Welcome to Place Agency
A platform to support industry, students, communities and governments to develop better cities through Placemaking capacity building, practice-led community engagement and education.
Place Agency contributes to placemaking practice by providing a common approach to understanding concepts such as economics, engagement, governance, evaluation, digital activation, data, community and critically nature and First nation’s aspects of place.
Place Agency takes you back to a time when it was all about creating fun in a space or sandbox and making new friends. The playful child within is always there, nurtured by whatever it is fed, so whatever your age, we are here to help you start something special in a place.
What is Placemaking?
Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces. Placemaking’s intention is to create public spaces that promote people’s health, happiness, and well-being.
As an international movement, placemaking belongs to everyone. Placemaking is in the business of making vibrant, healthy and thriving communities. At its core it’s a process of co-creation to work with community, for community, and to identify meaning and shared purpose. Generally, placemaking can be understood as a community building and activating process to create places that are loved, cared for, and where a sense of belonging in that place is fostered and shared throughout the community. It follows the adage that if you love a place, you will take care of a place.
“Placemaking is a process to increase the capacity and capability of people to invest a place with meaning” – Place Agency.
Place Agency is a group of academics (consortium) from universities and placemakers across Australia who joined together to deliver an education program focused on the theory and practice of placemaking through partnerships with practitioners delivered through Studio projects. The Placemaking Consortium includes seven universities and 16 practitioners with support from 26 placemaking partners.
Our Vision
The Place Agency project delivers a suite of educational and practice-based programs on placemaking and place development for graduate level students and early-career placemakers. These place-led approaches enable current and future practitioners to plan and design civic places with the community so that shared values can be realised. We thank The Myer Foundation, who provided the funding for our consortium to add to the voice of placemaking theory and practice.
Creating Places
Place Agency takes you back to a time when it was all about creating fun in a space or sandbox and making new friends. The playful child within is always there, nurtured by whatever it is fed, so whatever your age, we are here to help you start something special in a place.
Teaching Resources
The Teaching resources of Subject Guide and Subject Modules are aimed at academics wanting to teach Placemaking to Built Environment students. It is aimed at Masters or Graduate students through with modification could be taught to Undergraduates.
Here you can access:
Subject Guide
Here is the outline of the subject and its components as developed for teaching it as an intensive across 11 days at the University of Melbourne.
Module Resources
Here you will find 12 modules developed to be taught as part of the subject. This includes learning guide, activities, suggested readings and assessments. This add to 10 hours of content for the students for each module to download.
Sandbox Studios
Here are case studies from 5 states and an outline on how to connect to universities to set up a studio for your project.
Place Agency Approach
Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces. Placemaking’s intention is to create public spaces that promote people’s health, happiness, and well-being.
As an international movement, placemaking belongs to everyone. Placemaking is in the business of making vibrant, healthy and thriving communities. At its core it’s a process of co-creation to work with community, for community, and to identify meaning and shared purpose.
Generally, placemaking can be understood as a community building and activating process to create places that are loved, cared for, and where a sense of belonging in that place is fostered and shared throughout the community. It follows the adage that if you love a place, you will take care of a place.
Teaching Placemaking
Place Agency is supporting the development of skills for students of architecture, planning, urban design and landscape architecture, through in-depth theory and practice led approaches. We use a head, heart and hand model. The educational methodology was guided by the insights of placemaking practitioners combined with the academic rigour of the consortium of universities, funded by Myer Foundation.
Place Agency has created a suite of educational modules and practice-based programs on placemaking and place development for graduate level students and early-career placemakers.
What People Say About Place Agency .
Benefits Of Place Agency
NATURE & REGENERATION
Nature is critical to the wellbeing of the community, Place Agency gives you the tools to integrate nature in your placemaking practice and work on an irresistible narrative for your place.
SUPPORTING PLACEMAKING EDUCATION AT UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES
Place Agency provides a co-created set of 12 modules including slides, reading, teaching guide and activities
SUPPORTING PLACEMAKING IN YOUR COMMUNITY
Place Agency has a process through which you can get a group of students (usually 10-20) involved with your project, read the case studies and connect with your local university. This aligns the project with a university, increases capacity to do engagement plus it will give you access to a pool of talent while not raising community expectation.
CULTURE AND FIRST NATIONS
Places are layered with stories from the distant, recent and emerging times, Place Agency supports the integration of these ideas, the key is the integration of nature and Indigenous perspectives of place giving voice to all.
TRANSFORMING FOR POSITIVE CHANGE
Placemaking supports the potential health of the community, its economy and its enviroment, it brings energy, purpose to projects through focusing on creating relationships between people, place and the environment.
MULTIPLE IDEAS AND DESIGNS
Place Agency delivers a quantum of ideas, images, narratives and concepts which you can draw from to lead to a more diverse set of options, with ideas, fun and playful engagement.