Coffee Corner N°2 – A discussion about what makes a liveable city?

On the 4th of October 2011, the curiosity shop organised its second coffee corner to talk about what are the key ingredients that make are cities liveable?

You can view a short video that present our panel and see how it felt to be there:

The big cities on our planet are constantly growing, and are becoming more and more impossible to escape. The human being is turning into an “urban being”. By 2050, the majority of people will live in a city or up to a day’s travel from one.

Whilst growing, every city has its own environmental, social and urban issues. Authorities, urban planners, architects, designers, sociologists are confronted by such challenges everyday. Meanwhile, the cities’ inhabitants live fast-paced lifestyles and are constantly seeking to improve their quality of life. People love their city but above all they are looking for solutions to make it an even better place to live.
Some successful cities, of varying size and location, are able to offer a great quality of life to their dwellers despite these issues. Tokyo for example, with it’s teaming crowds and high density, manages to run like clockwork. Copenhagen spoils its population with fantastic architecture and one of the best cycle lane systems in the world. Or Melbourne – geographically so far removed from everyone else on the planet – which offers sunshine all year round and actively encourages quality local retail to help reinvigorate the city’s neighbourhoods. Though each one is of a different scale, with unique urban planning issues, these cities somehow manage to provide their inhabitants with an impressive qualify of life.

The constant evolution of our cities affects us everyday, but also has consequences for our clients at CLM BBDO, because urban transformations create more demand for services which aim to improve our daily lives. Today, we would like to hear our panel’s point of view on the topic: What are the ingredients that make a city liveable?

To answer this question, we gathered together a panel of professionals whose work shapes our urban landscape, as well as a ‘liveable city’ dweller.

Dominique Rouillard is an architect who specialises in the development of medium-sized cities. She teaches at the École Supérieur d’Architecture and is in charge of a laboratory called Architecture action, which addresses issues surrounding the link between infrastructure, architecture and territory.

Caroline de Franqueville works as an urbanist for Chronos – a research and prospective agency in Paris.

Sebastien Girardot is a professional musician from Melbourne – recently voted the most liveable city in the world, according to a study in The Economist magazine.