Placemaking Week Europe 2024 - Rotterdam

The aim of the "Improvising the City with Street Scene Theatrics" workshop is to empower participants with innovative tools for community collaboration through the fusion of improvisational theatre and placemaking principles. Inspired by Jane Jacobs' insight that a good sidewalk's "ballet" is filled with improvisations, this session seeks to enhance participants' ability to engage with diverse community actors in creating vibrant, dynamic public spaces.

By integrating the foundational improv rules—such as "Yes, And...," "Make Statements," and "Support Your Scene Partners"—into the placemaking process, participants will develop skills to think creatively, respond adaptively, and build trust within their communities. The workshop includes interactive improv games and group activities that encourage spontaneity, teamwork, and playful problem-solving.

Through theatrical-improvised scenes, attendees will experience firsthand how these techniques can be applied to real-world placemaking scenarios, fostering a collaborative spirit and generating fresh, inclusive ideas for urban design. Ultimately, the workshop aims to equip urban planners, community organizers, and placemakers with the confidence and creativity to transform public spaces into thriving community hubs.

Ever Mixed Analogue and Digital Placemaking?

In this workshop, we bring together two innovative placemaking approaches: the storytelling techniques of STR.AAT and the digital curbside solutions of Coding the Curbs. Both methods have successfully transformed streets across Europe into multifunctional spaces where mobility and social activities thrive side by side.

For the first time, we’re combining these approaches, and you’ll be the first to experiment with this unique mix. You won’t just learn about these methods—you’ll actively try them out yourself. By sharing your own placemaking experiences, you’ll help us refine and enhance these approaches. This workshop is about more than just learning—it’s about contributing to overcoming the challenges and limitations of our solutions.

Are you ready to push the boundaries of what’s possible? Join us in this experimental session and come prepared with one question in mind:
What is the most memorable moment you’ve ever experienced on the street where you currently live? Why?

Get ready to mix, learn, and experiment.

Note: This session begins inside New Lab Little for a 30-minute presentation and will then venture outdoors. Please dress accordingly in case of rain.

How do we start quality conversations about public spaces and places? Join our workshop if you’d like to pick up tips on becoming a better interviewer. You will learn how a biased interviewer steers the conversation, but a thoughtful Placemaker lets the subject take the lead. 

Let’s put our methods to the test in the streets of Rotterdam.

We start with a crash course in “how to have a discussion and ask people about their city” before hitting the streets to conduct the experiment. Afterwards, we can reflect on the experience and exchange feedback and learnings.

Whether it’s a quick question, an interview or an informal discussion there are some basic principals you can follow. Martha and Moa have put together their collective experience as Placemakers to help you become more comfortable in talking to people about their public spaces.

Join us for an engaging and interactive session titled "Placemaking - is it the new movement pill? Through the session we will aim to answer the question - Where is the Place of Physical Activity and Active Recreation in Placemaking?"

Through the interaction session the participants will discover the powerful intersection between placemaking and physical activity and how it can enhance community well-being. This session will explore the scarcity of initiatives that integrate active recreation into public spaces and address the barriers preventing their development.

Through a blend of interactive discussions and hands-on mind mapping activities, you will:

- Understand the link between your work and healthy/active placemaking.
- Position you and your existing work in placemaking into the health-enhancing physical activity placemaking.
- Help us create a case study/advocacy piece for HEPA that would travel across borders and sectors.
- Participate in a collaborative mind mapping exercise designed to brainstorm practical solutions and strategies for creating healthy, active places.
- Reflect on shared ideas and develop actionable plans that you can implement in your own communities.

Your hosts for this session are, Laska Nenova, Vivian Doumpa, and Cynthia Debono, bring a wealth of experience and innovative approaches to this critical topic. Don’t miss this opportunity to network with urban planners, public health experts, city administration and community leaders, and to be part of a movement towards healthier, more vibrant public spaces. We look forward to mind mapping the place of physical activity in placemaking interventions with you.

#ActivePlacemaking #UrbanHealth

Explore the impact of the Kiezlabor, a mobile tiny house designed to drive digital and socio-ecological transformation in Berlin’s neighborhoods. For six months each year, the Kiezlabor brings a dynamic, participatory program to different communities, featuring hands-on workshops, meetups, and exhibitions that engage both residents and local authorities.

In this session, we’ll take you behind the scenes of our journey across Berlin, delving into the unique challenges and stories of each location. We’ll share the strategies that have successfully activated communities, the lessons we've learned along the way, and the collaborative efforts with local leaders that have fostered meaningful change. You’ll see how the Kiezlabor creates informal, inclusive spaces where citizens can connect and engage on equal terms.

Whether you’re an experienced placemaker or just starting out, this session will equip you with the insights and inspiration needed to revitalize your own neighborhood and foster stronger community ties.

Note: This session will use headphones for audio

Initiating bottom-up change in the city through transforming neighbourhood spaces into places of collective production, use and governance entails multiple phases: forming a consortium of stakeholders, activating a space, addressing organisational, programmatic, design and governance aspects. Our session simulates a placemaking process facilitated in a two-phase interactive role-playing workshop that invites participants to create self-organised scenarios for co-design and co-governance of neighbourhood spaces.

Phase 1: THE COMMON CATALOGUE EXPERIMENT
Participants assume roles of urban actors with different interests and levels of influence. The session explores effective coalitions for bottom-up development and their ability to achieve communal goals. Imagine a game of “Clue”, but the mystery is “who will decide the fate of our common urban spaces?”.

Phase 2: COMMONING THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
The formed coalitions of actors co-create solutions for designing and governing neighbourhood common spaces that meet their communal needs. Following a card-game roadmap, they explore effective programmatic and design aspects that foment the sustainability of the common spaces over time.

The workshop inspires participants to pursue local change in their community and empowers them with skills and tools to achieve community-driven local development: from forming sustainable coalitions, to achieving their common visions through negotiations and trade-offs.

Reimagine the Keilepand area together using real-time augmented reality (AR)! Ahead of Metvibee's planned launch in October, we're hosting a workshop at the Placemaking Week Europe where you can experience how AR can contribute to urban co-design.

This workshop uses collaborative AR functions of Metvibee where participants can draw and place objects (street furniture etc.) and see live updates of the co-design.

After that, we'll end the workshop with a deeper discussion on the challenges and opportunities of using AR in participatory city making, how power relations can be challenged and addressed by AR, and how an AR tool's user experience and interface can be more inclusive and contribute towards mainstreaming participatory design in how cities are developed.

Have you ever considered to do nothing in a place? To strenghten the tranquility, quietness and natural serenity? What exactly would you do? How would you define tranquility and what it means to people visiting a place?

Dive into the art of creating tranquil public spaces during our workshop, learning about the factors underpinning tranquility. We draw upon over 6 years of working experience in the field and developing tools, theories, instruments, and policies from national to local level. Based on an extensive cooperation between Flanders and the Netherlands, we explore the essence of serene spaces for both individual well-being and community vitality.

The absence of tranquility can exacerbate health issues, with noise pollution ranking as the second leading cause of environmental-related health problems. Through an immersive outdoor activitie, participants will analyse firsthand the impact of various sounds on their well-being. By examining case studies and engaging in practical exercises, attendees will gain insights into crafting environments conducive to tranquility, fostering healthier and more harmonious communities "a perfect balance between peaceful and vibrant places“.

Join our workshop and get into action creating more tranquil places as a counter movement to busier public spaces.