Describe a development in your country such as a shopping centre, park etc.

The transformation I’m referring to is an expansive fully built integrated civil green belt cultural precinct that occurred about three years ago within my city, turning a former industrial wasteland on the eastern edge of town into a public recreational space complete with arts facilities, gardening places, cycling paths and performance spaces.

This was the first time I heard of this project, as it had only been publicized in local news about a year before. It sounded genuinely ambitious — for several hectares of brownfield to be turned into accessible green and culture within what has traditionally been an overcrowded area with a terrible record on quality public space.

Development is completed and it has affected me in a way that I did not somewhat expect. First and foremost, it offered me a new quality space for public life within walking distance of home — where I had none before: a place to walk; read outside; bike; and catch an occasional cultural event that my urban neighbourhood really lacked somewhere between the two larger parks further away. But more than this, it transformed my appreciation of what urbanism can deliver when helping communities gain access to the commons over markets that are exclusively focussed on a financial return for those involved.

It also strengthened my interest in urban planning and the design of public spaces as truly impactful professions — to see what good urban spaces can do for community life and individual wellbeing is so much more than theoretical: a well-designed public space makes an immediate, visible difference, and seeing that first-hand made this connection between thoughtful civic investment and quality of life feel real instead of abstract. This has shaped how I think about cities and what I think should be the focus of responsible urban governance.