A critical component of the WHY of Placemaking has to do with how space makes people FEEL:
We use the term āstickinessā to describe a place that people return to and linger in.
Stickiness is created by co-locating uses and activities in ways that support each other AND by an environment that supports lingering, like when an entertainment district with restaurants and bars is anchored by a music or sports venue and connected by a high quality public space like a plaza
We also know that low-risk interactions, like the ones you have with your regular barista or the neighbor you always pass on your dog walk not only boost our mood and self esteem, but contribute to our overall well being, physical health, and even extending our lifespans!
When you experience repeat interactions like this, you start to build positive associations that make you feel connected to a particular placeāwhat we call place attachment.
Here's a sneak peek from a talk I'm giving in a few weeks about placemaking for local businesses. In this diagram, I'm borrowing the structure from Maslow's hierarchy of needs to talk about the foundational elements of creating stickiness and place attachment.
My thinking around this work lately has been influenced by perpetual re-reads of Happy City by Charles Montgomery, Kelton Wright's Ecology of Belonging, and the Transformative Cities framework by Josephine Yilan Liu.
The other day I was flipping through some old resources and I came across some notes and diagrams illustrating different forms of capital. The Eight Forms of Capital is a framework developed by Ethan C. Roland of AppleSeed Permaculture, building on Bill Mollison's Categories of Assets.
Inherently, my instinct is to begin to sort the types of capital into groups based on their respective currencies: People, Places, and Things
The Things category contains Financial and Material Capital: Money and physical assets like buildings and infrastructure
Places includes Material, Living, and Cultural (which doesn't mean much without People, but is often tied to Place)
People includes the remaining four types of capital: Social, Intellectual, Experiential, and Spiritual
Some observations about the groupings:
There's an inverse relationship to the number of types of capital in a category and the value that we (Western society) ascribes to that particular category. For example, the Things group is the smallest in terms of types of capital, but arguably the largest, most important, most foundational in terms of how we ascribe value. If you think about it in terms of a pyramid, financial capital forms the base, because we typically need access to financial capital to start to move into the other categories
As Roland notes in the paper linked above, three of four People-coded capital types can be accumulated by individuals, but Culture can only be accumulated as a group. What does this mean with regards to the currency of Culture: songs, stories, rituals, etc.? It's as if they only derive value from being shared.
Notably If you try to apply this overall framework at a larger scale than individual happiness or relationships between two individuals or a small group, it falls apart. In my day job, we drive value for our clients through leveraging other types of capital; we believe that this produces better outcomes for users and communities, but ultimately value is still measured in the financial success of the project. Put another way, you can't convince corporations that cultural capital matters outside of aiding the accumulation of financial capital.
A Few Things Iāve Learned from Traveling by Train
Kids make great travel buddies.
Train travel with small kids is a delight. Theyāre funny and insightful, enthralled with the journeyāand so, by proximity, are you. On a train with a small child you can share snacks, play games, strike up a conversation with a fellow traveler, or simply watch the world go by together (and point out all of the cows and rivers and airplanes).
Perhaps itās the egalitarian nature of travel by traināweāre all along for the same rideābut Iāve found that kids tend to put their best foot forward. Theyāre cute and engaging, and they like to be helpful, carrying their own bag, etc. Sure, they can slow down traffic getting on and off the train, which can be stressful when itās crowded, but on the whole it beats swatting at them blindly from the front seat to break up a fight.
You donāt need as much stuff as you think
When you canāt pack the car full of everything you might need, you have to be more selective. Rarely have I found myself wishing for something that I didnāt pack. When our older son was 15 months old, we took a family trip abroad and traveled entirely by train (granted, it was Switzerland, where trains are famously on time, which helps a lot with a toddler). We met another family with a kid around the same age amazed that we were doing it all by trainābut then it slipped out that among other things they had packed a baby bathtub! Onto the airplane! Across the Atlantic Ocean! Iām sure they felt stupid about it but in their defense thatās what car brain does to you :shrug:
Practically speaking, when traveling by train youāre generally connecting through more populated areas or there's a small commercial area concentrated around the train station that generally has at least an express grocery store. You can find almost anything you might need. And if you can't:
People are generally kind and helpful
There are inconsiderate assholes everywhere, but on the whole, humans are usually happy to help. The amount to which we value minding our own business varies by culture, but traveling by transit tends to appeal to the community-minded part of us. People will help you lift a stroller up and down stairs, scoot over and make room, let you know if you've left something on your seat, and--importantly--confirm that you're going the right direction!
Maybe the fact that we're not stuck in our own metal bubbles fuming in rush hour traffic has something to do with our collective predisposition to kindness; I know I'd personally rather take a train thatās delayed two hours and doubles the length of my trip than sit in traffic on I-95!
How to be Happier, Right Now!
Spending time in nature makes us happier.
But! You don't need to live in the country to be happy: Regular access to small pockets of natural landscapes is enough to boost your happiness.
Quality over Quantity: Complexity is more important than size.
LEVEL UP: A proven way to improve your happiness is to cultivate a practice of AWE (Aww!)
Spending time in nature is an easy way to practice awe.
Sources
Happy City by Charles Montgomery
Build the Life you Want by Arthur C. Brooks
Every time I come back from a trip to Europe with my family (which has been, admittedly, just twice), one of the starkest contrasts I experience is that we don't really have public parks and plazas that are adjacent to cafes. Upon our return, I'm wracking my brain to replicate the experience in my region of letting the kids run free while we enjoy food and drinks with other adults without having to pack our own or cut the fun short because people are getting hangry. On our recent trip to Belgium, my parents, spouse and I enjoyed a mid-afternoon happy hour while the kids played with their toys and watched horses trot by in the plaza adjacent to our table. Such a civilized way to be out in the world with small children!
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