Placemaking Week Amsterdam 2017
Placemaking Week Amsterdam was organised by Project for Public Spaces (PPS), as well as STIPO, The City at Eye Level, Pakhuis de Zwijger, Placemaking Plus, and Gemeente Amsterdam.
THE BACKSTORY
Project for Public Spaces (PPS) built upon the momentum of the Placemaking Leadership Council and 2016’s Placemaking Week in Vancouver, allowing them to collaborate with partners in Amsterdam—STIPO, The City at Eye Level, Placemaking Plus, and Pakhuis de Zwijger—in 2017 to create a dynamic forum for attendees to develop and share concrete strategies to advance placemaking locally and globally.
STIPO later became the administrative support for the creation of Placemaking Europe.
WhAT DID THIS WEEK HOLD?
Placemaking Week 2017 offered an exciting programme of learning and networking October 10–14, 2017 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The week started with collaborating with local stakeholders on public space evaluations around Amsterdam. From here, participants took an all-inclusive trip to another city in the Netherlands to hear about unique placemaking successes and challenges. On the subsequent days, Pakhuis de Zwijger hosted the core conference—two days packed with exciting speakers, networking opportunities, and hands-on workshops. We finished off the week on Saturday with a tour trip to destinations nearby and other fun activities.
This week in Amsterdam 2017 catalysed the notion of a network based in Europe for placemakers.
EQUITY, HEALTH & WELL-BEING
“From band-aid solutions to stopping problems where they start
A person’s postal code can be a more reliable determinant of health than their genetic code. The many factors that determine our physical, mental and social well-being and the forces of multiple inequalities converge in the places we live. How can placemaking holistically improve the quality of life in our communities and ensure that every citizen benefits?”
– PPS
PLACEMAKING & INNOVATION
“From isolated campuses to hubs of opportunity
In this new era of innovation, marked by proximity, openness, collaboration, and inequality, how can placemaking help accelerate economic development, incubate new products, services and ideas, and expand economic opportunity for all?”
– PPS
STREETS AS PLACES & TRANSPORTATION
“From streets we go through to streets we go to
For too long, the mantra of traffic engineers was “faster and wider.” Today, many cities have rebalanced streets to work better for pedestrians, bikes and transit, but they could still be so much more. How can we remake our streets into a series of multi-use destinations with many ways to move from place to place?”
– PPS
PLACE-LED DEVELOPMENT
“From one-off projects to systemic change
How can placemakers broaden the impact of their work on communities by engaging the entire machinery of city building—from politicians and city planners to architects and real estate developers to economic development agencies?”
– PPS
Blog Space
Check out some capture footage from participants and co-organisors at Placemaking Week Amsterdam 2017.
The organisors
Project for Public Spaces instigated Placemaking Week Amsterdam 2017 with many other partners to assist in realising this vision.
Placemaking Week Europe, under Placemaking Europe, was inspired and catalysed from Placemaking Week Amsterdam 2017, primarily under Project for Public Spaces. From here, we began to form our network more professionally, and officially launched ourselves the subsequent year at Cities for All 2018. You can read more about Cities for All 2018 conference here.
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