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Tactical Urbanism: The Movement’s Toolkit

Part 2 Project 2013
Thomas Cotton
Birmingham City University | UK
‘The relationship between the absence of use and the sense of freedom, of expectancy, is fundamental to the evocative potential of the city’s terrain vagues. Void, absence, yet also promise – the space of the possible.’

Ignasi de Sola-Morales, ‘Terrain Vague’, Anyplace, MIT Press, 1996

'Tactical Urbanism: The Movement’s Toolkit' explores the question: ‘Can an architecture of temporary condition, empower a community in reaction to fluctuating circumstances of crisis?’

After the global banking crisis of 2009 Iceland is returning to its roots, finding its own identity. The hypothetical strategy speculates that a grassroots political party ‘The Movement’ secures key sites of terrain vague in Reykjavik 101 to enact change.

There has been a resurgence of creativity, born out of crisis. The architectural proposition itself is sited upon a plot of terrain vague known locally as Hjartagarðurinn (Heart Park). A remnant of a former time, the site is now regarded as a place of cultural value by the people of Reykjavik 101 and is an incarnation of Sola-Morales’ notion - “the space of the possible”. Currently under threat by the proposal of an unnecessary new hotel, this site of indeterminacy opens up the possibility for a catalyst to enforce change and celebrate the ‘evocative potential’ of haphazard cultural sites and ensure the survival of uniqueness in Reykjavik.

A critical response to the socio-political problem is proposed by The Movement. Influenced by the need for a temporary solution, a kit-of-parts is developed to construct a framework that can physically occupy Hjartagarðurinn. The framework draws inspiration from the WikiHouse concept and responds to the call-out from 00:/ for continued development of the structural system. Due to limitations regarding the multiplication of a WikiHouse unit, The Movement’s Toolkit advances the original idea by investigating, testing and implementing a series of new connection details allowing for modular expansion across all surface planes for greater flexibility and complexity of the architectural form.

Acting as a modifying agent, the expandable framework forces the government to consider an alternative vision for the site – one that accounts for all parties and recognises the value of Hjartagarðurinn within the community.

Thomas Cotton

Tutor(s)

2013
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