Title: The creative city matrix: a framework for urban knowledge ecosystems

Authors: Liudmila Gridneva; Jörg Rainer Noennig

Addresses: Department of Architecture, Voronezh State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, University of Mars, 20 letiya Oktyabrya 84, Voronezh, Russia ' Department of Architecture, Dresden University of Technology, Zellescher Weg 17, Dresden, Germany

Abstract: Knowledge work, creativity and innovation have turned into major urban industries. But how do urban environments activate their potentials and production processes? What are the constituting elements of a 'creative city', and how are they interrelated? The article presents a theoretical framework for the post-industrial creative city as a knowledge ecosystem. A new model is presented which categorises the constitutive components of knowledge environments according to parameters of spatial, organisational, and economic value. Presented in the format of a three-dimensional matrix, the model allows a holistic representation of urban knowledge ecosystems and their creative environments. The matrix enables different applications and scales of analysis: a synchronous view of creative urban environments in total, a diachronic view highlighting the evolution of companies or micro-environments, and also a profiling of single local components. Depending on these scaling, the matrix can be used either as analytical tool to investigate properties of individual components within a city's knowledgescape, or as a strategic device for general knowledge-based city development.

Keywords: knowledge ecosystems; creative city matrix; new economy; creative industries; knowledge urbanism; low value spaces; garage creativity; creative cities; knowledge-based development; creative urban environments.

DOI: 10.1504/IJKBD.2014.065317

International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development, 2014 Vol.5 No.3, pp.289 - 310

Received: 07 Jun 2014
Accepted: 13 Jun 2014
Published online: 30 Oct 2014 *

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