Urban planning rooted in community dialogue and collaboration
Published on: June 8, 2023
Placemaking
The term placemaking is commonly used to describe the evolutionary and collaborative process of shaping urban environments to maximise shared value for citizens and inhabitants. It is an approach to urban planning that uses stakeholder ownership of the process and community participation to strengthen the connections between people and places. In some instances, the community may even take ownership of the space, or manage it as a community resource.
Advocating for a place-based, community-centered approach to urban planning
It was the urban writer and activist Jane Jacobs who championed placemaking in the 1960s advocating for a place-based, community-centered approach to urban planning together with the socialist and urbanist William H. Whyte. Since then, placemaking has grown into a multidisciplinary approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces.
In addition to just promoting better urban design, placemaking facilitates creative patterns of use, paying attention to the physical, cultural and social identities that define a place and support its ongoing evolution. To be successful, placemaking should be a collaborative process between citizens, urban planners and engineers that shapes the city and results in better urban design.
How to enable the shared value of urban environments
Placemaking helps communities transform their public spaces and maximise common values through participation, collaboration, local leadership and integrity. It facilitates tools and a practical process developed by Project for Public Spaces for retrofitting an existing space or planning a new space through observing, interacting with people and engaging local stakeholders.
Photo Credit: Safe and Sound Cities program/Sweco
Step-by-step
First, it is important to define the value of the space as a place, and to identify stakeholders from public, private and civic sectors connected to it, for instance residents, businesses located in the area or cultural, religious and educational organisations.
Second, the stakeholders are invited to participate in meetings and workshops to evaluate how a space is used and identify issues that can be improved. Placemaking workshops ensure community participation and usually include local officials to discuss specific topics in depth.
Third, a place vision is developed including a mission or statement of goals shared by the stakeholders, a definition of how the space will be used, and by whom, a description of the intended character of the space and a concept plan for how the space could be designed, including an action plan for improvements.
Finally, an iterative implementation process for short-term experiments, long-term improvements and city-wide actions determines the outcome. Key to the success of placemaking is keeping stakeholders involved throughout the different steps of the process and adapt the planning and implementation in accordance with relevant feedback and changing circumstances.
Sweco serves as strategic advisor in placemaking
At Sweco, architects, engineers and other experts work on integrated solutions that require understanding of the context and multidisciplinary collaboration. Focusing on a close collaboration with clients that seek societal impact, Sweco experts combine urban planning, climate adaptation, circularity, energy transition, urban health, active travel and mobility to identify how the built environment, spatial planning and urban design can be a lever for change to address societal challenges.
A word on placemaking from Sweco experts
Empowering young people to redesign their neighbourhoods
Acting as a strategic advisor to the Safe and Sound Cities program, Jens Aerts and his team of experts at Sweco Belgium brought their experience of placemaking as a tool for developing youth-centred placemaking activities through ideation and multidisciplinary collaboration. The Sweco team has been involved in the design of this new program from an early stage on, with the organisation of learning workshops that brought together experts and perspectives related to safe cities and youth participation.
Placemaking draws from the ability to empathise with and create value for others. If we can empower young people to redesign their neighbourhoods together with local authorities and other stakeholders, they will feel confident in continuing to shape their city in a safe and sound way. – Jens Aerts, Team Manager Climate Resilience Planning at Sweco in Belgium
In Belgium, Sweco has also supported the city of Leuven in its climate transitions programs. In the municipality of Anderlecht and the Brussels-Capital Region, Sweco elaborated in cooperation with IPE Collectif a neighbourhood contract built on the involvement of institutional partners, the neighbourhood organisations and the inhabitants.
Taming the streets of Edinburgh for the people
In the east end of Edinburgh, Claire Carr’s team of Sweco experts supported the regeneration of the St James Quarter through placemaking interventions that foster increased mobility, active transportation and provide places to meet and enjoy the city. Sweco combined the technical skills of the transport planning and civil and structural engineering teams with the knowledge of the city. A long-established relationship was built with the City Council to cater for working groups which led the team through the various design and statutory approvals processes.
Sweco developed multi-modal design solutions which have reclaimed large areas of carriageway for pedestrians and cyclists, future proofed for Edinburgh Tram, incorporated bus infrastructure and retained sufficient traffic capacity to allow the city to function. In addition to this, large areas of new high-quality public realm have been created, providing space within the city environment for people to spend time, host events and move around.
The Sweco team in Edinburgh led the designs to tame the streets surrounding the new St James Quarter in Edinburgh City Centre to transform them from noisy, dirty and unsafe places dominated by vehicles to pleasant and safe streets with priority for people to walk and cycle. – Claire Carr, Director Transport Planning at Sweco in the UK
Facilitating the circular transition through placemaking
Looking at urbanism from the bottom-up perspective, Diego joined Sweco division BUUR in 2011 and co-founded Cakri in 2016, a collaborative platform engaged in the development of placemaking and curatorial projects that valorise the street as a cultural space. In the white paper “Infrastructures – in between – and the role of placemaking in the circular transition”, Diego elaborates on the capacity of a neighbourhood’s collective spaces to include infrastructures and facilities that help communities to incorporate circular economy practices in their daily life.
Understanding placemaking as a practice anchored in the needs and specificities of a local context, this white paper seeks to explore how community building processes and cooperation between citizens, economic actors and institutions can contribute to the transition to a circular society.
The transition to a circular economy is based on the capacity of a community’s living spaces to incorporate the infrastructures that support the different steps of the transition. Including placemaking in the formal urban planning is a collective exercise of space and resource optimisation – Diego Luna Quintanilla, architect, urban designer and strategic planner at Sweco in Belgium
