{"id":6160,"date":"2025-09-26T20:33:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T20:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/?page_id=6160"},"modified":"2026-09-26T11:49:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T11:49:33","slug":"research-rooms-events-series","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/events\/research-rooms-events-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Rooms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Research Rooms<\/em> are informal online spaces for discussion with members of research teams from academia, practice and communities. Those attending can learn about research projects, the associated outputs and outcomes and the influence they have had on those involved. There is also space to share your own experiences of the project themes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Research Rooms <\/em>series is a collaboration between The Glass-House and The Open University\u2019s Design Group<\/a>. Some of these events share learning, resources and anecdotes from the many research projects we have done together. In other sessions, we invite co-hosts to share findings from their own projects, creating space for them to reach new audiences and make new connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research Rooms<\/em> are open to anyone with an interest in the event topic. No specific experience or expertise is required. We believe that these conversations will only benefit from a wide mix of voices, interests and experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are interested in proposing a topic for discussion please get in touch with katerina.alexiou@open.ac.uk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Series 2 (2026-2027)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Research Room 8: Prototyping Utopias<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

29 September 2026, 4-5 pm, online<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this Research Room, we\u2019ll be looking back on the project Prototyping Utopias<\/a>, which brought together local organisations and communities in Bow, East London to explore the potential of a collaborative economy of visions and skills in creating Bow as a future utopia. Through the project, we explored a highly contested relationship: how a process of prototyping U-topias through participatory creative practices is linked with Eu-topias, the shaping of better places. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research Room 9: Community<\/strong> Research Hubs<\/strong><\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

20 October 2026, 4-5 pm, online <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this Research Room, we\u2019ll speak to the team who set up the ISRAAC Research and Innovation Hub<\/a>. It enabled ISRAAC Somali Community Association<\/a> to proactively play a leading role in research programmes taking place in Sheffield and beyond, and to play a vital role in contributing and connecting community knowledge and lived experience whilst working directly with relevant academia, professionals and practitioners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research Room 10: Diversifying Research Output<\/a><\/strong>s<\/strong><\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

24 November 2026, 4-5 pm, online<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this session, we\u2019ll look across the evolution of The Glass-House \/ Open University strategic partnership<\/a> to explore how we have shaped our research, as well as the role that the various partners and communities engaged in the activities have played in informing, co-designing, co-producing and disseminating research outputs. We\u2019ll look at the power of thinking beyond academic journal papers to consider how to make research findings more accessible, relevant and useful to people both within and outside academia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More events to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Book<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Visit our Events<\/a> page or click on the links above to find out more about our upcoming Research Rooms and to register for your place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are free events, but places are limited to create space for meaningful discussion for all involved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More Research Room events coming soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

……………………………………………………………….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Series 1<\/strong> (2025-2026)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Research Room 1: Scaling Up Co-design<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n

21 October 2025, 4-5 pm, online<\/p>\n

In this session we will look back on the project,\u00a0Scaling Up Co-design Research and Practice<\/a>, which brought together academic and civil society partners to explore how to extend the impact and reach of our own work, to extract learning on different co-design practices, and to develop approaches and tools to help others take up and benefit from co-design.<\/p>\n

Research Room 2: Asset-based Co-design<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n

25 November 2025, 4-5 pm, online<\/p>\n

In this session, we\u2019ll look across three research projects (Media, Community and the Creative Citizen<\/a>,\u00a0Unearth Hidden Assets<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Comparative Asset Mapping<\/a>) in which we both focused on, and developed approaches and tools to support asset mapping in the context of design and placemaking.<\/p>\n

Research Room 3: Empowering Design Practices<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n

27 January 2026, 4-5 pm, online<\/p>\n

In this session we will look back on the project,\u00a0Empowering Design Practices<\/a>. This 7-year project explored the landscape of historic places of worship and communities leading change within them. We worked with communities to explore the values that inspire and hinder the wider use of historic places of worship and what benefits and impacts community-led design practices can bring.<\/p>\n

Working with live projects, we also co-designed new practices and practical resources, providing hands-on support to communities to help them lead projects to transform their historic places of worship.<\/p>\n

Research Room 4: Starting from values<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n

24 February 2026, 4-5 pm, online<\/p>\n

In this session we will look back on our participation in the project,\u00a0Starting from Values<\/a>, which brought together partners from two Connected Communities research projects,\u00a0Scaling Up Co-Design<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Authority Research Network,<\/a>\u00a0with the\u00a0Values and Sustainability Research Group<\/a>\u00a0at Brighton University . The project aim was to co-develop creative ways of identifying, evaluating and enhancing intangible, values-related aspects of project legacies.<\/p>\n

Research Room 5: Incubating Civic Leadership<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n

24 March 2026, 4-5 pm, online<\/p>\n

In this session we will look back on\u00a0Incubating Civic Leadership<\/a>, a project exploring civic leadership and how different actors can be brought together to co-design ideas, innovations and actions that push boundaries and address challenges at a local and global level.<\/p>\n

This knowledge exchange project brought together groups and organisations across sectors and of varied scale in London and Bristol. Through both online and in-person activities, we shared learning and ideas and experimented together through simple interactive urban activities aimed at galvanising people to improve their local places.<\/p>\n

Research Room 6: Cross-pollination<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n

28 April 2026, 4-5 pm, online<\/p>\n

In this session we will look back on the project\u00a0Cross-pollination: Growing cross-sector design collaboration in placemaking<\/em><\/a>. This research project created a focused space to further explore and develop our cross-pollination approach, which we had been evolving and experimenting with over many years and through a range of projects and programmes. The cross-pollination approach brings people together to identify shared goals and objectives, identify and connect local projects and initiatives, and work together to unearth and mobilise local assets (skills, networks, physical spaces, tools and resources, funding pots etc ) as a basis for forming partnerships and collaborations.<\/p>\n

In particular, through this research, we were interested in how this approach could serve place-based collaborations across sectors and engaging groups and organisations of different scales. It also created the space to explore how we could enable others to take up, adapt and use the approach within their own contexts.<\/p>\n

Research Room 7: Mapping 20-minute Neighbourhoods<\/strong><\/a><\/h4>\n

23 June 2026, 4-5 pm, online<\/p>\n

We will close Series 1 by focussing on a University of Glasgow project called OPTIMA<\/a> (Orienting Policy Towards Inequality Minimising Action) to explore how neighbourhood environments shape access to everyday services and, in turn, influence health and inequality.<\/p>\n

Using the 20-minute neighbourhood as a guiding framework, the project maps access to key amenities\u2014such as healthcare, food, and green space\u2014across Great Britain and examines how these patterns vary across levels of deprivation. The session invites participants to reflect on how place-based planning can better support equitable, healthy communities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Research Rooms are informal online spaces for discussion with members of research teams from academia, practice and communities. Those attending can learn about research projects, the associated outputs and outcomes and the influence they have had on those involved. There is also space to share your own experiences of the project themes.  The Research Rooms series is a collaboration between The Glass-House and The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":5216,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6160","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6160"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6763,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6160\/revisions\/6763"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}