Placemaking
Encyclopedia
Placemaking is a term that began to be used in the 1970s by architect
s and planners
to describe the process of creating squares, plazas, parks, streets and waterfronts that will attract people because they are pleasurable or interesting. Landscape often plays an important role in the design process.
According to Bernard Hunt, an architect practicing in London
:
A journal on the subject, is Places: Forum of Design for the Public Realm. Places is about the design of places, the experiences they make possible and the consequences they have in our lives. Being in places involves social encounters, immersion in the sights, sounds, sun, wind and atmosphere of a locale, and curiosity about the traces of thought, imagination and investment that have guided their construction and use over time. The journal investigates the dynamics of nature and culture and the conscious stewarding of resources by fostering discussion in multiple voices, with strong imagery and language that is clear and accessible, crossing general interests, professions and scholarly disciplines. The focus is on places of public import and on designs and proposals that embody thought in ways that deserve public discourse and continuing attention.
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
s and planners
Urban planner
An urban planner or city planner is a professional who works in the field of urban planning/land use planning for the purpose of optimizing the effectiveness of a community's land use and infrastructure. They formulate plans for the development and management of urban and suburban areas, typically...
to describe the process of creating squares, plazas, parks, streets and waterfronts that will attract people because they are pleasurable or interesting. Landscape often plays an important role in the design process.
According to Bernard Hunt, an architect practicing in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
:
We have theories, specialisms, regulations, exhortations, demonstration projects. We have planners. We have highway engineers. We have mixed use, mixed tenure, architecture, community architecture, urban design, neighbourhood strategy. But what seems to have happened is that we have simply lost the art of placemaking; or, put another way, we have lost the simple art of placemaking. We are good at putting up buildings but we are bad at making places.
A journal on the subject, is Places: Forum of Design for the Public Realm. Places is about the design of places, the experiences they make possible and the consequences they have in our lives. Being in places involves social encounters, immersion in the sights, sounds, sun, wind and atmosphere of a locale, and curiosity about the traces of thought, imagination and investment that have guided their construction and use over time. The journal investigates the dynamics of nature and culture and the conscious stewarding of resources by fostering discussion in multiple voices, with strong imagery and language that is clear and accessible, crossing general interests, professions and scholarly disciplines. The focus is on places of public import and on designs and proposals that embody thought in ways that deserve public discourse and continuing attention.
See also
- Jon JerdeJon JerdeJon Jerde is an American architect based in Venice, California, Founder & Chairman of , a design architecture and urban planning firm that pioneered the concept of placemaking and "experience architecture;" and has created multiple award-winning commercial developments around the globe...
- William H. WhyteWilliam H. WhyteWilliam Hollingsworth "Holly" Whyte was an American urbanist, organizational analyst, journalist and people-watcher.Whyte was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania in 1917 and died in New York City in 1999. An early graduate of St. Andrew's School in Middletown, Delaware, he graduated from Princeton...
- Dan BiedermanDan BiedermanDaniel A. Biederman is a prominent New York City downtown manager and pioneer in the field of privately funded urban and public space management. He is the co-founder of Grand Central Partnership, 34th Street Partnership, and Bryant Park Corporation, three Business Improvement Districts ...
- David Engwicht
- Jane JacobsJane JacobsJane Jacobs, was an American-Canadian writer and activist with primary interest in communities and urban planning and decay. She is best known for The Death and Life of Great American Cities , a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s in the United States...
- Fred KentFred KentFred Kent is the founder and president of the non profit organization Project for Public Spaces. The organization is dedicated to creating public places that foster communities.He studied with Margaret Mead and worked with William H...
- Jan GehlJan GehlJan Gehl is a Danish architect and urban design consultant based in Copenhagen and whose career has focused on improving the quality of urban life by re-orienting city design towards the pedestrian and cyclist.-Biography:...
- Christopher AlexanderChristopher AlexanderChristopher Wolfgang Alexander is a registered architect noted for his theories about design, and for more than 200 building projects in California, Japan, Mexico and around the world...
- Donald AppleyardDonald AppleyardDonald Appleyard was an urban designer and theorist, teaching at the University of California, Berkeley.Born in England, Appleyard studied first architecture, and later urban planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduation he taught at MIT for six years,and later at Berkley...
- James Howard KunstlerJames Howard KunstlerJames Howard Kunstler is an American author, social critic, public speaker, and blogger. He is best known for his books The Geography of Nowhere , a history of American suburbia and urban development, and the more recent The Long Emergency , where he argues that declining oil production is likely...
- Donald AppleyardDonald AppleyardDonald Appleyard was an urban designer and theorist, teaching at the University of California, Berkeley.Born in England, Appleyard studied first architecture, and later urban planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduation he taught at MIT for six years,and later at Berkley...
- Allan JacobsAllan JacobsAllan B. Jacobs is an urban designer, renowned for his publications and research on urban design. His well-known paper "Towards an Urban Design Manifesto", written with Donald Appleyard, describes how cities should be laid out....
- Enrique PenalosaEnrique PeñalosaEnrique Peñalosa Londoño is a Colombian politician and New Urbanist. He was mayor of Bogotá, from 1998 until 2001, and was runner-up in 2007. He is running in 2011 for mayor as the Green Party candidate. He has also worked as a journalist and consultant on urban and transportation policy...
- Community of placeCommunity of placeA community of place or place-based community is a community of people who are bound together because of where they reside, work, visit or otherwise spend a continuous portion of their time...
- Ronald Lee FlemingRonald Lee FlemingRonald Lee Fleming, F.A.I.C.P., is the founder and president of The Townscape Institute, a not-for-profit public interest planning organization founded in the United States in 1979...
Books
- The Art of Placemaking: Interpreting Community Through Public Art and Urban Design, by Ronald Lee Fleming at The Townscape Institute (2007)
- Placemaking: The Art and Practice of Building Communities, by Lynda H. Schneekloth & Robert G. Shibley (1995)
- How to Turn a Place Around, by Project for Public Spaces (2000)
- The Ecology of Place, by Timothy Beatley and Kristy Manning (1997)