The placemaking movement
What does it really mean to make a place?
The term, ‘placemaking’, has been in our vocabulary now for going on 50 years. It was a phrase originally coined by landscape architects in the 1970s, to describe the process of creating public spaces. Certainly, landscape continues to play an important role in placemaking. But since then, the term has been co-opted by community projects, developers, architects and agencies all around the world.
While the two components of ‘placemaking’ make the term self-explanatory – this is, of course, about making places – to actually conduct placemaking is anything but simple.
Executive Director of PlacemakingX, Ethan Kent, joined me for lunch at the Timeout Market in Brooklyn, to help break down what placemaking means today. As the son of one of the founding fathers of the placemaking movement, Fred Kent, Ethan grew up in the presence of great placemaking thinkers. For 21 years he worked as Senior Vice President in the Project for Public Spaces (PPS) – one of the world’s first placemaking organisations – before founding PlacemakingX in 2019. Today, through PlacemakingX, Ethan connects and supports local leaders, community projects and public space champions all around the world.
On the menu for our discussion? ‘Southern comfort’ food of mac ‘n’ cheese and deep-fried pickles – paired with plenty of placemaking insight.
What is placemaking?
We started with one of the bigger questions. Over the course of just three weeks on this project, it’s become clear that there are different definitions of ‘placemaking’ in circulation. In the UK, we can use the term quite literally (i.e. ‘creating places’), whereas in Havana and Santiago there is a more precise definition involving public and community participation – in these locations, placemaking is a co-creation process, not a top-down construction job.
In this, Ethan agrees: “By placemaking, we refer to a hands-on process of collaboration, whereby different groups and interests come together to build or reimagine public spaces and shared value in the public realm. It can be initiated by any sector or demographic, and aspire to include the capacity of all to take ownership of the process. Debating the definition of placemaking and who does it and who is it for is an important part of the process.”
In fact, as Ethan tells me, this very specific definition explains why there is no direct translation in Spanish. “In Latin America, the Placemaking Latinoamerica network decided that it would be easier to adopt the word ‘placemaking’ in its English format. That way, it comes without the baggage.”
“Lighter Quicker Cheaper”
While many organisations and companies have begun to adopt the ‘placemaking’ label in recent years, it is clear that caution is required here. The concept comes from a focus on ‘Lighter Quicker Cheaper’, and is underwritten by a methodology of collaboration and co-creation. To use the term ‘placemaking’ requires an understanding of what the placemaking movement is, and how the methodology works.
How does this process work in practice?
The idea of a truly collaborative, community-centric placemaking process sounds idyllic, but anyone involved in development and renewal projects in the UK will know that involving the community isn’t always plain sailing. So how do we encourage positive and active engagement in workshops and consultations?
The answer to this question has already started to be unlocked in a few of the projects visited in Havana and Santiago. In Havana’s Akokán project, for example, placemaking leaders have gone fully native in the community, identifying local leaders and voices to become the key advocates of the project. In essence, the process is ‘owned’ by the community, and only facilitated by the project leaders.
In Santiago, meanwhile, organisations like Espacio Lúdico are using innovative, play-based approaches to help create more meaningful and fun workshops for communities involved in consultation.
With PPS, and now with PlacemakingX, Ethan promotes similarly interactive tools to get project participants involved and thinking.
“One methodology is what we call the Power of 10. In this activity a community looks to make a space that engages at the human scale of interaction and eye contact, identifying ten different activities that can be performed in each particular place, where no use or user group dominates. Then 10 of these places are needed for a successful destination or district, then 10 destinations in a particular city, all as a goal and structure for a visioning process. This helps us to think about scaling up the impact of local placemaking.”
In addition, PPS has also developed its own ‘Place Diagram’, which allows places to be viewed through the lens of key attributes (the inner ring), intangible qualities (the middle ring), and measurable data (the outer ring). This ensures the placemaking process is always approached with a sharp focus.
Underwriting all of these exercises and methodologies is the quest for “lighter, quicker, cheaper”. Placemaking is not typically a process that embraces big budgets and slow-burn change – it is designed to be agile, delivering a lower bar for entry and tangible results for the public.
What are the advantages of this collaborative placemaking process?
Community consultation processes can seem costly in both time and money, especially in projects which focus mainly on private residential spaces. However, by adopting a purist’s placemaking methodology, we can completely turn around the way we conceive ‘place identities’.
In fact, this is one of the core goals of PlacemakingX: to encourage developers and public bodies to adopt a ‘place first’ approach when it comes to new development and urban renewal.
By this, it is meant that the very first conversations to be had about a developing space should be about the kind of place it will be, starting with the public realm. These conversations focus on developing the vision of the public spaces, nominating key public services and planning the way in which the spaces at ground-floor will be used. Put simply, the place strategy is prioritised before sales strategy.
“By doing this,” Ethan explains, “we create a safer environment for commercial tenants to commit to, contributing value to the local community, and in turn adding value to potential property sales around the new space. On many occasions at the moment, private residential real estate is being planned as the priority, extracting value from public space. This often means that it becomes difficult to fill commercial space, as it’s riskier for tenants to commit to the project. Ultimately, that leads to an inactive public realm, which isn’t good for anybody.
“In this regard, one of the largest gaps in placemaking at the moment is happening at the developer level. Right now, many developments around the world are draining the value of public space, whereas we’re trying to increase its value exponentially. We’re establishing a global ‘Place Led Development Network’ to help get this moving, and we’re seeing many developers take very positive steps.”
Indeed, in explaining the methods and purposes of placemaking, Ethan emphasises the importance of creating places with a wide range of participants and contributors ¬– there is a place at the table for developers, just as there is for community members, architects, local leaders and governing bodies. In his words, “a healthy city requires a full spectrum of public and private spaces. We can only turn spaces around once we start inviting people in.”
Started in New York and now growing all around the world, this placemaking movement truly has the power to redefine the way we imagine and build new places – but for this, we must invite people in.
