S.H.E.D (Social Higher Education Depot)

Problem

Designing Dialogue CIC aims to address identified barriers to development, such as a lack of inclusive consultation, failure to engage across diverse communities, inability to leverage relationships across different sectors and knowledge siloes.

Increasingly, placemaking, social mobility and the civic agenda are becoming important for policymakers, universities and other civic organisations.

Solution

S.H.E.D is delivered by Designing Dialogue CiC (community interest company), the first spin-out company from the University of Derby. Designing Dialogue CIC uses a methodology that supports inclusive and innovative co-created placemaking.

S.H.E.D is a research and innovation space that engages with lifelong learning, public engagement and teaching through creative industry and cultural practice. Taking the premise of a garden shed, S.H.E.D was developed into a flat pack, reconfigurable, touring space that could support cultural and socio-civic research and practice.

S.H.E.D can adapt to multiple possible configurations, all co-designed – it can be what you want it to be. It is a space that invites action through socially, politically and culturally charged practice. Its flexibility supports diversity, designs for dialogues and untold stories, from multidisciplinary fields, from and for all people, especially from those that usually do not have a voice. It has been designed for the shedding of preconceptions of people and place.

Sustainable Development Goals addressed

Some facts:

As of 2026, S.H.E.D has worked on 27 different projects, engaged with over 42896 people and worked with over 40 partner organisations in 6 UK cities and over 12 countries

Website