Placemaking Action Week 2022

Porch Fest, South Freo Corner Pocket

Placemaking Action Week is running from the 3rd to the 9th of October 2022 and we want you to get involved! Why? Because research shows we are healthier and happier when we feel a sense of connection with out local community; it’s easy and its fun! During the week the global placemaking community band together to help spread the movement.

Placemaking has a clear focus on creating stronger connections between people and their local places. Project for Public Spaces defines placemaking as “both an overarching idea and a hands-on approach to improving a neighbourhood.”

At the heart of Placemaking Action Week is the desire to promote deeper positive connections in communities across the world. The core objectives of the event are to encourage small actions within local neighbourhoods, and to share existing placemaking projects happening across the globe.

Everyone is invited to participate in Placemaking Action Week through the facilitation of small projects that seek to bring joy to neighbours. Through small projects, like chalk drawings on the footpath or a sign in a window, people can build stronger connections to each-other and contribute to building places that promote happiness and well-being.

We also encourage people to share existing projects on the map. This will assist us in building a global directory of placemaking case studies that can be shared publicly to spark more ideas and build greater awareness and engagement with the placemaking movement.

How to be involved:

Participants of Placemaking Action Week 2022 are encouraged to document and share their projects for the global community to enjoy and draw inspiration from. An interactive map of past and current projects can be found on the Placemaking Action Week website, where participants are asked to share their location and project for everyone to see! This year, the hashtags #placemakingaction and #placemakingactionweek will be used to track social media posts. 

Where did Placemaking Action Week come from?

Originally named Porch Placemaking Week, the concept was developed in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Collectively, we found ourselves confined to our homes and more isolated from our communities. The week hoped to counter this by fostering positive social connections between neighbours from within their own homes, whilst remaining physically separate.

 Throughout the past two years, there have been over 265 porch projects recorded across 24 countries. CoDesign Studio, Fourfold Studio and Placemaking X, with the help of 30+ industry supporters, have been rapidly building awareness of the placemaking movement across the globe. They seek to continue and grow this momentum through Placemaking Action Week.

Gallery of Past Projects