Radical Precedents is the final chapter of the Neighbourhood Public Square proposal to be published in September 2026. Composed of ten case studies, each demonstrates ingredients of a new paradigm for the built environment, including design, procurement and construction processes; how they are financed and governed; networks and relationships; building systems; as well as access and ownership models.

For us, the learnings presented here, alongside a wealth of wider research, practical organising and a dynamic, growing ecosystem of peers, partners and collaborators, directly informs our own Neighbourhood Public Square demonstrator, orientating development and construction towards the many layers of redesign required for regenerative civic infrastructure at the heart of our neighbourhoods.

Beyond our own strategic insights, we hope publishing this chapter in the open now will continue to build literacy around approaches to the built environment that prioritise broader social and ecological outcomes, create a shared repository for our design team and project partners, and contribute to the wider field with our own emerging learning, in service of collective progress towards a systemic just transition.

CIVIC SQUARE Team Precedent Visit to Le Magasin Électrique, Arles, France (2024)

Since this desk-based study was conducted in 2023, we have continued to deepen our understanding of these precedents and many others through a range of learning visits and exchanges alongside our team, partners, peers and neighbours of all ages.

In the supplement at the centre of this chapter, we hope to share an updated record of the updated insights and embodied reflections from spending time in some of these buildings, and meeting the people behind them, in complement to the initial research.

Retrofit Reimagined Ecosystem Precedent Visit to Kitty’s Launderette, Liverpool, UK (2026)

As we now transition into the early construction phases of Neighbourhood Public Square, learning from existing precedents continues to provide a critical foundation for our preparations as a team, alongside many partners, peers and neighbours.

These sites and countless others continue to bring tangibility to how the built environment can shape and respond to the social and ecological conditions of our places locally and globally, illuminating the way forward for so many of us, and growing our collective capacity for the necessary societal and infrastructural transformation in the face of today’s increasing precarity and climate risk.

Now, preparing to step into the enabling works phase for the Neighbourhood Public Square site, we extend deep thanks to everyone who has shared so generously and honestly with us, along with everyone whose vision, dedication and energy has made the precedents in this chapter and many others into tangible proofs of possibility.

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Radical Precedents

Radical Precedents is Chapter 8 of the Neighbourhood Public Square proposal, co-authored and co-built by CIVIC SQUARE.

This chapter delves into radical building precedents which demonstrate tangible elements of the multifaceted transformations needed within the built environment to address the 21st century’s complex, entangled and cascading polycrisis.

This initial set of ten precedents each demonstrate ingredients of a new paradigm for the built environment, including design, procurement and construction processes; how they are financed and governed; networks and relationships; building systems; as well as access and ownership models.

Read the Radical Precedents chapter in full:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rOWZ-CfF0CjxgKk3y0JxGYulRaloNKFX/view

Case Studies

“The more people that can carry this with them to the next project and the project after that, the more the difficult practicalities become less difficult, because it’s always the first prototype that’s the hardest.”

—James Binning, Architect and Founding Member of Assemble

The selected precedents have been included for a range of reasons. Each demonstrates, in its own way, elements of an emerging paradigm for the built environment: one which reconceptualises its value beyond that of financial gain alone towards interdependent human and planetary health. How this manifests in practice varies from place to place, reflecting the different economic, social, cultural and political contexts in which these examples are rooted.

For us, these insights, alongside a wealth of wider research, practical organising experience and a wider ecosystem of peers, partners and collaborators, will serve to inform how we are working to practically and tangibly co-build Neighbourhood Public Square as a significant demonstrator, orientating development and construction towards the many layers of redesign required for regenerative civic infrastructure at the heart of our neighbourhoods.

This is in deep relationship with the Physical Infrastructure Design chapter of this proposal and the work happening on site through Site As A Classroom, Retrofit House and more, as well as forming one part of our Doughnut As A Compass orientation.

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We hope that by open sourcing the contents of this research it can support deeper reflection more broadly, contributing to the collective knowledge base in service of a just transition at a systemic level, and be part of an ongoing open ecosystem of learning and sharing together across local and global practice for social and ecological thriving.