The City at Eye Level: Building a Common Language, with Tina Saaby

Cities are full of stories and choices. Every street, building and square reflects decisions about values, priorities and the people who live there.

This first session looks at the words, ideas and concepts we use to describe a city's character, form and atmosphere. Most of us notice when a street feels welcoming or a square feels empty, but we rarely have the vocabulary to say why. Without that vocabulary it is hard to take part in conversations about how places change.

Together we build a shared language for talking about urban space, so that we can describe more precisely what we see, sense and experience around us.

The session is led by Tina Saaby, Sir Arthur Marshall Visiting Professor in Sustainable Urban Design at the University of Cambridge. She was City Architect of Copenhagen from 2010 to 2019 and of Gladsaxe from 2020 to 2023, and is now Chief Executive of the Danish Town Planning Institute.

Photo: Vejle Municipality

Who this is for

Anyone who lives, works or spends time in Cambridge. No background in architecture or planning is needed. The session is equally open to residents and community groups, to planners, architects and council officers, and to students and researchers.

What we will cover

• How the character and atmosphere of a place can be described in words
• The concepts practitioners use, and what they actually mean
• Where a shared vocabulary makes a difference in real decisions

About the series

The City at Eye Level is a two part series hosted by the Community Design Research Lab in the Cambridge Room. The second session, on Wednesday 16 September, turns to the formal processes of urban development in Cambridge and how residents can influence them. The sessions work on their own, and they also work well together.

Booking

Free, but places are limited and registration is required. Please release your ticket if you can no longer attend, so that someone else can take the place.

Finding us

The Cambridge Room is a shopfront unit inside the Grafton Centre, opposite Decathlon. Enter from Fitzroy Street and walk straight in. Look for the Community Design Research Lab signage in the window.