Meaningful places
Placemaking is a process and a philosophy that aims to inspire people to reimagine shared public spaces as the heart of any community: strengthening the connection between people and the places they share. It is a term used by Project for Public Spaces (PPS) since the 1990s to describe their approach to building communities around places. Placemaking is rooted in the movement that emerged from the 1960s on the back of influential publications and research by Jane Jacobs and William H. Whyte around a different view of urban development in the United States. Instead of the modernist idea of designing the city around cars and around shopping centers of the city, placemaking design resolves around the user of the city.
According to PPS (Madden, 2018), good public space is more than just the physical characteristics of a place. First of all, places must be supportive as a means of creating vital communities. Here, function is always more important than form. True placemaking occurs when people of all ages, abilities and socio-economic backgrounds can not only access and enjoy a place, but also play a key role in its identity, creation and maintenance.
Why places matter?
Cities and towns throughout the world have come to look more like each other. Traffic dominates our lives, even in rural communities. Communities are becoming less and less liveable. Imagine parks and squares that are the thriving hub of the city, where everybody gathers for civic, cultural, and social interaction (Madden, 2018).
The best public spaces are lively hubs of community life. Public spaces with the greatest impact are used by many different people for many different purposes at many different times of the day and year (Madden 2018). When public spaces are well-used and well-loved by people, they can generate a wide range of benefits: communities become more connected and more capable, individuals become healthier and safer, and our economies and environment flourish (Madden, 2018).
‘Enjoyable street life has become a lost art’ (PPS)
Why don't we have better public spaces?
Because often a project-driven approach is used. This is a top-down approach instead of a bottom-up approach. Within placemaking, where you want to create meaningful places, it is important to start by thinking about the place! Read more about the Placemaking process.