Intensification activities

Reflecting on the role of intensification activities in sustaining urban vitality

Walking through the A38 underpass during the Birmingham Weekender Festival, I was reminded of the social value of simple public space interventions. A handful of food stalls, seating and live music brought this otherwise dark and inorganic place to life, with inhabitants from all walks of life enjoying the different attractions on offer. Intensification activities, which are typically catalysed by local authorities, developers or independent bodies seek to create temporary outdoor environments which are conducive to public life, thereby catalysing vitality.

In addition to making people more comfortable with spending time outdoors, intensification activities also allow built environment practitioners to test different ideas and take risks at significantly lower costs than permanent interventions. They’re also an opportunity to promote independent businesses and artists, and can empower the community. In the A38 underpass I could see owners of family owned food stalls and local artists not only entertaining visitors but also actively engaging in conversation with each other, building social networks and developing a tight-knit community. On a broader scale, these intensification activities are undertaken as part of strategic efforts to try and undo the damage done by mid-century, car-based planning seen in Birmingham. Further, these intensification activities are also be used to reanimate public spaces in denser contexts. In the City of London, an easier approach to developing intensification activities can be seen during summer in the public space outside Guildhall, which is home to the City of London Corporation. During warmer months, red chairs are placed in this space which can be reconfigured by inhabitants. Users are quick to rearrange the chairs as they see fit; often rearranging them in circles to maintain discussion, or to better orient themselves in the sunlight. This simple act of placing chairs in the space not only creates a more lively space, but also creates opportunities for self-organisation amongst users, allowing them to take momentary ownership of the space.

There is also scope for these intensification activities to evolve into the installation of more permanent design elements if they are found to be popular amongst visitors. While this comes at the cost of the temporal novelty of the project, it supports the creation of a permanent focal point for public life. As for efforts such as Birmingham’s Weekender Festival, these pinpricks of vitality at the human scale give me hope for neglected spaces in urban contexts.