The Placemaker’s Guide to Building Community

Hamdi has masterfully woven together notions of placemaking that have evolved since John Turner's classic book, Housing by People, into a new paradigm for professional practice. This book will motivate development planners, architects and community organizers not only to learn, but also to enjoy the uncertainties of development practice. Bish Sanyal, Ford International Professor of Urban Development and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

`Nabeel Hamdi is a humane visionary who never forgets that it is the people, not the experts, who must have the loudest voices in the building of communities. This important book distils the work of a lifetime spent making the world a better place. Tim Smit, founder of the Eden Project, UK

`Essential reading for effectively dealing with the challenges of urban poverty reduction by learning from a wealth of global experience. Mohamed El Sioufi, Head of the Shelter Branch, UN-Habitat

A must-read for anyone who has a vested interest in the process of placemaking through participatory planning - architects, designers, planners, developers, government officials, owners and users. Professor Emeritus W. Mike Martin, University of California Berkeley, USA

Hamdi again sets new benchmarks for his simplicity in approach, yet profundity in the underlying principles of participatory planning. Essential reading for anyone who thought they already knew everything about planning with communities. Manu Gupta, Director Seeds, Chairperson, Asian Disaster Reduction & Response Network

This book is filled with the coherent contradictions we never learned in design studio - "scaling down to scale up - work backward to move forward". It is this process of being present and attentive to the vision of the community that enables the best development workers to participate fully in the process of community based design in spite of our experience. Steven Weir, VP Global Program Development, Habitat for Humanity International, USA