The Politics and Problems of Placemaking in the Philippines

I. Summary/ Synopsis
The ability to access and generate public spaces where people can use
has insightful implications for the people and life chances is impeccable.
The power of place-based awareness and action to illuminate and address
social inequalities has rested in the hands of various researchers and/or
activists and has applied to understanding these processes (Toolis, 2017).
The title read is about “The Politics and Problems of Placemaking in the
Philippines”, and the topic that these piece wanted to evict is to become a
kin observer and knowing the importance of having a cultured space for
everyone to use which connects and binds the nature, the people and the
places together. The main aims of this paper are first, to analyse the
reasons for pursuing the goal of improvement and to examine the role
which new-build projects play within it. A second goal is to understand how
this is formulated and implemented under different political economic
contexts.

II. Analysis/ Evaluation

Ever wonder what would happen if buildings could interact with one
another? If they shared the same ideas, knowledge and spaces? Spaces is
rather important than everything else. Public space is, above all, shared
space, characterized by public ownership, open accessibility, and
intersubjectivity (Kohn, 2004). What struck me most is the analyzation of
the meaning of “placemaking”. Placemaking, in my opinion, is a ground-
level and person-centered development that emphasizes collaboration and
cooperation of the community in order to improve the lives of towns and/or
cities.
A good place must be people-friendly and also a good city must be
packed with good experience, it must be a walking experience. It is suppose
to be safe, pleasurable and exciting. Improving pedestrian mobility reduces
the need to take cabs or cars. If the sidewalks were made wider than most
then the capacity for people using vehicles will be minimized. The
environment also plays an important role in how we understand our
individual group and cultural identities. The problems intake with
placemaking is a lot of infrastracture that contributes to engineers and
contractors in making it in an unknown process. For them detailing is not
important, but in a sidewalk, even an inch matters. As the saying goes
rome was not built in a day this pertains that making places is not cheap
and easy, it also comes to be technically difficult. Construction is another
issue.
According to Shinn and Toohey (2003), they explained that
understanding places is critical to understanding human thoughts,
behaviors and social relations. Which means there is no balance in urban
compositions if you do not have both in pleasing and fucional properties.
The piece was really convincing, for it serves something that engineers,
architects, and contractors should understand. It is well researched but it
seems to me that they must also established specific plan for either zonal
plan or road plan in which to decongest for any obstruction. As I was
reading the piece, it come across in my mind of why they put their attention
so much in such these buildings and not come across to other possible
problems and solve it. In catering to elites and the creative class, this
restructuring can contribute to the displacement of marginalized residents
(Doucet, van Kempen, & van Weesep, 2011). It does not overemphasize or
overpriviledge anything and it is somehow clear of the reason why it was
built in this way.

III. Reactions
You can also look at placemaking as making a place for yourself. I
make a nice place for myself in any places. I make a nice place for my
family, which will suit them perfectly but may not suit others. It’s still a
place. It’s a comfort zone, a relaxing zone. That’s my cocoon. A bedroom
is another very private space. I will go to my bed because I’m not used to
other beds, and I’m used to my pillow. For other people, their private places
are going to church. They like to sit there and just feel. I know some chefs,
the kitchen is their place, they feel at home there. It’s a nice idea, the idea
of place. There are so many things you can do with it.
Restoration, improvement and development are important and
desirable but there are sacrifices that must happen bu let us not forget the
things that must be put first and the people and other living species that
we disurbed. It is not bad for us to have a good intention to change but
mind also who are we changing for.
As a future architect, I now truly understood the importance of
placemaking and there are questions that surround my mind that needs to
be answered like, who can access and participate in public places? whose
stories and histories are told in public places? and finally, what kinds of
interactions and behaviors are afforded by public places?
References
Toolis, E. E. (2017). Theorizing Critical Placemaking as a Tool for Reclaiming
Public Space. American Journal of Community Psychology, 59:184-199.
Available from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313652382
Kohn, M. (2004). Brave new neighborhoods: The privatization of public
space. New York: Routledge. Available from
https://chisineu.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/margaret_kohn_brave_new
_neighborhoods_the_privatization_of_public_space__2004.pdf
Shinn, M., & Toohey, S.M. (2003). Community contexts of human welfare.
Annual review of psychology, 54, 427–459. Available from
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.psych.54.1016
01.145052
Doucet, B., van Kempen, R., & van Weesep, J. (2011). “We’re a rich city
with poor people”: Municipal strategies of new-build gentrification in
Rotterdam and Glasgow. Environment and Planning A, 43, 1438–1454.
Available from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a43470