Students on a placemaking mission in the city of Amsterdam

What happens if 120 second-year students go on a placemaking mission in the city of Amsterdam? A story about happy communities, making international headlines and contributing to the agenda of the Night Mayor.

The challenge

For the design-based Placemaking course at Inholland University of Applied Sciences, Leisure & Events management students were asked to research complex neighbourhood challenges, formulate a design scope, and create and test a prototype for a positive urban experience. Departing from a broad ‘How might we…’ question students spread out over five neighbourhoods in Amsterdam to carry out place-based and in-depth contextual research, as well as co-create and test spaces designed for social impact. Experts from The Placemakers, lecturers, coaches and neighbourhood experts and stakeholders guided the students throughout the co-design process. The public was the judge; evaluation of the prototype took place on the spot. The concepts were presented to a panel from the industry during and at the end of the project.

Why placemaking?

Placemaking is all about "Places shaping people, people shaping places” (Ellery & Borkowsky, 2021); the process by which a socially meaningful place is created on the basis of local knowledge and qualities as well as by doing small-scale interventions, thereby contributing to both local and wider social goals. Placemaking evolves around the needs and the involvement of local stakeholders - the community is the expert on how a place is used and experienced. Based on analysis and co-creation, placemaking can transform a space into a place by adding social and experiential value.

By testing in real life, students gathered valuable insights on the spot with which the prototype can be improved.

Why for Leisure & Events management students at Inholland?

Placemaking is an excellent breeding ground for experience-based, co-creative education: students discover they can create a place that holds experiential value using simple means. Within the design-based curriculum, students must take into account what is going on locally in their research and design process in order for their interventions to contribute to the experience and use of that place and to the needs of stakeholders. Awareness of complex urban challenges and their stakeholders is increased and iterations based on co-creation and evaluation add depth to the students’ leisure experience design.

At the core of the curriculum is this quote by architect Jan Gehl: "A good city is like a good party- people stay longer than really necessary, because they are enjoying themselves” (Matan, Newman, 2016). The experience of a place is central: the design (physical, programme) of a place has an effect on experience and can change behaviour. Students base their concepts and prototype interventions on experience design theory. Incorporating placemaking as an experience in the education programme creates environment-conscious Leisure and Events Managers who know how to create support, a network, social impact and attractive places!

Succesful Case: Dress & Dance

One of the best-received concepts was developed by a group of five students who started the project with the question: how can we make sure everyone gets to enjoy an evening out in the Reguliersdwarsstraat, the heart of the LGBTIQ+ area in Amsterdam? Through research, students found out that the rainbow community did not feel safe to dress as they wanted when travelling to and from the clubs in the street. The group managed to involve the local entrepreneurs and community from the start by testing their concept and paper prototype models for Dress & Dance, a safe changing room before going out to the club. The prototype test took place in a local salon with drag queens doing make-up, a free taxi service home offered by TCA, and safety officers helping out. There was a lot of enthusiasm for the intervention by visitors and the press: the test received attention from De Telegraaf, Het Parool and even Reuters picked it up. As one of the visitors mentioned: "It’s very unfortunate that we need this, but great that it’s here.” By testing in real life, students gathered valuable insights on the spot with which the prototype can be improved. The group was asked to help turn this test into a fixed location by the street manager. The night mayor of Amsterdam told Parool newspaper that creating this safe space is to be one of the first accomplishments of his term.

The rainbow community did not feel safe to dress as they wanted when travelling to and from the clubs in the street.

Project evaluation

Below, you can read the outcome of a small evaluation of the Dress & Dance project with the project group which shows that value is created on different levels. For the city, for the development of the students, and for the stakeholder and target groups involved.

How did you feel about this project at the start?
Emily: "At the beginning I had a hard time finding out exactly what was asked of us and what needed to be resolved. Only later did I get a picture of the total assignment and what the problem was. When I finally had clarity and we had created a good concept, I became even more motivated to participate in the project.”

Kim: "I found it rather difficult: what exactly was the purpose of this project? That was because we were asked a very broad question and I didn't really know what to focus on. Once we had chosen a target group and location, it became a lot clearer to me with what the intention was.”

Josien: "At first, I thought it was all a bit vague but as we did more and more research it all became clear. Due to the many collaborations and stakeholders we spoke to, the project became more and more realistic, which ensured that we also started working more seriously.”

What was the best part of the project?

Maaike: "That our concept has been treated so seriously by people we have worked with and may well become a permanent thing. When we noticed that there was a lot of interest, it motivated me to persevere and make something cool out of it.”

Emily: "What I liked most about this project is that the concept was received so well by the LGBTIQ+ community and that we received so much publicity, even internationally. I am extremely proud of the project group and of what we have achieved, the beautiful things we have created.”

Kim: "I am proud of what we were able to achieve in the end. I think it's great that Dress & Dance has received so much media attention and I thought it was great that so many people responded so enthusiastically to our concept. That made me feel like we've built something really cool. I think it would be very cool if this concept could help even more people in the future.”

The prototype test took place in a local salon with drag queens doing make-up, a free taxi service home offered by TCA, and safety officers helping out.

Josien: "In the end, we made headlines and that's not something I've been able to achieve with a school project before. The collaboration was a bit difficult here and there, but in the end we created something super cool with all of them. I am very proud of it.”

Lieke: "I found it super fun and instructive to work with someone [a stakeholder of the business association, EJ] who sees it not just as a school project, but as a potentially working concept.”

More information

• https://www.parool.nl/amsterdam/een-veilige-omkleedplek-in-de-reguliers-voor-uitgaanspubliek-ik-ben-altijd-bang~b8c690dc/
• https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/nightlife-safe-space-lgbtq-community-tested-amsterdam-2023-01-19/

Sources

• Ellery, P.J., Ellery, J. & Borkowsky, M. (2021). Toward a Theoretical Understanding of Placemaking. Int. Journal of Com. WB 4, 55–76
• Matan, A., Newman,P. (2016). People Cities- the life and legacy of Jan Gehl. Island Press