Placemaking as an approach of sustainable urban facilities management

This paper aims to present the potential of placemaking as an approach of sustainable urban facilities management and its impacts on the improvement of the planning procedures which was aimed at involving citizens in the process itself. The study is based on the general concept of placemaking represented as an “overarching idea and a hands-on approach for improving a neighbourhood, city or region”, that serves as a process that “inspires people to collectively reimagine and reinvent public spaces as the heart of every community” (PPS, 2007).

The study used placemaking (onsite analysis, stakeholder identification, citizen survey and emotional mapping) and public participation geographic information systems (The Kernel Density tool in ArcGIS and hot spot analysis) methodologies to map problems and preferences identified by stakeholders related to particular spaces within the move formed by Maršala Birjuzova and Sremska streets in Belgrade. The research covered two-day stakeholders’ workshops including four groups of users participated in the workshop – pupils of local private high school, street residents, students of the Faculty of Forestry and the Faculty of Architecture and owners of local shops and businesses.

Research has shown that different stakeholders can offer very rational observations on the quality of a particular space and provide clear suggestions on its improvement and transformation. These proposals can be organised in the form of visions of the future appearance and functioning of the space, thus recognising the potential in the function of a sustainable urban facilities management tool in the form of creating a common idea, which will result in the creation of a common space.

The research covered only part of the process that resulted in the creation of an idea of future public space transformation. Continued research should be conducted after the intervention, which would give a more comprehensive picture of the effects of the approach.

Practical implications include the presentation of the ways different groups of users perceive the actual and future transformation of the street to make this place more user-friendly and sustainable, i.e. practical example of the co-design process.

This paper provide an overview of the possibilities of placemaking approach seen from the perspective of sustainable urban facilities management.