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Who Are We?

What we do

BiBO is an award-winning interdisciplinary placemaking consultancy and social enterprise; founded in response to lack of diversity in the property industry and the influence this has on everyday lives.  Our interest is in equitable urbanism that meets the needs of people through inclusive and participatory design and business practices.

Our areas of work and research are centred around exploring sustainable regeneration at a hyperlocal level (the 20-minute neighbourhood). We believe there is a better way to deliver projects through education and only through the diversity of people designing and building our towns and cities will we be able to create a more thoughtful, considerate and inclusive built environment.

We are urban designers, RIBA Chartered Architects, engagement specialists, and educators with a deep understanding of the role that buildings and public spaces play in sustainable communities.

Who we are

Pepper Barney is an architect and urban designer with a post-graduate specialism in regeneration. She is heavily involved in education and mentorship as a role model for women in STEAM. She holds posts at the University of Bath, UCL, University of Liverpool and UWE and is on the governing board of an independent primary school. Her design work seeks to integrate interests spanning anthropology, business, sustainable economics and the impact of real estate on individual wealth and social mobility.

Craig Morris is a chartered architect. His design work integrates his interests in heritage conservation, passive sustainable technology, construction and landscape led buildings. Craig’s focus is on the detail of user experience, helping clients add value to their project with a thorough appreciation for their business case. He is a professional examiner at UWE and visiting design critic at the University of Bath.

Anna Sabine has fourteen years’ experience in running schemes of community engagement in the built environment world.  She has worked for housebuilders, mixed use developers, higher education institutions and financial firms, for names such as L&G, abrdn, Clarion, Investec and all the major housebuilders.  She was named as a Woman of Influence by The Planner Magazine and a Rising Star by Property Week.  Anna is passionate about innovating news ways to carry out public engagement, to benefit the communities affected by it whilst also delivering positive outcomes for her clients.  She is also the founder of The Female Edge, an initiative which brings together female entrepreneurs and business leaders.

Selina Yan is currently training to become an architect at the University of Bath where she is also nurturing her passion for diverse integrated communities through her work with the Association of British and Chinese University Students.

What is an Urban Room?

“[A] physical space where people can go to understand, debate, and get involved in the past, present and future of where they live, work and play. The purpose of these Urban Rooms is to foster meaningful connections between people and place, using creative methods of engagement to encourage active participation in the future of our buildings, streets and neighbourhoods.” (Urban Rooms Network)

Our studio in Trowbridge is an Urban Room where we host public events and support an education and outreach programme related to sustainable placemaking. Find out more of What’s On via our Eventbrite.

Urban Rooms are a recommendation of The Farrell Review.

What is sustainability?

At BiBO we frame our definition of sustainability around the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We recognise that it is not simply our built work that must form part of the solution, it is also our position within various supply chains as a business and our behaviour as citizens.

 

Commercial + Enterprise

Language School
Buggy Shelter
The Newt in Somerset
Glamping Pods
Boutique Glamping
Co-Working Space
Site Plan
Wiltshire Air Ambulance

We like working with companies who recognise that the environment in which they operate says as much about their organisation as the products and services themselves. We’re brand conscious and commercial, and take the time to understand our client’s business so that the buildings and spaces we design help attract our client’s clients!

Public Realm + Urban Design

The Caterpillar
FHSF Connectivity
Sculptural Fountains

Public ream impacts everyone, every day. But how much of a role do individuals have in the design of their local public realm? We are working on ways of engaging a more diverse community voice that goes beyond traditional public consultation methods. We want to work with end-users to understand the types of proposals that will be welcomed, cherished and – if possible – delivered by the local community.

Heritage + Refurbishment

Grade II Listed Pub and Boutique Hotel
Abbey House (Grade II*)
Wolseley House Grade II Refurbishment and Extension

Working with a heritage property comes with its challenges, but what good is a heritage property if it doesn’t work for your lifestyle or business? And why work within those constraints if your lifestyle or business can’t make the most of the character of your building? We’re practical and sympathetic to the characteristics of heritage buildings that are most highly valued.

Housing

Masterplan
Taplow
Masterplan
Bracknell

Our housing is place-led, focusing on how people will exist as part of the community in which they live. Volume housing is for the many, and the “many” of today are eco-conscious, with one eye on Grand Designs and the other on Instagram. We think everyone deserves to live in a house that supports 21st century living; good daylighting, energy efficient, sensible storage, practical social and private spaces, personalised and photogenic.

Library + Gallery

Here’s a bit about how we see the world, and what some of the things we are putting into it look like. This is an exhibition of BiBO’s development, what we observe, what we think, and how we respond.

We've had a brilliant afternoon workshop with four We've had a brilliant afternoon workshop with four young Researchers in Residence from Wiltshire College and Clarendon School, @lsecities and @make_space_for_girls The students are part of an LSE project addressing the lack of provision of public spaces for girls and young women. We talked about whether Trowbridge's centre is really its centre, how we could make more of the river, and what on earth that blue metal railing at The Shires is for... 🤦‍♀️ #trowbridge #placemaking #inclusion #regeneration
Well we managed a morning of "dogs in the office" Well we managed a morning of "dogs in the office" before we had to come home again....
What an absolutely amazing and inspiring day we've What an absolutely amazing and inspiring day we've had @festivalofplace. Exhausted in a good way - lots to think about; bowled over by seeing so many women and under-50s at a built environment event too - fantastic stuff 🙌🙌🙌
We're so pleased to welcome Anna Sabine to Team Bi We're so pleased to welcome Anna Sabine to Team BiBO! Anna's had fourteen years' experience working in the community engagement field and is also the kick ass founder of @the_female_edge - excited to see what we can achieve together 🙌🙌🙌
Something exciting is coming to Trowbridge! We ar Something exciting is coming to Trowbridge! We are very proud to have played our part in what could become a significant research project to do with inclusive urbanism. Working with local educators, an international institution and a small-but-mighty campaign charity this project is truly innovative... more details to follow! 🎉 #urban #girl #placemaking #innovation #engaged #trowbridge #trowbridgewiltshire
Implementing transformation through the warp, the Implementing transformation through the warp, the weft and the selvage edge… We’re repairing a piece of urban fabric - made up of warp and weft - pushing every penny of budget as far as it can go towards catalytic regeneration. We’ve been finding the weak threads in the public realm, to distill and reverse their causes thematically. Darning, embroidering, or patching up, the analogies are diverse and exciting, but whatever you want to call it we’re into the needlework now. £16m isn’t much money, not really. And the £16m Trowbridge was awarded is not just for public realm. But as far as is logistically possible, we’re seeking to spread the impact of our work across the whole town centre. Ultimately it comes down to objects in spaces; who can see them, when and why. Trowbridge has decades of urban design mistakes to reverse, it won’t happen overnight. The impact of our proposals today may not be measurable for another 10 years. But you never know, just a couple more things in the street, made locally if possible, or a picturesque view that makes someone curious, happy, or comfortable could be the “why” a person chooses to be in the town. #humaninterest #grassroots #purpose #economics #history #weaving #placemaking
What Trowbridge should be famous for...connecting What Trowbridge should be famous for...connecting the dots! Stage 2 of our work for the FHSF Public Realm element was to develop a Connectivity Strategy. To start, we wanted to listen to people on the street to understand how they move from A to B. Our consultants @playdisrupt took 3 stalls at the @trowbridgeweaversmarket and asked people to talk, point, and most importantly DRAW! We had people identify their personal hidden gems and landmarks to get a better understanding of what places and features were not just memorable, but loved in Trowbridge. Remember, we're working towards positive imageability! We also had people mark their routes through the town, and talked to them about why they visit, and what could be improved about their journey. And finally, we asked them to think about money to get a sense of what they thought might represent good-value spend. We then invited the Town Council and Civic Society to participate in a more structured co-design session to explore what sort of hierarchy they would place on investment into town centre features. Connectivity and placemaking has a lot to do with Gestalt Theory; other people have provided us with everything that IS, but it fell to us to interpret the missing parts. It's the composition of these missing parts that become the "vision". But the FHSF is not a "vision" exercise or masterplan... Trowbridge has plenty of those already. The FHSF is about implementation. Stage 3 is all about what stuff to get or do, and where to put it or do it. Each package of work will need to answer its own "why?" #engagement #people #places #experience #inclusion
What is the Trowbridge experience? (No giggling in What is the Trowbridge experience? (No giggling in the back, that’s why we’re here!) In 2021 we were appointed by Wiltshire Council to help address commitments under the full business case for the Trowbridge Future High Street Fund award. We derived our scope and brief from the element concerned with Public Realm. Stage 1 was developing an Experiential Strategy, which means understanding what its like to experience a place and then creating a strategy to shift that experience into something else. To start we evaluated the experience of people entering the town from other places. In order to have more footfall in a High Street, you need to convince more people to go to the High Street in the first place, right? Although there are other symptoms, two prevailing urban conditions exist at almost all of the 15 locations we analysed. 1. Trowbridge is physically convenient to avoid. We needed to understand car-users, who we broadly assumed don’t already live in and regularly use the town. Road patterns, pathways, planting, signage, and buildings at almost every entry point intuitively direct people away from delving any further into the town. This is often intentional, because large volumes of vehicular traffic in town centres isn’t optimum. But that same large volume of vehicular traffic (which we’ll now think of as people; a driver, their passengers) are still building a perception of Trowbridge at those points 2. The quality of entry points into Trowbridge lack imageability; identity and positive memorable features. Imageability means being able to form a mental image of a place that sits as part of your memory. Many people (non-regular users) we spoke to struggled to tell us what they remembered about Trowbridge. Addressing lack of imageability at entry points will form part of the final FHSF proposals. #urbanphotography #public #regeneration #experience #trowbridgewiltshire
Tonight was a perfect blend of architecture and co Tonight was a perfect blend of architecture and community. We gathered to celebrate heritage and culture. A splendid outgoing and incoming mayor, set against a backdrop of the equally splendid recently refurbished Grade I @paradehousetrowbridge . #architecture #heritage #community #tradition #culture
Library + Gallery Page

Education

Education is a large part of our professional practice and all of our staff are encouraged to get involved with schools and universities. Students have fresh ideas and the freedom to explore them in a way that is not often replicated outside of academia. By spending time with these new thinkers  – talking and drawing through the challenges of balancing reality with aspiration – we are able to bring innovation into our commercial work.

Outreach & Education Programme

Masterplanning

Future High Street Fund
Strategic Land Masterplanning
Masterplan
Bracknell
Masterplan
Taplow

Our guiding principle in masterplanning is to “enhance the existing” – we work with ecology, topography, demography and more to arrive at a masterplan that is truly derived from its unique place.

We think 2 things are essential to the success and deliverability of a masterplan: 1) It needs to be commercially viable for the landowner and 2) It needs to be as relevant in 10, 20, 50, 100 years as it is now.

As with all of our work, we think it is essential to observe and listen to the wants of end-users to design places that will support their lifestyle. We place great value on working with existing communities to generate masterplans that are welcomed by neighbours.

We would love to hear from you so please get in touch using any of the methods below:

Email: better@bibostudio.com

Tel: 0333 577 2420

Find Us: Studio 19, 2nd Floor, Brick Mill, Meadow Works, Court Street, Trowbridge, BA14 8BR

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