For the first time in his­tory, over half the world’s pop­u­la­tion now live in urban areas

In Asia, another two mil­lion people are mov­ing to cit­ies every month. For example, China’s urb­an­iz­a­tion is increas­ing at a rapid rate, with an estim­ated 900 mil­lion Chinese expec­ted to be liv­ing in cit­ies by 2020, almost double the cur­rent urban pop­u­la­tion. Over 80% of Europeans are city dwell­ers – and the UK needs to build another three mil­lion homes by 2020.

So how can we ensure that the qual­ity of our lives – and of our envir­on­ments – keeps improv­ing in this cen­tury of the city? By nur­tur­ing the dis­tinct­ive iden­tity and per­son­al­ity of the cre­at­ive city, we can help as many people as pos­sible to think, plan and act cre­at­ively, to grasp oppor­tun­it­ies and solve prob­lems inventively.

Gen­eral:
1. What is a cre­at­ive city?
2. Which cit­ies and coun­tries are included in the project?

About the blog:
3. What is the aim of the Cre­at­ive Cit­ies East Asia blog?
4. What can I expect to read on the blog?
5. What are the monthly themes for the blog?
6. Who are the Cre­at­ive Cit­ies blog­gers?
7. How can I con­trib­ute to the discussion?

About the Cre­at­ive Cit­ies pro­ject:
8.  What is the aim of the Cre­at­ive Cit­ies pro­ject?
9.  What is the Brit­ish Coun­cil?
10. What are the key strands of the Cre­at­ive Cit­ies project?

Thai­l­and Cre­ativ­ity and Design Centre, Bangkok. Photo by Jess Scully.

1. What is a cre­at­ive city?
Cre­at­ive cit­ies aspire to be suc­cess­ful cit­ies. They attract vis­it­ors and cit­izens who want to live in them. They are cit­ies that attract indi­vidu­als to cluster in dynamic and cre­at­ive urban neigh­bour­hoods, to share ideas, to bar­gain for tal­ent that will drive learn­ing and research and develop innov­a­tion and products that com­pete with global mar­kets and other suc­cess­ful world cit­ies. Cre­at­ive cit­ies are cit­ies of the know­ledge economy.

A cre­at­ive city is a city that has strong eco­nomic devel­op­ment, world class uni­ver­sit­ies, suc­cess­ful and enter­pris­ing busi­ness com­munit­ies, act­ive com­mit­ment to a sus­tain­able envir­on­ment and a unique and proud sense of place and cul­ture. A cre­at­ive city cel­eb­rates the diversity that melds ori­gin­al­ity and innov­a­tion – it does not fear hybrid solu­tions to the com­plex ideas that are part of a know­ledge economy.

A cre­at­ive city often brands itself around an iconic centre, har­bour, river water­front or other unique dis­tinc­tion, but the influ­en­cers on a city’s cre­ativ­ity also under­stand that cre­ativ­ity lives and breathes through some­times indefin­able net­works that reach bey­ond the city bound­ar­ies and link with national and inter­na­tional economies.

Over­pass Aer­obics, Bangkok, Thai­l­and. Photo by Jess Scully.

2. Which cit­ies and coun­tries are included in the pro­ject?
There are thir­teen coun­tries included in the scope of the Cre­at­ive Cit­ies pro­ject. We hope to secure con­tri­bu­tions from them all and to high­light the skill sets, strengths and unique con­di­tions of major cit­ies in each of these countries.

* Aus­tralia
* China
* Indone­sia
* Japan
* Korea
* Malay­sia
* New Zea­l­and
* Phil­ip­pines
* Singa­pore
* Taiwan
* Thai­l­and
* Viet­nam
* UK

3. What is the aim of the Cre­at­ive Cit­ies East Asia blog?
The Cre­at­ive Cit­ies blog seeks to ini­ti­ate con­ver­sa­tion about why inclus­ive, sus­tain­able and cre­at­ive cit­ies are bene­fi­cial, and neces­sary in a rap­idly urb­an­ising region, and to use pro­jects, research and opin­ions to sug­gest factors that aid the devel­op­ment of cre­at­ive cit­ies. The blog seeks to identify and cel­eb­rate the local skill base of cit­ies in the region and to high­light the value of devel­op­ing tra­di­tional skill sets and indus­tries to con­nect with a global know­ledge economy.

The blog doesn’t seek to provide neat “solu­tions” to the diverse issues faced by cit­ies across the region, or to impose the val­ues of one city on another, or to replace the in-depth and ongo­ing work of experts in this field.

Rather, the blog seeks to use a short-term strategy to plant a seed in the minds of a broader audi­ence about the ideas around cre­at­ive cit­ies, and to con­nect that audi­ence with sources for fur­ther inform­a­tion about issues of sus­tain­ab­il­ity, inclus­ive­ness and the poten­tial of the cre­at­ive eco­nomy with par­tic­u­lar ref­er­ence to cit­ies in East Asia.

4. What can I expect to read on the blog?

• a focused dis­cus­sion around a monthly theme, fea­tur­ing the obser­va­tions, ana­lysis and insights of con­trib­ut­ors from around the region
• inform­a­tion on com­pet­i­tions and oppor­tun­it­ies for pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment in the field
• call-outs for con­tri­bu­tions from which focus on per­sonal exper­i­ence, doc­u­ment­ing the life and cul­ture of cities,
• dis­cus­sion of events, pro­jects and devel­op­ment that either address – or fail to address – the demands of the envir­on­ment and the cre­at­ive economy
• doc­u­ment­a­tion of pro­jects and works-in-progress
• inter­views with key thinkers and prac­ti­tion­ers in urban plan­ning and cre­at­ive industries
• news on devel­op­ments in the fields of urban plan­ning and cre­at­ive industries

5. What are the monthly themes for the blog?
Cre­at­ive Cit­ies monthly blog themes gradu­ally move the dis­cus­sion from gen­eral ground­ing con­ver­sa­tions about pub­lic and social spaces in the first month to ideas about sus­tain­ab­il­ity in the second month, then develop into an explor­a­tion of cre­ativ­ity and com­munity (and how the devel­op­ment of cre­at­ive clusters and expert­ise can be depend­ent on access to spaces and can be aided by a focus on sus­tain­ab­il­ity), before coales­cing in the future vis­ions theme, which ties all these con­cepts together and gives par­ti­cipants a plat­form for mov­ing from the prac­tical and phys­ical to fore­cast­ing and ima­gin­ing future uses of and approaches to city build­ing.

September/October: Social Spaces
This theme re-phrases pub­lic space as “social space”, high­light­ing the poten­tial for all kinds of spaces (includ­ing private or com­mer­cial spaces) to act as ven­ues for inter­ac­tion between city dwell­ers, and draw­ing atten­tion to what is import­ant about pub­lic space – these are loc­a­tions where vis­it­ors and res­id­ents alike can inter­act with oth­ers, share ideas, view (or pro­duce) art or enter­tain­ment, and nego­ti­ate use of spaces with their fel­low city dwell­ers, from informal and tran­si­ent use (in the form of road­side stalls, hanging out, per­form­ances, etc) to more per­man­ent func­tions.
October/November: Sus­tain­able Cit­ies
The focus will be on oppor­tun­it­ies for the cre­at­ive eco­nomy in respond­ing to envir­on­mental issues and deliv­er­ing sus­tain­able approaches and products, and on the impact sus­tain­able prac­tices have on qual­ity of life. Approaches from bottom-up indi­vidual action to top-down infra­struc­ture and devel­op­ment will be can­vassed, with a focus on the impact neigh­bours and small organ­isa­tions can have on their cit­ies, such as through the rooftop green­ing move­ment, plastic bag and bottle cam­paigns, etc. This theme allows us to explore the ini­ti­at­ives to green cit­ies, the reas­ons why this is cru­cial in a rap­idly urb­an­ising region, and how sus­tain­ab­il­ity extends into all aspects of urban life, from trans­port­a­tion to food pro­duc­tion and deliv­ery, water and waste sys­tems, con­struc­tion, devel­op­ment and more.

November/December: Cre­at­ive Com­munit­ies
This theme focuses on identi­fy­ing and cel­eb­rat­ing the unique com­munit­ies and cre­at­ive clusters that exist in cit­ies across the region. It is the local know­ledge and tra­di­tional skill base of com­munit­ies that cre­ates a sense of iden­tity, and in approach­ing broader issues faced by the shift to urban life­styles, it is this local know­ledge that can deliver the most appro­pri­ate responses to obstacles and take best advant­age of opportunities.

Dur­ing this month users will be invited to identify the skills and strengths unique to their city to help build up a regional map of skill centres, going deeper to identify cer­tain areas within cit­ies which are home to skill centres. The second phase to this will be an exam­in­a­tion of the factors (cul­tural, social, envir­on­mental, plan­ning, resources, edu­ca­tional, etc) which allow cer­tain skills to flour­ish. Skill sets will be taken to include tra­di­tional prac­tices as well as digital and cre­at­ive indus­tries. There will be explor­a­tion of new approaches to lower the bar­rier to entry for cre­at­ive prac­tices, from space shar­ing and informal spaces, and of online cre­at­ive net­works that allow people to col­lab­or­ate, share ideas and know­ledge around the region and the world.

December/January: Future Vis­ions
This theme brings together cur­rent know­ledge and approaches to the ideas of sus­tain­able, cre­at­ive city-building, using examples of these approaches from around the region and the world, giv­ing the users a plat­form on which to ima­gine what the future dir­ec­tions of cit­ies may take — build­ing on the empower­ing, col­lab­or­at­ive ideas explored in the pre­vi­ous three themes — and ask­ing artists, plan­ners and the audi­ence to freely ima­gine what kind of cit­ies they want to live in, and how these can be achieved.

6. Who are the Cre­at­ive Cit­ies blog­gers?
Cre­at­ive Cit­ies will engage with the people ima­gin­ing the future of the region and tak­ing action to bring together com­munit­ies, respond to issues or adapt spaces, includ­ing exist­ing blog­gers and net­works, including:

•    Urban plan­ners and city­scape thinkers
•    Com­munity storytellers and artists
•    Cre­at­ive move­ments, com­pet­i­tion organ­isers
•    Local blog­ger networks

Cre­at­ive Cit­ies will exist as a dir­ect­ory for com­ment­at­ors in the region, each blog tagged by loc­a­tion and theme, and a resource for those explor­ing the cre­at­ive indus­tries and urban planning.

7. How can I con­trib­ute to the dis­cus­sion?
You are wel­come to par­ti­cip­ate in the dis­cus­sion in a vari­ety of ways:

• By com­ment­ing on posts. Post authors will read com­ments and respond and inter­act wherever pos­sible. If you raise an inter­est­ing point, site edit­ors may con­tact you and ask that you dis­cuss it in more detail as a guest con­trib­utor, or may use your ideas as a spring­board for fur­ther posts or research.
• By answer­ing ques­tions and con­trib­ut­ing your ideas to the weekly talk­ing points posts.
• By enter­ing Cre­at­ive Cit­ies com­pet­i­tions and call-outs. Every month we’ll launch and pro­mote a call-out for con­tri­bu­tions around the theme or focus of the month, ask­ing our read­ers to con­trib­ute their own per­spect­ives on their city.
• By par­ti­cip­at­ing in Cre­at­ive Cit­ies events. If you’re able to par­ti­cip­ate in real-world Cre­at­ive Cit­ies events around the region, we invite you to review or doc­u­ment the event, and your opin­ions on them, through this blog.
• By becom­ing a Cre­at­ive Cit­ies con­trib­utor. If you’re inter­ested in par­ti­cip­at­ing in the blog as a con­trib­utor, please email our team [EMAIL ADDRESS LINK HERE] to dis­cuss your area of interest.

8. What is the aim of the Cre­at­ive Cit­ies pro­ject?
Our aim is that the city-shapers of East Asia develop rela­tion­ships with people in the UK that help to make their cit­ies open to new ways of think­ing, well net­worked, well designed and pros­per­ous. And that many more entre­pren­eurs, edu­ca­tional bod­ies and ima­gin­at­ive people will develop cre­at­ive part­ner­ships with real bene­fits for the know­ledge eco­nom­ies of East Asia and the UK.

9. What is the Brit­ish Coun­cil?
The Brit­ish Coun­cil is the UK’s inter­na­tional organ­isa­tion for edu­ca­tional oppor­tun­it­ies and cul­tural rela­tions. As well as edu­ca­tion, the Brit­ish Coun­cil also runs pro­grammes in the arts, sci­ence, sport, gov­ernance and Eng­lish lan­guage. For more inform­a­tion, please visit the Brit­ish Coun­cil home page [http://www.britishcouncil.org/new/about-us/who-we-are/].

10. What are the key strands of the Cre­at­ive Cit­ies pro­ject?
The arts and the cre­at­ive indus­tries can play a spe­cial role in devel­op­ing cit­ies and so we have cre­ated five themes which cover dif­fer­ent aspects of how the arts can help shape our cities:

• City­scapers: pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment of the next gen­er­a­tion of urban design­ers, archi­tects, tech­no­lo­gists and engin­eers through col­lab­or­at­ive work on design briefs in UK cities
• Cre­at­ive Cata­lysts: sup­port for the devel­op­ment of young entre­pren­eurs in the cre­at­ive industries
• Inclus­ive Cit­ies: explor­ing the impact of migra­tion, emer­ging new iden­tit­ies and cul­tural diversity on cities
• Re-imagining the City: an audio-visual doc­u­ment­ary of eight cit­ies made by UK and East Asian creatives.
• Trans­form­ing Pub­lic Spaces: col­lab­or­a­tions which sup­port the expres­sion of cre­ativ­ity through the phys­ical and nat­ural envir­on­ment of the city