As part of London Festival of Architecture 2021, Futurecity joins Jacobs’ series of events exploring the theme ‘Caring for the City’. As culture is a part of the resiliency and legacy of place, Jacobs progressively see its’ influence on infrastructure and built environment. Therefore, this series considers how Jacobs’ ‘Culture of Caring’ relates to Futurecity’s approach in teaching cities to ‘Care for Culture.’ For this reason, they reached out to Futurecity Partners, Mark Davy and Sherry Dobbin, to take part in their London Festival of Architecture events.
“We are excited to work with Jacobs who are building major infrastructure of our cities and communities and to be able to truthfully deconstruct how we build health and wellness. We are able to reconsider the advancements of their global work.”
– Mark Davy – Founder, Futurecity
People are demanding to be surrounded by spaces that enable us all to thrive and succeed in every aspect of our lives. Throughout the pandemic, our cities healthcare and public realms have been at the forefront of leading the recovery and played a monumental role in safeguarding our collective health and well-being. The ‘Caring for the City’ events will explore how to bring ‘care’ to the multiple environments that support and impact physical, mental health and wellbeing and use digital tools to create thriving cities.
“We live hybrid lives with analogue and digital selves passing through and engaging with our cities – with Jacobs we can consider how creatives can be embedded in our built environment as well as our dynamic programming.”
– Sherry Dobbin – Partner, Futurecity
Futurecity has a past portfolio of arts commissions that have won awards for their consideration of care and wellness for all individuals recovering, caring and visiting, as well as experience in embedding digital technologies into permanent and programmatic artworks. To share the conversation with Jacobs, as a global leading firm known for its excellence in infrastructural engineering and built environment projects, opens up greater opportunity for suggesting forward thinking and forward-planning cultural placemaking.
Read on for an overview of the events and use the links below to register.
We look forward to seeing you there!
21st Century Health & Wellbeing
Monday 14th June
15:30 – 17.00 BST
Futurecity Founder Mark Davy joins the panel to reflect on whether it’s time for the arts and artists to play a more significant role in the hospital of the future.
He will outline some of Futurecity’s curatorial and strategic work for Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Royal Papworth Hospital and Guys Cancer Research Centre, which focused on the lives of employees, patients and visitors and drew inspiration from the new primary healthcare services, biomedical research laboratories and leading clinical practice.
10 artist-in-residence projects provided ideas for a new landscape, wayfinding and signage, sculpture, furniture, lighting and talks, films and events, with commissions awarded to 15-artists including 30 Bird and Public Works, Hannah Jane Walker, Ryan Gander, Lucy Steggals, Mariele Nuedecker and Gitta Gschwendtner.
Mark will be joined by Pentagram Partner Harry Pearce to discuss his collaboration with artist Karel Martens on the wayfinding for Guy’s Cancer Research Centre.
Chair
Nina Wollman – Global Director- Health, Jacobs
Panellists
Mark Davy – Founder, Futurecity
Harry Pearce – Partner, Pentagram
Matthew Holmes – Global Solutions Director – Health Infrastructure, Jacobs
Register here
Public Realm 2.0
Thursday 17th June
15:30 – 17.00 BST
Partner Sherry Dobbin joins this panel to reflect on the future nature of public space, exploring how digital and physical dimensions can successfully come together to create inspirational post-pandemic public realm and thriving cities. Touching upon digital public art in sculptural form,
She will briefly touch upon her past work as Founder Times Square Arts, inclusive of Midnight Moment – the largest and longest running public digital art display; Future\Pace – the strategic partnership between Futurecity and Pace Galleries; commissions with artists Random International and Leo Villareal as well as new cultural strategies that embrace Creative Tech and #NextGen Talent infrastructure in development.
Speakers:
Chair
Carlo Castelli – Head of Cities Solutions, Jacobs
Panellists
Sherry Dobbin – Partner, Managing & Cultural Director, FutureCity
Hanna Thomas Uose – Principal Consultant, Align
Annette Jezierska – CEO & Co-Founder, The Future Fox
Register here
Further Reading:
For Futurecity Projects in the Digital Realm click here
Visit the LFA website to view the full programme here
Visit Jacob’s newsroom to learn more about their events at LFA here