Phase 2 Partnerships
In Phase 2 we are working with a range of partners from across international networks, national governments, regional and local authorities, arms lengths bodies, community groups and the private sector on place-based challenges that they are facing. We deliver conceptually grounded, methodologically innovative, and evidence-based approaches to these challenges. Our ongoing Place Partnerships are listed below.
Historic England
We partnered with Historic England to produce a multi-disciplinary study exploring how and why felt experiences of place inform socio-economic outcomes associated with historic places, across psychology, neuroscience, health and across the arts and humanities (2026). Furthermore, the report embeds felt experiences of historic places within economic frameworks. The report Connecting People and Places builds on the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Cultural Heritage Capital Framework, which will establish a consistent economic approach to valuing cultural heritage assets.
We are now working with Historic England to establish a Green Book compliant methodological framework that can be applied to and tested within place-based contexts.
Scottish Futures Trust
We are working with the Scottish Futures Trust to develop an action-focused evidence base on how Scotland can better organise long-term investment, policy and delivery around place. The work explores how national and local government, public bodies and local partners can take a more coordinated place-based approach to decision-making, aligning short-term funding cycles with longer-term outcomes for communities.
Placemaking X
The Place Programme is Co-lead on the theme of Place Attachment and Lovability, together with Ethan Kent, Founder and Executive Director of PlacemakingX. The partnership involves convening roundtables at the network’s Global Summits (Mexico City 2023, Toronto 2025) and exploring how felt experiences can enhance placemaking with a global community of place professionals.
Humanise
We are working with Heatherwick Studio/Humanise to embed ‘emotion as a function of design’ and the other Humanise Principles in urban development and wider placemaking. The Programme has supported the publication of a Global Evidence Review on how the outsides of buildings impact human health and wellbeing, co-hosted a Humanise Research Summit, developed international partnerships through the 2025 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, and delivered content for ‘Building Soul’, a BBC Radio 4 series. Together we are now developing an evidence-base to demonstrate how we can design for and improve people’s ‘felt experiences of place’, and how these can be incorporated within design decision-making.
National Heritage Lottery Fund/Historic Environment Scotland
In partnership with the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic Environment Scotland and five local authority areas in Scotland, we produced a Resource Kit (2025) to design a framework for how felt experiences of place could inform each stage of the development and delivery of large-scale heritage-led regeneration works.
The kit provides a step-by-step approach to collecting, interpreting, and using emotional and sensory responses to heritage in community-led regeneration initiatives. We suggest data analysis techniques to interpret the information and identify five key stages in the process of heritage-led regeneration where felt experiences of place could inform decision-making.
We are now working with the National Lottery Heritage Fund to embed this Resource Kit with prospective applicants and existing grant holders.