Darren Evans: 8:12

Yeah, Always go from the beginning.

Stephanie Edwards: 8:14

From the beginning. Ok, let's start from the beginning.

Stephanie Edwards: 8:16

Tell the story Once upon a time, once upon a time, young girl from Enfield no, yeah, interestingly, if we were to go back to, I guess, if I look back to myself at, say, 17 years old doing A-levels in biology, art and psychology, I mean it makes sense now, but at the time everyone was like, what random subjects? What would you like to do at university, who knows? So I always wanted to do something creative and I had the psychology in there as well. I did English literature too. So it's about narrative, about biology, about art, trying to mix things that aren't usually mixed.

Darren Evans: 9:04

And what did your parents say about that?

Stephanie Edwards: 9:06

I think they were fine with that. I definitely come from a really encouraging family. My dad is an engineer civil engineer my mum is an accountant, and so they were very much happy for me to follow my passion Very good yeah of doing what I really like to do, except from when I wanted to study art. That's what you think right.

Darren Evans: 9:29

Whenever I speak to anyone, you bring in the word art or music Parents I'm generalising here but they're genuinely like oh, come on, you don't really have a backup. You know, do you really want to do that? You're not really going to make a career out of doing something art-led.

Stephanie Edwards: 9:45

Yeah, and I think it's a real worry Because if you don't see people that look like you or there is that kind of trodden path ahead of you, it's quite hard to see a trajectory. So my mum being an accountant, it's very clear how you make your money and she was very worried when I decided so after A-Levels, I decided to do an art foundation, you know, to decide what type of art I'd like to do. My mum was very worried and my dad, on the other hand, was like you do what you need to do, enjoy it. It's a good balance. It's a good balance. So my mum was always like, please become an architect if you like art. And I was like, oh never. But yes.

Stephanie Edwards: 10:29

So I actually studied at Central St Martin's to do an art foundation for a year and by the end of it I was introduced to spatial design and so I was like what's that? And it had some great tutors actually and it was very. What really appealed to me was this understanding of how space can really affect your emotions, like how it can be spoke about the still or the quiet before the storm, and how you can create that in an installation or into space. I was very much focused on how spaces can interact with people, with their emotions, their feeling, and how we all navigate and create spaces around us, places that we feel comfortable, veer away from discomfort or places that are unsafe. So, you know, we navigate this generally ourselves. But I thought, oh, what a beautiful place to be or profession to follow where you can start to navigate that.

Stephanie Edwards: 11:29

And so I then applied to the architecture association School of Architecture, which is an amazing university and private university, and so I applied there and was lucky enough to get a scholarship. So I managed to gain a scholarship from the Stephen Lawrence Foundation, so I am very indebted to Baroness Lawrence for that. I would definitely not be able to afford 14,000 pounds a year to study, so I always yeah, very, very honored to have been able and privileged to have been able to study there. But it was just incredible, it was great. I was there for five years. Brilliant practice actually really focused on working with communities there and working on how we could shape master planning and high streets, and we called it direct action about how you can move things in the built environment to affect changes, whether that affects planning or neighborhood rules or architecture. And then after that I worked at OMA, so it's the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Holland under Rem Koolhouse, which was just under 20 years ago now.

Darren Evans: 12:41

And you lived and worked in Holland.

Stephanie Edwards: 12:42

Yeah, so I was there in Rotterdam. That was amazing. I was doing the boom time, you know, where we were just producing master plans and nothing had a budget. We didn't realize like the great space we were in until, obviously, the crash, but it was a really good time to be working and creating. That was in 2007.

Darren Evans: 13:03

Okay, so just before the crash, have you been to Holland before?

Stephanie Edwards: 13:08

No, I went for the interview.

Darren Evans: 13:10

And you're Dutch? Or did you just speak to everybody in English and you made it around?

Stephanie Edwards: 13:15

It's a very international office. We worked a lot. We worked a lot. Yeah, we had a lot of people who were from America and from Italy, Germany, France, I mean. Actually it's probably a limited amount of Dutch employees that were there. To be honest, the common language was English.

Darren Evans: 13:32

Yeah, it was, it's a shame, isn't it? It looks like you just say yeah, and I learned Dutch in a few months and came away speaking fluent Dutch after two years.

Stephanie Edwards: 13:45

Yeah, yeah, in another world of life.

Darren Evans: 13:51

It's a shame. It's a point where you were just involved in these great projects. Money wasn't an issue.

Stephanie Edwards: 13:57

Yeah, incredibly. And so we were creating master plans from scratch. We were looking at the generic city, what makes the place, looking at character areas I mean it was just amazing looking at iconic buildings and what that looks like of the super building, the super blocks. It's really interesting. And then after that I worked in Sweden for a bit, and then that was more of a collective. We worked together with anthropologists and sociologists and we worked on a project called Connecting Stockholm, and it was also about looking at Stockholm. It's a place that was very physically segregated but also socially segregated, and that really started to look at how we connect both the physical structures and the social structures. We worked out of their cultural spaces so that we could have an office. We worked with Urban Nouveau to do that, an office right in the heart of Stockholm to really try and understand how people feel about living here, how we can improve it from all different disciplines, and that was great.

Stephanie Edwards: 15:02

I worked for LC-Abusu Architects. I then worked for a big Lebanese company and we did a lot of work in then both West Africa, south America, the Middle East. Yeah, we did a lot of interesting work both internationally, and that's where I met James Strux. He was also heading up the media from that perspective, and it was after we left that company that we came back together and were doing all this. Design.

Stephanie Edwards: 15:31

Master planning also then worked in the UK for urban extensions and garden cities, and you'd go and engage at the end and you'd speak to people and they're like just the smallest tweak of a master plan or design would have made such a big difference, but it always came a bit too late. And then James, working on big brands and trying to reach a demographic that he had no idea of, who he was trying to reach, like eat, play, like work. You know, actually, how can we make this more interesting? If we really start to look at what can be more unique to places through design, you know, with branding, with services. And then that's how we created Urban Symbiotics. We came together and thought let's just try something that's slightly different and see how we get on. And six years later, here we are.

Darren Evans: 16:20

And so you started that organization. What 2017, 2018?

Stephanie Edwards: 16:24

2018, yeah.

Darren Evans: 16:27

Great, great, and you've not looked back, since it sounds like.

Stephanie Edwards: 16:31

No, no, we haven't. It's been a well-winned but a fun one that's fun.

Darren Evans: 16:38

So just going back now, I just want to pick apart some of the things that you mentioned on this journey that you've been on, and the journeys sounds like a really exciting one. The way that you've just portrayed that. It sounds really exciting. I love that. Interested to really just delve into a little bit of the influence that your parents had on you and how they shaped where you are today and what that looks like. You mentioned about your mom being in a county city and suggested that you maybe could try architecture, and your dad seemed to be quite supportive in helping you to discover what it was that you really loved and I don't know if trust is the right word, but it seemed like he trusted you to find that for yourself and that he didn't need to delve into the detail too much.

Stephanie Edwards: 17:32

I'm definitely very blessed to have my parents. They're incredible actually, and whilst my mom was worried, it was definitely from that place of real care, just one thing to make sure I place my energies in the right place so that I can live a life that is sustainable actually. And so, from both my parents, they're very hard workers. They really instilled in both myself and my sister just hard work. We saw how hard they worked in their jobs. They both came over to this country at different times. My dad came over when he was 11,.

Stephanie Edwards: 18:13

My mom 25, both from the Caribbean, from Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada but, yeah, just very supportive. They always had a focus on learning. That was really important for us in our household and so, even throughout my Art Foundation days, they were very supportive in ensuring that I had what I needed. And, yeah, I'm very blessed and I still talk to them a lot about how it's working in business at the moment and our careers. But, yeah, they're just brilliant people. I just am very, very lucky to have them and I think I really see them both as great role models and it was quite nice to have the balance you know from both perspectives, which is good.

Darren Evans: 19:02

And on the art side, do you still engage in art outside of architecture?

Stephanie Edwards: 19:08

I paint actually I think I do some paintings very much like not professional at all but just for relaxation. I really enjoy that and love going to exhibitions. Yeah, absolutely love going to exhibitions. My husband does too, which is good, which is great, which I really enjoy. So it's something we like doing. And, yeah, I do life drawing sometimes. It's definitely. It definitely hasn't died to death, it's definitely there on the side, but very much from a relaxation point of view.

Darren Evans: 19:43

And who would you say has influenced you in your friendship network growing up, and what influence would you say that they have had on you over the years? Oh, that's so interesting.

Stephanie Edwards: 19:56

Well, I have a real core group of good friends, like great friends actually, like one of my first ever best friends is I met in primary school, actually in reception, francis, and we're still in touch now and she's, yeah, remember us being little old, young people, like having really big conversations when we were in reception and quite clearly, very bizarrely, then I have a great friendship group from secondary school who are all in touch with and we all have very different careers, from like beauty to teaching, to like buyers, to marketing, so it's quite nice to have very different kind of skill sets. And I have like another group of friends who I met in college and we're always talking about how we're moving forward in our careers and also in very different fields too, like one's an accountant, one's in recruitment, but always talking about how we move forward together. And then another group I had 14 bridesmaids just done this in the Sorry, this one second you had 14, as in one four bridesmaids.

Stephanie Edwards: 21:07

Yeah, this is my core group and that doesn't include all of my core group, but they're such great friends that I just I know it's ridiculous, but they looked great. And, of course, I have been like my family friends as well, like my god sister and, yeah, and I'm really good like family friends too. So we have really strong networks and we're just so. We're so close and I hope I haven't left anyone out. I don't think that, yeah, they are just there. We all really support each other, like emotionally and through like life's ups and downs, through like our careers, and, yeah, I feel very appreciative of them. Yeah, very appreciative.

Darren Evans: 21:49

It seems like your network is already full up with trusted people in that network and I'm just thinking that there are people that I know, of various ages, that yearn for that type of network, to be part of a group of people that they call friends or that they feel like they're at home. And I'm not talking about home in terms of someone that's related to you because you're a blood relative, but because you connect with someone and you're able to trust them and they trust you and you have that progressive relationship that does have, I'm sure, with your friends. You've had ups and downs, there's been times where you've misunderstood them and they've misunderstood you, but you've been able to fix it and your connection and friendship has grown stronger and better as a result of it. But I'm just wondering if there are any principles or things that come to mind that may sort of as a bit of a guide and a bit of a pointer to someone that maybe feels like they're struggling in that area.

Stephanie Edwards: 22:57

I do see what you mean. I guess it's interesting. So I know, I think I know like communication is just really important generally, I think, for relationships just being open. But I think, actually just being open, being open to new possibilities, to the potential of making friends, to not also making friends, knowing they can't like everyone, people might not always like you, and that's fine. You may not be able to change that, being vulnerable, which I'm not very good at, so who knows why I have these friends, but it is meant to be good. You know, I do. I get that feedback about trying to be a bit more open, which I work on, yeah, but I think, generally just being open, actually in general, open to opportunities, to relationships, to yourself, to other people, I would say that's what I try to do. Whether I'm successful in that or not, I'm not sure, but I definitely know that that to be true.

Darren Evans: 23:57

Well, maybe when you've done later on today you can give those friends a call and say, hey, am I very good at this, am I like, am I?

Stephanie Edwards: 24:08

True, true, I'm a bit worried about their response.

Darren Evans: 24:12

The point that you brought up about appreciating that not everyone is going to be your friend, you're not going to be accepted by everybody, I think is really powerful, because I think that that is really freeing because, you realise in the same regard that there are going to be people that will accept you for who you genuinely are, because I don't think there's anyone around there's ever lived. In fact, that has been accepted by everybody.

Stephanie Edwards: 24:39

Yeah, yeah, and I agree that is very freeing. I remember it being something I learnt when I moved to college and I don't know if I was necessarily popular at school, but relatively I managed to navigate through secondary school quite well. I remember going to college and being like, wow, this person really doesn't like me, but I have no idea why this is so bizarre. That sounds really like arrogance, isn't it?

Stephanie Edwards: 25:04

But, it was a real. I just realised that actually this person or people don't like me. There's nothing I can do about it. So it's like okay, let's park that. Then you know like, and now I can almost recognise it and it's also okay. It's just okay, and it's not always from malice. Maybe it's something about you know something. I'm giving out something that might be referred to other people's experiences, but it's just completely out of my control. Yeah, weirdly, I'm okay with that. I think it's for me. It's harder the grey. We're really good friends, not really that. I think that's where things are not so comfortable for me, whilst if we're clear, we're just companions, we just make each other. This is fine, I can deal with that.

Darren Evans: 26:00

It's harder to know where you stand if someone says one thing but actually their actions show something completely different.

Stephanie Edwards: 26:07

Yeah, that I find difficult. That for me is a personal thing. I find that more challenging.

Darren Evans: 26:12

Going back to what you were saying before about this awakening or realisation that you had in college, or maybe even confusion around why someone doesn't like you. What have I done? Is there something deficient in me? And I love the way that you've positioned that and what that said to me is that you have given them the gift of accepting their point of view and not taking their point of view personally. So it's fine for you not to accept me as I am. I'm giving you that gift and you do with that gift as you please, but that's not going to affect me and who I am and how I show up for other people. Because you don't like me is completely fine.

Stephanie Edwards: 26:58

But yeah, no, it's. If I can continue to see that in that way, I think it's a bit easier for everyone, that's good, and so you're in a place now where you're enjoying the work that you do.

Darren Evans: 27:13

you enjoy the people that you work with. We had a brief conversation off camera before the podcast started recording, about how your organisation is set up and how that's changed over the years. Just for the benefit of other people, could you just run through that element again and just talk about how your business has changed and adapted over the years?

Stephanie Edwards: 27:40

Both myself and James we started the company six years ago and it was very much the two of us and it's been really interesting throughout the time. We've started to work together with some great collaborators and so we now have this great team of people that we're growing with. So it's almost this kind of fluctuating team. It's quite nice that we have because we do a lot of work because of our focus on working with communities. We do a lot of engagement, we do a lot of facilitators, we do a lot of work of creating that kind of community events, we do research. We also look at urban design or we conduct and do urban design and master planning and some architecture and some fit-out and some public realm. And what's been nice is, whilst we've been trying to grade the team, actually right now we're working with a lot of different people on different things.

Stephanie Edwards: 28:35

So we have a great group of community engagement facilitators. We have a great group of people that we work together with on some of our urban design and master planning schemes. We've collaborated with some great people to work on some architectural schemes and some public realm. And then the biggest kind of collaborator is the community, which is very dependent on or community members, I should say dependent on where we're working. And on the other side we also, you know, as part of our company we also have a team in Lebanon you have some where we also work on visualization and 3D and we do a lot of work out from there, where we have this kind of cross-pollination of our work and ideas and separate kind of work streams when we come together on different projects.

Stephanie Edwards: 29:25

So at the moment we're this almost quite agile company where we're able to be quite fluid depending on the project work that we're doing, because we also look at social impact, we also look at regeneration strategies that are focused on the physical and the social. We work on master planning, architecture and the public realm, and we know that actually by diversifying our team in all senses of the words, that we can start to actually create better products and places. So that's where we're at. We're in the kind of testing, growing, expanding contracting phase.

Darren Evans: 30:05

So when you say about diversifying your team, I guess in your meaning diverse in terms of gender, diverse in terms of ethnicity, in terms of faith, belief, in terms of skill as well, and in perspective.

Stephanie Edwards: 30:19

All of that, yeah, all of that, and I think it works really well to have that for us. Actually, we see how well that works from engaging with communities. People actually tend to be drawn to us in different ways, so people will be drawn to me that aren't drawn to James, and vice versa, and the same with our team. And then also, it's really nice to have people that are really focused on particular aspects, whether it is just really focused on looking at design solutions or just focus on okay, let's look at strategy, or you know, from the different skilled perspectives. That's quite nice. We have great conversations and perspectives and we're able to come up with different solutions because of that. So, the array that we're trying to keep, the array of whatever we do, I think for us it's really important that, whilst we're all very different, that we all need to have the same baseline, and by that I mean we all need to be quite open as to open to other perspectives, just not being upset to challenge, just being open to it. We question each other a lot, like both myself and James are always questioning each other, but I think that's why we've been able to actually manifest and change and actually start to create new ways of working for us, hopefully part of the industry. So, yeah, we ask people to be open. We ask people to have that sense of, I guess, being aligned with our values actually and our values being to be people, people actually. That is important to us to be able to be open to different perspectives, to understanding different viewpoints and that being as valid as someone who is also very skilled in the room.

Stephanie Edwards: 32:18

It's also important that we do the best. You know that will do is not really something that we like to say it's very much. How can we do it better? How can we achieve something of value or of excellence and try and move forward with real quality as opposed to just ticking the box? I would say that they're the key values that we have and we've really been actually tested by this, and sometimes it comes down to gut feeling of you know, can we work together in a way where we're all aligned to move forward with the same direction, of trying to change the way we do things, open to do things different and happy to work together as a team in a collaborative way? So they do need to have those core principles and beliefs and that's, I think that's, how we find harmony and, of course, you find out that you're not always aligned with people, which is fine, also not very easy. If you're going to, if you're already coming from different perspectives and viewpoints, it's good for us to have those core aligned values.

Darren Evans: 33:25

There are quite a few people that listen to this podcast that run their own business. From someone the six years in, what three key principles or tips would you give for somebody that's just starting out, maybe in year one, year two of their business?

Stephanie Edwards: 33:45

Definitely follow your guts. I think that's really important. Hopefully the gut isn't aligned with prejudice, but very much that gut feeling of if it doesn't feel right probably isn't right. Whether that's relationships, because you have to do a lot of relationship building and business, whether it's projects, whether your values are being compromised, there's definitely, if I've gone against my gut, something bad has generally happened and it also sounds a bit airy fairy, but my husband's from a science background and apparently the gut and the brain are connected.

Stephanie Edwards: 34:20

So it's not so airy fairy, work out the gut, bit your microbiome and it is all connected. It isn't so arbitrary, so I'd say that's really important. Think a level of optimism for us is definitely pulled us through, and actually just the stronger, the longer you survive, the stronger you get. So take it day by day, week by week, month by month. It isn't always about necessary profitability instantly, but as long as you're in the game and you're maintaining that momentum, you get stronger, you're learning and just to be open, I would say, and not too rigid, I think that's that's what, what has guided us so far. And coffee.

Stephanie Edwards: 35:15

The key to success is coffee at the end.

Darren Evans: 35:22

Talk to me about the projects that you've worked on, specific projects that you've worked on that you're really proud of, that you're like, wow, we've really done something special here. I think in years to come I'm going to look back at this and still just be as proud as what I am right now.

Stephanie Edwards: 35:41

I think some of the recent work that we've done as part of Urban Symbiotics have been where we've married up all of the different facets of ourselves, so from brief building to to design work and to, you know, some form of implementation. And there's three key projects, or maybe four that I'd like to talk about are very much focused on regeneration strategies actually regeneration in the positive sense, not necessarily those focused on gentrification Can.

Darren Evans: 36:12

I just jump in there really quickly. Can you talk we just really briefly about those two versions of regeneration?

Stephanie Edwards: 36:19

Yeah. So I guess you know we talk about regeneration in the positive sense and when I say that I mean very much focused on working with the people that are in a place, trying to make that place better for them and, of course, new people that will ultimately come into the area. So, whether that's creating spaces for social connections across potential divides, whether it's about, you know a lot of the time, shared spaces but shared quality, shared economics, so very much about how we can create spaces for all as opposed to spaces for a minority and minority who are, you know, within a particular, let's say, economic bracket, who are moved into an area to push up the values and move people out. We do know that the work we do is built environment professionals, sometimes beyond our control, does end up in those spaces, but the work we do, let's say as part of regeneration frameworks, are very much about how do the people that live here right now, how can they benefit from that, how can we make some of those interventions work for them. So, whether that's from value and you know the economics have come from new developments with a new, let's say, community or different types of people into an area, but how you can make sure that, like, all facets of the community really benefit from that, as opposed to just one type of person who looks a particular way, acts a particular way and is more favourable. So we're very much focused on the full demographic.

Stephanie Edwards: 37:54

So that's what we call positive regeneration, so regeneration of creating better places, improved places, but for all, and so yeah, so the projects that we, I'd say we're really proud of, are Barking and Dagenham, a local authority in London, and Dagenham is their second district centre within that area, and so we work with B1st, who are the development arm of the local authority, to come up with a community focus regeneration framework. So it's very much focused on what are the issues in this area? How can we improve that with new development coming in and with new economics, but how can we safeguard the social infrastructure or add more to that? Where can we start to understand where the priorities are? How can we come up with a list of projects that the community can move forward on? How can we come up with a list of projects that developers can help to fund and move forward on and how can the local authority help to either broker those relationships or also fund that moving forward? So almost creating sustainable frameworks for positive growth.

Stephanie Edwards: 39:03

So in, let's say, our regeneration framework in Heathway, in Dagenham Heathway, it's a high street vision, so very much focused on how we can create street improvements, how you can create a safer street that is more green, that's focused on wellbeing, because the priority there is about safety. It's about wellbeing. It isn't necessarily a place that people feel they can go to or feel proud of. So how do you bring pride into the design process and how can you build on that? So, creating frameworks for communities to come together and co-design, actually adding more events, having more spaces for events for the community to say, well, actually we would like to use they have a 60s more, but use that space to have a new market in there. You know something that focuses on allowing younger people to have entrepreneur like opportunities to sell something, to have a different offer that isn't just focused on one demographic. You can start to test things. You know how can we start to sell more arts and crafts or wellbeing activities or materials?

Stephanie Edwards: 40:07

Or we started, you know, looking at a twilight zone, because the area isn't necessarily frequented at night, so it doesn't really have a nighttime economy. So we started to look at how can we create a twilight zone for them. So we started Dusk Eats and it was about creating places to eat, because that was also an area that a gap on that high street like, and different offers of places to eat in the dusk, you know, in the twilight, allowing people to extend their stay. So once people would come during the day and leave by four, well, how can we extend four till seven, getting people used to? Actually you can be here at night and you can be safe and it can be vibrant, but just by providing a different offer.

Stephanie Edwards: 40:52

So we tested, you know, that, dusk Eats as an offer setting up a barbecue in a public space, having music, having a bit of entertainment that can then turn into like a bit of a food hall at a certain time, or actually starting to put a community shop. So we had a community shop right in the centre, in one of the vacant units, and it was a place that people could come and talk to us about what they'd like to see change. Then we had a mural that was created by local artists that captured everything that people had said. So you had young children come in or people that had, like, low literacy skills or different language abilities, and so you had this visual mural. You can start to see how this Heathrow could be created in the future.

Stephanie Edwards: 41:35

And, working with B First, now we're looking at how we can channel that into a new development to ensure you have a space for the community to meet, ensure that there are flexible spaces for new uses, whether that's from creating this kind of event space for, like a dusk zone so you can have nighttime activities because people are used to being there.

Stephanie Edwards: 41:58

So it's like how can you have a plan, let's say a master plan, and a framework to actually deliver it? So the first one being working with communities to actually get them organised, helping them to make their place more safe, themselves changing, ensuring they can have more pride in the area, and then building upon that, bringing in investment and building where you might have more units and more residential numbers, and actually that's contributing to a collaborative and combined vision. It's a vision that's already established. So that's an example. We've done something similar also in Pearlie and Croydon. We've done something similar in Swatham and Norfolk and working with Historic England and the local authority there. We also did something similar-ish with the Black Cultural Archives about creating flexible spaces. But I think that probably showcases what we really like to do in the widest Covering, I think a lot of bases, but happy to go into more projects. But I know I've been talking a lot.

Darren Evans: 43:04

All those projects sound absolutely amazing and what I want to do is make sure that we give links to those projects so that people can actually go and see what you've done and see what you've been a part of, because it sounds absolutely amazing In my mind. I'm thinking about my friend's jerk barbecue in that twilight Because the smell of that jerk chicken.

Stephanie Edwards: 43:29

The smoke the sounds, the taste, it sounds absolutely great.

Darren Evans: 43:35

What's your hope for the future for your business? What's your hope for the future for sustainability, and how are the two blended together?

Stephanie Edwards: 43:47

So I think our hope for our business is to actually just make a real meaningful change and a big impact that goes beyond, probably, the work that we're doing. So I mentioned before about us, you know, as an industry working in silos, and I think that's a real opportunity for the built environment to bring those silos together and have great impact together. I think in terms of sustainability, it works hand in hand. If we can work together, we can have a wider impact, whether that's from social sustainability bringing in social scientists, but also like event managers, and also architects and urban designers and landscape architects together to really create spaces, because that's how it's made right. It isn't just a physical, it's not just a building that makes a community or a space or a neighborhood. It's about how it works together.

Stephanie Edwards: 44:43

And then also sustainability.

Stephanie Edwards: 44:45

We know, you know, even from as you can look at it, from like a social perspective, in terms of those connections and wellbeing, lack of isolation and loneliness, but also how people can come together to share like and spread spread like economically economic benefits between each other.

Stephanie Edwards: 45:07

How we can actually start to allow people to meet different people, how you know, if you bring in developer contributions, how that can sustain like multifaceted ambitions and then from a green perspective, I mean greening our high streets works better for, whether it's from reducing, like, the heat island effects from the very hot summers we're getting, whether it's layering this with better drainage, layering this with better wellbeing, layering this with better mental outcomes. How can we start to look at this multifaceted approach of sustainability where we all come together as different disciplines within the built environment to really create the biggest impact? And I think that's what we would like to help navigate and promote as part of our business, obviously within our projects, but also just to fly the flag actually for a new way or championing ways that are already happening and to continue that in the built environment, but generally in the UK, internationally, everywhere.

Darren Evans: 46:22

I love that vision. That sounds exciting to me. Bit of a mouthful. That's absolutely great. You know that vision that you have, and it's a purpose led thing. Lots of people set your business up because they just are focused on money. You mentioned something else as well, which I think is absolutely spot on, and I love is that it's about staying in the game. When you first set up as an organisation, it's not all about the profit. You just need to stay in the game, and every day you're in the game, you can get stronger. That's how you're going to create impact, build legacy, make a difference. So I love that.

Darren Evans: 47:04

One of the things now we need to do is to go to the demolition zone, because we're going to cover things off that prevent us from staying in the game and moving forward. Are you ready to go? Ready to go? Let's do it. So we are back. We are now in the demolition zone. Stephanie, you have created this piece of art. Funnily enough, you've used the whole table. You're the first guest so far to use the whole table, and so there's a for those people that are listening. There are a few coloured blocks to my right that are strategically spread out. There's space between them. And then to my left, there's a singular tall tower with some medium towers either side of this tall tower and then two smaller structures in front of it. But what does? What myth does this represent?

Stephanie Edwards: 48:02

So the myth for me here is that this is this understanding within the built environment sector, that we are actually all in silos and that this is the best way of operating and the best way of creating spaces and places. So you know, for example, I have a tower right in the centre, all made up of the same block, so that's just. And each of the small, the taller towers and medium towers are made of the same block. So just show how, as disciplines, we tend to always align with each other and we're building up our own structures and always competing to be the most important, whether you are the architect or the engineer or the cost consultant or the landscape architect all competing but to create a unified space. And so for me, this is a myth of we work in these silos a lot of the time, and you can understand, you know, the pragmatism as to why that is, but I think for me, I'm just showing how this myth is essentially showing that we don't need to work in silos, we don't need to just stick with each other and, you know, almost compete with others, but actually it's about how we can come together to make better places in a way that's a lot more unified, a little bit more unpredictable, but also can create more interesting and vibrant and unpredictable new spaces and more meaningful spaces, more relevant and appropriate spaces.

Stephanie Edwards: 49:35

And so here I have there are some, you know, let's say, bare wooden blocks that the towers are made for, and then there's a small little competing green block, and that is the community, you know, as we like to call them, the community which tends to be the loudest voices, who are trying to edge in, who are also trying to say well, we're important to and always seem, they seem as if they are, you know, a bane to the existence of the rest of the clients and the consultant team, because they're always trying to say no, and not in my backyard.

Stephanie Edwards: 50:07

And then so, on the right hand side, I've just dismayed, actually, the multifaceted members of the communities we talk about and let's call them hard to reach, which they're often referred to but actually can say they're underserved. They're, you know, out of sight, out of mind, a lot of the time in these conversations, and so the myth is that they're not interested or that they do not have a place at the table and that we can actually create these vibrant and successful places without them. So this is, this is my myth.

Darren Evans: 50:43

That is so beautiful, the way that you've painted not just the picture here with these blocks, but also the way that you've described it, this sense of community being the ones that are the problem or the ones that aren't connected enough to the process. But the process and the silos that exist in the industry are not connected and they're not listening. And there's there's things that can be done and need to be done to move things forward to a better place, because the whole reason for the industry existing is to serve the communities that exist within our lands, right, whether it's this country or other countries. Without the people needing these spaces and needing communities, then there's no need for an architect, is there?

Stephanie Edwards: 51:41

100%, 100%, yeah.

Darren Evans: 51:45

So I love the way that you described that. I think that we're in a position to destroy this myth, but before you do, I just want to yeah, thank you for for bringing this up, because I think that your message will land with people. I don't think everybody, but that's okay, because we've already discussed that, haven't we Right? But I think that it will land with people and give a new perspective, and that's the whole point of the demolition zone is just to help, to give people a new perspective so that they can go and choose a different way, a way that enhances and better. So, with that in mind, stephanie, please destroy the myth.

Stephanie Edwards: 52:30

So I'd like to counter this and actually carefully reorganize it, as opposed to completely dismantling it. How do you feel about that?

Darren Evans: 52:41

You do. You do what you feel is best. You have absolute autonomy to do what you feel.

Stephanie Edwards: 52:46

Okay, brilliant, here it goes.

Darren Evans: 52:55

That's fantastic. I love to watch an artist work and I feel like I've had a real treat there. So for those people that can't see this and they're listening, stephanie has just reconstructed something completely different, connecting those disconnected blocks on my right hand side with those blocks that were initially very, very plain, same and tower like, and this is connected the whole thing up. That's to symbolize the way that it needs to be, the way that it could be, the way that it sounds like your organization is working towards it becoming.

Stephanie Edwards: 53:37

Very much is what I would, what I would like and very much focused of actually going to different places to do that too. So they are coming towards where people are, as opposed to waiting for the other way around.

Darren Evans: 53:50

Yes, yes, I love that, thank you. Are there any last thoughts that you have? As we've spent this time together and as I've listened to the things that you've said and the journey that you've been on, I've been grateful and also inspired. But I'm just wondering if there's any last words that you have for those people that are listening or watching the podcast.

Stephanie Edwards: 54:16

Just say that I've really enjoyed this conversation and I think for me, what we've mostly spoken about is just challenging the norm and how we can do things, just think of things in a different way and just be open to the surprise. But for me, I've just had a really great time talking, building, creating and connecting, so I want to thank you for that.

Darren Evans: 54:41

Thank you. I think that for everyone listening, they won't be surprised that you have such a great network and maybe 14 bridesmaids, because there is a theme that runs through our conversation. I felt that there's a theme that's run through the conversation is that challenging the norm is a good thing and it's an exciting thing. I'm really grateful for your time. I'm grateful that you've come along to that and been a guest on this podcast and, yeah, it's been awesome, thank you.

Stephanie Edwards: 55:13

Thank you.

Darren Evans: 55:24

I'd like you to do me a favour, and I don't mean here just to ask you to subscribe and to follow, but what I'd really like you to do is to share this podcast with as many people as you think would benefit from it. I would love to maintain the quality of people that are joining me on this podcast, and so, in order for me to do that, I really need your help. It could be somebody that's looking to get into an industry, but they're not quite sure what industry they want to get into. Maybe it's a teenager that is just finishing their GCSEs or starting A levels. Maybe it's somebody that's doing an English degree at university, but it's not quite sure what they want to do with that degree. So I invite you just to share this podcast with as many people that you know so that we can grow this community, so that we can maintain the quality, engaging conversations that we're having together. Thank you for your help.