How to Design Inclusive Spaces?

Join us at Planit Liverpool for an evening exploring how architects, urban designers, landscape architects and placemakers can create more inclusive, welcoming and equitable spaces for LGBTQIA+ communities.

Too often, inclusion within the built environment is treated as an afterthought, reduced to policy statements, isolated gestures, or conversations that happen too late in the design process. Yet the places we create shape who feels safe, visible, welcome, represented and able to belong.

This session will be led by Luke Fawcett — artist, urban designer, researcher and founder of Queer Places, a creative placemaking and archival project bringing LGBTQIA+ stories into public space through research, storytelling, heritage, urban design and community engagement.

Luke has worked extensively on LGBTQIA+ placemaking, heritage and inclusion, delivering talks and workshops across the built environment sector, including collaborations with leading practices and institutions. He is currently working in partnership with RIBA on the development of the Designing LGBTQIA+ Inclusive Spaces Toolkit.

Developed through a year of engagement and research with LGBTQIA+ communities and built environment professionals, the toolkit is aligned with the RIBA Plan of Work and provides practical guidance, prompts, workshop tools and case studies to help teams embed inclusion throughout the design process. Rather than treating inclusion as a checklist, it encourages co-design, shared learning, meaningful engagement and collective responsibility.

Topics explored

• LGBTQIA+ inclusion within architecture, urban design and placemaking
• Designing for safety, visibility, dignity and belonging
• Intersectionality and lived experience in the built environment
• Community engagement and co-design approaches
• Practical tools for embedding inclusion throughout projects
• Challenging assumptions about who spaces are designed for

Members and non-members of all genders are welcome to attend.

Registration Deadline: 08 August 2026

Event Contact: Events Team