The Growing Latin American Placemaking Movement

Placemaking Latinoamerica gathered in Mexico City, after its inaugural event in Valparaiso, Chile in 2017.

Latin America is unsurpassed in its use of, and passionate advocacy for public spaces, and the region’s placemaking movement is growing accordingly. There are, however, strong contrasts in public spaces that underlie and drive this energy. Many of the world’s most alive, democratic, and culturally and economically vibrant spaces are south of the United States. But even among all this success, the region also has many new spaces that shun the very life, equality, and cultural and economic activity that make the region so strong – often repeating many of the worst public space mistakes of the US. Placemaking Latinoamerica as a network of advocates, first convened in Valparaiso, Chile last year, and conceived at Placemaking Week in Vancouver, offering much needed leadership and vision.

Latin America’s public spaces are ones of contrast. There are public realms that support strong local economies and cultural traditions, but ubiquitous new developments have arisen that do not tap into these local treasures, aiming only at engagement with the larger global market, are only compatible with the global economy and its exclusionary mono-cultures and barriers to entry and innovation. Across income levels, Latin America boasts neighborhoods and districts that support inclusive public spaces and the right to the city (like Havana), but also suffers as many public spaces become privatized. The streets and transportation systems similarly have dichotomies of inclusion and exclusion, with some cities like Bogota boasting the most accessible transit systems, bike networks, and pedestrian streets, and others the most car-centric, dangerous roads.

Latin American placemaking is charting a new path, countering these threats to public space and building on great histories of Latin and indigenous urbanism. The fast-emerging Latin American Placemaking movement is modeling networked, community-led innovation. The rapidly growing number of placemaking projects reflect open-source, human-centered, place-led values. The leaders behind these projects, and their advocacy and organizations, are the foundation of placemaking in the region.

Some of the Latin American leaders that have significantly shaped us, great places, and the trajectory of placemaking include:

• Guillermo (Gil) Pe?alosa, a close PPS collaborator since his time as Parks Commissioner in Bogotá in 2000, is the world’s boldest and most energetic public space advocate, always getting us all to push further.
• Cecilia Martinez, the former head of UN Habitat for Latin America, conceived the Future of Places program with PPS, in an effort to create, in her words, “a global movement to shape spaces into places.” The Future of Places conference series included a conference in Buenos Aires on Streets as Places, and successfully achieved its goal of getting 10 key messages on the importance of public space included in the New Urban Agenda, and Quito’s Habitat 3.
• Daniela Chacon, joined the Placemaking Leadership Council when she was Deputy Mayor of Quito and brought Gil, Cecilia, Salvador Herrera and me there to help them prepare their public spaces for Habitat 3, saying "Creating a space is not enough. It needs to become a place, and be managed by the community."
• Marcello Corbo, a reformed Mall Developer in Santiago, Chile, told us, and successfully demonstrated with us, that “public spaces are the new anchor tenant.”
• Rafael and Ricardo Birrman, father and son, who founded the Placemaking Brazil network, and are pioneering place-led development projects in Sao Paulo and Brasilia, have been a much needed private sector voice at almost several of our global placemaking conferences.
• Carolina Carrasco and her colleagues at Espacio Lúdico powerfully connected, and inspirationally defined, the Latin American placemaking movement, when they took the lead on organizing the first Placemaking Latinoamerica conference, in Valparaiso, Chile.
• Guillermo Bernal, who is taking the regional movement to yet another level. Building on his dynamic placemaking projects and networks in Mexico, Guillermo, and his Lugares Publicos, are convening placemakers for the 2nd Placemaking Latinoamerica and guiding its exciting future.

On a personal note, my passion for Latin American public spaces has been driven by these inspiring people, and by frequent starting from an early age due to from my parent’s affection for Latin America. My mother was born in Guatemala and has kept us connected to the country. Project for Public Spaces was founded by my father shortly after a 1974 trip my parents took to Ecuador seeing the indigenous markets and bustling zocalos. Pictures of the life of these spaces have hung on his office walls ever since.

Placemaking Latinoamerica Valparaiso masterfully brought together placemakers poised to be connected, and ready to collectively dream bigger. With innovations in many contexts these leaders have turned upside down the shaping of cities to start with people and places. Now the challenge is to scale the impact of placemaking to place-led development, governance and financing of urbanization. Placemaking Latinoamerica has boldly built a strong foundation with a learning and action network that will guide us all to create more thriving human habitat.

This was originally written as a forward for the book, “Placemaking Latinoamérica, Innovacion Urbana Ciudana” edited by Carolina Carrasco