Discourses

RESETTING

Urban Infrastructure Revisited

Street lights, benches, bus stops…have you ever noticed that they look more and more alike? Have you ever wondered who decides what they should look like and what purposes they should serve? Have you ever been asked how you would imagine them? In response to the increasing privatization of public goods and spaces, ZK/U would like to place urban furniture and public infrastructure within the debate of the urban commons. Through the critical examination of urban infrastructure and public services, new possibilities and models can be realized for citizens to shape and influence their surroundings, and utilize public space for their common interests and good. As such, ZK/U proposes to reclaim collective ownership of public space in the city. In this framework artists, urban planners, experts, economists, designers, activists, policy-makers and citizens are invited to contribute to an open source pool of practices and production manuals that propose new, cooperative ways of planning and producing urban infrastructure, and allow citizens to become public space co-producers.

Our leading questions are:

How accessible are public spaces in the city?How can the cityscape be built in a bottom-up manner? 
How can administrations talk to citizens and vice versa?
How can urban commons like water, energy, streets, train tracks be recommunalised?
How can citizens engage and be part of supply processes and other public services for their city? Which potential new economic models can derive from citizen engagement?
How can citizens become co-curators/-producers of the public space?
How can recognised participation in planning processes be shaped?
Which planning tools and methods can be used for recognized participation processes?
What possibilities of urban self-sustainability exist? Are they upscalable prototypes, or individualistic leisure-time ‘extras’?

Keywords:
URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE, PUBLIC SERVICES, STREET FURNITURE, ACCESS TO PUBLIC SPACE, CITY SUSTAINABILITY & SUBSISTENCE, COLLECTIVE OWNERSHIP, CO-PRODUCTION