The Urban Maestro team are exploring the use of informal tools in the governance of urban design across Europe. The project is founded on the contention that soft-power enables a more intelligent and nuanced approach to the shaping of places than the alternative, hard regulatory instruments.
In this workshop some of the challenges and opportunities presented by the use of soft power to positively shape urban areas will be examined. Notable amongst these are the politics of urban design governance – how can political support be achieved and a culture of design engendered – the relationship between design governance and the finance of projects – how can finance mechanisms be used to encourage ‘good’ urban design behaviour – and the transferability of soft power mechanisms – how can we learn from each other.
Through presentations and debate the workshop participants will seek to address three key linked questions:
- Bottom up or top down, how can a local culture of high quality urban design be secured?
- Are financial and design governance tools compatible?
- How contextually specific are the informal tools of urban design governance?
