Vision and Education
To succeed, every place needs some sort of vision. This doesn’t need to be grandiose or dramatic, but it does need to capture a clear idea of what a specific project or scheme aims to achieve. Sometimes the vision is there but the ability to both articulate - and deliver it is lacking. But why? Much of this comes back to the earlier issue we raised around silo working and fixed mindsets.
Education needs to come first, both from and for placemakers. It’s not enough for ideas to speak for themselves. They require championing and explaining, especially as the path towards that shared vision will not be straight. An effective vision invites people in and encourages collaboration. The earlier the better – even before you solidify the brief.
Assembling a Team
You can't assume you'll carry everyone with you purely on the power of your proposal.
Delivering the placemaking vision requires the right people. Realistically, this means balancing various needs – cultural fit, expertise and cost.
In this process, procurement isn't always as helpful as it should be. Again, this is where education is vital in shaping leadership and helping to steer projects in the right direction.
Collaboration yields positive results, but there’s an element of chance where you don’t know how successful the work will be while you’re doing it. It’s only after completion and handover that most projects come to life. They can only be fully realised by people occupying and using them. Moving beyond consultation to genuine collaboration is a risky. It is also essential for a place’s vision to be iterated, owned realised.
Heritage is Everywhere
Heritage is how you connect people with a place and heritage is everywhere – it’s not reserved for places of designated historical or cultural importance. Rather, it’s the key to unlocking places by connecting directly with a community’s feelings of belonging and shared ownership.
Heritage is part of the human condition. It offers ways of bridging the development language barrier to connect with people meaningfully.
Historic England’s High Street Heritage Action Zones recognise heritage as a way of unlocking the potential of places and breathing new life into them.
Culture and Placemaking
Is democracy enough to support placemaking? Sound decision-making comes from creating a consensus about the places people wish to inhabit.
It’s not enough to create bold new targets for building more housing. Placemaking depends on more than volume. For houses to become homes and spaces to become places, there must be enough of a local culture to grow places.
Context is critical.
