Facilitator Skills for Effective Collaborative Placemaking

The role of the facilitators and the facilitation team in design-led events is highly topical especially where governments encourage placemaking through collaborative planning. The findings and recommendations provided in this chapter have been developed from a study conducted in 2017 for the Scottish government. The objective of that study was to ‘explore the potentially significant role of facilitation in participatory community design-led events, such as charrettes.’ The results of the study help support the development of better facilitators and associated processes needed to deliver design-led placemaking. They identify the appropriate socially inclusive approach, process management, and professional specialist skills required by facilitators as well as the ideal stages of collaborative planning necessary to successfully deliver the decisions made at such events. The findings are built on the views of Scottish professional facilitators, built environment professionals, and members of the public who have been involved in design-led events over the past decade. The insights uncovered are offered as a context-specific contribution to defining the desired facilitator skills and stages for design-led placemaking in collaborative planning, particularly where the initiative for such events is driven by national and local governments.