Placemaking

This article was compiled from a keynote lecture delivered at the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architecture 2021 Conference, on 6 May 2021. Thank you to the conference organizers for inviting me to speak today. Since I received the invitation last December (2020), I have been hoping for a travel…

Downtown Boston is postcard-perfect: high-rises and cobblestones, luxury retailers and street vendors, pop-up concerts on summer afternoons, gaslights on winter nights. Its ground-floor real estate is among the priciest in the US, thanks to tech companies, higher ed institutions, and cultural venues that define the district. Yet, like many of…

Chapter 4 of [Shaping Sustainable Change] Summary Negotiations are not just about compromise. It can be a process that leads partners to creative solutions and systemic changes. In partnership, partners negotiate to plan, make decisions, and resolve disputes. Negotiations happen throughout the partnership cycle. …

Slovenia and Croatia Sessions Summary In late March 2023 we organised Community Placemaking trainings in Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Zagreb (Croatia) as part of the PLACE project and Thriving Communities initiative. About 30 people joined each of these trainings to learn more about how placemaking can help them to create positive change in their community. The…

Civic Analysis (CA) is a theory and set of methods for ‘civic science’ — or civic sociology — one of two sides of the emerging, interdisciplinary ‘Civic Arts & Sciences’ or more simply called: ‘Civics’.[1] CA involves study of three related things: - Civic Ecologies (CE) - Civic Actions (CX) …

“Find your passions” seemed like a fool proof path to finding out what to do with your life. What sparks your curiosity the most? For me, this changed every week. As a generalist, I felt drawn to a vast array of passions. I envied those who knew what they wanted…

Car dealerships Car dealerships where there is a car rotating on a high dias A car carrier trailer loaded with cars going over a speed bump and all of the cars going jiggly and making lurchy metal-sound The word “exhaust pipe” The word “emissions” When I’m walking across a crosswalk…

This is a selection from Future Here Now, a daily series that I provide to subscribers to help them anticipate and prepare for a future that will be drastically different from what we’re used to. Every week’s Future Here Now has five daily sections — and one of those is…