Through consulting, public speaking, and writing, I work with companies, municipalities, and organizations to create places that are vibrant, sustainable and successful.
connection to place
Places in the built environment only live up to their full potential when people form deeper emotional bonds to them. When people truly connect to a place, they are more likely to be drawn to it, cherish it, long for it, recommend it to others, and ultimately spend much time there.
People’s physical presence is the life blood of most places in the built environment; it drives safety, wellbeing, happiness, commerce, collaboration, and creativity – just to mention a few of the many benefits. Yet many places fail to attract people, companies, and others to the extent they could. There are, fortunately, ways to breathe life into places – and the key is facilitating connection to place.
As a consultant I help develop places that people more easily connect with, for instance by applying the following strategies:
Create a compelling and engaging narrative – a story that conveys the soul of the place
Provide a dynamic environment with a diverse array of content and experiences, to adhere to different needs, desires, and moods – and to keep people curious
Invite people to collaborate and co-create places, to increase their emotional stake in and sense of ownership of them
Make sure the place’s identity, content, and physical manifestation are mutually coherent and consistent – so that people understand the place and have a spatial experience that makes sense
Get in touch to learn more about making places more vibrant, sustainable, and successful
Speaking OF place
As a public speaker I talk about the intimate and intricate relation between place and people, communities, and society at large – how we shape our physical surroundings and how they shape us.
Combining high-level insights about sustainable cities and communities with hands-on strategies for development, I show how we can create places that make us more creative, healthy, and happy.
For instance, I often talk about (in Swedish or English):
The forces at play when people connect to – or disconnect from – places
What makes a workplace a hotbed for creativity and innovation?
Storytelling as a tool for development of places and cities
Spatial fluidity – how the borders between urban and rural are blurring
Get in touch if you are interested in talks about making places more vibrant, sustainable, and successful
About me
With a background in cognitive science and a natural inclination to look at the world through a kaleidoscopic lens, I combine many disciplines and perspectives to gain a richer understanding of the elements, forces, and relations that together make up places.
With well over a decade’s worth of international experience from the urbanism field, I work with development projects on all scales – from entire neighborhoods to specific spaces for work, learning, shopping, culture, entertainment, and mobility. I also conduct future-oriented studies and write thought leadership reports about cities, urban life, places, and our relation to the physical space around us.
Josef Conning
Email: josef@josefconning.com
Phone: +46 723 895 400