ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the animation of public space, an active effort to engage in transformative placemaking initiatives that draw people to public spaces to socialize, linger, and be together. To animate means to bring something to life, so its application to public space represents an intentional effort to boost urban vitality. To encourage animation efforts, this chapter profiles a variety of tactics evident in current practice. In so doing, it identifies and describes eight animation strategies: (1) naturalizing, (2) activating, (3) culinizing, (4) spectaclizing, (5) festivalizing and eventifying, (6) aestheticizing, (7) convivializing, and (8) gamifying and whimsicalizing. Relevant to activists, planners, and policymakers who intentionally aim to inject public spaces with new functions and meanings to better meet the needs of members of their communities, these strategies underscore the importance of programming public space. They also sensitize readers to positive and negative potentialities associated with such programming to ensure greater outcomes of inclusivity and belonging.
