Case Study

Tactical urbanism is a broad expression used to describe many different kinds of interventions in cities. They seem to correspond to different qualities, for instance by occurring at different scales, land use and the approach. In this chapter, different case studies from different countries and their interventions will be discussed and analysed upon Hardware, Software and Orgware measures, then their result.

UTRECHT, The Netherlands (Residential)

Vacant land:

In Westplein in Utrecht city there is a big vacant land in a middle of a residential area. The tramline, school, row houses have been removed from Westplein square and were demolished to make way for new residential housing on the location. But in the recent time there is no current development going there (Corsten, n.d). Concerned that the long period of vacancy on Westplein would lead to negative situations, such as vandalism, wilderness and overall unattractiveness. People want to take matters into their own hands and want to have more responsibility, while the municipality is eager to decrease their involvement.

Impact

They want to make the area more sociable, to improve the image of the nighbourhood. By taking responsibility. These residents learn to develop their spatial opinions about an area (Corsten, n.d). In late 2013 the group planted tulip bulbs around the edge of the banks. In 2015 another 5 wooden boxes were added and this made place for a couple of new volunteers. The Paviljoen pOp well designed to increase the beauty of the square. Many pedestrians and cyclists use the square as a crossing road to enter or leave the innercity. They wanted to make a more sociable crossing, and has succeeded in that.

Hardware

The pavilion has been constructed due to the possibility of using the vacant land to install a public cafeteria.

Beside the pavilion, the idea was to make moveable wooden boxes filled with soil and to move them on the square to grow plants in. The area is fenced with willow branches, and wooden self-made furniture is placed alongside the wooden gardening boxes.

Orgware

To gather volunteers an advert has been placed on a website, where people could register to get a box for gardening purposes. In evenings workshops are given, or there might be some small parties or gatherings in the Pavijloen. The neighbourhood is involved with the pavilion regularly, as they helped to build the roof tiles. Each tile on the roof is the same design but have unique prints on it , representing the help of many neighbours.

Software

In summertime box owners must water the plants on a daily basis. In winter, the boxes are stored so there is nothing to do. During spring and autumn volunteers revealed that they visit Halte Westplein one, two or three times a week. Most of the volunteers live nearby.

Utrecht Westplein as community garden (Corsten, n.d)

CLUJ, Romania (Riverbank)

Vacant land:

There are many vacant and abandoned industrial sites and buildings in Cluj. In response to this problem, the city began to implement temporary use projects. Before planning actions, the city needs a framework for testing ideas coming from local citizens, who are more than willing to become actors in the urban development process and assume their role as a pro-active community.

Impact

The community became increasingly interested in co-designing public spaces, and in rebuilding and adapting them to suit its own needs. Two temporary use projects initiatives along the banks of the river Somes and the accommodation of artists and galleries became emblematic for the city. Cluj boasts a booming cultural scene, which needs space. It is an internationally renowned incubator for contemporary art. The city’s many students contribute to its lively, dynamic atmosphere.

Hardware

Somes Delivery Pavilion was designed as a multifunctional, temporary building, aimed at creating a link between a Park, the green river shore and the water, to signalize an urban happening on the Somes river. Another temporary installation took the form of a group of bright silhouettes passing on the river shore, a nocturnal invitation to get closer to the river. The view was a terraced garden, offering a wide view of the surrounding landscape.

Orgware

Festival that have also drawn attention to the river Somes and helped to re-integrate it into city life.

Visitors and passers-by could draw their own ideas for the riverbanks on large boards, thus interacting directly with the city.

Software

The riverbanks are cleaned up and sanitised while workshops raise awareness for environmental topics.

The area hosted an exhibition of the entire project explanatory, mapping and describing every single intervention (Miruna Draghia et al., 2017).

Cultural initiatives in Cluj range from grassroots social innovation and community engagement to street art festivals and contemporary fine arts. Temporary use activities in vacant area contribute to the way the city is experienced, either by way of temporary installations or with occasional events in public spaces. (Refill, 2018)

Somes View was a terraced garden with view of the surrounding landscape. (Refill, 2018)

GHENT, Belguim (Industrial)

Vacant land:

Even though the city of Ghent is short on urban space, it has some brownfields, vacant warehouses. De Site is a location of former telecom factory Alcatel Bell in the Rabot district (Case Study: Ghent, an Urban Commons, n.d.)

The City of Ghent, social partner and social-artistic organisation started the temporary use project. It gave time and space to the neighbourhood’s wishes, demands, and qualities and responded to several important needs in the district.

Impact

This case were initiated by the city as part of urban renewal projects aimed at citizen participation. This project has allowed the city to generated new temporary bottom-up initiatives in other neighbourhoods. The city has embraced temporary use as a way to involve citizens in urban regeneration and to provide breathing room for existing social innovations. The municipality has stepped up as a powerful broker for temporary use. The neighbourhood managers act as neutral mediators. Ghent wants to become a citizenoriented eco-system where pioneers and citizens have the confidence to take the initiative, to experiment, and to coordinate temporary use (Refill, 2018).

Hardware

Allotments, a greenhouse, urban horticultural plots, a football pitch, a bike playground, and an urban farmstead with a chicken coop was were set up.

Orgware

The alternative currency Torekes was launched residents could earn Torekes to buy vegetables and other supplies in local shops.

Software

De Site host a creative meeting place that got residents involved in their district. De Site involved residents in an urban renewal process that traditional participation methods would have left them out of.

De Site on the location of former telecom factory (Case Study: Ghent, an Urban Commons, n.d.)

NINE SMITH STREET, Australia (Pauseland)

Vacant Land

Not all vacant land is available for long-term reuse temporarily as Nine smith street. With this in mind, Melbourne-based organisation start the initiative to plant 3000 Acres connected with property developers Neometro to create a temporary community garden on the site of a future housing development. With support from horticulture students. (Lydon M., 2012)

Hardware

3000 Acres transformed the site into a temporary urban oasis with 22 garden plots and a compost station to recycle food and garden waste from on and off the site.

Orgware

Located on a former industrial site, the soil wasn’t safe for growing food. The problem was solved by repurposing interim bulk containers (IBCs) to create selfirrigating raised wicker beds. These modular beds mean the whole garden can be relocated within the community when the site is ready to be developed.

Impact:

This project is a strong example of how communities, businesses and governments can unlock temporarily vacant spaces for neighbourhood gardening. 3000 Acres ran a campaign which finished successfully on raising $20,055, double what they needed. Word of their success in engaging communities in growing produce in urban plots has gained the attention of Sydney, with an initiative 2000 Acres recently establishing (3000 Acres, 2017).

Software

Holding an on-going free community event program under the themes of art, design, food and wellbeing. The program has partnered with a wide range of local community groups.

Fortnightly planting workshops with 3000acres, coffee cupping workshops, film projection nights, yoga, architecture bike rides and art installations. (Neometro, n.d.)

Holding an on-going free community event program (Neometro, n.d.)

Link to Okotoks

City of Okotoks has neighbourhood which is a greenfield without developments. To ‘create high-quality public spaces, believing that the key to reversing the harmful effects of suburban sprawl is to promote compact, walkable, mixeduse neighbourhoods, From the study, it becomes clear that tactical urbanism is a huge part of the development process because Greenfields have the potential (appendix 1) to accommodate different kinds of interventions (as being a waiting area) before construction. The positive activity and perception of vibrancy can quickly create positive attention to Greenfields, significantly increasing their visibility within a neighbourhood. The tactical urbanism is necessary to change the image of the area and attract positive attention to it by activating and making it a destination for residents of surrounding neighbourhoods, and encouraging them to cross the highway and enter the area. Greenfields offer a great deal of potential to accommodate a variety of nonhuman systems that can significantly enhance the quality of the area, like providing habitat, improving microclimate and reducing stormwater runoff by the creek. Tactical urbanism are also generally inexpensive to implement yet can generate revenue very fast. It benefits the government and developers and creates business opportunities for groups that would otherwise be excluded from occupying Greenfields due to a lack of capital to engage in formal, permanent leases during building development.

All the case studies that were mentioned in the study were tied to Greenfield in one way or another. From Utrecht case studies, it illustrates a novel way of cultivating community gardens and the benefits of combining them with other orgware measures that can still be implemented in greenfield projects. The case study Cluj, it is kind of a copy paste case study. It is exactly the same situation as it is in the greenfield with creek area. Nine smith street is almost as large as the greenfield. The demonstration this kind of organizational power suggests that tactical urbanism on such a large scale can have a profound impact on the area.

Conclusion

As a conclusion vacant land may provide the role of the neighbourhood resident as co-author of the spaces and places they inhabit and as empowered shareholders in urban development processes. Tactical urbanism has the potential to re-centre vacant land as an important component of the processes that create urbanity and shape the new cities. It seems that temporary uses on urban vacant lands might soon be viewed as solution for the future.

The temporary use of vacant land is not a panacea to create resilient, sustainable, socially and ecologically just cities. Nor can it be ignored that there are significant economic and political interests that oppose temporary uses. To explore and realize the potentials of urban vacant land it is critical to situate efforts at temporary use in the particular social, economic, ecological and spatial contexts, that may instrumentalize such efforts and preserve the market-driven redevelopment that obtains value and disrupts and disempowers locals.

Research gap

There may be some possible limitations in this study that could be addressed in future research regarding case studies. As the case studies were chose to be more related to Okotoks and Greenfield. The best practices in the further research could be more structured and have a more coherent with the core of the research itself.

The political impact of the tactical urbanism is a second limitation in the research, due to shortage of time, the study overlooked the influence of the tactical urbanism on the political and regulations, that could be an opportunity for further discussions.