Copenhagen- The Liveable City

Undermined by its own success the city is far more than its beautiful architecture, envious location on the harbour and a city for cyclists.  

Copenhagen is the Capital of Denmark and its most populous city at 1,246,611 (2014), up from 541,989 in 2011. Famed for the use of cycles to get across the city, the 2014 bicycle account shows that 45% of all journeys to places of work or education in Copenhagen are made by bicycle.  Such is the cities commitment to the cyclists and the creation of a more walk-able city that during periods of snow the cycle paths are cleared first and it’s working with 70% of regular cyclists doing so all year round, come rain, shine, or snow! An impressive increase of 25% in two years. 

In recent history the city has adopted a vision for the city founded on the belief that it should

‘consider Urban Life, before Urban Space, and consider Urban Space before buildings.’

The municipality have a good understanding of what Copenhageners want in and from their city determined from the Urban Life account that they conduct. This survey determines what is important and allows the municipality to ensure that it is working for the people. The have also appointed a city architect, Tina Saaby, who oversees and co-ordinates the large scale development and implementation of the city vision. Tina works in an advisory capacity and is uniquely able to disagree with developers, colleagues and politicians alike where necessary in order to fulfil the vision for the city as determined by its people. They adopt a Placemaking approach within a flexible Master-plan and have a refreshing ability to realise their vision overcoming boundaries with creativity. Tina describes the installation of a trampoline along the path of the harbour front as an invitation to all to play and calling the installation ‘art’ enabled them to overcome health and safety restrictions that would have otherwise prevented it.

They also have huge regard for investing in the long term, placing teams in locations across the city that are identified as requiring changes, physically or regarding imbalances of the demographic make-up for up to 5 years ensuring that they can truly understand the needs and challenges of the community before they look to create the spaces for change.

Recent reports in the UK by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation demonstrate the sever implications and risks of increasing lonliness and isolation in the UK, particularly amongst older people. Copenhagen have recognised the value in creating spaces that invite people to spend time, enjoy the city, observe as well as engage. The city has purposefully implemented Public Spaces, carefully designed to allow people to sit, enjoy and engage regardless of age because they design for children and the elderly so as to meet the needs of all. On the Gehl study of Public Life a greater understanding of the population’s movement and use of space, in conjunction with comparable data sets means that spaces can be created that allow people to feel invited to use the space.

The city does have high regard and commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2025. An estimated 75% of the CO2 reductions will come from initiatives relative to the increase share of renewable energy in the city’s district heating.

Reflecting a little on the similarities between Freiburg and Copenhagen are three intrinsic characteristics; the creation of good quality spaces for people, ambitious environmental targets and finally strong, democratic municipalities who undertake their role as a facilitator as opposed to gate-keepers. 

This way to the future, or which way?

I have spent the last week in Rotterdam for the Informed Cities Forum run by ICLEI- at what you might feel is an all too common event aimed at bringing people together to discuss a common theme and interest. That interest being how we create liveable cities that not only reduce the harm we are causing to the environment but create spaces for it and us to thrive. However, I have been pleasantly surprised by the thoughtful approach, the participants and the speakers. It strikes me that the lessons in Rotterdam are not about renewable energies- of which there is great stuff happening elsewhere (Mark Snow, Engineering University of New South Wales/ Freiburg) but is in the lessons we can take in the planing, integrated transport, conservation and biodiversity of place instead.  I also happen to have fallen in love with yet again, another city, the pictures should tell you why.

This is the local award winning food market that has you salivating around the stands until you can't resist, and yes, that is a swing on a food stall. This is one example of the bold architecture across the city, and whilst I suspect not even the locals would argue it always leads to such spectacular results I admire this city of risk and reward without the expense of the people living within it. 

Rotterdam is a Vibrant city in transition, no coincidence given the focus of the forum and throughout the two days we were presented with cities who have undertaken transition management with the support of DRIFT (Dutch Research Institute for Transitions) and MUSIC (Mitigation in Urban Areas). But what does this mean? Well, there are 5 cities in transition; Aberdeen, Rotterdam, Montreiul, Ghent and Ludwisburg and they all signed up to co-create a new vision for the cities with it's inhabitants leading to innovative projects, collaborations and unsurprisingly similar challenges. 

I hope that we can soon stop two commonalities I observe within the social sector, the first being the rhetoric that Local Authorities are not worth or worthy of our engagement and that they are unable to work cross departmentally. I am also guilty of this but I was reminded that people do not (I hope and suspect) go into a job wanting to make things worse. We have to rethink how we enable space for innovation, compromise, compassion and consideration for each other. It is never going to work if we are looking for answers- this suggests you know what you want to do and so there is no room for collaboration or co-creation. We need to be committed and start asking the right questions. Nils Goransson Grunditz spoke of an interdisciplinary group who are able to work and inform decision making across functions of the Municipality. Shane Waring from Dublin City Council of the BETA projects programme established to enable Intrapreneurs to exercise innovation time to work on projects outside of their role but for the benefit of the city. It's being done, it's just about learning from people where this stuff is happening and looking at how that might work in your locality. If you, and those around you implemented BETA what good ideas might come to you from your organisations/ colleagues/ partners and the people you work with? 

The second, is our silo approach to tackling some of our societal issues. It is not ok for someone to suffer poor health but because they recycle we are satisfied because we are interested in tackling environmental issues. The concept of common welfare should be across the board. The Municipality or Local Authorities may well have a responsibility of the guardianship of common welfare but we each have a duty to it, to Build Up small seeds of change and to Break Down structural barriers. 

That said, no good trip is without it's visits to meet some of the most challenging, inspired and inspiring social entrepreneurs and with a packed agenda it was a difficult choice but I went to visit SCRAP-xl a 'supermarket' for scrapped materials to look at circularity- a hot topic in Rotterdam. 

SCRAP-xl is based in the Zoho district, a regeneration area of the city in which the Station Hofplein, the location of the forum, was also located. The area is becoming a magnet for the creative and entrepreneurs of the city and is seeing a rejuvenation to its offices and the former viaduct. 

Following an introduction to the Scrap market Cesare Peeren an architectural engineer and co-founder of Superuse Studios introduced his work and this was truly impressive! It started as an architectural design firm in 1997 which became Superuse in 2012. Superuse are a pioneer in the field of sustainable design. They are internationally renowned for their design innovation, sourcing local and sustainable materials making use of wasted resources and energy. 

People and Places

I LOVE the energy of the people I work with, and those I have been connecting to over my time at UnLtd and in recent months (hence the tardiness in posting- although know-one seems to have noticed). I’d really like to share some of the amazing stories and people I have seen with you, starting off with my favourite city- Birmingham!

In case you don’t know it, Birmingham, recently dubbed by a FoxNews contributor Steve Emerson as a ‘Muslim City’ that ‘Non-Muslims just do not go’ is actually a multicultural city that embraces culture, heritage and difference with open arms and a warm heart. Of course, there are a few who would disagree but to give airtime to this would only deplete the unbounded energy you can get from this city and the vibrant people within it. No example personifies this more for me than the recent support of HUB Birmingham. A social entrepreneur @Immykaur and her amazing team ventured to start a co-working space with a HUGE difference. Creating opportunities for purposeful encounters, collaboration, networking and support for the people of Birmingham to make a difference. After receiving some support from @UnLtd they embarked on a @Kickstarter campaign and raised an amazing £65,095 from 586 backers. You can read more about it here and I for one, cannot wait to see the space open soon.

But wait, there’s more- here are just a few of the wonderful people I have met over the last few months.  

Jodi Ann Bickley- spreading happiness through letters. Jodi set up OneMillionLovelyLetters.com to help people through difficult times, one letter at a time. She responds with love, care and attention to anyone that needs a supportive word and a caring heart to respond. If only we all gave this much time to making a difference to others.

@Beatfreeks founder Anisa is another of Birmingham’s stars.  Beatfreeks is an award winning social enterprise started by Anisa, who has been making a difference to this city and young people within it since she was just 15. Beatfreeks deliver hard-hitting youth participation, working with young people to do what they love and Anisa is another driving force behind the groundswell of social action in the Midlands.

And a final nod has got to go to New Leaf Recovery CIC, started by Rosalind a year ago and going from strength to strength to support individuals in the city who have struggled with substance misuse. New Leaf are successfully supporting people through addiction to enable them to face the realities of life and rebuild what has been damaged. I met Rosalind a year ago for the first time and enjoyed hearing how much she and the enterprise have developed and her plans to expand across the city to help more people ready for change.

And it’s not just Birmingham. I am lucky enough to meet, read and support inspiring individuals making a difference in villages, towns and cities across the Midlands as I know many others are across the UK.

There are many, all too familiar issues facing communities in the UK; poverty in all its forms (food, fuel, finance) homelessness, criminality and too many short term ‘solutions’ to long term issues. We need to widen our lenses, be more ambitious, avoid the easy options and say enough. It’s easy to be overwhelmed with the task ahead but whatever you want to change, the time to do it is today, because tomorrow never comes.