February 15, 2021
Placemaking
2020, The Year that Turned Cities, and the Placemaking Movement, Upside-Down
In a challenging year where we all did our best to stay home, it was also one in which we rethought and reorganized how we shape the spaces we share outside of our homes. After retreating from certain aspects of public life, it became clearer than ever that our public spaces are essential to our social life, our health, and as a part of our economic recovery.
2020 shook everything up for all of us, but also became a year primed for turning things upside-down; for the shaping of cities to start with sidewalks and people-powered places.
Public spaces have been the new focus of saving cities and small business, unleashing new community-driven creativity, for which placemakers have long demonstrated and advocated. The placemaking movement adapted and grew in ways we’ve never seen before, defined and driven by its local and regional leaders and networks.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR
PlacemakingX has its global launch at World Urban Forum 10 (February 2020).
The global launch of PlacemakingX at the World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi included placemaking leaders from many regional networks.