Liselott Stenfeldt – The Senses of Belonging

Media Evolution

“People don’t change behaviour just because you tell them too. People need innovation in a public space to change”

“Space and life goes together, and it's important to work with them together.”

“Wise cities are making the invisible visible” and the ways we can make it visible means listening and looking at a variety of different data sources. Liselott Stenfeldt is the head of research and development at Gehl, a company which has been playing a leading role in understanding and supporting public places as a platform for community, life and culture to thrive. The main theme in Gehl's approach is to pay attention to complex stories places in the city have to tell us.

Liselott pointed out that it is important to have a diversity of data sources and kinds of data we employ to understand how hot makes our cities more filled with life. It is important to look at traffic data we can get from satellites or sensors but it is also crucial to work with more emotional and subjective data of the people living in a place. Gehl has been developing different methods to incorporate both of these datasets in their work. In this talk Liselott Stenfeldt shows 3 use cases on how the invisible can be made visible by asking people to make pictures of urban spaces and describe their sense of belonging to them or to record the sound of daily life and the emotions connected. This type of data is not really easy to work with, but by combining it with other information it shows a bigger picture. It is even more significant if there is an opportunity to give a voice to people who usually are left out of how public spaces are designed. This provides a unique opportunity in making sure people can meet and spaces are filled with life.