Placemaking as Education

"As both an overarching idea and a hands-on approach for improving a neighborhood, city, or region, placemaking inspires people to collectively reimagine and reinvent public spaces as the heart of every community. Strengthening the connection between people and the places they share, placemaking refers to a collaborative process by which we can shape our public realm in order to maximize shared value. More than just promoting better urban design, placemaking facilitates creative patterns of use, paying particular attention to the physical, cultural, and social identities that define a place and support its ongoing evolution." - Project for Public Place

The act of placemaking will make of the projects students will participate in. This allows kids to begin to realize that they have the power to shape their community through the magic action. This grounding activity will then make the connection between skilled trades and abstract concepts like social collisions, ecology, and human centered design. These projects manifest in the form of community gardens, murals, crosswalk paintings, bus stop enclosers, etc. Anything that makes a community more walkable, liveable, and generally better designed for all people, from 8 year-olds to 88 year olds.