The art of placemaking
The art of placemaking means precisely what it says - the making of a place.
Placemaking was first coined in the 1960s when writers like Jane Jacobs and William H. Whyte proposed the trailblazing concept of designing towns, cities, and communities that catered to the people rather than cars and shopping centres.
When positing the importance of placemaking in a society, Bernard Hunt of HTA Architects posited that “we are good at putting up buildings, but we are bad at making places."[1]
The concept has now encroached into the mainstream rhetoric, and its focus is to encompass and consider people's health, wellness, and lifestyle as paramount within the urban design experience.
Innovative placemaking utilises unused urban space and transforms it into a usable asset for the entire community. After all, it is a community that makes a place - hence the place should be inspired by the needs of a community.
Effective Placemaking is about facilitating and forming human connections. In a cyber-centric society where we are increasingly void of human interactions, placemaking should be at the forefront of urban planners, developers, government officials, architects, and civil engineers. On the flip side, since technology is ubiquitous, it can therefore be utilised to encourage the generation of ideas for future placemaking initiatives, mainly since online communities are increasingly à la mode.
An example of effective placemaking is the town plaza in Hallstatt, Austria, which evokes and encourages a public realm. Or the High Line in New York City, which utilises a previously unused train rail to create an elevated greenway, public scenic walkway, and arts and events installation space. Joshua David and Robert Hammond, founders of the non-profit organisation ‘friends of the high line’ who initially proposed the concept, drew inspiration from the Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, Germany, and the Promenade Plantee in Paris. Since its inception in 2009, the High Line has become one of New York's most popular tourist attractions, with nearly 8 million visitors annually. It has also inspired many cities worldwide to rethink ways to reuse and re-establish redundant public spaces. The New York Times emphasised that the High Line ‘made people think differently about public space and the city more profoundly.’[2]
Placemaking calls forth concepts such as Liveable streetscapes that create a sense of place. Triangulation and critical concepts such as a quality public realm, walkability, placemaking and the triple bottom line.
A quality public realm and town centre; Beneficial urban design focuses on a high-caliber public realm that incorporates places such as plazas, parks, green spaces, squares, and publicly usable open spaces.
Walkability and amenity are crucial considerations for placemaking, which means that all amenities should be within 5-10 walking distance. It shifts the focus from shopping centres which require a car and accommodates walkability and ease of access to amenities such as the town square being close to local shops, which are close to primary places of work and living. Accordingly, this type of planning promotes a strong work/life balance.
Triangulation, in laymen's terms, 'is the strategic placement of amenities that encourage social interaction.'[3] For example, effective triangulation within a community would look like the children's playground, the library, and food amenities all within walking distance of one another. This placement would result in more activity in a more central location rather than being spread out and not within walking distance of each other.
Placemaking synergy all takes place at the mesoscale, which means that; 'the area observable from a human's eyes, for example: between buildings, including storefronts, sidewalks, street trees, and people.’[4]
Placemaking focuses on the Triple bottom line. The triple bottom line means ‘people, planet, and profit’[5], being economically, socially, and environmentally beneficial for the community. Not just egocentric profit for the developers but whether the design is viable and will provide economic benefits for the entire community.
The musings of the Poet Wendell Berry accurately sum up the synergy of placemaking. “If what we see and experience… does not become real in imagination, then it never can become real to us, and we are forever divided from it.”[6]
Approaching projects with a placemaking ethos is beneficial because it improves human connections and the urban experience.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placemaking#History
[2] (New York Times, 9/20/2014)
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placemaking#History
[4] https://www.pps.org/article/what-is-placemaking
[5] https://collectiveimpactlab.com/triple-bottom-line-placemaking/
[6] https://www.the-neighbourhood.com/thoughts/a-placemaking-philosophy