Placemaking is both a vision and a practice — a community-centered approach to shaping public spaces that reflect local identity, foster connection, and improve quality of life. It is a social movement grounded in the idea that everyone deserves engaging, welcoming, and equitable spaces — whether in cities, towns, or rural neighborhoods. 

Placemaking Bangladesh identifies the barriers to accessible, inclusive public spaces — and works collectively to address them. Through knowledge sharing, community dialogues, collaborative design, and cultural programming, we activate neglected spaces, raise global awareness, and influence urban decision-making. From seminars to street exhibitions, idea competitions to on-ground projects, we believe better spaces begin with engaged people.

Everyone who believes in the value of shared space. Architects, urban designers, engineers, journalists, environmentalists, artists, researchers — and above all, citizens. Placemaking Bangladesh is a platform where knowledge is shared, voices are heard, and local action is celebrated. If you care about the spaces around you, you’re already one of us.

Placemaking Bangladesh, teaming up with Claymire, is pleased to announce the launch of A Healing Space — an open, idea-driven design competition that invites interdisciplinary proposals addressing how space can support human well-being, social cohesion, and ecological resilience.

In an era marked by environmental volatility, public health crises, and socio-spatial fragmentation, this competition calls on architects, designers, engineers, planners, artists, journalists, policy professionals, researchers and thinking citizens to reimagine the very premise of space — not as a passive container, but as an active agent of care and renewal.

Participants are invited to select a real or symbolic place and submit a proposal that responds to three intersecting themes:

• People: How can space nurture physical and mental health, accessibility, and belonging?

• Communities: How might space foster participation, local culture, and civic identity?

• Planet: How can spatial intervention contribute to sustainability, climate adaptation, and environmental balance?

Deadline: August 10, 2025