Futurecity uses a partnership approach to sustainable placemaking that considers culture as the gel that holds together city, town, districts partnerships in a dynamic fashion. We think of a holistic definition of Culture – it is the way we live our lives, the ideology that drives us, and the symbolic activities and creations we make every day to signify these values and beliefs.
This partnership approach – which we call The 5C’s – looks at the perspectives and needs of the Civic, Commercial, Community, Consumer and Cultural sectors. Within our work we promote this 5C Partnership approach to enable neighbourhoods, towns and cities to think differently about how meaning, prosperity and equity are created. By applying the representation of those partners to the placemaking process and ownership, cultural placemaking can combine the unique resources, skills and assets of each sector to create new collaborative opportunities for projects. We use the 5C’s approach to test the relevance of the placemaking ideas.
At its core, ‘5C’s’ encourages Civic involvement, using the tools of government/governance to help facilitate and enable Cultural projects and deliver opportunities for Communities. This approach supports the more specific cultural sector (think arts and culture) to engage with collaborators on multidisciplinary projects that take them outside of their buildings and institutions. It boosts the Commercial sector through mutually beneficial arts and business collaborations and projects. And together they seek to support Consumer engagement, attracting financial investment and driving audiences to a place and be part of its Community.
This collaborative approach generates a long-term governance and shared investment in generating new approaches to place-based projects and relationships. A whole new system of cross-sector support, lobbying, income generation and value exchange, community development, and civic pride engages everyone. Culture forms how we live together; it creates community, sets up our transactional systems of exchange and is the foundation for how we structure our own social governance. It is culture that binds us together and can cultivate new ways of creating meaning, prosperity, and equity.
For example, in our Cultural Strategy for HOLBA (Heart of London Business Alliance) – Cultural Heart of London – it is used as the basis for their cultural eco-system for the business improvement district members. It helps to deliver their core mission of securing the long-term commercial and cultural wellbeing of the area, through area promotion, business support and advocacy. It also helps HOLBA champion their members’ interests to ensure the West End remains truly world-class.
– Andy Robinson, Head of Strategy
Read more about how our 5C’s approach has been applied to the Cultural Heart of London Strategy