This online guide (PDF) [1MB] gathers together best practice on managing and improving places from Scotland, the UK and Europe. It aims to help residents, businesses, politicians and professionals work together to find out more about public spaces, the design of new development and the creation of place.
Town and village centres, residential streets and country roads, parks and playgrounds, paths and pavements, countryside, buildings and car parks, together with the backdrop of landscape are vital to creating the quality of place in Perth and Kinross. They are part of our everyday lives, supporting transport, tourism, and business.
Placemaking in Perth and Kinross is not a "painting by numbers" exercise where standard solutions can be applied and copied. In fact that is one of the problems. The only standard the guide advocates is one of quality. The goal is to turn spaces into places; places that show that someone, somewhere cares for them, and believes they matter.
What the guide does therefore is provide information to help us make the links, and think how best to make improvements needed through:
- An understanding of what makes Perth and Kinross Special
- A shared vision for improvement
- The tools to do the job.
The guide has been based as much as possible on the traditions of Perth and Kinross. In particular it picks up the approach of Sir Patrick Geddes, who was a forefather of the modern environmental movement, spent his childhood in Perth and on Kinnoull Hill.