Introduction
From its very first inception at the global Placemaking Week in Amsterdam in 2017, Placemaking Europe’s mission has been to build capacity, strengthen connections and amplify the voices of placemakers around Europe and beyond. What started as a closely knit network of leaders, has evolved into an ever expanding community of thought leaders, doers, cities and organizations.
In 2025, this growth encouraged us to rethink our community strategy, and reflect on our role as an organization supporting the placemaking movement. We started the year with a clear intention, in true placemaking spirit, to put the community first in everything we do. This became our North Star that led to the launch of the community blog as a digital place to share best practices and thought leadership, inspiring Instagram takeovers by a range of diverse voices in our community and an even more community-centred Placemaking Week Europe. Beyond our annual programme, co-created by 460 contributors from 52 countries, we wanted the festival to be an even more meaningful space to shape community connections. In our first preparatory site visit to Reggio Emilia in December 2024 we envisioned an Italian family dinner, and it was a dream come true during the festival to see long tables in La Polveriera, filled with so many joyful faces united and great conversations coming to life during our first Community Dinner. Or to connect over a 100 placemakers in randomly selected groups of 6 people, for a blind date dinner across 15 of restaurants in the city. A space to allow for deeper conversations to emerge, between newly found global friends. We experimented with a community living room, and celebrated the foundation of Placemaking Germany, the newest edition to our growing family of 15 of local networks shaping the placemaking movement on a national or municipal level.
Photo: Foria Producciones
And with all that we are just getting started. 2026 will be a year to consolidate further, clarify our shared values, the pathways for newcomers, and to celebrate the efforts of the local networks, thematic groups and fellows who are shaping the placemaking movement today. And for all of us to co-create another inspiring festival, with Placemaking Week Europe 2026 taking place in Wrocław from September.
And the more we learn, the more we realize the challenge ahead is not an easy one. We haven’t yet found the silver bullet for effectively managing an ever expanding and evolving swarm of creative minds. But in a time where separation sometimes seems to be the main political and financial interest, we are proud to play our part in uniting the placemaking community across cultures and bridge differences.
Please enjoy reflecting on our shared impact of 2025, and join us on an inspiring and community-driven journey into the new year!
Best wishes for 2026,
On behalf of our team and board,
Ramon Marrades & Charlot Schans
Impact and outreach
Photo: Foria Producciones
Placemaking Community Growth:
This year, Placemaking Europe put its mission statement, “the Community comes first,” into action. We’ve been actively working to highlight our community’s projects, initiatives, and ideas, showcasing the incredible work of placemakers and champions across Europe.
Looking ahead to 2026, we will continue to build on this mission, working even harder to elevate the voices of our community, facilitate knowledge exchange, strengthen connections, and create more opportunities for collaboration, learning, and shared impact.
A highlight was the addition of the Community Living Room to Placemaking Week Europe in Reggio Emilia, an intimate space for our community to meet and discuss amongst each other. It became a key hub hosting the first discussions that led to the launch of Placemaking Germany this year! The Community Living Room is a format we are excited to continue and evolve for Placemaking Week Europe 2026.
Photo: Foria Producciones
During Placemaking Week Europe, we shared the first draft of our Community Manifesto and Fellowship model with our network, inviting reflections and feedback from our community. This session was a key step in shaping these initiatives, helping ensure they reflect the values, ambitions, and realities of our network. We are now actively refining and consolidating both the manifesto and fellowship model, with the goal of launching them early in 2026 and providing clear pathways for network affiliation, engagement, and shared impact. Alongside this, we also aim to start showcasing our networks and fellows directly on our website.
Social media and website metrics:
In 2025 our online presence grew thanks to your growing support.
Our website has reached 40,812 visitors and 120,800 views with visitors from all over the world!
Below: Worldwide Audience of the Placemaking Europe Website
And our LinkedIn page reached 16,848 followers, 267K+ impressions across 140 posts, alongside countless stories, initiatives, and community connections that made it all possible.
Meanwhile, our Instagram has grown significantly, gaining a total of 6.9K followers and seeing a clear increase in views. We were happy to launch activities that diversify the voices on our platform while celebrating the placemaking efforts across Europe. As part of this, we introduced community takeovers, bringing fresh perspectives and stories directly from practitioners on the ground.
We also strengthened our community’s digital presence, with social media takeovers (see section 4. What’s new in Placemaking Europe) and an increased number of blog posts contributed both by our team and guest authors, sharing diverse perspectives and insights with our growing community. Below, you can check our our guest blog posts from 2025:
- Power of Place: An Introduction to Designing Places For Life – Jenny Andersson
- Time Machine Tidal Park: Place Futures and Libraries – Anna Lina Litz
- Placemaking the ‘Smart City’: Can We Humanize Technology the Same Way We Humanize Cities? – Narisa (Alice) Chakrapeesirisuk
- Creative placemaking als economische motor: Flint, Verenigde Staten (🇳🇱 Dutch) – Rinske Brand
- The Place Game: A Citizen-Led Revival of Bucharest’s Historic Square – Tudor Chira
- The Power of Storytelling in Placemaking – Mustafa Sherif
- 2+4 Days in Népszínház street – Educational Experiments on Inclusion – Gergely Hory, Árpád Szabó
- Design to Connect x Placemaking Europe: A Week of Reflection on Healing and City-Making – Khadidja Konate & Arezoo Mohebpour
- Public Space and Inclusion in Oslo: The Unseen City Walks – Kim Weger
- Inclusive City: Reclaiming Urban Spaces Through Care, Reflection, and Connection – Theresa König, Milagros Hurtig, Stephanie Hápp
You can check out more articles directly on our Blog!
Don’t miss the guest podcasts on placemaking we’ve been featuring this year on our Community Page! They’re full of inspiring stories and fresh ideas from people making cities better!
Design to Connect by Khadidja Konate & Arezoo Mohebpour
- Menstruation and Urban Design: Integrating Nature’s Cycles into Architecture, featuring Dinara Mukh, Women’s Health Expert (United Kingdom)
- Care-Centered Urban Design: Transforming Cities through Compassion and Community
Urbanistica Podcast with Mustafa Sherif
- Urbanistica goes to Placemaking Week Europe 2025!
- A collection of Urbanistica Podcast episodes by host Mustafa Sherif and guests, during the Placemaking Week Europe 2025 edition in Reggio Emilia!
Photo: Foria Producciones
This year we have also been continuing the Place-led Development working group’s DEEP DIVE Series:
- Deep Dive #10 Elephant park – London with Angela Brennan and Stephen Platts.
- Deep Dive #11: Co-Creating a Waterfront for All with Oceanhamnen
Good Place Episodes during PWE25 in Reggio Emilia:
Photo: Foria Producciones
Robin Cox from the Good Place Podcast joined us also this year to collect new placemaking stories, views and visions:
Mayors in Placemaking series
From the Cities in Placemaking event in The Hague back in February 2025, Robin Cox from The Good Place Bench sat down with mayors and deputy mayors to hear their experiences, ideas, and approaches to cities.
- Mayors in Placemaking – Dan Boyle, Lord Mayor of Cork
- Mayors in Placemaking – Daniel Rádai, Deputy Mayor, District 8, Budapest
- Mayors in Placemaking: Jakub Mazur, Deputy Mayor of Wroclaw on Creating Vibrant Public Spaces
- Mayors in Placemaking – Chantal Zeegers, Deputy Mayor of Rotterdam on Creating Inclusive Spaces
- Mayors in Placemaking – Fredrik Lindstål, former Vice Mayor of Stockholm on Future Generations
- Mayors in Placemaking – Richard Rybniček, Mayor of Trenčín, the European Capital of Culture 2026
- Mayors in Placemaking – Robert van Asten, Alderman of The Hague
Placemaking Week Europe 2025 – Reggio Emilia series
- From Street Parties to co-creating places for all with Rotem Carmi
- The shift from livability to lovability in cities with TJ Maguire
- Empowering children to shape public spaces with Ilvana Noncheva
- How does a placemaking lab shape communities? Abbas Sbeity shares his experience
- How real estate and art can challenge stigmas with David Valecillos
- Where do people and nature meet? Insights from Lithuanian-based NGO, Kultūros Dirbtuvė
- Gaming a future of elderly-friendly public spaces with Jammy Zhu
- Rooted in Place – Marcos Gold on heritage, accessibility and community design
- Architects are placemakers. Ksenia Kuzmina shares how the industry evolves to embrace placemaking
- Getting to know The People’s City – in conversation with Domenico Martino of Reggio Emilia Welcome
New tools in our Placemaking Europe Toolbox:
This year, our growing Toolbox has been enriched with exciting new tools from our network, helping placemakers across Europe experiment, learn, and create impact.
- Getting Started with Policy Co-design
- Handbook Public-Civic Collaboration (Dutch version)
- Handbook Public-Civic Collaboration (English summary)
- Guidelines on behavioural change
- Edible Streets How-to Guide
- Placemaking and beyond: 5 policy levers for city centres
We’re always on the lookout for inspiring stories, innovative tools, and creative ideas that bring placemaking to life. If you have a project, resource, or experience that could inspire others, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to us to be featured on our platform!
Geographical Representation:
Our community continues to grow across Europe, reflecting the diversity and reach of placemaking in the region. This year we were especially excited to welcome Placemaking Germany, adding new perspectives, experiences and energy to our network!
Above: Our local networks represented in a map
In 2025 Placemaking Europe has travelled to 14 countries and 18 cities! We were represented at key international conferences, training, festivals and project consortium meetings, sharing knowledge, building partnerships and advancing placemaking as a systemic approach to urban challenges.
Our representation this year spanned continents, from Quito and Cuenca (Cities in Placemaking Americas) to Toronto (Global Placemaking Summit) and Los Angeles (GDCN Convening). Across Europe, we marked milestones including the launch of Placemaking Austria in Vienna, the Making Space Together book launch in Antwerp, and events such as Creative Bureaucracy in Berlin, Fresh Street #5 in the UK, and the Proximities Conference in Paris. We delivered trainings in Amsterdam, Berlin and Thessaloniki, advanced collaborations through ReGreeneration, Fair Future and Cities in Placemaking meetings, contributed to post-disaster recovery in Valencia, and prepared for the future with the Placemaking Week Europe 2026 site visit in Wrocław.
Projects:
This year, Placemaking Europe proudly kicked off two new projects that opened up fresh ways of working, learning, and collaborating. We launched the Placemaking Days format with its very first edition, Innovation for Recovery, in València, bringing local voices and international perspectives together around placemaking as a tool for recovery and climate adaptation.
We also joined the FairFuture (Fostering Adaptation and Inclusion for Resilient FUTURE) consortium, a Horizon Europe funded project led by ICLEI, marking an exciting step forward in our engagement at the EU level.
At the same time, we continued to contribute to key ongoing projects such as ReGreeneration, Inclusive City, and Cities in Placemaking, deepening partnerships and building on the collective knowledge of our growing placemaking community.
Major Achievements
Photo: Foria Producciones
This year’s Placemaking Week Europe in Reggio Emilia was one for the books. With heartfelt thanks to our amazing host, Reggio Emilia, we welcomed 622 participants from more than 50 countries. Over four days, they explored how mid-sized cities can lead the way toward more inclusive, regenerative, and caring urban environments. Reggio Emilia, internationally recognised for its educational vision, participatory culture, and strong tradition of civic engagement, provided a unique context where ideas could be tested in real places and through real relationships. The city’s combination of historical heritage, active local associations, and forward-looking practices in urban design, mobility, and community well-being made it an ideal host, showing how mid-sized cities can rethink historic centres and civic life to address today’s challenges.
Photo: Foria Producciones
We are deeply grateful to Reggio Emilia for welcoming us so generously, and to every participant whose energy, curiosity, and engagement made this edition truly special.
You can check out the official Placemaking Week Europe 2025 report, which brings together the ideas, reflections, and stories shared during the festival and provides a clear overview of the discussions and key learnings.
You can also watch the official Placemaking Week Europe 2025 – Reggio Emilia Full recap video which captures the spirit of the event and highlights key moments, conversations, and experiences for both participants and those who could not attend.
Photo: We Are Hype Agency
Innovation for Recovery:
This year, one of our key projects has been Innovation for Recovery, looking at how placemaking can support communities after disasters. In collaboration with elDiario.es we brought together international experts, local leaders, and community voices to explore practical approaches to recovery and resilience following the DANA floods.
Photo: We Are Hype Agency
The Innovation for Recovery report brings together these lessons and reflections, offering practical guidance for cities looking to create adaptive, inclusive, and resilient spaces. It highlights how placemaking can strengthen local capacity, connect people with decision-makers, and help communities take an active role in shaping their recovery. The project reinforced that recovery is not only about rebuilding infrastructure, but about nurturing trust, collaboration, and long-term resilience.
Through this work, we have been reminded that placemaking is a practical and flexible approach, one that can adapt to different contexts and help communities respond to urgent challenges while keeping people at the centre of the process.
What’s new in Placemaking Europe
A Community-First Shift
This year we have been shaping a refreshed community strategy that puts people, relationships and shared purpose at the centre. We have taken time to finalise our shared values, clarify how our community works, how people can get involved, and how we can better recognise the many ways placemakers contribute across Europe. This work has set a strong foundation for the next step in strengthening our community.
A major milestone in this process has been the development of our new Fellowship model, which we will launch officially in early 2026. The Fellowship will highlight practitioners and organisers who help carry the movement forward through their everyday work, whether by leading networks, creating tools, sharing knowledge or inspiring change on the ground. Fellows help guide our direction, keep us connected to local realities and represent the community’s values with care and integrity. It is our way of celebrating leadership that grows from within the community itself.
Social Media Community Takeovers:
Over the past months, our Instagram channel has become a shared learning space through a series of deeply thoughtful takeovers by members and placemakers from across the Placemaking Europe community. Each voice offered not only a local perspective, but also values, questions, and practices that resonate far beyond their cities. Mustafa Sherif opened the series by guiding us through inspiring public spaces in Sweden, centering children as active users of the city and introducing the Placemaking Sweden network as a collaborative ecosystem rooted in inclusion and care. Stephanie Happ then shifted our lens to the body in public space, showing how street dance operates as a form of critical, creative, informal and embodied placemaking—transforming streets and squares into spaces of appearance and collectivity, while also exposing the challenges dancers face when negotiating power, visibility, and legitimacy in public realms.
From there, Khadidja Konate and Arezoo Mohebpour of Design to Connect invited a more introspective reflection on city-making, grounding placemaking in healing, reference, care, reciprocity, and respect, and reminding us that design processes are relational, emotional, and deeply human. Timo Hämäläinen brought us to Helsinki’s winter and dark seasons, sharing concrete tools and city-led initiatives that embrace climate, seasonality, and resilience as drivers of placemaking rather than limitations. Complementing this, Päivi Raivio offered a topographical journey through Helsinki, exploring urban seating, the role of chairs as social infrastructure, innovative designs by Parkly and Innogreen, and thoughtful reading recommendations that connect everyday objects to broader urban narratives.
In December we had Maya Vasiloudes Bayada from the OPU Collective taking us through Nicosia, Cyprus, highlighting the delicate harmony between old and new infrastructures, user-friendly public spaces, and the power of collective urban life. Through open street events by the Yalla Lefkosia collective, music festivals, markets, and multicultural community gatherings in parks, Maya shows how public space becomes a platform for coexistence, cultural exchange, and shared belonging. Together, these takeovers form a rich, layered story of placemaking as practice, politics, care, and community—rooted in place, yet connected across borders.
Thank you all for your personal insights, perspectives, and projects, for generously sharing your cities, values, and practices and showing how placemaking comes alive through care, creativity, seasonality, embodiment, and collective community life across diverse contexts!
Looking Forward
Photo: Foria Producciones
Placemaking Week Europe in Wroclaw
Placemaking Week Europe 2026 will be hosted by Wroclaw in Poland. City shaped by equality, diversity, and a focus toward human-centric development. With over 100 nationalities and 30 universities, the city provides a rich opportunity to explore themes and challenges common to many European cities. Wroclaw stands out with projects such as the 24 local activity centers that distribute and decentralise citizen agenda. Strong cultural-community projects such as Czasoprzestrzeń give a platform for not only cultural events but also ad-hoc reactions in times of crisis. During the site visit in December we held a workshop together with the local stakeholders, leaving us excited with the multitude of participative actions, passionate civic engagement and great case studies in Wroclaw. Read more details about the site visit and Wroclaw in this blog post.
Placemaking Days
Building on the Innovation for Recovery project of 2025, we’re planning a second edition in Valencia later this year, reflecting on lessons from last year’s efforts and continuing to strengthen exchanges between communities, practitioners, and institutions, while also potentially experimenting with on-the-ground placemaking.
We’re excited to keep developing the Placemaking Days format. These one-day, place-based moments can bring together city representatives, experts, and local stakeholders to explore real challenges together. In the year ahead, we see it as a chance to test new ideas, co-create solutions, and turn shared learning into practical insights for cities.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to everyone who has been part of Placemaking Europe this year. Your energy, curiosity, and commitment continue to make our community vibrant, inclusive, and inspiring. We are grateful to all the placemakers who share their time, knowledge, and creativity with us. Looking ahead to 2026, we are excited to keep growing our community, learning from one another, and exploring new ways to create public spaces that bring people together.
With appreciation,
Your Placemaking Europe Team
Photo: Foria Producciones
