The project Creatively Sustainable Communities aims at conceptualising, describing and testing various criteria and best practices for a sustainable and creative community. A new approach, aiming both at improving the energy efficiency and energy sufficiency, as well as promoting denizen well being is applied in the project. For this purpose, the project explores the emerging urban planning theme of slow housing, around which a new kind of business model and a service concept will be developed. The main theoretical framework of the project is ethically and ecologically sustainable experience society (Post-Carbon Experience Society).
The core aim in the project is to identify and analyse practices and modes of a sustainable and creative community. More general objectives are to:
- to increase the understanding of the pre-requisites and possibilities for realising sustainability and creativity in a community; and
- to bring within community planning a concept that adds value to the creation of sustai-nable environments and increases their attractiveness as residential surroundings. Creativity and especially collective creativity as a means to increase communal sustainability is investi-gated. Here, the main interest lies in finding ways to make use of the creativity of the residents, designers, authorities, entrepreneurs and other actors for the sustainability of the community. The project focuses on solutions that increase the eco- and energy efficiency and self sufficiency of the community.
The project uses conceptual development, foresight workshops, testing and expert interviews to identify, evaluate and develop new methods for building a sustainable and creative community. Participation and empowerment of the citizens will be linked to charting, evaluating and testing new ideas, suggestions and best practices. The project analyses domestic and international examples, engageing a global futures dialogue and utilising futures studies me-thodology such as the backcasting method.
The results of the project will be disseminated via articles (both scientific and general audien-ces) and in the reports to be produced in the project. The results will also be available
through the project´s website and social media (web 2.0).
For more information, please contact:
Professor Sirkka Heinonen
Tel. +358 40 581 1229
sirkka.heinonen(a)tse.fi
> Finland Futures Research Centre