Process: A Strategy for developing Community Life and Place Attachment

Abstract

Inner-city neighborhoods are being recognized for their potential to contribute visually, economically, and culturally to the urban core. Efforts to revitalize these neighborhoods will need to address the economic, cultural, and social structure of the neighborhood. Resident groups, in particular long-time and newer residents, will likely be affected by the cultural changes that inevitably accompany revitalization. This project explores the processes of community life and place attachment, and their role in fostering healthy communities. Residents, depending on their length of time in the neighborhood, will be at different stages of these processes. Design and planning may support community life and place attachment by understanding this continuum and providing for the processes that engender them. This project began with a review of literature on the subject of inner-city neighborhoods, gentrification, community life, and place attachment. From this literature design and planning criteria were extracted. These criteria were then applied to the Belmont-Fallon neighborhood in Roanoke, Virginia, and were evaluated based on the conditions of the neighborhood and levels of attachment of long-time and newer residents. Design implications were developed that may support the process of place attachment within this community. These implications were then illustrated and tested through design.