The Public Sector Client Forum on 29 March explored how we can work together to create thriving rural communities and heard from the organisations helping us get there.   

We broke up the event into three parts: climate, housing and investment. Read on for summaries of each speaker and highlights from the three Q&A sessions.  

Professor Russel Griggs OBE, Chair of the Board at South of Scotland Enterprise, chaired the event. Public Sector Client Forum is hosted by Architecture and Design Scotland (A&DS). 

Setting the scene  

Danny McKendry, Principal Landscape Architect at A&DS, set the scene for the event with an introduction to our work on climate. He expressed hope the conversations would be infused with the Place Principle.  

The Place Principle is about:   

• working together with coordinated impact towards an agreed vision  
• pooling together skills, resources and investments with a place-based approach  

Our work: Designing for a changing climate  

This element of A&DS’s work is addressing what climate change means for the future design of places in urban and rural areas. It’s looking at how people can influence that design in a meaningful way.   

Danny also touched on our caring places work. This focusses on aging populations in rural town centres and urban areas. It looks at people’s needs and how places need to be designed to help them.  

Chair’s introduction  

Professor Russel Griggs set out the challenges and opportunities rural communities face. He emphasised place is becoming more and more important to all we do.  

Challenges   

Rural communities work at a very different level to big cities and even some rural towns. Urban areas need to realise they often need a different approach.  

Areas like housing and transport must be pooled into these rural futures to make sure we’re all pointing in the same direction.   

Community organisations within rural places need to understand what each other is doing. We need to help rural communities come together again after the pandemic.  

Opportunities   

Housing is not just about retrofit. It’s also about growing the rural economy. We need enough homes to:  

• give young people the choice to stay and work where they grew up  
• attract new people so we have employees to serve the future  

Session 1

This session looked at ways we can connect rural places’ natural capital with climate resilience and local regeneration.

Session 2

This session explored delivering quality design and sustainable growth through the key rural public sector institutions.

Session 3

This session looked at how our rural institutions harness their data resources and collective knowledge for climate resilient, community-centred regeneration and investment.

Watch the full event recording here:

Introduction and session 1:

Session 2:

Session 3:

Published April 2022.