Place-making: From a residents' initiative to a participatory effect - the case study of BOMBAST

Abstract

This case study illustrates an organic bottom-up place-making process, which started with the initiative of a couple of residents who created an invented folktale as a gift to their community. Through the development of a fictional character, these residents intuitively tried to embody the place’s norms and values or, in others words, the DNA of the community. The challenge, however, was how to transform this single initiative into shared meaning-making, borne by the wider local community. Two trends, noted in place-making literature, are of significance for the case. First, the case shows that, in making the place more attractive to live, the focus should be on the intangible attributes— the cultural soul of the place. Secondly, the case illustrates, through the use of the Imagineering Design Methodology, how the wider community has been enabled to become co-producers and co-consumers in the place-making process. Moreover, by actively including disruptive voices, such as those locals who were critical in the enabling interventions, the place-making process evolved. The case, therefore, shows how these interventions led to a participatory effect.