Ideal Spaces Working Group

This saying from Eileen Muriel Tasca can be seen as an epitome for the podcast we made with her. Eileen is active in the international film business, member of the  International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (International Emmy® Awards), and president of two cultural initiatives, the CRÉARTS Rome and the Associazione Caput New Mundi, Rome.

Through CRÉARTS Rome and Associazione Caput New Mundi, Eileen Tasca develops initiatives that connect heritage, creativity, innovation, education, and public space. Her work seeks to build sustainable cultural ecosystems where artists, institutions, entrepreneurs, and citizens collaborate to create lasting social, cultural, and economic value. For her, culture is not an accessory to civic life; it is one of the principal forces that shapes the identity, vitality, and future of communities. She believes culture can serve as a catalyst for urban regeneration, civic engagement, international dialogue, and the re-imagination of public spaces as living environments that inspire participation, inclusion, and creativity.

We spoke with Eileen about all these issues in our podcast, also addressing critical factors and conditions that shape life in today’s cities; taking two exemplary cases, Rome and New York.

In concluding our series about the younger generation, we had a podcast with Ieva Bykova. 19-year-old Ieva, an aspiring singer and event manager, shared her thoughts on social media, the future, and communication among young people.

In our series about art and community, we had a podcast with Dr. Jessie Croteau, Director of Communications of the College Ecological Design Collective (EDC), Baltimore/USA. Jessie is also a post doctoral fellow at Haverford College, after receiving her PhD in political Science from Johns Hopkins University, and received several awards.
EDC is a space for collaboration among artists, designers, researchers, writers, activists, and communities who are all asking how we might live differently and more responsibly with one another and with nature, i.e. the more-than-human world. In our podcast, Jessie addressed the basic intention of EDC, to expand design beyond mere form-making and to build more just ecological futures. One of the main principles of such a design is to focus on relations, not on objects. In the context of the futures mentioned, we addressed the problems of cities today and the need for a paradigm shift in city redesign. Success factors in building communities via art have been illuminated, together with the vision of how an ecological, as well as socially just future can look like in its concrete terms.
In a second podcast, we spoke about the difference between ecological and normal design, and how an ideal space could look like that is based on ecological design. Referring to the notion of a concrete utopia (the konkrete Utopie from German philosophy), we discussed the possibilities of implementing such an ideal space into the fabric of existing cities, under the conditions of the existing political and socioeconomic frameworks.

Art as a Motor of Change 

Jessica Croteau, The Ecological Design Collective

In our series about art and community, we had a podcast with Dr. Jessie Croteau, Director of Communications of the College Ecological Design Collective (EDC), Baltimore/USA. Jessie is also a post doctoral fellow at Haverford College, after receiving her PhD in political Science from Johns Hopkins University, and received several awards.  

EDC is a space for collaboration among artists, designers, researchers, writers, activists, and communities who are all asking how we might live differently and more responsibly with one another and with nature, i.e. the more-than-human world. In our podcast, Jessie addressed the basic intention of EDC, to expand design beyond mere form-making and to build more just ecological futures. One of the main principles of such a design is to focus on relations, not on objects. In the context of the futures mentioned, we addressed the problems of cities today and the need for a paradigm shift in city redesign. Success factors in building communities via art have been illuminated, together with the vision of how an ecological, as well as socially just future can look like in its concrete terms. 

In a second podcast, we spoke about the difference between ecological and normal design, and how an ideal space could look like that is based on ecological design. Referring to the notion of a concrete utopia (the konkrete Utopie from German philosophy), we discussed the possibilities of implementing such an ideal space into the fabric of existing cities, under the conditions of the existing political and socioeconomic frameworks.      

In our podcast with Francesco Procacci, a problem of increasing importance for city cohesion has been addressed: the compound settlement for a gated community, and its effects on overall city cohesion and sociability. Francesco is an Italian urban designer, planner, and independent researcher whose work explores the relationship between cities, public life, ecology, and social structures. He has a vast professional experience as an urban master planner and landscape strategist (including the urban landscape), he collaborated with developers, institutions, and architects on large-scale urban projects in Southeast Asia and Europe. His aim is to achieve urban places that are liveable and meaningful, considering the social dimension of planning. Through essays, visual storytelling, and urban design practice, his work investigates themes such as neighborhood design, ecological urbanism, gated communities, and the future of public space. His approach combines direct field experience with a strong interest in the cultural and human dimensions of cities.

Compound settlement vs. community embodies two basic models, contradictory in practice, for the city of the future. An important aspect of compound development is the distraction of infrastructural supplies from the surrounding city, and its lack of profitability in the long run since the surrounding infrastructure has the tendency to deteriorate, due to demographic and economic reasons. Opposed to the compound, the neighbourhood is the base for future liveable cities.

We made a podcast with Liga Andersone, a Latvian producer, founder and CEO of Light Lab Ltd./Riga. Light Lab is a motion capture and animation studio specializing in visual storytelling, performance capture and digital production for film, games and TV. We spoke about how to bring interest in communal affairs back to the younger generation via animated work; about identity questions of the younger generation; Self-understandings today, related to the global political instability today; and social media and their impacts. Regarding these topics, we addressed questions of democracy and its future.

In our podcast with Ethan Kent, we spoke about community building and placemaking in the framework of the overall socioeconomic situation today. Ethan is executive director of the U.S. organization PlacemakingX, active in building up a global placemaking movement. We spoke about the central role of places for community building, since places can be seen as a nucleus for transformative approaches. This includes not only architectural design, but environmental and infrastructural aspects, and also aspects of governance, social equity, and urban planning. PlacemakingX establishes international conferences on placemaking, with a focus on public space/place and urban development, helping to achieve inclusive public spaces. According to Ethan, the overall aim is to amplify and accelerate overall placemaking learning in different countries. 

In a podcast with Ron Cox, we spoke about the possibilities of building up concrete communities, and how to keep them resilient and stable. Ron Cox has over 40 years of professional experience as a leader, facilitator, consultant, and coach. Amongst other activities, he has been the CEO of a large U.S. company (the Kincaid Group) leading a transformational turnaround, and led large projects in both public and private sector development. He became a Hall of Fame Coach in 2018 and Amazon best selling author in 2023. Our discussion with Ron focused on aspects of resilience in relation to community, and on the mindset as a basic premise for community. An essential aspect regarding the mindset is to get the younger generation out of its screen-time culture and social media-induced isolationism, and to engage in real communities instead. Also, aspects of a more humane city had been addressed.    

In a look together with Martin Savransky, new informal or “unruly” ways of liveability are addressed. Martin Savransky is a philosopher and social theorist currently serving as Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute for Language, Literature and Anthropology (CSIC), the biggest public research institution in Spain, where he leads the Liveable Futures Project. He is author and co-author of several works devoted to such futures, and investigates what he calls “unruly”, informal politics of liveability amidst permanent planetary instability. These informal new ways to social change and liveable futures, and our podcast with Martin addresses them in comparison to traditional approaches in utopian concepts and ways of change. 

In a podcast with Natasha Sharma from Mumbai/India and Dee Moxon from Bristol/ UK, the role of art as a catalysator for building communities was addressed. Natasha Sharma is co-founder, creative director and curator of the Govandi Arts Festival in Mumbai. Dee Moxon is one of the directors of the Lamplighter Arts CIC in Bristol, making The Church Road Lantern Parade. 

Both Govandi and the Lantern Parade started under adverse conditions. The Govandi area in Mumbai is inhabited by the city’s largest resettlement population, has sanitary issues, lack of infrastructure, garbage, and crime. The Church Road Lantern Parade in Bristol began working across its local community which experiences socioeconomic problems.  They work with all residents, including refugees from different cultures, the event was started after racist activity in the area by non -residents. Marginalization was the common daily experience in both Mumbai and Bristol.        

Both the Govandi Festival and the Lantern Parade, assisted by Jonathan Kennedy from the British Council, follow the philosophy that making art together, in a group, helps to connect people and through that, a sense of community is given purposefulness, and meaning. Installed in two different cultural contexts, Indian and English, and despite adverse conditions, the philosophy was highly successful: In its power of imagination, art is a strong catalyst in building communities, it helps to generate a space of belonging and identity.