A group of Germans have launched an initiative called Nextbangalore to provide space for people in the city to discuss its future.
“The idea of Nextbangalore differs from most other approaches that think about the future of a city,” said Tile von Damm, co-founder of MOD, an interdisciplinary group of urban practitioners based in Bangalore. Tile is a German originally from Berlin but has made Bangalore his home from the past few years. “If you talk about a city, you have to talk about its people,” he says. This is an idea that led members of MOD to start the Nextbangalore platform earlier this year. The idea is difficult to explain simply but it can be broadly described as a public forum open to anyone to conceptualise and reconceptualise the city of Bangalore. It is about making people participate and contribute their ideas to reimagine Bangalore.
While the kernel of the idea seems to have come from the successful Next Hamburg (the participating NGO) model, the thinking behind Nextbangalore seems to be based on an entirely different approach. “Transfer, Translate and Transformation” is the principle on which Nextbangalore is based. If people transfer their ideas about urban solutions, we do can what can be done to translate them into reality bringing about some sort of transformation,” Tile added.
The methods that they use include visualising and mapping. They also use the concept of crowd sourcing to discuss the future of Bangalore.
According to the website of Nextbangalore, the initiative is still in its experimental stage. Nextbangalore is planning several activities over the next few days to encourage Bangaloreans to engage with their city and to discuss its future. Their studio is located on Langford Road opposite the Hockey Stadium in Shanthinagar. For details, visit www.nextbangalore.com.
