Participatory placemaking in public spaces

Participatory placemaking in public spaces: A conceptual framework of the different perspectives of participatory placemaking according to a semi-systematic literature review

van Tienhoven, Tessa (TU Delft Architecture and the Built Environment; TU Delft Management in the Built Environment)

Heurkens, E.W.T.M. (mentor)
van Bortel, G.A. (mentor)
Meijer, A. (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Management in the Built Environment

2024-01-16

Placemaking is currently a popular concept to implement for the revitalisation of urban areas, often connected to achieving various social goals in neighbourhoods. However, while the concept of placemaking has been in use for some decades, still a lot of confusion exists concerning the specifications of placemaking. This thesis analyses how participatory placemaking in public spaces is defined according to scientific studies regarding developed economic regions, to find out if multiple diverging concepts of participatory placemaking co-exist, muddying the term, or if only slight deviations in terminology exist. The research method consists of a semi-systematic literature review to map all the different ways participatory placemaking occurs in recent scientific material. The concepts of placemaking distilled from this literature review are validated by a focus group. With their feedback then being used to reflect on the findings from the literature review and fine-tune them. This resulted in the identification of five placemaking concepts: ‘Humanistic placemaking’, ‘Organic, aggregate over time placemaking’, ‘Creative placemaking’, ‘Strategic placemaking’, and ‘Tourism, economic placemaking’, along with their specific characteristics, that will help clear up future conversations regarding participatory placemaking among professionals. With multiple distinct placemaking concepts having been identified throughout this research, which are quite evenly represented in the literature about placemaking, it is even more clear that actors discussing placemaking together have a high chance of misunderstanding each other.

Placemaking
Participatory
Social goals
Public Spaces
semi-systematic literature review
focus group

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d620eeab-c600-42a4-9e83-17963225dd5e

Student theses

master thesis

© 2024 Tessa van Tienhoven