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First case of applied bottom-up participation in planning @Thessaloniki

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First case of applied bottom-up participation in planning @Thessaloniki

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Set up processes that enable the immersion of the visitors in new idiomatic and localized conditions and staged places.

In his book The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation (1991), philosopher Jacques Rancière suggested that educators should consider equality – in terms of knowing and not knowing – as a starting point rather than a destination (ibid., p. 23). In the development of our new framework of enabling expressive spaces for ULL 2.0, we should not be interested in guiding identified, mapped users/stakeholders/inhabitants towards prescribed ends, but rather, inspired by Rancière's concept of the ‘ignorant educator,’ our goal was to trigger their exploration of associated events towards multiple directions, starting from the same ‘entry-point.’

A design process orientated around the performativity of the generated space requires that the users’ experience of the space, their perception of it and interaction with it, is explored at the conceptual stage of the process. These explorations relate to, amongst others, the formal articulation and physical capacities of the designated space. In practice, this asymmetry between these procedures that attempt to explore the potential of non-quantified factors before the materialization of any of the quantified parameters, without being capable of physically testing the impact of different design configurations on the performativity of the generated space, points to the necessity of the design process for methods and tools that engage multiple users in design steps of open-ended exploration.

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Pocket Park Thessaloniki, Greece

Alexandrou Svolou Neighbourhood Initiative decided to engage with students groups in 2017 (see: Iliopoulos & Kaligas, 2017) by focusing on and appropriating an urban ‘void’ located in the neighbourhood of Alexandrou Svolou.

What is particularly significant about this urban ‘void’ (431,65 m2) is its ownership regime. It consisted of a vacant piece of public land that had been left to become derelict . 70% (337,05 m2) of its total area belongs to the School Buildings Organisation SA, a state-owned public limited company based in Athens, with the other 30% (94,60 m2) belonging to the Municipality of Thessaloniki.

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Left over spaces

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moving images

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concrete

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Urban Heritage

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many stories

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Open air cinema

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Thessaloniki historical centre 1950s speculative development

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Greek Polikatoikia atrium space

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Corner park

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Residents organised pocket park at neglected/unclaimed public space (Thessaloniki)

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When one thinks of a park, one usually imagines a large plot full of trees in the centre of the city with routes for walking or jogging, and shaded sitting areas where people can enjoy the fresh breeze during the hot summer days. But what happens in cities, like Thessaloniki, Greece, in which green spaces are vital, but there is no free for such uses?

Pocket parks are the solution to this common "lack-of-green-spaces" problem. Pocket parks, also known as vest-pocket parks or mini-parks, are just a smaller version of a regular park. All that is needed is a vacant lot between, or even behind, a couple of blocks of flats. As you can easily imagine, the less money, the more creativity!

A mini-park could include spaces for relaxing, a playground that you can visit with your children on a sunny morning, a small space for events, or even a small café where you can meet with your friends during your lunch break.

Cities known for their high level of architecture and urban planning, like New York City, can demonstrate great examples of pocket parks. Greek cities have seemed quiet indifferent to this type of green spaces - at least, until today. There are many proposals for mini-parks in several cities of Greece , such as Athens, Thessaloniki, and Agrinio. These are mostly made by students of Schools of Architecture. Just a few months ago in Athens, the dream actually came true. Although it cannot be compared with the modern design Paley Park (NYC) has, it is a great start, and we all look forward for the next project.

I think it is about time we reorganized the needs of our city and dealt with them, not with costly projects but with intelligence and creativity. Pocket parks are certainly a way to do that. They may seem a small and discreet intervention, but at the same time they may be a breath of fresh air for the concrete cities in which we live.

Are there any pocket parks in your city?

Credits: Images and data linked to sources.

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Lack of Green Spaces? Pocket Parks Are the Solution

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When one thinks of a park, one usually imagines a large plot full of trees in the centre of the city with routes for walking or jogging, and shaded sitting areas where people can enjoy the fresh breeze during the hot summer days.