Western Australian Projects and Sites
www.placesforme.info
intro / overview / images / projects
Landscape Architects: HASSELL Ltd, Perth
Introduction
www.placesforme.info is an initiative of the Young Designers Group of the HASSELL Perth studio and was inspired by the work of Fred Kent at Project for Public Spaces. The objective was to create a free and open forum for positive change – a tool which a community can use to contribute to the planning and development decisions affecting the places they live, work and play in everyday.
There are 5 main ways to participate in the forum: By viewing, by submitting a ‘Placemaking Idea’, to ‘Discuss’ a placemaking idea, by ‘Rating a Place’ and by holding a ‘Placemaking Event’. These are free community engagement processes.
Submitting a ‘Placemaking Idea’ is an important and powerful apparatus for creating positive change. Users are able to zoom in to a specific place on a Google map, drop a pin on that place, and leave a very detailed comment, drawing or photo that describes their placemaking idea. Each idea uploaded then forms a part of an online gallery full of the ideas that a community has had for improving their places. Other users can go online to view all the placemaking ideas in a blog-type format, click on one to see it in more detail, to share it with others, or to discuss it.
To ‘Discuss’ a placemaking idea allows a user to bring another degree of resolution to a previously uploaded placemaking idea - this could be to develop their own idea, or someone elses. The main intention for this process is that it allows for someone to upload a photo with a comment, for the next person to download that photo and re-upload it with an overlaid sketch responding to that comment, for another person to download that sketch and provide comment or add more detail to it, and so on. It is intended that through this process, even the most obscure and imaginative placemaking idea can evolve into a real and tangible project with the input from a wider community of placemakers.
‘Rating a Place’ allows a user to audit a desired place by using a number of parameters consistent to all places loaded on the site; ‘Comfort and Image’, ‘Access and Linkages’, ‘Uses and Activities’ and ‘Sociability’. These are broken down further in the place rating survey and together provide a preliminary understanding of the character and vitality of a place and hint at its potential. This is a powerful placemaking tool in itself as it is provides direct feedback from the actual users of a place - the community who live in the places and have the best knowledge of what works and what doesn’t. Further, by clicking on the ‘Stat’s page, all the places on the site are listed and sorted as to their particular rating under the above headings. This gives an indication of places that need work, places that people are happy with and places that might benefit from strategic projects and planning.
Holding a placemaking event is another way of continuing the dialogue and brings awareness to the discussion. Placemaking events are a real demonstration of how we might re-think the use of a place, they can provide a glimpse into alternative uses of that space, or they might simply act to promote an appreciation of that place. www.placesforme.info encourages it’s users to hold these types of events and to freely promote them through the website.
www.placesforme.info brings value to the existing environment by promoting the placemaking discussion in a global community. In order for the website to have purpose, there needs to be comments, ideas and ratings. For these to be uploaded, users must have a degree of passion for their place; they need to dedicate their own thoughts and creativity to their ideas, and therefore demonstrate an intimate connection with place. All ideas are based on their individual responses to something that they want their place to become, something it’s lost, or to something that they want to protect and enhance.
intro / overview / images / projects
2010
