![Umbrella street Old San Juan SJU 06 2019 8787](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Umbrella_street_Old_San_Juan_SJU_06_2019_8787.jpg)
Tactical urbanism, also commonly referred to as guerrilla urbanism, pop-up urbanism, city repair, D.I.Y. urbanism,
planning-by-doing, urban acupuncture, and urban prototyping,
is a low-cost, temporary change to the
built environment
The term built environment refers to human-made conditions and is often used in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, public health, sociology, and anthropology, among others. These curated spaces provide the setting for human ac ...
, usually in cities, intended to improve local neighbourhoods and city gathering places.
Tactical urbanism is often citizen-led but can also be initiated by government entities. Community-led temporary installations are often intended to pressure government agencies into installing a more permanent or expensive version of the improvement.
Terminology
The term was popularized around 2010 to refer to a range of existing techniques. The Street Plans Collaborative defines "tactical urbanism" as an approach to urban change that features the following five characteristics:
# A deliberate, phased approach to instigating change;
# The offering of local solutions for local planning challenges;
# Short-term commitment as a first step towards longer-term change;
# Lower-risk, with potentially high rewards; and
# The development of social capital between citizens and the building of organizational capacity between public and private institutions, non-profits, and their constituents.
While the 1984 English translation of ''
The Practice of Everyday Life
''The Practice of Everyday Life'' is a book by Michel de Certeau that examines the ways in which people individualise mass culture, altering things, from utilitarian objects to street plans to rituals, laws and language, in order to make them thei ...
'' by French author
Michel de Certeau
Michel de Certeau (; 17 May 1925 – 9 January 1986) was a French Jesuit priest and scholar whose work combined history, psychoanalysis, philosophy, and the social sciences as well as hermeneutics, semiotics, ethnology, and religion. He was kn ...
used the term ''tactical urbanism'', this was in reference to events occurring in Paris in 1968; the "tactical urbanism" that Certeau described was in opposition to "strategic urbanism", which modern concepts of tactical urbanism tend not to distinguish. The modern sense of the term is attributed to New York-based urban planner Mike Lydon.
The
Project for Public Spaces
Project for Public Spaces (PPS) is a nonprofit organization based in New York dedicated to creating and sustaining public places that build communities, in an effort often termed placemaking
Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the pla ...
uses the phrase "Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper", coined by urban designer Eric Reynolds, to describe the same basic approach expressed by tactical urbanism.
Origin
![Wayfinding signage along the bike path, Los Angeles](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Wayfinding_signage_along_the_bike_path%2C_Los_Angeles.jpg)
The tactical urbanist movement takes inspiration from urban experiments including
Ciclovía
Ciclovía (, ), also ''ciclovia'' or ''cyclovia'', is a Spanish term that means "cycleway", either a permanent bike path or the temporary closing of certain streets to automobiles for cyclists and pedestrians, a practice sometimes called open s ...
,
Paris-Plages
Paris-Plages ("Paris Beaches"; until 2006 Paris-Plage in the singular) is a plan run by the office of the mayor of Paris that creates temporary artificial beaches each summer along the river Seine in the centre of Paris, and, since 2007, along th ...
, and the introduction of plazas and pedestrian malls in New York City during the tenure of
Janette Sadik-Khan
Janette Sadik-Khan (born April 28, 1961) is a former commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation (2007–2013) and an advisor on transportation and urban issues. She works for Bloomberg Associates, a philanthropic consultancy es ...
as Commissioner of the
New York City Department of Transportation
The New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) is the agency of the government of New York City responsible for the management of much of New York City's transportation infrastructure. Ydanis Rodriguez is the Commissioner of the Departm ...
.
Tactical urbanism formally emerged as a movement following a meeting of the Next Generation of
New Urbanist
New Urbanism is an urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually inf ...
(CNU NextGen) group in November 2010 in
. A driving force of the movement is to put the onus back on individuals to take personal responsibility in creating sustainable buildings, streets, neighborhoods, and cities. Following the meeting, an open-source project called Tactical Urbanism: Short TermAction , Long Term Change was developed by a group from NextGen to define tactical urbanism and to promote various interventions to improve urban design and promote positive change in neighbourhoods and communities.
Types of interventions
![Pop-up-Radweg Petersburger Straße Berlin 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Pop-up-Radweg_Petersburger_Stra%C3%9Fe_Berlin_2.jpg)
Tactical urbanism projects vary significantly in scope, size, budget, and support. Projects often begin as grassroots interventions and spread to other cities, and are in some cases later adopted by municipal governments as best practices. Some common interventions are listed below:
;Better block initiatives:Temporarily transforming retail streets using cheap or donated materials and volunteers. Spaces are transformed by introducing food carts, sidewalk tables, temporary bike lanes and narrowing of streets.
;Chair bombing:The act of removing salvageable materials and using it to build public seating. The chairs are placed in areas that either are quiet or lack comfortable places to sit.
;Crosswalk painting:
Guerrilla crosswalks are
zebra crossing
A zebra crossing (British English) or a marked crosswalk (American English) is a pedestrian crossing marked with white stripes (zebra markings). Normally, pedestrians are afforded precedence over vehicular traffic, although the significance of ...
s painted by the community on roadways and at intersections where the city government has failed to provide a marked
pedestrian crossing
A pedestrian crossing (or crosswalk in American English) is a place designated for pedestrians to cross a road, street or avenue. The term "pedestrian crossing" is also used in the Vienna and Geneva Conventions, both of which pertain to road sig ...
.
;De-fencing:The act of removing unnecessary fences to break down barriers between neighbours, beautify communities, and encourage community building.
;
Depaving:The act of removing unnecessary pavement to transform driveways and parking into green space so that rainwater can be absorbed and neighbourhoods beautified.
;Food carts/trucks:
Food carts
A food cart is a mobile kitchen set up on the street to prepare and sell street food to passers-by. Food carts are often found in cities worldwide selling food of every kind.
Food carts come in two basic styles. One allows the vendor to sit o ...
and
trucks
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...
are used to attract people to underused public spaces and offer small business opportunities for entrepreneurs.
;
Guerrilla gardening
Guerrilla gardening is the act of gardening – raising food, plants, or flowers – on land that the gardeners do not have the legal rights to cultivate, such as abandoned sites, areas that are not being cared for, or private property. It enco ...
: Cultivating land that the gardeners do not have the legal rights to utilize, such as abandoned sites, areas not being cared for, or private property.
;Open Streets:
![Portal to Park Avenue](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Portal_to_Park_Avenue.jpg)
To temporarily provide safe spaces for walking, bicycling, skating, and social activities; promote local economic development; and raise awareness about the impact of cars in urban spaces. "Open Streets" is an anglicized term for the South American '
Ciclovia', which originated in
Bogota.
;PARK(ing) Day:An annual event where on street parking is converted into park-like spaces. Park(ing) Day was launched in 2005 by
Rebar art and design studio.
;Pavement to Plazas: Popularized in New York City, pavement plazas involve converting space on streets to usable public space. The closure of
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
to vehicular traffic, and its low-cost conversion to a pedestrian plaza, is a primary example of a pavement plaza.
;Pop-up cafes:Temporary patios or terraces built in parking spots to provide overflow seating for a nearby cafe or for passersby. Most common in cities where sidewalks are narrow and where there otherwise is not room for outdoor sitting or eating areas.
;Pop-up parks:Temporary or permanent transformations of underused spaces into community gathering areas through beautification.
;
Pop-up retail
Pop-up retail, also known as pop-up store (pop-up shop in the UK, Australia and Ireland) or flash retailing, is a trend of opening short-term sales spaces that last for days to weeks before closing down, often to catch onto a fad or scheduled e ...
:Temporary retail stores that are set up in vacant stores or property.
;Protected bike lanes:
Pop-up bicycle lane
A pop-up bike lane (also known as pop-up cycle path or temporary bike lane) is a temporary bike lane that can be used to test new strategies for bicycle traffic. In the event of a successful test phase, this measure can be implemented permanently ...
s are usually done by placing potted plants or other physical barriers to make painted bike lanes feel safer. Sometimes there is no pre-existing bike lane, and the physical protection is the only delineator.
Resources
The Street Plans Collaborative, in collaboration with Ciudad Emergente and Codesign studio, produces a series of free tactical urbanism e-books. Volumes 1 and 2 focus on North American case studies, Volume 3 is a Spanish-language guide to Latin American projects, and Volume 4 covers Australia and New Zealand, including responses to the
2011 Christchurch earthquake
A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time (23:51 UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the entire of the Canterbury region in the South Island, centred south-east ...
.
Street Plans' Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia published a tactical urbanism book in March 2015.
See also
*
Sneckdown
A sneckdown (or snowy neckdown) is a temporary curb extension caused by snowfall, where snow has built up in the road but not been flattened by traffic, effectively reshaping the curb. Sneckdowns show how the space is being used by vehicle and fo ...
References
{{reflist, 40em
New Urbanism
Urban design
Environmentalism
Sustainable transport
Sustainable urban planning
Urban planning
Urban studies and planning terminology