MDes Design Innovation & Service Design School of Innovation & Technology
Yas Rahemtulla
I’m a service designer who likes to get out into the real world and explore problems hands on, working alongside a wide range of people. My approach is about listening, building connections and centring lived experience. I use a trauma-informed approach to create safe and welcoming spaces where groups can make sense of complexity together.
Through participatory research, ethnographic methods, public engagement, service safaris and co-design, I bring together different perspectives and experiences, turning them into insights that guide how services and systems can work better.
I enjoy using creative tools like mapping and visualisation to bring ideas to life and make them easier to explore. I create spaces that keep energy and focus, helping people imagine what a future service might look like.
Sanctuary Spaces: Reimagining Urban Green Spaces through Community Land Ownership
Sanctuary Spaces explores how Scotland’s urban communities can use community land ownership to protect green spaces and reimagine disused sites such as former bowling clubs as inclusive, community-owned assets.
Guided by design justice and a decolonial lens, I used ethnography, public engagement, and participatory workshops to centre Global Majority voices and the lived experiences of people affected by urban land struggles. By spending time in spaces like Bowling Green Together and working with local residents in Mount Florida, I was able to ground the research in real relationships and everyday experiences.
The project resulted in a service design proposal that focuses on using the Community Right to Buy Part 2 (registering community interest in land), and offers a partnership between organisations that support communities to own land and integration networks in Glasgow.
The logbook is an interactive workbook that translates the complex process of community land ownership into plain language, with prompts and activities that help groups reflect, generate ideas, and track their progress together.
