The Story of a Site RessurAction
El Fath Cinema, Saida, Algeria, 2020
In the span of two weeks, an implementation of the tactical urbanism design approach was adopted by us — enrolled students in the master of Design for Public Spaces, Poli.design. This participation came under the workshop of ‘’Living Street Lab” which was originated by the design department of Politecnico di Milano. It has included a series of steps to help evolve the project in a resilient way, these steps were summarized in case studies, analysis methods, concept-generation, and co-design sessions. It’s also worth mentioning that there was a noticeable value added by the engagement of lectures based on multi-disciplinary dimensions such as sociology, psychology, environmental eco-systems, and the role of regulatory bodies such as the Milan Municipality.
A promising site
Going through similar case studies achieved in our countries brought on forth the lack of presence of the tactical urbanism approach and therefore the opportunity to introduce it– in my case — to the Algerian state; Saida, a city that holds a lot of cultural heritage, anchored traditions, social habits and willingness to change. A bottom-up approach that’s temporary in its tangible implementation and permanent in its intangible potential.
Guerrilla urbanism on a forgotten site
The site selection was equally guided by two main reasons; the need for reactivating a long forgotten urban space and the urgency to address the user’s needs by a D.I.Y process. The cinema’s adjacent parks were closed and suffered a tremendous lack of maintenance, this part of the neighborhood that’s highly dense with buildings held the opportunity to offer a quality space back to the people fig.3 living near-by, for them to create a link with their community and develop a sense of appropriation; which were the main principles of this design implementation.
Community Analysis reveals insights
In order to understand the context in a closer way, a spatial analysis was used as a way of reading the accessibility to the location, the noticeable different flows during different day times, the Pros & Cons of having a variety of services surrounding the site fig 2. In addition to an ethnographic analysis which was the first step into engaging the community to play a role into creating this serving quality space, which in the long term would reinforce the relationship and the sense of appropriation they created during the implementation phase.
The concept of ressurAction
This vision was driven by the idea of reactivating a space, bringing it back to life by implementing the activities selected by the inhabitants in the online-based survey during the ethnographic analysis phase mentioned earlier fig 4. Superimposing various factors fig.1 such as; the age difference, the cultural heritage, the preferences of the users, and the sites potential. It has all played a role into creating a project that focuses on diversity, multi-functionalism, and city-repair. Image 1
A fresh pair of eyes
Maintaining the notion of participation and team work, the co-design phase was put into action. The output obtained from a fresh pair of eyes nourished the project. A fellow promising designer-@_khushubu had shared her review in setting the S.W.O.T analysis -strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats points- which gave priority to certain activities rather than all the possible ones.
A journey of a user
All the collected data from the previous steps had to be superimposed on the site’s strategic areas fig 5. The sitting area merged with the planting activity on the extended side walk, the play areas also merged with a sitting area dedicated for the parents accompanying their children. The game installations engulfing the existing trees in a way to embrace the existing, the recycling of the steel railing and reusing it as part of the new benches design in an attempt to maintain the identity of the space and link the past with the future fig 6.
An ethical urban space
With the current world wide circumstances, we realize slowly yet steadily how the public space will be important in restoring the idea of ‘what used to be normal’. We can only hope that by the end of the pandemic the focus on outdoor open spaces will be considerably put into action. It’s a form of nature for us to interact on a daily basis, to co-exist, co-inhabit, and co-experience life together. Offering a platform for that and offering suitable activities by using ethical design approaches is an act of kindness and thoughtfulness towards people, and an act of awareness and compassion towards our home, our planet.
