Matilde Magro, regenerative and sustainability designer, asked her students to describe a flourishing individual in an idyllic society. The answers were surprising, so she decided to explore what a flourishing society would be like, and what that entails from individuals.

BlackSpace shares inspirations, experiences, and lessons learned from an exploratory process of co-designing heritage conservation efforts alongside members of Brownsville, one of Brooklyn’s Black enclaves. In this introduction to the playbook exploring the process, BlacSpace points towards a collaborative and inclusive development based on local trust and respect.

“Now he was here on an airplane feeling clumsy as he struggled to fill in the immigration card they had just given to him. What was the flight number again? He searched through the carry on bag to try and find the ticket. The entire trip had left him feeling nervous for several weeks beforehand. What was he thinking? Why was he doing this?” Lawyer and podcaster Steven Moe tells a story of finding home.

“The letter itself sat there on the table. The envelope lay beside it, ripped apart and empty. A few pages with long cursive writing scratched on them was all that had emerged. Those pages just had words written there. Simple words really. Words about a new country, a new opportunity, a new century, a new chance. Words that were about to tear our family further apart.” Lawyer and podcaster Steven Moe tells a story of new beginnings and lost lands.

“When the kettle was full she turned to the stove to boil it and it was in that moment that she had a feeling that something was not quite right. She had lived with a certain order for so long it was almost as if she didn’t need to look to know. She put the kettle down and turned around slowly. The window sill above the sink was almost bare, as if someone had swept up the stones that had sat there. Julie knew in that instant what it meant and she ran towards the door.” Lawyer and podcaster Steven Moe tells a story of loss and belonging.

"My mother had taught me something important. There is no person who is not interesting – if you think that someone is not interesting, then that is your fault not theirs – every single person has a story." Lawyer and podcaster Steven Mee shares a personal and moving reflection on the power of stories and storytelling.

“In the day to day repetition of placing one brick on another it can be really hard to see what is being built and maintain the vision. Yet that is what will sustain you in the long run. If you can see a bigger picture then that will give purpose.” Lawyer and podcaster Steven Moe asks us what we’re building.

“We need to embrace vulnerability as the path to open up our creativity and through doing so truly put out new things into the world. Sure, there may be critics of what we produce. Sure, whatever it is may fail. But we need to be down in the arena. Be ready to show up before you are even ready to be on the stage. Grab the mic and fail wholeheartedly – always knowing you gave it your very best shot.” Lawyer and podcaster Steven Moe asks us to dare.

“We need to look again at the roads on which we had been travelling and ask if they are the right ones. One aspect of this might be looking at the role of boards to govern businesses. While we rightly talk about addressing imbalances when it comes to age, ethnicity and gender, what might happen if we also focused on divergent thinking that comes from having creatives involved?” Lawyer and podcaster Steven Moe explores the ways that creativity can play a new role in the stewardship of businesses.

“The most perfect example of democracy in action” – what is that? One answer is: Jazz. Why? And if it is right, what can we transfer from jazz to the process of creating great places?

Which urban places would you consider to be truly alive?

“The hell of the living is not something that will be,” Italian author Italo Calvino wrote in his novel The Invisible Cities (1972).

“Art makes you bigger. It makes people grow. It shoots electricity into our intelligence. It’s like food for the soul and for the mind, so that we can grow and learn and think”, says world-famous Ukrainian pianist and composer, Lubomyr Melnyk, who discovered ‘continuous music’ during the 1970’s.

Places that are truly alive stimulate our senses just right – not too much and not too little.

Imagine a city or a town that, like the Japanese garden, is designed and cultivated in the belief that it may “achieve a beauty that is completely non-decorative but functional in the spiritual sense.”

Do you belong here? The feeling of belonging to a community is key when it comes to places that are truly alive.