Culture in Action

Placemaking & Legacy

How culture and identity shape places that endure and evolve.

Culture is not decoration applied after the plan. This strand traced how art, memory and identity make places that outlast the people who commissioned them.

In this collection

Carla and Viola Bartoli of Farm Cultural Park and Countless Cities, Favara, Sicily

Profile

Carla & Viola Bartoli: what a small town can teach a big one

15 August 2026

The Sultan's Elephant, a three-storey mechanical elephant by Royal de Luxe, moving through central London in May 2006 as crowds line the street

Profile

Helen Marriage: wonder as infrastructure

11 August 2026

Marina Bay at golden hour with people gathering on the waterfront promenade, heritage shophouses in the foreground and the Singapore skyline behind

Guide

A placemaker's guide to Singapore: seven districts to walk before The Art of Citymaking

12 June 2026

A patient, mid-rise Asian neighbourhood at golden hour — independent shopfronts, mature street trees, residents on the pavement

Essay

Financing Regenerative Citymaking

6 June 2026

An Asian pedestrian street at dusk — an independent bookshop, a muralist's ladder mid-work, mature trees and warm shopfront light

Essay

Creative placemaking: a working definition for the next decade

5 June 2026

Photography

Photography for this theme is still being edited.

Field Notes

Correspondence from the people building better cities.

Occasional notes on the festival, the field, and the Circle. Unsubscribe any time.