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Public Power : Within our commons

The Greek agora was created as an invitation to participate in the life of the city and it functioned as the heart of the city and its citizens. I want to bring this back into our commons of the city, by activating it and creating more meeting places.This project started out as a wish to activate our public spaces, and during the first study, I found that we need to engage the citizens more in the process to make it their place and in that way increase the usage. I sent out a questionnaire to all the organisations within the city to understand what was lacking in our public spaces and how the people wanted to develop them further.The answers from the community then turned into my proposition of the public square and parks of my hometown, Örnsköldsvik. In my proposition there are two main quotes from Eric Klinenberg’s book, Palaces for the people, that have been the core of my design‚“It is the interaction between people that creates society and the socially sustainable public urban space”. And the second one;“ Spending time in a market-driven, social setting, even a relatively       inexpensive fast-food restaurant or pastry shop requires paying forthe privilege”  I want to create a place where everyone can interact, no matter age, gender, ethnicity or social background.  In my design I’ve worked with flexibility and that the user is deciding in what way they want to use the space, depending on the time of the day, season of the year and amount of people in the group. One of my inventions is the material storage that enables a spontaneous activity in the city centre. A place where you can find the material for different activities, depending on your interest. It has the same design as the bus stop that we can see in this picture, with a 35 degree roof to make the best use of the pv panels on the roof. This energy source enables the possibility to charge your phone while waiting for the bus or during an activity. It is time for the citizens to connect in our commons.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-184357
Date January 2021
CreatorsIngman Åström, Liza
PublisherUmeå universitet, Arkitekthögskolan vid Umeå universitet
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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