the art and science of placemaking stockholm, sweden 16 ... · the art and science of placemaking...

The Art and Science of Placemaking Stockholm, Sweden 16 June 2014

Susan Silberberg

Lecturer in Planning and Urban Design, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Founder and Managing Director, CivicMoxie, LLC

Placemaking is the act of people coming together in their physical environment to deliberately design, plan, program and maintain public spaces to facilitate social interaction and improve quality of life. Places in the Making, MIT 2013

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Location?

• Place beguiles us – park, beautiful image. Beauty beauty beauty

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Location?

• Place seduces us (paris and lovers)

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Location?

• Place connects us (playing, park bench, etc.)

In the long history of human settlement, public places have reflected the needs and cultures of community Places in the Making, MIT 2013


Susan Silberberg



But along the way, something went very wrong…

Communities lost the tradition and practice of having a local and active political voice.

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Desolate plaza

Citizens should show humility in the face of expertise. American Political Science Association, 1914


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Susan Silberberg



Today’s Placemaking? • supports community

health and safety • seeks social justice • catalyzes economic

development • Promotes

environmental sustainability

• supports arts and culture

• nurtures an authentic “sense of place”

• sparks public discourse • engenders civic pride • connects

neighborhoods


Susan Silberberg



…and the tendency to focus on the physical characteristics does disservice to the ways the placemaking process nurtures our communities and feeds our social lives.

Fargo Moorhead StreetsAlive

Story #1: How a temporary event caused

permanent change

Fargo Moorhead StreetsAlive


Susan Silberberg



The Event: Streets Alive Fargo ND and Moorhead MN • Ciclovia-type event on closed

loop between two cities • 9,000 participants on two days

each summer • Using event to speak to

conservative political climate • Healthy living intro to life

beyond the automobile • Funding from health care

foundations • Transformative effect on

comprehensive planning


Susan Silberberg



Source: http://missionlocal.org

Story #2: Transforming outrage into constructive

community action

Source: http://missionlocal.org


Susan Silberberg



The Transportation Project: Guerrero Park San Francisco, CA • Community activism at the

right time and in the right place

• Transformation of six lanes of pavement into neighborhood park

• Collaboration around designing, fundraising, programming and maintaining park has empowered community

• Use of temporary elements lowers cost and barriers to action


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Story #3: Pushing back on public regulations and

policies


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The Temporary Intervention Project Team Better Block Norfolk VA • Pushes back on

regulation-heavy zoning and barriers to vibrancy

• Promotes borrowing, making and bartering as way to build community ties and social capital

• Encourages entrepreneurship

• Helps communities to vision alternatives

• Smoothes path to regulatory changes in city government


Susan Silberberg



Story #4: from “asking” to “doing”


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These deliberative and communal processes of shaping public spaces are changing the physical, political and social landscape of the past century

Communities are developing a local and active political voice in our increasingly privatized public realm that has been controlled by “experts”

Bryant Park photo courtesy of Rebecca Disbrow


Susan Silberberg



The iterative actions and collaborations inherent in the making of places nourish communities and empower people.

This widening emphasis away from the product to focus on the process recognizes the long-term importance of nurturing community capacity and local leadership.


Susan Silberberg



This mutual stewardship of place and community is the virtuous cycle of placemaking.

In this mutual relationship, communities transform places, which in turn transform communities, and so on.


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Places in the Making, MIT 2013 Places in the Making, MIT 2013


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Three themes emerge from the MIT research… 1. Placemaking is about more than soliciting initial community input and then moving forward in a linear process: the making process is iterative and never finished: • Designing • Programming • Maintaining • Funding


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2. Agile places respond to financial constraints and top down regulations: the rise of tactical urbanism • Park(ing) Day • Better Block • City Repair • Lighter, Quicker,

Cheaper • Chair Bombing • StreetsAlive


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3. The new collaborators: public-private partnerships • But NOT the typical

partnerships we have known in the past! New relationships offer:

• Public support for tactical urbanism

• Temporary projects as pilots for larger initiatives

• Programming and maintenance partners

• Scalable initiatives


Susan Silberberg



The new model of placemaking emphasizes flexibility, embraces impermanence, shares information, and draws on unorthodox sources for influence. Through the process of collaboration and action, we become makers of places, rather than consumers of places.

Photo courtesy of Janet Century for Neighborhood Connections

ONE AND ONLY ONE PLAN

MAKING A PLAN

OTHER ACTORS

AND INFLUENCES

CITY STATE

FUNDERS POTENTIAL PARTNERS

PLACEMAKING “SPACE”

Thought interaction resources ideas structure encouragement collaboration demonstration

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Why now? • Builds community social and

political capital • Fast tracks change in face of

top-down and often-restrictive regulations

• Built-in accountability – those who act gain authority

• Efficient use of resources in resource-scarce environment

• Enables government to provide support in alternative ways (not only dependent on $)

• Reliance on a broad mix of partners and actors to achieve results – better chance of success!

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In the mutual stewardship of place and community, communities transform places, which in turn transform communities, which

in turn transform our cities and the world.

Places in the Making: How placemaking builds places and communities

UNECE Vital Public Spaces Geneva, Switzerland

24 February 2015

@SusanSilberberg @MITdusp

#placemaking

Susan Silberberg



http://dusp.mit.edu/cdd/project/placemaking

http://dusp.mit.edu/cdd/project/placemaking

the art and science of placemaking stockholm, sweden 16 ... · the art and science of placemaking...

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