Placemaking in St. Petersburg: How to create a public space?

Placemaking inspires people to collectively reimagine and reinvent public spaces as the heart of every community. Strengthening the connection between people and the places they share, placemaking refers to a collaborative process by which we can shape our public realm in order to maximize shared value. More than just promoting better urban design, placemaking facilitates creative patterns of use, paying particular attention to the physical, cultural, and social identities that define a place and support its ongoing evolution.

The workshop will be divided into two parts: theoretical and practical. During the theoretical part, participants will learn about placemaking methodology that can be applied to all essential city areas – streets and transportation, squares and parks, downtowns and districts, public buildings and city markets, making them both attractive and comfortable.

During the practical part, participants will take part in a field trip to the area near the Karpovka river and Lenpoligrafrommash zone (ex-factory). Last year project ‘Karpovka Friends’ started the study of this territory and, as a result, created a concept for the waterfront development. During the next few years there will be created high-quality public space on both sides of the river. The pedestrian embankment will receive new demanded functions and will become the new line center of the Petrogradskaya side. Participants of the workshop will have an opportunity to take part in the further development of the project, which is going to be the first open pedestrian embankment in St. Petersburg.

Workshop participants will gain insight on the following topics:

• How to make urban spaces not only functional, but also attractive for city dwellers, and learning what tools should be used to provide this transformation.

• How the placemaking experience can be adopted into the Russian context and what horizons it could open up.

• How to make a shift from forbidding monoliths to making them the centers of civic life.

• How to change parks from passive green spaces into natural gathering places,and how to reimagine city squares and streets, transforming them from “wider and faster” into friendly and attractive places.

For more than 35 years, Fred Kent and Kathy Madden have promoted the idea of public spaces as being key to livable cities and the idea of collective work as a main instrument of building the urban environment. Kent and Madden have worked in more than 3,000 communities in 47 countries across the world. Starting with rethinking Times Square and Rockefeller Center, Project for Public Spaces continued with the Walk Bike Places Conference in Vancouver and Placemaking Week in Amsterdam. Their international activity has now moved to governmental national campaigns with the Future of Places Conference being adopted as a part of UN-Habitat’s New Urban Agenda.

The workshop is designed for architects, urban planners, representatives of municipalities, entrepreneurs, and active members of communities who want to drive changes in the urban landscape.

Workshop will be held with the support of cobbling ‘kb Futurist’ and tech-cluster ‘Lenpoligraphmash’.

Please note that the workshop will be held in English and advanced knowledge of English is necessary. Application deadline – August 3, 2018. A producer will contact every applicant to confirm their participation and obtain payment. If you have questions, please contact olgamnishko@gmail.com.