While PPS organizes the only global Placemaking Week, anyone can organize their own regional Placemaking Week! It can be big or small, local or continental, formal or informal, serious or celebratory. Organizers from Nairobi to Stockholm have already hosted Placemaking Weeks in their communities, so why not organize your own?
What is a Regional Placemaking Week?
A Regional Placemaking Week is a flexible framework for a weeklong series of activities that support the work of community-driven public space practitioners and advocates, and transform public spaces in the host location. It’s a great opportunity to showcase the wealth of public spaces in your community, to build awareness and capacity for placemaking, and to start a conversation about the future of your town, city or region.
For PPS to recognize an event as an official Regional Placemaking Week, it must fulfill these
five simple principles:
- Define Placemaking. A Regional Placemaking Week shares our definition of placemaking as a process for transforming a public space by and for the stakeholders that use it.
- Build Capacity. A Regional Placemaking Week includes activities that connect and build the capacity of placemakers and would-be placemakers.
- Work in Real Places. A Regional Placemaking Week includes activations, observations, workshops or other activities in real public spaces around the host community.
- Leave a Legacy. A Regional Placemaking Week leaves a legacy in the host community, whether by transforming a public space, changing plans or policies, or simply winning heart and minds.
- Connect with Us. A Regional Placemaking Week includes its location in the name (e.g. Placemaking Week Nairobi) to distinguish it from PPS’s global Placemaking Week conference. It also attributes the brand and format to PPS in its core communications (e.g. website, program), and links back to the Placemaking Week website.
Interested in learning more about hosting a Placemaking Week in your community? Email us today at info@placemakingweek.org!
Past Regional Placemaking Weeks
- May 10–14, 2015: Israel Placemaking Week (The Urban Clinic, Israel)
- Nov 28–Dec 4, 2016: Placemaking Week Nairobi (Safer Nairobi Initiative, Nairobi, Kenya)
- May 16–17, 2017: KTH Placemaking Week (KTH, Stockholm, Sweden)
- Nov 16–19, 2017: Nairobi Placemaking Week (Naipolitans, Nairobi, Kenya)
- Jan 17–19, 2017: Kampala Placemaking Week (UN-Habitat, Kampala, Uganda)
- Oct 12-21, 2018: Tamaki Makaurau Placemaking Week (Auckland, NZ)
- Oct 30-Nov 3, 2018: Nairobi Placemaking Week (Placemaking Nairobi, Kenya)
- Dec 6-12, 2018: Placemaking Week Wuhan (UN-Habitat/WSLP, Wuhan, China)
- March 25-31, 2019: Placemaking Week in Athens, OH (Students at Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA)
- June 12-15, 2019: Placemaking Week Europe (La Marina de Valencia, STIPO and Placemaking Europe, Valencia, Spain)
WHAT KINDS OF ACTIVITIES HAPPEN AT A PLACEMAKING WEEK?
The possibilities are truly endless, and we encourage creativity, but here are ten examples of great things that we have seen at past Placemaking Weeks:
- Hands-On Trainings: Help participants gain new skills to do their work. Topics can range from placemaking basics to advanced or experimental techniques.
- Public Space Evaluation Workshops: Kick off a campaign to improve local public spaces by crowdsourcing observations and ideas from participants. PPS’s “Place Performance Game” provides an ideal framework for this activity.
- Public Space Observations: Learn by looking deeply at real places, and test out techniques for understanding how public space works.
- Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper Activations: Work with local stakeholders to transform a public space during the event using simple, inexpensive materials and programs.
- Public Space Crawls: Host a roving party in the streets and public spaces of your community, and spice it up with activations along the way.
- Placemaking Clinics: Help aspiring placemakers overcome challenges and encourage intergenerational learning with a station or session where anyone can get free advice from a seasoned placemaker.
- Project & Idea Roundups: Challenge placemakers to pitch their work or ideas in a short presentation format, such as a PechaKucha Night or TEDx event.
- Panels & Debates: Address contemporary issues in placemaking whether local or global—but be careful not to sacrifice bite for bark!
- Placemaking Leadership Council (PLC) Meetings: Convene, expand, and mobilize the PLC, a global network of placemaking practitioners, advocates, and “zealous nuts.”
- Creative Networking Events: Don’t forget to include many fun and informal opportunities to catch up with old friends and make new ones! Socializing may seem like an “extra,” but building relationships is at the heart of the placemaking movement.