Most urban centres have allocated a huge proportion of their total public space to cars. Last week, a team of EVDS students showed Calgarians a glimpse of what else is possible in the space needed for just one parking stall as part of PARK(ing) Day 2014.
Led by second-year Master of Planning student Andrew Cuthbert, the team was the first to put Calgary on the map for participating in PARK(ing) Day, an annual worldwide event where artists, designers and citizens transform metered parking spots into temporary public parks. On Friday, September 19, the EVDS team set up their installation in Calgary’s downtown core, building a parklet that fit into a parking stall directly across from the iconic Bow building.
“I knew that some of us in the planning program were itching to get out into the world and make something tangible,” says Cuthbert. “We wanted to talk to people about what we have been learning about how our cities are organized and how we can make them better for everyone.”
The urban environments that have been built since the invention of the car have made it easy to give up space that would normally be used for walking, reading, sitting, and other activities. PARK(ing) Day’s mission is to highlight the need for more open space in urban centres, and generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, with the goal of improving the quality of the urban human environment.
These issues are especially important in Calgary, a city that has undergone significant population growth in recent years, and only continues to expand. “The city is growing very quickly and has historically been built to primarily serve automobiles and not people,” Cuthbert explains. “Changing the conversation about how we form our environment is critical at this point in Calgary’s development.”
The participating students joined the PARK(ing) Day initiative with the common goal of getting involved and creating something tangible. Their efforts were bolstered by support from campus works, the faculty at EVDS, and Open Streets Calgary, who made a donation to their cause and helped run the event. “It really cemented that what we were building was actually important, and it was great to know we had the support of so many,” Cuthbert says.
The best part of the day? The team agrees that it was doing their part to fulfill PARK(ing) Day’s mission by talking to those asking questions or taking notice of something different downtown. Featuring benches, a hole of mini-golf, and music playing that was powered by stationary bike, the parklet succeeded at getting the attention of Calgary citizens.
Project team:
Andrew Cuthbert
Steve Altena
Natasha De Sandi
Geneva Chaudhary
Chike Mbanefo
Jennifer Dubon
Eddy Farah