Services
• Organised workshop event
• Selected and briefed
expert speaker
• Event and cost management
Benefits
• Sharing of expert knowledge between UK and China
• Supporting Chinese
creative industries
• Promoting UK creative
skills in China
• Aiding Chinese urban development
Background
In the Yangpu district of Shanghai,
the Chinese government is investing
in the formation of a ‘creative quarter’ that will house a combination of the city’s designers, technologists and multinational companies.
The square mile zone, which features residential spaces, as well as offices, workshops and studios, is intended to act as a hotbed for Chinese creative industries output.
As well as the physical infrastructure of the zone, the government also needs to consider exactly how
people will inhabit and use the area - how interactions, communications and connections will be formed between the various professional communities. Creative Connexions invited Patricia Austin, director of the Creative Practice for Narrative Environments course at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, to host a workshop looking at how this development might best appeal to - and function for - its residents.
Events
Austin delivered a workshop to an audience of developers, government personnel and students in Shanghai Knowledge and Innovation Community,
where she talked about the
learning stemming from the Creative Practice for Narrative Environments course - namely
that places have stories, as well
as buildings, facilities and objects. She addressed questions of whether the Huangpu creative zone will be a success by looking at the ‘stories’ of the different users who will be based there. The plan is to house technology specialists (primarily men working at computers) and designers (who will be male and female ‘creatives’), along with the offices of some multinational corporations.
‘They are hoping that these
groups will interact and mix,’
says Austin. ‘So they have put
in a Starbucks, but hadn’t thought about place-making or how interactive technologies could
forge connectivity, for example. They need a narrative of the whole place and the people who live in it. Where do you get this narrative? You have to research it, not invent what you want it to be. It’s more complicated than just putting people in and letting them get
on with it.’ The workshop explored these kinds of questions, showing how a rigid ‘formula’ for building
a new place is not sufficient alone, but needs to be supported by an understanding of people’s backgrounds, interactions and
their relationship with the
space itself.
Benefit (Speakers)
Creative Connexions’ speaking events combine knowledge sharing workshops with business development opportunities. Delivering a workshop or conference speech can build the profile of UK companies and organisations amongst key people in relevant Chinese industries, fuelling business development prospects there.
The workshops are also a great route to network with designers from other cultures and companies.
Creative Connexions is able to put together a whole event programme, including sourcing expert speakers
from the UK, organising hospitality
and managing costs. ‘The whole trip was incredibly well organised and everyone I met and stayed
with was affable, friendly and funny,’ says Austin. ‘This trip has the long term benefit of spreading the word on the philosophy of both the course and my research and design consultancy Like People Do, which I hope will lead
to some business deals in design
or consultancy. And personally,
it was really beneficial to get
a greater understanding of the Chinese people’.
Case Study 06
Narrative Environment
Design Workshop
Case Study 06
Narrative Environment Design
Workshop
Benefit (Audience)
Central Saint Martins’ Creative Practice for Narrative Environments course is at the cutting edge of studies into how cultural and commercial spaces are understood, inhabited and navigated by their visitors and residents. The audience at the Creative Connexions-organised workshop gained the opportunity to hear how course director Patricia Austin’s experience and learning in building these environments could be applied to the branding and narrative of a city, in this case Guangzhou