CASESSTAKEHOLDERS METHODOLOGIES
Here you will find a list of selected methodologies of placemaking, analyzed by EPA and put side by side to see, how the existing practice could change.
The approaches explored by the European Placemaking Academy differ in their priorities and methods, reflecting different ideas about what placemaking should achieve and how change happens. Some focus on reshaping the stories people tell about a place, others on strengthening communities, improving governance or creating practical tools for local action.
Rather than treating these approaches as competing models, the project sees them as complementary perspectives that illuminate different dimensions of the same process. Narrative practices can reshape how places are understood and experienced. Educational approaches build the knowledge, confidence and skills needed to participate in change. Practical implementation frameworks turn ideas into concrete interventions, while governance models help establish long-term collaboration between communities, institutions and other stakeholders. Analytical tools, in turn, make it possible to document these experiences, reflect on them and share knowledge across different contexts.
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES (PPS)
The christomatic example of the placemaking methodology is the one formulated by the PPS. It became a point of departure for many other methodological approaches to placemaking developed later on.
The distinctive feature of the PPS approach is its emphasis on practice rather than theory. Instead of developing an analytical model of place or neighbourhood transformation, PPS focuses on a set of practical principles and tools that guide stakeholders through the process of creating successful public places. Its primary contribution therefore lies in operationalizing placemaking as a collaborative process rather than conceptualizing it as an analytical category.
NEIGHBOURHOOD INDEX
The Neighbourhood Index was developed as part of the 2022 Oslo Architecture Triennale: Mission Neighbourhood – (Re)forming Communities. The platform brings together projects, practices, and perspectives submitted through an international open call, with the aim of broadening the understanding of what constitutes a good neighbourhood and how neighbourhood-scale transformation can contribute to more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient cities. Following an international open call, 383 submissions were received, of which 236 projects were selected and organised within a searchable online repository. The projects include practical interventions, professional practices, and conceptual perspectives from around the world.
Rather than offering a prescriptive placemaking methodology, the Neighbourhood Index serves as a knowledge platform and analytical framework for documenting, comparing, and learning from diverse neighbourhood initiatives around the world.
Compared with PPS, the Neighbourhood Index is considerably less normative and much more descriptive. PPS tells practitioners how to make places, whereas the Neighbourhood Index is primarily concerned with how to understand, classify, and learn from different neighbourhood-making practices. In other words, PPS offers a methodology for action, while the Neighbourhood Index offers a framework for observation, comparison, and reflection. This distinction could be useful in your comparative analysis of placemaking approaches.
PLACEMAKING FOR INCLUSION (PM4I)
The Placemaking for Inclusion (PM4I) project was developed within the Erasmus+ Programme by a consortium of organisations working at the intersection of youth work, placemaking, urban pedagogy, and community development.
The distinctive contribution of PM4I lies in positioning placemaking as a pedagogical framework. Rather than focusing exclusively on improving public spaces, the project treats placemaking as a vehicle for developing competences, agency, active citizenship, and social inclusion through experiential, place-based learning. Its primary innovation therefore lies in integrating non-formal education, youth work, participatory action research, and placemaking into a coherent methodology that simultaneously transforms places and empowers the people who shape them.
THE ACADEMY FOR URBAN ACTION (AUA)
A project initiated by Urban Foxes in Brussels. It is an experimental, participatory youth project that intersects urban pedagogy, sustainability education, action research, and placemaking.
This cycle combines participatory action research, design thinking, and placemaking into an iterative learning process. It progresses from exploration and knowledge generation (Steps 1–4) to collaborative design and experimentation (Steps 5–7), culminating in public dissemination and reflection (Step 8) before feeding into a new cycle. Compared with the PPS approach, which primarily provides general principles for placemaking, the AUA cycle functions as a pedagogical process model, structuring how young participants move from understanding their neighbourhood to collectively designing and testing urban interventions.
HAUS DER STATISTIK
The Haus der Statistik is a large-scale urban regeneration project located at Alexanderplatz in Berlin that transforms a former administrative complex into a mixed-use neighbourhood dedicated to the common good. Initiated in 2015 by a coalition of artists, architects, urban activists, and local politicians, the project successfully prevented the sale and demolition of the vacant building and instead established a long-term vision for its cooperative redevelopment. The future quarter combines affordable housing, public administration, art, culture, education, social services, and local democracy, while treating the redevelopment process itself as an experiment in collaborative urban governance.
The Haus der Statistik initiative at Alexanderplatz is a model project aimed at transforming a historic yet underutilized building into a vibrant community hub. This initiative embodies a comprehensive placemaking approach that seeks to foster community engagement, sustainable development, and social inclusivity.
The distinctive contribution of the Haus der Statistik lies in demonstrating that placemaking can operate simultaneously as a governance model and a spatial development strategy. Rather than treating participation as a separate stage of planning, the project embeds collaboration within the long-term institutional structures responsible for creating and managing the neighbourhood. In doing so, it illustrates how cooperative governance, temporary experimentation, and common-good-oriented development can be integrated into a comprehensive model of urban transformation.
AUDIOWALK: BRACHLAND WEISSENSEE
Audiowalk: Brachland Weißensee is a participatory urban storytelling project developed by Katya Romanova within the KIEZ:MOBIL initiative in Berlin-Weißensee. The project invites participants to explore vacant and neglected urban spaces through an audio-guided walk that combines local memories, personal narratives, and imaginative storytelling. Rather than presenting these spaces as temporary voids awaiting redevelopment, the walk encourages participants to perceive them as places of possibility, experimentation, and collective imagination. Residents of the neighbourhood act as guides, sharing stories about how abandoned sites have been rediscovered and transformed into informal playgrounds, cultural spaces, meeting places, and landscapes of memory.
The distinctive contribution of Brachland Weißensee lies in demonstrating that placemaking can occur through changing perceptions rather than changing physical environments. Instead of redesigning urban space, the project reshapes its meaning by revealing hidden histories, everyday practices, and imagined futures. It therefore illustrates how storytelling and artistic interpretation can function as placemaking practices, transforming abandoned spaces into places of cultural significance, community memory, and collective imagination.