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urban acupuncture
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Jacqui Shaddock
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At a recent citytalk, Charles Landry (according to his own website, an international authority on the use of imagination and creativity in urban change) spoke about measuring the creativity of a city as a factor of its livability, including a discussion of ‘urban acupuncture’, the environmentalism theory of Professor Marco Casagrande, which views the city as a complex, living organism.

The idea of urban acupuncture is to focus on urban “pressure points” to create positive ripple effects that affect the entire community. It talks about the beefits of investing in smaller, well placed interventions rather than large scale (and inevitably large budget and long time frame) projects. Given the financial constraints of the GFC, and the need to liftt he spirits of city dwellers, these community minded, localized projects could be just the ticket.

Think ‘micro-parks’, laneway art and even the small bars and markets that have been popping up in Sydney. It’s a way of giving city residents permission to make small changes in their own landscape. We like.