Tactical Urbanism is a term credited to Street Plans Collaborative partners Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia and refers to the delivery of 'lighter, quicker, cheaper' physical interventions within the public realm such as parklets, cycleway projects, temporary play spaces and streetscape upgrades. The approach is committed to delivering physical, often short term, place-based interventions that strategically align with the wider vision for the city centre, such as safe, liveable streets and pedestrian friendly public spaces.
By nature tactical urbanism projects are typically used to test/trial ideas; approaches to urban problems that may not have been tested before, and as such; measuring a project's success or failure is a key deliverable within this work stream.
Principles
• Interventions, big or small, must align with the strategic goals and outcomes of the wider city centre and should explore opportunities to bring forward long-term projects to enable benefits to be realised in the short term.
• The CCMP also highlights the city centre as a pedestrian priority area and as such proposed projects need to be people focused, improve physical connectivity, personal safety, accessibility, social cohesion, aesthetics and provide economic and innovation opportunities.
• Incorporate strong feedback measures; on objectives and public feedback to provide definitive data on the successes, failures and learnings for each unique project.
• No matter the project cost, the design process should be highly valued and it should fix problems. To achieve this, place based design interventions are best when they respond to the context of a given community or site. For example, there is very little benefit in providing places to sit if the real need is places to walk.
• Finally, projects need to be light, quick, and cheap. The lighter, quicker, cheaper approach to urban improvements offers citizens of the city a win-win scenario. If the project is successful, it often serves as the first step towards lasting change. If unsuccessful, then little time and money has been lost and the project can be reconsidered, removed or replaced.
Approaches
• Tack-on approach - when minor projects or renewals are underway opportunities will be sought that enable added benefits and save project costs.
• Partnering - co-fund or work alongside projects to gain greater benefits.
• Advance thinking - collate potential projects, and inform future design briefs.
• Progress ways to deal with issues and package allied work streams.
• Pick up the tab - many ideas get identified through various project and consultation processes. However, often these may not meet that projects particular objectives and budget envelope. Activate Auckland funds activities that should occur but just lack resource.