The creative place: definition and features

Abstract

Cities today face many social, economic and cultural challenges represented by forms of deterioration and loss of material and non-material cultural assets. Old ways in solving the problems of cities are no longer useful. Therefore, the necessity to find new ways of development has emerged to solve urban problems based on an understanding the characteristics that ensure cities to retain their identity and Advancement of their local communities.

      In recent years, a growing trend  has emerged of using the urban cultural resources for economic revitalization ,the idea of ​​economic growth based on creativity has become popular among policymakers around the world, since creativity is embodied in people, the concept of creative place emphasizes the role of people as an important economic resource for cities more than past approaches, The creative places encourage to take advantage from places to suit creative needs such as demonstrating culture and knowledge or leading to creative thinking and improving the quality of life.

      The creative place is a multi-dimensional concept has emerged for a new generation of urban places, as a way to development of cities and societies by harnessing people's imagination and talents in order to achieve economic, social and cultural development in creative ways to create opportunities and improve the quality of life and solving the urban problems in creative ways. It has been recently proven that the creative place can be a new urban element that builds the identity of a successful city and enhances and raises the value of places by providing new ways of doing things.

      Creative places are encouraged to take advantage of the characteristics of urban environments and the cultural and human resources they have to improve the quality of life and welfare of societies. Creating creative places can lead to the generate three types of impacts, which are the urban impact by urban renewal and reuse of unused spaces and improving the image of the city and enhancing its identity and a sense of belonging, and the social impact that represented by encouraging the social interaction with an environment of tolerance and openness to cultural, ethnic or religious diversity ,and economic impact that represented by activating new ways for the economic development of cities and attracting investments.

      This paper attempts to clearly define what is the creative place? What are the forms that could be creative places? What are the features of creative places? How can it be a successful city development strategy?.