In this episode of The Belonging Shift, Mantej Singh speaks with Gilbert Rochecouste, Founder and Creative Director of Villagewell, about how placemaking can help create belonging in a time of social, economic and climate disruption. Gilbert shares why communities need agency, why public gathering places matter, and why future cities must be designed around people, culture, connection and regeneration. The conversation explores the new local, culturally diverse neighbourhoods, creative bureaucracy, developer and government responsibility, and the shifts needed to build healthy people, healthy places and a healthy planet.

In this episode of The Belonging Shift, host Mantej Singh speaks with Dean Cracknell, Co-Founder of Doing Co and Creator of Placemaking Education. Dean shares how placemaking can move beyond design, infrastructure and one-off activations to become a deeper practice of connection, contribution and community-led change. He reflects on belonging as a human need shaped by people and place, and explains why leaders need to shift from doing things for communities to working with communities and enabling communities to lead.