This project seeks answers to the question: ‘How can practices of temporary use of urban voids contribute to contemporary urban (re)development?,’ as we aim to investigate if structural proposals for the elaboration of innovative urban development strategies could be derived from these kinds of practices and if it is possible to steer, influence or trigger urban transitions by means of temporary use of the abandoned city spaces.
On one hand the project consistsof a theoretical research on the characteristics, meaning and potentials of vacant city spaces and a comparative study of emerging practices of redevelopment that arise from a (socially) engaged civil society (like e.g. city mine(d) in Brussels, aaa in Paris, Laboratorium van de Tussentijd in The Netherlands, Stalker in Italy and Supertanker in Copenhagen).
On the other hand, in the empirical part of the research, we concentrate on the spatial context of the Brussels-Capital Region (BCR). Different types of temporary use are studied through 10 case studies (of temporary use occurring on pause-land/spaces in the BCR and emerging from an engagement with the city/citizens) aiming to uncover their determining factors, to map the actors involved and to analyze the influence on the surrounding city.
The final aim is to reveal a spatial phenomenon, shaped by temporary activities and users, that manifests itself as a continuously changing network of spaces, thus forming a parallel and intermittent city (temporarybxl). And to think about: how urban planners and policymakers could/should deal with the increasing diversity in spatial demands and whishes from contemporary society? What approaches and tools can be developed to this aim? And how could temporary use contribute this?
The project locates itself in the cross-road of a strategic way of dealing with urban (re)development (common approach: methodical, top-down) and more tactical ways (improvised and spontaneous: bottom-up and adaptive), aiming to investigate if an interactions between both are possible and if these approaches could contribute to one another.
