What happens when placemaking, the practice of creating more inclusive, community-oriented public spaces, becomes mainstream? In this episode, Milagros Hurtig and Levente Polyak explore the idea of critical placemaking and the tensions between community-led urban development, commercialization and gentrification. We discuss how public-space improvements can unintentionally accelerate processes of exclusion, and why placemakers need to pay close attention to power, who gets to shape a place, and who remains invisible. Drawing on experiences from Vienna, Budapest and other European cities, the conversation looks at the importance of non-commercial spaces, social infrastructure and creating opportunities for different groups to coexist in public space. The discussion also asks what role placemakers can play as mediators between communities, municipalities and economic actors. Rather than offering a fixed recipe, critical placemaking is presented as a long-term, relational practice, understanding local dynamics, strengthening community capacity and using planning tools to maintain diversity and prevent public space from becoming dominated by consumption. Examples from the Inclusive City project, including work along Vienna’s Danube Canal and in Budapest, show how temporary interventions, open calls, cultural activities and strategic “micro-masterplanning” can help create a more diverse and accessible public realm. Ultimately, the guests argue that placemaking can contribute to redistributing power, but only when it is understood not as a product or intervention, but as a different way of making the city. About our guests: Levente Polyak is an urban planner, researcher, policy adviser, and co-founder and Managing Director of Eutropian Research & Action, an organisation specialising in urban regeneration, civic economy, and community-driven alternatives to market-led development. He is editor of Cooperative City magazine, which documents good practices and innovative governance models across Europe, and has advised municipalities from New York to Budapest on urban regeneration, community participation, and the dynamics of rapid commercialisation in European cities. Milagros Hurtig is a PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Department of Design, researching critical placemaking for inclusion in city-making, with a focus on citizen participation, gender-sensitive planning, and power dynamics in participatory processes. She has worked on placemaking, community art, and urban design projects across Argentina, Spain, and Europe, co-founded the collective urban.femina, and guided the Inclusive Placemaking Inspirational Cookbook, a toolkit for designing more inclusive public spaces through care, trust, and solidarity. Henni+Milli is a temporary, consumer-free public "placemaking" project and community testing ground located along the Donaukanal in Vienna, specifically named after the Henriette-Fahrbach-Promenade and Emilie-Turecek-Promenade near the Franzensbrücke. This project was implemented in the framework of the FFG funded DUT InclusiveCity Project and implemented with the funding of the MA45/City of Vienna. This podcast was produced in a cooperation with Placemaking Austria and superwien. Hosts: Vivian Monteiro Malta & Roland Krebs
