How do vacant spaces find new life and identity through temporary activations? Join this PechaKucha to explore exemplar projects that create and nurture these interventions.
Cities are everchanging, adapting to social, economic and environmental uncertainties. These changes have profound impacts on the built environment. They lead to vast amounts of short-term empty spaces and subsequent opportunities to develop long-term places where people want to live, work and play.
A temporary use for a space bridges between the existing and the future. Often, these spaces have the flexibility and power to be anything; from testbeds for new ideas, activating otherwise vacant areas along high streets and providing employment and training facilities – ultimately creating social value for communities. Through an array of uses, these meanwhile activations encourage a diverse range of occupiers and people to come together.
The GLA’s 2020 Meanwhile Use London highlighted key recommendations to ensure successful transformations including: Partnerships between local authorities and private sector, greater advocacy for meanwhile, funding, training and support. This Pecha Kucha presents a range of meanwhile projects and strategies, that have succeeded in utilising these key recommendations, creating a sense of place, attracting long-term investment and bolstering the community.
The format, Pecha Kucha (ペチャクチャ), was devised in Tokyo in 2003 by the English architect Mark Dytham and has turned into a massive global celebration of design, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat", it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. The format makes presentations concise, keeps things moving at a rapid pace and holds its audience.
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