BACKGROUND
“We attribute the new wave of tactical projects, which run along a continuum of unsanctioned to sanctioned efforts, to three recent and overlapping trends:
​1. The Great Recession
2. Shifting demographics
3. The Internet as a tool for building the civic economy”
​(Lydon, M. et. al., 2012)
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According to Lydon, M., & Garcia, A. (2015), with the economic recession and the increase of urban population, city and developers have to face the problem of significantly reduced resources, the long-term goals become more difficult to implement, and communities often can only get very few urban resources and infrastructure upgrades.
At the same time, there is a lot of vacant land and space around, and the city and the public also need to deal with these resources more effectively. With the rapid development of Internet, residents and community groups through the Internet to raise money for local projects, governments began to use the Internet to respond to the demand of citizens, more and more citizens are interested in the urban construction, they share new ideas and resources through social media to actively improve their community.
Lydon, M., & Garcia, A. (2015). Tactical urbanism: Short-term action for long-term change. London: Island Press.
“Some cities grapple with economic decline and depopulating neighbourhoods.
​The emergence of urban vacant land can be tied to a host of shifts in urban conditions that often involve historic and current patterns of uneven development and investment.”
Németh, J., & Langhorst, J. (2014). Rethinking urban transformation: Temporary uses for vacant land. Cities, 40, 143-150.
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“A variety of forms of temporary urbanism have emerged worldwide in response to the inability of urban design and development to deal with social, economic and ecological urban crisis.”
Armelle Tardiveau & Daniel Mallo (2014) Unpacking and Challenging Habitus: An Approach to Temporary Urbanism as a Socially Engaged Practice, Journal of Urban Design, 19:4, 456-472
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“In the past few years, a broad range of initiatives have been taken, driven by a variety of motivations:
​Economic optimisation of vacant property, such as the initiative of the office developer Gecina with the Paris&Co project.
​Civic, cultural and social projects, such as Grands Voisins in Paris; summertime occupancy of land belonging to French Railways (SNCF) focused on festive and cultural initiatives (Gare des Mines, Grand Train, Ground Zero).”
​(Paris Region Development And Urban Planning Institute, 2017)
Cities often not friendly for bikes, pedestrians or wheelchairs.
Vacant lots
Mike Lydon & Anthony Garcia (2015). Tactical Urbanism Short-term Action for Long-term Change
Brownfields, abandoned or vacant buildings
https://www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1447813/
hca-strategic-land-chief-moots-brownfield-use-class-changes