Luca Picardi

Luca Picardi (1990) is a designer with a background in Anthropology. His work tends to focus towards urban life, using different approaches to communicate including photography, community produced art, ephemeral urban design and online tools such as Google street view.

Are cities looking more alike? Has strolling Helsinki’s new neighbourhood Jätkäsaari become an extension of walking along a path of the Kings Cross redevelopment zone? If so, how are these developments collectively shaping the experience of the city? ‘Familiar’ explores patterns of mimicry in contemporary urban development projects in Northern Europe. Through open-source data available online, the publication re-frames existing marketing surrounding these projects. The result is not a production of new work but the presentation of a familiar reality.

The residency is organised in partnership with British Council, Helsinki Design Week and Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture.