Urban Design

Tactical Urbanism - Palak Arora

"Tactical Urbanism is an approach that promotes grassroots, participatory, hands-on, do-it-yourself vision of urban restructuring, in which those who are most directly affected by an issue actively mobilise to address it, and may continually mobilize to influence the evolution of methods and goals. It is often presented as an open-source model of action and a form of re-appropriation of urban space by its users."  (Brenner, N, 2015)

Tactical Urbanism is the need of the hour. Momentary execution, rare assets and residents' contribution are the key attributes of this rising development in urbanism. In strategic urbanism, everything appears to be focused on a certain thing: action.

The Baltic Triangle is an area of Liverpool City Centre which was originally known for its warehouses but now it is famous for its night life, student accommodations and many more.

In this dissertation my aim is to recognize the need of Tactical Urbanism in the Baltic Triangle on the basis of some factors such as history of the area, functional structure, physical morphology, infrastructure and movement and to prepare design development concepts for the area accordingly. 

The proposal has green spaces, public squares, outdoor games (for all ages) and food joints. Thus, the space can be utilized at any time of the day irrespective of age.  Moreover, there were no public green spaces in the surrounding areas.

My design proposal opens up many new employment opportunities, may it be full-time or part-time. There will be scope for jobs in many areas such as site renovation, site maintenance, restaurants and many more which will definitely increase in the coming years.

My proposal is pedestrian only, thus supporting and encouraging  sustainable living among the masses. There is a bus station proposed very near to the site on St James Street, encouraging public transport.

Therefore, as there is no major requirement for now, Tactical Urbanism is something that is the need of the hour in today’s world and these small changes will improve public life to a great extent. I would like to conclude by saying that it is we who have to improve the quality of lives in these rapidly growing cities. So why not by these small short term actions open up some long term changes!

Find out more about studying MA Urban Design at Liverpool John Moores University.