Creative Places and Strategic Design for Sustainability

Abstract

This paper aims to present an emerging phenomenon based on social innovations, which is striving to associate sustainable social, economic and cultural behaviours to the prevailing unsustainable socio-economic model. This emerging phenomenon has been designated as Creative Places, i.e., urban spaces where people collaboratively promote and manage a mix of creative initiatives that foster social innovations and the emergence of a more sustainable development model. To address the research question “How to facilitate the implementation of Creative Places in the urban territory by means of design?”, it was important to articulate an in-depth understanding of these places, how they work, the motivations and drivers behind their implementation, how they are organized, which kind of activities they develop and their impact in their surroundings, and crucially, how they can be replicated and diffused across the city. Based in a case study methodology, the research has analysed cases in European cities, taking into consideration the interactions between three main areas of activity (Culture, Knowledge-based enterprises and Social initiatives). It will be described their features as small and local entities, open and connected in their organizational systems. It will also be presented a set of strategic design guidelines to bridge local top-down initiatives with bottom-up ones, and a set of tools for citizens to collaborate, create, and contribute in the process.