Value of Placemaking in Urban Transformation - Experience - Based Findings and Methods

The report highlights how activities create impact in local communities, including among marginalized groups, and how placemaking can reduce loneliness by strengthening social connections. (Placemaking is understood as the process that creates valuable, vibrant, and attractive places, which works best when developed in collaboration with users.)

Additionally, the report examines the relationship between positive experiences in transformed urban spaces and the development of price per square meter in Copenhagen over the past four decades.

The report is structured around four main points:

1. From People to Experiences – What it means to work with placemaking as a framing for an urban development project.
2. From Experiences to Measurability – Development of a tool (SightScore) to qualify and measure the perceived value of urban spaces and to create a more systematic understanding of placemaking.
3. From Measurability to Economic Value – Linking placemaking measurements with economic data. Using Copenhagen as a case study, the insights are contextualized to broader socially relevant value creation.
4. From Economic Value to Holistic Value Creation – How elements from the experience economy create value in everyday life, both indoors and outdoors.

The project is supported by the Rambøll Foundation, Helsingør Municipality, Esbjerg Municipality, Frederikssund Municipality, the Danish Arts Foundation, Game, Urban Partners, and Realdania.