The why and how of participatory place-making

Elizelle Cilliers and Wim Timmermans, "The Importance of Creative Participatory Planning in the Public Place-Making Process," Environment and Planning B 41 (2014): 2

The take-away: This essay emphasizes the importance of incorporating the ideas and creativity of local communities when engaging in place-making. It reviews several strategies for bringing people into planning processes.

Abstract

The idea of ‘place’ has long been central to the planning and design practice. Recent trends illustrate increased intervention in the ‘experience’ and ‘feeling’ of places, in order to influence and enhance community dynamics. While place-making is an important tool for experts to utilize in community planning, it should be accompanied by a thorough understanding of the contemporary social dynamics of place and the implications it has for the people who inhabit these places. In this sense, participatory planning forms an integral part of future place-making processes and planning thereof. In this paper, the first aim is to capture the importance of incorporating public perspective into the place-making process when considering future urban planning. The second is to stress the importance of the creative participatory processes to attract stakeholders and enhance their willingness to partake in the participatory planning processes. The third aim is to identify creative participatory planning tools that can be used to enhance participatory planning within the place-making process.

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