Placemaking Week Europe 2024 took place from September 24 to 27, 2024, in Rotterdam, Netherlands. This annual festival brings together over 500 placemakers, urbanists, city officials, and community leaders from across Europe and beyond to share best practices, foster meaningful collaborations, and experience the host city's initiatives firsthand.
The event featured keynotes, on-site and off-site workshops, plenaries, site visits, and fun activities designed to inspire and empower participants to create better cities together. The festival explored four overarching themes: climate adaptation, living with water, local power and the battle for space, and creating place and making it last.
The event was hosted at The Keilepand in the Rotterdam Makers District of Merwe-Vierhavens (M4H), a site that showcases impressive placemaking initiatives. The festival aimed to delve into the hidden forces in placemaking and aspects vital for innovation, focusing on how to leverage and integrate the city's cultural capital into urban development processes and achieve sustainable collaborations with local communities.
The Intercultural Cities Programme also participated in the event, focusing on building awareness and practical knowledge of placemaking to foster meaningful, long-term change and promote intercultural inclusion.