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Made Public an independent public space and place making consultancy founded by Sarah Gaventa, utilising her unique experience and knowledge of both the subject and sector. Made Public works with developers, local authorities, communities and other client groups to help them think strategically, imaginatively and practically about their public realm. Made Public isn't a one stop shop, or a landscape architecture practice, but an independent, agile, consultancy providing support, advise and best practice to help create better places for all.

Sarah collaborates with like-minded professionals who are passionate about the public realm and understand the issues as well as the opportunities, to offer a bespoke range of services. We think the best way to start any potential project is with an informal chat — preferably over a cup of tea in a public space.

Services include: —
Contact details:
sarah@madepublic.org.uk
07968 184 469
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Sarah Gaventa has worked as a public space, place making and cultural regeneration consultant for clients such as Somerset House, Berkeley Group, Lendlease and both Islington and Southwark Councils.

She is currently Lendlease's public space champion for their Elephant & Castle regeneration project. She has chaired the Community Forum for the Elephant and Castle for the last three years and also chairs the recently formed Park Advisory Group helping to create the new Elephant Park. Other recent clients include Grosvenor Estates, Moscow City Parks Department and the NLA (New London Architecture) where she curated a public space installation called Never Mind The Bollards. She has written extensively on public space including authoring the book 'New Public Spaces'. Sarah is a commentator who regularly speaks and chairs talks and events (most recently for the Royal Academy and the NLA), on public space as well as contributing to wider debates on the built environment and city making.

Sarah was the Director of CABE Space — the UK government's advisor on public space — from October 2006 until April 2011 when CABE (the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) ceased. Sarah's role included advocacy, thought leadership and advice on the creation, design and management of public spaces including streets and civic spaces. CABE Space helped public, private and voluntary organisations to understand the benefits of well designed public space thought training, best practice case studies, research and tools.

Whilst at CABE Sarah was also the director of inclusive and sustainable design and created a ground breaking project 'Sightlines' with the Helen Hamlyn Foundation to explore the barriers faced by visually impaired people navigating streets and urban environments. Sarah was also the creator and Director of Seachange for DCMS, a three year £40 million capital grant programme for the cultural regeneration of seaside resorts — which involved mentoring and support for many new public space and cultural projects. Seachange is used as an example of best practice by both the Arts Council and English Heritage, been endorsed by independent evaluators and its projects have won many architectural, landscape and civic awards.

Prior to CABE Space (from 2000-2006) Sarah co founded Scarlet Projects, a creative consultancy that curated architecture and design exhibitions, events and public spaces with the aim of bringing contemporary design to a wider public audience. Projects included the annual Design Fete at the V&A (for whom Scarlet developed the original concept and curated the event for 7 years) it brought a younger and more diverse demographic to the V&A and broke attendance records for events, plus the Hardcore concrete exhibition at the RIBA the Perrier Jouet Design prize at Selfridges and projects for the British Council.

Sarah has been an Associate and member of the senior management team at Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners architects, responsible for leading their Richard Rogers retrospective at the Royal Academy in Summer 2013 and directly supporting Lord Rogers.

In 2014 she was the Interim Director of the Architecture Foundation.

Sarah is currently a director at Archiboo — providing an independent platform for architectural debate, and support for practices through talks, events and an expanding range of services.

Sarah has been a member of the Heritage Lottery Fund's Expert Panel, English Heritage's Environment Panel, Transport for London's Design Review Panel, is a advisor and founding member of the London Architecture Festival, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and in 2010 was made an Honorary Fellow of the Landscape Institute for her outstanding contribution to landscape. She has won a Guggenheim Scholarship and currently sits on the advisory board of the National Art & Design Saturday Club for the Sorrell Foundation. Sarah holds a B.A. from University College London (and has also studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art), and has an M.A. from the Royal College of Art. She is the author of three books including 'New Public Spaces' for Mitchell Beazley. She has presented and contributed to TV and radio programmes on the subjects of architecture and design, including the Sterling Prize. She is also a trained Spaceshaper facilitator.