From parking spaces to parks: user-generated urbanism and PARK(ing) Day

University students and green groups took over car spaces in Brisbane's CBD and gave them mini-park makeovers with environmental messages. Metered parking in London was used for parks, a putting green, play areas, reading nooks, a dance studio and the Museum of Curiousities. 50 makeshift parks and 'human friendly zones' popped up in parking spots across New York to shift focus from car-centric to 'grass-centric' in that city.

All local DIY events on 17 September for the 5th annual PARK(ing) Day. an 'open-source, global guerilla art event' with metered parking spaces temporarily transformed into parks and other spaces to enjoy.  Begun in San Francisco in 2005, when the Rebar art project converted a single metered parking space into a temporary public park, in 2009 events were staged in 140 cities.

Until the meters run out, PARK(ing) Day aims to generate a more critical debate around how public spaces is allocated and used.

Co-founder of Rebar and PARK(ing) Day, Matthew Passmore says, "PARK(ing) day is about taking an active role in thinking about how urban space is made. We as citizens can have a role in what you might call 'user-generated urbanism'."

"PARK(ing) Day probably wouldn't have exist in a world that didn't have the internet and the other forms of social media that people use these days."

Photos: Green Earth Group at their Brisbane parking spot (Photo: Carol Slater). Park on the Mall, Brisbane 2010 (Photo: Emily Looney).

Read more:

My Parking Day DIY Planning Network

Brisbane PARK(ing) Day

Watch:

PARK(ing) Day: User-Generated Urbanism from Brandon Bloch on Vimeo.

Map of PARK(ing) Day 2010:

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