SHOPPING MAKING A GREAT - STREET
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PLACE MAKING CARDS Companion
MAKING A GREAT
SHOPPING
STREET
www.creative–communities.com
CONTENT
1. (RE)CLAIM YOUR PLACE 7
2. HOME MAKING 11
3. MEMORABLE EXPERIENCES 15
4. ROOMS NOT CORRIDORS 19
5. LINGER NODES 23
6. PLAYFULNESS 27
7. META-STORIES 31
8. EMBRACE CONTRADICTIONS 35
Copyright © 2014 David Engwicht. 9. DEFICITS INTO ASSETS 39
All rights reserved. May not be reproduced without
the prior permission of the copyright holder. 10. PLANT A SEED 43
Published by:
Creative Communities International
PO Box 442
Ashgrove Qld 4060
Australia
david@creative-communities.com
WELCOME
Putting the power in retailers’ hands
This manual explains the ten secrets for creating great shopping
streets that are a magnet for people.
You may have a fantastic product or service, but your sales are
determined, in part, by three factors: how many people visit your
shopping quarters; how long they stay; and the quality of the total
experience they have while visiting.
Many retailers think these factors are outside their control. But
this manual shows you simple techniques for increasing the at-
tractiveness of your shopping precinct – ideas you can implement
immediately. You don’t even have to wait for permission.
How it works
1. Use this manual to gain a greater understanding of the ten
concepts outlined in the Place Making Cards.
2. Walk through your shopping area with at least one other
person – ideally a small group of fellow retailers. Use the Place
Making Cards to evaluate the space and then generate ideas
for turning it into a great place.
3. Note down all the ideas you generate.
4. Choose the best ideas and implement.
5. After you implement the ideas, chat with your fellow busi-
nesses and choose your next action.
How retailers engage with the street will determine Welcome to the fascinating world of place making.
the vitality of your shopping precinct.
Have fun!
1. (RE)CLAIM YOUR PLACE
Psychological retreat results in degraded
streets and public places. Reversing the
retreat revitalises these spaces.
The first secret in creating vibrant shopping streets is for every
retailer to reclaim the space outside their businesses as their most
valuable asset.
Every retailer knows that foot-traffic is one of the key deter-
minants of their success - more people passing your store usually
means more sales, and less people, less sales. Yet many retailers are
not aware that they play a crucial role in determining how many
people visit their shopping area, and how long they stay.
In prosperous shopping streets, retailers furnish the space out-
side their store with imagination and generosity. They open their
shop to the street and invite people to “make themselves at home”.
People linger, socialise and browse. The street is alive with people.
In struggle-streets, the retailers have psychologically pulled back
into their shop and focused on the internals of their business. The
footpath is a no-mans land where people scurry from one fortress-
business to the next. And the harder times get, the more these
retailers retreat. They begin blaming things outside their control:
not enough car parking, too much traffic, young people who have
colonised the space or bureaucratic red tape. These businesses have
surrendered control of their destiny – and it is contagious.
Creating vibrant shopping streets starts with every retailer view-
ing the public domain as a key contributor to their prosperity.
6 Making A Great Shopping Street Professionals
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EVALUATE
What are the signs that you, or others, have retreated from this
space?
GENERATE IDEAS
1. What actions could you take to reclaim this space as part of
your shopping precinct or home territory?
• Make your window display more interesting.
• Display merchandise outside.
• Sit outside when you don’t have customers.
• Furnish the space outside your store.
2. What events could you put on that would help people reclaim
this space?
• Evaluate your precinct with some of your fellow retailers.
• Organise a street party.
• Create a treasure hunt for children.
3. What design elements would further encourage and empower
those who have retreated to reclaim this space?
• Move your counter closer to the street – or even into
the street!
• Put movable seating in front of your shop.
• Put out some games.
• Create something for kids to play on.
Create
8 a presence in the street – even if you have to use dummies!
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2. HOME MAKING
Place making is home making extended
into the public realm. It is creating spaces
that nurture the human spirit.
The prosperity of your shopping street will be proportionate to
how much you, and your fellow retailers, make people feel at home.
There is an art to creating great places where people love to
spend time, just as there is an art to creating a home where people
love to hang out.
Think of what makes you feel at home in someone’s house: the
smell of coffee or cooking; a big comfortable couch with a bit of
wear and tear; photographs and knick-knacks that tell the story of
the occupants; a little mess; a welcoming smile; and the feeling you
can put your feet up on the coffee table. It has nothing to do with
whether the home owner employed an expensive interior designer.
Home is not a location, but a feeling – a feeling of acceptance
and nurture. Every human is born with an inner ache for home. In the
past, this sense of home was not just limited to the house one lived
in, but encompassed the whole village or the entire city.
Creating this feeling for people is not dependent on how much
money you have. Dirt-poor people are often great home-makers.
They furnish their homes with generosity and what they carry in
their heart – and that is what makes you feel at home.
This retailer adopted the replica chesterfield and garden outside
her store, treating them like they were part of her lounge-room.
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EVALUATE
Does this space feel like a display house or a comfortable, inviting
home?
GENERATE IDEAS
1. What elements detract from making people feel at home? How
could these be changed to be more welcoming?
• Freshen up boring or outdated window displays.
• Keep the space outside your shop clean.
• Put out the welcome mat – or roll out the red carpet.
• Train your staff to welcome people.
2. How can you furnish this space with imagination and generosity?
• Become a welcoming host, not just to your shop, but to
the entire precinct.
• Create something for children to play on.
• Open your toilet to the public.
• Put your hobbies and passions on display. Tell your story.
3. How can you make people feel like they have permission to
“make themselves at home”?
• Make something people can interact with, e.g. hopscotch,
chess set, or piano.
• Put out seating that people can move to where they feel
most comfortable and to suit their social needs.
People feel more at home on seats they can move.
12 Making A Great Shopping Street Professionals
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3. MEMORABLE EXPERIENCES
The vitality of a place can be measured
by the number and strength of memories
created by that place.
The affection people will feel for your shopping precinct (and
your business) is dependent on the store of memories you and
your fellow retailers build.
This store of memories determines how attractive your shopping
precinct is as a place to visit, and hang out.
When we feel connected to a place, the physical elements of
that space become the repository of our memories and affections
and therefore cease to be merely physical elements. Every time we
recall these memories, we “come home” to a place we belong. The
memories become a safe haven that reconfirms our identity – a place
where we feel grounded, nurtured, and connected.
Every creature comfort that humans have (water, shade, toilet,
baby change) is an opportunity to create a unique experience for
people. Don’t just meet these needs in a utilitarian way. Get creative
and add some pizzazz!
Focus on the micro detail. A space with ten micro-experiences is
far more interesting than a space with one large experience.
Create some surprises. Surprises create memories and memories
create place. Put something in an unexpected place. Do something
absurd. Keep people guessing.
Building the diversity of experiences on offer is not something
that just one retailer can do alone. It takes cooperation.
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EVALUATE
What are the memorable experiences on offer in this space?
GENERATE IDEAS
1. How can you give visitors an experience they will never forget?
• Create a special entry to the carparks at the back of the
shops or on the edge of the shopping precinct.
• Make those who arrive by bus or bike feel extra special.
• Form alliances with other businesses to offer a more com-
plete service. Agree to refer your customers to each other.
2. What are the utilitarian needs you could turn into a memorable
experience?
• Make your toilet funky. Challenge other retailers to do the
same. Create a Funky Toilet Tour.
• Create a memorable seat.
3. How can you create a series of micro-experiences throughout
the space?
• Create a Gallery Walk with each shop displaying one piece
of curated art.
• Have each retailer display their story in the front window.
4. How can you create some surprise?
• Put something unexpected in your window.
• Put something unexpected outside your shop.
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4. ROOMS NOT CORRIDORS
In a house, corridors are considered “a
waste of space”. Rooms are where the real
stuff of living takes place.
If you want more people to feel at home in your shopping precinct,
then it must feel more like a series of rooms, than a series of
corridors.
People do not relax and make themselves at home in spaces that
feel like a corridor. Yet even the footpath in most shopping streets
feels like a corridor. Lots of money has been spent on the “carpet”
but the space has not been furnished - except for a few ornamental
seats that perform no social function.
The same principles that create a great room in a house create
a great public space: a sense of entry; an enclosed, intimate space;
furnishing that invites you to put your feet up and relax; interesting
art and photos that engage you in the story of the space; and floor
coverings that help define the room.
Keep your “rooms” flexible. No one bolts their lounge-room fur-
niture to the floor. We leave it loose because we want to be able to
change it for different social occasions. And because humans get
bored really easily, we want to be able to change the layout easily.
Retailers can work together in creating an “outdoor room” that
encompasses a number of shops – a space with its own personal-
ity and vibe.
18 Making A Great Shopping Street Professionals
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Does this space feel more like a room or more like a corridor?
GENERATE IDEAS
1. How can you visually break this corridor up into a series of more
intimate rooms?
• Create a special entry into your room by narrowing the
entry with sculptures or landscaping.
• Make the rooms feel more intimate and enclosed by filling
in the gaps with furniture or landscaping.
• Create a “ceiling” over the room with flags or lights.
2. How can you use movable furnishings to create a flexible room?
• Create an outdoor setting outside your store using loose
furnishings.
• Change the setting on a regular basis.
• Work with other retailers to install large, movable pots .
3. How can you remove or populate the buffer zone between social
space and traffic space?
• Make car drivers feel part of the social life in your “room” by
putting your furniture as close to the roadway as possible.
• Reduce visual delineators, such as bollards and landscaping,
and replace with furnishing.
• Visually connect both sides of the street by putting the
same design elements on both sides.
Movable pots that help break the street
into 20
more intimate spaces. Fremantle Making A Great Shopping Street Professionals
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A Great Shopping 215. LINGER NODES
Linger nodes slow people flow. If people
stay in a space twice as long, then that
space will have double the people.
People attract people. To double the number of people in your
shopping street, simply invite your existing customers to stay
longer.
A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that to revitalise a
shopping street, you need to attract more people. But you don’t have
to attract more people to create a crowd – not initially, anyway. You
just need the existing people to stay longer. In fact, if the existing
people stay twice as long, your space will be twice as full of people.
Peter Andrews, a controversial Australian farmer, uses counter-
intuitive methods to rehabilitate degraded farmland. The first tech-
niques Peter uses is to modify the watercourse through the farm,
by building contour banks, putting boulders and logs in the stream,
and planting reeds at strategic locations. His goal is to slow the
water flow. If the water takes seven times longer to move through
the property, it does seven times the work of hydrating the soil.
In a similar way, “linger nodes” slow the flow of people through
a space so that they contribute more to the vitality of the space. A
linger node can be as simple as a painted piano that people stop to
play, or some large rocks that kids can’t resist climbing on.
The prime location for linger nodes are spaces that are out of
the pedestrian flow: spaces between existing street furniture; land-
scaped areas that have become degraded; paved areas intended to
protect parked cars; or bulb-outs on street corners.
22 Making A Great Shopping Street Professionals
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A Great Shopping 23EVALUATE
Where are the existing linger nodes and how inviting are they to
linger?
GENERATE IDEAS
1. How can you enhance the existing linger nodes so people stay
longer?
• Enhance the existing elements. Paint them. Decorate them.
Make them funky. Make them interactive.
• Add some new elements to the linger node – flexible seat-
ing, something that engages children, adult games such as
chess, something that is a conversation starter.
2. What new linger nodes could you trial in spaces that are not in
the main pedestrian flow?
• Create a photo opportunity, like a giant cake people can
pretend they are leaping out of.
• Put something that relates to your business – e.g. if you are
an accountant, install a giant abacus children can play with.
3. How can you encourage people to play the role of “anchoring
presence” or host in this space?
• Provide a special seat for older citizens and invite them to
adopt the seat.
• Provide for mobile traders, buskers, market stalls, etc.
• Invite those who already linger to become the hosts or
ambassadors of the street. Adopt them. Make them feel
special.
24 Making A Great Shopping Street Professionals
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A Great Shopping 256. PLAYFULNESS
Our enjoyment of a space is proportionate
to how much it puts us in a playful frame
of mind.
Happy people are highly likely to spend more money than grumpy
people. Their joy can be contagious, stimulating a positive vibe.
For thousands of years, streets and squares were a playground
for both adults and children. They were full of play stimuli – prom-
enading, people-watching, music, water, art, festivals, clowns,
eccentrics, romance and absurdity. This play was essential to the
creativity and economic vitality of the emerging city.
But then we got serious. City planners, regulators and traffic
engineers thought the way to create great urban spaces was to
impose more order. Our public places became over-rationalised and
were largely lost to play.
However, play is making a serious come-back. Companies, such
as Google, have rediscovered the importance of creating a workplace
that encourages play. Evolutionary biologists have discovered that
play builds resilience in all life forms – and creates bigger brains.
The answer for shopping streets that are struggling is probably
not for retailers to work harder. Retailers who are more playful with
the way they run their business will be more resilient. Shopping
streets that are more playful will also be more resilient, and more
likely to survive the tough times.
26 Making A Great Shopping Street Professionals
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A Great Shopping 27EVALUATE
What are the playful elements in this space that cause you to
smile?
GENERATE IDEAS
1. Think of what you enjoyed as a child. What can you put in this
space to encourage others (adults and children) to play?
• Put out board games.
• Set up building blocks.
• Put out a box of dress-up clothes.
• Set up a treasure hunt with fellow retailers.
2. How can you be more playful in this space?
• Dress up in character with your store.
• Put something humorous in your window display.
• Create a joke board.
3. What can you put in this space that would put people in a playful
frame of mind?
• Something absurd.
• Something unexpected and whimsical.
• Oversized or under-sized furnishings.
• Seats that don’t look like seats.
28 Making A Great Shopping Street Professionals
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A Great Shopping 297. META STORIES
Meta-stories are stories communities tell
about themselves, and about their places.
They are self-fulfilling prophecies.
The greatest road-block to shopping streets prospering is often
the stories the retailers tell about their precinct.
Meta-stories are stories that seep unconsciously into our bones
and determine our attitude and posture. They are self-fulfilling
prophecies that act like lead boots and stop us from taking wing.
Our identity meta-stories are what we see when we look in the
mirror and usually start with, “We are just...” “We are just a struggle
town.” “We are just a run-down, essentials-only shopping street.”
Our road-block meta stories start with, “The things standing in
our way and stopping our shopping street from flying are...” Typi-
cal candidates are; the new shopping mall, the homeless who have
colonised the street, or bureaucratic red tape.
Our lack meta-stories usually start with, “We could fly, if only we
had...’ Typical candidates are; better public toilets, more car-parking
spaces, or brand-name stores.
The power of these self-fulfilling prophecies can only be broken
by telling fuller, more empowering stories. Those who prosper most
in life are those who ask themselves, “How do I fly using only what I
already have and acting within my current sphere of influence?’ The
moment you believe you cannot fly because you lack something, or
something is standing in your way, you have clipped your wings and
donned lead boots.
30 Making A Great Shopping Street Professionals
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A Great Shopping 31EVALUATE
What are the meta-stories that limit the potential of this space?
GENERATE IDEAS
1. What are the new stories we want to tell? What actions do we
need to take to make these new stories a reality?
• Begin acting as if you are more than just an “essentials
only shopping street”. Create opportunities for social in-
teraction.
• Begin treating the people who hang out in your street as
The concrete bulwark on this wall protected the booze shop behind from trustworthy.
ram-raiders. It told a story: “This is a town of untrustworthy people”
2. How are the old stories reflected in the current design of this
space? What do we need to change to reflect the new stories?
• Unbolt the seats or put out loose furniture.
• Remove the negative signs that tell you what you can’t do.
Replace with yes signs that encourage positive activity.
3. What new events or elements can we introduce to reinforce the
new stories?
• Create a picture in your mind of what your space would feel
like if the new story became the new norm. Now design an
event that recreates this feeling for people. This may be as
simple as a street party.
< Concept: David Engwicht
Design & Construction: David Bell & Gary Tippett
The new
32 wall told a new, more empowering story Making A Great Shopping Street Professionals
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A Great Shopping 338. EMBRACE CONTRADICTIONS
Spaces that satisfy multiple needs are
more attractive than spaces that satisfy a
single need.
Great shopping streets are a lot like people – the most interesting
are those that are multilayered and multifaceted.
Interesting places, like interesting people, openly embrace their
internal complexity and contradictions. They present their story raw
and unedited. The least interesting are those who have rationalised
and “tidied up” all their internal contradictions. They present as a
sanitised, mono-dimensional story.
This insight has implications for place making in shopping streets
and public places:
• Don’t be afraid to let functions, even contradictory func-
tions, overlap and bleed off into each other. Blur the bounda-
ries between dining space, pedestrian space and car space.
Do not over-rationalise what happens in each space.
• Build as many functions as possible into every element of
the space. Can a seat also be a piece of play equipment?
(See photo opposite).
• Create elements that are ambiguous as to how they are to
be used. For example, people often prefer to sit on the town
hall steps than a seat, or on something that doesn’t look and
feel like a seat. By adapting the space to suit their unique
needs, they are “making themselves at home”.
This seat serves contradictory functions.
It can be used to rest – or play.
34 Making A Great Shopping Street Professionals
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A Great Shopping 35EVALUATE
What are the elements or spaces here that only serve a single
function?
GENERATE IDEAS
1. What additional functions can you layer into each space or design
element?
• Turn a seat into a piece of play equipment.
• Turn a bollard into exercise equipment by installing a bicycle
seat and pedals on it.
• Glue foreign coins on a low brick wall and hand out paper
Simple designs elements are often much more adaptable.
and pencils for kids to do pencil rubbings.
• Make a mini-library in a phone box.
2. How can you make design elements more ambiguous so people
can invent their own uses?
• Build a platform.
• Create a set of stairs that overlook a space but go nowhere.
3. How can you encourage different uses of the space at different
times of the day by a greater spectrum of people?
• Put out seats for the elderly waiting for the bank to open
on pension day.
• Make it more interesting for children walking to school.
• Think of a group missing from your street and find a way
to encourage them to spend time in your street.
People love ambiguous design elements that invite
them to adapt the space to their needs.
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A Great Shopping 379. DEFICITS INTO ASSETS
Turning your perceived deficits into assets
furnishes your space with character and
soul and creates a “point of difference”
The way to create a shopping precinct with real heart is to trans-
form your deficits into your greatest assets.
Many people believe that the only way to create a great trading
street is a multimillion-dollar makeover. But sometimes the more
money you have to spend on design, the more soulless the resulting
space. The way to create a space that has a point of difference is
to “furnish it with soul”.
If you seriously entertain the thought that your perceived deficits
may in fact be your greatest assets, you are forced to explore the
counter-intuitive and expand the field of possible interventions. Now
you are on your way to creating something truly unique.
In fact, most great places make a feature out of their deficits.
For example, graffiti is usually seen as a liability, but in Melbourne,
graffiti has been embraced by the city and has become a major
tourist attraction.
Conventional wisdom says that cold weather and alfresco dining
are incompatible. Yet in Europe, traders place blankets on the backs
of chairs, effectively extending the outdoor dining season. Huddling
under a blanket, hands wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate, is
part of the unique experience you have in these places.
Think of the needs people have and ask, “How can we meet
these needs in a nontraditional way that will also cost less money?”
Cafe owners in Europe have extended the outdoor
dining season into winter by providing blankets.
38 Making A Great Shopping Street Professionals
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A Great Shopping 39EVALUATE
What are our perceived deficits in this space?
GENERATE IDEAS
1. How can you use your “deficits” to create a unique experience
for people?
• If people need shade and shelter, put umbrellas in contain-
ers at either end of the street.
• If car parking is a long way away, make the walk from the
carpark more interesting, or offer a pedal-cab service.
This toilet block, considered a liability, was 2. What “junk” and skills are people willing to donate? How can you
turned into a tourist attraction. Paihia, NZ
use these to create a point of difference?
• Create a “resources bank” – a list of everything people
would be willing to donate and the skills they are willing
to share. Distribute to fellow retailers.
• Using only what you have in your resources bank, make
one great space with your fellow retailers.
3. How can you build a more civil, productive relationship with the
people you think degrade this space?
• Employ unemployed youth or homeless people as hosts of
your precinct, even if you can only pay them with shop-
ping vouchers.
• Adopt one of these people. Learn their story. Find a way
to share their story with others.
40 Making A Great Shopping Street Professionals
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A Great Shopping 4110. PLANT A SEED
Great places, like great gardens, spring
from the planting of numerous small
seeds.
If you want a great shopping street, there comes a time where
you must stop planning and start making.
You can spend a lot of time dreaming of creating a great garden.
But every great garden starts with the planting of the first seed. And
the beauty of seeds is that they develop a life of their own and are
self propagating. They contain the DNA of the future.
Retailers, like most humans, will often invest great amounts of
energy planning, plotting and trying to force someone else (like the
local authority) to create “the garden” they desire. But this activity
carries very little DNA of the future within it (unless the future you
desire is to be in constant conflict with authorities!)
Instead, ask yourself, “What is the need here, and how can I start
meeting that need myself, with the resources I already have?” You
must find a way of dragging the vision you have for the future of
your shopping street into the present moment – even if it is only
in seed form.
Start living today like you want to live tomorrow.
42 Making A Great Shopping Street Professionals
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A Great Shopping 43EVALUATE
Which of your ideas do you have the resources and authority to
implement?
GENERATE IDEAS
1. What kind of future do we desire, and how can we drag that
future into the present moment, even if only in seed form?
• If you want to see more elderly people in the street, adopt
one elderly person and put a special seat out for them.
• If you want to see more children in the street, draw a hop-
scotch square on the footpath.
2. Of all the ideas we have generated, which contains the most
DNA of the future?
• Sort your ideas into three categories, depending on how
energised they make you feel: “Hell Yes”, “Yes” and “Maybe”.
Action the idea that excites you the most.
3. What have people already done that we can build on or replicate?
• Go for a walk through your precinct and look for smart
ideas implemented by other traders. Replicate or build on
these initiatives.
• Research the latest trends in vibrant retail precincts - such
as pop-up spaces and parklets. Replicate.
Retailers in Taree work together in sprucing up their town.
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A Great Shopping 45MY IDEAS:
Meet the author
Project for Public Spaces in New York
describe David Engwicht as “one of
the world’s most inventive thinkers
on creating vibrant public spaces”.
David is a “place doctor”, artist,
designer, social inventor, author,
thinker and master communicator.You can also read
