From June 27 to 28, 2023, the first partner meeting of the Central Europe Interreg project “PopUpUrbanSpaces” took place in Nyíregyháza, Hungary. The meeting included numerous presentations, a workshop and a lively exchange on the next steps in the project cooperation.
Christine Rottenbacher and Stefanie Kotrba, scientific staff members at the Center for Environmental Sensitivity and the Center for Climate Engineering, gave a comprehensive introduction to the basic concepts and practices of “Place Making” and “Tactical Urbanism”. Their presentation illustrated how to create vibrant and engaging urban spaces that meet the needs of the community. The two also led an interactive workshop - “Training Needs Analyses” - with all project partners. The aim was to find out in which topics decision-makers can be trained in order to be able to carry out PopUp measures in their interest in the future. The results of the workshop serve as the basis for the development of a capacity building strategy.
Project PopUpUrbanSpaces
The aim of the PopUpUrbanSpaces project is to draw attention to overlooked and unilaterally used spaces and to demonstrate actions that reveal new design and organizational possibilities in a public space. The project is being developed together with partners from Slovenia, Poland, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Hungary and Austria.
“Pop-up” demonstration projects - e.g. temporary measures such as cycle paths, protected crossings, crosswalks, parklets, street cafés, squares, benches, street trees and more - are valuable instruments for achieving long-term changes with short-term measures. For example, in the sensitive and sometimes controversial area of zones reserved for cars in urban areas, a return to cycling and pedestrian traffic can be encouraged and experimentally researched.
