Rebellious spaces: community-led design and the politics of liveability in Kilburn

This paper examines the role of community-led spatial practice in shaping urban livability through the case of the Kilburn Space Lab, an emerging civic initiative in North West London developed within the One Kilburn alliance. Bringing together residents, designers, students, researchers and policymakers, the project explores how collaborative design processes can move beyond consultation to co-author civic infrastructure and governance frameworks.
Grounded in participatory design, design activism and post-growth spatial thinking, the paper frames livability not as a technical or measurable condition, but as a political and relational one shaped through negotiation over access, identity, and ownership of urban space.
Drawing on outcomes from a series of participatory workshops held in Kilburn in March and June 2025, the study reflects on how interdisciplinary, design-led engagement can mobilise local knowledge, foster cross-sector alliances and challenge dominant regeneration narratives.
Rather than producing a single proposal, the workshops generated multiple spatial imaginaries—from mobile storytelling infrastructures and modular civic furniture to hybrid urban rooms embedded in everyday settings—grounded in community memory and lived experience.
These processes reposition students as facilitators and residents as co-designers and strategists, rebalancing institutional hierarchies and expanding the scope of civic participation.
The paper argues that micro-scale, design-led civic action can contribute to broader debates on governance, spatial justice and public space in contested urban contexts. By positioning the Kilburn Space Lab as both prototype and provocation, it offers insights into how participatory design might become embedded within long-term urban policy, education and community-led infrastructures.