Amazing Places

Placemakers of the future will build on the legacies of the past by understanding how the making of places builds and nurtures community. We brought together leaders from across our innovation and design community — from FTSE 100s, charities, government and council bodies — to unpack the realities of connected spaces.

We talked about what to watch out for, and how we might foster happy and healthy communities together. Here are some of the conversation highlights:

• Green spaces are health assets. Undoubtedly the pandemic spurred on a new found appreciation for our city’s green spaces. Now, UCL is just one organisation exploring the multivariate benefits of green spaces in towns — this is leading to the reattribution of our green spaces as ‘health assets’. Not only are these spaces beneficial to collective wellbeing (through offering spaces for leisure, play and connection), but physical landscapes can also support against costly environmental threats such as flooding, and contribute to cleaner air. The ways green spaces are currently funded or invested in does not reflect this health value yet.

‘Greater value in spaces, moving away from spaces important to work lives, to spaces instrumental to our very being.’

• Quality of Life is the best metric. There needs to be a sharing and pooling of the best types of approach, this involves a movement towards Quality of Life as a key measure when designing the built environment. When ‘local councils are place shapers’, unique needs warrant empathetic collaboration and understanding — how might ‘smart cities’ actually benefit a community and its diverse needs?

“Planning authorities have unique, individualised needs, which have to be considered beyond the question of profitability. We focus on quality of life as a key and consistent metric.”

• Connectivity is vital. Lack of access breeds disconnection and correlates to rampant inequalities in this country (e.g 49% of low income households don’t have internet access). Basic operations need connectivity, and when only 51% of homes with incomes below £10,000 a year have internet access, that poses serious challenges.

“Sunderland is one of the most progressive cities to get 5G rolled out.”

• The 21st century concern. As indirect users of the Smart City, we need to be careful and understand how our information is absorbed, distributed and used, and how to educate people around this. The full extent of security and privacy implications are often barely understood by the users or beneficiaries of tech.

This is a quick wrap up of the conversation. There was a lot to capture so if anything above spurred some thoughts please do get in touch jassi.porteous@wearemagnetic.com. I’d love to hear your observations.

Credit to Aidas Zvirblis who supported with gathering the insights.

For further reading, links and resources on this topics to explore;

• Public Practice: https://www.publicpractice.org.uk/
• Wales has a Wellbeing of the Future Generations Act: https://www.futuregenerations.wales/about-us/future-generations-act/
• Quality of Life Foundation: https://www.qolf.org/

As a recession potentially looms, our next Exchange is all about the role of purpose during a cost of living crisis. Will it be enough to weather the storm — or will organisations and their leaders have to do more? Join the conversation by registering for free tickets here.