Crowdsourcing Urbanism

For informations on citizen-financed urbanism, see Crowdfunding Urbanism.

Crowdsourcing Urbanism a collective term for citizen-led and government initiated alteration to the urban fabric. There are different levels and sizes of interventions when it comes to reprogramming and renewal of cities. In many cases outsourcing decision processes can lead to a more satisfying and community approved results.

Crowdsourcing urban planning puts the future of cities into the hands of the people in all sorts of unexpected ways, from custom-designing new downtown districts to identifying problem areas for cyclists and pedestrians.

A specific form of crowdfunded urbanism is Tactical Urbanism. It is a term used to describe a collection of low-cost, temporary changes to the built environment, usually in cities, intended to improve local neighbourhoods and city gathering places.. Other forms and terms of crowdsourced urbanism are guerilla urbanism, pop-up urbanism, city repair, or D.I.Y. urbanism.

Politc driven urbanism vs citizen initiated urbanism (tactical urbanism)

Definitions

• Urban planning
• Urbanism
• Participatory processes
• User generated content
• Outsourcing

Theory

• Process of self-renewal
• importance of the internet in terms of exchanging ideas (social media, globilisation)

Methods

• New strategies for improving cityscapes
• User groups
• Tactical Urbanism

Examples

Do It Yourself City Manual

The Do It Yourself City Manual is a small booklet that covers a wide range of participatory urban project examples in the city of Vienna. It gives an overview on legal regulations, issues and possibilities concerning interventions and city reprogramming.

Guerrilla Bike Lanes

According to the New York City Department of Transportation, Manhattan's Sixth Avenue is one of the busiest bike streets in the city. But north of 42nd Street, its bike lane comes to an abrupt end. In 2011 the local Community Board's transportation committee considered whether to install a dedicated bike lane up to 59th Street, where the street terminates. After some debate, the committee wound up with a tie vote, an outcome that counts as a no.

Therefore a group of cycling advocates took matters into their own hands, spray-painting white lanes and icons of people on bikes. Some of those got equipped with a pair of wings.

In Seattle a different group of cyclists installed reflective pylons along a painted bike lane on Cherry Street, to demonstrate to the Seattle Department of Transportation "how an incredibly modest investment and a few minutes of SDOT’s time is capable of transforming a marginal, under-utilized and dangerous bike facility into one dramatically safer for cars, pedestrians and bicyclists."

Although the motivation for those interventions seem similar, the outcome for installing illegal bike lanes is very different depending to the city's munincipality. There are possibilities from getting arrested to actually convince the government to pursue the intervention and make it official. Nonetheless it raises awareness on road safety and tries to bring some attention to the issue.

Commuter Buses

This project is still in the concept phase.
The Rinspeed microMAX is a new transport idea from the company Rinspeed who often come up with creative concepts for the automotive industry. Born out of the idea of a collective mind, more specifically, the collective mind featured in science-fiction novel The Swarm, microMAX aims to provide a travel experience greater than the sum of its parts.

Despite its outward appearance of the minibus, the it houses some intelligent insides. It would rely on a multitude of data points including current traffic conditions, known choke points and various other piece of information to generate a straight shot to your destination.

Using an app microMAX users would be able to find out if there was a vehicle in your area with spaces, where its next stop off point would be and how long it would take to get you to your destination, almost like a personalised bus.

DIY Crosswalks

This project's aim is to solve public safety issues by painting crosswalks at dangerous interesection points in the city. For citizens who deploy these tactics, the goal is not simply to provoke or disrupt. Ultimately, it’s to assist cities in identifying problems and implementing changes that make sense in the local context.

Some city officials see in those changes potential threats to people's safety. It also creates costs for maintenance and repair. Some may consider this activism and others vandalism with the potential for serious health consequences for citizens, particularly pedestrians. There is potential liability and risk management claims to both the city and the individuals involved.

MyIdealCity

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Controversies

• Architectural design competitions -> example: Guggenheim Helsinki (estimated almost 60 years of a working life spent in total (1715 projects a 300 hours)

Literature

• Neuhaus, Fabian (Ed.): Studies in Temporal Urbanism. The urbanTick Experiment, 2011, ISBN 978-94-007-0937-9.
• Jeffrey Hou, Benjamin Spencer, Thaisa Way,Ken Yocom (Ed.): Now Urbanism: The Future City is Here, 2014, ISBN: 978-0415717861.