Urban Design

As populations seek more significant economic and cultural growth opportunities in urban environments, the world has seen broad migration from rural to urban. Urbanization should manifest the socio-cultural development of human societies. However, as many urban areas rapidly expand, hasty urban neighborhood constructions are built to support the flow of the urban population. As a result, the need for shelter has outweighed the need for a sense of place in many rapidly growing urban environments, which has led to low quality of life and a lack of sense of place in some of these neighborhoods. Well-established research emphasizes the physical and social structure of a place’s ability to affect community identity, well-being, and economic growth. Unique places that prioritize tradition, history, and special geographical features over globalization positively impact residents. Lack of sense of place, however, can lead to a decrease in residents' interaction with their environment and degradation of their sense of belonging, which can give rise to residents’ indifference to each other and their environment and, consequently, less social participation and viability in these areas, and more importantly, more social problems.

Many researchers consider three broad, interrelated variables for placemaking that give meaning to the concept, and it cannot be understood without considering all aspects: the individual’s interests and experiences in a place, the sociocultural attributes, and the built environment's physical and functional attributes.

Individual Interests and Experiences

The placemaking concept is defined at the individual level by the emotions, impressions, beliefs, memories, and experiences of each individual that helps them build a sense of belonging to the place. The individual attributes of placemaking are made by people’s personalities, life experiences, values, culture, and interactions with a place, represented by the community’s artistic representation and its artists. Placemaking is entangled with people’s memories, familiarization, and the special meanings of a place for people. Paying attention to the meanings people attribute to a place is a determinant factor in creative placemaking’s success as a tool.

Socio-Cultural Attributes

Successful developments have a place-based, people-oriented strategy that allows residents to demonstrate their relationship with their physical and social environment. Culture in a community can be defined in many ways and by many people. It might be determined by everything from the residents' food or religious/ceremonial practices, to the physical beauty or community’s artistic expression, to cultural events and celebrations that occur in the place.

Physical and Functional Attributes of the Built Environment

Physical aspects of the environment include an area’s natural or geographical context and the built environment created through design and planning. These characteristics attribute meaning to urban areas leading to an improved sense of place. Physical contexts guide urban shape, function, and character. Norberg-Schulz (1996) asserted that a sense of place is more substantial in areas with a distinct perceivable, visible, and memorable identity within the structure and the built environment. Furthermore, a unique feature of each place is its geography. Thus, the uniqueness of urban areas and regional diversity depends partly on each place's natural landmarks. The natural environment, including green areas (parks, open spaces), water features (rivers, lakes), wildlife, and biodiversity, are essential parts of most developments. They also denote opportunities for advancing a sense of place and economic growth. Moreover, highlighting the uniqueness of a place through diverse community activities is an essential component of creative placemaking. Social and physical diversity offers ecological, aesthetic, and psychological benefits within places. Similarly, built environment features consist of myriad options that make an urban area user-friendly. For instance, well-established good urban design indicators such as pedestrian-oriented accessibility and mobility, ease of movement, distinctiveness, comfort, safety, regional accessibility, the density of amenities, street connectivity, proximity to green areas, and building designs all contribute to making a city function well for its residents (Sobhaninia, Buckman, and Schupbach, 2023).

Illustrative Publications