Ch02: Do It Yourself Urbanism

Participatory Platforms in Bottom-Up Urbanism Professor: Nashid Nabian Jeanette Lin_lin.je@husky.neu.edu

CASE STUDY 01: OUTDOOR LIVING ROOMS

Who: The West Oakland Greening Project and Steve Rasmuseen Cancian of Shared Spaces Landscape Architecture What: Sidewalk furniture for waiting, meeting, lounging, communing Where: West Oakland and Los Angeles When: 2002- ongoing

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CASE STUDY 01: OUTDOOR LIVING ROOMS

Background: - Steve Ramussen Cancian of Shared Spaces Landscape Architecture worked with residents in low income neighborhoods, in West Oakland and Parts of Los Angeles, to create vignettes of furniture installed in public spaces. The furniture are simple wood fixtures that give physical form to the social life of the street such as waiting for a bus, meeting outside a shop, chatting or playing in a game or just lounging.

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CASE STUDY 01: OUTDOOR LIVING ROOMS

Initial: - Initially the furniture used were found sofas and discarded objects - The outdoor living rooms were regularly hauled away by police and offered permits if activists would purchase liability insurance

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CASE STUDY 01: OUTDOOR LIVING ROOMS

Outcome: - Later iterations of the furniture were custom made out of simple materials to recreated park benches, front stoops, and outdoor tables - Local activists won full permitting fo the outdoor living rooms without fees or requirements to purchase insurance - This project made an effort to modify street space for human use

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CASE STUDY 02: PUBLIC ART BUSHWAFFLE

Who: Rebar What: Seat Yourself Where: Anywhere When: first inflated 2008, for the Experimental Design biennale

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CASE STUDY 02: PUBLIC ART BUSHWAFFLE

Background: - Bushwaffles are a squishy, fluorescent antidote to the hard surfaces and drab color palette of furnish urban spaces - Bushwaffles can be inflated anywhere by anyone which allows people to form their own public spaces. - The portable and temporary structures relieves the burden of street furnishings to be destroyed by weather, vandalism and skaters.
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CASE STUDY 02: PUBLIC ART BUSHWAFFLE

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CASE STUDY 03: GREEN AID SEED BOMB

Who: Commonstudio What: A quick and inexpensive way to beautify the city Where: All over the city When: Right now

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CASE STUDY 03: GREEN AID SEED BOMB

Seed: Mixture of clay, compost and seeds Background: Borderline subversive strategy for transforming the many dead spaces that are encountered everyday in the city, from sidewalk cracks to vacant lots to parking medians.

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CASE STUDY 03: GREEN AID SEED BOMB

Usage: - The greenaid dispenser simplifies these guerilla gardening efforts by appropriating the accessible and familiar quarter operated gumball machine. - The bombs can lay dormant for up to a year, but with a little water and sun, the will sprout in a few days. - Common Studio also provides a series of interactive maps that allows participants to geotag, photograph and share their seedbomb sites with a larger community.

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CASE STUDY 04: CIVIC CENTER VICTORY GARDEN

Who: Slow Food Nation, Rebar, Garden for Enviornment, CMG Landscape Architecture, Seeds for Change, City Slicker Farms, Ploughshares Nursery, Coevolution Institute What: Food Garden and Social Space Where: Civic Centers When: 2008 with San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, Mayors Office
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CASE STUDY 04: CIVIC CENTER VICTORY GARDEN

Background: Both a practical initiative to generate food and a symbolic gesture for urban agriculture, the Victory Garden grew out of the conjoined efforts of multiple organizations dedicated to urban farming in the Bay Area. Planted with a variety of organic vegetables suited to the local climate, the garden produced up to 100 pounds of produce every weekall donated to the San Francisco Food Bank in an effort to provide healthy food for those with limited access to it.

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CASE STUDY 04: CIVIC CENTER VICTORY GARDEN

Background: Physically the garden was configured with room for social interaction, to nurture its human occupants as well as plant life. Though intended as a temporary project, the Victory Garden's support from the City, various nonprofits and hundreds of volunteers served to unify the local urban agriculture movement, establish a strong precedent for future Bay Area farming projects, and demonstrate the potential for success to urban areas nationwide.

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