Charles Landry (born 1948 and brought up and educated in Britain, Germany and Italy) was and still is a pioneer of connecting culture, creativity and city transformation. Perhaps he is known best for his concept of the creative city, as illustrated in his book “Creative City: A toolkit for urban innovators”. When asked, how creativity influences his daily work, he gives an honest answer: “It influences me through every fibre of my being”. Enjoy the latest in our INTER.view Series.
Name: Charles Landry
Current occupation: urbanist, creativity specialist, advisor to cities and founder of Comedia
Three crucial turning points in your professional life:
Setting up Comedia in 1978, being asked to assess the creative potential of Barcelona in 1990, publishing the ‘The Creative City: A toolkit for urban innovators’ in 2000
The three most important regions in the structural process of transformation are:
Ruhr is extremely interesting and I say this not because this interview is for 2010LAB.tv, a Ruhr 2010 initiative. The Ruhr’s transformation is of course well underway, yet it has some lessons that all city-regions can learn from.
Shanghai…..is coming back with a vengeance and moving forwards (or is it backwards?) faster than the blink of an eyelid.
The Gulf States from Abu Dhabi, to Doha to Dubai and many more places in the region. I don’t necessarily think what they are doing is good. In fact much of it is completely bizarre, yet with these developments are some valiant attempts to do the right thing such as the Abu Dhabi 2030 plan with its focus on sustainability, pedestrian and public transport oriented development. In addition there is the Al Masdar project an attempt to create a completely carbon neutral settlement.
Which issue is vital for you:
As I said in my blog for 2010LAB.tv in any bigger urban project that claims to be creative we need to think of them as not trying to be the most creative places in the world or region. They should strive to be the best and most imaginative cities for the world. This one change of word – from ‘in’ to ‘for’ – has dramatic implications for its operating dynamics. It gives city-making an ethical foundation. It helps the aim of cities becoming places of solidarity where the relations between the individual, the group, outsiders to the city and the planet are in better alignment. These can be places of passion and compassion.
What kind of potential does culture bear during the process of a structural change in your city or region?
Two senses of ‘culture’ are important in answering this question. The first the broader definition and second the use of essentially artistic projects.
Change is in itself a cultural process; therefore culture and development are inextricably interwoven. The degree to which a place is able to change is culturally determined and depends, for instance, on a city’s level of openness, courage and willingness to take risk. A close-minded place will always find it difficult to transform itself.
Cultural initiatives in the more artistic sense are crucial in that they can help trigger the confidence to change, they can inspire, they can help question what is good development, they can act as role models of what could be. These can be both, activities or physical things like recycling an old building and giving it a new use.
Have public or private investments in culture (institutions or projects) ever been part of a process of structural change? Please state some examples.
They have been that hundreds of times all over the world. For instance, practically all the members of Trans Europe Halles have been part of urban regeneration projects involving public and private partners. Three examples almost at random are: In Perth, Australia, and its city of Swan the massive Midland railway workshops are being transformed into a Raffles university and much more; Granville Island in Vancouver is a vast mixed development of cultural institutions, food markets and other facilities. The Citta di Scienza in Naples is a third example.
Do you see any parallels between the development in your region and the one in the Ruhr area?
There are many parallels. However, the conceptual rigour and framework of the original IBA initiative is very noteworthy, which is what makes the Ruhr transformation especially interesting. At the time there was substantial public money available and this allowed, the Emscher Park project, for instance, to do things like ‘renature’ the Emscher or reuse the Gasometer which other urban regeneration have not attempted. Trying to get the private sector on its own to do this kind of thing is very unlikely.
How does political leadership matter in the process of structural transformation?
Of course, urban leadership is the key and the six main qualities of urban leadership seem to be: Foresight, which the ability to imagine and vision and to assess how deeper trends will play themselves out. Strategic focus – the skill of concentrating on “big picture” and long-term future-oriented perspectives and within this the ability to be strategically principled and tactically flexible is important. There is a need to understand urbanism, city dynamics and iconics in a holistic way and the qualities and characteristics that make cities great. Framing this knowledge a culture of openness and curiosity is essential, which involves adopting an ethos which values debate, critical thinking and learning. In order then to make things happen organizational agility is important, which is the ability to move from a controlling, centralizing, uniform, high blame, low risk culture to one which values responsiveness and flexibility. Yet this quality needs to be allied to a determined delivery focus, which is the motivation, will and ability to make what is promised happen – to ‘walk the talk’.
Many factors – private or public cultural institutions, private commitments, subculture, off-scenes, the cultural and creative industry – contribute to a change: what is the key impulse generator leading to success in your changing city / region?
This depends on circumstance. Yet, ‘crisis’ is the initial driver and catalyst. Once this is recognized then there needs to be an ‘aspiration’ or ‘vision’, which then connects to leadership. Leadership can come from any source, including politicians, artists, bureaucrats, citizens or business. How this plays itself out depends on the specific situation. For instance, when development is likely to be far off and when there’s an old fabric to work and play with, artistic groups often take the lead in their search for cheap spaces and unusual environments. This in turn usually strengthens the alternative scene. Later the more commercially creative industries sectors often play a leading role. If the strategic arms of government are involved often large scale research based facilities are developed to signal a move to the knowledge economy.
According to your experience, when has a region / city successfully realised a change by means of cultural impulses? Please state at least two criteria or examples for that.
It depends what you mean by change. For me the most important criterion for success is whether as a result of change there is both, a lively alternative, fringe cultural scene as well as healthy mainstream scene – andwhether the positive side of gentrification has occurred in that it can trigger development, yet that it is also contained in that it does not throw out those who the process of change going in the first place. This means that the resulting area can then be called creative because there is the right balance between ‘local buzz and global pipelines’. Secondly, that there is a physical setting that is intimate, diverse and not dominated by well known brands and chains. And thirdly, that there is an overall atmosphere that creates a multi-layered experience visually and in terms of activities, including combining the intimate and the iconic, the somewhat shabby and clean and potentially sanitized new
Under which conditions is creativity possible?
Openness is the central feature of creative projects and places. This then allows for curiosity to happen, with which it is possible to be imaginative and from which creativity can emerge. These first steps are divergent. Then, when the creativity is assessed by going through a reality checker, prototypes and inventions can emerge, which if generally applied become an innovation.
Which factors prevent people from being creative?
There internal personal reasons as well as external factors.
Everyone is in principle creative, but not everyone is equally creative, although everyone can be more creative than they currently are. The same applies to organizations, neighbourhoods and city regions. Some aspects of creativity can be learnt but many individuals or organizations have default ways of thinking. Some flourish in a more free ranging context, others find it threatening and destabilizing. It seems that most people and organizations prefer the comfort zone of the tried and tested, the known and apparently proven.
Externally the main blockages to creativity are: inability to see the potential benefits of creativity; entrenched power structures within private and public institutions; the charactieristics of the current wave of capitalism where everything is valued in money terms restricts the scope of creativity, yet at the same time it provides forms of competition that can encourage creative initiatives; finally public administrations tend to block creativity for bad reasons and sometimes good reasons. Negatively they tend to be risk averse, yet positively they wish to give equality of opportunity and focus on transparency .
To which extent can you plan or even control creativity?
In general you have to provide the conditions for people to think, plan and act with imagination, however there can be some element of planning. That involves a wide variety of initiatives ranging from the public sector encouraging exemplary projects or forums for debate or developing a discussion culture as well as creating a regulations and incentives regime that fosters creative action.
How much freedom is acceptable for creativity?
Most creativity can be rather free; nevertheless in overall terms creativity should be bounded by an ethical and moral framework. This will guide the scope of creativity.
How does creativity influence your daily work?
It influences me through every fibre of my being.
Which role will creativity play in the developing knowledge society?
Creativity is a central mechanism to both develop knowledge itself as well as to make the most of existing and emerging knowledge.
Does grouping of creative people (in artist communities, creative quarters, or others) increase creativity?
In principle yes, a community of relatively like-minded people helps act as an accelerator of ideas and projects. In addition there can be an element of healthy competition and inspiration that drives things along by being part of a scene where face to face contact is easily available. Of course, some of these things can happen virtually, but direct contact has additional powerful qualities.
What is the relation between creativity and art?
Art is a special form of creativity. At its best artistic creativity involves a journey, which artists are impelled to undertake, not knowing where it will lead or if and how they will arrive; it involves truth-searching and embodies a quest for the profound and truth; it has no calculated purpose, it is not goal-oriented, nor measurable in easy ways, nor fully explicable rationally, it has no quick or easy solutions; it denies instant gratification; it accepts ambiguity, uncertainty and paradox, it endures the tedious and repetitious so as to reach mastery; it contains loneliness and the potential for failure; it recognizes that something beyond the rational exists; it originates in the individual but aims to create work which enters the common space of humanity; it urges humans to pursue freedom and to be confident in exercising that right; it inspires others to be brave and to risk failure….and it can do much more too.
Who is your role model regarding creativity?
Jaime Lerner, the former mayor of Curitiba, Domenico De Masi, the author of ‘La Fantasia e la Concretezza’, Richard Tarnas the author of ‘The Passion for the Western Mind’
Is it possible to plan creative quarters? Which conditions are important for the development of creative quarters? State precise examples.
Yes and no. Again it is about creating the conditions for a creative quarter to develop strongly. In large part this involves going with the grain with what is happening on the ground and giving it a nudge and a push in the right direction. What this will be depends on the context. If a creative quarter development is too forced the creativity can decline.
For example, the Cable Factory in Helsinki was planned inasmuch that the city made the space available yet it did not specify precisely what would happen. The city and the managing organization rented spaces out to a variety of groups from artistic initiatives to educational ones, yet they then developed their own momentum.
Another example is the Huddersfield Media Centre in Britain and the impact it has had on the surrounding area.
However, there are many creative quarters that do not have a large anchor, such as Liberty Village in Toronto or Uudenmaankatu in Helsinki, or Fashion City Arnhem. The lesson is that public institutions often help provide physical space, yet what happens inside is left to those organizations based there.
How much public funding is acceptable for a creative location?
Up to 25% or 33% is probably a good figure. However, once a creative quarter has taken off and developed its own dynamic this figure can decline. Yet non-commercial resources are always important, as, for instance, you want to have a set of stimulating, challenging, exploratory cultural initiatives that inspire others and these are not likely to be completely self-financing.
Bearing the funding in mind, how important are beacon projects such as investments in architecture or high-profile events?
They are important, but only if they do not become the raison d’être of the project itself. The best projects integrate hardware and software initiatives…..they are concerned with both contents and the containers and have the appropriate budgets to match. There are often situations where all the resources go into the built fabric with very little left for programming.
To which extent – in a negative or positive way – do local players matter?
You need ‘local buzz and global pipelines’. Unless the local is strongly involved you do not get the distinctiveness and uniqueness of place and the danger is that everything becomes globally similar, which ultimately is little better than having many cultural McDonald’s.
When is a creative quarter successful? State an example.
When it is self-sustaining and self-generating and when it has a variety of both production and consumption opportunities and ordinary things well meshed with the extraordinary and surprising. In addition there is an economic dynamic failure and decline begins when the area becomes in essence a consumption hub where outsiders/tourists simply come to gaze and gawp and only contribute by having a coffee or something to eat and then move on. They give very little back to the creative quarter. The Sohos of both New York and London are relatively good examples of long term success.
How can a creative quarter stay successful – without becoming a victim of gentrification or its own success? Do you know any examples of such quarters?
You often need to use gentrificiation processes to get a creative quarter kick started. However, to avoid the negative side of gentrificiation you need public resources to enable you to bend the market to your purposes so everything is not determined by market forces, which inevitably push out the creatives upon the creativity of the area depends. It is crucial to have low cost space available for both working and living.
Few long term success stories exist and they include Ravnsborgade in Nørrebro in Copenhagen or Latin Quarter in Paris since a changing student continually refreshes the area or the fashion district in Bandung, Indonesia.
Author: 2010LAB.tv Redaktion
Europe needs its citizens. Mobilizing every single individual to assume responsibility for a ‘Europe of citizens’ is a task that is both in the hands and in the direct interest of our political decision-makers. Europe’s cultural diversity and the power of its cultural activity are an invaluable resource, and should form the very basis of this engagement between Europe and its citizens.
