Log in
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Create an account
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
The idea that creative and cultural activity is a powerful driver of urban regeneration is not a new one. Property developers have long understood that cultural institutions and creative industries can have a transformative impact on the viability of their schemes, whether it’s because the disruptors who so often work in these sectors are willing to move into parts of town that more conventional tenants would not consider; because the cultural programming and creative vibe they create attract other business elites; or because creative activity brings in the crowds of people—be they locals, tourists or shoppers—who bring a new place to life.
However, it is increasingly clear that a model which simply places a franchised art gallery or theatre in the middle of a new development is, at best, missing out on the opportunity to create wider forms of cultural value. At worst, confining creativity to new buildings or highly curated public spaces risks compounding a process of gentrification, alienating local people and potentially displacing grassroots creative and cultural practices.
University of the Arts London (UAL) has been at the heart of three of London’s largest regeneration projects in the last twenty years: Granary Square at Kings Cross, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, and now the Town Centre at Elephant and Castle. Our commitment
to community placemaking and our academic expertise in design, spatial practice and public participation has enabled us to experiment with ways to foster creativity in and around our places, learning and adapting as we have done so. We are not without fault, ourselves, as an institution. Yet our experiences show us that when the community is brought into new places through collaborative and participatory projects, those projects and the communities in which they are located both benefit.
This paper therefore calls for participative creativity to be put at the heart of future regeneration and placemaking, and sets out some initial recommendations for property developers, creative institutions and policy makers—at local and national level—to enable it to happen more systematically. As the urban theorist Richard Florida says;
‘...how do you build a creative community? Certainly not all at once and from the top down – most of what makes creative communities emerges gradually over time. But that does not mean that strategy and public policy do not matter. Quite the opposite. Smart strategies that recognize and enhance bottom-up community-based efforts that are already working can help accelerate the development of creative communities.’
The idea that creative and cultural activity is a powerful driver of urban regeneration is not a new one. Property developers have long understood that cultural institutions and creative industries can have a transformative impact on the viability of their schemes, whether it’s because the disruptors who so often work in these sectors are willing to move into parts of town that more conventional tenants would not consider; because the cultural programming and creative vibe they create attract other business elites; or because creative activity brings in the crowds of people—be they locals, tourists or shoppers—who bring a new place to life.
However, it is increasingly clear that a model which simply places a franchised art gallery or theatre in the middle of a new development is, at best, missing out on the opportunity to create wider forms of cultural value. At worst, confining creativity to new buildings or highly curated public spaces risks compounding a process of gentrification, alienating local people and potentially displacing grassroots creative and cultural practices.
University of the Arts London (UAL) has been at the heart of three of London’s largest regeneration projects in the last twenty years: Granary Square at Kings Cross, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, and now the Town Centre at Elephant and Castle. Our commitment
to community placemaking and our academic expertise in design, spatial practice and public participation has enabled us to experiment with ways to foster creativity in and around our places, learning and adapting as we have done so. We are not without fault, ourselves, as an institution. Yet our experiences show us that when the community is brought into new places through collaborative and participatory projects, those projects and the communities in which they are located both benefit.
This paper therefore calls for participative creativity to be put at the heart of future regeneration and placemaking, and sets out some initial recommendations for property developers, creative institutions and policy makers—at local and national level—to enable it to happen more systematically. As the urban theorist Richard Florida says;
‘...how do you build a creative community? Certainly not all at once and from the top down – most of what makes creative communities emerges gradually over time. But that does not mean that strategy and public policy do not matter. Quite the opposite. Smart strategies that recognize and enhance bottom-up community-based efforts that are already working can help accelerate the development of creative communities.’
.webp)
