Hana Loftus was commissioned to act as the community coordinator for the regeneration and infill development of a 211-home estate in Hendon, north London. Barnet Council and Barnet Homes wanted the project to develop and demonstrate best practice in community participation, and Hana was appointed for her experience in facilitating meaningful participation in a number of settings.

Hana advocated that the client should adopt a co-design approach, rather than an 'engagement' approach, in order to place the community as an equal partner in the project alongside the client and the planning authority. She developed the project methodology and co-design approach and acted as the community champion for the project, as the interface between local community members, the formal client, and the design team. With the input of the community, she wrote the brief for the appointment of a masterplanner through OJEU, and designed and facilitated all the stakeholder and community involvement and communications, through to the successful planning application.

Hana ensured that the community were involved with the procurement of the design team, with community members involved in the interview process. She then worked closely with Allies and Morrison, the appointed design team, to lead co-design workshops and monthly open community steering group meetings.

The eventual design solution was directly resultant from what residents told the team they valued about the existing estate, which was the genuinely public nature of the green spaces around the buildings and the sense of a 'park' within the city. Rather than creating a 'block' structure which would enclose open spaces behind buildings, the masterplan therefore strengthens the sense of 'park' by removing traffic from the centre of the estate, allowing more space to become used for recreation. Alongside this, a strong 'edge' is created to deal with the 'left over' spaces around the perimeter of the estate which had become a focus for anti-social behaviour and fly-tipping.