Can you think of an urban space that just doesn’t work? Or a space that could work so much better if someone put some effort into fixing it?
For me, it’s the Devonshire Street pedestrian tunnel at Central Station in Sydney (pictured above). I walk through this tunnel once a day because it’s the quickest way to get to my homeward-bound train. Commuters trudge past the green and yellow tiles and uninspiring artworks under unpleasant lighting, often in great numbers. The one redeeming feature of this long tunnel is the high prevalence of buskers, some of which are very good.
But it’s a space that is crying out for revitalisation. New artwork and a new colour scheme would be a good start. Maybe some more natural lighting. Maybe there’s even a way to bring some natural light in and grow plants along the walls.
No doubt you can think of other urban spaces that need to be revitalised – plazas where nobody wants to linger, streets where pedestrians aren’t welcome, patches of bare earth where nothing grows. Getting unloved urban spaces like these fixed through the normal channels is a long, slow process. So, around the world, some people are taking a different approach. It’s called ‘tactical urbanism‘ and it includes things like guerrilla gardening, pop-up shops, chair bombing and depaving. Also known as ‘guerilla urbanism’, ‘pop-up urbanism’, ‘city repair’ or ‘D.I.Y. urbanism’, tactical urbanism allows passionate individuals to prototype urban design solutions before substantial political and financial commitments are made. Often, tactical urbanism involves interventions that are of questionable legality, done quickly, to demonstrate how an urban space could be improved.
Better Block
One of the best examples is the Better Block project. This is an example of rapid urban revitalisation, or guerrilla urbanism. It takes poorly-used city blocks and, drawing inspiration from European cities, transforms them over a weekend into space that invite pedestrians and cyclists into the space. Pop-up shops are installed, trees are brought in and cycleways are painted onto the roads. It’s all temporary, but often at least some of the interventions are retained and start to trigger real revitalisation of the areas. The video below describes the San Antonio Better Block project.
The “Better Block” project is a demonstration tool that rebuilds an area using grassroots efforts to show the potential to create a great walkable, vibrant neighborhood center. The project acts as a living charrette so that communities can actively engage in the “complete streets” buildout process and develop pop-up businesses to show the potential for revitalized economic activity in an area. Better Blocks are now being performed around the world, and have helped cities rapidly implement infrastructure and policy changes.
~ Better Block website
Jason Roberts is one of the people behind Better Block and he gives an energetic account of how Better Block emerged in the longer TED talk below, for those who want to dig deeper into this movement.
Guerrilla gardening
The Tactical Urbanism guide developed by the Street Plans Collaborative and the Next Generation of New Urbanists documents many other tactical urbanism initiatives. One of my favourites is guerrilla gardening, which has been around since the 1970s. Guerrilla gardeners find patches of ground and plant them with vegetables, flowers or other plants to turn them into green spaces within the city.
There’s a great set of tips for the aspiring guerrilla gardener at the Guerrilla Gardening blog.
Chair bombing
Chair bombing is something I had never heard of before, but I love it. Chair bombing involves placing homemade seating in public spaces to improve comfort, social activity and their sense of place. It is a form of resistance to the privatisation of public space.
If I had to choose one tactical urbanism intervention for the Devonshire Street pedestrian tunnel, this would be it. Let’s get some homemade chairs together, plonk them in the tunnel and sit and listen to the buskers while we dream up new artworks to cover the green and yellow tiles.
An Imagined Earth 