Welcome to the Placemaking Europe - Leaders Event 2019 Report
THURSDAY 12th PLENARY - Get to know each other; How do you tell your mother that you are a placemaker Thursday morning, September 12th, 2019, the kick-off started with two members of Placemaking Europe board, Jeroen Laven and Vivian Doumpa, introducing the leader gathering with the presentation “How to tell your mother you are a placemaker�. As we discussed with the leaders during Placemaking Week Europe, it is of importance to meet after Valencia, making these days a great opportunity to look back and simultaneously look forward to the next Placemaking Week Europe 2020.
In order for the network of leaders to continue, participation is not enough. Leaders are invited to and need to step forward and pursue co-leading the Placemaking Europe network. We have a number of leaders now in Placemaking Europe. There is still space for a few more in order to build and strengthen the network together. To be a leader of the Placemaking Europe network means to be a mental co-owner of the network and bear the responsibility of the success of the network.
The profession of placemaking is not clear to everyone. We believe that as long as you can tell your mom you are a placemaker, and she supports you, we are all fine. Big questions to tell your mom: -
Are we volunteers? For a part yes, placemakers often work on projects starting with idealism. Do we make any money? Of course, placemaking is a profession. Are we known and who do we need to know as a placemaker? Yes, our projects matters and it shows in our network.
The reason why all these leaders (and facilitators) have gathered these days in Rotterdam is to work on better, livelier streets and places. Looking back: In 2017 Project for Public Spaces (PPS) organized Placemaking Week in Amsterdam, together with different organizations, one of which was STIPO. At this event, the potential to share knowledge and work together between European countries became predominantly apparent in a dedicated session STIPO organized on placemaking in Europe. Placemakers/placemaking efforts from very different European countries apparently faced similar struggles, but also celebrated similar successes. The session paved the start of Placemaking Europe.
Creating a network with great variety of placemakers takes time. Two years later, all leaders that gathered are in the process of finding ways to make better use of
this network. For example, by sharing best practices, with the aim to gather and share stories of great projects, and learn from one another. Placemaking Europe Placemaking Making Europe aims to be a social enterprise. The board members (Jeroen Laven, Ramon Marrades, Fredrik Lindstal, Levente Polyak, Vivian Doumpa, Laska Nenova, Ronald Huikeshoven) take the lead. Estimates are that the network needs three years to get off the ground. Over time board members can be replaced, selected from the current leaders of the network. Currently, there is a total of 65 leaders. Going more in depth about what being a leader entails, it is important to find out where a leader’s responsibilities lie, and take ownership of being the first contact point regarding that topic/expertise. In addition, the Placemaking Europe network, has succeeded in becoming the co-founders of Placemaking X (explained later in the report) where we integrate our knowledge and connect with other placemakers in the world. This creates the opportunity to use the expertise of our leaders, to meet other placemakers worldwide, to join events and answer questions. Looking back, there are a lot of accomplishments and achievements the network can be proud of. Being recognized in the Journal of Public Space and writing about important projects. A platform for sharing knowledge and stories has been enabled through the Facebook group, the organization of Placemaking Pils, and the Journal of Public Space. The network is often approached by plenty of organizations and individuals who believe in the network’s mission and want to contribute. Take away This leader event in Rotterdam paves the way to create an overview of the challenges ahead. The different working sessions are actual projects or tools that might be able to get realized. At the end of the days in Rotterdam we aim to have a plan to build the network together for the coming year. Next steps It is important that the potential connections within the network are acknowledged, so that the different leaders and other participants in the group know who to reach out to for which action. Through this, the network itself gets stronger, and actions will be enabled.
WORKSHOPS Creative Bureaucracy Participants Charlot Schans Jaap Schoufour Laura Kovàcs Daniel Radai Jeroen Laven Tuğçe Akbulut Ramon Marrades Amir Gohar Bert Determann Sebastian Schlueter Stephania Xydia Pavlos Georgiatis Peter Williams Beitske Boonstra.
charlot.schans@stipo.nl jaap.schoufour@stipo.nl laura.kovacs@stipo.nl radaid@gmail.com jeroen.laven@stipo.nl start@crosschange.co rmarrades@marinavalencia.com amir.gohar@berkeley.edu deter046@planet.nl schlueter@mitost.org stephania.xydia@gmail.com pavlos@geopavlos.com peter.williams@themeans.co.uk beitske.boonstra@ugent.be
Topics 1. Personal positive examples when a project could change the bureaucracy 2. What is creative bureaucracy? What is the essence? 3. Levels of creative bureaucracy: a. Individual-level b. Organization level c. Economic level After the participants introduced themselves, the session started by sharing personal stories about projects which somehow changed the attitude of the bureaucrats. This round was a great inspiration to start talking about how it is possible to move the system to a more creative operation. We figured out that there are more levels on which we can break through the bureaucracy.
It was argued that the most fundamental level is the individual: civil servants are human beings, they are people you can sit down and talk with, and you can have an impact on their thoughts, their feelings. Civil servants have limited freedom at their own territory, which they can use to bring forward a project if we can convince them. At the organization level, we discussed the structure of the municipality and how to become an equal partner for local initiatives and NGO’s. There are different kinds of structural and financial changes which can lead to a more creative bureaucracy (Stephany brought some examples, see below). It would be useful if we, as part of the Placemaking Europe Network, could present some clear examples, data, professional opinions and documents which indicate the effectiveness of the role of creative bureaucrats preferably including the measured impact. Based on shared experiences, it is challenging to measure the impact in numbers, in the case of placemaking. The third approach that came up was the economic and political level. The operation of the bureaucracy is highly-dependent on the development legacies of the country/area, as well as the political environment. It is important to determine the kind of area that is studied, and their development stage. So it would be very important to contextualize the bureaucracy of the area which we are working on. In the end, a few possible workshop topics for the PMW 2020 were settled, based on the expertise of the participants and how they could each contribute. Next steps for Valencia 2020 ● Citizen-led data and insights - Pavlos ● Become a member of the city leading network - Amir ● Why is a civil servant not yet creative? How can civil servants become more creative? ● Create a simple website and bring a goal from the creative bureaucracy festival: “let’s have 10.000 creative bureaucracies in the world!” Conclusions Get in touch with the civil servant(s) on a personal level is one of the key elements. In the eyes of the bureaucrats try to place yourself in a position where civil servants feel that they can rely on you, so they’ll become more empathic! If you have data and a professional opinion about your project, you have a much better negotiation position in front of the bureaucrats.
Child-friendly cities Participants Hans Karssenberg Hanna Wright Bart Cardinaal Melissa Cavanna Vanessa Catalano Domínguez Nienke Sluimer Tiago Mota Saraiva Nadia Corte Viviana Cordero Julia Pineda Giulia Gualtieri Vivian Doumpa Konstantina Vidou
hans.karssenberg@stipo.nl wright.hannahj@gmail.com info@hunkdesign.com melissacavannamorales@gmail.com vcatalanod@gmail.com nienke.sluimer@stipo.nl tiagoms2@gmail.com cortes87@gmail.com vivianacorderovi@gmail.com territori@crearqcio.com giulia.gualtieri6@gmail.com vivian.doumpa@stipo.nl konstantina.vidou@stipo.nl
For the complete report please go here. The session began with everyone giving a brief introduction of themselves and how they relate/empathize with the theme of child-friendly cities. People shared personal and professional experiences, how they personally contribute to the amelioration of cities and how they would like to see cities become more childfriendly. Following that, Viviana and Giulia had prepared an interactive presentation using a poll tool, where people filled in personal information and provided input related to the topic. Some people who did not attend the meeting also submitted their opinions via google forms. Afterwards, the team was split into two groups, with the task of answering the following questions: HOW? ● How can we help to achieve child-friendly cities? ● What ideas do we have? ● What do we need to know and define? NOW. ● What actions can we start now? ● What resources do we need? ● Who can help? ● What can we achieve with these actions? WOW! ● What is our desired result? ● What are our ultimate goals? ● What would the network bring to us? ● What results would make us and others say wow!
Through conversation and sharing ideas, the two groups attempted to provide answers to the sub-questions; the two leaders tried to lead the conversation as much as possible in order to derive specific actions and actual steps that must be taken to implement these ideas. After that, the two teams got together again and presented their work.
The most important outcome of this session was the creation of a sub-network within the Placemaking Europe network that wants to join the mission of making cities more child-friendly. Describe lessons learnt & key takeaway (conclusions) ● A consolidated team arose from the workshop that will actively focus and reinforce the theme of child-friendly cities → follow up with the members. ● Create a draft of an action plan on what the next steps are for the network. ● The leaders have set Goals, actions and a tentative agenda for the subnetwork. ● A child-friendly city can be an ALL-friendly city: when addressing the issues of safety and autonomy in the streets for kids, and solving that issue, we are actually creating safe cities for everyone. ● There is a kid in every-adult: creating spaces that are inclusive for kids but also their takers, has an even bigger impact and more positive effect! ● Willingness to make the Placemaking Week Valencia a child-friendly event and participants can bring their children along. Follow-up: It is important to contact the members of the workshops, and possibly other leaders as well, and verify who wants to join the sub-group of making cities more child-friendly. Define concrete actions and steps, and perhaps connect those with Valencia 2020 and how child-friendly cities and climate-resilient cities are two connected topics. Identify leaders and members that want to contribute to the creation of the action plan → deadline before Valencia?
Some other questions to answer are: defining what age do we mean by kids? (18 or 12) Who will be able to perform some tasks and how to add new members? Here are the goals and actions defined for the subnetwork. Goals: ❖ External: ● Promote flexible legislation for ❖ Internal: the design and development of ● Promote our individual work places for children. through the network. How can ● Achieve safer cities by using a our services help achieve childchild-centered approach, friendly cities? considering gender. ● Get together with real-estate ● Contribute to main global developers, governments, causes like sustainability and NGO’s and business. fighting climate change. ● Apply to bigger and cross● Collaborate to meet the goals national projects together. of the Healthy Cities program Find partners in the network (and other similar programs) ● Learn from each other and test by having child-responsive our tools. urban planning ● Organize and participate in ● Use placemaking as a tool to conferences and events. increase children and youth ● Make the topic crucial during participation in decision the PMW2020 and make it a making and promote child-friendly horizontal democracy. conference/place. ● Develop research projects and get funding. Actions: Champions program: Contact people who already know about legislation to help us learn how to use it and what should change. Play-Day: Create a day when everyone in the network can make a child-centered placemaking intervention in their cities. The event will have a communication campaign in order to promote the network and advocate for child-friendly cities. The best interventions can be selected to travel to Valencia for a bigger expo or to be included in catalogues of playground developers. We will also collect data for research and dissemination. Also, we can apply for funding as a European project. Some other research projects can also start. Catalogue of services: Describe our services, both as individuals and as a network. We can have a proposal to map and assess how child-friendly your city is. Or a collaborative mapping project of child-friendly places (placemaking) across Europe.
Database of projects and funding: healthy cities, green cities, safe cities. A guide on how we can collaborate to achieve their goals and get their funding? Placemaking Week 2020: Crucial keynote speakers. Show how child-friendly cities is an important topic within Climate Change. Invite some children to participate as keynote speakers. Create a child-friendly inclusive place – meaning also participants can bring their children to the conference. Showcase the best of PLAYDAY. AGENDA
Other observations/comments: There is a strong focus on Placemaking Week, we need the support of La Marina. We need to approach all the European contributors from the City at Eye Level for Kids book and connect them to the network.
Tooltesting Participants Jeroen Laven Minouche Besters Todor Kaserovski Renee Rooijmans Youp van der Weijde Daan Lagerberg Sanne van Drenth
jeroen.laven@stipo.nl minouche.besters@stipo.nl tkesarovski@gmail.com renee.rooijmans@stipo.nl youp@van-der-weijde.nl sanne.vandrenth@stipo.nl
Topics ● What is the point of tooltesting within the network? ● What has already been done (website, manuals, tooltest day initiative)? ● Where are we standing now (challenges/further steps)? ● How can we harness our superpowers into a professional and productive tooltesting platform? What is the point of tooltesting within the network? Tooltesting allows practical knowledge and a better connection of the Placemaking Europe network. Once developed effectively, we can actually learn from the tools we use. However, up until now, the tools we use (and test) are still on a voluntary basis. Others may be reserved about sharing tools and expertise for free.
What has already been done? The idea of a toolbox started with the session with the balloons in Stockholm, where the seed for the creation of a toolbox was planted. Can we build a toolbox with all the examples we know? Using tools for the first time is always a project. Therefore, we started developing manuals, which are a way to make the tools more accessible and shareable. Various tools have been defined and a few manuals have been written. Now, the idea has come up to organize a Tooltest Day. Tooltest Day Cycle developed by Mindspace 1. Check-in, get in touch 2. Get on board, consider personal agenda, organize local workshops, and gain structural knowledge. 3. Set, practical knowledge exchange, support in organization and communication. 4. Action: tooltesting and feedback 5. Check-out Where are we standing now? How can we test our tools in order to learn from the local differences in experimenting with and implementing the tools? Challenges for Tooltesting â—? Academic way: what do we learn? â—? Economic way: how to make it into a business model? How can we harness our superpowers into a professional and productive tooltesting platform? We should look at tooltesting as a ritual. What rituals already exist? Janes Walk, clean-ups, place games and Park[ing] Day are great examples. However, they took years to really become rituals. For Tooltesting Day, we can connect the climate to a ritual. With our group existing of a light designer (Daan Lagenberg), doers and creatives, we came up with the idea of a light-intervention. For January the 19th, the Sunday before Blue Monday, we shall develop a placemaking intervention that is cheap and easy to do. The draft idea is simply to put lights outside the house, on the streets. This intervention will be hosted on certain streets, but is easy to spread to other places as well. Pictures and quotes can serve as data for impact-research. The other intervention could happen on the 28th of March 2020, Earth Day. No specific suggestions were made on this topic. Conclusions Now that the idea to create manuals for the tools has settled, it is important to look at how they really work and learn from that. During specific Tooltest Days, it is
crucial to gather data and measure the impact of certain tools. Instead of the original idea to test multiple tools in different cities at the same time, we discussed it would be more manageable and effective to organize two different tooltesting days in the coming months, until Valencia. It has been decided to focus solely on tactical urbanism and climate change-related to placemaking, so that there is a clear connection to Placemaking Week Valencia 2020. The first Tooltest Day deals with the issue of Blue Monday (most depressing day of the year) and Climate change/action. During the evening of the 19th of January, streets will be lit by light bulbs to fight the darkness of the winter. This idea has to be thought through in order to enhance the link with climate change. The second Tooltest Day will take place on the 28th of March 2020, Earth Day. Placemaking Week Valencia 2020 will serve as a gigantic exhibition of placemaking related to climate change. Next steps October ● Check-in ○ Call for proposals tactical urbanism tooltesting ○ Call for proposals PWE[?] ○ Placemaker in residence November ● Information package 2 weeks before ● Webinar January 19th ● Light intervention → blue Monday + climate action Two weeks later ● Feedback March 28th ● Earth Day May 2020 ● Placemaking Week Valencia → tool(box)testing exhibition Potential group members ● Todor Kesarovski ● Minouche Besters ● JPI (ref. Jeroen) ● Elise Perrault ● Iris Dijkstra → IALD (ref. Daan) ● Anna Sommardal ● Renee Rooijmans ● Paula Artzen
tkesarovski@gmail.com minouche.besters@stipo.nl https://jpi-urbaneurope.eu/ ep@futureplaceleadership.com https://jpi-urbaneurope.eu/contact/ annasommardal@hotmail.com renee.rooijmans@stipo.nl (ref. renee)
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Monnik https://www.monnik.org/contact Winterheil (ref. Anna) Tiago Mota Saraiva tiagoms2@gmail.com Oslo (Helene Gallis and Laura Martinez - ref. Anna) Ramon Marrades rmarrades@marinavalencia.com ○ → Valencia, ask him: what are we actually looking for? Jeroen Laven jeroen.laven@stipo.nl Jeroen Acradis jeroen.deleeuw@theaterrotterdam.nl Giulia Gualtieri giulia.gualtieri6@gmail.com
Setting up a format for tooltesting Design the call for tools Placemaking Week Valencia 2020 Create a core group for tooltesting Partner up with people who want to engage in the tooltesting, as well as people who want to help organize and spread it locally. Maybe also students who want to help research the tools. Invite other leaders for tooltesting (this is about Valencia I think). Team up with Lisbon and other partners (Valencia as well I think).
Our City Participants Daniel Radai Youp Van Der Weijde Jeroen de Leeuw Nienke Sluimer Stephania Xydia Elise Perrault Pavlos Georgiadis Lisa Heyman
radaid@gmail.com youp@van-der-weijde.nl jeroen.deLeeuw@theaterrotterdam.nl nienke.sluimer@stipo.nl stephania.xydia@gmail.com ep@futureplaceleadership.com pavlos@geopavlos.com lisa.heyman@stipo.nl
Topics The meaning of being an inclusive city. A framework to assess inclusivity. This year the publication of Our City? Countering Exclusion in Public Spaces got published. The main goal is to increase the attractiveness of a place without making it exclusive. The book discusses the best practices and the dangers that remain. Contributors from all over the world came up with projects or analyses they witnessed themselves. With Ramon Marrades Sempere in the lead, this session was opened in order to figure out what the next steps for the book will be. The session started with a group discussion about the definition of inclusiveness. Stephania said that “inclusion is creating processes to have access to the richness of the place”. Many agreed that in this world it is not possible to reach full inclusion. Nienke even mentioned that you should not have spaces for everyone, “it is important to create subgroups where each group of people could feel comfortable,” she said. It rolled into new discussions about including natural elements, combating loneliness, “Our Villages” and having a framework to assess the state of inclusivity. Jeroen made us realize that we come from nature thus we have to find our way back to her. All this came together in the sense that we have to address a society holistically. What is needed for such an approach is data to show the current state. All participants agreed that inclusively living together means living in a sustainable way. This bridges the way to how the rest of the session unfolded. As many already experienced at the Placemaking Week in Valencia, sustainability and climate action are not predominant enough in the strategies of placemakers. All the participants of this session agreed. Quickly the link was made that the more inclusive an area is to humans, the more inclusive it is for nature. However, what missed was a framework to assess how this would work in practice.
Pavlos highlighted the connection to the Sustainable Development Goals, which lays a great format to follow in order to leave no one, nothing and no place feel excluded. The team attending this session the next steps, however, decided to create a publication where 17 stories are generated based on the 17 SDG’s the UN created. Showcasing community heroes that not necessarily do incredible work, but proving that their approaches work. More explicitly, include the right not to be inclusive since at times the city changes, but people don’t. Show positive examples of how they function well. This way the placemakers have a guideline towards including ALL. Take away ● The term inclusiveness is not solely related to humans. ● A city will not feel inclusive when nature is left out. ● There is lots of funding available for SDG projects. Thus linking placemaking with the SDG almost guarantees sponsors. Next steps ● Create a framework through which you can determine the current “inclusive state” of a city. ● Show the nice working elements of a place. Not extraordinary, but something working. Only positive, 17 inspiring stories for each SDG (connecting/ illustrating) ● Use placemaking as a tool for reaching the SDG. ● WHO? Pavlos Georgiadis will have lots of time starting from November, so he will take the lead.
Toolbox Participants Jeroen Laven Hans Karssenberg Hanna Reidt Bart Cardinaal Beitske Boonstra Tuğçe Akbulut Todor Kesarovski Peter Williams Bert Determann Sebastian Schlueter Anna Sommardal Julia Pineda Sanne van Drenth
jeroen.laven@stipo.nl hans.karssenberg@stipo.nl info@hunkdesign.com info@hunkdesign.com beitske.boonstra@ugent.be start@crosschange.co tkesarovski@gmail.com peter.williams@themeans.co.uk deter046@planet.nl schlueter@actors-of-urban-change.eu annasommardal@hotmail.com territori@crearqcio.com sanne.vandrenth@stipo.nl
Topics How to handle the toolbox and manuals? a. Why do we develop a toolbox? b. For whom do we develop the toolbox? c. What form is appropriate for the toolbox? d. How to develop a business model for the toolbox? In discussing the next steps for the Toolbox, it became clear that the form, the public, the goal and the economic opportunities had to be redefined. Why do we develop a toolbox? The idea for a toolbox began with the Stockholm Conference “Cities for all” in 2018. During the workshop, the audience was given a step by step explanation on how to use the tools. The next step was to write manuals for all the tools that were gathered. The different manuals are categorized by theme, process and placemaking. For whom do we develop the toolbox? The target group for the toolbox is the placemaking community: the people that visit conferences and placemakers themselves. The toolbox is developed for a community of professionals, not people of the neighborhood. What form is appropriate for the toolbox? The form of the toolbox is a much-discussed issue during the session. Some feel the extensive manuals take too much effort to read - and write. However, others consider the toolbox website, including extensive written manuals, as an essential part.
Other ideas: ● A website where people can follow a decision tree that leads them to the best information. A way of mapping all the information available. ● Videos explaining how to use a tool. ● Relevant professionals and contact information. ● Links to other references on a specific tool. How to develop a business model of the toolbox? Currently, JPI project provides funding for writing 10 manuals a year. JPI provided us with cities to collaborate with testing and writing the manuals. However, to properly develop the toolbox, a plan is needed. The problem here lays in the structure. The toolbox can easily become too big and too focused on writing down the manuals instead of focusing on who needs the tools how we can guide them. Conclusions The existing toolbox format is too large for us to handle. In formulating why and for whom we create the toolbox, we took a step back and redefined the purpose. The lesson learned from this session is that we need to simplify the list of tools and view them as a solid foundation that enables opportunities to handle the tool more creatively and in different contexts. Peter Williams used the metaphor of the cookbook that was also used during the Nordic placemaking leader session, to tackle the questions on the Toolbox. ● You start with ingredients (tools) ● With the ingredients you build recipes (manuals) ● The chef cooks (we are all the chefs) ● There are the people that eat the food (we are also the eaters) The tools are there to inspire and activate, but also to provide the right information on how to implement the tools. However, due to different countries and contexts, it is almost impossible to write all the different manuals. Also, in the current society, written manuals are not the most suitable and inspiring media to use. We should look for a way to channel the information, so it is easy to find what you need. Videos, contact information, references and examples might help one further and allows for creativity and freedom in the implementation of the tool. We should focus on 3 tools with multiple local variations, instead of writing 100 different manuals. However, the written manual should serve as the backbone of the tool. The website should be flexible. In choosing which tools we want to use, we should focus on questions. To which questions do the tools provide answers? How can tools help us in creating better environments? The first tools that we choose may relate to Placemaking Week Valencia 2020. ● One tool is specifically related to climate adaptation/activation.
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Another tool could relate to the lack of community between La Marina and adjacent neighborhoods. How to restore the sense of community in that area? Or host a tool of the year award in Valencia.
Other suggestions ● Work in closer teams. ● Make it an educational issue. Professors and students might be interested in testing/studying the tools too. ● Create a real estate timeline. ● Masterclass/mentoring program in Valencia. Think through collectively how to translate a tool in different countries. Next steps ● Decide which tools to develop, related to Placemaking Week Valencia 2020. ○ Find partners to implement tools with. ○ Develop multimedia (infographic, YouTube videos, and decision-tree) to show how it is done. ● Find sponsors or practitioners to promote tools in their region → generate business model opportunities. ● Find local organizations that make Placemaking Week Valencia 2020 also attractive to the local community → for example providing certain lectures in Spanish. ● Develop Webinar/masterclass/mentoring program on how to translate a tool in different countries for Valencia 2020.
Latino America and MENA networks Participants Giulia Gualtieri Minouche Besters Viviana Cordero Rony Jalkh Melissa Cavanna Amir Gohar Vanessa Catalano Domìnguez Nady Nassar Nadia Cortes Tiago Mota Saraiva Tamara Egger Guillermo Bernal
giulia.gualtieri6@gmail.com minouche.besters@stipo.nl vivianacorderovi@gmail.com roni.jalkh@gmail.com melissacavannamorales@gmail.com amir.gohar@berkeley.edu vcatalanod@gmail.com nady.nassar@stipo.nl cortes87@gmail.com tiagoms2@gmail.com tamarae@iadb.org gbernal@lugarespublicos.org
Topics ● Informal development ● Collaborations with consumer brands (Coca-Cola, Kit-Kat…) to develop projects
Latin America: The Latin American network is mostly informally organized, but quite active (notably on the WhatsApp platform). Each country has its own network. Annually, the network organizes a placemaking event that gathers the members and has a noticeable impact on its host city or country. The current major challenge is to find funds and finance activities. The launch of numerous initiatives for the public helped increase media coverage for the movement. In these countries, it is common to observe spontaneous street space appropriation. Communities tend to improvise solutions on their own (DIY projects). Major safety and security issues are associated with public space. And despite the lack of funding and organizational structure, effective initiatives are implemented. Middle East, North Africa: There is currently no real link tying the MENA network to Placemaking Europe. In this region, public space is a protesting platform, with one of the most iconic cases being the Tahrir square in Cairo (which was the theatre of protests in 2011). The place has therefore strong ties to democracy and freedom. The local placemaking network is very young and has yet to gain momentum in order to produce real change and positive impact.
Takeaway ● Many initiatives are coming from private entities (Citizens, professionals, corporations…), in a context of absent or unreliable governmental actions. ● The identity and purpose of the MENA placemaking network are not well defined so far. Need for clear objectives. ● Even in countries where corruption, nepotism and repression are common, it is important to still consider the government as a key partner. ● There is a need for a better structured and organized international network. ○ Suggestion of a global team with representatives of several regional networks. ○ Placemaking global: ■ Europe ■ LATAM ■ MENA ■ Asia ■ etc. Next steps The European network could learn from the Latin American, especially when considering the impact of the annual Placemaking Week Europe 2020 (Valencia). If applied correctly, it could lead to a significant increase in media image, as well as a good way to cooperate with governments and access to financing sources. A better understanding of what makes a good place in the MENA region could also be helpful in European countries that host communities from Morocco, Turkey, Syria, etc. Continue translation effort (Spanish and Arabic) and encourage Placemaking X to implement translation of their library. We must follow-up what was launched at Valencia 2019. Preferably a physical meetup with the pioneers of the network.
Conferences Participants Charlot Schans Renée Rooijmans Viviana Cordero Konstantina Vidou Laura Kovàcs
charlot.schans@stipo.nl renee.rooijmans@stipo.nl vivianacorderovi@gmail.com
konstantina.vidou@stipo.nl laura.kovacs@stiopo.nl
Topics 1. Why? Why do we want to go to conferences? 2. What? What can we offer as Placemaking Europe? 3. How? How would we present ourselves? 4. Who? 5. Agenda The main goal of this session was to figure out what our organization can offer, why we do what we do, how we do it and who can offer what exact service. Another aim was to settle an agenda of the upcoming conferences where members of the network could attend and provide services or gain knowledge. Unfortunately, there weren’t many participants joining the session (who was there, those were mostly from Stipo), so we couldn’t collect too many events from the countries of the participants. Why? Why do we want to go to conferences? Main reasons: ● Get more attention, network, business case. ● Gain more knowledge and experience, grow. ● Empower people, provide a good example, and share positive energy. ● Sharing stories, strategies, tools; help shaping policies, advocating a new way of making better cities, innovate conferences. ● Change the world <3 What? What can we offer as Placemaking Europe? ● Presentation: general/themed/local knowledge, case studies, strategic facilitation. ● Hosting (co-organizing) workshops: community building and communication, education and training, innovating way of organizing. ● Books, manuals, tools.
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Making a place, urban karaoke, Placemaking Pils, pop up ping-pong, tactical urbanism, spicing up a conference. Be a speaker/moderator, panel discussions, promoting our organization, host workshops during conferences, serve as mediators for partnerships.
How? How would we present ourselves? ● Position Placemaking Europe as a partner: have ambassadors from the network. ● Have basic PowerPoint slides of Placemaking Europe in a shared folder, placemaking manifesto, mention ‘Placemaking Europe Leader’ on LinkedIn, use activism to become visible. ● Invite Leaders according to the theme, Leader reports back to the network. ● Select strategic conferences and represent Placemaking Europe, visit thematic conferences, create new connections and gain knowledge (now climate adaptation). ● Finances: minimum: travel and accommodation are covered, should our presentation/participation be paid? → depends on who’s inviting Who? ● An international team of open-minded people. ● Interdisciplinary team. ● Innovate thinkers/influencers. ● One team on each different project. Agenda We need to collect the upcoming potential conferences! (Especially in the topic of climate adaptation). Conclusions Participating in conferences is useful for the network, the community, the city and for sharing knowledge. We can offer presentations, host/co-organize workshops/conferences and share our knowledge in a form which is available for everybody. We need to define ourselves in the professional environment, settle what are we asking money for (or other benefits) and what are we willing to pay for. It needs to be a clear decision made by our community.
FRIDAY 13th PLENARY - Plan Placemaking Week 2020 - set the theme of the conference Topics: ● Wrapping up the topics of the previous day ● Group work about climate adaptation ● Wrapping up group work ● Next steps The session started by wrapping up the topics of Thursday afternoon, so everybody could have an insight about the different workshops and sessions that took place the previous day. After the discussion and exchange of knowledge/ideas, the network started discussing the potential themes of Placemaking week Europe 2020. First Vivian Doumpa and Jeroen Laven presented some conclusions derived from PMW 2019, to set the ground for discussion about PMW 2020 and its main theme: placemaking and climate change/climate action. As climate change is a big and crucial topic that is affecting cities and people all around the world, it is important to establish the connection between climate change adaptation and placemaking practices.
There are many subtopics which can be derived from climate change as a theme, the participants were divided into groups to discuss and brainstorm, with the aim of answering the following questions: “What are the main topics of climate change?” and “What knowledge do we have?”, or if we don’t have any knowledge, “Who do we know that has that knowledge??”. While presenting the final conclusions from each group, it was noticeable that we all share common goals. At the same time, many useful contacts were collected, which will be helpful for our work process in the upcoming months.
Groups work ideas
Group 1: Keeping the behavioral change as a cross-cut topic. ● Giving the right example and making it cool. Placemaking as a behavioral change tool. Manifesto/ code of conduct will be used by placemakers ● “I will commit to…changing my behaviors…no plastic, no waste, spreading awareness of my climate change actions, persuading others to make behavioral change, Making visible SDG’s linked What are small actions/, you can take to contribute?
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In the shadow, you can create a set-up to generate major behavior change. A clothing repair shop popup can pave the way to buy less clothes/ take better care = more durable.
Creating actions that point out problems which we can’t solve at the time. Useful contacts SDG Global Actions, SUE Amsterdam (behavior change), Mayor of Tirana, Design for Change community, Lisbeth Iversen (Arendal, Norway), Better Future Factory, Climate Kick, Maieke Schaksen (whataboutclimate.com → collective action), Geoffrey van der Horst (GreenOffice → tactical urbanism), KOD architects (Cornelis), University of Stavanger (Todor), Entrepreneur and solopreneur from Turkey who works on biomaterial
Group 2: Behavior change. What can people change in their daily life? How can we help create the change? ● Education → engage people more in placemaking projects. ○ Make it as fun as possible (games, social activities…) ○ Encourage participation in gardening/planting activities. ○ Increase urban agricultural output while fighting heat island effect. ○ Seasonal placemaking: space changing with the rhythm of seasons. ○ Make air pollution visible to increase awareness ●
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Green buildings and infrastructure initiatives: ○ Certifications like LeeD ○ Green rooftops ○ Clean energy ○ Sponge city ○ Waste management/circular economy Share policies (creative bureaucracy): façade gardens Climate refugees: we must expect growing migratory patterns over the coming years. Tactical interventions and policies around it. Maybe invite big organizations?
Useful contacts ● Superblocks (Barcelona City Hall) ● Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
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Group 3: What is the relation between climate change/climate activation and placemaking? ● Placemaking as a tool to make users feel comfortable in public space. Relation to the environment and climate is vital. For example, the amount of shade in very warm cities is important when it comes to nice public spaces. ● Active citizenship and taking responsibility is another frequently mentioned cluster. Placemaking is a way to activate people, also in the field of climate change. This works both at a micro and macroscale. ● Environmental/social justice. This concept tackles access to sustainable solutions or sustainable resources. Not every city or neighborhood has the same infrastructure or facilities to support a healthy, sustainable life (style). This is a global issue and has to do with how we design our public space. ● The city as part of the ecosystem. This approach works both at a microscale – Sponge City – as well as macroscale. ● Food systems. Does this have to do with larger systems like where do you get your food from? From chain store supermarkets or smaller food markets supporting locally produced foods. Food system scan also is approached from a public space point of view. How can public space function like small scale city farms? ● Resources. What do you consider a resource? ● Organic development/degrowth. Some cities are shrinking. What do you do with the leftover space? ● Nudging. Practice what you preach. How can we nudge people to make better choices related to sustainability? The conference in Valencia is also a tool to raise awareness, for example promoting sustainable travel. What do we already know about climate change/climate activation? How can our own expertise help us further? ● Connecting knowledge of macroscale to microscale. Amir Gohar has a lot of knowledge of environmental processes. His scholarship focuses on finding the appropriate balance between the trends of rapid urbanization and maintaining ecological integrity in both dense cities as well as remote nomadic towns. ● Connecting social to the environment. Nienke Sluimer is now working on climate change adaptation on a small scale. ● Nudging. Anna Sommardal’s knowledge of nudging can help implement placemaking interventions during Valencia. Movements like zero waste may serve as inspiration for sustainable placemaking. For example to encourage people to travel light and by train we can have a clothing library where people can borrow some clothes during the conference.
Develop two lists of nudging interventions, one general and one applicable for Placemaking Week Europe 2020. ● Phone application ‘for good’ ● Bert Determann mentions connecting knowledge, sharing research. Arcadis and Ramon are or should be, connected. ● Vivian Doumpa works with communities and could connect them with a blue economy. ● Charlot Schans is interested in the plants in Valencia. What is the environmental impact of these trees? ● Super practical would be to link the child-friendly practices (city at eye level for kids?) to the adjacent neighborhoods of Valencia, says Hans Karssenberg. Placemaking with kids could help to restore the connection between La Marina and the adjacent neighborhoods. ● Last point: there is a lot of knowledge already available. The key is to connect them to Placemaking Week Europe 2020. For example, invite the people of the green-blue grids book. ● Make the conference sustainable, maybe zero waste → GREENER ● Placemaking as a marketing tool: let's involve bigger companies for bigger actions Group 4: How can we be more inclusive? ● Open up the conference to more people and experts Can we organize a train with conference participants going to Valencia? ● Minimize the human footprint - trigger the sense of responsibility ● Transportation financed by ministries → for Valencia 2020 (Sebastian) How can we empower people to join, and to change their daily routines? ● By triggering a personal relation to the environment where they are living → tactical urbanism ● Small actions can actually do a lot → empowerment ⇒ impactful actions What partners do we approach/want to engage with? Should we be radical? ● Businesses need forums to engage in climate action (Peter) ● Lea ○ Individual scale: empowerment of individuals ○ Macroscale: engage with organizations ○ Partners: Extension Rebellion, Red Cross ● Invite people to the conference that are already dealing with climate change → as speakers to increase their efficacy (Beitske) ⇒ people will be able to see that action is possible Developers → focus on rehabilitation, more sustainable solutions ● Peter:
Private sector: how can it contribute to climate change and placemaking ○ How do we orient ourselves towards them? ○ Developers → “package” of solutions Community making and building through Placemaking → extend to ecological community development! Idea: conscious developer contest? How do we work with existing buildings? ○
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Possible names for PMW 2020: ● Climate Action ● Climate Justice Action ● Get on the train ● Placemaking for Climate Justice Action ● Get on the train? ● Placemaking in a changing climate ● Changing climate making place(s) ● Placemaking versus Climate change Useful contacts ● Transitional urbanism!!! - network (LEA) ○ Montreal and Paris are already doing this (plateau urbain), SNCF Conclusions One of the main tasks for the upcoming weeks is to continue to collect contacts of professionals in the topic of climate and try to reach them. Climate change is a really huge and heavy topic, we need to define how, on what level and to what extent can our activities as a network can be useful. Placemaking can be the most effective in the role of changing behavior and raising awareness in the communities. Next steps Organizing together Final deadline: last week of May
How to get funding Led by Fredrik Lindstål: fredrik@gladstad.se Topics ● Defining the reason - the WHY - of a project ● Budget equity scenarios ○ Private money ○ Private organizations/sponsorships ○ Public money ● Correlations between the time of projects and money ● Create your own income streams ● It helps not to think about money, but think about resources - a bit difficult to evaluate ● Liquidity is a key factor when it comes to placemaking ● Benefit analysis (stakeholder, municipality) → funding This session was led by Fredrik, who highlighted the importance of thinking: “Why am I doing this project?”, and underscored that If you don’t know why you’re doing and why you are invested in a project, it will be difficult to identify and set boundaries. It was noted that the funding of a project will change the scope and path of how the project will progress → answering the question why is a key step towards securing funding. There was a reference to the three budget equity scenarios: ● Private money ● Private organizations/sponsorships ● Public money Fredrik made a correlation between time and money for different projects. When it comes to placemaking projects, the budget is usually higher for projects that are more short-term, whereas long-term projects seem to be cheaper. Afterwards, Fredrik initiated a conversation in the room about how people are working with funding. Lea noted the use of diversified business models as leverage, in order to get specific strategic partners, in addition to the importance of developing specific partnerships that facilitate the purpose of the project.
Another important strategy for securing funding is attracting activities that will bring more money, and creating income streams. Fredrik highlighted that it is helpful to not think about money, but rather think about resources, which is a bit more difficult to evaluate. Additionally, it is important to incorporate time into the business model, and that liquidity is a key factor when it comes to placemaking. Another step towards achieving the goal of a project and executing the tasks properly, is to not focus so much on the result and budget for the whole project, but to create in-between milestones and work on securing funding throughout the whole project. That way of thinking relieves stress and makes placemakers (and project managers) more efficient and productive. Conclusions One important lesson Fredrik wanted to get across to all the placemakers in the room, is that people donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really understand placemaking. Therefore, rather than trying hard to sell the idea and concept/terminology of placemaking, it is more important to sell the actual project. The result, in the end, will be the same, and once the project has been executed, placemaking can be used to describe and define the principles behind it. Using strong imagery for Placemaking will make it
more successful - Fredrik advised us to use jealousy when trying to get funding; people want what other people have. Conducting a benefit analysis (stakeholder, municipality) will help secure funding. It is also helpful when it comes to finding allies because, in the end, chances are that most people are already thinking about what you are trying to execute. High integrity projects should remain so and you should be able to control that to a certain extent. Fredrik advised us to look at existing projects in order to fund new projects. The smaller projects will eventually climb up → think of it as a ladder and ongoing stream. It is important that projects have a good marketing strategy, they need to build a strong brand in order to “seduce” people and make them want to be part of it. This underscores the importance of communication and design, which are very important elements when it comes to the success of projects and their funding. Finally, placemakers should be professional about the time they put into their projects, they should charge for their time, energy and effort. Take away ● Think and define the why behind a project ● Know what is going on - look at similar projects ● Find allies ● Branding and marketing are important ● Respect and value your own work
WORKSHOPS Waterfronts Participants Ramon Marrades Martin Adler Stephania Xydia Fredrik Lindstal Pavlos Georgiadis Amir Gohar Todor Kesarovski Jennifer Heemann Laura Kovàcs
rmarrades@marinavalencia.com economics@atadleradvisory.com stephania.xydia@gmail.com fredrik@gladstad.se pavlos@geopavlos.com amir.gohar@berkeley.edu tkesarovski@gmail.com jenheemann@gmail.com laura.kovacs@stipo.nl
Topics ● What does this methodology mean? ● Context and motivation ● Survey criteria (hard and soft facts) ● Method of analysis ● Timetable for the upcoming months ● Collecting candidates who would help in the elaboration Martin presented the idea of a new methodology which can measure the condition and state of a number of waterfront cities in Europe - the goal is to collaborate with 15-30 waterfronts. We consider it imperative and resourceful to gather and share knowledge of soft concepts and hard facts between waterfronts and their stakeholders. This shared knowledge reinforces best practices and allows to carry out long-term strategies, when the success strongly depends on place and context specifics, as well as the different stakeholders involved and the desired outcome. Applying this methodology is useful when examining the possible futures of a waterfront, and deciding on a development strategy. Similarly this data can be used very effectively in communication with citizens and decision makers as well. This workshop was aiming to find experts, leaders and other individuals to help Martin and Ramon to develop and reinforce this methodology. Pavlos and Todor were absolutely enthusiastic (maybe Amir?) in this topic. Context and motivation ● Waterfronts are top assets of cities ● Similarities in historical and physical properties ● Heterodox development positions and strategies ● Traditional concepts vs. emerging soft concepts (Urban Renewal, Innovation District, Co-creation CityLab’s, Livable City, Sustainable City Smart City, AIVP 2030, Ecosystem services)
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Missing compendium of hard facts (there is no database, source about the waterfronts of Europe (how much money do they spend on it, what are their functions, etc.…
Aims and ambitions ● Setup, compile and analyze key attributes relating to international waterfront position, concept and strategies ● Hard and soft facts of waterfronts along 5 dimensions What is a waterfront? ● Seasides and rivers of any size ● Focus on actively-managed waterfronts Method of analysis The evaluation of the waterfronts is done through five dimensions. These have been determined based on soft concepts and hard facts that characterize waterfronts. The project evaluation methodology is incorporates the 10 AIVP Agenda 2030 goals and connected to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), responding to the holistic approach that is needed for the sustainable and resilient development of waterfronts. The five dimensions are: The Five Waterfront Dimensions 1. Economics and management a. Revenues, expenditures and investments b. Management strategy, renewed governance and tourism (AIVP goal 4) c. Human capital and stakeholders (AIVP goal 5) 2. Culture, identity, place a. Waterfront culture, architecture and heritage (AIVP goal 6) b. Waterfront interface (AIVP goal 8) c. Placemaking and identity 3. Accessibility, mobility and smart neighborhoods a. Sustainable mobility (AIVP goal 3) b. Mobility c. Smart neighborhoods and digitalization 4. Sustainability and resilience a. Climate-change adaptation (AIVP goal 1) b. Energy transition & circular economy (AIVP goal 2) c. Protecting biodiversity (AIVP goal 10) 5. Innovation a. Smart neighborhoods & digitalization b. Living-labs & fab-labs c. Innovation districts 6. Livability a. Quality food for all (AIVP goal 7)
b. Health & life quality (AIVP goal 9) c. Living-labs, Fab-labs Method of analysis: ● Objective design: expert input, partner guidance and network involvement ● Expertzation survey agenda ● Local network interview ● Double-blind soft facts evaluation ● Concept visualization ● Comparative index top 5 waterfronts by the concept and overall ● Economic and social impact assessment concept
Goal: Figure out how to create an assessment methodology that is able to measure the strengths and weaknesses of a waterfront area. Creating these assessment methodologies will allow cities/areas to identify best practices and solutions depending on their state of development, and create the necessary marketing and development strategy. Visual representation!!
Next steps Sept. 2019: brainstorming at placemaking leaders + setup waterfront partners Oct. 2019: call and application for participation Nov. 2019: interactive framework finalization Dec. 2019: Data collection Mar. 2020: First results Apr. 2020: Final results, web-platform. AVIP congress and workshop
Communication, publications, website Participants: Luisa Bravo Beitske Boonstra Youp Van Der Weijde Giulia Gualtieri Konstantina Vidou Jeroen Laven Laska Nenova Tuğçe Akbulut
president@cityspacearchitecture.org beitske.boonstra@ugent.be youp@van-der-weijde.nl giulia.gualtieri6@gmail.com konstantina.vidou@stipo.nl jeroen.laven@stipo.nl laska.nenova@gmail.com start@crosschange.co
Topics ● Website ● Journal of public space ● There are partners that we can team up with ● There are people in the network that feel connected to the mission and the network that’d like to know what is happening ● Working together with partners for whom we are interesting (2) ● Opportunities of existing media that we have (1) This session started with Luisa introducing the journal of public space and their work (https://www.journalpublicspace.org/index.php/jps), which started in 2016 in partnership with UN habitat. People around the world were producing different research, but very relevant to the use of public space. As a journal, they are looking to accommodate different kinds of content in their issues. Their target group for readers is mostly policymakers, influential advisors for the implementation of policies, and generally people that have relevance and understand the importance of public space. They are aiming to have a journal that will have an impact on the production and amelioration of public space (Public-Private sector partnerships). Their goal is the engagement of placemakers in delivering contents on how to design and manage public space, how to make it livable with the engagement of local communities and any other activities related to the every-day life of public space. The aim is to enable and encourage more people, and establish a new section of the journal entirely dedicated to placemaking. The role of Placemaking Europe is to provide a group of people or individuals serving as section editors so that they can invite professionals, policymakers, artists, etc. to write papers for these sections: ● 2.000-3.000 thousand words with pictures ● Projects and initiatives, collaborations, outcomes, failures ● How can we achieve good public spaces ● In charge of dealing with these contents ● Inviting, selecting, reviewing authors and sending the final papers to the production
Independent section managed by placemakers ● Editorial team: scientific board, strategic advisory board, advisory board: research into action ● How can we make this work? ● The journal should serve as a gateway to external target groups ● Issue: Art and activism in public space → invite these people to work with them (now 2nd issue) ● Entrepreneurial city (another issue) → collecting papers from universities ● Use the journal to expand and change the way people think about public spaces. Use the journal as a means to find out who is working on what, who is producing public space, and what the essence of public space is. The journal should highlight the process of making public space, keeping public space public, and maintaining it in good condition ● UN habitat helps build the journal so that they can reach different locations and countries ○ 10th urban forum in Abu Dhabi - public space in cities ● Special issue related to Arabic cities - humanizing cities Organizations that we want to communicate with as PM Europe: ● Isocarp: Nairobi assembly - new board, presidents and new directions for the coming period ● Journal of public space ● Local journals ● Groups of activists ● Books ● Website ● B corp - bigger companies connecting to societies ● UN/EU ● ICLEI: network of locals (Beitske and Sebastian) ● Aesop (academic) ● Elementary and high schools ● Placemaking Pils ● Influencers (use Instagram, Twitter etc.) → share best practices or just needs ● Provide texts in the newsletters ● Communicate more about placemaking week Target groups: ● Local leaders ● Academics ● Young Changemakers Internal process: ● Website: people with a profile can update their information
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Communicate to workshops and sub-thematic networks to actually use the website Instagram (younger and agile communication platforms such as Instagram to take attention of young changemakers. Using more visual oriented communication approach Collaborating local enterprises for communication such as activist journalists, small disruptive communication agencies, and young storytellers. Newsletter - get into the newsletters of others Add a section: define which things are placemaking but people don’t know Open call: sharing stories - question of ownership ⇒ Invitation about sharing stories is not clear enough!!!! (a bit too open) (Instead of asking “stories”, ask for input on specific topics, giving to every month a specific concept/topic.
Conclusions This session was particularly constructive for ameliorating and enhancing the communication strategy of Placemaking Europe. The importance of broadening the network’s target group was highlighted, in addition to the necessity of making the network’s materials and products more broadly available. More target groups should be included as an audience of the newsletter, both for content but also for increasing knowledge and the growth of the network. The website has been developed, but is in need of some adjustments, in order to give people more access to leaders’ profiles, projects, tools, manuals and activities. This is linked with the overall need of media training and better storytelling skills, in order to enhance the digital presence of the network. The network’s collaboration can be strengthened through events and rituals, which also creates an opportunity for collateral events that can serve the purpose of ameliorating communication and spreading the knowledge Next steps ● Potential engagement of placemakers in the editorial team - section about placemaking in the journal of public space → Beitske and Luisa => Exchange information and get in touch regarding the section on placemaking in the journal of public space ● Contacts to include academics & students, forming the right questions -> Beitske → Call for papers in the newsletter/website ● Think about how to get academics into the PMW and into the conference > Beitske ● Develop podcasts - find a PM in your country, interview, record, publish → recruiting international stories -> Tugce, Giulia ● Connect with an international blog - Giulia (Huasipichanga) ● Collaborating with existing creative communities to spread our approach, reach out to changemakers and find collaboration opportunities. Curious community network: CCRotterdam [global movement], every month has its
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own topic - one country makes a poster - collective content - website Instagram → Tuğçe Using more creative and interesting methods for reporting (Tuğçe (Cross Change) is working on a “Graphic Reporting” which is a report of a project they collaborated with GIZ (German Development Agency) and will launch it soon. It may be an example to think of in collaboration with local illustrators (Inviting them to the events and asking them for graphic outcomes) Creating visual connections with SDGs to make Placemaking Movement part of bigger, accountable movement and underline the impact it can generate. Contact Bourgdag.nl → Youp Van Der Weijde
Culture Participants Vivian Doumpa Julia Pineda Renée Rooijmans Nady Nassar Ljubo Georgiev Bert Determann Jeroen de Leeuw Tiago Mota Saraiva Anna Sommardal
vivan.doumpa@stipo.nl territori@crearqcio.com renee.rooijmans@stipo.nl nady.nassar@stipo.nl info@ljubogeorgiev.eu deter046@planet.nl jeroen.deleeuw@theaterrotterdam.nl tiagoms2@gmail.com annasommardal@hotmail.com
Topics Culture and place: ● Space/location with a cognitive significance ● Community-based, with its own identity ● Reuse of space and flexible purpose ● Prone to artistic expression and interaction There is a link between place (location) and its cultural narrative (or history). However, the wording of “culture” can be subject to confusion. One must differentiate between “culture” as access to arts and literature and “culture” as social and behavioral norms or habits. Which is why culture could be locationbased (as representative of local traditions) or people-based (and thus not strictly limited to geographical location or boundaries). Placemaking enhances social bonding organically and spontaneously. It gives an increased sense of belonging and identity when good-quality public space attracts people and makes them interact. Mental mapping adds an extra layer for people to recognize themselves in the place and better relate to their experiences. The place becomes part of their identity. Which is why local people are in the best position to influence positive change. They not only are those who understand the place the most, but also those who are prone to a personal and emotional attachment. One must also note that places can also be the theatre of competing cultures, especially in today’s world of globalization and acculturation. Take away ● Placemaking as a tool to bring people -and by extension cultures, together. Potentially for conflict management. ● Important role of educational l institutions: ○ Educating locals for place appreciation.
Involvement in physical interventions, especially neighborhoods. Need of new tools and templates to help placemakers. ○
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Next steps - For the possible event in évora next year, we work together with Re:Kreators - Plan for this subgroup to be made coming weeks
Place-led Participants Gido ten Dolle Hans Karssenberg Cornelis Uittenbogaard Daniel Radai Charlot Schans Bart Cardinaal Elise Perrault Peter Williams Lea Massare Di Duca Lisa Heyman
gtdolle@delft.nl hans.karssenberg@stipo.nl cornelis.uittenbogaard@tryggaresverige.org radaid@gmail.com charlot.schans@stipo.nl info@hunkdesign.com ep@futureplaceleadership.com peter.williams@themeans.co.uk lea@wideopenproject.com lisa.heyman@stipo.nl
Topics â&#x2014;? Development failures â&#x2014;? Systems or external factors working against the progress of placemakers â&#x2014;? Including developers in the world of placemaking The work session place-led development was led by Hans Karssenberg, who started the session with the timing placemakers are approached, in order to intervene in an area. This either happens at the beginning, because the area is lifeless and not working, or in the end, when the newly developed area is not as attractive as it seemed on the drawing table. The participants shared their example of ultimate development failures. A development failure is recognized by the false claim that it will create employment, when it will actually destroy an already existing market. Beautiful natural features become underutilized, because the wind interrupts regular recreational activities, for example near the waterfront. Another classic example is that the entire vibrant characteristic gets killed by the monotonous features of the development. Such sites are, respectively, Europa City near Paris, the Piet Heinkade in Amsterdam, and the Vaci ut Budapest office corridors in Budapest and the Vauxhall nine elms in London. The main themes within this department link to real estate development and lay the foundation throughout urban development. Using the terminology of Placemaking Europe: municipalities spent largely on hardware (landscape architects), but forget about the software (the people that make use of the city every day) and the orgware (the processes that underpin city spaces, such as maintenance). Besides these particular investments of the municipalities, there must be other factors that work against placemakers. The participants gathered in couples and came up with this scheme visualizing which systems might push back.
Developers/ client - The area price (/m²) will change, but they still need to be convinced. - Short term orientation. - Thinking about safety in the wrong way. “Nice places will attract the wrong type of people (drunks).” - Nobody is responsible for a place. There is no multidisciplinary, common value of what a good place is (non-collective decision making). - Standardization of building material, prefabricated materials. Designers - Consultants are afraid to take risks. - Placemaking is not included in the education. - Status wanted to obtain in the area (large lobby in an office building). Municipalities - Inappropriate design directions. - TOO many rules. Regulatory hurdles. Not getting things done. - Nobody is responsible for a place. There is no multidisciplinary, common value of what a good place is (non-collective decision making). Maybe we should start by creating a manifesto together before Placemaking Week Europe 2020 and use it as a “Collective definition of a good place”. - Public space is not represented properly. Who navigates the imbalance between private and public interest? Placemakers: - They are bad at making money. They cannot convince the developers to invest the money. - They blame others. From these push backs, combined with the underlying message from best practice city, a strategy to invest in place-led development environment could be uncovered. Take away ● Get one “early adopter” of a specific sector to introduce the topic of including placemakers in the whole process. ● It is necessary to get at least 40 developers on board to attend the Placemaking Week 2020. ● Delft, Nantes, Utrecht, Brussels, Molenbeek and Grand Synthe are examples of best practice cities. Next steps ● Make links with the early adopters in each sector and start approaching the right network. ● Comment under Facebook posts to engage the whole network. ● Get cities on board with low satisfaction ratings of the citizens (such as Paris, Montréal, Grand Voisins)
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They can propose their problem and then they will get lots of input from all placemakers.
Specific steps assigned to participants Who can you approach, what will you do as preparation for Valencia? Bart wants to become a developer himself and showcase the right example. The hard part is to find a location. “How to become a millionaire with placemaking” is his contribution to Valencia. Creating full-time work for placemakers, raising ambition. Charlot finds that the demand (tenders) should be formulated better. She will find these cities and get them to come in order to showcase the early adaptors/ best practices of cities that have this framework. Gido will see through if the new procurement leads to actual better places. He will tag the universities along: give them prepositions. His idea is to include plenty of new developers from bouwkunde (architecture and the built environment) studies in the Netherlands. Peter indicated to get the city of London to Valencia. Specific academic categories, such as Academia of urbanism. His idea is to host and exchange; pair twelve people up with PE members (model). Daniel will see over the whole process of Isocarp from within. He will interact with real estate developers in Budapest and figure out how they will come to Valencia? Lea came up with a collaboration with Biernace, who created a map of 6,000 places, resulting in a pretty large database. Within this common database to share it might be possible to sell the idea of placemaking. Making use of good examples of municipalities will make them listen and maybe result in a connection between municipalities. Find a link to rebel/illegal cities and take best practices out of this. Cornelis would like to collaborate. He has seen the interest for place-led development and BID-organization in Sweden. In spring they had sent out a survey to understand the state of affairs regarding BID- projects. Elise will contact Atrium ljungberg Hans thinks that crowdsourcing will be a big help. With one question each week in the Facebook chat gain a clearer view of the network. Examples of these include: “Give the worst example of a place you now” “give a good example of pioneer engineers/ city”.
SATURDAY 14th PLENARY - wrapping up the previous days - develop a clear common agenda for each discussed topic This last activity had briefly started on Friday afternoon by brainstorming about a few additional themes, not discussed yet. ● What does it mean to be a member of Placemaking Europe Network? ● What does it mean to be a leader? ● What are the services we provide? ● How could we work together as a tactical organization? ● How to make Valencia 2020 the best placemaking week so far? ● What should we say no to as a network? On Saturday, during the final plenary session a more detailed agenda of each theme has been developed.
What does it mean to be a member of Placemaking Europe Network?
This topic is about the formal organization of the network. The main conclusion is that we are doing a lot of things right. We have a board, we have leaders, clients, sponsors. What we lack is a clear structure (what is placemaking Europe?) and figured we need a secretariat, preferably two secretaries. The network has to define what it means to be a leader, but also what it means to be a member.
What does it mean to be a leader? Three main categories. Geographical, topic, target group. Keywords used are catalyst, for example shared force. ● ● ●
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Formalize what it means to be a leader. What do we expect from ourselves, what are we supposed to do? Once we have a clear definition, we should work on professionalizing or entitlement. At this stage, we are more or less self-proclaimed ‘placemakers’. The next step is spreading the word. We are ready to let the network grow and be recognized. At the same time, it is nice to return to our community every now and then. We can inspire each other, by sitting in a bar and talking. A lot of people do the same things, we facilitate the local stories. Promoting ourselves, our conference, Valencia. A clear online platform is needed for this. Make sure you are known in your own country, know who other important players are, enhance those people and inform them about what you are doing and the Placemaking Week Europe 2020.
Conclusions and next steps Our Placemaking Europe Network is made up of leaders, even though we don’t know exactly what it means to be a leader. A next step in organizing ourselves is to come up with formal definitions and maybe even obligations to leadership. Once we know who can be a leader in the Network, and who not, we are even better anchored as placemakers and can start spreading the word. The most important following steps include formalizing our own code of conduct, agree on formal definitions and agreements, figure the status of our own leadership, designate the leaders, promote what they do and finally, organize a Leaders Event for next year.
Code of conduct What is the main thing that you want to add to the code of conduct? A round of suggestions gave the following input: ● Personal connections. Try to meet each other more often. ● Anytime you come across two options, choose the most organized one. Make it simple. Go the structured way. ● Positivity, respect each other's views. ● Seek knowledge around. ● Share knowledge, make it available. The main thing of the network is sharing knowledge, being honest, fighting the system of competition. You want to understand how to do things. Open-source. ● Obligations. Define obligations. What do you want to be in the coming years? Contributions. Internal obligations. Obligation for contribution. ● Internal collaboration. ● Bilateral relations. Approachable. How we can be more confident to approach people, or maybe stay very approachable as leaders. Being vulnerable. ● Be fair to who we are. Don’t overestimate ourselves. ● Be playful/creative. With a human factor. ● Stay curious/be a searcher for other people. Be interested, search for people. Connect. Map. Find people. Be a connector. ● Ensure possibilities to work together/some kind of mentor in the country. Be engaging. ● Keep inspiring as much as possible. ● Consolidate the network and institutionalize it. Build a database that could be de aggregate that we add over time. ● Stay nice. ● Report about our actions.
What are the services we provide? This topic is about what we can make use of, about creating a business model and about how we present our network. The main topics discussed are communication and education.
Communication ● Website ○ The menu on the website needs some attention. There are several things to add, such as a chapter ‘funding’, ‘collaborative projects’, ‘startups’ and ‘placemakers in residence’.
We should use the homepage of the website together. Use the website as a shared platform. We need some kind of communication rules or kit for Placemaking Europe. This should not only be the website but all channels through which we communicate. This could be a great tool that can be used when different members/leaders are presenting the network on different events and conferences. . ○
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Education ● Training with local leaders ● Education on tactical urbanism for instance ● Mentor Programs Other services ● Quick scans of placemaking opportunities for cities’ authorities Conclusion and next steps To figure out what services we offer, we grow stronger as a network and develop ourselves further. It could also be a way to develop a business model. Therefore it is important to discover what services we already have, and what more the network could offer. The first step could be matching people with certain tasks, through an open call.
How could we work together as a tactical organization? Tactical is about real moments of doing things together, taking action, creating impact. First of all, we should gather a Tactical Team of leaders and have a clear definition of tactical urbanism. We figured the Tooltest Days will be an important moment. One tool will be tested in several cities at the same time. On January the 19th we will organize a placemaking intervention based on lighting the dark. It is a collective action, showing how we, as a network, can all reinforce the same project/tool, without being in the same city. Park[ing] day is an important tactical urbanism tool as well.
We shall focus right away on measuring the impact. However, not by doing extensive research, but by showing what we did. Pictures, quotes, telling the story. We want to work towards more extensive research, done by a team of students/professors that add the theoretical framework to our work, and measure the impact properly. Another topic to further improve our tactical urbanism practices is visibility. Maybe by using the same placemaking plant for all of our tactical placemaking interventions. Trainings. How to practice tactical urbanism? Teach governments and citizens. Maybe also write a book: the European tactical urbanism guide. What is tactical
urbanism and what does it look like? Also, teach in legal/illegality → map which projects are legal and which are not. There are different outcomes in different cities so the easiest way is to map them. How to communicate what we are doing? How to communicate what is happening all over the world? Maybe a press release from the Placemaking Europe Network would be an appropriate way to gather and communicate all of our activities. Through which channels do we want to communicate? Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, website etc. For each channel, we need a manual/kit/format. How to strategize that things are communicated the same way. Suggestions: ● Map the things that are already happening (communication), maybe using systems like https://graphcommons.com/ ● Call for research team (impact) ● Call for climate tools (Valencia) Conclusions and next steps A great way to take action and create an impact is to just do, by small tactical placemaking. However, the aim is to make use of this even further. Therefore we need a team of leaders, a clear definition of tactical, a research team, a communication strategy, products and services, better visibility and tools to practice that relate to climate change (Valencia).
How to make Valencia 2020 the best Placemaking Week Europe so far? Potential themes for Valencia 2020 could be safety, waterfronts, and inclusiveness. Before October, all the formal stuff and paperwork need to be done. In October, there is a call for proposals. We will use the power of the Placemaking Europe network members to make the themes we will work on as focused as possible, maybe via a survey. We have to approach other networks to make Placemaking Week Europe a more inclusive and bigger event. Also, we have to promote Placemaking Week Europe in our own circles/networks and countries. Make sure everyone who could be interested, is aware of this event. By the end of this year, we will have formulated the main topics, have gotten other networks onboard and gathered a lot of proposals.
As mentioned earlier, we should work on a better communication strategy. Maybe a template/kit, so that we all communicate in the same way through the same channels. Safety, waterfronts, more inclusive.
Community in Valencia â&#x2014;? More local networks, more local leaders for the call for proposals. Try to connect with Spanish speakers for the local public. Communication should not only be done online, we should make use of posters on the streets. Schedule with open activities in Spanish. â&#x2014;? If we want to think big, act with transformations going on. Maybe working with local architecture schools. Working with other institutions. In the long term, what are we offering them? What outcomes are we going to leave behind? Not the festival idea, but making a real difference. Conclusions and next steps The first steps to make Valencia 2020 the best placemaking week so far is making sure all the formal paperwork has been done, and to get a lot of proposals in October. Thereafter we can set the themes for Placemaking Week Europe. We have to try to involve as many people as possible: everyone in our own network, people that might be interested, other networks and organizations, and also the local community and organizations in Valencia. A better communication strategy can also help us spread the word.
What should we say no to as a network? ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Give too many free services/work for free Too many meetings Uniformize (kill our inner diversity) Don’t exclude things that are placemaking but we don’t call it placemaking (e.g.: neighbor day) Professional prejudice Talk without commitment action Raise expectations without commitment - insurance Compete against each other Be elitist We should not exclude Try to solve every single problem cities are facing Replicate cultural economic divides among members Promise too much Force ourselves to make every session very creative and innovative More complicated than it already is Try to cover all topics under Climate Change topic Contribute to actors whose goal is fast gentrification Serve pre-election public relations Fall in the trap of PR agencies, seeking “guerilla marketing” ideas
Conclusions From the comments we can draw that for our community it’s important to define our own value, but not to expect more from ourselves than we are capable of. So we can prevent to tell things which aren’t followed by commitment and to lose our credibility.