In our everyday lives, we rely upon a number of systems: the economy, energy, water, traffic, …. These systems are complex and are set up and managed by a wide range of actors with expert knowledge. These actors have to take a variety of elements into account at different levels. Most often we feel like passive consumers of these systems. And when it comes to changing them, to make them fairer or more sustainable, we feel completely powerless.
By bringing together its end-users, City Mine(d) tries to better understand these systems, and make room for imagining and testing small scale changes and improvements. This takes place in long-running processes of which the route is not mapped out in advance. Outputs become clear along the way through the input of many (at times contradicting) perspectives. And even though not every trial leads to success, it often does lead to new insights. Of primary concern is maintaining a human scale, which, we believe, reduces the risk of waste and oppression of vulnerable users.
Palette is an example of the search for levers for improvement in urban logistics. City Mine(d) refers to processes such as Palette as “Open-ended design”. It is inspired by system thinking as a way to better understand and influence reality.
image©️ Michael De Lausnay