Earlier this summer 2025, Placemaking Europe invited me to take over its Instagram account for a week. These handovers are more than just a social media campaign,  they are a way to connect placemakers across Europe and beyond, to give visibility to grassroots projects, and to celebrate the people and communities behind them. The goal is simple: to share authentic stories that inspire, educate, and build recognition for placemaking as a movement.

The handover is rooted in Placemaking Europe’s values: connection, creation, collaboration, commitment, and care. It’s an opportunity to show what placemaking looks like in different contexts, to highlight local power, and to demonstrate how people shape their cities through creativity and cooperation.

During my seven-day takeover, I shared a different perspective on placemaking each day  from personal reflections to professional practices, topics like:

• About me:  I am Mustafa Sherif, an urban planner and designer educated in Stockholm and Milan. Today, I work with placemaking with a special focus on children and youth in cities. I am also a studio manager in a consultancy company and the host of Urbanistica Podcast, where I share stories about placemaking and cities from around the world.
• I showcased projects and public spaces in the city, and also introduced Placemaking Sweden, which I co-founded in 2024 together with Karin Lekberg (Art and culture Expert), Fredrik Lindstål (Placemaker and Entrepreneur) . The mission of Placemaking Sweden is to share knowledge and experience about the placemaking movement and methods with Swedish cities. It also functions as a platform to bring together placemakers and people who are interested in placemaking.
• Placemaking in Academia: where I welcomed 400 new students who studied urban planning and design. It’s a yearly welcoming day ceremony.  Then I collaborated with a professor to co-create a session for university students that study urban design. I believe it’s important to inspire future urbanists and planners early, so they see themselves as active contributors to the placemaking movement.
• Gaming and Urban Design: I shared how my hobby of exploring virtual worlds influenced my decision to study urban planning. Digital cities in games fascinate me, and they taught me how design can shape experiences, even in virtual space.
• Urbanistica Podcast: since 2020, I’ve hosted Urbanistica, a podcast dedicated to urbanism and placemaking. Through conversations with experts, practitioners, and community leaders, I’ve seen how storytelling helps amplify the movement and show that cities can be co-created, livable, and adaptable across seasons and needs.

This takeover reminded me of something essential: placemaking is not just about spaces, it’s about the stories we tell about those spaces and the people who shape them. Without storytelling and sharing knowledge, the movement that began in New York with Fred Kent would never have reached our cities. It spread because people wrote about it, spoke about it, and communicated its value. Storytelling is not just helpful,  it is essential for making cities for people

Why Storytelling Matters in Placemaking

Placemakers don’t just design parks, plazas, or streets. We create frameworks where communities feel ownership, pride, and connection. Storytelling is what gives meaning to these places. It helps us:

• Inspire participation by sharing experiences that invite others to take part.
• Translate complexity into human-centered narratives everyone can understand.
• Build trust and empathy by valuing community voices and capturing their stories.
• Spread the movement beyond professionals, making placemaking accessible and relatable.
• Strengthen advocacy by combining facts with stories that move people to act.
• Celebrate resilience and creativity, highlighting the joy of people shaping their own places.

Storytelling is not just about sharing; it’s about shaping your own path as a placemaker while empowering the movement. And there are also personal benefits for placemakers who become strong storytellers:

• New opportunities. Clear and compelling stories open doors to new projects and collaborations.
• Visibility. You are more likely to be invited to speak on panels, at events, or in the media.
• Connections. Storytelling helps you build stronger networks with other placemakers, professionals, and communities.
• Business growth. By communicating your projects effectively, you stand out among many organizations in city-making, attracting new clients and partners.
• Skill development. Every time you tell a story, you gather new information, reflect on experiences, and sharpen your ability to communicate.
• Confidence. Sharing your work and ideas regularly makes you more comfortable presenting them, even in high-profile settings.
• Legacy. Documenting stories means your work, and the voices of the communities you collaborate with, can inspire others long after the project ends.

Different Formats for Storytelling

There isn’t one way to tell a story. Depending on who we want to reach and how we want to connect, we can choose different formats. Here are some 4 inspiring examples:

Illustrations

Visual storytelling has a unique power to make complex ideas accessible. With just one drawing, you can communicate relationships, emotions, and possibilities in a way that long reports often fail to do. Illustrations are especially powerful in placemaking because they make abstract concepts tangible: showing how a park might feel when children are playing, or how a square can be transformed by community events.

A great example is The Urban Mycelium by Mathilde Riou, an urbanist, visual thinker, and collaboration facilitator. Her work demonstrates how illustrations can spark imagination, invite dialogue, and make everyone,  from citizens to policymakers,  feel part of the conversation. Mathilde provides many templates, toolkits, and tips on how you can start sketching, visit her website https://theurbanmycelium.com/

Tip to start: pick a placemaking project you’ve worked on, and sketch it as a story of people rather than just space. Even simple stick figures and basic colors can create a relatable, human-centered narrative.

Video Vlogs

Video content,  especially short-form,  is increasingly how people learn, connect, and engage with ideas. A vlog can capture the atmosphere of a place, the energy of an event, or the authentic voices of local residents. Unlike text, which can feel distant, video puts the viewer right in the middle of the action.

Tayana Panova, PhD is a fantastic example of this. She creates engaging TikTok vlogs about placemaking, city-making, and urban research. Through short, accessible clips, she makes complex academic insights approachable for a broad audience. This shows how vlogging can bridge the gap between professional knowledge and everyday curiosity.

Tip to start: you don’t need expensive equipment,  your phone camera is enough. Record a 30-60-second video sharing one insight from your project. It could be what surprised you most, something a community member said, or a challenge you learned from. Keep it authentic, not perfect.

Text Blogs

Writing is one of the oldest and most effective storytelling formats. Text allows you to slow down, reflect, and explain processes in depth. Blogs are especially powerful in placemaking because they can document the journey of a project: not only the final results, but also the challenges, lessons, and small victories along the way.

Päivi Raivio, an urban designer, placemaker, and co-founder of Parkly and RaivioBumann,  does this beautifully. Through interviews and articles, she captures stories of city-making that highlight both the professional side and the human side of the work. Her writing creates a valuable archive of experiences that others can learn from. Read her blogs here https://raiviobumann.com/category/articles/ 

Tip to start: you don’t need to write an essay. Begin with a short reflection: “What’s one thing this project taught me about people and place?” Over time, these small texts become a collection of powerful insights,

Voice (Podcast)

Audio storytelling creates intimate, reflective spaces where listeners feel like part of a conversation.

For me, podcasting was the most natural format. I’m not comfortable standing in front of the camera, and I’m not the best at writing either, but I discovered that with just my voice, I could share stories. And not only my own stories, but the stories of other placemakers.

Before I started the podcast, I was part of the TEDx Stockholm team as a content researcher and co-coach. We were looking for ideas worth sharing on the TEDx stage, and I helped coach speakers. I noticed that many of the most inspiring TEDx talks,  the ones with millions of views, had something in common: they shared personal stories, projects, or something impactful that changes life for us humans or for the ecosystem.

At the same time, I realized that many podcasts in our field urban planning, design, architecture, and placemaking often focused only on projects and technicalities. Even if they were informative, I found them boring to listen to. That’s when I got the idea of starting a podcast that brings together the technical side of cities and personal stories, something inspired by the TEDx storytelling format that we all love.

When I started Urbanistica, I didn’t want to make it just another podcast about projects. I wanted it to be about the people behind the projects. That’s why it’s not only technical, but also human, about the placemaker’s life journey, passions, work-life balance, hobbies, and more. I believe we need to be sustainable within ourselves and live meaningful lives, so that we can create meaningful places for people.

In the podcast, I invite not only professional placemakers but also people who are not working within the field, to hear their perspectives as users of cities – for example, children, a person using a wheelchair, a person who is blind etc.

When I started, I was a student who had just graduated. I didn’t have much money, so I bought a cheap microphone and began recording conversations. That’s how the Urbanistica Podcast was born. Five years later, thanks to inspiring guests and fantastic listeners, the podcast has grown beyond what I ever imagined. By 2025, I’ve recorded over 530 episodes, listened to in 146 countries, and traveled internationally to record at different events,  sometimes even in three different languages: English, Swedish and Arabic. 

Podcasting has become my way of documenting the global placemaking movement and amplifying the voices that make our cities better. Every year, I am honored to join Placemaking Week and record podcast episodes from the host city. This collaboration with Placemaking Europe has opened new doors for me, connecting me with placemakers from all around the globe and empowering their voices through the podcast.

Tip to start: listen to three different podcasts that you like to get inspiration, then create your own format. Buy a microphone, or simply record from your phone,  edit, and publish. There are many free editing programs available, and good microphones at affordable prices. I also suggest watching YouTube tutorials; there are plenty of great videos about how to start a podcast. And that’s exactly how I began back in 2020.

A Recipe to Start Storytelling

If you want to begin telling stories as a placemaker, here’s a simple recipe:

1. Start small. Keep it very basic and easy. Don’t complicate things. The simpler it is, the more likely you’ll actually start.
2. Choose your format. Illustration, video, text, audio, or maybe even something new, like dance or acting.
3. Pick one story. A project, a person, or even just a moment that inspired you.
4. Focus on the human side. Not just the design, but the emotions, challenges, and joy behind it.
5. Share it. Don’t wait until it’s perfect. Storytelling is about connection, not perfection. And don’t expect 1000 likes when you start,  the numbers don’t matter at the beginning.
6. Continue. Consistency is key. Keep doing it regularly so you practice, improve, and build your audience. Once every six months won’t help,  aim for at least once a month to grow into it.
7. Get inspired by others. Follow storytellers on LinkedIn, watch YouTube videos, or listen to podcasts to learn the basics of storytelling and see how others do it.

8. Do not forget to use AI to generate ideas and help you in your journey. This might be step 0 in this recipe. It’s always good to start there and get inspiration.

Final Thought

Placemaking is about co-creating spaces with people. Storytelling is how we share those experiences, learn from each other, and inspire the next generation of placemakers. Whether it’s through podcasts, blogs, illustrations, or TikToks,  the important thing is to start, to share, and to keep the movement alive. Without storytelling and sharing knowledge, the movement that began in New York with Fred Kent would never have reached our cities. It spread because people wrote about it, spoke about it, and communicated its value. Storytelling is not just helpful,  it is essential for making cities for people.

Useful links 

Instagram

• Placemaking Europe (You can find my stories in the Highlights)
• Mustafa Sherif
• Urbanistica Podcast
• Placemaking Sweden

Linkedin

• Mustafa Sherif
• Urbanistica Podcast
• Placemaking Sweden
• Urbanistica Podcast
  • Spotify
  • Apple podcast