Place-making and the Concrete Bollard Park

It is now commonly accepted that mainstream spending by public bodies should contribute to regeneration objectives ensuring that budgets go further and spending has a greater impact.  This is reflected in the Welsh Government’s Vibrant and Viable Places Regeneration Framework (March 2013) which states that ‘mainstream budgets will be used to deliver the majority of regeneration impact across Wales’ (p36).  This principle is applicable as a guide for how money is spent on the physical regeneration of the public realm through public bodies and others responsible for managing our neighbourhoods including housing associations. 

Vibrant and Viable Places also makes a commitment to ‘place’ and I suggest that in order for any physical regeneration impact to be felt through mainstream funding, there needs to be sign up to the principles of ‘place-making’ by all of those involved in the process.  This includes those allocating budgets and implementing large-scale projects but also those implementing small-scale changes to existing residential environments and neighbourhood maintenance, which is the focus of this blog. 

I came across a case that illustrates this point well; I’ve called it the Concrete Bollard Park.  It is a relatively small space within a residential area and it is populated by concrete bollards. 

It is easy to dismiss it as insignificant but it is spaces on people’s doorsteps such as this that have a significant impact on the wellbeing of local residents and help to determine how much pride they take in their neighbourhood. 

It is important that we understand how spaces like this come about so that we identify how to manage them them.  I would suggest that nobody involved in the creation of this space could be blamed for it’s poor appearance as they probably all did their job well.  

The space is located in a residential area and marked on the OS map as a playground.  I would imagine that at one time it had play equipment in it and children from the surrounding houses would come and play here.  But at some stage the innocent pleasure of children playing must have faded; perhaps the children grew up and stopped using it, maybe it attracted anti-social behavior or the equipment got damaged, possibly a play area in this location was too noisy, or the maintenance of the play area too great a burden.  Whatever the background, at some stage it became a problem and subsequently someone’s job to fix it.  So the play equipment was removed and that person did a good job of leaving the space empty and devoid of any problems with play.  

But then that another issue arose, most likely cars being parked in the space.  To combat this problem someone then did a good job of installing some concrete bollards to ensure that cars could not access the space.    

Today a space that has no defined purpose and that nobody uses, promotes a sense of the forgotten and uncared for.  It eliminates any sense of pride for surrounding residents and stands empty and useless in an area where parking is at a premium.  But each person involved in the process did their job well. 

What was lacking was a sense of the bigger picture and a commitment to place-making.  A place-making approach requires understanding of how a space fits into the wider neighbourhood, what local needs are, the character of the area and the cumulative impact of small decisions.  It requires more consideration in the initial instance but it enables small interventions to contribute positively to an environment rather than adding to a problem that later requires a regeneration project to fix it. 

A basic understanding of urban design and place-making principles and their application to existing environments can significantly influence the quality of choices that are made in implementing improvements.  Our experience of delivering urban design training to local residents has demonstrated how this understanding can empower residents to make wise decisions about future improvements in their neighbourhoods.  If this was to be applied consistently and in a joined up way across all those involved in influencing the physical environment it has the potential to make a big difference to the quality of existing places. 

By Jen Heal