I was invited to run a greenspaces workshop alongside ecological designer David at the Community Planning Workshop day organised by the Save Leith Walk campaign team to create a communal vision for Leith Walk by and for the community. The day ran with a few workshops on Housing, Homelessness and Businesses. Our Grenspaces session was introduced by Ross Woodside from Edinburgh & Lothian Green Trust. Our goals was:
o To give the community of Leith the opportunity to envision together what could happen on Stead’s Place ground if we could make it a green space only.
o Highlight the crucial necessity of city sustainable regeneration.
o Design a sustainable Stead’s Place development space that “minimizes environmentally destructive impact by integrating itself with living processes” (Van der Ryn & Cowan 2007), that is based on co-sufficiency between Nature and People, that is low impact and collaborative.
As my colleague David puts it, “An amazing moment of pure community-based design with a real longing for positive community achievements!”
UPDATE 30/01/2019 Wow! Today is a win for communities across Scotland. First battle is won! Drum development to demolish Stead’s Place knocked back by councilors. Well done all volunteers involved! Now, let’s work on creating a communal affordable and green space for Leith Walk 
More details on Edinburgh News: Councillors refuse 50 million Leith Walk development
Intervention team: Save Leith Walk community team
Grenspaces facilitators: David & Mona Kastell Eco Designer
Photography: Mona Kastell unless otherwise specified
