David Engwicht @ Eco-topia 2012
Keynote—Placemaker, David Engwicht
Bringing life into your school or community garden:
David Engwicht takes us on a journey of the art, science and practice of placemaking.
If we approach the design of our school and community gardens merely as a landscape design exercise, all we are likely to end up with is a school or community garden space. The best school and community gardens are a lot more than this—they take a space and turn it into a place… a place where you like to go… a place where you like to spent time with plants and people… a place where children are excited to learn from…
David’s keynote and workshop will leave with a head spinning with practical ideas on ways to make your new or existing community or school garden a true multiple-purpose venue that practically demonstrates its value to the surrounding community.
David’s ideas are not just for community gardeners. They are equally valuable to local government staff seeking better ways to engage with communities in the repurposing of urban land to turn it from bland, lawn space into a productive landscape populated by people and the plants they tend.
Placemaking is a new approach to design led by communities rather than professional designers, yet it is a practice through which professional designers can learn to design the productive landscapes that people, rather than transient trends, fashions and notions present in landscape design, really want. It’s a community-led, not a designer-led approach. Essentially, placemaking is about people.