Place Making
Place-making is about designing urban spaces for people, not just cars and shops. It pays attention to physical, cultural and social identity.
Advanced Narrative provides clear instructions to architects on how to translate these components of identity into building form.
We recognise that a place is not a spot on the map; it is a location in our minds and hearts.” No one person can speak for a place but there are patterns among personal attachments to history and geography.
We engage on the ground with people and landscape, history and dreams, aspirations and restrictions. A pattern forms. An overarching story takes shape. We mine that story for key metaphors that can be translated into physical form.
Metaphors are very powerful. They gather up many stories in a single image. They are also generative, not prescriptive, in what they signify.
By using physical metaphors people are able to bring their own attachments and stories to bear. The end result is that the form has a recognisable identity to the collective community and visitors, while providing latitude for each person to make their own place.
Telling the stories that underpin the creation of a building is a vital part of place-making.
We support communications through: architect workshops, community presentations, videos and project websites.
We also source and develop local champions and talent, so that the ways and means of telling these stories becomes and remains organic to the area.
Our approach recognizes that generic building design makes one location look much like another. Surroundings become anonymous. A sense of belonging and loyalty disappears. It is easy for these buildings and their environs to fall into decay in a time-scale far shorter than should be expected of the investment.
We provide architects with the tools to create buildings that have a clear identity that attracts business and residents to a location—an identity that says, ‘this is the sort of person or organisation you are when you chose to live here.
It is an approach that revives the beating heart of a community and engenders pride. As a result, our place-making documents are used to facilitate development approvals with local councils. They also create bridges of understanding between local residents, developers and planning staff.
