Once more it is time for Park(ing) day, a worldwide event that invites common citizens everywhere to engage in transforming metered parking spots into temporary parks or public spaces. 2011 is the seventh year that Park(ing) day is being organized, gaining more and more participants and becoming more visible and significant.  30 countries, 186 cities and 850 parks where created during Park(ing) day 2010, showing how engaged people are in transforming car space into social/green space.

Besides being a fun activity, Park(ing) day intends to create discussions how cities’ open space is used, criticize the priority given in many cities to cars, reflect  how public space is created and allocated, and of course to try to improve the quality of urban areas, at least in a small scale and temporary.

Over the years this event have served to organize Urban DIY groups in many cities as well as raised important questions to city planners and politicians. In some cities it has been used as an inspiration for municipal planning initiatiatives, such as San Francisco’s Pavement to Parks program (see more about this kind of strategies in “New approaches to Public Space: Reclaim, Test, Evaluate, Establish”). It has also become an interesting design exercise as many groups experiment with new forms of public space design.

Image by lunch street party

Here you can find a very interesting video showing what Park(ing) day is all about

source: space hijackers

Have you ever asked yourself how public is the public space in your city? I recently came across a very interesting (and somehow crazy) initiative that tries to highlight and criticise the increasing influence that institutions and corporations have towards the way in which many public spaces are being developed and managed. In many cases, such influence has led to the restriction of activities and users in public spaces or condition its use based on consumption (an example of this last is the growing café culture that is present in many cities today).

Space Hijackers is the name of the initiative. It has its “headquarters” in London, organizing activities that attempt to raise awareness of issues within public spaces and trying to change how these spaces are used and perceived in the future. Activities are done in very creative ways, somehow crazy/theatrical, daring and of course highly visible and fun. Among their hijacking activates are cricket matches in highly restricted public spaces, parties in London’s subway, removing advertisement from bus and train stations, guerrilla benching, among others (full list of projects).

By hijacking public paces they aim at unmasking the disguised privatization and commodification of these spaces and claim back their public ownership. They also strive for public spaces that respond to the needs and demands of communities and emphasis the need of making communities highly involved in their production. One (fun) way of doing this last is by inviting people to become a Space Hijacker Agent. After you become an agent you will be given top secret information that will allow you to contribute in “making life hell for town planners, architectural dictators and hierarchical organisations around the world”.

I recommend a visit to their site especially to their James Bond kind of space hijacking top secret equipment 

Recently I have been finding some interesting initiatives by which some cities are creating new public spaces in areas that were previously underused. Such initiatives are based on what I would call a “Reclaim-Test-Evaluate-Establish” approach of which I will show you an exciting example.

Inspired by New York’s Plaza Program, San Francisco’s “Pavement to Parks” is a program that creates spaces for people reclaiming excess roadway, through the use of simple and low-cost design interventions.

The first step was to recognize that San Francisco’s streets occupy 25% of the city’s land area (more space than all of the city’s parks). Many streets are considered to be excessively wide with high underused space (something that happens in most cities around the world).

The “Pavement to Parks” projects seek to temporarily RECLAIM these unused spaces and quickly and inexpensively turn them into new public plazas and parks.This is done by a temporary closure of the street and the installation of a new public use with the help of temporary activities, seating, landscaping, and treatment of the asphalt.

The reclaimed space becomes then a public laboratory where the City works with the community to TEST different uses and designs. After trying different configurations the space is EVALUATED to see if whether the temporary closure should be a long term community investment and ESTABLISHED as a permanent public space.

This is the case of the “Castro Plaza”. After being tested and evaluated for over a year, the Castro Plaza was made permanent by request of the community. The trail period provides the designers all the information they needed to create a public space that is tailored to the desires, needs and routines of the community. Something that would definitely contribute to the sustainability of the project.

In times where there is a shortage of resources, where there is a high demand for local public spaces and green areas, where municipalities can not cope with such demands, where there is the need of actively involving communities in the development and management of their public areas, it seems to me that a “Reclaim-Test-Evaluate-Establish” approach can be very useful. Having said that there should be much more support and attention given to initiatives such as the Park(ing) Day.

Here you can find a video of the transfromation of the Castro Plaza done by StreetFilms

Images from Pavement to Parks program

Here you can find other initiatives of reclaiming unused streets for more sustainable transportation. 

Recently I came across the the work of the Atelier d´Architecture Autogérée (AAA), an architecture and urban design studio that describes itself as “an interdisciplinary practice including architects, artists, urban planners, landscape designers, sociologists, activists, students and residents”. 

The combination of so many and diverse actors within in their practice is what makes AAA projects very different from many other architecture or urban design firms. The diversity of its team members lies on the fact that their main goal is to create an  architectural and urban practice that is inclusive and respectful of the desires of inhabitants and users, whatever is their social and cultural background. 

For AAA public space is socially, culturally and politically produced and not just physically build. Their projects are highly embedded in their local contexts, including, adapting and shaping everyday practices and using them as platforms for cultural and social production. Their goal is not to create a product but a long term process that can host the diverse needs and demands of its users as well as serve as a learning space for new lifestyles and ways of being together in the future.

Such ideas are clearly reflected in their award winning project “Passage 56”. A public space that because of its format and use, it is continually “under construction”. The Passage 56 is a continuous social, cultural and political process rather than a design object.

Find more about what is going on in the Passage 56 in their blog. It is in french but the images talk for themselves.

“New York City (Steady) State” is a project and exhibition created by Terreform. A very interesting non-profit design group that promotes green design in cities. The project’s objective is to explore how can the ecological footprint of New York City become co-terminus with its political boundaries. The driving force of the project is that: the city can become completely self-sufficient.

For doing so the project explores strategies to improve the use an improvement of water, air and climate, food, energy, building, manufacture, movement, and waste.What is interesting about the project, and Terreform in general, is their believe that we can not achieve self-sufficiency if we do not change our life styles and habits. Although they propose some “ecothecnology” solutions they are also critical to these when saying that such technologies tend “to abstract and de-individualize responsibility and to de-politicize the environmental problem”. In my opinion this is why in the project’s images emphasis is made on showing people making the change and not the infrastructure or the buildings. 

This reminds me some of the quotes that I have put in this blog:

citizens not engineers will achieve sustainability - Julian Agyeman

to effectively address the global environmental problems, we will have to start with the lifestyle of residents in their local communities - Per Berg

designers, engineers, planners, artists, sociologists in collaboration and partnership with citizens will achieve sustainability

you can find more information and pictures of the project in designboom or follow terreform’s blog

By giving importance to the small and nearby green areas of the city, Copenhagen intends to reinforce its strategies towards reducing the city’s CO2 emissions and also contain climate adaptation. The plan “Pocket parks, more trees and more green” intends to prepare Copenhagen for a warmer and wetter future. The local authority aims to create 14 pockets parks and planting 3,000 trees over the next seven years. 

Planners in Copenhagen understand that such initiatives go beyond climate adaptations. “Besides preparing the city for future climate change we also make the city a better place to live. The green areas helps us to cope with torrential rain and heatwaves - but also makes people better able to play and enjoy themselves outdoors” says Mikkel Aarø-Hansen, head of the Center for the Environment (klimatilpasning). Therefore each park will have its own identity and has to be developed specifically to the site in question. Involvement of local residents in the development process is important to ensure that the park fits the needs and desires of the local community (sustainablecities.dk)