Most people close to this project know already we are working with UNDP on a concept that puts public spaces front and center. The idea is to work with public authorities in each Future Makers country to secure a street (or square, or park, or even large building) to use a sandbox to prototype a new way of urban living: one that would help its users build and maintain a healthy lifestyle, a more humane system of relationships, a slower mobility based on walking and biking, friendlier to children and people with impaired mobility; and that would both foster and be funded by a civic, peer-to-peer economy.
While researching it, we came across some very, very inspiring witnesses – some of them from Future Makers countries, in the form of videos. I would like to list them here:
- The TEDx talk of the mighty @Nick_Davitashvili on the Vake Park movement and how it connects to the spontaneous gathering of people around the Tbilisi 2015 flash flood.
- The trailer of Cairo Runners.
- Hayp, Armenia's first pop-up gallery.
- Jaime Lerner's (he was mayor of Curitiba, in Brasil) TED talk on
- A longer documentary on Antanas Mockus, former mayor of Bogota (Colombia) and his concept of "urban acupuncture".
- And finally, some very creative Edgeryders from Italy – led by @Augusto_Pirovano – that use urban games as a placemaking device. Their Critical City project involved over 13,000 people from all over Italy competing in making their cities fun, strange and interesting. These have tons of video, my favourite one is of another game called A-Maze.
This is starting to look like a world movement to me. If you have any other examples in mind do share them!