Placemaking and IA

Definition– the process of creating plazas, parks, streets & waterfronts that will attract people because they are pleasurable
Not just functional, but pleasurable

We’re good at putting up buildings but bad at making places
Last half of 20th century was horrible for cities and communities – engineers were the cause of the problems. They focused on the objects rather then the good spaces for people.
Placemaking is
Community driven, visionary, function before form, adaptable, inclusive, flexible, culturally aware
Placemaking isn’t
reactive, design-driven, one-size-fits-all, etc
Some relevant principles
The community is the expert, create a place and not a design, you can see a lot just by observing, start with Petunias(iterative design, get design work done and redo it, don’t spend years), triangulate(make an object that two people can see and talk about – builds community – on content allow people to talk about the content), form supports function(in placemaking they talk about seating – how do you construct the seating so that you can have people comfortable, good vision, etc), you are never finished
IA Place Diagram
Sociability – Marriage proposals on twitter, divorces, feel comfortable interacting with strangers
Uses and activities – not lurkers who are hidden (ex. students who look up and research discussion topics to look brilliant), you want visible lurkers
Access and linkages – search, browse and ask
Comfort and Images – no porn, can visitors be seen in different areas
Washington Square Project
Maps and questions in the field, put pieces together, discuss the map and writing comments on their map – created a dense map that shows opportunities and problems
How to create successful markets workshop
Cheese shop… reflection in the display window, people can see each other at eye level talking to each other, should we build in “conversation seeing” (triangulation example)…they created a frame as well
South street bridge
Tables of teams, each had a facilitator, also had someone how could draw and give form to everyone’s ideas, had examples of other bridges, sketched out ideas immediately, very effective
Central Market
Talked about use of mobile devices in their market, how can info be available at the market that goes beyond brochure-ware, example of the carrots, need to balance - HR,physical resource and online

Probe I
Don’t think of it as design
Probe II
The IA is the facilitator, get people to see the same thing even though they are saying different things and think they are in agreement
Probe III
Know the context of the community, the large and small pieces of it… make sure the community is integrated and helping out each other, business owner associations built around the community… the IAs need to stick with the clients and business throughout and after the project… these sessions in the community are tough and passionate but it gets the truth out in the community and describing everyone’s difference.

Dilemma
Design – Steelcase hallways take people out of the flow and put them in cubbys, but people want to be in the flow of traffic and want to meet people that way (placemaking)