Place and place making

Introduction

The idea of place in architectural studies involves creating designs that can relate to people’s needs. These designs and structures create a bond with people and they are meaningful in their day to day activities. The fact that people find the structures useful and appealing evokes a sense of place in them. When designers and architects consider creating or redesigning structures to make them habitable, lovable and useful for the communities that use them, it is considered place making. This paper seeks to offer a background of the concept of place. It also presents examples of place making that have been successful as well as provide insight for designers and architects on the place making concept.

Background of place and place making

People often relate to the idea of place in terms of a settled community or home. The definition of the home lies in its cultural traditional underpinnings and its physical environment. The construction of a place may be accomplished through imagined worlds but the major inspiration for place construction is the everyday practices and actions (Markusen and Gadwa 2010). A place is complex and it is created on a need basis. People require to have well organized, poetic and symbolic places. These places communicate about their historical traditions, aspirations and the symbols in the place communicate the people’s identity (Casey 2009).

Place making is an ancient endeavor which is rooted in the 1960s works of Jane Jacobs and William H. Whyte (Hirt and Zahm 2012). They provided a critical analysis about public spaces to focus on peoples relationships to the places beside the traditional focus on design. They strongly advocated for the creation of vibrant public spaces and neighborhoods that attracted people. Cities require public spaces that are attractive. The attractiveness is defined by how convenient it is to get to, security, how active they are as major business attraction feature and user friendliness (McDonough and Braungart 2002).

Place making is an activity that is important for humans and a theory about the world. As a theory, place making attests that people desire living in admirable places and that they cherish the places they live in. People are interested in living in places that are lovable with healthy working environment, for building community and a conducive environment for raising their families (Menin 2010). The other belief in place making theory is that people value being able to work purposefully and competently on their places either individually or communally. The third place making theory belief sees people in places as the units of analysis. It is the belief that is focused on creating relationships of people to place and people to people in a particular community (Swaffield 2011).

Place making is the set of agreed skills and insights that are important to designers and planners work. They are geared towards accommodating people’s needs while creating beautiful places to improve their needs. The designers and planners share a code of conduct that forms the basis of their responsibility to clients and the places that they create as well as abiding by their professional guidelines. The theory places emphasis on the relationship between the people and the places they live in (Angotti, Doble and Horrigan 2012).

Place-making refers to the culmination of sociopolitical and material processes used by people to recreate the geographies of the places where they live (Pierce, Martin and Murphy 2010). A place making strategy allows local residents in a place to give their opinions about a potential development and this way, the people voice shape the development. Place making allows for creation of architectural designs that are practical and not just mere pretty public spaces (Saltwater Connections 2011).

Place making emerged to respond to poorly designed public places. The public places were unattractive, uninviting and unsafe. The idea gave rise to the Project for Public Places in 1975. The Organization advised the Rockefeller Centre on improving its public spaces as a way to attract people to it. Place making serves as a strategic approach that integrates the social environmental and economic aspects to inspire and welcome communities to strengthen their economies (McDonough and Braungart 2002). It engages the community, urban design, the cultural underpinnings, and the economic developmental aspects to create places with an overall feel and a practical outlook for both small and large retail, residential and commercial projects (Florida 2002).

Examples of successful place making

There are several example of how a sense of place has been achieved in northwest Lower Michigan as defined by the place making principles espoused by the project for public spaces. One of them is the Breezeway. These areas local leaders identified the assets of the community and suggested ways to celebrate them while attracting visitors and to boost the community’s sense of pride. The place making strategy focused on the community’s agro-tourism where the road stretch was branded. It was branded to allow people travelling to stop by the small towns and visit the local attractions. The Calm River Greenway was the other project which was built a segment by segment and took over ten years before completion. The citizens were interested in making the clam river into an attractive and walk-able green and blue space. The green way is now paved with board walks and natural area that is 2 miles long, with a width of ten-foot across the city. It is connects Keith McKellop Walkway and the sporting complex at the north end. This presents great aesthetic value for the town and serves as a major attractor to the city (Northwest Michigan Coucil of Governments 2011).

Another one of Michigan’s place making successes was the village at grand traverse commons. The village was developed by the Minervini group and the grand traverse commons redevelopment corporation. It has buzzes with activity which creates an alluring vibe and which gives it the sense of being a place (Michigan Association of Realtors 2012). The village was remodeled out of a 480 acres land on which the Traverse City Regional hospital stood and was closed in 1989. It has now been developed into an area with residential, retail and offices. It houses unique shops, eating joints, professional services and it also hosts other businesses such as concerts, artist markets, concerts and farmers market. The project’s success lies in the principle of putting people first. The project capitalized on providing spaces and services to promote interaction among people. The village has been designed to accommodate social gatherings and the different interests that people have which is a community oriented perspective (Northwest Michigan Coucil of Governments 2011)

The New York Square is another successful place making project. The project was aimed at closing the square to cars and transform it to a greener and to allow more pedestrians to use the sidewalks and enjoy the city’s view. The 42^nd and 47^th streets were closed to cars beginning 2009 and the project was deemed successful. People are now able to enjoy sitting on lawn chairs and tables. Additional beauty has been made possible through erection of pot plants on the pedestrian malls to allow those interested to stop by and enjoy the view of the city’s beauty. It has restored calm into a previously chaotic city. The inspiration for the redevelopment was drawn from the Copenhagen city center and Jan Gehi which informed the project. This was an excellent initiative to reduce traffic in the city (Place Partnership 2011).

Conclusion

When place making is done appropriately, it generates neighborhoods that are desirable. Neighborhoods with walkable spaces are known to invite residential and commercial activity. Walkways erected with historical statues generate high pedestrian traffic and this is a boost for business enterprises around the such statues (Public Policy Associates, Inc. 2008).The essence of effective place making is to allow people to experience the connection while engaging in their work, shopping or other activities. These are the places that people care about and attract more people to enjoy the surrounding and connect with each other (Cosky 2013).

Designers are required to put place making principles into consideration while creating public spaces. The streets must be designed to accommodate people’s needs such as stopping points with chairs and tables, minimizing traffic, attraction amenities such as artistic shops an sceneries, beautiful retail shops and complexes. All these considerations are not dependent on the designs but people’s preferences. People love to be in livable and lovable places and designers must always consider the economic, social and cultural concepts of human activity while creating the designs.

Bibliography

Angotti, Thomas, Cheryl S. Doble, and Paula Horrigan, . Service-learning in design and Planning: Educating at the Boundaries. New Village Press, 2012.

Casey, Edward. The Fate of Place: A Philosophical History. Califonia: University of Califonia Press, 2009.

Cosky, Eli. “Placemaking blog series: The economic benefits of great public palces.” Metroplotan Planning Council. January 11, 2013. http://metroplanning.org/news-events/blog-post/6613 (accessed mAY 15, 2013).

Florida, Richard. The Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Basic Books, 2002.

Hirt, Sonia, and Diane Zahm. The Urban Wisdom of Jane Jacobs. New York: Routledge, 2012.

Markusen, Ann, and Anne Gadwa. “Creative Placemaking.” National Endowment for the Arts, 2010: 1-69.

McDonough, William, and Michael Braungart. Cradle to Cradle: remarking the Way we Make Things. Virginia: North Point Press, 2002.

Menin, Sarah. Constructing Place: Mind and the Matter of Place-Making. New York: Routledge, 2010.

Michigan Association of Realtors. “Realtors Help Shape Michigan’s future Through Placemaking.” Michigan Association of Realtors. April 30, 2012. http://www.mirealtors.com/content/News.htm?view=3&news_id=269&news=1,2 (accessed May 15, 2013).

Northwest Michigan Coucil of Governments. Northern Michigan Community Placemaking Guidebook: Creating Vibrant Places in North West Lower Michigan. Michigan: Northwest Michigan Coucil of Governments, 2011.

Pierce, Joseph, Deborah G Martin, and James T. Murphy. Relational Place-making: the Networked Politics of Place. Worcester: Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, 2010.

Place Partnership. “International Case Study New York.” Place Partnership Place Making Consultancy. 2011. http://www.placepartners.com.au/international-case-study-new-york (accessed May 15, 2013).

Public Policy Associates, Inc. “Cool Cities survey Report.” Public Policy Associates, Inc, 2008: 44-60.

Saltwater Connections. “What Worksin Cities; Why Placemaking requires Passion even more that Big Budgets.” Salt Water Connections. October 30, 2011. http://saltwaterconnections.org/2011/10/30/what-works-in-cities-why-placemaking-requires-passion-even-more-than-big-budgets/ (accessed May 15, 2013).

Swaffield, Simon. Theory in Landscape. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.