An article on the Guardian (15 June 2015) on the value of urban common in modern cities, with examples from various cities in Europe:
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jun/15/urban-common-radical-community-gardens
Madrid – Campo de Cebada (source of the images: TedX Madrid on Flickr. Creative Common Licence)
This is an article, mainly about placemaking, but there is a reference to using ‘fast and dirty’ public engagement techniques in order to think about shared spaces in new ways. Here is the excerpt:
“And so “Splash Adelaide” was born. It was a “fast and dirty” anything-goes approach to placemaking, intended to trial new ideas and see what might work. Splash Adelaide projects could break any council policy, but not break the law. Streets, laneways and squares were closed off almost without warning to create street parties, outdoor film screenings, spontaneous orchestral performances and urban guerilla-style vegetable gardens. Mistakes were encouraged, as a way for city administrators to learn how to do things differently.
The idea was to “consult by doing” and to get businesses and residents to think about shared spaces in new ways. Because the interventions were temporary and experimental, there was no huge risk. According to Yarwood and Smith, the aim was for these ephemeral projects to inspire members of the community to become involved, take charge and create a longer-term legacy of positive and sustainable transformation, step by step, square by square, street by street and district by district.”
– To read the whole article, please see http://citiscope.org/story/2015/how-adelaide-revitalized-itself-through-placemaking#sthash.dxfzrqD7.dpuf
Here is an excerpt about Impact Hubs from the following website: http://birmingham.impacthub.net/what-is-impact-hub/
From Amsterdam to Johannesburg, Singapore to San Francisco, Impact Hub has evolved into a rapidly expanding, diverse global network of over 7000+ members in 40+ locations. Each community is a wealth of innovative programs, events, and cutting -edge content. Step into any one of our Impact Hubs worldwide and immerse yourself in the local experience of a global movement.
Part innovation lab, part business incubator, and part community centre, we offer our members a unique ecosystem of resources, inspiration, and collaboration opportunities to grow impact. Joining our diverse community of members and collaborators will inspire, connect, and enable you to develop your best work every step of the way.
And here is an excerpt, taken from a blog, about the founding of the Impact Hub Birmingham (https://medium.com/hub-birmingham/founding-hub-birmingham-ca6db8a251f7):
The last year has involved 100’s of coffee chats, physical conversations in real spaces, most notably a few independent cafes which I realise more than ever are radically changing the way we work, interact, share and make our spending choices. It didn’t really involve seeking out self-identified social enterprise founders, or any particular titles. Instead it’s been a journey that meant I met amazing changemakers from across the city, working for a better tomorrow, a better Birmingham. Whether that be in the arts, politics, creative sectors, literature, youth services or corporate sector or across a number of these spaces. The truth is there was no single type of Brummie that I ended up meeting. Instead, the changemaker was a passionate, driven, inspired, creative citizen proud of the city and willing to work together for a better tomorrow. It didn’t matter where they worked, where they were from, what they did — what has struck me is the unspoken vision to do it together and a longing for platforms that make these collaborations easier. Why — because these citizens whether on the brink of a massive tech innovation or a grass roots art projects, knew exactly why they were doing what they were doing, they didn’t need anyone to tell them whether they were right or wrong, they just needed the support to test, grow and cross pollinate these ideas.
For more information about the Impact Hub Birmingham, please go here: http://birmingham.impacthub.net/
The Connectors, a community led not for profit initiative, has set up in Malmö what they refer to as the first “Crowdsourced livingroom”.
“We want to connect a co-living and co-creation space for social entrepreneurs with urban planning that involves the neighbourhood,” says Talavera. “This could be a great opportunity for different sectors to work together.”
This Guardian article describes this initiative and other examples of truly participatory planning and governance. How can the architecture of the town halls of the future support openness and participation? Will they look a like the crowdsourced livingroom?
Excerpt from article:
What we’ll do in the neighbourhoods of the future
As we increasingly work remotely from within our homes or by travelling far away from them, less of us work in jobs and for businesses that are physically located within the communities in which we live; and some of the economic ties that have bound those communities in the past have weakened. But most of us still feel strong ties to the places we live in; whether they are historical, created by the character of our homes or their surrounding environment, or by the culture and people around us. These ties create a shared incentive to invest in our community.
Perhaps the greatest potential of social media that we’re only begin to exploit is its power to create more vibrant, sustainable and resilient local communities through the “sharing economy”.
For the whole article, please see: http://theurbantechnologist.com/2013/11/12/the-sharing-economy-and-the-future-of-movement-in-smart-human-scale-cities/
Plot is a garden “on demand”: a shared outdoor space that is bookable by the hour (or day) online.
The original project (in Deansgate, Manchester) is now closed, but Magnetic North, the digital agency and design studio that lanuched it is planning to replicate the experience in other cities.
http://www.plotmanchester.com/
Plot – Case Study Video from mN on Vimeo.
Image from Flickr – (Creative Common Licence)
UK Cohousing Network website:
Which includes the Lancaster Cohousing Group Page:
http://www.cohousing.org.uk/Lancaster
Lancaster Cohousing Project is also an example of shared mobility (members who own private cars are invited to contribute to a carpooling system) and shared energy (electricity micro-grid). It is currently the largest passive housing project in the UK. http://www.passivhaustrust.org.uk/projects/detail/?cId=35#.Vh1WmRNViko
Cohousing in a nutshell (from the website):
Cohousing communities are intentional communities. They are created and run by their residents. Each household has a self-contained, personal and private home but residents come together to manage their community, share activities, eat together. Cohousing is a way of combating the alienation and isolation many experience today, recreating the neighbourly support of the past. This can happen anywhere, in your street or starting a new community using empty homes or building new.
(Image: shared space in Springhill Cohousing, Glouchestershire. http://tinyurl.com/nyq85h6 Creative Common licence.)
Agyeman et al. (2013). Sharing cities
This paper highlights the importance of the shared public realm in the history and development, and more recently, in the re-imagining of politics. We argue that the neoliberal, hegemonic model of development in the modern world prioritises private interests at the cost of shared interests. Instead, we suggest that a cultural rebalancing is overdue: one that gives much greater recognition and credit to the shared public realm in our cities (both physical and metaphorical); one that supports a revival of ‘conventional’ sharing – namely of the city as a whole as shared space – as well as a blossoming of novel forms of sharing; and one that recognises and affirms the ways in which the opportunities afforded to individuals in cities are founded on the collective efforts and actions of whole communities.
To demonstrate the opportunity in sharing, after a brief consideration of the historical roots and development of sharing, this paper explores four key questions:
This service was recently mentioned on the Times Newspaper:
Vrumi is a service that connects users with empty rooms during the day with freelancers looking for an affordable space where to work for few hours or days.
Referred to as “the office version of AirBnB” (The Times, The Independent), it is yet another solution to the lack of affordable housing/working spaces in big cities like London, where it recently launched.
Here are some examples of how car-free roads can become spaces for sharing:
Shareable and Liveable 