Placemaking Sandbox Studio: co-creating sustainable and inclusive places for all

Led by the University of Melbourne, a leading internationally-focused research and training institution and in partnership with Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and multi-stakeholder consortium, the proposed Placemaking Sandbox Studio will introduce a toolkit of participatory creative 'fun and play' design thinking and making methodology to engage grassroots women, girls, and children to co-create and re-shape public spaces at the neighbourhood scale into places people would love.

The Placemaking Sandbox aims to advance the New Urban Agenda through the following features:

**Voice sharing space. Focuses on giving voice to the voiceless by engaging and harnessing the vital contribution of marginalised subgroups: grassroots women, girls and children as users as well as producers of inclusive public spaces.

**Collaborative exploratory space. A participant-led co-design process, uses placemaking as a generative process to allow collaborative design thinking and making process, and to give equal rights to all to negotiate common interests in public space design to ensure that no one is left behind in the process.

**Living Lab. A problem-solving, solutions-oriented approach to translate Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to local solutions. This introduces a platform for short-term, low-cost testing of public space design and material use intervention prior to scaling up to a larger, corridor-wide projects towards catalysing long-term change.

**Creative Fun and Play methodology. Adheres to placemaking as a fun and play technique to co-create liveable public space for all.

**Design-based studio. Enables hands-on studio-based research and training upskilling model to translate theory to practice manifested in an actual demonstration project.

** Module-based approach. Each placemaking component is delivered as module to target specific placemaking work to ensure best use of time, budget, materials, local partners, and specialist advice.

**Intergeneration and intercultural conversation space. Encourages the unique perspectives of everyone to draw from their own experience and share this experience within an intergenerational and intercultural conversations on how to create better public spaces for all.

**Intergeneration and intercultural Implementation space. Uses an actual public space in Kuala Lumpur's Old Market Square (site of the WUF Village) as the physical site for implementation of the Placemaking Sandbox studio projects.

**Multi-sectoral partnerships. Creates new alliances around private sector, government and civil society interests to reconcile needs and resources, work towards a common goal, and bring together the strength of a multisector-partnership initiative across the globe.

The proposed Placemaking Sandbox adheres to Sustainable Development Goal 11 of making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, supporting the call for an increase in quality public spaces such as sidewalks, cycling lanes, gardens, squares and parks. It supports the goal of increasing the capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management as well as support least developed countries in building sustainable and resilient buildings utilizing local materials. The proposed Placemaking Sandbox encourages everyone in taking ownership of our shared urban future: one policy, law, plan, design, or project at a time.