By Dr Silke Zschomler, Research Fellow on The Abundance Project.
From the 16-18 July, I had the exciting opportunity to represent the Abundance project at the AMPS (Architecture Media Politics Society) Livable Cities Conference 2025. The setting for this interdisciplinary conference was Barcelona, often ranked as one of the world’s most livable cities, particularly regarding its cultural scene, lifestyle, architecture, outdoor parks and beaches – an environment that provides ample opportunities for the wellbeing of its citizens. However, it also faces challenges such as unaffordable housing, rising living costs, gentrification and pockets of social deprivation. As a microcosm of cities the world over and a place where notions of ‘livability’ are far from consistent, it provided a fitting backdrop for exploring what makes our urban environment ‘livable’, and critically interrogating questions around accessibility, community participation, and social justice: Livability, but for whom? How can public wellbeing in urban environments be more equally distributed? Who can participate in urban planning processes and whose voices and experiences are included and count in decision making?
The paper I presented on behalf of the Abundance Project was entitled ‘Imagining and Co-creating a More Livable City: Insights from Lived Experience Storytelling Workshops and Walks with Migrant, refugee, and minoritised ethnic communities in London’. Reflecting on the situated, embodied, multi-sensory and relational ways of knowing, that the storytelling workshops and walks in work packages one and two gave way to, I could highlight how they unearth personal, community, and place-based experiences and sensitivities, reveal the intricate relationships between the past, present, and future, and allow to sense and imagine alternative ways of being, living, and thriving together in the city.
The emerging stories of livability in the city which we delved into more,
(i) were about the places and spaces that provide respite and refuge from the struggles of navigating and making one’s life in the city;
(ii) amplified the connections that were made to places that detach from the city evoking memories of the past and associations of home, heritage, rootedness, warmness beyond the immediate urban environment;
(iii) showed the varying connotations of un/belonging to and dis/connectedness with the city, also taking into account the anxieties about safety, and experiences of discrimination and racisms that were shared with us.
It was great to see that there was genuine interest in the work we have been doing on the project, and to engage in discussions of our research process, findings, and potential to contribute to more community-led planning processes and the co-creation of healthy places strengthened by deeply rooted infrastructures of care and resilience – building more equitable, inclusive and livable urban futures. Across the conference, there was a sense of urgency of making urban planning more inclusive and to pursue more empathetic decision-making processes through embedding and valuing lived experience and the spatial practices of our communities. As we continue our work on the project, we will hopefully be able to continue making a positive contribution to these discussions and a tangible impact on London’s planning for a just creative health city and city-making from the bottom-up!
Thank you to the UAL PDRF Development Fund, through which it was possible for me to attend.