What brings you to MIPM and what do you hope to achieve?MIPIM is one of the couple of locations where the whole community that forms our cities appears in one location– developers, investors, designers, planners and policymakers. I come wearing 2 hats: as the creator of Principle Culture, where we deal with place brand name strategy, and as the host of the Talking Place podcast. I’m here to promote the idea that locations should have stories, not design templates. I wish to meet individuals who care about identity as much as facilities– individuals ready to develop areas with a heart beat instead of a roll‑out model. If I leave MIPIM having actually sparked a couple of brand-new cooperations, found fascinating voices for the podcast, and opened the door to jobs where storytelling and placemaking can genuinely shape results, then it’s time well invested. What are you dealing with at the moment?A mix of projects checking out how narrative, culture and lived experience can
form more significant locations– from early‑stage brand name believing to much deeper storytelling around how environments feel, not just how they operate. At Idea Culture we work at the crossway of placemaking, sustainability and storytelling– assisting designers, cities and organisations articulate the larger story behind the locations they’re shaping. At its core, my work asks one concern: how do we develop places people really feel linked to? What keeps you awake at night?The fear that cities are slipping into sameness. And daily individuals being priced out of residing in city centres when good quality real estate is unaffordable, making metropolitan life dull and soulless. Throughout the world, you’re starting to see places that feel progressively interchangeable– the same buildings, the exact same brand names, the very same public areas. When every place begins to feel and look identical, we lose the humankind that makes city life worth living. A city’s character and cultural identity are its greatest properties. It’s what brings in talent, financial investment, visitors, and most importantly, pride from the people who live there. If we strip that away, we end up with effective developments however forgettable places. The difficulty for everyone in the developed environment is to make sure growth doesn’t come at the cost of the very qualities that make cities distinctive. What gets you out of bed in the morning?The idea that the locations we shape today will outlast us. Every time I walk through a city I’m captivated by the layers of choices that came in the past– the organizers, architects, developers, neighborhoods and policymakers
who left their mark. It’s a huge responsibility, but likewise a substantial benefit. I’m encouraged by the possibility of assisting produce places that people feel happy with– locations where culture, neighborhood, and environment collaborate rather than competing with each other.