Tactical Urbanism Assignment 1 - What is Tactical Urbanism?
Indra Kooge 131788
WHAT IS TACTICAL URBANISM & URBAN GUERILLA? Cheap, quick and small scale temporary changes are the key in tactical urbanism and urban guerilla, short-term actions for long-term change. But what is it? Defintion In tactical urbanism the classical slow process of urban redevelopment of urban public spa0c1es is set aside and reacts now on issues that plague the city! It is a proces of trying out new ideas, see what effects they have and works and what doesnt work. Then finetune and adjust the idea so it could be implemented again. On a temporary or even permantly basis. But how does tactical urbanism work and what are the effects of these projects in our cities?
Goals The goals of tactical urbanism is to improve and give back the public space to the people. Since the spreading of the American dream, where everybody is suppose to have a car, a lot has changed in cities. Lively streets changed into roads for cars. While our lives kept moving on faster. People have forgotten their roots as a community, the streets that glues them all together, where everything is shared with each other. The main goal is to bring back liveliness in the streets for people.
Theory The idea of tactical urbanism is to react on the ever change of the urban enviroment. Many cities focus on transportation, economy and special recreational area’s. In this process the streets are being forgotten. Where it was the natural habitat for city dwellers it became a place of concrete and cars. A statement is made by doing small scale and temporary changes in these public spaces. Testing out what could change in the city for the better of men and place an example how it can be done.
“Guerilla urbanism, pop-up urbanism, city repair, or D.I.Y. urbanism are all references to tactical urbanism.” “Pop-up retail, Depaving day, chair bombing, Defencing, Open streets, Guerilla gardening, Food truck eventsare all acts of tactical urbanism.”
WHAT IS TACTICAL URBANISM & URBAN GUERILLA? Practice The theory behind tactical urbanism is pretty self explanatory and looks like an easy process. However in practice it is a whole other story. For an idea to be implemented there has to be done a lot and what, where and when needs to be determined before any action can take place. Besides this, support from local authorities is needed. Some local authorities are not well know with tactical urbanism and are reluctant to work with them. Because it focusses on points where they had made mistakes in the past and often they dont like when others try to find sollutions for them. So the key for implementing tactical urbanism is to be the middleman between the people of the city and the local government.
Local support The last couple of years tactical urbanism gained a lot of support, both from inhabitants of city’s as their local goverment. Tactical urbanism is interesting for local governments because of the low costs and risks a good way to pilot ideas and see how they work in practice. On the other hand actions are praised by the people because of the fast reaction time. There is no need for long term planning, high costs and long building times and is solely focust on improving public space for people.
(Dis) advantages The advantages of tactical urbanism projects is that it is an fast, easy and save way to try out ideas and meassure their effects. Local governments dont have to gone into a long process and costly process of planning redevelopment and make change for the citizens very fast. What could be perceived as disadvantage of tactical urbanism is the scale of the projects. It is mostly implemented on a small scare, mostly on neighborhoud level, and the effects are really felt at city level.
“There is not a big difference between tactical urbanism and urban guerilla. The only mayor difference is that tactical urbanism projects is in association with local governments and have the correct licenses to implement them. Where urban guerilla is a action of individuals or groups that act on their own.�
SHIPPING CONTAINER POOLS, USA It can become very hot inside cities during the summer time. In the 70’s people from low income neighborhoods would break open fire hydrogants to refresh. This can be seen of an early form of urban guerilla. It was an action by individuals and groups that had no approval from their local authorities. The city did not offer any cheap and nearby places where they could cool down from the hot summers. Since the early 2000’s these actions evolved into something some what more organized. Instead of just opening the fire hydrogant they started placing shipping containers, bathtubs and everything else that was large enough to fit a human
and filed them up with water. These container pools in the public space are free to use and are regulated by the people themselves. Everybody in the neighborhood can come over to cool down. At first the local authorities were not to happy with these pools and tried to shut them down. A lot of protests errupted when this happend. And after reviewing what the effect was on the neighborhoods from the placement of the container pools they concluded that it had a good effect on the neighborhood. Emergency
calls went down and there was less crime. The container pools improved community bonding and spirit. Now whole events are organized with the community, called “pig roasts”. People collect money and buy a complete pig and place it above a fire. Everybody brings some food, what everybody can eat. So this reaction for a need to cool down during summers has improved the social community feeling and social safety inside the before “dangerous” lowincome neighborhoods. 5 tops - Answering the needs of the people - It is very cheap - Easy to implement - It can be used for everybody - Strenghtens the community 5 tips - Make it legal - Get lifeguards - Try to lower nuisance - Keep it small - Get water filters
PEDESTRIAN RIGHTS, MEXICO CITY Busy streets that are filled by cars and does not leave room for cyclists and pedestrians. That was the situation in Mexico City, but this is changing. It all started with the stagename Peatรณnito, a 29-old political scientist who works for the city government. In 2012 he deceided to become a superhero and fight for space for the pedestrains and create a road safety culture that was non excisting before. The city was focust on car traffic and not so much on pedestrians. He spray painted zebra crossings where non existed, blocked cars that ignored roadrules and tried to force this topic into political debate and make it a city priority.
Thanks to Peatรณnito things are changing in mexico city. There are less accidents and deaths and traffic has become more safe. He managed to force the focus onto this and the local government is working on improving the city for pedestrians. A new mobilty law came into effect that recognizes the importance of the pedestrian. In some parts of the city it was even impossible to walk because a lot of roads were lacking sidewalks. To see how to improve this they started with tactical urbanism, cheap and easy
ways to try things out. They started to claim space for the pedestrian by placing illuminated cones. In this way temporary sidewalks were created. And what showed? People started using them! It has shown that people use what has been given to them. Peatรณnito guerilla actions had a domino effect. He showed the city government and their people what was wrong in the city and their culture. Thanks to this the authorities implemented tactical urbanism actions to research how they can improve their city. 5 tops - Government works with the people - Nothing changed for cars - People tent to use more active transportation - Easy to do - Gave space to pedestrians 5 tips - Make it pernament - Try out new locations - Force government for improving infrastructure for pedestrians, not only keep it with these kinds of actions. - Also do actions during the day - Promote it beforehand
MINI POTHOLE GARDENS, LONDON Can one person make a change in the urban enviroment? In London a master in design student called Steve “the pothole gardener” has done it! The roads in and around London are plagued with potholes and it irritates a lot of Londoners. Steve “ the pothole gardener” wanted to adress the issue by making these anoying and ugly wear of the sidewalk in something beautiful and create little moments of happiness for the people in the streets. While his goals was to improve people their emotions it also highlights the problems that are hindering a safe and smooth walking experience in London. By Steve his actions he makes
walking fun and intressting again and it started a lot of discussion in and around town when a hedgehog deceided to reside on one of his gardens. It became a news item and everybody knew his work overnight The potholes were not something the London authorities were that worried about before. For them it was just a small issue that did not have a lot of priority. But thanks to Steve they saw how big the issue was for pedestrians and that is was not very enjoyable to walk around, because of all the potholes.
Now London and the City of London made potholes in sidewalks a more prominant issue. Repair works have started and walking is slowly becoming better every day. Steve his action has shown that a single man can change the policy of a city. By his “simple” urban guerilla action he did two things at once. Showed the authoritys what was wrong and what should improve. And in the mean time he made the problem less servere and cheered up the pedestrians that were frustrated before. 5 tops - Transforming somthing ugly into something beautifull. - Pointing out where repairs need to be. - There are no disadvantages - Very low costs. - Everybody likes it. 5 tips - The problem is not solved. - Local authorities dont notice. - Small scale. - Easily destroyed. - Can become a mess overtime.
HAPPYSTREETS, ROTTERDAM The city of Rotterdam wants to give back the public space to it’s people. They are searching for a durable way to do this and experiment with this with the event “ Happy Streets” The local government of Rotterdam, together with thinkers and do’ers have created a long term vision for the city. In their vission Rotterdam needs to become green, lively and improve human interactions. The had many ideas what could change in the city, but most of these ideas were not tried out yet. Because of this they organized a weekend filled with pilots of their ideas. So they can see what the effects are on the city, the public space and it’s people. Will their ideas shape the future for Rotterdam?
During the Happystreets event they are gonna pilot three diverent actions; PARK(ing) day, WALK’in and openstreets. During PARK(ing) day the people of Rotterdam are called upon to retake parkingspaces and tranform them into green spaces.With this they want to show how green the city can be and is it a perfect oppertunity for artists and business to show what they got in store. With WALK’in the roles between guides and tourists are reversed. People from Rotterdam can group up and walk their own ways
through the city and tell their story to other people from Rotterdam. With this they try to improve social interaction. The last day of the event is Open streets day. Where public space is given back to the people and taken away from the car. The road will be blocked for cars and people themselves can decide what to do with the space that has been given to them for that day. With these pilots are not only the actions themselves tested but maybe more important the people themselves are tested. Are they willing to make changes? 5 tops - Roads turned into streets. - People liked it. - Everyday something new - Several locations - It is for every age 5 tips - Complete streets are blocked, hinders traffic a lot - It was allready a succes in other cities, not orginal - Dont make it a event but permanant change. - Also try out different cities in Holland. - Only one part in Rotterdam