What Defines a Creative City
From the early civilization of human, city changes rapidly to meet the needs of its inhabitant. Not only the physical sector, but those changes also shape cultural and human environment around the city itself. In the mid-19th century, the Dutch had completed the rail-line that connected Bandung and Batavia (now Jakarta). Art Deco styled hotels, cafes, and shops were built to serve the revellers, so much that the Dutch dubbed Bandung as the Paris of Java. Nowadays, the ideas that people brought to a place has become so complicated, thus adaptation is needed to propel forward.
Loosely speaking, creative city from urban planning perspective can be described as a city that fosters and thrives on creativity. Creativity itself is an abstract idea, one of its definitions is the tendency to generate or recognize ideas that may be useful in solving problems. In 2004, UNESCO legitimated the concept by launching the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) that aims to strengthen cooperation with and among cities that have recognized creativity as a strategic factor of sustainable development as regards economic, social, cultural, and environmental aspect. One of the aims of UCCN is to fully integrate culture and creativity into local development strategies and plans. According to UCCN, there are seven creative fields that are recognized: Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts, and Music.
But, as abstract as it is, what does a city need to become creative? In this post-industrialism era, cities have one crucial resource, their people. Human ideas, imagination, and desire are replacing natural resources that a city needs. Communities slowly getting shaped by common interest, rather than location dependent. We are entering an unimaginable era where casual geographical concept does not work anymore.
To further develop the creative aspect of the city, all stakeholders need to join their forces. There is a theoretical structural framework that comprises three categories of people, spaces, organizations, and institutions: the upperground, the underground, and the middleground. The upperground consists of firms and businesses engaged in creative industries. The underground consists of the individual creative people that produce this creative product. The middleground is the space that connects the upperground and underground. It can be an actual space or organizations that allows people from upperground and underground to meet. Finally, in order to accelerate its potential, urban government must remove obstacles to creativity through urban planning initiatives to permit creative body to work.
Let’s get back to Bandung. From a Dutch entertainment town, now the city has established itself as an innovative hub for creativity and entrepreneurship. 56% of the economic activities are design-related, with fashion, graphic design and digital media being the top three subsectors in the local creative economy. Cibaduyut, Cihampelas, and Suci are well-known for its footwear, jeans, and t-shirt industry. Several international festivals and events are being held to boost the attractiveness of the city, such as Asia Africa Conference commemoration, Keuken Festival that offers numerous Indonesian delicacies for visitors to try, and Kickfest, one of the largest independent clothing brands festivals in Indonesia. Moreover, the UCCN has recognized Bandung as a Creative City of Design with its Bandung city branding.
As defined by creativity itself, generating ideas to solve problems, sometimes cities employ ideas that are simple and seems obvious in nature. Those ideas are pointed to the significance of clarity of observation based on essentials and appropriateness to purpose. The most important things are that ideas able to reduce the weakness of a city and increase its potential. Human as the fountain of creative ideas must orchestrate themselves to produce innovation and improvisation. Sometimes radical steps are needed to demolish old ideas and shift them into more fluid one, with different forms of monitoring to check on progress and enable cities to share and learn from their experiences.
References
Engberg, J. (2017, September 2017). What makes a creative city? Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/sep/06/what-makes-a-creative-city
Landry, C. (2012). The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators. Earthscan.
Mok, P. (2009). Asian Cities and Limits to Creative Capital Theory. Creative Economies, Creative Cities, 135.
Peck, J. (2005). Struggling with the Creative Class. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.
UNESCO. (2020). UNESCO Creative Cities Network for Sustainable Development.