I work at the intersection of community
co-design, participatory urban design, regeneration, and strategic
planning, helping organisations, communities, and institutions to design
places that are equitable, inclusive, and rooted in lived experience.
I specialise in:
• Co-producing strategic frameworks, spatial plans, and urban design visions with communities
• Participatory engagement, consultation, and co-design facilitation
• Translating insights from community-led research into policy, planning, and regeneration strategies
• Bridging practice, teaching, research, and knowledge exchange in collaborative projects
I
work as part of multidisciplinary teams in universities, urban design
practices, local authorities, third sector, and civic organisations.
Recent projects include:
•
Supporting retrofit and regeneration strategies for Westminster City
Council in collaboration with Future of London & Archio
•
Collaborating with Queen Mary University Of London on 'Creating
Inclusive Green Spaces For All' a research impact project, produced as
part of their civic engagement.
• Co-designing a gender-inclusive urban design framework & evidence base for London Borough of Tower Hamlets
• Producing participatory placemaking strategies for Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole town centres.
Alongside
practice, I teach and engage in studio-based education, design
research, and civic learning, bringing real-world co-design practice
into academic and policy contexts. My approach is rooted in
collaboration, reflective practice, and outcomes that are meaningful for
communities and organisations alike
Teaching:
Chelsea College of Art, UAL 2010-2020, Ba Fine Art and Graduate Diploma, teaching studio practice and contextual theory.
Arts University Bournemouth 2013-2025 Visiting tutor on M.Arch & Landscape Architecture.
BIOG:
Jennie Savage is an expert in engaging individuals and communities, co-producing design frameworks, vision documents, spatial and strategic plans in consultation with those who will be affected. She is sensitive to everyone's views, holding space for multiple perspectives and finding common ground from which to design workable solutions.
Jennie works as part of places shaping teams and leads engagement and research projects including ‘This Is For The Majority’, an evidence base & design guidance for gender inclusion in London Borough Tower Hamlets and 'Future Stories’, a highly consultative placemaking and spatial design strategy, which showed how to reimagine our town centres, putting people and culture at their heart. Jennie is a public practice alum and RTPI Woman Of Influence.
Recent conferences
‘Inclusive cities shaped by all’ Equlibium Network July 2025
‘Inclusive Green Spaces’ Future of London & Queen Mary University of London, June 2025
Empowering spaces: Planning for inclusive built environments, RTPI East, Cambridge University. March 2025.
Co-production round table, Arup / Future of London Feb 2024.
Co-production panel. Future Of London, Excel centre, 2024,
‘Our cities, Our streets’ Panel and break out workshops gender and public space, LSE, Oct 24
Launch of LLDC Handbook, Creating places that work for women and girls, Arup, July 2024
‘Cities for
Citizens’, UN Planners, (2023) gender mainstreaming and co-design.
‘Loneliness, the next five years’, Campaign To End
Loneliness, speaking about how the public realm impacts health and wellbeing.
RTPI National Planning Conference and Planner Live North, about the value of
storytelling in place shaping.
Future of London- presenting on co-design as practice.
Public urban design and planning documents (selected):
As Public Realm Project Officer at London Borough of Tower Hamlets I wrote,
‘This Is For The Majority’ design guidance on gender inclusion in the
borough.
Lead author of Winchester Vision 2020-2030 where I set up
citizens panels to collectively ‘vision’ Winchester for the next ten years
(adopted 2020)
I wrote ‘Future Stories’, a strategy for high street renewal which I
co-designed with residents and place making professionals.
Publications:
Nutopia: A critical view of future cities, co-editied, Jennie Savage/ Malcolm Miles, Pub University Plymouth Press 2011
Concrete A Users Manual, Jennie Savage & James Tyson 2008
Depending On Time, Written Jennie Savage Pub Safle 2008
STAR: A Psychotopography Of Place, Jennie Savage, Pub CBAT 2006
Awards & membership
RTPI Woman of Influence 2023 & 2025
Member of RTPI and Fellow of the Royal Sociaty Arts
Public Practice Alumn
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