DS4SI's approach to creative placemaking is grounded in having communities imagine their uses of places in ways that build on their site specificity. The specifics of the community matter. We want our placemaking to surface what's unique and integral to the current identity of a place. We hope to assist places in becoming more of what they like about themselves, as opposed to aggregating places to one idealized place / public space. This is intense work as places have multiple and often contested publics vying for contrasting articulations of space and place. So our work is to help communities surface these differing and seemingly oppositional intentions for space to find solutions, possibilities and new connections.  

We believe it is important to think of creative placemaking within the context of spatial justice [link to paper]—to acknowledge and address how many of the places we work in have been the sites of on-going place breaking, rather than placemaking. We believe that when we bring communities together to inspect spatial elements of justice, we also engage them in deeper conversations about belonging, community, authority, dignity and joy. When we work with artists to create unexpected “third spaces” that engage and delight passers-by, we are also building new ideas about the public, each other and what we can do together.

Much of our work in creative placemaking has been through our role as a core partner in the Fairmount Cultural Corridor.  The FCC combines collaborative creative placemaking efforts of residents, artists, community organizations and small businesses to support vibrant, livable neighborhoods along the Fairmount Commuter Line in Boston. It is designed to advance a vision that draws upon the local cultural assets and ethnic traditions of the Corridor’s residents.