Placemaking Weekend Goa brings together architects, planners, artists, and citizens to explore how tourism can become regenerative rather than extractive. Organised by Placemaking India, the three-day gathering (27 February–1 March) reframes tourism as a system that must serve communities, ecosystems, and local economies.
Placemaking asks a simple question: Who is a place really for? At its core, placemaking recognises that neighbourhoods are not empty canvases waiting for development. They are layered with memory, labour, ecology, and everyday life. Rather than prioritising spectacle or rapid commercial gain, placemaking centres the lived experiences of residents. It values the informal economy as much as formal infrastructure. Over the past decade, this approach has gathered momentum in India through the work of Placemaking India, a self-organised collective of architects, planners, artists, researchers, and citizens advocating for people-first development across cities and regions.
Out of this network emerged Placemaking Weekend, an annual gathering that functions less like a conference with presentations and panel discussions and more like a working studio with walks and collaborative workshops.
From 27 February to 1 March, the weekend arrives in Goa with the theme: Regenerative Tourism. Tourism is central to Goa’s economy. It supports livelihoods across hospitality, transport, food systems, crafts, and cultural industries. But the pressures are increasingly visible: stressed water systems, rising rents, congestion, coastal degradation, and fragile ecosystems pushed to their limits.
While “sustainable tourism” has become a common phrase, regeneration pushes the idea further. It asks whether tourism can actively restore the environments and communities it touches rather than merely reduce harm.
One of the central public conversations of the weekend interrogates the politics behind tourism. Titled 'Who Does Tourism Serve?', the session explores governance, ethics, and accountability in a sector often framed either as saviour or villain.
Following a screening of films from the Nagari Short Film Competition, which examines urban belonging and contemporary city challenges, the discussion shifts to policy and practice. Representatives from the tourism industry, design collectives, and civic organisations will unpack what regulatory frameworks and community partnerships might enable regenerative models
At the heart of the weekend are immersive site explorations across three Goan contexts: the Latin Quarter of Fontainhas, the river-bound rhythms of Divar Island, and the tourism-heavy coastline of Candolim. These are “living laboratories”. Participants walk with local practitioners and residents, mapping informal systems, observing patterns of use, and documenting both assets and tensions.
Placemaking Weekend Goa is, at its core, an experiment. It tests whether listening can be the starting point for development and if collaboration can precede construction.
In a time when destinations are increasingly optimised for quick returns, this approach feels slower — and maybe more demanding. Because it requires accountability, negotiation, and sustained engagement. But it also opens the possibility that tourism might deepen connection rather than dilute it.
Homegrown is offering 10 complimentary spots for readers to attend Placemaking Weekend Goa.
The event runs over three days, with separate registrations for each day. Sign up here: https://luma.com/placemakingindia
(Use the code ACTFORGOA2026 while registering to access the free passes.)
Follow Placemaking India here.
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