Tactical urbanism for a gradual requalification of the metropolitan public space: The case of Park(ing) Day Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The imbalance within public space between pedestrians and private cars is a challenging issue in recent urban projects whose agenda is focusing on a city on the human scale. In this context, tactical interventions have been working to minimize this imbalance, even temporarily. This paper discusses the practice called tactical urbanism – an emerging approach aimed at the gradual recovery of public spaces through alternative actions to conventional planning – taking Park(ing) Day Rio de Janeiro as a reference case, an annual intervention where citizens, artists and activists work to temporarily transform street parking in a recreation area. The paper’s method is based on theoretical research on tactical urbanism and on some empirical actions within this approach (temporary interventions), which can be illustrated through the design and construction of five Park(ing) Day interventions in Rio de Janeiro. These concrete actions allow for experiencing the design process, the management and the event’s material construction in its true length, leading to the further observation of its results. Through these recent actions, we want to promote the debate on possibilities for a gradual recovery of public space by small actors, showing some developments of these tactics in the form of public policies, such as the current legislation for the installation and use of temporary sidewalk extensions or parklets in several Brazilian cities.

Keywords: tactical urbanism, park(ing) day, public space.