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2022-03-31-accounts

Company number: 05435630 Charity Number: 1112094

The Glass-House Community Led Design

Report and financial statements For the year ended 31 March 2022

The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Reference and administrative information 1
Directors’ report 2
Independent examiner's report 28
Statement of financial activities (incorporating an income and expenditure account) 29
Balance sheet 30
Notes to the financial statements 31

The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Company number 05435630
Charity number 1112094
Registered office Mainyard Studios
and operational 35 Bow Road
address London E3 2AD
Country of United Kingdom
incorporation
Directors Prue Chiles Chair
Susannah Davis
Robert Johnson
Alexander Sainsbury
Key management Sophia de Sousa Chief Executive
personnel
Secretary Sophia de Sousa
Bankers CAF Bank Ltd
25 Kings Hill Avenue
Kings Hill
West Malling ME19 4JQ
Solicitors Portrait Solicitors
1 Chancery Lane
London WC2A 1LF
Independent Noelia Serrano
Examiner Sayer Vincent LLP
Chartered Accountants
Invicta House
108-114 Golden Lane
London EC1Y 0TL

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

The Directors, who also act as Trustees for charity law purposes, submit their annual report and the financial statements of The Glass-House Community Led Design for the year ended 31 March 2022. The Directors confirm that the annual report and financial statements of the Charity comply with current statutory requirements, the requirements of the Charity's governing document and the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) 'Accounting and Reporting by Charities'.

Structure, governance and management

The Glass-House Community Led Design, which is a Registered Charity (1112094) and a Company Limited by Guarantee (05435630), is constituted through its Memorandum and Articles of Association.

The Board of Directors currently has four appointed members, who give their time to the Charity on a voluntary basis. The Directors of the Company during the year are set out in the legal and administrative information on page 1. The current Directors are Prue Chiles (Chair), Susannah Davis, Robert Johnson (Chair of Finance Committee) and Alex Sainsbury.

Either existing Directors or senior staff members may propose potential new Directors. The Chair and at least one other member interview each potential Director. If approved, potential Directors attend a meeting of the Board of Directors as an observer. Directors may subsequently be appointed by a unanimous vote on an ordinary resolution at a quorate meeting of the Charity’s Board of Directors. There is an established process for the induction of Directors. All new Directors are provided with an induction pack containing relevant documentation as recommended by the Charity Commission. The Board carries out regular governance reviews of the Board and its functions.

The Directors appoint a Chief Executive to manage the day-to-day activities of the Charity.

Risk management

The Charity has assessed the governance, operational, financial, and external risks, as well as those related to compliance with law and regulation. Where appropriate, the Charity has consulted external experts to ensure that the systems and structures in place meet standards and regulations. The Charity has established a clear set of Financial Policies and Procedures adhering to guidance from the Charity Commission, as well as a Financial Reserves Policy appropriate to the risks of the Charity. A comprehensive review of the risks is carried out on an annual basis.

Related parties

One of the Charity’s Directors (Alex Sainsbury) is also on the board of the Charity’s main core funder, The Glass-House Trust. See note 8 for further information.

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Objectives and activities

The Principal objects of the Charity are:

Mission and approach

We want to make great places a reality for everyone.

We connect people with the design of their places, and connect design with people.

Our work is focused on supporting communities, organisations and networks to work collaboratively on the design of buildings, open spaces, homes and neighbourhoods.

We see design not only as a tool for creating great places, but also as a way to connect people and to empower them with enhanced confidence, skills, and a greater sense of agency.

We work openly and collaboratively across disciplines and sectors to develop research, projects, events and practical resources. We are committed to sharing the learning from our work to help affect change for people, places and practice.

What we do

Champion: We are an independent advocate for the value of empowering design practices and for the importance of design quality and its effect on people’s quality of life.

Connect: We use design to bring people together to work collaboratively to improve their places and support local relationships and networks that help build community.

Areas of work

Improving places

We enable a wide range of people and organisations to work together to shape places, such as the design of new housing, revitalising a green space or transforming a community building.

Our independent, hands-on support helps to build confidence and capacity, to inspire, and to give people the agency to improve the quality of their neighbourhoods.

Innovating practice

We inject new approaches and processes that enhance the social and economic impact of designing places and inform policy and practice.

Our support empowers organisations to rethink their culture and practice to support a more open and collaborative approach to shaping places.

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Action research

We undertake action research with partners across sectors and disciplines to explore the value and impact of empowering design practices in supporting people and places.

Through our collaborations with partners and the communities engaged with our research, we develop and share new knowledge, tools and resources.

Supporting dialogue

We create and facilitate interactive events and activities that help people from different backgrounds and professions work together and learn from each other.

We also share our work on empowering design practices at conferences, workshops, lectures and other events that explore the connections between people and places.

When planning our activities for the year, the Directors have considered the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit. The Glass-House works to ensure that our programmes are inclusive, accessible and responsive to the needs of our beneficiaries. We also aim to ensure that any support that we offer brings benefit not only to the direct participants, but also to a broad crosssection of the communities in which their projects are based. We are also committed to ensuring that our work supports innovation, and the production and sharing of learning.

Allocation of resources to beneficiaries

The Glass-House offers free or subsidised enabling and support to community groups and organisations through a number of different programmes.

The Glass-House delivers a programme of free events, which includes our national Glass-House WEdesign Series and other workshops, seminars and events. We generally offer open registration to these on a first come, first served basis.

The Glass-House also offers some free or subsidised project-based support and training to selected communities, which is sometimes made possible through theme-based funded programmes. All of this support is accessed through a both rigorous and responsive process to assess eligibility of groups and projects, managed by the Charity’s staff and relevant partners. Applicants are interviewed and/or visited by one or more members of staff, and information assessed by at least two members of staff. The staff team reports regularly to the Chief Executive and the Board of Directors on both projects being considered and resource allocations made. All support given has clear terms and conditions attached and is subject to rigorous monitoring and evaluation. Above all, there is the expectation that we will capture and share learning from each of these projects, and that those we support will work with us to help ensure that the work we do with them can benefit others as well.

In some cases, our free support to communities is linked to the collaborative action research programmes we deliver with higher education and third sector partners. This allows us to both provide practical support on the ground in communities, and to extract and disseminate learning to contribute to the growing evidence base and movement of community-led, participatory and collaborative design of place.

We also offer training and enabling support to communities through commissioned services. We choose only those commissioned projects that contribute to our mission. All funds generated through commissioned work are invested back into meeting our charitable objectives.

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Report on activities 2021/22

Emerging from Covid

As the world began to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated restrictions which transformed life and work around the globe, we began this financial year with a fair bit of uncertainty about what it would bring, but it proved to be another full and productive year at The Glass-House. Whilst 2020/21 had been a year of reinventing and innovating, this year became one of adaptation to constantly shifting circumstances and to going in and out of restrictions. While this was logistically difficult at times, our small nimble charity was well placed to work flexibly and to find ways to make things work. This placed us strategically in a good position to continue with our broad spectrum of work, and to be a sought-after partner and collaborator.

Being ambitious about the future of The Glass-House

Our new strategic plan built on our previous strategy to set five key strategic objectives for 20212024:

  1. Be catalytic to affect change

  2. (Choose and make opportunities for targeted action that has a significant impact)

  3. Champion, challenge, provoke and inspire (Constantly ask people to reflect, reconsider and imagine)

  4. Maximise impact through collaboration

  5. Maximise impact through collaboration (Build on existing partnerships to create new opportunities and to extend our impact and reach)

  6. Widen practice and build legacy

  7. (Further develop, articulate and share our stories, practice and tools to develop our shareable resources and archive)

  8. Nurture Glass-House team & champions

  9. Ensure that working for and with The Glass-House helps people to build the confidence and skills to support and enable The Glass-House mission

This year saw us deliver a rich programme of activities, grounded in our ongoing commitment to innovation, capturing and sharing learning and to partnership working. The Covid pandemic has certainly contributed to an increase in interest and a general shift in perceptions and enthusiasm around community engagement in design and placemaking, and our spectrum of work this year illustrates that.

However, there is still an enormous skills gap in design engagement within local government, in practice and industry, and our experience and reputation have positioned us well to help address it through our work. As new opportunities emerge for communities to engage in design and placemaking, there is still much support needed to help build skills and confidence in this space. It is clear to us that there is too much for us to achieve on our own and that one of our key objectives looking forward must be to empower as many other people as possible to do what we do, and to give others the confidence to experiment and innovate in this field.

What follows is a snapshot of our work in 2021/22.

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Improving places

Our approach to supporting projects has always been rooted in helping people to develop the skills, tools and confidence to lead their local project and to connect with potential partners and beneficiaries. Our enabling and empowerment model aims to support better collaboration and more sustainable approaches to transforming places and spaces. We respond to communities, local authorities, housing associations, developers design teams that approach us for support.

The following examples illustrate the spectrum of our responsive support to place-based projects:

Using Gaming to Empower Children in design at The Willow on Broadwaters

This workshop for a group of sixteen Year 6 students from The Willow on Broadwaters was part a wider programme of regeneration on the Broadwater Farm Estate led by Haringey Council and Karakusevic Carson Architects (KCA). The Willows School sits adjacent to Broadwater Farm Estate in Tottenham, North London and forms part of the Broadwaters Inclusive Learning Community.

The Glass-House team returned to our gaming workshop model, which we had developed with children as an approach to introducing young learners to architectural concepts and to exploring design principles through the gaming platform Roblox Studio. We were interested to try it within this new context of the regeneration of a housing area, as we saw this as a way to build the confidence of the children to join the conversation about change happening in their neighbourhood, and to empower them with a different way to express and share their ideas about what matters to them about their built environment.

The day took the children through a series of discussions as well as both individual and group tasks, and saw the children move from a starting point of reacting to the design of different spaces, to imaging, design and building their own spaces using the building tools within Roblox Studio. This including an individual design and build challenge, in which the children were asked to imagine and build their dream home. Later in the day, they worked in small groups to co-design and co-build they ideal play area.

We were joined by our young Enabler Dexter, who co-designed this workshop model with us in our initial gaming workshop, as well as providing invaluable guidance for this iteration. We were also assisted by a facilitator from the KCA team, Lois Innes, who offered the students design advice and an insight into built environment professions.

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Union Chapel Sunday School Workshop

The Glass-House worked with Union Chapel, home of a charity organisation, active church and heritage building in North London, to develop and deliver a full-day, in-person workshop in the beautiful Grade II* Listed Sunday School, which forms part of Union Chapel’s complex of buildings in Islington, North London.

The workshop aimed to explore the heritage and stories of the Sunday School with local residents and stakeholders in preparation for a planned substantial refreshment of the building, which will include the planning and production of an interpretation piece showcase the building’s history and help visitors make sense of the building around them.

The aim of the workshop was to help shape a brief for this interpretation piece, involving a diverse range of local people and organisations to help unpick what is special about the Sunday School and how it could connect with the wider community in Islington. The workshop session was designed to help participants explore the Sunday School and wider Union Chapel spaces through a series of exploratory activities, knowledge exchange, facilitated and open discussions, and creative tasks.

The ouputs of the workshop fed into a funding application to the National Heritage Lottery Fund (NHLF), which if successful, will secure the future of the Sunday School Stories Project.

We created a publication to capture an overview of the workshop activities, observations, recommendations and what we see as the opportunities within the Sunday School Project.

Participant voices

I enjoyed the mapping session in groups as I learnt about places and organisations I didn’t know about

[One important thing I’ve learnt is] the need to use the full ‘inventory’ of creative techniques to tell many of the different stories the [Sunday School] building has.

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

The Junction Placemaking and Wayfinding Project

A consortium led by The Junction Business Improvement District (BID) and including a range of community organisations in Battersea, secured funding from the Mayor of London’s High Streets for All Challenge Fun d for the initial stage of a project to enhance the environment in Clapham Junction (Battersea) for residents, visitors, businesses, and other organisations. The BID’s ambition is to create resilient high streets that promote local partnerships, ensuring these are safe spaces for people to explore, mobilise, share dialogue and collaborate.

The Glass-House was invited by the consortium to support the group in the early phases of their project, which centred around a series of walkabouts to engage local people in conversation about their area. The project aimed to build the foundations for longer-term initiatives alongside developing a network of community-led and cross-sector collaboration which builds on the rich local history of social action amongst community and business initiatives alike.

Through this work, The Glass-House helped the group develop a strategy and action plan for their programme of walkabouts, and then helped them capture and consolidate the group’s learning and ideas for activating change.

We created a publication to capture an overview of the workshop activities, observations, recommendations the group could use to engage partners and collaborators, and to build into the next stages of their work and funding bids.

https://theglasshouse.org.uk/resources/the-junction-placemaking-andwayfinding-report-autumn-2021/

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Kick-starting a Collaborative design journey in Down Lane Park, Tottenham

Haringey Council is working with residents and community partners to deliver a new vision for Down Lane Park in Tottenham. The park provides seven hectares of green space, which is loved and well-used by the local community, but the park is in need of some love and improvements to ensure it is able to continue to function effectively.

The Glass-House was invited by the project team to deliver a full-day workshop to Down Lane Park’s Community Design Group (CDG), helping to kick-start the project journey with a fun and playful session.

The full-day workshop explored collaborative design with and for a wide range of users and stakeholders by using an iteration of our Design by Consensus activity. Focusing on the guiding values and principles for Community Design Groups, we also helped them explore and articulate what was important to them in their collaborative design journey ahead, and introduced both an approach and some tools that can be used to continue and widen their conversation about the future of Down Lane Park.

Participant Voices

“[One of my key takeaways is] to respect everyone’s opinions, even if they don’t align with your own.”

“[The workshop] strengthened the idea that we can be the engine of creativity and change.”

This report captures an overview of the workshop activities

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Enabling design engagement in estate regeneration

Once again, this year has seen us collaborating with the design practice Karakusevic Carson Architects to support an engaged design process to shape the regeneration two estates in London, Ledbury and St Raphael’s Estate. We injected specialist support in building capacity among local residents to contribute meaningfully to the design process for these two estates, delivering our long-established two-day Design Training course, Homes & Neighbourhoods by Design. As Karakusevic Carson Architects was the commissioned design team for both housing areas, we brought the community design groups from the two projects together so that they could share experiences and learn from each other.

For this series of Design Training, we delivered three sessions across three months. Two of the sessions were online and the other, a full-day, in-person workshop. The hybrid programme allowed us to be cautious in light of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, as well as bridge the geographical distance between the two estates. By delivering a hybrid programme, we were also able to combine the benefits of both in-person and digital training spaces.

In this programme of Design Training, we introduced and explored urban design principles, housing typologies and more complicated technical drawings through our trio of workshops.

In the first online workshop, we introduced the key principles and language of urban design, exploring how places are put together, exploring key themes such as density and connectivity, as well as how different street layouts, and frontages impact on the look and feel of a neighbourhood. The second workshop, which was delivered in-person, explored housing typologies, with a more focused conversation about estate and neighbourhood design, before unpacking specific house design language and guidance. The final online workshop built further on this exploration of architectural drawings, breaking down the design process and drawings found at each stage before diving deeper into plans, sections and elevations and how to read the levels of information found at each of these stages of the design journey.

This report captures an overview of the workshops and activities

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Innovating practice

This year saw us continue to test new ways of working and to challenge others to do the same. What was perhaps interesting about this year in comparison to last, was that while we were using and embracing technology, we found that many of those we worked with were keen to get back together in person and to return to more traditional, analogue tools as well. We found that people were craving spaces for conversation and discussion as a means of exploring, challenging and innovating ways of working and learning from others, and our work in innovating practice centred largely on creating those spaces.

Here are some highlights from the past year:

ExploreStation

The Glass-House was invited into a partnership led by Design Council, alongside Commonplace and Digital Urban, to deliver a series of engagement activities across the UK to facilitate a conversation with the British public about a new design standard being developed for small to medium-sized stations for Network Rail. This station design framework is being designed by 7N Architects, an Edinburgh-based practice that won the 2020 RIBA international design competition, Reimagining Railway Stations, in collaboration with ARUP. The brief for this competition was informed and shaped by a passenger and stakeholder engagement project, ThinkStation, commissioned by Network Rail and delivered by Design Council in 2019 and early 2020 through a series of workshops across the UK.

The Glass-House delivered a series of online and face-to-face workshops to engage the British public in shaping the final stages of the new design standard produced by 7N Architects for Network Rail.

Our role in ExploreStation was to deliver two rounds of engagement activities. The first round, in November 2021, saw us deliver a series of interactive exhibitions and workshops in Sheffield, Bristol, Cardiff and online to help the Great British public explore the design proposals from 7N Architects. The workshops created spaces for discussion and debate, and for participants to both ask questions and consider how the design could be further adapted and improved. The opinions, ideas and reflections that we gathered fed into the final stages of design.

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

We produced an exhibition guide, which helped provide background information as well as link to the Commonplace platform, where participants could access more information and share further views on the station design. https://theglasshouse.org.uk/resources/explorestation-exhibition-guide/

Looking ahead to Round 2

With the design process nearing an end, the second round of the engagement activities in May 2022 focuses on how this framework can help meet Network Rial’s ambition for stations to take on a new role as community hubs. In these workshops, we explore how the new station design can help create opportunities for community benefit, but also to activate the communities to play a role in informing and delivering what happens there.

Co-designing Design Codes: How Could meaningful community engagement work?

Working with London Forum of Amenity and Community Societies & Urban Design London, we convened a free online event which brought together different voices in a safe and neutral environment to have an honest conversation about what we see as the challenges and opportunities of community engagement in the creation of design codes as a means of empowering communities to play an active role in championing, informing and enforcing good design.

We kick-started the conversation with a series of brief provocations to explore different perspectives, created space for discussion and debate, and then worked together to co-design a set of formal recommendations on how to meaningfully engage communities in co-designing and championing design codes in their locality.

This publication captures the key findings of the event and maps the journey through our dialogue with participants. We hope it will continue to provoke discussion and debate, and that it will offer inspiring and practical ideas on how to meaningfully engage local people and organisations in co-designing design codes.

https://theglasshouse.org.uk/resources/co-designing-design-codes-howcould-meaningful-community-engagement-work-event-report/

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Supporting and innovating practice through Glass-House Chats:

Following a successful launch of this approach last year, The Glass-House offered another season of Glass-House Chats. These free online sessions were designed to create a safe space to ask questions, explore ideas, approaches and methods, share learning and make connections. They are open to and attract a wide range of participants who are interested in how we can collectively build confidence and capacity in the sectors to engage communities in design and placemaking.

These monthly sessions are chaired by The Glass-House Chief Executive, who briefly introduces the theme and then opens the floor for an informal and open discussion among participants. To ensure space for meaningful discussion, places are limited to a small group. The themes covered in 2021/22 include

Following each chat, we share summaries of the key discussion points with participants and through our blogs. https://theglasshouse.org.uk/?s=Glass+House+Chats.

We have also produced a small publication to capture our first season. https://theglasshouse.org.uk/resources/glass-house-chats-bringingsectors-together-january-july-2021/

Glass-House Chats have been much appreciated by participants, and have also created an invaluable space for connection, dialogue and learning for our team as well as for those who join us. We will continue this activity with a new season of Chats, which we now plan to keep as a regular part of The Glass-House programme.

Participant voices

"I valued] Connecting with a diverse group of people and having an informal chat about placemaking ."

[I enjoyed] being introduced to new ideas / concepts / tools and seeing things from a different perspective”

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

The Glass-House and higher education

The Glass-House enjoys working with universities and where possible, we inject some of our experience and learning into degree programmes for emerging design and regeneration professionals. This year, we continued to experiment with our new model for collaboration with higher education linked to our 2021/22 WEdesign event series (see below in the Supporting Dialogue section). We also supported a live student research project in collaboration with The UCL Bartlett School of Planning.

Glass-House workshops for universities

The Glass-House designed and delivered workshops for the following universities, injecting our expertise into various different design modules and degree courses at:

We also advised several students working on dissertations through one-to-one interview sessions.

Continuing Professional Development

There is growing recognition that The Glass-House can offer useful continuing professional development (CPD) training on design engagement within design practices and local authorities. This year saw us develop a series of CPD workshops for Hawkins\Brown Architects, with which we have now also gone on to collaborate on housing regeneration and urban design projects. We are also in conversation with different types of local authority departments to explore how we can help their staff teams develop the skills and confidence to lead more engaged and inclusive design processes.

Contributing to central government policy and guidance

We continued our dialogue with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to advise on two key pieces of guidance:

The Glass-House is playing an active role in the national conversation on design codes, being invited in to both events and training spaces, and indeed partnering with others to convene spaces ourselves, to talk about how communities can meaningfully be involved in the creation of design codes that will guide policy and development in their area.

Glass-House participation on commissions, panels & advisory groups

The Glass-House Chief Executive has also been active on a number of other groups, panels and advisory groups this year. These include:

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Supporting dialogue

Local Places Global Issues

The Glass-House WEdesign online event series 2020/21

The Glass-House WEdesign event series, Local Places Global Issues, delved into some of the themes that have brought people together around the globe to fight for equity, celebrate diversity, tackle climate change and grapple with how we both celebrate and mitigate against the influences of our past to shape our society today.

Local Places, Global Issues , was our first hybrid event series, drawing on the experience and approach of the 2020/21 online series, whilst also reconnecting with participants in person. Once again, we worked with higher education partners and students to create interactive spaces for discussion and co-design.

As the restrictions linked to the pandemic continued to shift throughout the year, so did both people’s enthusiasm for online spaces and their levels of comfort when mixing with other people. We decided that a hybrid approach to the series would allow us to cater to as many people as possible and to experiment further with testing the boundaries of interactive co-design activities within a public-facing event.

Working with higher education partners, each event in the series was an interactive space in which we worked alongside academics and students across the country to co-design and co-facilitate these free interactive online events. These sessions also linked into the students’ current university projects, providing them with a platform to explore their ideas. whilst empowering them as presenters and facilitators.

As with previous series, our events brought together community activists, practitioners, students, researchers, academics, policy makers, voluntary, public and private sector professionals and representatives from the design, housing and development industries. As with our fully online series in 2020/21, people participated in the events from different parts of the UK and from all over the world.

Our series partners were Manchester School of Architecture’s PRAXXIS , UCL Bartlett, The ’ Glasgow School of Art, The University of Sheffield s School of Architecture and Live Works.

The series and co-designed propositions are recorded in this booklet, which celebrates a new way of integrating Glass-House WEdesign events with higher education degree courses in built environment qualifications.

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Place Equity: Making great spaces a reality for everyone

Manchester School of Architecture’s PRAXXIS atelier 13 October 2021

This event, in collaboration BA3 students from Manchester School of Architecture’s PRAXXIS atelier, explored inclusivity and equity in public places.

Responding to the topical theme of people’s safety on our city’s streets, as well as taking inspiration from Leslie Kern’s book Feminist City, we investigated how to make places which are safe, accessible, and welcoming to all.

Using a local underused space as a catalyst for discussion, we aimed to encourage outside-the-box thinking with ambitious and radical ideas We considered the issue from all angles including policy, practice, community and education as lenses to explore how we might think about making equitable places in future.

The event was broadcast live out of Manchester School of Architecture, with participants from a range of backgrounds and disciplines joining us online and in person, and students facilitating participants in both in-person and remote groups.

Here are some examples of the ideas that emerged:

Green spaces as safe dwelling spots for safety and relaxation were a main focus for the in-person Education group, and they also debated the definition of political spaces and how to generate them. They decided that co-designing and making these spaces collaboratively with a diverse group of people would help to create an equitable and enjoyable space for the general public.

The online Education group saw the educational opportunities that designing public space can offer around diversity and accessibility. Acoustics, neurodiversity and wayfinding were all facets of accessibility this group felt were important to consider and address within design, and they proposed that the best way to explore this would be to bring a variety of people into a space for engagement activities.

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Diversifying Design: Urban ecology by, with and for diverse actors

In partnership with UCL Bartlett School of Planning 24 February 2022

The Glass-House team worked alongside Dr Lucy Natarajan, Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Planning, and students studying Urban Ecologies through UCL Bartlett’s MSc in international Planning and MSc in Spatial Planning to explore both how we can give nature a voice in codesigning the city and what cities can do for nature.

This event paused to think about the importance of how urban development can work with and for natural ecologies, weaving a tapestry with our nonhuman actants (nature, insects, animals). We explored the different voices of nature and how these urban ecologies can have more of a permanent voice in placemaking.

The event was broadcast live out of UCL via zoom, with participants from a range of backgrounds and disciplines joining us online and students (both undergraduate and postgraduate, spanning multiple courses) from the UCL Bartlett School of Planning participating in person.

Here are some examples of what one of the groups pitched as their idea for change:

The online Practice group focused on how to innovate and better design our places through the collaborative effort of bringing intergenerational conversations and voices together with and for nature as catalysts for change. The group considered the role of trees within the urban realm as a form of social infrastructure and explored how trees might support an exchange between generations and bring people together through conversations about biodiversity in the past, present and future.

The in-person Education group focused on education through the tactile experience of nature. They speculated on ways to bring nature into the foreground of our lives, through creating more visible connections with our arboreal partners. The development of a community orchard could embed principles of growing from cradle to grave as well as considering the cyclical nature of growing, all while bringing people of different ages and cultures together to share and connect with nature, and with each other.

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Cultural Influences: Exploring who is missing in placemaking

In partnership with Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh School of Architecture 10 March 2022

With the help of architecture students from the Mackintosh School of Architecture within Glasgow School of Art, we explored how we can address issues of inequality through breathing life back into neglected spaces.

This event considered the potential of the forgotten spaces that hide within our urban realm, exploring the cultural influences, or lack of, that have shaped these spaces. We looked at who is missing, left out of these placemaking conversations, and developed propositions for how to draw them back into shaping the future of our urban realms.

With some restrictions still in place in Scotland at the time of this event, we had to make this an online event our participants. We broadcast live from the Mackintosh School of Architecture, with staff and students working in-person with The Glass-House team.

Here are some of the ideas that emerged from this co-design event:

The Community group explored the potential role of these overlooked spaces to “create community” (and whether they can do so without devaluing any existing ones). This prompted discussion around the themes of trust, bias and agency in placemaking. They considered the tensions that catalytic actions within a space might create, whether instigated by a certain element of any given community or through an “outsider” coming in with the best intentions of helping to improve that space.

The Practice group felt that design practitioners in particular have a crucial role in analysing a space, considering what is there now, what was there in the past, the space’s potential and exploring what could be brought into the space to activate it in the future. They proposed that the very act of bringing a design conversation into a disused space, bringing in mapping and engagement tools to support a user-led design approach, could serve to activate local people to explore these things together, and that this process could help shift the cultural influences that inform the future of that place.

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Sustainability: Designing more sustainable high streets

In partnership with University of Sheffield’s School of Architecture & Live Works 30 March 2022

This event was in collaboration with The University of Sheffield School of Architecture’s Live Works. At this interactive co-design event, with the help of students studying Architecture in their final year of undergraduate studies, we investigated alternatives to High Streets as sites for consumerism and considered a richer and more diverse set of people & place-specific activities.

As part of the event, we introduced student propositions for sustainable community hubs to explore what role they and other community buildings might play in creating more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable high streets.

We welcomed participants to this event both in-person at the Arts Tower in Sheffield and online.

Here are some examples of the ideas that emerged from this event:

The online Policy group was keen to shake off the idea that the high street is “dead”, and instead felt that what we are seeing in this moment is an evolution, heavily influenced by the effects of covid. They highlighted that pre-covid policy is now outdated and questioned whether policymakers are representative of those who will actually be using high streets in years to come. To bridge the gap between policymakers and all those who use the high street, genuine community engagement is key, and there is a need to inject intergenerational perspectives into these conversations.

The in-person Education group proposed creating spaces for ‘unlearning’ where these preconceived notions of the high street can be explored, challenged and reconsidered. By championing the idea of unlearning as a starting point for the evolution of the high street, there is then room to consider the high street beyond retail. We can then engage personal and collective agency in how under-utilised or disused spaces along high streets could be reimagined and repurposed.

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

New support for the WEdesign Programme from Ove Arup Foundation

We are pleased to welcome the Ove Arup Foundation* to our community of collaborators. The Foundation will be supporting our WEdesign Programme through 3-year funding for a dedicated post to further develop the Wedesign series of events into a broader programme with higher education partners to bring together students, communities, practitioners and policy-makers through our work. Our new WEdesign Programme Manager will take up post in August 2022.

Other events to inform, provoke discussion and inspire

The Glass-House has an approach to developing and participating in events that engages audiences in thinking, exploring and doing. We have embedded this interactive approach and created spaces to inform and inspire at the following events organised by others:

External events attended included:

Supporting dialogue through our website

Our INSPIRED blog series is a space to celebrate what people see as the ideas, processes and projects that are pushing boundaries to empower people and communities to shape their places.

Our Dear Future Placemakers series asks people to contribute letters that thoughtfully share learning points from contributors’ lived and/or professional experience with the placemakers of the future

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Action research

The Glass-House has become a respected voice in the field of research on design processes that empower people in and through placemaking. Our action research is rooted in working collaboratively across sectors and both with and within communities to co-design projects that develop new knowledge methodologies and practical resources.

An ongoing strategic partnership with the Open University

Since 2013, The Glass-House has had a strategic partnership with the Open University’s Design Group. Our partnership innovates, supports and promotes community-led, participatory and codesign practice and research for the benefit of better places for all.

Empowering Design Practices: historic places of worship as catalysts for connecting communities

This year we completed this seven-year collaborative research project, which is the largest project in the Design and Communities strand funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). It explored how community-led design can help empower those who look after historic places of worship to create more open, vibrant and sustainable places that respect and enhance their heritage. While working within this context of faith and heritage, the project also aimed to develop tools, resources and training to support community-led design practice and research more widely. The Empowering Design Practices (EDP) project was a collaboration between The GlassHouse, The Open University, Historic England, National Lottery Heritage Fund (formerly Heritage Lottery Fund), Historic Religious Buildings Alliance, and others. The project launched in October 2014 and though originally conceived as a five-year project, was extended through October 2020, and then again due to Covid, through October 2021.

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Our final stage of the project was dedicated to capturing and sharing our learning through academic papers, and to co-designing an online course. One of the key learning points from our research project conference EDP Live was that while people valued the wide range of resources we had created, there was a clear interest in our research partnership team providing some guidance and training on how to use the resources, and when best to introduce them into a project journey.

This has led to us working with our partners The Open University to develop a course aimed at doing just that. The course places an emphasis on the potential of anyone, be they a community activist, design professional, support officer or funder to become a “design enabler” and builds on our learning and experience in this space. It outlines key principles and methods for enabling community-led and participatory design processes, introducing the resources we have produced through EDP as practical enabling tools.

The course launched in December 2021 and within one week had people registered and participating from 23 different countries.

Fostering creative citizens through co-design and public makerspaces

A collaboration between The Glass-House, Brunel University and Tongji University in China. October 2018 – September 2021

This project sought to develop a novel and inclusive means of fostering creative citizens in China in a bottom-up manner through strategic use of co-design and public makerspaces. The project looked at creative community centres and makerspaces in both the UK and China, and produced bilingual resources that share experience and learning to help inspire makerspaces of the future. The project was funded by The Arts and Humanities Research Council and Newton Fund

The research team in China resumed activities on the ground this year, holding a series of workshops in Shanghai. For the research team in the UK however, this year was about capturing and sharing our learning through the production of academic papers, participation in conferences and seminars and practical resources. The Glass House played an active role in co-authoring academic papers for design journals, and in producing project publications.

This publication captures the research activities in both the UK and in China, and shares our findings. - https://theglasshouse.org.uk/resources/fostering creative-citizens-through-co-design-and-public- - makerspaces summary publication/

At The Glass-House, we placed a particular focus on developing a facilitation guide for our Design by Consensus: Makerspaces workshop designed by the Glass-House and delivered in both the UK and China. We wanted to create a facilitation guide, complete with printable workshop resources, that would empower anyone to deliver this workshop within their own community.

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Incubating Civic Leadership

A collaboration between The Glass-House, Open University, Knowle West Media Centre, Bristol September 2020 – July 2021

Our Incubating Civic Leadership (ICL) research project explored approaches and processes to help enable active citizenship, supporting community leadership and cross-sector collaboration in placemaking. This knowledge exchange project, funded through Research England’s Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), was a collaboration between The Open University, The GlassHouse and Knowle West Media Centre. We also worked with local partners London Borough of Redbridge and Muslimah Sports Association on locally based initiatives that tested new ways of catalysing leadership and collaboration through placemaking.

Urban Activation

The Glass-House worked with our partners in the London Borough of Redbridge to deliver an online workshop, and then in July, an urban activation on the streets outside the Ilford Library.

The idea for this event was simple. We wanted to explore what would happen if you put objects into an underused public space and invited people to engage with them. How might this change people’s perceptions of that space, how they interact with it and with other people within it? Would they feel they had the agency to change that space, even if temporarily, and what might that do to help local people feel a greater sense of agency in placemaking within their neighbourhoods?

Working with our local research partners LB Redbridge, the Muslimah Sports Association and for this event, Redbridge Vision, we planned a simple pop-up makerspace outside the Redbridge Central Library in the heart of Ilford.

By injecting a few simple props, we wanted to test what might make people linger and experience the place differently. We were very clear that we did not want this event to feel like a consultation, and while we wanted to create a space for people to express views and ambitions for their neighbourhood, this was not about creating a ‘scheme-based consultation event’. We wanted simply to create a space for connection, to be playful yet provocative, and to talk to people in the local area.

Filmmaker Emma Crouch captured the Urban Activation as well as the other activities and learning from this project in a short video. https://theglasshouse.org.uk/resources/incubating-civic-leadership-film/

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Cross-pollination: Growing cross-sector design collaboration in placemaking

(Jan 2022-Jan 2023)

The Cross-pollination: Growing cross-sector design collaboration in placemaking project aims to scale up collaboration by exploring and developing spaces and mechanisms that can enable and empower placemaking actors (e.g. local authorities, civic sector organisations, community groups, academic institutions, cultural institutions and businesses) to connect on shared values and objectives, unearth and mobilise their collective assets, and then collaborate through design and placemaking initiatives in local areas.

The project is a collaboration between The Open University and national charity The Glass-House Community Led Design, working in partnership with the Glasgow Urban Lab, locally-based partners in Merthyr Tydfil, and Clapham Junction in London.

We held an online session in February to start the conversation and collaboration with local partners, and since have expanded our group of collaborators and locations in which we will be working. As we move into the new financial year, we will be working with a number of groups on in-person cross-pollination activities in England, Scotland and Wales.

The Cross-pollination website holds information on project activities https://growing-cross-pollination.weebly.com

Articles and publications

Co-authored academic papers

The Glass-House has worked with colleagues from The Open University, Brunel University on a number of academic papers. The following were published this year:

Fostering creativity through co-design and making: Case studies of makerspaces in the UK

(Journal of Design Research)

This paper discusses how individual creativity can be fostered through co-design activities and the act of making, especially those taking place in makerspaces. It explores relationships between creative development, and co-design activities and investigates types of co-design activities occurring in makerspaces.

Co-Design Visions of Public Makerspaces in China

International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation

This paper discusses the design and outputs of co-design workshops used to facilitate the cocreation of a shared vision for public makerspaces in China and the design of such space. The workshops were held with Chinese and non-Chinese participants to identify similarities and differences in terms of approaches, outputs and key considerations.

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

Business development and financial review of 2021/22

The Glass-House began 2021/22 with a secure budget, but with some uncertainty about what the year would bring, with an ever-shifting landscape around us as the country moved in and out of Covid-related restrictions. The previous year had been both productive and successful, so we had the reserves in place to begin the year with confidence. As the year progressed, our confidence grew, and we found our team in need of supplementing as the workload and commissioned projects increased.

This year turned out to be busy and productive year for The Glass-House, with our commissioned work and associated income increasing significantly over the previous year. At the close of 2021/22 we find ourselves in a strong position with a surplus of approximately £8.7 on unrestricted funds and £59.3k in restricted funds, giving us an overall surplus of £68k. This is thanks to us having added over £50k income to our original budget over the course of the year through commissioned projects and having secured additional grant funding. This permitted us to extend existing staff contracts to accommodate an additional member of the staff team. We also have substantial funding in place for 2022/23.

We completed the financial year with approximately £64.6k in unrestricted and £59.3k in restricted funds comfortably above our desired minimum reserves figure of £51.5k. What has been particularly satisfying this year, is that we were able to accommodate changes to the staff team, manage an office move to new premises and generally be responsive to opportunities that emerged, and still end the year with a surplus.

As well as being a strong year for commissioned work and research funding, we have also been successful in securing grant funding. The Glass-House Trust has confirmed another cycle of funding through March 2026. Alongside this, a 3-year grant of £60k per annum from the Ove Arup Foundation means that we are well positioned in the medium term to continue to deliver a spectrum of work with some continuity to our staff team.

An additional grant of £30k from The Glass-House Trust to support the development of a GlassHouse has also allowed us to take the important first step this year of digitising our old paper files. The remainder of the funds will be drawn down in 2022 to support the commissioning of an archivist / data management specialist to help us consolidate several digital datasets (which include text, photographs, video and audio recordings) into one searchable system that will serve both as the organisation’s live workspace and as a digital archive.

As well as supporting the day-to-day working practice of the organisation, this process to consolidate our data and systems is a crucial step towards our goal of creating an open-source online resource hub, or living archive. This will serve as a resource to both communities and professionals engaging in participatory design processes, as well as to students and academia.

Looking forward

We look ahead much as we did at this time last year. We step into this new strategic cycle of our work in a robust financial position with healthy reserves, and with core strategic partnerships in place that help us extend our reach and impact. We have also found a balance to our work that is allowing us to both continue to provide practical support on the ground, and to use our experience and learning to champion and enable best policy and practice, and increasingly to educate and empower others to do what we do.

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

With a growing staff team in 2022, we are also taking on more projects at local, regional and national scale. We are also continuing to develop action research that sows seeds of collaboration and knowledge exchange with national and international partners.

The coming year will see us continuing to deliver a broad spectrum of work, with a focus on further strategic development for the future, and at the same time, developing a wide range of resources to support communities and professionals to help connect design, people, and place, and to build capacity to support community-led and participatory design processes.

We will further explore how we can best work with others to support a cross-sector and interdisciplinary network, our “collaborative economy”, of those supporting community leadership in design and placemaking. Our core strategic partnership with The Open University is going from strength to strength, with now a rich legacy of collaborative projects, and new ones in development. Through this we will continue to explore the feasibility of a joint resource hub and incubator to open source our learning and resources, and to serve as a catalyst for new collaborations and projects to support community leadership in design and placemaking. We are also collaborating on the development of more online courses.

We will be working in collaboration with a number of higher education partners to support the integration of our learning and experience into degree courses, and to support new champions heading into practice. We are also working with students and communities involved in live projects, mentoring students working with their locally based groups in their area, and helping to draw students and communities onto our event series and the national dialogue around design and placemaking.

It is our aim to continue to play an active and outspoken role in the field of design and placemaking, and to champion the role of community leadership in shaping where we live, work and play.

Reserves policy

Given a significant increase in our budget for 2022/23 compared to 2021/22, we have revisited our reserves policy to reflect this. Our reserves policy, for the purposes of ensuring the robustness of the organisation, is based on three months’ fixed running costs and is calculated at £51.5k based on our current budget and forecasts for the next three years.

The desired figure for reserves of £51.5k compares with our existing general unrestricted funds of approximately £64.6k and restricted funds of £59.3k. In calculating the free reserves, the Directors have excluded the designated fund that represents the net book value of the fixed assets.

The Glass-House Trust will continue to fund the organisation at the current level of support (£100k per annum), which, combined with other secured funding, provides a high degree of security and the financial viability of the organisation at its current scale through 2026.

The Ove Arup Foundation will contribute £60k per annum over three years.

Having already secured funding at 100% of our budget for 2022/23 and core funding from The Glass-House Trust through 2026 alongside some project funding, we are confident that we are

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The Glass-House Community Led Design Directors’ report For the year ended 31 March 2022

operating with a keen eye on financial risk while operating on a now more comfortable level of reserves. We aim to maintain and further build on our reserves in order to ensure resilience and the ability to respond to opportunity and crisis effectively in the future.

Our reserves policy will therefore be reviewed again in the new year, to ensure that we are addressing any new challenges both to the sector and to our organisation, and to plan how we will further build on our reserves in order to ensure resilience and the ability to respond to opportunity and crisis effectively in the longer term.

Preparation of the report

This report of the Directors has been prepared taking advantage of the small companies exemption of section 415A of the Companies Act 2006.

This report was approved and authorised for issue by the Directors on 27 September 2022 and signed on its behalf by:

Prue Chiles Chair

27

The Glass-House Community Led Design Independent examiner’s report For the year ended 31 March 2022

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of The Glass-House Community Led Design for the year ended 31 March 2022.

This report is made solely to the trustees as a body, in accordance with the Charities Act 2011. My examination has been undertaken so that I might state to the trustees those matters I am required to state to them in an independent examiner's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, I do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity and the trustees as a body, for my examination, for this report, or for the opinions I have formed.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity trustees of the Company you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’) and the Companies Act 2006 (‘the 2006 Act’) .

Having satisfied myself that the accounts of the Company are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of the Company’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the 2011 Act’).

Independent examiner’s statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed:

Name: Noelia Serrano FCA DChA

Address: Sayer Vincent LLP, Invicta House, 108-114 Golden Lane, London, EC1Y 0TL Date: 30 September 2022

28

The Glass-House Community Led Design

Statement of financial activities (incorporating an income and expenditure account)

For the year ended 31 March 2022

Note
Income from:
2
3
3
3
3
4
4
4
4
5
Reconciliation of funds:
Donations and legacies
Charitable activities
Improving Places
Action Research
Supporting Dialogue
Innovating Practice
Investments - Bank interest
Total funds brought forward
Total income
Expenditure on:
Charitable activities
Total funds carried forward
Improving Places
Action Research
Supporting Dialogue
Innovating Practice
Total expenditure
Net income for the year and net
movement in funds		 Unrestricted
funds
Total
£
100,000
31,705
13,133
2,513
35,840
-
183,191
52,902
31,283
39,960
50,358
174,503
8,688
56,729
65,417		 Restricted
Funds
Total
£
-
-
6,500
60,000
-
-
66,500
-
6,500
695
-
7,195
59,305
-
59,305		 2022
2021
Total
Total
£
£
100,000
100,000
31,705
10,930
19,633
24,990
62,513
1,500
35,840
18,320
-
2
249,691
155,742
52,902
26,749
37,783
43,770
40,655
30,475
50,358
40,960
181,698
141,954
67,993
13,788
56,729
42,941
124,722
56,729

The Statement of Financial Activities contains all gains and losses for the year. Activities included under unrestricted funds relate to continuing operations. Movements in funds are disclosed in Note 14 to the financial statements.

29

The Glass-House Community Led Design

Company no. 5435630

Balance sheet

As at 31 March 2022

Note
Fixed assets:
10
Current assets:
11
Liabilities:
12
13
Restricted income funds
Total unrestricted funds
Tangible assets
Debtors
Cash at bank and in hand
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
Net current assets
Total net assets
The funds of the charity:
Unrestricted income funds:
Designated funds
General funds
Total charity funds		 £
3,753
129,866		 2022
£
£
828
4,359
56,821
61,180
(6,807)
123,894
124,722
59,305
2,356
54,373
65,417
124,722		 2021
£
2,356
54,373
133,619
(9,725)
828
64,589
56,729
-
56,729
56,729

The opinion of the directors is that the company is entitled to the exemptions conferred by Section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.

The directors acknowledge the following responsibilities:

These accounts have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies’ regime.

Approved by the directors on 27 September 2022 and signed on their behalf by

Prue Chiles Chair

30

The Glass-House Community Led Design

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

1 Accounting policies

a) Statutory information

The Glass-House Community Led Design is a charitable company limited by guarantee and is incorporated in the United Kingdom. The registered office address is Mainyard Studios, 35 Bow Road, London E3 2AD.

b) Basis of preparation

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) - (Charities SORP FRS 102), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.

The directors have taken advantage of the small entity exemption as noted in FRS 102 section 1A. The financial statements have been prepared on the historical cost basis. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy or note.

c) Public benefit entity

The charitable company meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.

d) Going concern

The directors consider that there are no material uncertainties about the charitable company's ability to continue as a going concern.

Key judgements that the charitable company has made which have a significant effect on the accounts include a commitment by The Glass-House Trust to make a grant of £100,000 per annum through March 2026 to the charitable company.

The directors do not consider that there are any sources of estimation uncertainty at the reporting date that have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next reporting period.

e) Income

Income is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and that the amount can be measured reliably.

Income from government and other grants, whether ‘capital’ grants or ‘revenue’ grants, is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the grants have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably and is not deferred.

f) Interest receivable

Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the charity; this is normally upon notification of the interest paid or payable by the bank.

g) Fund accounting

Unrestricted funds are donations and other incoming resources received or generated for the charitable Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the directors for particular purposes.

Restricted funds can only be used for particular restricted purposes within the objects of the charity. Restrictions arise when specified by the donor or when funds are raised for specific restricted purposes.

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The Glass-House Community Led Design

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

1 Accounting policies (continued)

h) Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT

Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is classified under the following activity headings:

˜ Expenditure on charitable activities includes the costs of activities undertaken to further the purposes of the charity and their associated support costs.

Irrecoverable VAT is charged as a cost against the activity for which the expenditure was incurred.

i) Allocation of support costs

Resources expended are allocated to the particular activity where the cost relates directly to that activity. However, the cost of overall direction and administration of each activity, comprising the salary and overhead costs of the central function, is apportioned on the following basis which are an estimate, based on staff time, of the amount attributable to each activity.

Where information about the aims, objectives and projects of the charity is provided to potential beneficiaries, the costs associated with this publicity are allocated to charitable expenditure.

Where such information about the aims, objectives and projects of the charity is also provided to potential donors, activity costs are apportioned between fundraising and charitable activities on the basis of area of literature occupied by each activity.

˜ Improving Places 26.25%
˜ Action Research 20.04%
˜ Supporting Dialogue 25.65%
˜ Innovating Practice 28.01%
˜ Governance costs 0.13%

Support and governance costs are re-allocated to each of the activities on the following basis which is an estimate, based on staff time, of the amount attributable to each activity

˜ Improving Places 26.25%
˜ Action Research 20.04%
˜ Supporting Dialogue 25.65%
˜ Innovating Practice 28.01%

Governance costs are the costs associated with the governance arrangements of the charity. These costs are associated with constitutional and statutory requirements and include any costs associated with the strategic management of the charity’s activities.

j) Tangible fixed assets

Items of equipment are capitalised where the purchase price exceeds £500. Depreciation costs are allocated to activities on the basis of the use of the related assets in those activities. Assets are reviewed for impairment if circumstances indicate their carrying value may exceed their net realisable value and value in use.

Where fixed assets have been revalued, any excess between the revalued amount and the historic cost of the asset will be shown as a revaluation reserve in the balance sheet.

Depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write down the cost of each asset to its estimated residual value over its expected useful life. The depreciation rates in use are as follows:

3 years

32

The Glass-House Community Led Design

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

1 Accounting policies (continued)

k) Debtors

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.

l) Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and cash in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account. Cash balances exclude any funds held on behalf of service users.

m) Creditors

Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.

n) Pensions

The Company contributes to members' stakeholder pension schemes by making contributions of 8% of gross wages. Contributions are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities as they become payable in accordance with the rules of the scheme.

o) Financial instruments:

The charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value.

2 Income from donations and legacies

3
Other income from Improving Places
Action Research (was Research & Development)
The Glass-House Trust (unrestricted core funding)
Open University - Arts & Humanities research
y
council
The Glass-House Trust (restricted archive grant)
Income from charitable activities
Improving Places		 Unrestricted
100,000		 Restricted
-		 2022
Total
£
100,000		 2021
Total
£
100,000
100,000 100,000 100,000
Unrestricted
31,705
12,633
500
-		 Restricted
-
-
-
6,500		 2022
Total
£
31,705
12,633
500
6,500		 2021
Total
£
10,930
23,490
1,500
-
13,133 6,500 19,633 24,990

33

The Glass-House Community Led Design

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

3 Income from charitable activities (continued)

Innovating Practice (was Policy & Advocacy)
Ove Arup Foundation (restricted grant for
Supporting Dialogue)
Other income from Supporting Dialogue
Other income from Innovating Practice
Total income from charitable activities
Supporting Dialogue (was Events)		 Unrestricted
-
2,513		 Restricted
60,000
-		 2022
Total
£
60,000
2,513		 2021
Total
£
-
1,500
2,513
35,840		 60,000
-		 62,513
35,840		 1,500
18,320
83,191 66,500 149,691 55,740

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The Glass-House Community Led Design

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

4a Analysis of expenditure

Charitable activities

Staff costs (Note 6)
Direct Costs
Other Indirect Costs
Support Costs
Governance costs
Total expenditure 2022
Total expenditure 2021		 Improving
Places
£
39,444
4,846
-
44,290
8,346
266
52,902
26,749		 Action
Research
£
23,607
9,021
-
32,628
4,996
159
37,783
43,770		 Supporting
Dialogue
£
31,077
2,792
-
33,869
6,577
209
40,655
30,475		 Innovating
Practice
£
41,176
192
-
41,368
8,712
278
50,358
40,960		 Governance
costs
£
914
-
-
914
-
(914)
-
-		 Support
costs
£
3,895
-
24,734
28,629
(28,629)
-
-
-		 2022
Total
£
140,113
16,851
24,734
181,698
-
-
181,698
141,954		 2021
Total
£
112,416
5,303
24,235
141,954
-
-
141,954

The amount of expenditure from restricted funds in the year ending March 2022 was £7,195

35

The Glass-House Community Led Design

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

4b Analysis of expenditure - Previous year (2021) comparative

Charitable activities

Staff costs (Note 6)
Direct Costs
Other Indirect Costs
Support Costs
Governance costs
Total expenditure 2021		 Improving
Places
£
20,009
984
-
20,993
5,120
637
26,749		 Action
Research
£
31,295
1,538
-
32,833
9,727
1,210
43,770		 Supporting
Dialogue
£
23,012
1,131
-
24,143
5,632
700
30,475		 Innovating
Practice
£
33,554
1,650
-
35,204
5,120
637
40,960		 Governance
costs
£
983
-
2,200
3,183
-
(3,183)
-		 Support
costs
2021 Total
£
£
3,563
112,416
-
5,303
22,035
24,235
25,598
141,954
(25,598)
-
-
-
-
141,954

All expenditure in the year ending March 2021 was unrestricted.

36

The Glass-House Community Led Design

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

5 Net income for the year

This is stated after charging / (crediting):

2022 2021
£ £
Depreciation 1,528 2,228
Accountants' remuneration (excluding VAT):
Independent Examination 2,350 2,200

6 Analysis of staff costs, director remuneration and expenses, and the cost of key management personnel

Staff costs were as follows:

Staff costs were as follows:
Salaries and wages
Social security costs
Other staff costs
Employer’s contribution to defined contribution pension schemes		 2022
£
121,169
8,653
9,511
780		 2021
£
98,662
6,343
7,411
-
140,113 112,416

The total employee benefits including pension contributions of the key management personnel were £73,203 (2021: £73,221).

The charity directors were not paid or received any other benefits from employment with the charity in the year (2021: £nil). No charity director received payment for professional or other services supplied to the charity (2021: £nil).

Directors' expenses represents the payment or reimbursement of travel and subsistence costs totalling £49 (2021: nil) incurred by 1 (2021: 0) members relating to attendance at meetings of the directors.

7 Staff numbers

The average number of employees (head count based on number of staff employed) during the year was as follows:

Support
Improving Places
Action Research
Supporting Dialogue
Innovating Practice
Governance		 2022
No.
0.86
0.52
0.68
0.90
0.08
0.02		 2021
No.
0.40
0.70
0.60
0.50
0.10
-
3.06 2.30

37

The Glass-House Community Led Design

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

8 Related party transactions

One of the charity's directors, Alex Sainsbury, is also on the board of the charity's main core funder, The Glass-House Trust.

The Glass-House Trust made a grant of £100,000 to The Glass-House Led Community Design (2021: £100,000). There were no amounts outstanding at the year end.

There are no donations from related parties which are outside the normal course of business and no restricted donations from related parties.

9 Taxation

The charitable company is exempt from corporation tax as all its income is charitable and is applied for charitable purposes.

10 Tangible fixed assets

Debtors
Trade debtors
Prepayments
At the start of the year
Cost or valuation
At the end of the year
Depreciation
At the start of the year
Charge for the year
At the end of the year
Net book value
At the end of the year
At the start of the year		 Office
Equipment
£
6,680		 Total
£
6,680
6,680 6,680
4,324
1,528		 4,324
1,528
5,852 5,852
828 828
2,356 2,356
2022
£
811
2,942		 2021
£
1,811
2,548
3,753 4,359

11 Debtors

38

The Glass-House Community Led Design

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

12 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
Taxation and social security
Pensions
Trade creditors
Other creditors
Accruals		 2022
£
443
3,367
-
3,095
2,820		 2021
£
15
3,518
108
526
2,640
9,725 6,807

13a Analysis of net assets between funds (current year)

Net current assets
Net assets at the end of the year
Tangible fixed assets		 General
unrestricted
£
-
64,589		 Designated
£
828
-		 Restricted
£
-
59,305		 Total funds
2022
£
828
123,894
64,589 828 59,305 124,722

13b Analysis of net assets between funds (prior year)

General
unrestricted Designated Total funds
2021
£ £ £
Tangible fixed assets - 2,356 2,356
Net current assets 54,373 - 54,373
Net assets at the end of the year 54,373 2,356 56,729

39

The Glass-House Community Led Design

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

14a Movements in funds (current year)

Movements in funds (current year)
General funds
Restricted funds
Ove Arup
Glass House Trust
Total restricted funds
Unrestricted funds
Designated funds:
Fixed Assets - Office Equipment
Total unrestricted funds
Total funds		 At the start
of the year
£
2,356
54,373		 Incoming
resources &
gains
£
-
183,191		 Outgoing
resources &
losses
£
(1,528)
(172,975)		 At the end
of the year
£
828
64,589
56,729 183,191 (174,503) 65,417
-
-		 60,000
6,500		 (695)
(6,500)		 59,305
-
- 66,500 (7,195) 59,305
56,729 249,691 (181,698) 124,722

Ove Arup funding is year one of a three year, £60,000 per annum grant to support staff costs for the role of Wedesign Programme Manager, which sits within the Supporting Dialogue area of our work.

Glass House Trust funding is for creating an archive of our work.

14b Movements in funds (prior year)

General funds
Designated funds:
Purposes of designated funds
Total funds
Fixed Assets - Office Equipment
Total unrestricted funds
Unrestricted funds		 At the start
of the year
£
3,056
39,885		 Incoming
resources &
gains
£
1,242
154,500		 Outgoing
resources &
losses
£
(1,942)
(140,012)		 At the end
of the year
£
2,356
54,373
42,941 155,742 (141,954) 56,729
42,941 155,742 (141,954) 56,729

Fixed assets - This fund represents the net book value of the Charity's fixed assets.

40

The Glass-House Community Led Design

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2022

15 Comparatives for the Statement of Financial Activities for 31 March 2021

Income from:
Donations and Legacies
Charitable Activities
Improving Places
Action Research
Supporting Dialogue
Innovating Practice
Investments - Bank interest
Total income
Expenditure on:
Charitable activities
Improving Places
Action Research
Supporting Dialogue
Innovating Practice
Total expenditure
Net income for the year and net movement in funds
Reconciliation of funds:
Total funds brought forward
Total funds carried forward		 Unrestricted
Funds
Total
£
100,000
10,930
24,990
1,500
18,320
2		 Restricted
Funds
Total
£
-
-
-
-
-
-		 2021
Total
£
100,000
10,930
24,990
1,500
18,320
2
155,742 - 155,742
26,749
43,770
30,475
40,960		 -
-
-
-		 26,749
43,770
30,475
40,960
141,954 - 141,954
13,788
42,941		 -
-		 13,788
42,941
56,729 - 56,729

16 Legal status of the charity

The charity is a company limited by guarantee and has no share capital. The liability of each member in the event of winding up is limited to £1.

41