social capital
local voices
cultural heritage
Our subjective maps are a great tool for inclusive urban regeneration and place making projects, but also offer an imaginative format for youth education and engagement. The mapping process provides a bottom-up approach that infuses traditional participatory planning techniques with innovative elements from cultural mapping, creative storytelling and digital analytics.
We work for local governments, property developers, housing corporations and architects. So, they can use community intelligence to catalyse change. We find the voice of the community, map what matters, analyse the DNA of a place, dissect pain points, locate local champions and solicit ideas from the community for the community. So they gain agency in their urban future.
– Mr Saleem, HK Academy teacher
historic neighbourhoods
local participants
cultural assets mapped
proud locals
“I think we Hongkongers can be very proud of our heritage. It is time for us to revive our own history, write our own story”
– Douglas Young, founder of GOD, Hong Kong
“It really underscores the importance of community involvement to good urban planning. preservation of localities and characteristics that make a city special, and which shouldn’t be taken for granted"
- Elizabeth Bosher, chairperson Project Chambers, Hong Kong
“I love what you do with the i-Discover app. It’s something so intimate and yet so informative.”
- Ritwajit Das, Chief Strategist South Asia - Global Call for Climate Action
“iDiscover encourages visitors to make their own stories and tread their own path. This connects them directly with the actual residents"
- Channa Daswatte, Chairman Galle Heritage Foundation
“If you want to mobilise a community, you need to recognise their roots”
- Benjamin Sin, Caritas Hong Kong
“This continues to be one of the best bottom-up, local heritage awareness efforts on the planet; and they keep adding more places”
- Donovan Rypkema, Heritage Strategies International, Washington DC
“To find the personality of a city we need to understand why certain spaces became places”
- Mariana Isa, Heritage Output Lab, Kuala Lumpur
“What iDiscover is doing is like making an archive of Hong Kong history – through the eyes of locals”
- Amy Tse, social worker Caritas, Hong Kong
“You are working in beautiful projects to make the community more connected and valued"
- Yvonne De Suner Beltran, Banyan Tree Hotels
“An award winning, community driven journey to explore local cultures in a new shared reality"
- Creative Business University Utrecht
“In our cities, which are increasingly cosmopolitan, we need to ensure that cultural diversity becomes an asset and not a handicap”
- Roland Ries, Mayor of Strasbourg
“Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural heritage”
“Leverage culture and heritage for liveable cities and strong urban economies”
“Implementing the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach at local level”