Rethink Urban is based on Vancouver Island and is dedicated to improving safety, wellbeing and quality of life in communities.
We are interested in stimulating conversations about best practices for great cities and in helping implement change.
As you see from the topic headings on our blog, we focus on three aspects of cities:
- Engagement – ways of connecting with one another that are meaningful, positive and productive
- Place and Spaces – taking a close look at the design details that make a difference between venues for crime and safe, stimulating urban environments
- Creative Change – from pop-up parks to street pianos, we look at quick catalysts for transforming downtowns, plazas and other public space
A key principle of our approach is that our cities flourish when citizens and ‘experts’ can collaborate and interact, sharing perceptions, ideas and energy. Meaningful engagement goes much deeper than opinions and positions – it connects people through their shared visions of a city’s future.
Looking at urban places and spaces we bring the dual perspectives of crime prevention and creative placemaking. The design details that make a space feel uncomfortable and unsafe need to be addressed before positive initiatives can gain traction. It’s a matter of tipping the balance and our experience shows that it all starts with a close, careful, observation of space and what happens in it. So in our blog and in our consulting, you will find us often looking at the often overlooked nuances of public places.
And we essentially see cities as organisms – constantly evolving through the interaction of people, landscape, built form and broad environmental characteristics. We bring a holistic sensibility to city change initiatives, working in concert with applied professionals like urban planners, architects and engineers. At ‘rethink urban’ we are collaborative by nature.
Our geographic focus is on North America but the more we share ideas with urbanists around the globe, we find interesting connections in the Caribbean, in Australia, South America, the UK and elsewhere. Local and cultural conditions differ significantly in cities around the world but the conversations about engagement, safe and creative spaces, and stimuli for change are valuable to all of us.
We invite you to get in touch if you share some of our philosophies. Perhaps we can collaborate – whether on content for our blog or yours, or in consulting projects, public education work or just chatting about the future of cities.
Learn more about our:
Our Urban Explorers (blog contributors)