Beyond Creative Spaces The cultural centre as a tool for democratic participation in Ulricehamn

Abstract

Culture is changing as people get more accustomed to creating and not only consuming, leading to higher expectations of interactivity and participation. The role of the public, cultural institutions are also changing with the meeting place becoming a more important feature to focus on. At the same time, the need for new democratic arenas is increasing. The city of Ulricehamn lacks a good, democratic meeting place, which is typically filled by a cultural, public institution. With the small scale of the city, this gives an opportunity to not only create a place that binds together the people, but different institutions and groups with the aim of making the democratic process more accessible with the cultural centre as a tool. The result of the thesis is both the design of a cultural centre but also a discussion based on this about how architecture can help facilitate the interaction between culture and the democratic process. Abstract The design research explores how to generate low- and high intensity meetings between the inhabitants of Ulricehamn through flexible spaces that house multiple actors in the same venue. The new building integrates with the City Hall and Youth centre to create new connections and means of participating in both culture and the decisions being made about the city. Design strategies are formulated, based on the analysis, theory and learnings from the design proposal. They focus on creating a third place and integration with the cultural landscape of the city as well as selected actors. The opportunity of using culture to interact with the democratic process is discussed and the connection between the City Hall and other actors as an opportunity to create something specific to the context of Ulricehamn. The social aspect of culture is seen as an important part in keeping it relevant in a future changing landscape with the cultural centre being a place that can transcend the term third place.