#transitional use

[humanscalecities]

Presentación del libro La utilización temporal de los vacíos urbanos (15 de noviembre, Barcelona) 

[humanscalecities]

Make_Shift City. Renegotiating the Urban Commons 

Editor: Francesca Ferguson, Urban Drift Projects (eds.) In cooperation with the Berlin Senate for Urban Development

Makeshift implies a temporary or expedient substitute for something else, something missing. Make-Shift City extends the term to embrace urban design strategies. “Make-Shift City” implies a condition of insecurity: the inconstant, the imperfect and the indeterminate. It also implies the designing act of shifting or reinterpretation as a form of urban détournement. Austerity urbanism and the increasing scarcity of resources among the cities and boroughs of Europe in particular has far-reaching consequences for civic space. Where there is a lack of regular planning processes, gaps arise as open spaces that enable an ad-hoc informal urban design. What often results is a process of urban commoning: the renegotiation of shared spaces and shared resources. This urbanism of small acts is an emancipatory practice; a re-imagining of the city space and its potentialities.