What if we built our cities around places? Place-making inspires people to collectively reimagine and reinvent public spaces as the heart of every community. Strengthening the connection between people and the places they share, place-making refers to a collaborative process by which we can shape our public realm in order to maximize shared value. More than just promoting better urban design, place-making facilitates creative patterns of use, paying particular attention to the physical, cultural, and social identities that define a place and support its ongoing evolution.

The Place-Making Process

“Place-making is both a philosophy and a practical process for transforming public spaces. It is centered on observing, listening to, and asking questions of the people who live, work, and play in a particular space in order to understand their needs and aspirations for that space and for their community as a whole.”

For more information on the process, check out 5 Steps To Making Places from Projects for Public Spaces. A great example of the power of iteration and the use of short term experiments to share a vision for a space can be seen in this video by Better Block.