Urban transformation, socio-economic regeneration and participation: two case of creative urban regeneration

The creative city is a city able to generate economies of innovation, culture, research and artisticproduction, and strengthen its own identity capital. Looking at the experiences of creative cities, it maybe observed that they revolve around the design, promotion and activation of urban areas established dueto their particular local characteristics. Those areas become creative clusters as a result of economic andstructural innovation, which is related to the execution of innovative projects achieved with the help oflocal development strategies based on the economy of excellence and territorial qualities. The most matureexperiences of creative cities show us two types of creative clusters: cultural, which are created aroundactivities such asfine arts, music, cinema, architecture and design, and whose initiation is encouraged andplanned by local administration; and events, whose development stems from the organisation of majorevents or different kinds of recreational and cultural manifestations. Starting from such premises, thispaper aims to explore the concept of creative cities and the main factors conditioning creativity in cities.These topics are addressed most directly in the literature review, with two case studies deepeningunderstanding of the pragmatic strategies and processes underlying redevelopments within creative cityframework. The two examples of creative urban projects concern Arabianranta in Helsinki, for the eventscluster framework and HafenCity in Hamburg, for the cultural cluster framework. These cases inform amore sustainable version of creative city that is anchored in local history and identity, local economicnourishment and participation in redevelopment process and emphasise this endeavour as a process, thusincorporating risk and uncertainty