The Placing Project
Placing
is a critical and cultural exploration of place, writing
place and place writing. The project will result in writings and publications addressing the intersection of
cultural and urban life.
The objective of the project is to
draw out emerging and changing ideas about urban environments with a
particular emphasis on the role artists, designers, planners,
architects and other urbanists can play as changemakers. It is grounded
in a critical planning approach or praxis that is attentive to the need
for innovation and change (restructuring, retrofitting, recreating,
replacing, renewing, redirection etc). It is intended to "act in the service of what is seeking to emerge".
Theorist
Jane Rendell engages the idea of ‘site writing’, interleaving the word
with site and architecture. Placing considers practices of place.
However, the project is not only about practices of place but also
about practices of writing place. Place is both a noun and a verb. This
prompts an inquiry of place as something we do; beyond placemaking.
The
project is also attentive to social, cultural, economic and
environmental sustainability. However, within that, there is also a
need to consider sustainability in terms of governance, built
environment, technology and individuals. It draws from the Sustainable Cities Network framework and planning cycle and, where appropriate, will be looking for work and projects that:
- Adopt a long-term lens
- View the city as a complex system
- Use an integrated and comprehensive approach (or demonstrate an awareness of this)
- Are based on adaptive management and collective learning
- Focused on a city’s bioregion, ecological footprint and neighbours
- Value participatory engagement.
| Submissions are still being accepted
for Placed. Please send your information through when you can. The
publication and discussion is a progressive and cumulative activity. Project Structure
Placing is comprised of three elements:
1. Place
Place
is focused on approaches to place-based interventions through an
engagement with artist/designer projects exploring ideas of landscape,
territory, cartography and place, and which will afford a more
relationship driven and embedded approach to critical writing in an
artistic/creative context that is ‘in place’.
2. Placed
This
project poses the question of whether ‘we’ are well-placed to change
and creatively reinvent our cities. This aspect of Placing is a
publication that presents and profiles approximately100 examples of Australian urban innovation, invention and intervention. Inspired, in part, by the Canadian Centre for Architecture’s Actions: What You Can Do With the City,
this project seeks to document urban projects, acts, interventions and
events that reinvent the city. It is particularly concerned with
culturally grounded work by artists, architects, planners and designers
that engage communities. The project also draws some influence from the
London Festival of Architecture
and aims to provide those working in and with urban space an
opportunity to expose their work and ideas, while also drawing
attention to emerging and changing ideas about the city.
3. Placing
As
a writing project, this aspect of the project adopts a more
facilitated, consultative and process-driven approach rather than one
of theoretical or critical reflection and writing. However, it is
framed as a critical planning approach that is focused on working with
communities of interest to develop plans and strategies for local
change. The reason for this is to connect writing with experiences of
place – to write from within rather than above, as planners and critics
sometimes do. A number of
stakeholder groups will be approached with a view to instigating a
process of inquiry that draws on their communities of practice. The
intention is to identify a local need and then work with the community
to identify ways of resolving it. Placing will work with JM John Armstrong as facilitator. This will result in a series of publications addressing selected and critical themes in specific locales.
At this point one community of interest has been secured. The Placing project will be working with an arts and disability group to respond to some cultural and design needs for people experiencing disability. |
