SERIES: Your Community

S1-S3

60–90 minutes

Who Lives Here and What Do They Need?

High streets are changing. Empty units, traffic, online shopping and changing habits create problems — but also opportunities to make town centres greener, more social and more useful. You will redesign a high street or town centre around people, activity, accessibility and green space. By the end of this challenge you will: Identify what […]

Who Lives Here and What Do They Need?

Your Mission

Redesign your high street or town centre so it works better for people, businesses and community life — with green space built in.

You will analyse different users, audit the public realm, learn from real regeneration examples and create a greener, more active redesign.

The Shape of This Challenge

Discover

✏️ ️ Notice & question

Explore

️ Investigate & test

Create

✏️ Make & communicate

Reflect

️ Think & apply

Discover

Start with who the place needs to work for.

Step 1

Who Is the High Street For?

️ User lens · 8–10 mins

We are learning to identify the different people who use a town centre and what they need.

A high street has to work for shoppers, workers, young people, older people, families, visitors, disabled people, cyclists, drivers and businesses — often at the same time.

Your Task

Choose at least six user groups.
For each, write one need and one likely frustration.
Highlight needs involving movement, comfort, access, activity and green space.
Choose two user groups whose needs may conflict.

I can identify different high-street users and competing needs.

→ This gives your redesign a real user brief.

CommunicationCritical ThinkingEmpathy

Step 2

Audit the Street, Not Just the Shops

✏️ Place audit · 10–12 mins

We are learning to evaluate the whole public-space experience of a high street.

A thriving centre includes movement, seating, shade, greenery, culture, reasons to stop, accessibility and connections between businesses.

Your Task

Audit at least eight features: empty units, crossings, pavements, seating, trees/planting, lighting, signs, public art, play, bike parking, market/event space or building fronts.
Mark each working, needs improvement or opportunity.
Choose the three strongest redesign opportunities.

I can identify physical and social-design opportunities in a town centre.

→ This gives your redesign evidence and constraints.

ResearchProblem SolvingDesign Thinking

Explore

Use real examples and integrate green space as part of the solution.

Step 3

Research High Streets That Changed

Choose your route · 12–15 mins

We are learning to learn from real public-realm and high-street improvements.

The aim is not to copy another town but to understand what specific interventions achieved.

Your Task

Complete one research route.
Record at least three interventions used somewhere else.
For each, identify the problem it addressed.
Choose one idea worth adapting locally.

⚡ Quick Track

Study one town-centre or high-street regeneration example. Identify three interventions and the problems they addressed.

Dig Deeper

Compare two places using public-realm, pedestrian, green-space or meanwhile-use ideas. Identify one idea that would transfer well and one that would not.

I can use real examples to improve a local high-street design.

→ This gives your concept evidence beyond personal preference.

ResearchProblem SolvingCreativity

Step 4

Build Green Space Into the Centre

️ Redesign challenge · 12–15 mins

We are learning to integrate green space into a high-street redesign as useful infrastructure.

Green space can provide shade, seating, biodiversity, drainage, play, identity and reasons to stay longer.

Your Task

Add at least three green interventions: pocket park, planted seating, street trees, rain garden, green wall, mini play space, community growing or another idea.
Show who benefits from each.
Identify one maintenance or access challenge.
Revise one idea so it is more realistic.

I can design green-space interventions that solve real public-space needs.

→ This creates a distinctive physical feature in your high-street proposal.

CreativityProblem SolvingEnvironmental Awareness

Create & Share

Create a high-street redesign that could be shown to a community or council panel.

Step 5

Redesign the High Street

✏️ Design · Create · 30–40 mins

We are learning to create a people-centred high-street redesign with green space, activity and accessibility built in.

Your proposal should make the place easier to move through and more worth spending time in.

Your Task

Show a clear before/current-state problem.
Include at least five physical/design changes.
Include at least three green-space interventions.
Explain how the redesign helps at least three user groups.
Choose one output below.

High Street Before-and-After

1 page · annotated visual + 180–220 words

⏱ 30–35 mins

Show the existing problems and your redesigned public realm.

Town Centre Redesign Pitch

4 slides · maximum 30 words per slide

⏱ 30–35 mins

Pitch the users, problems, redesign and expected community impact.

Greener High Street Plan

1 page · site map + 150–200 words

⏱ 30–40 mins

Map movement, green space, activity zones and key public-space changes.

I can create a realistic high-street redesign supported by user needs and evidence.

→ This is your finished mission output.

Problem SolvingCreativityCommunication

Step 6

Reflect, Apply, Look Forward

️ Think or discuss · 5–8 mins

We are learning to reflect on how design decisions can change behaviour and local economic activity.

Next you will focus on the people and places already worth celebrating and create media that brings attention to them.

Your Task

Answer the prompts.
Name the design change most likely to make people stay longer.
Choose one local attraction, organisation or business worth spotlighting next.

Reflect

Which user need changed your design most?

Apply

How could greener public space support local businesses as well as wellbeing?

Look Forward

What would you measure six months after a redesign to know whether it worked?

I can explain how public-space design can support community life and local businesses.

→ Your redesigned place now needs stories that give people reasons to notice it.

ReflectionProblem SolvingCommunication

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TOOLKIT

Choose Your Tools

Use public information and teacher-approved research. Do not publish personal information, photograph people without permission, or contact organisations independently unless your teacher has approved it.

Research

Use public high-street examples, local plans, photographs or public maps. Look at empty units, seating, crossings, accessibility, lighting, culture, events and green space.

Design

Use paper, Canva, Slides, Figma or another design tool to create before/after ideas.

Create

Use a redesign board, annotated map or council-style pitch.

Educator / Parent Notes

Age, Stage and Prior Learning: Designed for S1–S3. A real local high street is ideal, but a teacher-provided fictional centre can be used.

Before You Start: Keep focus on public space and community needs; do not ask learners to inspect private premises or approach businesses without permission.

How to Open This: Ask: “If shops alone no longer guarantee a busy high street, what else should make people want to spend time there?”

Scheduling: Steps 1–4 need 40–50 minutes. Step 5 needs 30–40 minutes.

If a Pupil Gets Stuck: Provide a printed map and five design prompts. Let learners focus on one block or square rather than the whole town centre.

For Fast Finishers: Ask learners to compare two design options using accessibility, business impact and maintenance criteria.

Marking Guidance: Look for clear user needs, realistic green/public-space design, adaptation of evidence from another place and a coherent before/after proposal.

Who Lives Here and What Do They Need?

Who Lives Here and What Do They Need?

Discover

Who Is the High Street For?

Audit the Street, Not Just the Shops

Explore

Research High Streets That Changed

Build Green Space Into the Centre

Create & Share

Redesign the High Street

Reflect, Apply, Look Forward

Show What You Have Learned

Research

Design

Create

Show What You Have Learned

Research

Design

Create

TOOLKIT

Research

Design

Create

Educator / Parent Notes

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