Guerilla urbanism “asking forgiveness, not permission”
A grassroots movement known as ‘guerilla urbanism’ is emerging in the US, where community groups bypass bureaucracy with innovative improvements to the urban spaces they care about. Their mantra is ‘ask forgiveness, not permission.’
The guerilla urbanism movement was the focus of a recent webinar hosted by the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) – ‘On the Park Bench: Guerilla Urbanism.’
Robert Steuteville from the CNU writes, “From toilet plungers for bike lanes to community gardens on vacant lots to locally sourced incremental development, citizens are finding creative ways to make urban space.”
During the webinar, small developer, Jason Hyman talks about a not for profit organisation in Houston D3tM, or Do the Things That Matter, guerilla urbanism that ‘disrupts’ existing systems to create change. They’ve been working on ‘disrupting’ the gentrification of Texas and bypassing the ‘traditional systems’ to create affordable housing for everyone. They take turns teaching each other, assisting with capital and sharing wisdom.
Planner for Houston, Margaret Brown, talks about taking a practical approach to creating better roads, noting the group, ‘Crosswalk Collective’ who paint their own crosswalks with yellow and white paint.
Each speaker encourages everyone to get involved in Guerilla Urbanism. Hyman said, “Be vocal. Get involved. Take action.”
Photo: Margaret Brown at a Houston community garden, screenshot from the CNU webinar.
Could seating be the secret to boosting active travel?
The UK Walking and Cycling Index, a biennial study by Sustrans last published in 2023, offers research for understanding city centre active travel trends and how to better support walking, wheeling and cycling.
The People and Places Partnership, publisher of guides for LGAs on revitalising town centres, writes that “the most popular change to encourage residents to walk more is to create nicer places along streets to rest” – with benches, trees and shelters.
To encourage walking and wheeling, resting spots were found to be even more important to respondants than better pavement accessibility such as level surfaces and dropped kerbs, and than more frequent and quicker road crossings, they write.
Sixty percent of respondants agreed that increasing space for people socialising, walking and cycling on their local high street would improve their local area.
The partnership’s article also highlights key data around opportunities to increase the role of cycling in cities, trends around balancing modes of travel, and changes found by the Sustrans study over time. Read the full article.
Street Furniture Australia and US partner Spruce & Gander in March hosted landscape architects from California and Texas on a visit to Sydney to experience a factory tour, site visits and a new product launch. The American landscape architects represented MJS Landscape Architecture, RHAA Landscape Architecture + Planning, TBG Partners, Avid Trails and Ten Eyck Landscape Architects. Over a week-long trip the guests were treated to famous sights of Sydney including the iconic Bondi Beach, a harbour cruise and dining at top restaurants in urban Surry Hills and the new Barangaroo precinct. Travelling to Regents Park in Western Sydney, they toured the Street Furniture Australia factory to see first-hand how products are designed, made and shipped all over the world. This included meeting the production team, industrial designers and engineers. …
Melissa Gerke, our Communications and Education Specialist, is bringing a fun, interactive and informative presentation about our carbon neutral journey and latest products to customers in cities around Australia and in the US. In 30 minutes (plus Q&A) we will explore materials and finishes, touch and feel samples, and bond with your colleagues over delicious treats. There will also be a mystery prize for a lucky winner (optional). 2024 cities and dates include: Select from three catering options (optional): To book, contact Melissa Gerke mgerke@streetfurniture.com
Successful products are often followed by copycats. Over the past year we have become aware of an increase in reproductions of the Linea range attempting to create a similar aesthetic at a lower price. This can compromise the overall durability and environmental credentials of projects being delivered, affect ongoing maintenance requirements, and in some instances pose a risk of injury to the public. The design of Linea is deceptively simple while delivering exceptional attention to detail. Details matter not only for beauty, but also for providing durability, and safety, that will last decades. Linea strictly uses the highest quality and sustainable materials, has passed rigorous strength tests, and is designed for longevity, with easily replaceable parts. The product range is the result of hundreds of hours of research and development …
