From tactical urbanism to prototypical and synchronic urbanism

By Stéphanie Rocher, Trainee Urban Planner and Louis-Michel Fournier, Urban Planner

Over the last few decades, urban planning has evolved at an impressive pace, moving from a functional to an empirical approach. Heavy, costly infrastructure is no longer the only solution, as cities evolve faster than their lifespan. To avoid a constant mismatch between urban planning and current needs, temporary urbanism, which has gradually taken the form of pop-up urbanism, seems to be a new must. Moving away from conventional practices, tactical urbanism enables spontaneous changes to be made to the urban environment quickly and at low cost, allowing public space to evolve at the pace of the city.

The movement was born out of a spontaneous, ephemeral urban intervention by the Rebar artist collective, who rented a parking space for a terrace café in San Francisco. This was followed by community gardens, parklets, on-street performance art, microarchitecture installations and more. The aim of such interventions is to reappropriate public space in a playful and festive way, while creating a discussion about its various potentials. This concept was later popularized by young author and blogger Mike Lydon in his publication ” Tactical Urbanism – Short term action – long term change “, in 2010.
Tactical urbanism aims to experiment with planning : the city is used as an urban laboratory. It is based on three principles: micro-scale, low cost and short term. The barrier to entry imposed by the planning of permanent works is eliminated, opening the door to avant-garde initiatives. In concrete terms, this involves the temporary development of a public space – often a street that has become a monofunctional space for automobile transit – in order to transform it into a lively, attractive and diversified public space. It is also part of a medium- and long-term perspective, questioning the evolution of an obsolete space while testing the revitalization of certain sectors.

Often the initiative of citizen groups, tactical projects can also be initiated by cities. The most famous example is certainly the pedestrianization of Time Square, which banned 115,000 motorists a day from the streets in order to give the street back to the 350,000 pedestrians who crowded the thin sidewalks every day. Advised by the firm of Danish international urban planner Ian Gehl, the ” Departement of Transportation ” temporarily landscaped the site with ground paint and inexpensive outdoor furniture. Such was the success of the project that citizens’ requests were made to improve the layout. As everything was temporary, the City was able to easily test citizens’ requests, and the square is still evolving today.

Towards prototypical and synchronic urban planning

The emergence of tactical urbanism is forcing us to rethink urban planning standards in order to rationalize and make the most of limited public resources. The question posed by Ian Gehl aptly expresses the issues at stake: how can we reimagine the notion of temporary VS permanent to ensure that the urban environment evolves in sync with the rapid changes in urban cultures?

Even in the traditional context of urban design, a street configuration rarely lasts more than thirty years in a central area. With a typical world of funding and approval, the urban design process can take more than 10 years from inception to completion. The importance of financial resources, manpower, construction time, political opposition or premature obsolescence are all risk factors for the inefficiency of a traditionally managed project.

Temporary initiatives, when integrated into a broader planning process, can address these issues, as well as acting as a platform for public participation in real time and scale. We’re talking here about the “urban prototype” as a contemporary urban planning tool adapted to its context. Rethinking the permanent and the temporary also implies less dependence on the booms and busts of real estate cycles, thanks to a greater flexibility of action that can lead, as M. Gehl puts it, to the “permanence of the temporary “.

This desire for constant synchronization is no longer just true in information technology, but will take shape in the city. Already, digital signage changes in real time to display city activities. Soon, urban landscaping will evolve in real time to accommodate an activity, adapt to the season or respond to new trends.

Photo: City of Toronto