MAKING CITIES TOGETHER

Transcription

1 MAKING CITIES TOGETHER #Nairobi, Kenya INTERNATIONAL KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE PROGRAM & PLATFORM Participatory design & program strategies [Placemaking] to improve public spaces and communities INVENTORY RESEARCH LAB INTERVENTION PLATFORM Nov 14 Apr 15 May Aug 15 Why Making Cities Together? What are potential initiatives to develop new strategies for? What placemaking strategies improve public spaces? How can we showcase the benefits of placemaking? How can we build a longterm urban spaces network? 17 local Placemaking initiatives Mapping public life/space Placemaking strategies collected in replicable model (local/city scale) Program / Design created in public space (1 of the Initiatives) International network & local platform Participatory urban planning is acknowledged as a priority (local/int.) Selection 3 initiatives Working plan for an intervention in 3 public spaces / initiatives Maintencance plan Dissemination at conferences and via (social) media IDENTIFICATION PUBLIC KICK-OFF EVENT LOCATION RESEARCH PREPCOM / GC25 RESEARCH LAB SHOWCASE WORKSHOP ONLINE PLATFORM PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS PUBLIC OPENING LOCAL PLATFORM CONFERENCE N-AERUS PROF NETWORK EVENT BIENNALE ROME TRANSFER WORKSHOP

2 INVENTORY 17 PLACEMAKING INITIATIVES 1-Green Belt Movement 1977 FOREST Treeplanting, community development, awareness creation 10-Kounkuey Design Initiative 1977 MULTI FUNCTIONAL PUBLIC CENTRES / SPACES Sanitation, day care, urban gardening, capacity building, hall 2-Friends of City Park 1979 PARK Nature walks, treasure hunts, capacity building, advocacy 11-Hoperaisers skating club 2007 STREET Skating, training, music, festivals, behaviour change 3-Mathare Youth Sports Association 1987 FOOTBAL CENTRE Matches, education, clean ups, community development 12-Change Mtaani 2008 COMMUNITY CENTRE / SPORTS FIELD Football, Library, Sanitation, Biogas cooking, community hall 4-Shangilia mtoto wa Africa Skating Park 1994 / 2014 SKATE PARK Skating, education, events 13-Skating Sunken Car Park 2009 PARKING LOT (functioning as a skate park) Skating, renting skates, tournements, education, parking 5-Huruma Town Youth Group 1996 MULTI FUNCTIONAL PUBLIC FACILITY Garbage collection, urban agriculture, car park, income generation 14-Kilimani project 2009 PARKS (former Police station/school gardens) Swimming pool, community policing, festivals 6-Mathare Community Resource centre 1996 MULTI FUNCTIONAL PUBLIC FACILITY / PLAYGROUND Library, electrical shop, salon 15-Jeevanjee Gardens rehabilitation 2012 PARK Placemaking participatory process, public art, WIFI, programming 7-Kayole Njiru Youth Group 2004 COMMUNITY CENTRE Neighbourhood clean ups, entrepeneurship training 8-Street Soccer at Huruma 2004 FOOTBALL FIELD / CENTRE Education, behaviour change (crime, drugs) 16-NaiNiWho The GoDownArtsCentre 2012 CITY FESTIVAL Music, art, awareness creation, tours, neighbourhood branding 17-Mustards Seeds Organisation 2012 COURT YARDS / STREETS Competition, clean ups, upgrading with flowers, sportfacilities, parking, income generation 9-Pamoja Ghetto Youth Group Centre 2005 COURT YARD / PLAYGROUND Urban agriculture, clean ups, DSTV services

3 NAIROBI Street Soccer Huruma 8 5 Huruma Town Youth Group 1 Green Belt Movement 9 Shangilia mtoto wa Africa (skate park) 4 Friends of City Park Kayole Njiru Youth Group Hope Raisers Mathare Community Resource Centre 15 Jeevanjee Gardens Kilimani Project Change Mtaani NaiNiWho (Go Down Arts Centre) 10 What is Placemaking? Placemakers method The practice of Placemaking aims to improve the quality of a public place and the lives of its community in tandem. Put into practice, Placemaking seeks to build or improve public space, spark public discourse, create beauty and delight, engender civic pride, connect neighbourhoods, support community health and safety, grow social justice, catalyse economic development, promote environmental sustainability and of course nurture an authentic sense of place. Imagining co-creation process involving people and organisations through research, design and programming public spaces to create ownership and responsibility for their own environment using the existing qualities as local knowledge, assets and ideas. After capacity building programs we transfer responsibility of stewardship to local team to create a sustainably use place. Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Department of Urban Studies and planning, 2013 Places in the Making: how Placemaking builds places and communities p.2,3

4 RESEARCH LONG LIST PLACEMAKING INITIATIVES CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT Jeevanjee Gardens rehabilitation This is one of the few breathing public spaces in Nairobi s city centre. The garden that has been neglected for years and doesn t serve the public with the much needed comfortable, safe and green space. Through the process of placemaking, Nairobi City County s department responsible for Urban Planning, the Friends of Jeevanjee among other stakeholders developed a revitalisation design plan. The landscaping is on course but the actual transformation needs to be designed and programmed. For a sustainable success to be realised, the project needs strategies for the future. Skating Sunken Car Park During the weekdays, downtown Nairobi is characterized by traffic jams and overcrowded parking lots. On Saturdays and Sundays, however, the Sunken Car Park transforms into a successful public skating park. Several skating organizations give skating lessons and organize (international) tournaments. Rental skates facilitate spontaneous skating from passers-by. However, new plans for a seven-storey parking facility threaten the continuity of this inclusive public space. For the sunken car park, the big question remains, how can we come up with Placemaking strategies for a sustainable and accessible skating park that also functions as a public square in downtown Nairobi? NEIGHBOURHOOD Kilimani project Klimani project, a community based initiative in Kilimani, a middleclass neighbourhood in Nairobi. The initiative was founded by urban enthusiasts who live, work and or play in Kilimani. They started by asking themselves: What makes Kilimani a neighbourhood of choice for the over 43,000 people who live and work? With the current rate of development, what is the future of the community? The project organises several neighbourhood events to create socialization opportunities among residents. The events provide a platform to create awareness on community good. The initiative has changed the face of Kilimani police station through landscaping and has rehabilitated a public swimming pool at Kilimani primary school. Collectively, these projects open up public facilities for public use. Through contributions including time, expertise and money, residents, organisations and the business community work together towards an inclusive and vibrant Kilimani. Research: replicating and upscaling such initiatives to open up more spaces for public use and ways of involving the business community in a structured manner to financially support these projects. Mustards Seeds Organisation In Dandora, the community-based Mustards Seeds Organization sets up competitions for youth groups and schools to transform their living environments into beautiful and functional public spaces. Dandora is infamous for its dump site and high crime rates. In the first season of the Mustard Seed-led changing faces initiative, Courtyards were cleaned and transformed with plants, sports facilities and multi-use spaces were constructed with local economic benefits. However, there are lots of opportunities for improvement. How can similar neighborhood spaces be transformed into successful interactive meeting places that inhabitants can be proud of? What are the possibilities for linkages among these public spaces that could collectively transform the reputations of some less popular neighbourhoods? INFORMAL SETTLEMENT Kounkey Design Initiative In 2006, Kounkuey Design Initiative began working with community members in Kibera, an informal settlement in Nairobi. KDI designed and implemented productive public spaces - open spaces that connect physical upgrading with micro-enterprise and community development. KDI selects small-scale projects to create both physical and human linkages that can start to address the larger settlement-wide challenges like water pollution, unemployment, and social exclusion. This is an exemplar of a success story in as far as sustainable revitalisation of public spaces is concerned. The big question remains: How can such small scale projects be up scaled and replicated in other parts of the city? Hoperaisers skating club Although it began as a band, Hope Raisers now organizes events in the streets of Korogocho to create inspiring and safe places for the inhabitants of this informal settlement. Today, they work together with the Swedish organization Architects Without Borders to create democratic and safe public spaces through arts and cultural events. According to Hope Raisers Daniel Onyango, this has fostered behavior change and the external perception of this informal settlement. Here, the big question is, how can these initiatives be upscaled?

5 WHO ARE WE? Placemaking & Design Studio Think and do tank for young cities Making space together URBAN EXPERTS AT THE LAB INTERNATIONAL Rodeo Architekter (Norway) METASITU (Austria) Urban Codes (The Netherlands) Paul Currion (Serbia) Land + Civilization Compositions KENYAN KUWA Avanti Architecture CAVE Boogertman&Partners Citylinks (the Netherlands) Bantu Studio (South Africa) Thanks to Nairobi City County Government UN-Habitat Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands DASUDA University of Nairobi More information Naomi Hoogervorst info@placemakers.nl Technical University of Kenya The Centre for Urban Research and innovation Projects for Public Spaces Naipolitans KUWA Urbanicity Mark Ojal And all the Placemaking initiatives