Research as part of placemaking
The world has changed. The architecture of spaces, especially open, public spaces, becomes as complex as possible, and the fences around construction sites are symbolic. Ideally, they should not be there at all, if, of course, the developer has nothing to hide.
The placemaking strategy for public spaces in the city of Newnan (USA), developed by the Better Block team, is based on the principles of PPS. Image source: teambetterblock.com
Project for Public Spaces (PPS) is a non-profit organization with 40 years of experience, founded by William White, author of the book "Social Life of Small Urban Spaces" and the revolutionary bestseller "How to Turn the City Around". The revolutionary nature of his approach to urban planning was that community wisdom provides the basis for all decisions in public space.
It was with the introduction of PPS that the term "placemaking" (literally, "creation of places") firmly entered the lexicon of modern architects and planners. Broader meanings than planning and designing public spaces are encoded in it. In the description of its mission, PPS interprets placemaking as "something more than simply promoting the best urban design." Placemaking, according to their opinion, contributes to the creation of creative models of territory use, paying special attention to the physical, cultural and social features that define the space and support its constant evolution.
The territory of South Lake Union, an innovative district in Seattle (USA), is developing according to the principles of placemaking developed by PPS together with the Brookings Institution. Image source: pps.org
Photo: Brianna Santellan on Unsplash
PPS has been actively involved in the regeneration of Detroit for 20 years. By the way, many still imagine this city as a desolate space, so vivid were the illustrations of the Detroit depression of the 90s. XNUMXth century, which almost destroyed the city after the stop of the auto industry giants. But today the situation is different. Starting with the restoration of the central public park and the Campus Martius square, PPS in cooperation with reformers from the local mayor's office and activists were able to launch a chain reaction of positive transformations that revitalized the center and its adjacent neighborhoods. The successful regeneration of Detroit, which continues today, cemented the image of universal anti-crisis urban managers for PPS.
Placemaking is more than simply promoting the best urban design
PPS has developed a methodology to make public urban space successful and fill it with life. The 11 principles of building public spaces formulated by them are a kind of mandatory checklist for modern formal and informal urban planners. And the first five steps that designers have to go through are spatial and thematic research, which includes involving local residents as experts, studying their experiences, visions of the future, identifying partners and stakeholders, monitoring, defining functions, and so on. Only then is it suggested to move on to design development, while form and architecture should only support function.
Campus Martius Park is a signature public space of Detroit. The territory regeneration project developed by PPS became a laureate of the prestigious International Urban Land Institute - Urban Open Space Award. Photo: Jason Keen. Image source: downtowndetroit.org
PPS, headquartered in New York, practices in the USA. In Europe, the largest company with a similar type of activity is the German Urban Catalist Studio, which was founded in 2004 by landscape architect Klaus Overmeyer.
It is necessary to develop a design paradigm based on context and local resources
Answering questions from PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA, Overmeyer, who came to Kyiv to participate in the CANactions International Architecture Festival, gave a fairly clear definition of the difference between the old and new approaches: "For me, research in design is when the context and local resources are taken into account. Previously, most architects were taught to focus on the design as such, but not on the context. But I think that it is necessary to develop a design paradigm based on the context and local resources — local communities, local cultures, local practices."
The Coal Drops Yard project, implemented by Heatherwick Studio, made it possible to create animated public spaces in the post-industrial zone near King's Cross (London, Great Britain). Photo: ©John Sturrock
Probing Kyiv
Since 2011, the Kiev team of designers "Agents of Change" has been engaged in what Lefebvre called "spatial practice" — the study and creation of connections, reacting to the city's problems as painful impulses in a living organism. We talked about the pedestrian navigation project for Kyiv in the article "We read the streets. How signs help pedestrians and cities" in volume 8 of PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA magazine. Qualitative research is one of the fundamental directions of the team's work, on which almost all of their urban projects are based. Its mission in the abstract of the UX educational course. RESEARCH, designed for professional designers, marketers, and web analysts, was defined by the team as "research and understanding of people's real needs, turning knowledge into design tasks."
Scheme of interconnected routes of Kyiv Podol from the project "Circle of Podol", developed by the "Agents of Change" team. Image source: a3.kyiv.ua
Agents of Change collect part of the funding for the implementation of their projects with the help of crowdfunding, and also carry out thematic studies on behalf of large developers, if the customer shares the organization's values and understanding of the mission - to make the city more comfortable and modern. In partnership with SAGA Development, "Agents of Change" conduct a multi-format study of the development potential of Kyiv Podol.
Researching and understanding the real needs of people, turning knowledge into design tasks is one of the missions of the "Agents of Change" team
The general director of SAGA Development Andrey Vavrysh spoke about the developer's motivation for such a partnership while speaking at the CANactions festival: "The depth of development should be in everything. We understand that even performing the usual function of building new facilities, we must put our heart into making it convenient for the people who live in or use our buildings, develop themselves, develop the city, and join in common affairs. Therefore, the new approaches used by "Change Agents" give us the opportunity to see what we have not seen before - what kind of context should be taken into account when working in a particular area. Without deep research, it is quite difficult.
Maksym Golovko, co-founder of the "Agents of Change" organization, speaks at the CANactions festival with a presentation of the renovation project of the Kyiv Podol embankment. Photo: Margo Didychenko
Our partnership with Agents of Change is built on the fact that we come with an open question. We used to come almost with a narrative: "Here we have a concept, tell me what needs to be improved here?". Now they went to a different format: “Could you do some research? Tell us, please, what kind of context surrounds us, where should we start?". We are changing the very starting point and understand that everything should begin with the formulation of an idea, the determination of which idea should be devoted to this or that development program of a specific territory.
We change the very starting point and understand that everything must begin with the formulation of an idea
This approach determines who exactly is the boss in this process and why everything is being organized. You understand that it is important to focus not even on some architectural composition, but on what feelings fill you when you use this object, space. Working ahead of schedule, we act as programmers, programming scenarios of life in a separate territory."
Aerial photography of the Kyiv Podol. Photo source: urbancurators.com.ua
Urban Curators are another researchers of the urban landscape with Kyiv registration. We wrote about their mission in the article "Post-industrial zones." Informal providers of the new paradigm in search of agents" in the 6th volume of PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA. The initiators of many urban initiatives and projects of various scales also conduct wide-band studies of territories.
Thus, their project to study the prospects of deindustrialization of the post-industrial Podol, carried out with the support of SAGA Development, began with research conducted by students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Masters worked in Kyiv under the supervision of MIT professor Brent Ryan, author of the monograph The Largest Art. A measured manifesto for plural urbanism and a supporter of the "plural" concept of city development, in the framework of which the developed design elements of the urban environment multiply, turning the map of territories and events into a kind of "patchwork".
Anastasia Ponomareva, co-founder of the Urban Curators agency. Photo: Vladimir Dyagel
"We started this project last summer - students came to collect initial data and left for a semester's work at the university. Two of our participants continued to work on the research in the next semester, says Anastasia Ponomareva, co-founder of the Urban Curators agency. — This is a study of the vacant territories of Podol, an attempt to structure them, create an atlas of unused territories and propose different scenarios for their use. There is an in-depth study of the community, the needs of the Podol community. We have yet to formulate the results."
Research is not necessarily filling out questionnaires and checklists. At the CANactions festival, Anastasia Ponomareva presented a non-standard methodological format — Map Me Happy. A transparent pop-up with a map of Podol, on which guests of the event could paste stickers with a short text about their bodily impressions of visiting a particular location, is a tool with which Urban Curators study the experience of positive exploration of Podol's spaces.
Qualitative data are necessary to formulate the idea or mission of some architectural, urban project
The concept of probing the territory with the help of sensory individual experience was developed by Anastasia Ponomareva in 2015 during the TANDEM UKRAINE program with the Dutch ethnographer and geographer Niels Grootjans. Petronela Bordeianu: "We superimposed layers on the map - the philosophy of city development, sensory perceptions, qualitative studies of public spaces, developed our own methodology. This map will give us a list of individual perception of public spaces and a collective one too — if the locations coincide. Qualitative data are necessary to formulate the idea or mission of some architectural, urban project. They will understand what is valuable for local residents. In a qualitative study, not so much statistical indicators are important, to which sociological studies usually strive, where it is necessary to observe a lot of criteria. It is important to highlight some unique patterns — what is common or, on the contrary, separate. And these patterns can give direction for the design, for its conceptual part."
A pop-up installation with a map of Podol at the CANactions festival is a tool of the Map Me Happy research project conducted by Urban Curators. Photo: Margo Didychenko
Qualitative research, as Anastasia explains, differs from standard sociological research based on direct surveys and questionnaires. They are also part of the participatory process — the involvement of residents in dialogue and discussion.
"People usually say quite obvious things when answering questionnaire questions. They complain about problems with transport, bad roads, a careless attitude to heritage, the loss of architectural monuments, the environment - things that, in principle, can be attributed to any district of the city. But if you conduct qualitative research, like Map Me Happy, you can find something specific. For example, we found out that residents of Podol lack additional functions. In English there is the term amenities. The direct translation is "amenities", but modern urbanists use it when they talk about optional infrastructure, about what it is possible to exist without, but it is something almost intangible, which creates the "spirit of the place". It can be some kind of community center, a special place with a collective memory... Anything. And the fact that the residents of Podol lack amenities was unexpected for us," says Ponomareva.
Planning and designing without research is like shooting at the sky
Although there is already an understanding in the community of Ukrainian architects and developers that the long-term nature of architecture, its demand and investment attractiveness depends on the precise fit into the context, on how well a new object or space meets the needs of citizens, today few studios and companies begin the process with study.
The post-industrial zone awaiting renovation is the embankment of the Kyiv Rachport, on the territory of which the CANactions festival was held. Photo: Margo Didychenko
"At Urban Curators, we try to rely on the results of research. There is not always enough initial data for work, and we are not used to working at random or using templates. But other architectural companies... I don't know. It seems to me that the demand for research is high, but not everyone has the opportunity to conduct it. It is necessary to have resources. In addition, this is very important for us! — studies will suggest the specifics of the place and the logic of decisions. Planning and designing without research is like shooting at the sky. That's why we develop these skills, learn. But if, for example, he is talking about a city-wide study, I can't even imagine who could conduct it, if not some large international company," Anastasiya summarizes.
Podol today is a territory with a deficit of greenery and public spaces
Diagnostics Kitaevo
A painful topic for many Kyivites is the prospect of developing the territory along the lakes of the Kitaevskaya desert, on the border of the urban zone of Kyiv and the Holoseevsky National Nature Park. In 2007, the Kyiv City Council allowed construction on plots with a total area of 58,3 hectares, and already in 2008 and 2014, high-rise residential development projects were submitted to the Ministry of Culture and the City Architectural Council. According to the general director of SAGA Development, Andrey Vavrysh, this approach to the development of the historical area of Kitaevo is initially unacceptable: "We understood that a high-rise building in this area would be something very terrible and irreversible. And they tried to find a way out of the situation and a completely different scenario."
Kitaevo residential area. Photo: artemco.livejournal.com
We wrote about the new project developed by SAGA Development and Perfect Group together with "Agents of Change", architectural offices Architectural Prescription and ZOTOV&CO in the article "Sustainable development of cities. Question price, currency and stakeholders" in Volume 11 of PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA. And the public presentation took place at the CANactions festival. The master class of Architectural Prescription founder Hrysha Zotov "Happiness in Urban Planning" gathered more than 4 hundred listeners.
Analysis of trends, situation, study of initial data — this process took at least half of the time of working on the project
The architect emphasized that the concept was built on the basis of a careful analysis of the current situation in Kitaevo, the study of successful European experience and trends. The designers, figuratively speaking, considered Kitaevo at the molecular level. The historical and archaeological context, natural features, conditions of life, path schemes, routes of public and private transport, accessibility of existing infrastructure facilities were studied.
The Kitaevo development project, proposed by Architectural Prescription, involves the creation of a low-rise, innovative and green district. Image source: Architectural Prescription
According to Grisha Zotov, "we found a low provision of services - underdeveloped transport links, lack of convenient connections with the city center (including due to the lack of a railway crossing), poor engineering support, cut off by the highway from the Dnieper, low the social status of the territory and, as a consequence, the low value of the property and the value of the territory for such a place. And also — the lack of protection of the historical heritage due to the fact that it is not sufficiently researched, the lack of access to archaeological monuments. Well, natural landfills and parking lots."
Andrey Vavrysh, CEO of SAGA Development, talks about the development prospects of Kitaevo at the CANactions festival. Photo: Margo Didychenko
The studies covered the territories and beyond the boundaries of the design area. The team studied the tourist routes in the Goloseevsky Park in order to connect them into a single whole, and for the future considered the possibility of transforming the industrial zone along the route that cuts the district from the Dnieper. "The industrial zone is living its life, and if the Kitaevo zone is activated, then this territory can become, for example, a place to build a student campus," says Zotov.
The research that preceded the design, according to Grisha Zotov, took about four months: "We worked together with ZOTOV&CO and CANactions. Analysis of trends, situation, study of initial data — this process took at least half of the time of working on the project. Local residents, talking about their vision of the development of Kitaevo, are certainly considered experts - we perceive them as such. But they are experts in the framework of their main route, which they do every day, forming a felt map. And in this format, I am sure, they know their territory better than I do. But today we look at the situation from a professional point of view and, using all the information, we can see the overall picture."
We look at the situation from a professional point of view and, using all the information, we can see the overall picture
According to Zotov, research should be immediately included in the overall budget of the project: "Simply doing research and understanding how trends work is good work, but no one needs it, because it needs to be analyzed and designed, adapted to the context. It's part of the design."
But work with experts does not stop even after the master plan is ready. The developer and architects are invited to the discussion of the project improvement council, and the general director of SAGA Development Andrey Vavrysh invites designers, architects and everyone who is ready to suggest new ideas in addition to the development concept to join the process.
Grisha Zotov (Architectural Prescription) and Viktor Zotov (ZOTOV&CO) at the CANactions festival. Photo: Margo Didychenko
Is research always necessary?
Catalan architect David Bravo Bordas, secretary of the jury of the international competition "European Prize for Urban Public Space" at the CANactions festival, cited examples of architectural projects that changed the lives of citizens for the better.
David Bravo told PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA why it is necessary to take a balanced approach to research, given that time and significant resources need to be allocated to its implementation.
David Bravo Bordas, secretary of the jury of the International Competition "European Prize of Urban Public Space"
"Both large and small projects are submitted to the Public Space European Prize competition. For example, the opera house in Oslo with a roof that you can climb on is a very large-scale public project, very expensive, made by large architects who have the means to conduct preliminary studies of locations - what they were, what they required. This is a huge job.
Different approaches to different projects — sometimes academic research, and sometimes — spontaneous initiative
But there are also quite small projects, the implementation of which costs 400 euros - for example, a pool in the middle of the street in Bucharest, installed on a parking lot. And I do not think that in this case a preliminary study was conducted. Even if young architects worked on the construction of the pool, they were led by local residents who do not need an academic approach to understand what they need. They simply had a desire to change the situation on the street. In this case, the research becomes the project itself. So residents will learn what happens when a parking lot is replaced by a children's pool. It turns out that there are such different approaches to different projects - sometimes an academic study, and sometimes a spontaneous initiative."
The roof of the opera house in Oslo, Norway, built according to the Snøhetta project, is at the same time a popular public space. Photo: Rafał Konieczny — Own | GNU Free Documentation License
"Arsenal" is the territory of the Venice Biennale. Photo: Andrea Avezzu / La Biennale de Venezia
David Bravo believes that conducting urban studies in some cases can be pure populism and even harmful. And he cites as an example the initiative of the municipality of Oslo, which introduced a tax on traffic jams. In an effort to make the city car-free and reduce the amount of emissions into the atmosphere, the authorities introduced a tax on the entry of private cars into the center of the Norwegian capital.
People often oppose any change. But they are necessary
Embankments of canals in Copenhagen are used as "pause places". Photo: Iryna Isachenko
A temporary pool on the street of Bucharest, the capital of Romania, installed in the parking lot, is one of the projects of the Street Delivery festival in 2014. Image source: publicspace.org
"The authorities did not hold public discussions before this decision. Because not all residents have the required level of competence. They do not know about the real impact of air pollution on human health and climate change. But at the same time they are under the influence of car advertising. Therefore, in Norway, they first introduced this tax on traffic jams, and an hour later held public consultations - when people already had experience and felt the effect of the innovation. That's when the survey participants said: "We want this to remain forever." If the poll had been conducted before the innovation, the result would most likely be different. People often oppose any change. But they are necessary if we want to change the world for the better," Bravo summed up.
David Bravo Bordas, secretary of the jury of the International Competition "European Prize of Urban Public Space"
