Welcome! This is a very quick introduction to creating great places and neighbourhoods, based on the ideas and process called 'placemaking', including:

• An overview of what placemaking is and is not
• The benefits it can provide
• A few examples of what it can look like

Do you have a favourite place?

Hopefully you do.

Where is it? What do you like? How does it make you feel?

If you would like to, tell us about it or share a picture in the Comments section at the bottom of the page. If you don't have a favourite place yet, think about what a place would need for you to love it. 

The Dalyellup Big Chair was created to bring colour and fun to a quieter shopping area in this small town in Western Australia. The oversized beach chair was made by local people and painted in bright rainbow pride colours to encourage locals and tourists to sit, gather, and connect. The project was led by the Dalyellup Collective Town Team, Dalyellup Seasons Shed and RAC.

What is placemaking?

Every place is different, but there are some important common ingredients for creating a great public space. Project for Public Spaces (PPS) began consistently using the term 'placemaking' in the mid-1990s to describe its innovative people-and-place-based approach. It was informed by the work of placemaking pioneers like Jane Jacobs and William H. Whyte, who re-introduced ground-breaking, but commonsense, ideas on the social, economic and cultural importance of lively and active neighborhoods and inviting public spaces.

In evaluating thousands of public spaces around the world, PPS found that to be successful, they generally share the following four qualities:

1. they are accessible
2. people are engaged in activities there
3. the space is comfortable and has a good image;
4. and finally, it is a sociable place: one where people meet each other and take people when they come to visit.

This is an excellent start, but one thing we would add to this list is people who care for and look after the space. This could range from informal care, like picking up a piece of rubbish, or professional care like place management, cleaning, maintenance etc. Even the most beautiful and well designed space soon feels neglected if people don't care for it.

The graphic below shows some of the important ingredients of great places, as judged by everyday people all around the world.

The best judges of public spaces

Children and women are more selective and discerning users of public spaces. They are very good judges of whether a space is safe, comfortable, useful and sociable. If the design, feeling of the space and activities are right for them, chances are that the public space will be popular.

Children and women are the most discerning users of public spaces. This pop-up playground in Launceston, Tasmania is a buzz of activity, because it is safe, welcoming, interesting and sociable.

Placemaking is both a mindset and an iterative, collaborative process for creating public spaces that people love and feel connected to. It is a growing global movement that aims to improve not only the physical elements of a space, but also the way people think and feel about the world around them.

What placemaking is and is not

"As both an overarching idea and a hands-on approach for improving a neighborhood, city, or region, placemaking inspires people to collectively reimagine and reinvent public spaces as the heart of every community. ... (It's) more than just promoting better urban design."

Project for Public Spaces

When you look around, there are so many streets, public spaces, neighbourhoods and even whole cities that seem to be anti-social, where people do not feel welcome, comfortable, safe or included.

The two most important problems that placemaking works on are:

1. Streets and public spaces that are unsafe, unsociable, uncomfortable, inaccessible, bad for local businesses, unsustainable or car-dominated.
2. Cities, towns and neighbourhoods that are disconnected, lonely, car-dominated, unsafe, unhealthy, unsustainable or where people feel disempowered.

Focus on what is really important

One of the most famous observations in placemaking, originally said by the founder of the global placemaking movement, Fred Kent, is provided in the graphic below.

Just like a homemaker turns a house into a home, a placemaker turns a space into a place, says creative thinker and doer David Engwicht.