#18
COLLABORATIVE PLACEMAKING

Today public space is the main social arena of our cities where civic life and our engagement with the over-all development of the city fabric is enacted and represented. In recent years there is wider recognition among researchers, politicians and communities of the profound importance these public spaces hold on urban life and social cohesion. Even though New Urban Agenda- HABITAT III preparation documents highlights the impotence of community participation in the global urban development, the main challenge still remains for most municipal governments, professionals and also communities. How to create, design or redesign and manage these public places in order to keep them inclusive, accessible and livable?

Placemaking approach is well capturing and addressing these challenges that already emerged in 1960 by Jane Jacobs and Wiliam H. groundbreaking idea designing cities for people. Today collaborative Placemaking is becoming an integral part of place governance discussions and most often used in practice as an interdisciplinary multi-faceted, hands-on approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces. Placemaking promotes not only better urban design, but it also creates space for collaboration, co-creation processes to emerge that contributes towards comprehensive governance of space and the city.

During the 18th session of ARCHITECTURE [discussion] fund talks we will invite the audience to have a look at Placemaking processes and examine how the creation of healthy public space brings together different stakeholders to collaborate. Rather that focusing on the physical properties of space creation, these talks and discussions are invited to scrutinize public place uses and functions they hold in the lives of the citizens and overall urban development of the city.

These public talks are dedicated to architectural community as well as wider publics. These series of events invites for the discussion about the architects’ professional and ethical responsibilities and the potential of the profession to react and get involved in wider social and political debates about the collaborative Placemaking processes.

The 18th series of talks of Architecture Fund are sponsored by Lietuvos kultūros taryba, Goethe institute, “Uab Kegesa”, “ELMO technologijos“, Royal Norwegian embassy in Vilnius.