Where did the term place-making come from?
The concept of place-making, born out of the creative minds of urban planners in the vibrant ’60s, emerged as a visionary initiative to transcend the mundane. Focused on injecting a captivating sense of identity and atmosphere into pedestrian areas. It was a response to the yearning for more than just functional spaces; it aimed to create magical realms that would capture the imagination. Place-making aims to leave a lasting impression on all who traversed those captivating pathways.
Why place-making works
It enhances all the aspects of a location—the aesthetic beauty of a park, the ease of walking via wide sidewalks. Improving pedestrian movement patterns with sculptures and planters or strategic lighting, added seating, interrelated vendors and retail—to make it more desirable. The area becomes “The Place to Be,” greater than the sum of all its individual elements, and more valuable to the community as a whole because of it.
Smart developers are beginning to apply the idea of place making to offices around the globe to greater effect than anything individual companies can do.
Think of a high rise with retail stores, cafés, restaurants, and dry cleaners. Then the floors above are tailored to corporate tenants, and perhaps above that, residential floors. Place-making can help a building encourage employees work, play, and even live to maintain the cohesive work-life balance that has seemed to elude the corporate worker in the last 30 years.
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