5 Key Characteristics of Vibrant Places
One of the most common questions clients, communities, and policy makers ask me — an urban designer and planner — is, “What makes a vibrant place?” And what exactly does “vibrant” mean?
Simply put, to be vibrant is to be full of energy, enthusiasm, activity, and life — in other words, healthy and alive. The presence and amount of vibrancy is a reasonable proxy for a city’s general health and well-being. Now, as ever, understanding what makes vibrant places — where we can come together — is essential to the future of our cities.
We’ve used Vibemap — which combines geolocated data, machine learning, and user input — to identify five key characteristics of vibrant places.
Vibemap is a city discovery app that shows people where they want to be based on their vibe (a unique character or “spirit of place” that is intuitively felt) and their interests. It connects people to places, events, and experiences that match their vibe.
Understanding city vibrancy is central to Vibemap’s mission of bringing people together in new ways and experiencing the magic of showing up in real life. It’s no surprise that some of the most popular places in cities where people want to be are also the most vibrant.
Vibrant places come about as a result of hundreds, if not thousands of small and seemingly unrelated decisions over long periods of time. It’s the coming together of socio-economic factors, geographic setting, and physical characteristics that help determine the character of a place.
Below are five key characteristics that are present in most vibrant places.
1. Flow
As with any organism that is “pulsing with life” the robustness and health of the flow of people is paramount to establishing the vibrancy of a city. Connectivity, ease and access for people is the lifeline of urban activity. Major public transit stations with high frequency of service are at the heart of vibrant places. Major light rail or bus stops are smaller but also important nodes of neighborhood vibrancy.
2. Well-Loved Public Places
People are drawn to and will come back to places that make them feel safe and welcomed. Well-loved public places are open, inclusive and welcoming to people with a wide variety of vibes. Typically these places are special destinations located within a larger network of connected paths and places making them desired and valued for people in the surrounding areas. Public parks and waterfronts are some of the most well-loved public places and can be regional and citywide destinations. However, neighborhood parks, plazas and slow streets provide vital and convenient places for the day-to-day life of the city to unfold.
3. Cultural Amenities
Cultural centers are places that are common to everyone and where people go for cultural exchange. Usually these places are very vibey, meaning lots of people with different types of vibes come together in one place. For example, theaters, art museums and urban plazas are cultural centers where people of many different backgrounds and interests come together. Other, smaller scale cultural centers are sprinkled throughout cities and neighborhoods in the form of schools, libraries and community centers.
4. Places and Events
One of the most critical defining characteristics of a vibrant place is the amount and density of unique places and events in that place. Vibrant places tend to have more “active” ground floor businesses and event venues in close proximity to each other. However, vibrancy is dynamic and its intensity, location and vibe changes throughout the day and year. The level of activity in any place is the result of many factors that now include “online or social media” presence about that place either on social media or on the internet. A place’s online or social media profile can have a dramatic impact on its perception and popularity. This combination of factors results in some of the most vibrant places in a city.
5. Vibe
Every place has a unique character or “spirit of place” that is intuitively felt. Whether it’s known as “genius loci” or a “tutelary” spirit, it is a concept that is found in almost every culture around the world and refers to the overall sentiment of a place. In other words, a place’s vibe. In the digital age people are constantly leaving their feelings about places online. On social media, on review sites, on local blogs. By collecting this sentiment data we are able to determine the sentiment, feeling or vibe of a place. What is so exciting about this layer is that vibes cut across most identities and are oftentimes shared by people of wildly different backgrounds.
Vibemap combines these five attributes of vibrant places into a database and mapping platform. It gives a real-time analysis of what is happening in a city — identifying how a city’s vibrancy constantly changes hour-by-hour, day-by-day, and according to what people are looking for from their city. Using machine learning, Vibemap is identifying affinities between the vibrancy of a place and people’s interests in order to connect people to the small businesses, happenings, and special places that match their unique understanding of what a vibrant city means to them. It offers up a more inclusive way of understanding city vibrancy, one that changes based on the qualities you value in your city.
As individuals, we can ask Vibemap to take us where our interests lie. For us as planners and urban designers, Vibemap’s data is useful to redefine a traditionally static version of vibrancy and to help create a more inclusive understanding of what makes our special places — and our cities — great.
About the author
Noah has worked for nearly 20 years in architecture, urban design, planning and development. Most recently, Noah is using his skills to help strengthen human connection and increase social consciousness by Co-founding Vibemap. You can join us in spreading the vibe at vibemap.com
Contact me at noah@vibemap.com
