Self-Build Cities
Putting people first in Urban Renewal
Cities are back...
For their resurgence to be more than a fashion, cities shouldn’t rely on top-down master plans. Instead cities need to tap-into the ways that people adapt their lives and create their environments everyday. The Demos urban programme thinks first about the people who live, play and work in cities.
The challenge for cities is to develop the design principles that allow room for creativity and experimentation. And at the same time they need to grow the infrastructure, that can enable this emergent energy to scale up across the whole city rather than being to isolated pockets.
We work in towns, cities and suburbs to help them understand and capitalise on the distinctive assets and stories they have, rather than trying to copy the success of the last hot international city. Our projects fall into three categories.
Public Life The resilience of cities rest on the strength of networks and relationships they are able to support. Positive relationships amongst people, between people and systems of governance, and responsive organisations play a key role in determining quality of life in a city. We have developed a series of projects looking at how spaces and places can better support sharing and interaction in the city, how local authorities can build trust across cities and how cities can encourage public participation.
Freedom of The City
People Make Places
Growing Trust In Cities
Public Imagination Cities are the stories they tell about themselves. Pride, confidence and identity come from the collective imagination of people across the city. An important part of this is being able to reconcile the past and think realistically link that to different possible futures. We have developed and are undertaking a series of projects aiming to tell the untold story of cities and urban environments from the point of view different groups of people living within them.
Glasgow 2020
The Battle for Suburbia (Photos here & here)
Scotland 2020
Public Enterprise The proximity that the city brings to different ideas, perspectives and aptitudes makes for naturally creative environments. The challenge for cities remains to be how they can create the conditions capable of unlocking this energy. This encompasses everything from the work of individuals hobbyists and “pro-ams” to the workings of the creative industries and big-business. We have developed a series of projects looking at the role of culture in regeneration, the conditions that encourage creativity and the ways in which individual energy can literally “build” their own city.
Northern Soul
Boho Britain
In Concert
Europe in the Creative Age
The Creative City
The Independents
CITY SALONS >>
Demos also regularly convenes City Salons - a new space at Demos where people from different professional and practitioner backgrounds can come together and share ideas about the future of our towns and cities. We hope to offer a space with a relaxed atmosphere- a place for people to meet, talk, think and network. See upcoming events for the next salons.
FURTHER INFORMATION>>