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The Urban Ideas Bakery engages innovative local community members and international experts to ‘bake urban ideas’ – turn them into practical solutions to improve the quality of life in cities.
The Urban Ideas Bakery process is the result of collaboration between the British Council and a variety of partners working in the field of social innovation around Europe.
The Urban Ideas Bakery works on the premise that every city and community is different, and that solutions should be customised to address these unique combinations of challenges. It makes people the centre of social innovation, builds a common cause, and creates a sense of ownership without which success would not be possible. The Urban Ideas Bakery builds on ideas generated during other Creative Cities project activities such as Future City Game and Urban Forums.
Before a Bakery event takes place, we consult closely with each local community to understand their needs. This can be done, for example, during a Future City Game. Key local community members work together to define barriers that can block effective solutions. During this preliminary stage, local community resources are reviewed, best practices shared and a collective vision of the community developed.
All this preparation culminates in the two-day Urban Ideas Bakery event, designed and delivered with local partners and stakeholders. The ‘Bakers’ – the participants in the Urban Ideas Bakery event – are a very diverse and multidisciplinary group that includes local policy makers and experts, international sector experts, facilitators and young social innovators, both local and international. Together, they deliver custom-made, fresh, practical solutions to issues such as community building, developing creative clusters, cultural policy and programmes, recreational spaces, environmental issues, integration, sustainable transport, health, and crime prevention.
Practical solutions, prototypes and implementation plans are not the only benefits to a city hosting an Urban Ideas Bakery. Social innovators, policy makers and other Urban Ideas Bakery participants gain access to international networks of knowledge and expertise that can be used to bring about further positive changes in cities.
For more detailed information please visit the Creative Cities international web site.
The first Urban Ideas Bakery event was led in Kaunas, Lithuania, on 10.12.2009. Read more...
Russian participants of the Creative Cities project have taken part in the namber of Urban ideas bakeries in Hungary, Poland, Latvia. To learn more please visit our events calendar.
Read Breakthrough cities - a groundbreaking report on how cities can mobilize creativity and knowledge to tackle compelling social challenges. The report was commissioned by the British Council from the Young Foundation.
For more detailed information please see the international Creative Cities page.
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