Introducing the Placemaking Fresk: A Fun Way to Explore Urban Sustainability

Have you ever wondered how cities can become more sustainable? Or how different aspects of city life are connected when it comes to creating a better future? The Placemaking Fresk workshop is here to help you explore these questions in an engaging and interactive way!

What is the Placemaking Fresk?

The Placemaking Fresk is an innovative workshop designed to help people understand the complex world of urban sustainability. It’s based on a simple idea: learning by doing. Instead of just listening to lectures, participants work together to build a visual representation of a sustainable city.

How Does It Work?

In a Placemaking Fresk workshop, you’ll join a small team of 4-6 people. Together, you’ll use a set of cards representing different elements of city life - things like transportation, energy, housing, and more. Your task is to arrange these cards on a large grid, showing how they connect and contribute to different aspects of sustainability.

The grid is based on a framework called ISO 37101, which experts use to think about sustainable cities. But don’t worry - you don’t need to know anything about this framework to participate. The workshop is designed to be accessible to everyone, whether you’re a city planner or just someone who cares about your community.

What Makes It Special?

The Placemaking Fresk isn’t just about learning about projects,or an approach. It’s about discovering connections. As you place cards and draw links between them, you’ll start to see how different parts of a city influence each other. Maybe you’ll realize how green spaces can affect both health and climate change, or how transportation choices impact both air quality and social equality.

This workshop also encourages creativity. Once you’ve built your “fresque” (French for “mural”), you’ll have the chance to illustrate it, making it uniquely yours. This creative process helps cement the ideas you’ve explored.

How Was It Created?

The Placemaking Fresk was developed by a team of urban planners, sustainability experts, and education specialists. They started with the idea of the Climate Fresque, a similar workshop about climate change, and adapted it to focus on cities.

To create the workshop, the team:

1. Studied the ISO 37101 framework to identify key concepts about urban sustainability.
2. Designed cards representing these concepts in clear, simple language.
3. Developed a game board that encourages exploring connections between different ideas.
4. Tested the workshop with diverse groups, from students to city officials, and refined it based on their feedback.
5. Created supporting materials like facilitator guides and participant workbooks.

The result is a workshop that’s both educational and fun, helping people of all backgrounds understand the challenges and opportunities of creating sustainable cities.

Why Participate?

Whether you’re a concerned citizen, a student, or a professional working in urban development, the Placemaking Fresk offers a unique way to engage with urban sustainability. You’ll gain new insights, share ideas with others, and come away with a deeper understanding of how we can create better, more sustainable cities for everyone.

Ready to explore the future of cities? Join a Placemaking Fresk workshop and be part of the solution! _