Temporary Planning - Revealing Spaces and Practices for the Urban Project

In a period of significant change caused by economic and ecological crises, the adaptability of urban planning has become a necessity. Temporary planning takes place in abandoned urban spaces that sit between old and new purposes, and can be seen as an important step in defining a future project. Temporary planning can be considered as a tool for promoting the development of urban areas to be more in line with the needs of residents and users, and providing a means of experimenting with new cultural and social forms. Understanding the context plays a key role in the effectiveness of planning proposals that are able to reveal spaces and practices. Many local authorities are at present seeking to define methods of involving people in the project process. Temporary urbanism offers citizens the opportunity to take part in the making of urban space. It allows actors - and not only economic actors - to change their vision of the project, to assess its various stages and to support the gradual transformation of a particular space. Contemporary urban planning is based on a new paradigm: thinking of the city through its uses. Abandoned urban spaces, as latent public spaces, are ideal locations for spontaneous or planned citizen investment. Temporary urbanism can give a particularly effective interpretation of such spaces, as shown by two experiments in Marseille and Clermont-Ferrand.