Placemaking: The Four Types

In our previous article, We discussed the origin and evolution of Placemaking in a theoretical aspect. Today we are going to look at four different ways of placemaking happens in real-world scenarios related to urban development. The author was inspired by an article on “ Planning & Zoning News ” by Mark A. Wyckoff while searching for a way to differentiate placemaking into categories for better understanding.

This breaks down mainly tethered to entities like community development, economic development, and infrastructure development. In this article, we narrow down our scope to places with a strong sense of place. Places created for human needs bearing said quality are often active, interesting, and visually attractive. In many cases they are intertwined activates in such places. These vivid places are people friendly, safe, and catalyzed with mixed-use. If you are a designer yourselves this knowledge can be used quite effectively.

Standard Placemaking

“ Standard placemaking is the process of creating quality places that people want to live, work and play and learn in. ”

Wyckoff, 2014

Strategic Placemaking

“ Strategic placemaking is the target to achieve a particular goal in addition to creating quality places. It aims to create quality places that are uniquely attractive to talented workers so that they want to be there and live there. ”

Wyckoff, 2014

Creative Placemaking

“ In creative placemaking partners from public, private, non-profit and community sectors strategically shape the physical and social character of a neighborhood, town, city or region around arts and cultural activities. Creative placemaking animates public and private spaces, rejuvenates structures and streetscapes improves local business viability and public safety. ”

Wyckoff, 2014

Tactical Placemaking

“ Tactical placemaking is the process of creating quality places that uses a deliberate, often phased approach to change that begins with a short term commitment and realistic expectations that can start quickly. ”

Wyckoff, 2014

The following illustration sheds more light and shows how these different approaches fit together in creating an ideal neighborhood.

The author hopes that this article has provided a vivid approach to understand placemaking in a more analytical and scientific way. As always the comment section is open to start up a discussion and share your knowledge among other readers.

Reference

• Wyckoff, M. A. (2014). Definition of placemaking: four different types. Planning & Zoning News, 32(3), 1.