Fawcett, L., 2026.

Designing LGBTQIA+ Inclusive Spaces toolkit

The Designing LGBTQIA+ Inclusive Spaces toolkit has been developed through a year of engagement and research with LGBTQIA+ communities and built environment professionals. It supports those involved in shaping places to work with communities throughout the design process, creating better places for everyone. RIBA Inclusive Design Overlay Improving understanding and engagement Design decisions shape how people feel seen, supported, and represented in the places we create. For LGBTQIA+ communities, those decisions have often been made without them. While conversations around inclusive design are becoming more visible across architecture and the built environment, practical ways of working meaningfully with LGBTQIA+ communities remain limited. Many projects still rely on assumptions about gender, identity, family, safety, and everyday life that do not reflect the diversity of people who use these spaces. At the same time, LGBTQIA+ spaces have rarely been purpose-built. Communities have often adapted existing buildings, streets, and public spaces to create places of care, belonging, visibility, and support - often outside formal design processes altogether. Today, architects, designers, clients, and public bodies are increasingly being asked to create spaces that better support LGBTQIA+ communities, from housing and healthcare settings to public space, culture, education, and the adaptive reuse of existing venues. This work is not only relevant to people who openly identify as LGBTQIA+. Questions around privacy, safety, visibility, comfort, disclosure, and belonging shape how many people experience space, including those who are questioning, not publicly "out", or navigating environments where they may not feel fully safe or recognised. This creates both an opportunity and a responsibility. Inclusive design cannot stop at statements of intent or policy alone. It needs to shape briefs, conversations, layouts, materials, management, and the everyday experience of space itself. It requires ongoing engagement with communities, openness to challenge, and a willingness to rethink assumptions about who spaces are designed for. This toolkit is built on the premise that inclusion is not a checklist. It is something that is tested, negotiated, maintained, and practised throughout the life of a project. This toolkit is designed to support that process in action - helping teams move beyond good intentions and into meaningful conversations, decisions, and change.Lead Author: Luke Fawcett.This toolkit was developed with guidance from the RIBA LGBTQIA+ Inclusive Design Steering Group. A special thank you to: Colin Briggs-Campbell, Dr Pippa Catterall, Mathew Giles, Emily Jeffers, Lenny Rajmont, and Dr Colin Stuhlfelder. Thank you to the workshop participants and community contributors whose insights helped shape the development of this work.