Métier Podcast

After years working within social housing, Valli now works as a placemaker in East London, on a large site next to the River Lea. With the conversation ranging from her early career in South Africa, to embedding herself for years in an area to understand it better, Valli describes her life designing a neighbourhood that people want to live in. With responsibilities ranging from commissioning and working with artists to design pathways, to choosing who runs the schools in the new community, Valli offers a fascinating human glimpse behind the blanket label of ‘developer'. Watch the short film showing Valli at work at www.metierproject.org/valli-van-zijl