Placemaking

Places of Meaning

The practice is involved in the design and creation of places of commemoration.

Many designed spaces, through careful design, can reflect moments or matters of cultural or historical significance, be they at community or national level of importance. These special places serve as reminders of the past, provide recreational space for the present and are also intended to give us an opportunity to reflect on how one might influence society to create a positive future for all of our citizens.

Places of Recovery

The practice is involved in the design and creation of places of care and rehabilitation.

These spaces need to be sensitively designed to provide patients with access to an environment that supports the care and attention that they are receiving from health and caring professionals.

Gardens and horticultural therapy have been shown to provide many positive benefits in terms of improving mental and physical well-being. Happy memories can be stirred simply by having access to a garden, new memories and interactions can arise through shared experiences in a garden environment; bleak, institutional facilities can be brightened up and humanised with carefully composed landscape design leading to more comfortable and positive environments for patients and the possibility of speedier recovery.

Places of Education

The practice is involved in the design of places of learning at primary, secondary and tertiary level.

The design of these spaces can be at the campus level where an overall green-setting can provide a comfortable, healthy and protecting environment that nurtures well-being in students and also provides a feeling of distinctiveness. This type of campus may also provide recreational opportunities, such as walking, relaxing outdoors and a feeling of being close to nature.

Many centres of learning now advocate full engagement with the curriculum in providing students with opportunities for studying biology, ecology and the environmental sciences outdoors.

Individual buildings, playgrounds and classrooms may benefit from their own garden or individual landscape treatment.

Places of Recreation

The practice is involved in the design and development of civic spaces, parks and green spaces as well as the design of individual gardens.

These “break-out” spaces can be a key part of the urban fabric, providing a retreat for citizens from busy-streets, traffic and air-conditioned offices. Furthermore, they provide opportunities for recreation and sport in the city, and may also be used for holding outdoor events.

In small towns and villages, town parks can be a prime recreational space and a focal point for gatherings and festivals.

These projects can be seen to be part of the overall green infrastructure of our planned environment.

Private gardens are individual spaces that provide a recreational sanctuary for their owners, a place where they can express their own personal tastes. They may also provide subtle connections with the surrounding landscape.

Places of Connectivity

The practice is involved in projects where the prime goal is to provide links between different places and spaces.

These can be both visual connections and physical connections. Some system or unifying design element often pervades these designs.

Connections provided for pedestrians and cyclists are important considerations and the integration of roads, railways and power lines into the general landscape fabric.

Places of Production

Many places are ancillary to other functions such as industry or commercial activity.

Opportunities for landscape design interventions include access routes, boundaries as well as, otherwise, left-over areas in and around busy offices, retail outlets or in business parks.

Provision of a soft green landscape has many benefits including reduction of pollution, softening of the built fabric as well as providing an attractive place of work that will also be enticing to customers.