Welcome city enthusiast! For those who don’t know, I’m Robin and founder of A City Made By People, a creative studio (me) on a mission of making cities more human, mostly through conversations + connections. Enjoy this updated newsletter format with updates, observations, announcements, and whatever helps us to celebrate the cities we live in.
I’ve noticed that I enjoy browsing newsletters that are in list form, same as for creating them lol. Biggest challenge? To keep them short but visual, so please bear with me. Enjoy!
1. Conversations - 30 interviews in public
It’s crazy to think of it, but we’ve already had 30 different citizens on a public bench as part of the Good Place channel, talking about life and the place they live. Here are some interesting ones in April, citizens living in The Hague, The Netherlands:
From Schilderswijk to Loosduinen - Jan Janssen
From Wrocław to The Hague - Gosia Broda
From Mumbai to The Hague - Sudhanshu Kadre
From Frankfurt to The Hague - Lea
2. Observation - Kid’s Play Well done
I spent a month in Valencia with my little family and I was amazed by the amount of kids playgrounds in the city. Not so much the facilities, because they are mainly minimalistic. But they are colorful and on every street corner. Which made it hard for us to resist with a toddler of almost 2 years old. Do you have enough playgrounds in your city?
3. Experience - The Urban Creative City Break
We were happy to be part of the Urban Creative City Break hosted by the Turin-based agency Stratosferica. They’ve been hosting it 21 times since 2016 and they returned to Amsterdam, Rotterdam & Utrecht for another exploration. Across multiple days we visited numerous city-making companies and projects in the fields of Architecture, Placemaking, Sustainability, and Design. My highlights: meeting a lot of interesting Italian professionals and visiting renowned architecture firm OMA, same as reuniting with the friends of Cornelia Dinca (Amsterdam Smart City), Jeroen & Joop (Pop-up City), and Lior (Humankind). A bit of namedropping doesn’t hurt :)
4. Project - Meeting points of interaction in a city
What are places where citizens meet and how do they come together? What can we learn from them and how are they designed in real life? A very cool photography briefing by the urban development agency STIPO.
5. Inspiration - The Offline Club
Could you imagine an event where you had to switch off your phone and have complete downtime from social media? It popped up throughout March in Amsterdam and has already become a hype. With weekly events, fully booked, and also expanding to other Dutch cities (soon in The Hague ;)), citizens are en mass seeking these ‘offline’ moments to read, connect with strangers, and have a moment to themselves. Will offline experiences become more important than ever? More about The Offline Club.
6. Event - Good Place Café on How to meet your neighbours
From an offline to an online event, we hosted our first Good Place Café with the topic: how to meet your neighbours. And still amazed by how online brings together people of various backgrounds, from Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, and places in Ireland & Italy, it’s been a very inspiring session where we shared experiences and addressed the importance of knowing your neighbours. We’re going to continue this series, to inspire action across good citizenship, so please watch our channels for upcoming monthly get-togethers and topics.
7. Coming up - Urban Future Conference June 5-7 in Rotterdam
Are you interested in shaping the cities of tomorrow? Then join us at the Urban Future Conference in June in Rotterdam. We will also be there with a Good Place bench (yay!), hosting conversations with people about life and the place they live in. If you attend, definitely come and say hi!
8. Something new - A place for conversation + connection
To finish-off this list of insights and inspiration, I’m saving this one for last.
Enjoy the video here, of me on a bench, inviting you to something new and exciting.
And for every follower of this list, here’s a welcome discount of 50%, via coupon code GPEARLY2024 at checkout. Follow the link here: goodplace.cc
Thanks for your time and support. Feel free to reach out or share this list of inspiration with your network. I hope we’ll meet at one of the many events or public benches.
Have a nice day,
Robin
acitymadebypeople.com
goodplace.cc
rcxmoment.com