Tactical Urbanism

Tactical Urbanism is a phase which has been greatly debated around the office. Is it pretentious? Is it exclusive? Or is it brilliant? Regardless of the name, the innovative, bottom-up approach to placemaking is slowly taking over our cities and I love it.

Tactical Urbanism is defined by its curators, Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia as ‘a city and/or citizen-led approach to neighbourhood building using short-term, low-cost and scalable interventions, intended to catalyse long-term change.’

It is as much as a way of thinking as it is a course of action: it can change the way we perceive urban spaces – changing streets into plazas or pavements into beaches. It could also be reclaiming under-utilised spaces to provide community amenities such as sports facilities. These interventions improve the everyday life of users,  can bring a community together and put a smile on people’s faces. The movement is taking back the city and giving it to the people, one bit at a time.

Another example is Park(ing) Day. It started in 2005 when San Francisco based design studio Rebar (now Morelab and Gehl Studio) converted a single car parking space into a public park. Since inception, Park(ing) Day has gained much popularity. Last week, the 2015 edition took place and it proved more popular than ever.

At Node, we like to side with the innovators and are looking to bring Tactical Urbanism to the UK next year.

For more information, all four volumes of the Tactical Urbanism series are available as e-books here.