Placemaking as a catalyst for development

Abstract

Public spaces, which constitute the streets, parks, plazas, festival grounds, and private places (Like entertainment plazas, shopping complexes, etc.), provide benefits for the economy, health, recreation, mobility, climate change, culture, provide a place for social cohesion, etc. and contributes to the physical and social wellbeing of the humans. With the increasing urbanisation, stress is experienced by the city centre, eventually deteriorating the quality of public spaces in the area. Urbanisation, characterised by congestion, traffic, fragmentation of land uses, etc., creates transitional and impersonal public spaces, ultimately affecting city dwellers' quality of life. The places of cohesion become less identified, the resident’s vulnerability to criminal and sub-criminal activities becomes evident, and anti-social behaviour tends to increase. And with the tight and compact development pattern in the city centre, where pooling land for newer development is difficult, it becomes necessary to adapt to the techniques or approaches to create these places in the existing built fabric. Placemaking is an approach that can be adapted to generate these places of social cohesion into the existing built fabric. Many scholars have emphasised the significance of placemaking as an essential tool for urban development. The thesis entails the study of three micro-clusters from the city centre in Nagpur using the Public Space Quality Index and identifies various indicators associated with elements of placemaking. Further, it aims to recommend various strategies for the creation of public spaces and their management through the concept of placement for these three micro-clusters. The concept of placemaking has grabbed much attention in recent times globally. In India, Bhopal Smart City Development Corporation Limited developed the first Placemaking guidelines in 2017. Along with that, various urban development programs like AMRUT, HRIDAY, etc., have created momentum for the improvement of public spaces, and these programmes offer chances for collaboration and action, all of which are necessary for a successful public-privatepeople partnership