Why create Urban Future Centres?
Meaningful involvement to achieve great urban places
In the built urban environment where we live, very little of what physically exists is dedicated towards allowing people to gather to discuss how to improve these same areas. Whilst we all have to appreciate commercial and economic drivers for land management and real estate, this is a curious position for us to be in.
The idea behind Urban Future Centres is simple - it is to provide a connected set of physical centres through which everyone can be involved in making urban places better.
The benefits of having these Centres in our cities and towns include the following:
- A space is always available for everyone to gather to discuss placemaking and other urban needs and ideas.
- Valuable knowledge can be continually shared to make urban places better.
- Everyone can gain an understanding of what it takes to make places better, and how to get involved.
- By involving everyone in ongoing strategies and plans, everyone can play their part.
- Resources, including finance, for urban placemaking and initiatives can be used in the best way possible.
The following considerations are important to keep in mind:
- Good governance needs to be in place.
- An annual programme of activities and events, linked to a strategy, must be used.
- These activities and events need to be communicated to people through various channels.
- Urban Future Centres should be linked to other citizen-led activities that are held across the city / town, in all areas (these Centres must not become the only venues for involving everyone in discussions).
- Municipal authorities need to show how they are taking on board feedback by people and businesses, and acting on it.
An Urban Future Centre in a city / town / local neighbourhood can be used for regular and ongoing urban diagnostic reviews and risk and resilience reviews to work out where the city, town or neighbourhood stands today, and where everyone wants it to head towards in future.
It is important to note that Urban Future Centres cannot be the only way to involve everyone in discussions about urban environments and placemaking. They should be part of an overall approach which includes city and municipal authority teams spending time with people in their communities, in the places where they gather.
What should an Urban Future Centre include?
An Urban Future Centre needs to be engaging...
Urban Future Centres are a way to involve everyone in reviewing ideas, initiatives and the implementation of plans for sustainable local urban development. Can Centres that are scaled to suit each local budget and audience be set up in every city and town around the world to hold debates, make decisions and showcase what is happening and what is planned for a local area, as well as to show examples of what is happening close by and around the world?
The Urban 2.0 system and perhaps (if appropriate) the City Resilience Framework (by the Resilient Cities Network) can help shape how an Urban Future Centre is designed, built and used.
The context, including budget availability, to each city / town / local urban area is different. Ideally, the following should be set up:
- Create good content for everyone to review, which should include leveraging global framework material and showing how it all connects and cascades. This should include references to an urban system and the key parts of it for governance, ecology, the built environment and social & economic aspects. it should also include an explanation of urban resilience in the locality (to different hazards).
- The locality strategy and plans should be made available, with the ability to easily comment on them (and at certain points during the planning cycle, strategy and plan reviews should be held).
- The content should show how it connects to the SDGs, the Urban Agenda and the Sendai Framework.
- Enough space to present good quality media - including interactive digital media such as videos and presentations, scale models, maps, plans and hard copy posters.
- A Data Centre, showing what data is being collected, what it is being used for and how people can help collect some of it.
- Interactive wall charts for people to add thoughts onto (such as Ideas Maps and Risk Maps).
- Interactive games and puzzles for people of all ages to take part in, which relate to the locality.
- Ensure there is enough focus on letting young people including children have their say.
- A "What other places are doing" area, showing examples from nearby and around the world to make good urban places.
Steps to implementing an Urban Future Centre
Some aspects to think about...
If the value proposition and investment case for one or more Urban Future Centres is agreed, a range of aspects to set them up need to be considered. Building designs can be shared across municipal authorities, with a focus on using local sustainably sourced materials wherever possible.
Where do you want to locate one or more Centres?
- Depending on the size and context of your city or town, think about where they can be located (one or several Centres).
- Perhaps one / several can be co-located with other uses (see examples of permanent, temporary and pop-up options below).
- Whilst a municipal authority / state government may have certain premises for supporting functions such as employment centres and general service centres, it is suggested that Urban Future Centres are not co-located with them.
What staff do you need and can you link them to other purposes?
- How many municipal authority staff may you need? This will depend on the activities you want to put on.
- Should people from different municipal authority teams take it in turn to staff them (with appropriate training first)?
- Can a Centre be linked to one or more charitable organisations, such as a charitable cafe?
What you want to include and how much space you can provide:
- There will be inevitable space constraints. Mega-cities may be able to afford large, multi-storey Centres. Small townships in the developing world may need to have small Centres.
Budget considerations:
- Budget determines what you can provide, including what you can have available inside.
- Can the funding for one or more Centres be partially from a state / national / federal government as part of a broad programme?
- Should private sector support funding in an appropriate way be sought?
Permanent Centres:
- If it warrants being part of urban regeneration, should they be located in premises that are long-term unused and vacant?
- Can a permanent Centre also provide some form of urban resilience, such as a Respite Centre in a heatwave?
Temporary / Moveable Centres:
- Perhaps vacant premises in urban centres could be used for a limited period of time?
Pop-up Centres (on a regular basis):
- In market areas, where locals go to buy essentials, perhaps stalls can be set up with interactive information boards, videos and gaming.
Some real city examples:
- In the Chinese mega-city of Shanghai, the Urban Planning Exhibition Centre offers a multi-floor interactive display of how the city is moving forwards into the future.
- In the French city of Bordeaux, a small permanent building on the riverfront is used for a variety of public engagement activities.
Getting started
One approach: Think big, start small & scale
It may not be possible to set up everything that you would like to have in place for an Urban Future Centre on Day 1.
You may find it beneficial to include them a plan which includes how and when to set some of them up, perhaps starting in a small way, and working out how to scale up over time. It is worth having a flexible plan which can adapt as circumstances change.
Consider also how to make a compelling Investment Case to obtain funding to make one or more Centres happen. With careful thought, there could be good opportunities to raise capital.
Support citizen and business involvement
Everyone must be involved through many different ways...
City and municipal authorities need to be set up and structured to truly listen to their citizens and the local community, and their businesses. This requires good policy, and a mindset to proactively involve everyone - from children to adults.
Urban Future Centres can be part of this, but they are not the entire answer.
People need to be involved easily, and it's not hard to do - it just requires the will to do it.
City and municipal authorities can visit schools to discuss ideas with schoolchildren. They can go to community groups that take place for older people, hold discussion groups in markets and in religious venues and other places where people already gather such as sports halls. They can go to business forums held in their local area and ask for a discussion slot in them.
Whilst it is valuable at certain points in time to hold "town hall meetings", involving everyone means doing more than this - it means going to them.
