The Art of City Making
The metaphor:
Creative City making is more like improvised jazz than a well-tempered symphony performance
The spirit of the idea:
How do you move from a ‘no because’ to a ‘yes, if culture’
A city is more than a place in space it is a drama in time
(Patrick Geddes)
Artists are to the city as worms are to the soil
(Brian Eno)
Creative City Making in action
The Art of City Making Residency
The launch of the ‘Art of City Making Residency’ in collaboration with WRLD CTY will be held at Hawkwood – the Centre for Future Thinking seeks to internationalize this programme. Dates afternoon 4th -7th November.
The Creative Bureaucracy
The oxymoron ‘creative’ versus ‘bureaucracy’ signals that not every public administrator is unimaginative. Indeed many have ideas, ingenuity, resourcefulness and flexibility, yet they might be constrained by rule systems, hierarchies and attitudes and so need to shift from a ‘no, because’ to a ‘yes, if’ culture.
Young & Old – Rebuilding Intergenerational Solidarity
The origins of our Intergenerational Initiative and research stems from a compelling conversation between co-authors Robyn Bennett, then 27, and Charles, then 72. Their effortless collaboration across a 45-year age difference sparked curiosity about the symmetry of their ages against the backdrop of generational change.
Urban Revolution: a movement and a community
This Urban Revolution seeks to build a community of practitioners, activists, thinkers, public authorities, companies and international networks from across the world united in a shared quest for urban innovation.
Charles
Landry
Ask me why do you do what you do I say: I’ve always been interested in how people can fulfil their potential and ambition as in my life I’ve seen too many of us constrained by attitudes, systems or power structures.
So, why work with cities and places? when my focus could have been creative individuals or organizations or even the world, but I found the special complexities of cities compelling. This organism with so many cultures trying to co-exist seemed a challenge. How can differing perspectives, values, behaviours and interests co-exist. This sharpens the attention on organizational culture. Broadening my perspective and looking at cultural resources has allowed me to move across topics like: seeing the city as a psychological entity as if it were a human being or how urban energy is generated and how ambition is triggered or what positive roles bureaucracies can play. Of course, this does not neglect that most bigger cities spread into their more rural regions and that that connections between the urban and rural are immensely important.
How do I work? For me it is the mix that counts: Working tangibly on projects with places on intractable issues and exploring hidden opportunities lets me flow with my curiosity that at times verges on nosiness. Taking endless photos of which over 90% are rubbish gets me to explore how a story can be visually presented and finally there is writing something up.
Even though I have written quite a few books I don’t consider myself a writer. Instead I use writing as a way of gathering thoughts and putting them down in a structured manner. That way they are absorbed. I find this liberating although the process can be difficult. This frees me and empties my mind and allows me to ask what else should I tackle and think about.
More conventionally I might say: Charles Landry is an international authority on the use of imagination and creativity in urban change. Charles helps cities identify and make the most of their possibilities by triggering their inventiveness and thinking and by opening up new conversations about their future. His aim is to help cities become more resilient, self-sustaining and to punch above their weight.
Latest News
