Urban design education for placemaking: between cognition and emotion

Abstract

The paper explores possibilities for linking knowledge and emotions in urban design education for placemaking. The concept of placemaking emphasises the need for strengthening connections between people and the places they share. These connections are based not only on knowing but also on experiencing and loving particular places. Besides that, place making refers to a collaborative process of shaping public realm in order to maximize shared value. In this process, urban designers are just one of the actors involved. Therefore, placemaking, as a new paradigm in urban design, asks for reconsidering and strengthening links between aesthetic, social, and technical dimensions of urban design process. All of this implies not only changes in professional domain, but in the education for urban design as well. The research is based on experiences of two urban design projects from the elective course “Art in Urban Public Spaces – PaPs” at the University of Belgrade - Faculty of Architecture. We analyse various paths of educational urban design process that have been conducted in collaboration with local communities in Belgrade and Negotin, and discuss different possibilities of linking cognitive and emotional aspects in urban design process for placemaking.