In a upcoming episode of The Placemakers podcast on Spotify I interview Jane Farmer, a author of a recent Swinburne Uni publication called Placemaking for Social Connection 101. It highlights something we have experienced in practice which is that the process of making a place is actually what builds the capital.
At POMO, our method is to treat story and culture as "narrative infrastructure". It’s not just decoration it’s a functional engine designed to drive repeat visitation and dwell time.
When we talk about "social capital” we are talking about the trust, networks, and daily interactions that happen in public places, it’s the invisible glue that keeps a community resilient.
You can’t just buy and install social capital.
When community and culture is central to the how and why of the design process and those outcomes appear on the ground, places become systems for building connections, and they are cherished by communities and become 'sticky places'.
*Author Credits: Swinburne University of Technology: Tracy De Cotta, Jane Farmer, Annette Kroen, Milovan Savic & Andrew Butt
Research Shows Us How to Create Public Art that Makes Sustainable Places.
Research by Griffith University tracking regional Queensland cities has shown the functional difference between art that works for a precinct and art that doesn’t.
When developers or councils treat public art as a box-ticking exercise, dropping plonk art into a place rarely drives dwell time or belonging. In fact, when top-down aesthetics are completely disconnected from the local narrative, it carries a very real risk of accelerating unchecked gentrification and alienating the existing community.
At POMO we have consistently advocated for and delivered work that embodies place DNA in the outcomes. The research backs this approach up, it observed that when local history and community input are translated into the built environment it fundamentally changed how a place operated. It activated dead laneways, reduced long-term graffiti, and built the stickiness required for local businesses to thrive.
If you're planning a public realm upgrade, are you ensuring you have the experience in your team to ensure the art is tied to the actual place DNA in order to create long term sustainability?
(Griffith University: "Public art for placemaking and urban renewal: Insights from three regional Australian cities" by Tony Matthews and Sophie Gadaloff).
#PublicArt #Placemaking #UrbanDesign #PublicRealm #PlaceActivation #PlaceDNA #CommunityDesign #BuiltEnvironment #UrbanRenewal #Liveability #PropertyDevelopment #LocalGovernment #RegionalQLD #Queensland #SunshineCoast #AustralianDesign #POMO #FunctionalArt #CommunityOwnership #DesignResearch
POMO’s Director Stephen Burton is speaking on a panel at the Regenerative Placemaking Masterclass on April 28 at The Shed in Brisbane, hosted by Village Well and Placemaking X.
So what is Regenerative Placemaking?
We've been building cities and towns to extract value for centuries. Then we tried to do less harm. Neither is enough. There's a third way.
Swipe to see what regenerative placemaking actually means and what it's asking of developers and councils right now.
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✔ What if every development had to leave a place measurably better than it found it? Not net zero. Net positive.
✔ Three principles separate regenerative placemaking from every other planning buzzword. The third one is the one most projects get wrong.
✔ The tools exist. The frameworks exist. The case studies exist. The only thing missing is the decision to use them.
What would your city look like if it gave more back than it took?
#RegenerativePlacemaking #UrbanPlanning #UrbanDesign #Placemaking #RegenerativeCities #NetPositive #BuiltEnvironment #FutureCities #RegenerativeDesign #Community
In our town we recently saw a huge community backlash against a council proposal to sell off land which is currently being used as car parking in the CBD. The transaction would turn that land into affordable housing.
We hear you, the car parking debate matters. But let's see what the evidence says.
- Research across hundreds of cities consistently shows that reducing car parking in city centres does not hurt local businesses. In fact, the opposite is true:
📊 Footfall increases 20–35% when the pedestrian experience improves
🛍️ Retail sales rise up to 49% on pedestrianised streets
🏠 Property values and rental income go up, not down
📉 Commercial vacancies drop — pedestrianised zones have 49% fewer empty shopfronts
BUT removing parking alone isn't enough. The evidence only stacks up when we also invest in:
1. A genuinely better pedestrian environment (safer crossings, shade, seating, activated streetscapes) which btw is now happening in our town
2. Frequent, affordable, reliable public transport so people have a real alternative (we have a long way to go in this respect)
3. Protected cycling infrastructure
4. Preserved and well-located accessible parking for people with disabilities, mobility limitations, and carers.
So let's reframe the conversation. The question isn't "should we remove parking?" It's "are we committed to investing in what replaces it, and protecting access for those who need it most?"
That's the deal towns that got this right made with their communities and it worked.
#OurTown #PedestrianFirst #EvidenceBased #LiveableStreets #Accessibility
Image Credit: 7 News
You can't "make" a place that was already there.
In our latest blog and podcast episode, Canadian architect, educator, and proud member of the Saddle Lake Cree Nation, Wanda Dalla Costa, challenges the urban design world to rethink how we think about making places. Instead of wiping the slate clean we need to practice "Place Keeping", uplifting the existing magic and culture of a site.
Wanda breaks down:
🔸The 5 phase Indigenous Placekeeping Framework
🔸Why architects need to spend 90% of their time listening
🔸How to use "Design Drivers" to protect cultural stories from being engineered out of a project
Hit the link in our bio to read the full article and listen to the podcast!
#UrbanDesign #Architecture #PlaceKeeping #FirstNationsCulture #BuiltEnvironment #Placemaking #DesignInspiration #InclusiveCities #ThePlacemakers
Get ready Brisbane, our Regenerative Placemaking Masterclass is heading your way. Explore the future direction of place-led practice across policy, investment, and urban development. An opportunity for private and government practitioners to learn a new regenerative approach to Placemaking, to support successful regenerative places. Link to tickets in bio.
Hosts:
Gilbert Rochecouste of @village.well
Ethan Kent of @placemakingx
Emma Hall of @village.well
Panellists:
Stephen Burton of @pomodesign_strategy
Brooke Williams of @fourfold.studio
Rebecca McIntosh of @becmacstudio
Brisbane - Tuesday, April 28th, 2026
And a huge thanks to our supporters @main.streetaustralia@placeleaders
#placemakingaus #placemaking #placemakingbrisbane
We are failing 20% of the Population. Accessibility is now way more than a ramp.
We are seeing a shift in how effective public space is measured. In 2026, compliance-only design (the "ramp and rail" model) is no longer enough to de-risk a project. The implementation gap now exists in the sensory layer, how a place feels to a neurodiverse community. 15–20% of our population is neurodivergent/neurodiverse.
If a public place is acoustically loud or visually cluttered or too bright at night we aren't just failing a checklist; we are actively reducing the "stickiness" and repeat visitation of that precinct for many people. This means actually mapping the sensory lived experience by the people who will use the space who are themselves neurodivergent/neurodiverse.
#Neurodiversity #PublicRealm #CoDesign #InclusiveDesign #ImplementationGap
In Nambour at @oldambulancestation we designed and delivered creative lighting to help drive night time activation. This was used specifically to reclaim "dead spots" and increase nighttime safety by shifting perceptions and encouraging night time activation.
Is your public realm infrastructure becoming "thermally obsolete"?
When daytime temperatures make public spaces unusable, economic vitality doesn't just pause, it migrates to whoever provides the best nighttime "stayability."
True climate adaptation isn't just about planting more trees; it’s about a strategic shift toward nighttime climate infrastructure. We need to treat lighting not as "event-day" decorations, but as essential creative infrastructure that drives dwell time after the sun goes down.
The "Night-Ready" Audit tools:
Thermal Migration: Where do people naturally move when the sun sets? Is that space documented and safe, or a "dead spot"?
Legibility at Dark: Can a first-time visitor navigate the "place DNA"?
Operational Reality: Who maintains the creative lighting?
If you’re planning a CBD revitalisation, here’s the question to ask: Are we designing for the temperature of a decade ago or of 2026 and how can we drive the night time economy through creative lighting?
Video by @timothybirch.smithmadden
#Placemaking #ImplementationGap #NightTimeEconomy #UrbanDesign #ClimateAdaptation
Meet Vunilagi, a regenerative placemaking prototype and collaboration between POMO + UniSC with engineering inputs by Felipe Crisostomo @fcrisost It bridges the gap between climate resilience and remote housing reality. It is a concept for a community-led climate resilient housing project with ecological, social and economic sustainability built in.
In remote Fijian villages, "modern" buildings often fail because they can't be maintained locally and suffer recurring storm and flood damage. Vunilagi changes that. It’s a climate-resilient hub that generates 140 MWh of power and 320k litres of water a year using local bamboo and traditional weaving.
The goal? True community independence through sustainability.
The Logic: The entire system is built using only 10 simple tools, no heavy machinery required and can be made in community with local materials. It has an agri-business and skills package with potential on-going community training via @unisc.australia
The concept was co-designed with a remote village community via Talanoa (direct community dialogue with our director Stephen Burton) to solve real local challenges.
Support provided by @unisc.australia
Codesigned with Dr. Nicholas Stevens
Charitable support by Vinaka Fiji
#Vunilagi #SustainableDesign #CommunityLed #BambooArchitecture #Fiji #ClimateAction #RenewableEnergy #RainwaterHarvesting #RadicalCoDesign #ImplementationGap #UniSC #POMO #EcoFriendly #ArchitectureDetail #RemoteLiving #IslandLife #Resilience #GreenBuilding #IndigenousWisdom #FutureProof#regenerativeplacemaking
If the community can’t change the outcome, it’s not co-design.
Recently in Queensland we've seen media reports about a particular community engagement being a charade and outcomes being determined by government well in advance of engagement.
In the delivery of the public realm good intent often hits a wall when feedback loops are mistaken for genuine collaboration. The risk of consultation theatre is high: asking for input on something that is already 99% baked.
To move toward Radical Co-Design, we have to define exactly where community input has the power to modify a proposal and where technical constraints are fixed.
The Test:
🔸 The Modification Rule: Is there at least one significant element the community can actually veto or redesign?
🔸 The Constraint Map: Have we clearly communicated the non-negotiables (compliance, safety, budget) to avoid false expectations?
🔸 The Stewardship Link: Does the community have a role in how this place is activated or maintained, or are we just essentially asking them to pick a colour?
🔸 Narrative: Can the community participate in embedding their own stories, history and cultures in the outcomes?
Great places are created from context and culture and Radical Co-Design is one part of the puzzle needed to make successful public places.
#RadicalCoDesign #PublicRealm #Placemaking #CommunityEngagement #UrbanDesign #DesignThinking #FutureCities #CommunityPower
Can art make our cities safer?
The answer is a resounding YES.
In our latest podcast episode, Dr. Michael Cohen (Director of @citypeoplesydney ) explains that when we see effort put into the beauty and culture of a space, our perception of safety sky-rockets.
It’s not just about a pretty mural it’s about:
✔ Building "feelingful" memories
✔ Authentic community co-design
✔ Creating places where everyone feels they belong
From the streets of Blacktown to the historic docks of Walsh Bay, Michael shows us how artists help us see our world (and our cities) differently.
🎧 Tap the link in our bio to listen to The Placemakers "Art, Memory & Creating Safer Places" now!
Read the interview on our website in the “Articles section” where a downloadable transcript is available for accessibility.
#ThePlacemakers #PublicArt #SydneyArt #UrbanDesign #SafetyByDesign #CulturalPlacemaking #MichaelCohen #CityPeople #Placemaking #PlacesforPeople
Increasing heat is no longer just a weather forecast in Queensland, it’s a design constraint ☀
It’s February and most of us are over summer by now. As local temperatures continue to trend upwards the "2026 QLD Heat Study" highlights a critical shift in public sentiment: the community’s expectation for cool, walkable public places has moved from a 'nice-to-have' to a non-negotiable right. When the pavement hits 50 degrees it effectively ceases to exist as a public space.
The "Cool Walkability" Decision Rule
🔸The Day-One Rule: Are we providing immediate relief while waiting for the urban forest to mature, or leaving the community exposed for the next decade?
🔸The Materiality Test: Are we using low-thermal-mass materials that support night-time cooling, or are our structures inadvertently storing heat and radiating it back into the community?
🔸The Movement Logic: Does our shade strategy follow the actual "place DNA" of how people move and gather, or is it just following the property line?
By integrating trees and temporary shade, we don't just lower the temperature we ensure our public places remain "sticky," walkable, and vibrant even in the peak of summer.
Source: AIDR (Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience) What's New in Knowledge, February 2026
#HeatResilience #UrbanForest #QueenslandLiving #EconomicsOfBelonging #ImplementationGap #Placemaking #UrbanDesign
