Áine is a community engagement practitioner with a multidisciplinary background in strategic policy, active travel, and people-focused placemaking.
How it started…
Over the past six years, my planning career has taken a less-than-traditional path. From shaping Council Local Development Plans to contributing to active travel strategies, my work has spanned both strategic policy and practical delivery. At the heart of it all has been a consistent focus: listening to people and shaping places that reflect their needs.
This people-centred approach deepened during three years of community engagement work in the Republic of Ireland. I supported local authorities with Part 8 Planning Applications, researched lived experiences within the asylum system, and contributed to an EU multidisciplinary project on nature-based solutions for mental health and wellbeing. Across housing schemes, pedestrianisation projects, and everything in between, one message was constant: people care deeply about connection, identity, and inclusion.
A recent collaboration with Queen’s University Belfast brought these themes into sharper focus. Through student consultations in the city centre, three key issues emerged:
- A lack of green space
- A shortage of inclusive, free social spaces
- Limited access to “sober” venues for connection outside of nightlife
These findings resonated with the wider ambitions of planning — especially in the areas of creating vibrant places, wellbeing, and inclusivity.
Meanwhile…
At the same time, another part of my practice began to take shape — quite literally, over coffee. Alongside my planning work, I launched a mobile coffee business, trading at local markets and events. What started as a side project quickly revealed unexpected parallels with planning. Coffee spaces — especially independent, local ones — act as informal “third places”: accessible hubs for social interaction, creativity, and quiet reflection. They create vibrancy, support footfall, and subtly shape public life.
This connection crystallised in early 2024 when a tender was released for the Queen’s Quay Kiosk, a small but strategic site on Belfast’s Maritime Mile. Nestled between the SSE Arena and the Lagan Weir footbridge, and surrounded by cycle infrastructure, the kiosk is perfectly positioned to support both movement and meaningful community interaction.
Location of Queen’s Quay Kiosk & National Cycle Network Routes 9 & 93, Belfast
Designed by OGU Architects and MMAS, the kiosk reflected their commitment to inclusive, high-quality public realm. Their vision showed that even modest structures could serve as meaningful urban interventions. Our collaboration with the architects, Maritime Belfast Trust, Belfast City Council and the Department for Communities ensured that the final space remained flexible, welcoming, and deeply rooted in its surroundings.
The result was Native at Queen’s Quay Kiosk: a community-focused coffee kiosk born out of planning principles. Our goal wasn’t just to serve great coffee — it was to demonstrate how thoughtful, values-driven design can activate underused space, foster community, and model inclusive urban regeneration.
Áine makes a coffee at Native. Source: Maritime Belfast Trust
Our business strategy aligns closely with broader planning goals, centring on a cohesive community, circular economy, and high-quality public service. Native has since become a creative and social hub — hosting local artists, supporting small makers, and offering a warm, welcoming space for people to gather and connect.
We regularly host:
- Live music
- Climate cafés
- Sober socials
- Community runs
- Outdoor classes with Planning and Architecture students
- Speakers corners e.g. on International Women’ Day
Events at Native. Source: Áine McBeth
This initiative is a textbook case of “meanwhile use”: the temporary activation of vacant or underutilised space to create cultural, social, or economic value. As outlined in frameworks like Meanwhile City, these low-risk, high-reward projects help local authorities and communities test ideas, build momentum, and bring life to areas awaiting long-term development.
For Belfast City Council and the Department for Communities — both key players in regeneration — projects like this can inform future investment, encourage civic participation, and strengthen place identity.
Planning in practice: Lessons from Queen’s Quay Kiosk
This project offers several key takeaways for planners, policymakers, and regeneration professionals:
- Design for adaptability: Compact spaces like kiosks can accommodate cultural, civic, and commercial uses if flexibility is prioritised from the start. Their modular and temporary design means they can be relocated and reused. This delivers on the wider planning goals of climate resilience and decarbonisation.
- Support low-barrier opportunities: Councils should ensure that tendering and licensing processes for meanwhile use are accessible and affordable, allowing small businesses and community groups to participate without unnecessary red tape.
- Embed temporary use into regeneration policy: Local Development Plans, town centre strategies, and regeneration frameworks should explicitly support temporary activation as a tool for innovation and public engagement.
- Prioritise partnerships: Collaboration between designers, planners, operators, and local authorities leads to outcomes that combine design excellence with real-world functionality.
- Measure qualitative impact: While temporary projects may not yield immediate footfall or revenue, their success lies in belonging, activation, and storytelling. For example, our Sober Socials and weekly runs offer rare, safe spaces for connection in Belfast city centre — a function the city previously lacked.
There is enormous potential for the Queen’s Quay kiosk to be further utilised as a living laboratory — a space to understand how residents and visitors engage with the city. In many ways, it echoes the Urban Room concept developed by the Quality of Life Foundation — flexible, shared environments for public dialogue and participatory planning.
