The social life of pop up spaces

More ideas like this please, as described on the Placemaking blog - the New York City Department of Transportation has been partnering with local restaurants to install pop-up cafés in parking spaces. They offer a short time-lapse video of the use of one such space.

It raises a few creative questions. In what sort of locality would this work best? Obviously not town centre, but given the apparent expense and need for sponsorship, it's unlikely to happen in low-income areas or on peripheral estates. Probably it's best suited just off the suburban high street.

But could a sponsoring agency - perhaps a housing association with many suitable sites - have the portable hardware available for rent and delivered to estates at low cost, and the rest done by tenants' associations?

And what other legitimate uses can be squeezed into the idea without distorting it? Could you have a creche for some of the time? Could you have a volunteer bureau occupy a table there for an hour or two? Suggestions please.

 

Comments

[Ian Bertram]

Have you come across William Whyte's book, the social life of small urban spaces? A good read even now.

http://www.pps.org/store/books/the-social-life-of-small-urban-spaces/

Years ago when I was still working as a community consultant, I submitted a tender where part of the consultation process involved effectively creating small pop up spaces. I was going to take some garden chairs and a table and set them up in any convenient location around an estate and talk to anyone who came along. Not sure how it would have worked in practice but I was trying to break away from 'meetings bloody meetings'.

[Kevin Harris]

thanks Ian - that reminds me of a couple of things... Al fresco neighbourhood meetings (illustrated by this 'hedgenda' referred to here. And an idea I failed to interest anyone in, for al fresco 'Living Library' events (where people 'borrow' a person representing a topic, for a conversation) taking place in the public realm, using eg a sofa in a high street or shopping mall.

All good clean fun with all sorts of potential spin off benefits I'd have thought. But what's different in the NYC example is the informal temporary third space approach, which incorporates the crucial principle of being allowed to be private in a public space (not being required to participate in something and not having to buy a coffee for the privilege of a little comfort at the edge of company). What doesn't seem right about it is the expense. They talk about an average $10,000. Budget versions must be possible.

And thanks yes, my title was an allusion to Whyte's book.