22°19'40.17"N 114° 9'37.49"E

-6°13'46.34"N 106°81'31.74"E

16°77'68.99"N 96°15'32.02"E

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URBAN DISCOVERY

SUBJECTIVE CITY MAPPING & URBAN HERITAGE STRATEGIES

CREATE

social capital

AMPLIFY

local voices

CELEBRATE

cultural heritage

OUR MISSION

We believe that creating better cities is about making residents involved and invested in their neighbourhoods. We also believe that preserving authenticity and accentuating the identity of places is what makes people care for their environment.

WHAT WE DO

Urban Discovery is a creative agency that uses cultural mapping and design thinking to identify the DNA of places, unravel the different voices and historic layers, dissect pain points, locate local champions and solicit ideas from the community for the community. Our tools and methods equip residents to gain agency in their urban future.

We work in historic city districts. We help to build the business case for heritage revitalisation. Our clients are local governments, property developers, housing corporations and architects. With offices in Hong Kong and the Netherlands we are experienced in complex multicultural environments and international ‘shared’ heritage projects.

Cultural mapping

CULTURAL MAPPING

Revealing perceptions and layers of a place

Citizen engagement

CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT

What if you put residents in the driver’s seat?

Youth & heritage

YOUTH & HERITAGE

Imaginative investigation by custodians of the urban future

Heritage strategies

HERITAGE STRATEGIES

Unlocking the value of cultural heritage in the city

Community-led heritage strategy?

get in touch

OUR CLIENTS:

“The point is to invest in the understanding of local culture and history, because then people take ownership of it”

– Mr Saleem, HK Academy teacher

Our impact:

historic neighbourhoods

4090

local participants

2371

cultural assets mapped

28904

proud locals

“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“If you want to mobilise a community, you need to recognise their roots”
- Benjamin Sin, Caritas Hong Kong
“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
“To find the personality of a city we need to understand why certain spaces became places”
- Mariana Isa, Heritage Output Lab, Kuala Lumpur
“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

Our guiding principles

GLOBAL GOAL #11

“Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural heritage”

NEW URBAN AGENDA

“Leverage culture and heritage for liveable cities and strong urban economies”

WORLD HERITAGE CITIES

“Implementing the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach at local level”