Temporary or ‘Meanwhile’ Use of Outdoor Public Space

About this pattern

Temporary or ‘meanwhile’ use of outdoor public unused space or private space earmarked for future development, can provide opportunities for site activation which reduces urban heat island effect, through greening activities or through providing public access to private cool spaces.  Examples include pop-up uses such as shops or markets that use cool materials or urban gardens. Existing car parks or vacant lots can provide a platform for improved local cooling, with interventions reducing the amount of impermeable low albedo hardscape.

Citizens as urban co-producers

Precedents for occupying urban spaces with temporary projects include the Paris-based Atelier d’Architecture Autogeree. Their “ECOboxes” (pictured) are installed in different neighbourhoods as temporary platforms for participatory gardening and a mix of other social and cultural activities. Activities include workshops, talks, screenings, preparing and sharing meals. Another example is R-Urban, which is a network of closed local ecologies where participants only consume what is produced. Temporary urban gardening can encourage local capacity building and encourage new forms of collaborative governance. For example, in Brisbane, a community negotiated the right to develop a yam plantation (pictured) on unused land for a three-year period, agreeing to cover all costs including relevant insurances. The whole community was involved in the preparation, cultivation and harvesting of the crop which was then distributed among the community and to charity groups. When the land was needed by the governing institution, a new plantation was created temporarily elsewhere (Armstrong, 2016, p. 72).

The measure of success for this pattern includes reducing the ambient and surface temperature of unused land by increasing the quantum of permeable or shaded surfaces; the longevity of the access negotiated to maximise the temporary use, and the social and community return on investment generated during the term.

This pattern does not include temporary use of buildings as Cooling Refuges (see separate pattern).

Pattern Conditions

Enablers:

• Landowners wanting to maintain asset values during the construction phase of staged precincts through activation and placemaking, with the ability to provide temporary use development applications (or similar) to facilitate meanwhile uses for a term period.
• Community liaison officers and community representatives can actively encourage citizens in their neighbourhood to initiate new activities, and function as brokers for temporary use.

Constraints:

• Temporary use implies collaborative governance arrangements, which may need to be negotiated if not already in place and can take time.
• Protocols for temporary use will need to be worked out by the partners involved, to establish procedures and divisions of responsibility. These protocols, like the spaces themselves, will need to be adaptable and open to renegotiation as circumstances change. A temporary use handbook, provided as part of a “welcome orientation”, would support residents to understand protocols.
• Temporary use equipment and resources will need to be stored and managed. This might involve negotiating arrangements with local businesses, the local library or community centre.
• Political and logistical challenges may emerge, should a community desire to transition from temporary to permanent use.

Commoning Concerns

Access: Unrestricted access. The inclusion of newly arrived residents will need to be facilitated, and the space should maximise opportunity for Universal Design principles.

Use: The commoning community would negotiate any uses that facilitate the reduction in surface and ambient temperature, while improving public access to sites that are not being utilised or are currently inaccessible. 

Benefit: Community capacity building; convivial sociality directed into potentially positive new social practices.

Care: Community groups, body corporates, or other governance mechanisms utilised. For this common, the landowner would likely not provide any maintenance.

Responsibility: Community groups, body corporate, site visitors or contractors engaged by the commoning community.

Ownership: Developers or local government.

For some members of a community, for example shift workers, noise might be a commoning concern. A protocol of inclusiveness around planning events that may impact on others could address this concern.