
Scarcity and Creativity in the Built Environment
This project investigated the relationship between scarcity and creativity for the built environment at different scales from neighbourhoods to whole cities.
The research had two complementary strands:
- Development of a theory of scarcity relevant to the production of the built environment
- Analysis of case studies in four European cities: London, Oslo, Reykjavik, Vienna
These strands fed and reinforced each other, resulting in a productive understanding of scarcity relevant for practitioners and policymakers.
The project focused on the analysis of ‘systems’ at different scales, locations and contexts. It examined:
- a neighbourhood example from London
- Oslo in the historic national context
- Iceland as an ‘autonomous’ island
- Vienna as a city
The researchers looked at how in these conditions various players involved in the production of the built environment might respond, or have responded, to scarcity. They also examined how creativity might be affected under these conditions. The project viewed these new conditions as motivations for change rather than inhibitors of creative activity.
Prof. Jeremy Till
Project Leader
University of Westminster
United Kingdom
Project Partners
Prof. Jeremy Till
Project Leader
University of Westminster
United Kingdom
Prof. Christian Hermansen
Oslo School of Architecture and Design
Norway
Dr Andreas Rumpfhuber
Vienna University of Technology
Austria