What is a place?
People recognize a place, and distinguish it from others, and in our perception a place has a clear and specific identity. A place attracts us, we derive pleasure through all of our senses in going there and being there. We desire to stay or pass through the place. We do something in a place; walk, sit or lie, play, meet and interact with one or more persons, or do many other activities. A place breaks barriers and helps bring together different types of persons. We can also enjoy being alone in a place. A place is fun and safe for kids, agreeable and inviting for adults, welcoming for the elderly; aesthetic for all. A place has magic.
How is a place created in a city?
Places in cities can be within or outside of buildings. They are created by architects or artists, who use walls, roofs, openings, vegetation, light, the sun and wind, color, texture, sometimes water and many other resources to create places.
Most places are permanent. Architects work in tandem with teams of different types of engineers to design and build the elements that surround and engender places, and ensure them to be permanent and to function well for a very long time. Places created in the framework of permanent buildings or parks are built at very high costs. Official, commercial or private organizations or individuals, commission their design and construction, on properties of which they have legal rights. Permanent places are the result of effective working partnerships between land owners, official institutions, entrepreneurs, architects, engineers, the end users and other stakeholders.
Permanent places belong to the world of institutionalized city planning and architecture. Permanent places are the result of an up to down process. A different type of places can be created in a more spontaneous, less permanent, much less costly and less oficial scope. Since I do not know of a term for this type of place, let’s call them “soft places“. Soft places are the result of a grassroots, down to up process.
Soft places are usually the result of an initiative by artists or of residents of the city. Soft places are built at relatively low cost, requiring an effective but compact partnership between the residents, the artists and city officials. A soft place is almost always created on a property that does not belong to its makers. Soft places are usually temporary. They are created where residents feel the desire for a place, and when they feel that the institutions won’t deliver. A successful dynamic between the residents and the artists is a wonderful recipe for creating a place in a city. The process of creating a soft place is called “placemaking”.
During the last year I have had the fortune to been involved in a wonderful placemaking project in my home city, Bet Shemesh. Neighbors who share a desire to improve our environment have succeeded to get together, to formulate our unconformity and to do something about it. We are well into the planning stages of the project, and have developed a real, collective passion towards taking our plan to fruition. We have chosen an urban artists’ team, and believe that within a few months we will have created a soft but magical place for our neighborhood in a large, neglected plot of land at the entrance to our neighborhood.
Even though we still don’t have our place, we already have an invaluable, unexpected reward: our feeling of living in our neighborhood has changed very significantly. We have hopes. We have a new feeling of community: we are working together for our common goal, we have have befriended neighbors we did not know before, and with others we knew, deepened our friendship. Transforming a geographical juxtaposition of persons into a Community has significantly been enhanced. The feeling of being active members of a community is wonderful.
And this is just the beginning…
