Urban Pockets Reclaiming the public in left-over open spaces
URBEGO
What
Reclaiming the public in left-over open spaces Urbego believes that neglected public spaces can be transformed into key places where the city beats on the rhythm of the community and neighbourhood activism. Together with local institutional partners and residents, we have undertaken a series of actions in 2014 that address the role and function of public space. So far, Urbego has sparked interest in the re-establishment of public space as a relevant arena in Belgrade, Tirana and Skopje, mapping, surveying, gaming, creating and working with citizens on their visions of what public space ought to be. The experiment was successful, marked by the implementation of a community pocket park in the Albanian capital in January 2015.
Following the IAAU research that URBEGO carried on in the Balkans, Urban Pockets has already started transforming urban residual spaces with a first intervention in Albania.
Where
Cities with no resources and unclear urban policies The program acts in different cities where cost cutting policies do not guarantee enough resources for the intervention on urban open space. Many cities are seeing their budget shrinking, and strong incentives to focus on strategic costeffective interventions. At the same time, bottom-up projects often lack of resources, visibility and effectiveness. Urban Pockets is an interesting model to operate in these contexts, by proposing a strategy that optimises the result by establishing new partnerships within residents, public and private sector.
Cities with community problems By improving the quality of the open space Urban Pockets not only affects the individual life of people, but above all their sense of community. Even cities with a strong background in public realm management and good financial resources are sometimes facing issues related to sense of exclusion and isolation in particular areasv, and this might lead to anti-social behaviours, safety issues and conflicts. The Co-Creation strategy developed by Urbego can offer a way to tackle these issues by answering properly to community needs, by redefining the sense of belonging of residents to their neighbourhoods and reinventing their relationship with the cities they are part of.
Innovative cities Urban Pockets is offered as a tool to every community in every city that wants to develop new strategies of intervention in the open space. It promotes a new way to work on the public realm, with citizens taking direct action in transforming and taking care of the cities where they live. A view of the courtyard in Tirana where the first intervention has taken place: the project started in September 2014, with the first work completed in the spring 2015.
Who
Citizens The project involves the local community of residents in each of its phases, and self-established communities can apply directly to the program. If an envisioned potentially successful intervention is not supported yet by a self-established community, local residents are engaged and, if interested in the project, they are helped to set up an action team.
Local partners The local partner (an NGO, a public or private institution, a design practice) has a rooted experience in intervention in the open spaces in the cities where it operates. It acts as a link between Urbego and the local community, and is responsible for monitoring the implementation and promoting locally the program. The local partner is also responsible to engage local institutions and organizations that can contribute to the project.
International partnership
One of the several activities organized by Urbego together with the local partner Co-Plan, in order to engage the local residents in the program.
A key component of the program are the international links created by Urbego, that acts as a networking agent for partnerships and funding. Local communities and organization can rely on the know-how of the international expertise members of the Urbego network, sharing experience and developing strategies for coordinated interventions with alike groups in different countries.
How 1 Identification and involvement of a local partner An NGO, a public or private institution, a design practice, having a rooted experience in intervention in the open spaces in the cities where they operate.
2 Mapping spatial potentials The mapping focuses on vacant lots or forgotten spaces at the very small scale, often in a state of decay, dumping sites for trash and building rubble, and unsafe public space.
3 Prioritizing site interventions Prioritization of the interventions is based on their location within the city, their current uses, their ownership status and the interest of an engaged and self-established community.
4 Assessing motivation and needs of the community A door-to-door survey in the neighbourhood assessing the needs, perceptions and wishes of the local community, is also a communication tool informing people of the ongoing process.
5 Involving the potential users The results are presented and discussed during in-situ meetings with the local community. Simple visualizations help the residents to understand the possibilities offered by the site.
6 Co-design phase In the co-design meetings a scale model is used to engage the local community, allowing them to select and locate desired elements and new functions by discussing and negotiating.
7 Co-finance Three sources of funding support the implementation: 1. Local funds, provided by local business and institutions. 2. International funds collected by Urbego 3. Community self-help and volunteer work.
8 Self-building Residents are involved directly in the construction phase working on a voluntary base or according to time-sharing schemes, engaging the users in the transformation of the space.
9 Planning site maintenance A simplified scale model was used in Tirana during the codesign sessions helping the residents to visualize their ideas about the future of their space.
A year plan for the maintenance and management of the space is defined by all the actors involved in the process, with the eventual support of the municipality.
Why
Reclaiming the open space By creating new community public places (gardens, pocket parks, shared yards) in redundant outdoor areas, spaces in between buildings, promoting mixed use of car parking, Urban Pockets enhances the existing public and open space to meet the need of the local community users, with a bottom-up approach that produces urban quality revival.
“It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses, we must plant more roses.� – George Elliot
Enforcing communities Urban Pockets promotes the interaction within neighbours, empowering them and offering a chance to relate to public institutions/ internationals/ other communities. In the urban environment often neighbours have very limited interaction among each other. The co-design process fosters the social interaction between citizens.
Building the sense of place Aims of the project is to build a sense of place by shaping the identity of the local public realm and the character of a neighbourhood. The creation-construction process allows the appropriation by the communityof their public space, enforcing their sense of belonging and satisfaction.
Regenerating cities vibration When successful, the first intervention becomes a model for similar projects in the same city, promoting urban regeneration in an incremental developmentinvolving different neighbourhoods in the same city, or different cities in the same region.
While the first intervention is carried on, URBEGO together with the local partner is engaging new communities for further interventions in the city.
Next Steps
Urbego is developing contacts with several organisations in different cities to transfer and adapt the methodology to new contexts, starting with Bucharest, Ploeisti and Athens.
Bucharest The fall of the communism led to the degradation of open spaces. Leftover spaces hold the promise of fostering small communities from the ground up.
Ploiesti Ploiesti suffers from a depopulation phenomena of young people. Reclaiming collective courtyards and other underused transitional spaces will help to grow a sense of community.
Athens The so-called financial crisis has shifted the attitude towards the city, with many initiatives, groups and informal organisations that reclaim the life in public space in an engaged and conscious way.
A Maintained Presence: Tirana The program is already active inTirana, with the first intervention being implemented and the local partner working on engaging new communities for new interventions in the city.
Education and promotion: Cairo and Rome As a complementary activity to the program, Urbego keeps working on education and training. Urbego is now organizing of a summer school in Cairo, together with Berlin University. Strongly relying on constant in-situ assessment, the program has started with little interventions and now is incrementally being reproposed in different contexts.
Who S
LJANO
INSTITUCION ARSIMOR JOPUBLIK
URBEGO Urbego is a multidisciplinary platform of young, motivated and skilled professionals from all around the globe. Urbego wants to provide rapid responses for specific challenges in cities by applying an in situ approach collaborating with local partners, ranging from civil society representatives to research institutions and decision makers. Urbego’s members have a wide range of expertise, going from urban governance, planning, economics, architecture and culture to communication and engagement. Through workshops, these skills are combined with local knowledge from citizens, students and decision makers to find the best solution for the individual case.
www.urbego.org | team@urbego.org
Urban Pockets Concept by Urbego
Giulia Maci, urban planner, Copenhagen Farah Makki, architect, Paris Simone Gobber, architect, London Filipa Pajevic, economist, Montreal
with the collaboration of
Deutschzentrum Siljano High School Silvi Jano, urban planner, Tirana
Urban Pockets partners
Micromega Architecture Mara Papavasileiou, architect, Athens Alexandros Zomas, architect, Athens Mkbt Catalina Ionita, architect, Bucharest Mihai Alexandru, urban planner, Bucharest ARTA in dialog Monica Sebestyen, architect, Bucharest
IAAU partners
Artangle, Balkan Art Culture Fund Coalition for Sustainable Development Co-Plan Mikser Festival School of Urban Practice B74
Graphic designer
Carla Felicetti