“Too many new homes have been ugly, shoddily constructed and of poor quality. [They are] identikit creations plonked down without regard to the shape and character of existing communities.”
Michael Gove’s recent words have hardly been met with delight by the housing sector. Not only are they wickedly critical, they also paint a picture of a worrying future, where planning and government intervention could become yet more challenging for housebuilders.
So how can the sector navigate these challenges, and prove that residential developments offer much more than ‘ugly identikits’? Creative agency, Hunter Design, have conducted a global research project to find out.
Spanning North, Central and South America, French Polynesia, Australia, Asia, and Europe, ‘Making Sense of Place’ has taken Hunter’s strategy team right the way around the world, all to answer the question: what’s the recipe for creating a ‘sense of place’?
Here are 3 of the key trends that the project has uncovered:
1. Holistic health
UK developers are now well practised in serving individual health needs by providing facilities like on-site gyms and green spaces. However, there are a few trends globally that are shaking up what it means to create a truly ‘healthy place’.
In New South Wales, for example, a library building boom is taking place. These unexpected facilities offer a more holistic approach to wellbeing, providing community spaces for learning, connection, tranquillity, and development. In Sydney, many residential developments are being built with a brand-new library facility – an emblem of pride as well as wellbeing for new residents.
2. Emotional encounters
Emotional connection is a vital component of sense of place; people need to feel something when they visit. Around the world, many placemaking initiatives are taking this imperative seriously.
A lot can be learned, for example, from grassroots placemaking groups in Havana. The likes of Tercer Paraiso – a community art foundation – organise an annual ‘River Festival’, which brings locals together to clear plastic from the shores of the Almendares River. It’s no accident that they refer to it as a ‘festival’. This is a fundamentally celebratory event; an unglamourous ritual which encourages community connection and ownership. In a similar vein, a ‘guerrilla garden’ initiative in the French capital allows Parisians to grow plants in small, designated pockets of public realm. The gestures may be little, but they seed a feeling of ownership, responsibility, and care among locals for their surrounding areas.
3. Interactive impact
Places are usually experienced visually, but can sometimes fall short when evoking the other senses. In fact, in the age of the smart phone, people often move through spaces without even using their eyes.
Yet physical interactivity and tactility can change the relationship that people have with a place. In Santiago, Chile, placemaking consultancy Espacio Lúdico is taking this seriously. The consultancy puts ‘play’ at the centre of its thinking, encouraging adults as well as children to play in the places they bring to life. From adult-sized swing-sets to DIY go-kart circuits, these pop-up play opportunities allow residents to see their neighbourhoods in a new light, and collect tactile experience of the places in which they live.
Insights and ideas
As housebuilders well know, there’s more to creating places and seeding communities than simply building homes. Yet there’s much to be learned from the actions, big and small, of the placemaking sector globally. To read more insights from Hunter’s Making Sense of Place research, you can download a full copy of the very first trends report here.
Hunter’s strategy and insights team have also developed a unique methodology to support builders and developers in placemaking – they call it PAVE®. If you’re seeking ideas and inspiration, find out more about the PAVE® methodology here.
Contact Hunter’s Strategy Director, Chloe Beckett, for more information.
