Where in the world is…

compiled weekly by Brittany Morris

DESIGN

• (Re)designing a city for the people, Future Christchurch released a documentary series telling the people’s story of how the post-quakes-ravished-city on New Zealand’s South Island is revitalizing itself as a city rebuilt by the people, for the people.

• From Talking Streets, to Corkabitation and Mobile Benches, Cape Town is bringing projects to the city and surrounding areas that highlight design as a transformative means to social, cultural and economic development as the 2014 World Design Capital. One project featured hopes for a more equitable, and shared public street design to bridge the social and spatial divides of the city. Open Streets is a citizen-driven organisation dedicated to fostering discussion and (re)education on re-designing and re-working Cape Town’s streets.

• Earlier this month, Buenos Aires hosted the Future of Places conference where public space experts, practitioners, placemakers and urbanists discussed the importance of the public realm in city planning. This year’s theme: Streets as public spaces and drivers of urban prosperity. The key messages developed will contribute to shaping UN Habitat’s mandate for public spaces in cities around the world.

ART

• Neon Nomads. Bodies in Urban Spaces. The Walking Neighbourhood. Sydney, Australia becomes a living canvas this week as Art & About Sydney brings art to every nook and cranny – and an armchair— in the city.

• In a city where the walls narrate pieces of history through the portraits of Che, Fidel or Raul, French artist JR collaborated with Cuban-American artists José Parlá photographed the wrinkles of the city to tell a different story of Havana. Wrinkles in the City is a public-art series that crosses culture, histories and continents; a short documentary illustrating the process in Havana is the most recent edition made available online for public viewing.

PLACE AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE

• Lagos Wide & Close is an interactive documentary film that takes you on a journey into the streetscapes and soundscapes of the megacity that is Lagos, Nigeria.

• Bridging economic development and the contemporary challenges of maintaining organic urban public space, URBIA: cities I communities l people explores the emerging and disappearing human scale of Asian cities.

• Placemaking in Kibera, Kenya is leading the way in creating safe and accessible spaces for the community to gather by taking a participatory approach to building recreational and citizen-focused spaces in one of Nairobi’s informal settlements.

PLACEMAKING in Your ‘Hood

Check out Vancouver’s ‘place happenings’, and subscribe to the VPSN blog for more good reads.