LIVING is GIVING — Beijing Design Week 2018

OurHub contributed to a workshop on “Smart City, Better Life” during Beijing Design Week. It took place in the Danish Cultural Center in Beijing

”People come first, then spaces, then buildings”

the Danish Minister for Culture, Mette Bock, borrowed those words from architect and urbanist Jan Gehl as an introduction to our session on ”smart city, better life” at Beijing Design Week.

Mette Bock, the Danish Minister of Culture introducing the session

I believe these words are a really good summary of the workshop I had the chance to contribute to — and the same perspective should be applied to technology and data: ”people come first, then data, then technology”. The mantra, at OurHub, is indeed to put people first, encourage face to face interactions and fun social experiences, while tech and data are mere facilitators.

Presenting OurHub at Beijing Design Week and making our case for playable cities

Focusing on the human scale is though not an easy task, as City architect of Copenhagen, Tina Saaby, emphasized in a concluding remark of this exciting week:

We still have a lot to learn, in order to create great cities for humanity, concluded Tina Saaby at Beijing Design Week 2018

Indeed, the fascination for beautiful and state of the art architecture often comes in the way. We need to take on critical lenses, and keep on reminding ourselves to put people first in every single urban projects we work on. It means focusing on usage, mental and physical well-being, social interactions, inclusivity, accessibility,… this list is not exhaustive; it shows the complexity of what is at stake and the need to further develop our knowledge with help from other disciplines such as neuroscience. While the use of neuroscience in an urban context is still at its very beginning, the work of pioneers such as the Centric Lab and, in a sense, of explorer-researcher Cristian Clot as well, paves the way to promising insights.

Thank you to the organisers, sponsors and curators who make this remarkable event happen (City of Copenhagen, Danish Cultural Center, Greater Copenhagen, Embassy of Denmark, Confederation of Danish Industry, Industriens Fond, Realdania, Andel) and thank you to all the speakers who gave us food for thoughts for the coming many months (among other Simon Prahm, CEO of GAME; Anders Lendager, CEO of Lendager Group and Wei Wei Shannon Gluckman, founder of Playable Design).

And as pictures can replace a long discourse, here are some photos from Ritan park in Beijing, taken this Saturday morning (29th of September, 2018). I am already looking forward to coming back to China!

Playing, dancing, training, socializing,… Ritan park in Beijing is a great example of a thriving urban place! check out our pictures on OURHUB IG

/ Caroline