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Placemaking: Sense, Space & Strategy

This three-week programme will explore the web of relationships between people and place. Placemaking as a philosophy and practice concerns the improvement of urban spaces by including its users in the transition for change. Through a bottom-up planning process, it intends to give the right to the city back to its inhabitants. This innovative course borrows from human geography, experimental and environmental-psychology, history, and sociology, problematising the urban environments in which we live.

  • Programme at a glance
    Mode of instruction: On-campus (3 weeks) 
    Academic dates: Sunday 21 July - Thursday 8 August 2024 
    Housing dates: Friday 19 July - Friday 9 August 2024 
    Academic fees:

    Student fee:

    €1750. Read more about what is included in the fees.

    Professional fee:

    €2000. Read more about what is included in the fees.

    Housing fees: €850 for a private room and shared facilities. Housing is optional. Read more about university-organised accomodation
    Credits: 6 European Credits. Read more about credits and credit transfer.  
    Early admission deadline:

    Thursday 1 February 2024. Admissions are processed throughout the year on a rolling basis. 

    Students who require a Schengen Visa to study in the Netherlands are strongly advised to apply before the early deadline to ensure there is enough time to secure a visa appointment before the programme begins.

    Regular admission deadline: Friday 15 March 2024
    Who is this programme for?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

    Level: Bachelors, Masters students and working professionals.

    Background: Applicants should have an interest in urban studies, human geography, sociology and/or policy making. Working professionals with relevant experience in the above topics who wish to expand their knowledge in this field are also welcome to apply.

  • Programme description

    This three-week interdisciplinary course unravels the theory, policies, politics and practices of placemaking, taking Amsterdam as a site for analysis and action. Placemaking is more than a method; it is a philosophy for the development and experience of cities. Situating placemaking in a mixed academic context, this course focuses on topics such as public space, community, diversity and 'the right to the city'. Interdisciplinary theoretical insights will directly inspire the hands-on part of the programme in which students will apply the Placemaking methodology and put forward proposals for interventions.

    Experiencing the city is at the heart of this programme. It presents exciting alternative ways to understand how people live in, respond to, and imagine their cities. Urban spaces can be imagined as territories of negotiation. Sensory experiences often inspire a strong sense of belonging and might therefore play an important role in the co-creation of space. Like other global cities, Amsterdam is constantly growing and changing, with implications for people’s relationships to the city. In this territory of negotiation, where the sense of belonging is at stake, placemaking offers an opportunity – albeit small – to practice the right to the city. 

    We will be using Amsterdam as our living laboratory, exploring placemaking practices at various locations. You will learn by doing, intensively engaging with a specific site. There you will study challenges formulated by local stakeholders (these might be community organizers or the municipality). To analyse and develop and eventually present an intervention for these challenges, you will be guided through a design thinking research process involving local residents. 

    Through this programme, we aim to provide students with the knowledge, toolbox and practice to (1) be able to articulate insights on lived experiences in the city and current Placemaking theory and practice, (2) collaborate on strategies and interventions, and (3) apply and advance the Placemaking approach.

  • Academic directors

    Guido Knibbe, Msc teaches Placemaking year-round in the undergraduate Interdisciplinary Social Science program at UvA and is co-developer of the Transition Makers Toolbox, an open-source online platform for transition-education materials based on the Inner Development Goals. His background is in Sustainability studies and Anthropology, which Guido applies to the groundwork of societal transitions, focusing mainly on developing cooperative and regenerative local food systems. His work further involves exploring alternatives to neoliberal concepts of progress by participatively studying more-than-modern worldviews and living practices.

    Guido will be directing this Placemaking summer programme for the third consecutive year. 

  • Explore our community

    Want to get to know more about studying in Amsterdam, and what the urban fabric of sensescapes is like? Follow us on social media and join our summer community. Get a feel for our summer school vibe and our academic and social community, and learn about studying with us through the eyes of past summer school students. 

    Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter 

    Interested in hearing more about placemaking as a methodology and ongoing placemaking projects in Amsterdam? Listen to some of our placemaking experts in this episode of our podcast, Mokum. 

    Sensory tour of Amsterdam with Thea Dukes
    Sensory tour of Amsterdam with Thea Dukes
SPO Video
Join us in Amsterdam!
Facts & Figures
Mode
Short-term
Credits
6 ECTS, 3 weeks
Language of instruction
English
Starts in
July