Placemaking Raleigh is an initiative by Placemaking Studio to enable bottom-up placemaking. Funded by grants from Activate North Carolina and the City of Raleigh Appearance Commission. it aims to inspire local residents to turn underused spaces into joyful community spaces.
We believe there is enormous untapped potential in Raleigh’s people and places, that the residents themselves, if invited, can add much life to our city. We have developed a user-friendly website to make the path to citizen-led neighborhood activation and improvement more clear, accessible and fun! It invites ordinary citizens out to activate their neighborhoods with Play Streets, Porchfests, Street Dinners, Block Parties, Parklets, Marklets, Hip Hop Battles, Open Streets, , Festivals, Outdoor Movie Nights, Community Gardens, and even more permanent improvements.
We are also developing a “Lending Library” of materials and equipment that support a wide range of public space activations across a range of public space types. This kit of materials, including street barricades for street closures, provides much-needed support for these informal community-building activities.
Each Raleigh neighborhood has its own character and we hope to celebrate this diversity by fostering a culture of pop-up activations that happen organically and regularly throughout the city. In some cases, they may even lead to permanent public space improvements. Raleigh, like all cities, will fully blossom when its residents are empowered to make change, express themselves, and feel a sense of ownership, stewardship, control and pride.
As Jane Jacobs said, “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”
