Brisbane to Bogota

On September 19th it was PARK(ing) Day 2009, an initiative that originally began in 2005 by Rebar an art and design collective in San Francisco. In 2005 Rebar initially converted a single metered parking space into a temporary park, to reclaim the streets and create public space in a city with 70% of its downtown outdoor space is dedicated to vehicles. Rebar aimed to transform urban space from the clutches of private vehicle ownership and transform them into places where people can socialise, relax, read, and play.

Since then PARK(ing) Day has grown into a global one day event with over 200 parks being created in 50 different cities in 2008.

Brisbane is one of the biggest PARKing cities in the world and this year there were more than 50 PARKs across Brisbane, a number of these were part of a Collaborative Design unit at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), where design students teamed up with a coach to create PARKs across Brisbane.

Like Guerilla Gardening PARKing day is a form of activism, a way to reclaim the streets in peaceful and fun ways.

I went to see what these students, community groups and individuals got up to, in a bid create urban spaces that promote community and enhance the civic space.

The 8 PARKs that  I saw had used various mediums to create their spaces such as recycled timber, household items and grass and creating both beautiful and functional spaces.

I felt one of the unfortunate sides to this years PARK(ing) Day was that their we many for-profit organisations or businesses setting up PARKs, and I couldn’t help but feel that this was a publicity stunt for many of them. I don’t believe that businesses require additional space to ‘advertise’, and for me one of the liberating parts of PARKing Day  is the freedom from consumerism. PARK(ing) Day has the ability to bring quiet to vulgar streets, engender dissent in urban conformity, to construct urban spaces into relaxing sanctuaries and create a space where we can be free from corporate promotion and welcome genuine acts of sharing (of conversation, space and the streets).

I also felt that I would have liked to have seen more of the PARKers leave their parking space long enough to let citizens engage in the space, at times some of these spaces were full of the creators, leaving little room for others, some appeared intimidating and as a result I often observed them rather than engaged in them.

Through the looking glass

Sleek Scrap (QUT)

Crumpler Bags

Crumpler Bags

2 High Festival

Lavender to brighten the street

Book Swap (QUT)

Book Swap (QUT)

Deicke Richards

Deicke Richards