Creating better places and communities

I have recently come back from a wonderful vacation in Europe and while on my travels picked up this great book, the third in the @Monocle companion series – Fifty ideas for a Better World. What a great little book it is – packed with great ideas and insights from different authors around the world. A significant theme was creating better places and communities and given the relevance to my current work and also being able to visit some wonderful places on my travels, I really enjoyed these. Some of my learnings and insights include:

• Saving the city will require a renaissance of the surrounding neighbourhoods - people may still access the core or the CBD but they will likely spend most of their time (and money) closer to home. Rather than concentrating on grandiose schemes for ever-bigger buildings, more transit lines and larger stadiums, cities should focus on what makes neighbourhoods great, such as decent public education, parks and playspaces and preservation of historic districts
• Urban isolation – living in big cities can be isolating and increasing working hours, smaller flats and the increasingly wide use of food delivery services have contributed to people being and feeling less social. Singapore is demonstrating cities don’t need to be lonely places by ensuring plenty of amenities are designed to get people out of their apartments and to help them to mingle and make friends – ‘Gardens in the sky’ such as the Skyville at Dawson housing project which features terraces and gardens on every 11th floor of its 46 storeys. Based on a survey conducted, residents of Skyville knew more of their neighbours than those living in other estates of similar size. In MacPherson, an older neighbourhood in Singapore where new residential blocks have been added, a community centric practice has brought older residents and newly settled families together to create art for the estate. In another corner of the city, coffee shops are being considered to serve as places that offer community care. Imagine gifting a loved one a coffee subscription giving them a reason to frequent and linger at a café, rather than staying at home alone.
• Switching gears and introducing more cycle lanes and pedestrianised streets can spur change, improving transport without putting more cars on the road. Michael Bloomberg who served as New York’s mayor from 2002-2013 started with a vision and a plan, attempting to accommodate the one million additional people expected to move to New York by 2030. He also sought to improve the quality of life of those who already lived and worked in the city and he knew that a million more people didn’t mean a million more cars. Despite initial opposition, he put down more than 600km of bike lanes. In 2009, people thought that the decision to pedestrianise Times Square was absurd, but six years later when the next mayor tried to bring back cars, they were appalled. During the pandemic, there were pop-up bike lanes, bus lanes and outdoor dining with 8,500 parking bays repurposed for outdoor spaces to eat, drink and enjoy. The people of New York have realised that their streets can be used differently and that they don’t need to stay the same all of the time.
• Creating a safer and more interesting place for children but also those young at heart – this includes making space for pop up theatres, galleries and workshops or just somewhere to dance or doodle with chalk - why not shut down an entire city block even if its just for a day or two; rethinking the ‘playground’ and building ones that will age well and last – in Berlin sand, water, space and greenery have been used to create genuine excitement and joy; holding music, dance or yoga classes or even language lessons allowing children to make friends and sample education outside of the classroom; softening the edges and the importance of architects, designers and urbanists lowering themselves to a toddler’s height when they think about the ledges, edges and sharp corners; adding ramps, widening doorways for prams, considering heights of benches and kerbs so that they are easier for both older and younger legs and boxing off safe spaces with greenery; and finally who doesn’t love a good market – eyeing up fresh produce and browsing books, vinyl, jewellery, vintage clothing and crafts – they are places of discovery, trade and negotiation, great spaces for small businesses to try out new interesting ideas and are engaging for people of all ages
• Other insights include the importance and benefits of nature and human connection for our wellbeing; coming together as communities to grow wholesome food rather than relying on industrially produced food; climate initiatives to respond to the threat of climate change and making our cities more resilient including more trees and shading to mitigate the urban heat island effect; looking to the past for insights when building new buildings including the use of local materials, understanding the building environment and changes to the climate; affordable housing to not ‘push out’ or strip a place of its core existing residents; diversity in making communities better; pleasant commutes to/from work such as walking through a park and how working closer to home can facilitate this; and lastly (but definitely not least) the importance for entrepreneurs to feel like they are part of the community – a decent workspace is only the first step, how it fits into the neighbourhood is equally vital.

Thanks for taking the time to read, I hope you enjoyed the insights I've shared. And for those interested, @Monocle also has a podcast on creating better cities called The Urbanist.

The Urbanist - Radio | Monocle