UNStudio has recently published a report exploring the broader scope of community building and placemaking in the post-pandemic urban environment. Through examples from their practice, UNStudio highlights various design strategies currently incorporated in architecture and urban planning that cater to the universal and crucial need to connect socially. In addition, the practice stresses the importance of “ third spaces” and human-scale connectivity, as well as the blending of digital and physical spaces of interaction.
Illustrating the social and health value of public spaces, the studio cites researcher Tamas David Barrett who says that “it has been long observed that urban spaces in which the frequency of meaningful social contact among the individual members of a particular population is high tend to generate healthier communities.” UNStudio defines placemaking as a strategy that builds on community knowledge and considers the site holistically, interweaving a wide array of aspects from health to sustainability, data-driven technologies and the psychology of social interaction.
Designing to strengthen and support communities is all about creating places that bring people together. A key approach to achieve this is through Placemaking, which is to create quality places that spark an emotional attachment for people and thrive when users have a range of reasons to be there.- UNStudio’s Founder and Principal Architect Ben van Berkel.
“The definition of community has evolved so much that it’s no longer just a way of impacting communities through physical interaction or changes, but also digital, social, emotional and mental,” says Garett Hwang, UNStudio Hong Kong Director. Through its diverse body of work, the studio has developed a wide array of strategies conducive to inclusivity and community building. From the decentralized healthcare framework proposed in the Bruzzano masterplan to the self-learning urban environment of the Brainport Smart District and the new urban mobility strategy proposed through Distelweg ‘Street of the Future, UNStudio aims to tackle placemaking on multiple levels.
