Tag: community development

Placemaking | Urban |

The Neighbourhood: The Challenge For Downtown KL

We last spoke to Shin Tseng, one of the co-founders of the iconic retail, arts and community hub, REXKL, late last year (November 2020). He outlined some of the challenges that this placemaking icon and its tenants had faced over the first year of the pandemic, and detailed some of the creative pivots, like an inner city farmer’s market, that the building had undergone to try to better serve the downtown community....

KLCCD
Placemaking | Urban |

Creative And Cultural Districts: Imagination – The Roadmap To Recovery

Think City recently announced the launch of the first part of an ambitious new urban regeneration project, the Kuala Lumpur Creative and Cultural District, a wide-ranging initiative that it is spearheading in the downtown areas of KL. That phase, a Community Grants Programme linked to the landmark Merdeka 118 development, was created by PNB Merdeka Ventures Sdn. Berhad (PMVSB), a wholly owned subsidiary of Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB). Concentrating on sports, arts, heritage and business, its focus is on initiatives that will have a positive impact on the local community in the precincts surrounding Merdeka 118....

Merdeka 118
Placemaking | Urban |

Merdeka 118 Community Grants Programme: Releasing The Untapped Potential Of Downtown KL

Over the past decade, downtown Kuala Lumpur has been a particular focus of Think City’s work in Kuala Lumpur. As Think City Programme Director Matt Benson reminded The Citymaker in a recent podcast, Building A New Creative And Cultural District for KL, it’s not only the heritage core of Kuala Lumpur, containing a wealth of cultural assets, it’s also the iconic area in which Malaysia’s independence was declared. ...

A Citi for Everyone | Urban |

Staying Aktif with K2K

In the wake of our piece celebrating Hari K2K, a showcase of the Kita untuk Kita (K2K) programme’s community achievements at PPR Hicom Kampung Baru in Shah Alam, we wanted to return to an interview we conducted for The Citymaker podcast with Think City’s Resilience Lead, Uta Dietrich a few weeks ago about K2K Aktif Bersama, Think City’s active lifestyle pilot programme in partnership with Citi Foundation. ...

The Awakening. The People Building Strong Networks For Women
Business | Reflexive City |

The Awakening. The People Building Strong Networks For Women

AwakenHub is a resource hub and community in Ireland, whose mission is to foster and support women entrepreneurs in Ireland and create a more vibrant start-up culture. The site hosts online events, workshops and mentoring sessions where women founders can network and share their experiences. This week, The Citymaker speaks to one of its co-founders, the strategist, speaker and serial entrepreneur Mary Carty, about the hub, the wider issues that women face when starting businesses, and some of the ways that similar models could be used to develop information and experience sharing communities for women founders in Malaysia. ...

The Knowledge that Creates Better Cities
Climate | Community | Heritage | Urban |

The Understanding that Creates Better Cities

We're in the middle of an increasingly complicated and contentious conversation about data, its ownership and its uses. As individuals, we increasingly see the kind of data gathered by big technology firms as a threat to our privacy, especially as the commercialization and commodification of that data has given rise to new forms of governance and economic power, especially in cities, as outlined in the theory of surveillance capitalism devised by the social psychologist and Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff....

Homelessness
Community | Urban |

Registering the Needs Of The Homeless

With the news that Malaysia’s Covid-19 vaccination program should begin some time in March, The Reflexive City podcast looked at some of the ways that cities around the world have been working...

K2K Idol
A Citi for Everyone | Community |

K2K Idol: Singing to Support the Urban Poor

Uta Dietrich

Research has shown that singing can reduce anxiety, enhance mood, improve mental health and quality of life. Building on this knowledge, Think City has partnered with Karyawan, impacted by Covid-19 themselves, and Perwacom, a local NGO, to deliver this intervention of a different kind....

Mobility | Urban |

Global Natives

Once offered as a perk, remote working is increasingly being looked at by companies as a way to boost employee wellbeing, to increase productivity and to potentially reduce costs. Which raises an interesting question for cities: if people no longer have to live where they work, what will cities have to offer to retain or attract them? The Citymaker speaks to strategist, speaker and writer Lauren Razavi, a future work specialist and experienced nomad about global natives and the future of the work from anywhere movement. ...

Reflexive City | Urban |

R&R: Reading And Writing For Lockdowns

Last week we featured an update on the forthcoming anthology of KISAH Futures competition winners. This week Maya and Matt look at some of the ways that reading and writing stories can help to liberate ideas and shape cities and societies, and discuss the upcoming release of Think City’s COVID-related business confidence survey....

Placemaking | Urban |

Placemaking For A Post-Pandemic World

The Citymaker speaks to citymakers Charlot Schans and Siënna Veelders, advisors at Dutch urban development bureau STIPO about their vision for placemaking in a post-pandemic world and their roles as co-curators of The City at Eye Level Asia, a new book showcasing some of the most creative approaches to creating liveable and lovable cities in South East Asia....

Community | Reflexive City |

Impossible Foods And Ghost Kitchens: Their Resourceful Rise

Matt and Maya begin to look forward to 2021 and outline the rising popularity of plant-based meat alternatives like the Impossible Burger as part of a healthier diet and as a more sustainable way for the global food industry to meet the world’s growing protein needs. On the flip side, they also discuss the emerging Ghost Kitchens phenomenon and how it can provide coworking food preparation spaces and entrepreneurial cultivation services for food startups, particularly within underprivileged communities. ...

Business | COVID-19 | Urban |

The Strange Year Of WFH

Matt Armitage

It’s been a minute. If there’s one phrase that perfectly sums up 2020, that could be it. A year that has seemed both endless and fleeting. We’ve drifted through it in a blur of groundhog days punctuated by fear and uncertainty. For those of us fortunate enough to have kept our jobs, or found new ones, and have been able to work from home, the last vestiges of work-life balance have probably disappeared. ...

Community | Reflexive City |

The Park. Citizen Democracy In A Digital Era

In the wake of the US Presidential elections, the Reflexive City looks at the growing polarisation in societies around the world. Looking at a fascinating op-ed by social entrepreneur and activist Eli Pariser, co-founder of Upworthy, Maya and Matt ask if the future of citizen democracy lies in adapting some the lessons and learnings of the public park movement and applying them to our digital spaces. ...