Theories of place making and local development planning Thorbjörg K. Kjartansdóttir NordPlus 2014
The good life... Everywhere people are striving to analyse and define the good environment, where people feel good... Wanting to plan, create and understand the good environment We are looking at the physical factors and the social factors in the environment Many agree on these following elements being important in the process of establishing the good environment in a local area: What people create and nourish in an unplanned or predicted way People that know things about each other- common experience
Urban planners usually have very outspoken visions on environmental qualities that contribute to livability (e.g. Howard, 1898; Corbusier, 1935; Jacobs, 1961; Dantzig and Saaty, 1973).
Urban Livability Physical factors: Impact of stress factors; noise, traffic, crowds, buildings, fear, pollution, natural disasters; earthquakes, landslides And also something else.. What is: The good city? The good place? The good community? Sustainable community? The good life, quality life? Are the concepts livability, quality of life, quality of place and sustainability related to the good life? Pacione (1990)
Postmodernistic planning An era or a social theory a way of thinking and acting Recognised: A gap exists between cultural trends, interests and values of the public and the planning processes which are currently in use Democracy has weakness, politicians tend to focus their efforts on personal gratification instead of working for the people - Flyvbjerg How a better society can merge forward with a more open structure and processes of decisions L. Sandercock But this is not enough, something else is needed What?
Communication - understanding Structure of power and politics Todays planners talk about and want to understand the disguised control that has influence on people s possibilites to plan and find ways to make their life better Complicated relations between authority, the specialist and the public Collaboration? The communicative process of social construction and knowledge... Philip Allmendinger 2. ed. 2009
New power and movements Today more open debate and discussion in movements and organisations Difficulties occur when they try to survive within the existing system How to move on? Participiation in planning is often under to much control of the existing system and planning structure By methods that are put forward in collaborative planning
To deal with the problem Planners are both participating and planning Who is responsible and for what? - that is one problem when you get involved But the way foward is to focus on: Sustainability Economical factors Environment Local communities Patsy Healey; Making better places and Collaborative planning gulations
Sustainability and communities not so simple... 1. Within Often communities are planned in very specialized ways Gated communities for specific behavior, interest, age or other things Less tolerance for difference Crime gangs take over or few people take all control 2. Ouside People have relations all over, family, friends, work, interest global influences, climate, water, pollution 3. Rights, law and rules Tax regulations, prices, have influence on choises people make for staying or not 4. Large economic cultural regions have influence on the smaller units New level new legislation Place governence e.g. open process in decissions along with more complicaded land use regulation
The division of space How we divide space influences the way we use space Behavior and relations are shaped by the division of space by ownership, to private and public space
Private property Clear definition of area Legal rights and rules Personal space space of the home Home- intimate, close- homely.. More private today than before Different from public space Private public space- ownership Divsion of workers, family, citizens, guests, dwellers, owners Who does it belong to and what does that mean? Who is part of the community who is not? NordPlus 2014: What about the homeless, unregistrated, the invisible?
Personal space Invisible balloon around us, How we locate us in buses, classrooms etc. Picture a bus or a bus stop filling up A car/bicycle is a mobile personal balloon
Public space Not as important today as before? Agora, plaza Economical Social, cultural Political There are possibilities in the public space for the development of experiences, trust, relations, knowledge, common interests - space- place an organized frame?
Behaviour differences in public and private Cultural, race, age, gender, Social class spaces Matters for relations in spatial and for social understanding
Division of space and places Private space -The home- less to do, less production, smaller Public private space has clear bounderies for administrative reasons, control and rights Something in between? The street, the sidewalk, half public - half private areas which are of importance, where people meet Jane Jacobs ( 1961), Jan Gehl (1971),
Communities and places In the sense of planning Space becomes place when and where interactions, meaning experience and relations are placed IT TAKES A PLACE TO CREATE A COMMUNITY, AND A COMMUNITY TO CREATE A PLACE An effective Placemaking process capitalizes on a local community s assets, inspiration, and potential, ultimately creating good public spaces that promote people s health, happiness, and well being. When we asked visitors to pps.org what Placemaking means to them, responses suggested that this process is essential even sacred to people who truly care about the places in their lives. True Placemaking begins at the smallest scale.
Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland, OR Kungstradgarden,Stockholm, Sweden Luxembourg Gardens, Paris, France
Reykjavik, Iceland.
WHAT PLACEMAKING IS AND WHAT IT ISN T HTTP://WWW.PPS.ORG/REFERENCE/WHAT_IS_PLACEMAKING/ PLACEMAKING IS: Community-driven Visionary Function before form Adaptable Inclusive Focused on creating destinations Flexible Culturally aware Ever changing Trans-disciplinary Context-led Transformative Inspiring Collaborative Sociable PLACEMAKING ISN T: Imposed from above Reactive Design-driven A blanket solution Exclusionary Monolithic development Overly accommodating of the car One-size-fits-all Static Discipline-driven Privatized One-dimensional Dependent on regulatory controls A cost/benefit analysis Project-focused A quick fix
Planners should think about: Bls 215
How planning can be: Bls 217
Peter Hall: Urban and Regional Planning, 2002 Patsy Healey: Collaborative Planning, Shaping places in Fragmented Societies, 2. ed.2006 Patsy Healey: Collaborative Planning, Shaping places in Fragmented Societies, 2.2006 Patsy Healey; Making Better Places, The Planning Project in the Twenty First Century, 2010 Robert Fishman, Urban Utopians: Ebinezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, Readings in Planning Theory, 2003 Iris Marion Young City life and difference, í Readings in Planning Theory Jane Jacobs: The death and life of great american cities, 1989 Project for Public Places: www.pps.org Ali Madanipour,: Public and private spaces of the city, 2003 Leonie Sandercock, Towards Cosmopolis, 1998. Philip Allemendinger: Planning Theory, 2009. http://www.goolarabooloo.org.au/lurujarri.html