p l a c e b l o g

Placing is being moved to a WordPress site and blog. Two new posts were added to PlaceBlog yesterday:

A piece about Arup's VEGAS2015 - Brisbane Retrofit project
http://placing.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/ideas-vegas2015-%E2%80%93-brisbane-retrofit/

A piece about creative consulting and community consultation, focusing on Wendy Sarkissian's Speakout model.
http://placing.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/process-creative-consultation-creative-consultants/

I'll be adding all the older posts over the next little while. I hope you like the new site.

Go to the Placing site at:
http://placing.wordpress.com

Just thought I would post this. It's the result of a recent Planetizen brainstorm and poll (May 2009) about what to do with empty car yards with the recent announcement that many will be closing. The most popular idea - ask the local community what they need - is one that I proposed! Rather than impose new uses on these sites and local communities, it seemed to make some sense to ask the community first and make some place-based or site specific inquiries. Different sites and places will yiel...
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... to white people in the outer suburbs.


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How easy it can be to forget important things. The Merriam-Webster word of the day is 'Chorography'.

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day
August 15
 
chorography
\kuh-RAH-gruh-fee\   
noun
 
Meaning
*1 : the art of describing or mapping a region or district
2 : a description or map of a region; also : the physical conformation and features of such a region
 
Example Sentence
This highly detailed and embellished perspective drawing of the city and the surrounding lands is a fine example of 16th-century ...
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Perhaps it's population, perhaps it's geography, perhaps it's an inherent informality in Australia society, perhaps it's a tendency to rely on government, perhaps it's the way funding is parsimoniously managed for civic organsiations ...

I am rather curious about the lack of non-profit organisations in Australia focused on improving the built environment. Even though we have professional and industry bodies, chambers of commerce, local community groups, housing groups and the like, there seem...
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I'm reading a piece in Utne Reader by Eric Utne who has been visiting the Hadza tribe in Tanzania. Utne makes comments about the financial crisis and its impact on our sense of endurance. He observes "Still, many friends remain convinced that the financial turmoil is far from over, prologue to a cataclysmic economic and environmental meltdown. They’re storing food, buying guns, and otherwise trying to prepare for total systems collapse." Then he asks, "Their actions beg the question: How on...
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I'm initiating a Twitter trajectory for the Placing project titled Home Tweet Home. We've heard about place blogging and social mapping, so what about place tweeting as a type of place writing? I'm aware that many Twitterers are writing about their home towns and their daily lives so I am curious to explore that tendency and will start tweeting about these themes.

You can be involved too if like. Perhaps you are a planner, designer or artist working about place and placemaking. Perhaps, like m...
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I’ve been reading about slow journalism lately and it seems somehow relevant for the Placing project. In an earlier post, I’d pondered whether journalism is a built environment practice, as a way of thinking about the place of journalism in the city, a practice of place writing. I’d initially started to mull this over after reading a piece by Andrew Blum titled In Praise of Slowness: Thoughts on writing about the future of the city in Urban Omnibus. I was struck by his comment, “what�...
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Over the past few months, under the umbrella of the Placing project funded by the Australia Council, I’ve been researching and writing about urban ideas, with particular interest in the process of writing urban life and cultures. Placing is a somewhat peripatetic investigation of urban innovation and creativity focusing on the interleaved ideas of writing place and place writing from an interdisciplinary perspective. In the course of my research, I’ve stumbled upon many blogs, wikis and T...
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Last week, I met with John Mongard, a Brisbane-based landscape architect and urban innovator, who has been running a practice for about two decades. As a practitioner who approaches design and landscape from a culturally enriched and environmentally responsible perspective, he has consistently worked with communities to realise dynamic and liveable places and spaces. Mongard is deeply reflective in his approach to the integration of design, community and environment and critical of the way in...
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