Last week Spacing wrote about a new public space project to land on Commercial Drive in 2014. The project titled Commercial Drive Parklet (CDP) is one of the selected projects from VIVA Vancouver’s Parklet Pilot Program and is to be located right in front of Prado Café. Excited by the project, Spacing Vancouver’s Alicia Medina Laddagga decided to have a chat with its creator Julien Thomas:
AML: Can you tell us a bit about your background, and your interest in urban transformation?
JT: I studied Charles Hauss’ International Conflict Resolution in university, because the content I learned made me consider my own life decisions. I couldn’t close the book and walk away from the issues of the world; I had to find some way to relate. I decided that the best way for me to participate in these issues was to work close to home. Much of conflict resolution has to do with providing a space for people to heal, being seen, seeing others, learning how to do things differently… all things that can achieved on a local level through urban transformation. So, it took me a few years of learning from ror1state.org about the Balkans, Rwanda, South Africa, and Israel/Palestine to figure out that we have our own work to do here.
AML: Can you talk a bit about your other projects and how they relate to the CDP?
JT: From the beginning, my work has been concerned with strategically reclaiming public spaces and urban elements to shift conversations and change policy. Here we live in a city whose land mass is composed of 30% publically-owned concrete – roads, sidewalks, parking lots. You and I and everyone in the city owns these spaces, yet they’re often not oriented towards our collective well-being. So, whether it’s taking junk cars and turning them into mobile food gardens, creating a collaborative process to re-imagine our streets, transforming a traffic circle into a park, re-purposing a disposal bin into a mobile social space, I’ve tried to insert my projects into our everyday relationships with public space and also help us relate to the policies that underpin them.
What’s different with the Commercial Drive Parklet is that this is a City-driven pilot initiative. For the first time, I’m working with people in the Engineering Department to figure out how citizens can work with civil servants to recreate our urban form. It’s been a challenge, but I’m learning a lot and hope that this is just the beginning of a broader turn towards participatory place-making in Vancouver.
AML: Why a parklet? Why Commercial Drive?
JT: Parklets take space away from cars and give it back to pedestrians. That’s a pretty powerful symbol that people can experience, and so it’s definitely an urban form that I think is important for a city, or a society, in transformation. Let’s be clear, I’m not saying that parklets are the answer to creating a more self-reliant, healthy, vibrant, engaged city, but they’re part of it. And Commercial Drive is a good place to start.
I was looking at City Studio’s map of projects over their first few years, and I was struck at their strong incidence in the Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood. This speaks to the community’s active social life and their receptivity to creative projects. I’d also add that I live on the Drive, and so it comes naturally to work on a project minutes from my door.
AML: Can you give us a bit of how your collaborations came about and how they have influenced the design and location of the parklet?
JT: Most of the collaborations have happened very informally. Prado is my local café, and I was having a coffee there one morning in July when I overheard Sammy (the owner) talking about parklets. I promptly went over and introduced myself, and here we are today. I met Stewart (the architectural designer) when he approached me to participate in Park(ing) Day this past year. I casually mentioned I was looking for an architect for my next project, and he offered up his services! It was very opportune. Stewart has been influential in the design of the parklet, obviously. I came up with a plan and cross-section based on my discussions with Sammy, and then Stewart just took it and ran with it.
AML: How did the ‘performance’ aspect come about and why is it important to you?
JT: Again this was Stewart’s idea, and I think it’s great. I was reading the MIT Places in the Making report, in which they lay out some expectations for reporting and metrics of placemaking initiatives. I strongly agree that we (urban designers, artists, placemakers) could be doing a better job of sharing our experiences and lessons learned, and that the success of a project should be judged, among other things, on how it helps other projects get off the ground.
Recording the construction of the parklet in stop-motion is a major legacy piece for the project, and helps other parklet teams to illustrate exactly what they’re trying to do. Getting back to thinking about the context and relevance of parklets in placemaking, the construction phase is really where the project lands, and the transformation takes place. I love the idea of slowing this down for all to see.
AML: When can we expect to see the parklet installed? Is there going to be a launch party?
JT: We’re aiming to install the parklet March 2014… maybe Spacing Vancouver wants to document the behind-the-scenes of the project leading up to install? Oh, there will definitely be a launch party! Kickstarter campaign supporters get first dibs, of course!
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Alicia Medina Laddaga is an architecture and urban designer/researcher based in Vancouver. Originally from Mexico where she studied and practiced architecture, she moved to Vancouver in 2011 to pursue a Masters of Advanced Studies in Architecture at UBC. While trying to bridge the gap between two cultures (Mexico and Canada), Alicia keeps on developing her ideas about the ways in which dynamic and spontaneous processes transform cities into vibrant urban environments.