Cocreating the Future
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How can creatives help cities emerge more resilient after COVID?
The pandemic has dramatically impacted our world as we know it. Industries have been disrupted and livelihoods altered. In some ways however, it has forced us as a community to respond for the better.
In the creative services industry, it has forced us to rethink what creativity truly means. We sat down with our founder, Giuseppe Demaio, to discuss changes in the creative industry that can help our cities’ response to COVID-19.
Firstly, how has COVID-19 impacted the creative services industry?
GD: It is important to zoom out and recognise that COVID-19 has impacted people everywhere. But we are lucky that here in Australia, the effects of COVID-19 have been curbed by a combination of geography and hard work. Especially here in Victoria, curbing the second wave did not come without its sacrifices.
Within the creative industry, there have definitely been a lot of challenges. For many in the performing arts, musicians, in events – this has been a hugely challenging time. Strategic design services like ourselves, we’ve been impacted too. How we work has been disrupted; as many of you know, collaboration is fundamental to our process.
But, we are lucky to be able to continue delivering work effectively and support our clients in various other ways.
It’s not all bad though!
One positive thing that has fallen out of the pandemic has been slowing down the rapid pace of our world. This has allowed many people to reignite their creative brain and give it time to breathe and flourish. From picking up new hobbies to learning a new skill, the extra time has been positive for creativity in this way.
Do you see any opportunity for creatives in our “new normal”?
GD: In this “new normal,” there is endless opportunity for people to solve problems through creative means.
Consider placemaking, which is one focus for Local Peoples. People are having to live in their cities quite differently now. We used to be excited to be in close proximity to each other, but now we require a reinvention of how we live in our cities. In an article produced by Local Peoples, we highlighted some really amazing thinking around how cities across the world will have to be reimagined.
Take the United Kingdom for instance, where Transport for London and London Living Streets recently unveiled a Central London Footways Map that provides information about walking in the capital.
In New York City, it was recently announced that 10,000 Streateries (restaurants using street space) and 87 open streets would be made permanent.
Closer to home, in New South Wales, the recent “Streets as Shared Spaces Grants” program was introduced to support temporary activation projects that would enable communal improvements across the state during the pandemic and beyond.
The reclaiming of streets, opening up of public spaces and rapid deployment of bike paths are a few examples of trends that have actually been happening for a while now. The hand of nature has simply allowed us to jumpstart and really expedite those processes.
Opportunity also exists on a policy level too. The speed at which policy makers are moving at the moment is mind blowing.
Historically, it has taken years to enact and change policy that dictates how our cities and places are used by people. These changes are now taking weeks. This is really exciting and presents an opportunity for all stakeholders and roles to think creatively and reimagine our cities.
This is an opportunity to reset and step boldly towards a new kind of living.
How can the creative services industry engage with these changes on a policy level?
GD: As proponents of human-centred design, we can bring consultation and co-design to help better inform policy.
Human-centred design is all about involving the people who most use the place or service that you’re designing for. Using them as the reference point, we can run design tests for proposed changes around the city.
This is not a new concept, the idea of tactical urbanism really embodies this idea. People in design can help facilitate these types of experiments, to test and validate ideas quickly and give stakeholders the confidence to use cities in new and potentially quite different ways.
Changes in policy have allowed the reimagination of public spaces too - how can creatives be involved in this process?
GD: The adaptive reuse of streets is a really interesting response to COVID-19 that has happened all over the world. But it is not a recent trend, Amsterdam did this by reimagining its town centre and making it accessible to bikes. Anyone that has spent time in Amsterdam will have a great appreciation for this. Today, the Netherlands has over 35,000km worth of bike paths with more than a quarter of trips made by bicycle.
You also quickly realise that the argument for cars in a city is not a good one. Cars dissect space – taking up a huge amount of physical space, discouraging pedestrians and bike travel.
Reimagining how we use our city streets, to what degree they can be shut down and how they can be adapted quickly for a variety of interests is a great opportunity for design thinking. Consider hospitality for instance, bars, music venues, restaurants – wouldn’t it be awesome if we saw the scenario where weekly street parties took place in the city.
With evidence that this has been super successful in other parts of the world, fingers crossed, it is looking like policy might head this way.
How important does placemaking become during a time where our movements are limited to our local areas?
GD: The relocalisation of cities is another really interesting theme and has been on the social agenda for a long time now. The principle of the “20min neighbourhood” emphasises the importance of having all of the amenities that you might need to have a great life – from public infrastructure to shopping – within a 20min walk. It’s exciting that everyone can now see why this is such a great principle for city design.
We have definitely seen, especially here in Victoria due to the 5km rule, how we have been forced to go more local. In the inner city, where I live for example, it is relatively pedestrian friendly – people get around on bikes or walk.
But that’s not always the case. In fact, the further out from the city centre you go, the less access to public transport and higher reliance on cars there is. Cars can be a barrier to relocalisation as traffic and roads inhibit safe and comfortable walking experiences in a neighbourhood.
So this throws a lens on equity and access; to public transport, great walking paths and cycling tracks. It appears that our city hasn’t been designed equally for a variety of reasons. Now, there is a huge opportunity for placemaking to thoughtfully and equally design our cities for everyone.
It’s exciting that everyone can now better appreciate this approach to city design. Now we just need to seize this opportunity.
Through all these changes, how important is participatory design in helping cities emerge more resilient?
GD: Participatory design is a great tool to engage and enrol a citizenry in the process of designing places and experiences together. People who live in a given area always have the best insights into what makes it great and how best to celebrate those elements.
Creating platforms and mechanisms for people to participate in the design process as we reimagine cities is a really intriguing prospect and one that our studio is really excited about.
I think it is a really great opportunity to engage those that have been more passive and less interested to be an active part of their neighbourhood.
Has the role of the creative changed for the better?
GD: I read this interesting NASA study that found 98 percent of four and five year olds scored at “creative genius” level on a test for creative potential. When the same test was administered to adults, it was found that only two percent scored at the same level.
Creativity as an idea is unlearnt.
The pandemic has been the jolt we needed to help people realise that we are inherently creative and capable of solving problems creatively. In fact, we need everyone to embrace their creative potential if we are going to solve some of the biggest problems we face as a society – public health, overpopulation, global warming.
For me, creativity is imagining solutions that weren’t necessarily there. It doesn’t always have to be brand new. It just needs a new element, be it context, timing or framework – many people also like to call this innovation.
Everyone has inbuilt creativity, be it in a spreadsheet, solving an engineering problem, or bringing people together so we can all contribute.
I’d like to think we all keep our creative flow post COVID-19 and further nurture our collective creativity.
