Gabi recently joined Futurecity as Senior Cultural Strategist after working at Brent Council where she focused on the borough’s meanwhile and affordable workspace delivery. She reflects on the transition and her new culture-led placemaking projects across a wide range of real estate typologies, from logistics, retail, commercial, residential, arts and city-wide strategies.
‘My immediate observation is the genuine interest in culture-led placemaking by developers at an early stage in the planning process. The current statutory planning requirements no longer seem enough to deal with the new challenges that face us and are impacting the built environment. Interestingly, the City of London is interweaving culture into its planning requirements, requesting a robust, embedded Cultural Plan for all new developments. I am keen to see if this approach will be adopted by the other 32 London boroughs, I imagine they are watching very closely’.
We asked Gabi how her previous experience will influence her strategic work. ‘I have already enjoyed posing questions to clients, such as how does your planning proposal connect to and affect local communities? Does it contribute or connect to the wider neighbourhood and how could it address the societal changes in work, leisure and community life. But I appreciate we operate in complex times and I am looking forward to developing my role over the next few months’.