human cities

Towards an interdisciplinary process for a better sustainable living in the cities

Human Cities offers a series of innovative views and contributions to the public space and urban fabric which are emerging more and more as a field of creative intervention and collaboration between artists, designers, architects, sociologists, writers and philosophers, urban planners and landscape architects. This interdisciplinary approach of the Human Cities hub, researches and action programme will enhance the emergence of creative cities seen much as a laboratory for informal, temporary, creative performances and installations of static or moving forms and objects challenging our existing art, architecture and design stereotypes.

Sustainability and creativity in urban design are also more and more connected to educational and participative programmes reaching all kind of public within the already explored and not yet studied urban territories. Both are also linked to more dense digital and media environments surrounding us as well as to the ephemeral, the temporary and the creation of new typologies of public space where creative people can meet, play, live and enjoy the site specificity and qualities of the places to be.

Places to be are tackling the design multiple and multicultural facets of the urban fabric. They are used as the main theme for the Human Cities Call for Entries.

In fact, European cities today face both frightening threats and exhilarating challenges, becoming harder to manage and to understand, while fostering their role as the drivers and hubs of our economies. Not only must they compete in attractiveness, in order to encourage talents-both creative and academic-to move in (or not to move abroad), they also need to create a framework that promotes their human capital, while coping with social fragmentation and sustainability. Human Cities as a project and philosophy is therefore positioning itself towards artifacts and spontaneous creations which are seen and perceived in their uses, living scenarios as well as in their complex urban perspectives.