Community Design Surgeries
No job is too small. No problem too big! Community Design Surgeries provide free early design advice to all!
At our Community Design Surgeries, members of your community – residents, local business owners and community groups – are offered the opportunity for a free 30-minute consultation with a local design professional.
Upcoming Community Design Surgeries
There are no Community Design Surgeries scheduled at the moment, but we’re planning more for 2026. Please check back soon — new dates will be added here as they’re confirmed.
What is a design surgery?
A Community Design Surgery is your chance to get free advice on your home — whether that means finding low-cost ways to make a certain room more comfortable, talking through design ideas you’ve been considering, or exploring what might be possible in the future. Open to both homeowners and renters, each 30-minute session gives you the opportunity to sit down with a local design professional for early-stage guidance tailored to your needs.
The kind of support you might receive includes:
Tips on how to get started with your project
- Low-cost or no-cost steps you can take to improve the comfort of your home
Ideas for retrofit solutions to improve your home
Guidance on planning and building approvals
An overview of the key stages of a project
Advice on sustainability and rough budget consideration.
Information on possible grant funding to support your plans
What can I expect?
Your appointment with the design professional will be 30 minutes long. However, we ask those attending to allow for 40 -60 minutes in total to accommodate all steps in the process. You should expect the following steps:
Step 1
Arrive For Your Appointment
Step 2
Complete Pre Consultation Survey
Step 3
Discuss Your Project With Professional
Step 4
Complete Post Consultation Survey
Previous Community Design Surgeries
Bath
In April 2025, we collaborated with the University of Bath on the AHRC-funded project Our Future Past. As part of this, we hosted a series of Community Design Surgeries across Bath, including at Roseberry Road Studios, The Percy Centre, and Mulberry Park Hub.
We’re excited to announce that, thanks to a successful bid to the Retrofit West Community Grant Fund, we’ll be delivering another trio of Design Surgeries in Bath in spring 2026. Stay tuned for more details coming soon!
Frome
In November 2025, Neighbourhood Toolbox CIC and the Healthy Homes Team at Frome Town Council hosted a successful trio of Community Design Surgeries, giving residents practical, low-cost ideas to make their homes more comfortable and energy-efficient. The strong turnout built on the success of our earlier event at Victoria Park in August 2024, showing the clear value of making early design advice accessible to the community. We’re now working to secure more Community Design Surgery dates for 2026 to continue supporting Frome residents.
