Translating Vision into Action : A Design Toolkit for Facilitating Place Visioning Workshops in Placemaking

Abstract: This thesis addresses the need for a practical toolkit to facilitate community participation in place visioning workshops, aiding placemakers in driving change in placemaking. By integrating the place visioning pathway into the participatory backcasting framework, the proposed adapted framework for place visioning consists of four activities: (1) Orientation - Define the current challenge of the place, (2) Visioning - Develop a future vision, (3) Backcasting - Propose actions to actualise the vision, and (4) Elaboration - Choose feasible actions to create an action plan. An initial prototype toolkit was developed and tested with placemakers, leading to redesigning of the toolkit to address concerns of complexity, inclusivity, and playfulness. Lastly, the toolkit was iterated into a combination of tools and resources, of which four canvas tools are the main part, along with ideation cards for inspiration, and a handbook for guidance.  This research focused on the convergence of placemaking, visioning, and designerly tools, with the underlying aim of creating resources to support community-based participatory design. The actual implementation of the toolkit in a placemaking case was not realised throughout the process, but the resultant artefact, insights from research, and feedback gathered from its testing could provide a basis for future research of the concept.