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Towards an open source placemaking toolbox.
Why an open source placemaking toolbox?
Throughout the years, via the City at Eye Level program and other means, we have gathered and shared open source many examples of successful city at eye level and placemaking projects.
One of the returning questions people asked us was: It’s great all those examples, but can you please give us more knowledge about the tools behind these examples.
Since 2017 we have been working on a placemaking toolbox to share some of the secrets behind the case studies. For the Cities for All conference we asked the network to share some of their tools.
This resulted in the booklet with some interesting tools.
Even though people appreciated the booklet, we still got similar feedback: we need more knowledge about how to use the tools, and we need more tools!
This resulted in a fresh ambitious plan for an open source European Placemaking Toolbox. We were lucky enough to get help from JPI Urban Europe to start the PlaceCity project, in which we can work together with partners in Austria, Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands, to speed up the process of building the toolbox, and to test and improve the tools with cities and other partners.
Downloadable Manuals
Building an open source Placemaking Toolbox.
We plan to build an open source placemaking toolbox, in which you can share your tools. We invite you to submit a tool you find relevant for this open source toolbox, using the “add a tool” format on this site, write a manual for your tool, using the “add a manual” format on this site.
Test the tools and send us your feedback
The toolbox management group, chaired by the board of Placemaking Europe, will guard the quality of the tools and manuals published on this site, will read and help edit the draft manuals. They will also help with using the feedback to improve the tools..
We plan to add as many manuals as we can ourselves, from our own books and practices, but also by writing manuals about some of the tools you suggest.
We made a list of toolcategories we use to select tools. In each category we have selected tools we could write manuals for. Please help us select the most relevant tools.
Categories
Public life studies
Placemaking PPS tools
CAEL/Better streets tools
Community engagement tools
Tactical urbanism
Place-led development
Design tools
Place & street management
City-wide strategies
Finance tools
Inclusive tools
Seasonal placemaking
Heritage
Kids tools
Crowd management
Happy cities & wellbeing
Innovation & place
Key tools for placemaking
How do I know who is using a place?
Counting
Behaviour Mapping
Tracking
Time lapse
Trace measures
Interviews & surveys
Photographing
Track pedestrians via camera/photographing
Mapping benches
Anthropological observation
Mental maps
Number of locals vs tourists
Space Shaper
Track pedestrians via wifi
Walk maps
Electric bike counting
Global public space toolkit
BEEN THERE TOGETHER
How do I make good places?
Placegame
Dotboard
Power of 10+
Janes Walks
Placemaking facilitation game
Journals
How do I manage places and streets?
Groningen cycling strategy
Rotterdam plinth strategy
Nolli map
Virtual reality
Wayfinding
Parklets
Eye level game
Park(ing) day
CAEL Spidermap
Rate plinths
Stratego
Space syntax
Count nr of doors + functions
Shared space
street manager
Draw street profile
Global public space toolkit
How do I engage the community?
co-drawing public space
Virtual reality
Parklets
Eye level game
Placegame
Time machine
Park(ing) day
Street manager
3D Model workshop
Doing it together
Consul
How do I approach tactical urbanism?
Park(ing) day
Parklets
San Francisco: tactical urbanism (Groundplay)
Wayfinding
Co-drawing your public space
Better Blocks
Pop-up engagement
Nijmegen TAG
Geveltuin
Process tools
How do I create a sense of place?
Virtual reality
Power of 10+
Draw street profile
Minecraft
3D model workshop
Area cooperative Rhijnhuizen
Place led development poster
Time machine
How do I design a place?
Co-drawing public space
Eye level game
Virtual reality
secrets of great benches
Rotterdam plinth startegy
Draw street profile
Global public space toolkit
3D model workshop
Shared space
Wayfinding
Climate adaptation
Minecraft workshop
How do I manage places and streets?
Rotterdam plinth strategy
Street manager
Area cooperative Rhijnhuizen
Plint BV
How can placemaking be implemented on city scale?
Consul
Wayfinding
Groningen cycling strategy
Rotterdam plinth strategy
San Francisco: tactical urbanism (Groundplay)
Melbourne strategy
City wide winter placemaking strategy
Area map of houses, side walk cafes, shops etc
Global public space toolkit
Nijmegen TAG
Doing it together
Synathina
Geveltuin
Ring ring
How do I finance placemaking?
Consul
Boiling
Thematic tools
How do I create inclusive places, areas, or cities?
Gender planning & development
Gendered landscape
Peacemaking
Ecological ranking tool
Area cooperative Rhijnhuizen
Placemaking facilitation game
Spiel Mobile
How can places adapt to seasonal differences and climate change?
City wide winter placemaking
strategy
Light
Stipo seasonal tool (tbd)
Climate adaptation
How do I study the soul of a place?
Planning/designing history of a place
How do I include or engage kids and youth?
Jump into nature
Integrated child impact assessment
co-drawing your public space
Minecraft workshop
3D model workshop
Bernard van Leer Foundation Tools
Vivian & Rosa tools from the CAEL
Kids Methodology
UrbanToys
MoMe@school
Peatoniños | Peatoniñas
The Speckle of OBB
Tracing Public Space (TPS)
Hack Our Play (HOP)
Illustrated postcards in Guimarães
Design-build placemaking
How do I manage crowds?
Ring ring
Shared space
Wayfinding
How do I create happy cities?
Community happiness mapping and audit
Happy city workshop
How do I link innovation to places?
Innovation districts (brookings & PPS)
BIDs
How can you use the placemaking toolbox?
You are free to use the open source toolbox, following the creative commons rules.
Build and use your personalized toolbox mix with us.
Every situation needs a personalized toolbox. We can help you select the tools you need for your project and implement the tools with you. For more information contact us.
Submit your tool
We love new tools! If you have a suggestion for a placemaking tool, please submit it by filling out this form.
