Space in Flux

In recent decades social and urban structures' development became very rapid. This led to diversification and fragmentation of urban structure, so its transformation became inconsistent and hard to control. Areas positioned between changing fragments or unable to adapt to changing social needs remain outdated or unintegrated into transformed city structure. This leads to their decay and underuse. Central zones are areas of high interest, so transitions here are more frequent while risk of social conflict is greater. Due to this, underused spaces here appear faster than they can be regenerated.

In a world of constant changes, lost "in-between" spaces are too scattered and appear too quickly, so only part of them can be reformed in a traditional top-down way. To solve problems of space-use formed by transformation of social and urban context, project suggests activating underused spaces through people initiative, forming an urban structure as a fixed core of formal public spaces that join adaptive informal places. Strategies for creating adaptive spaces are based on space cognition and behaviourism theories. According to them, each functional zone generates a set of behaviour patterns that can coexist or conflict with others. Thus, suggested strategies have different levels of functional adaptability and structural flexibility, which are used to solve various social conflicts and create a place for diverse needs in a limited space. Modular, transformative and temporary design is used to solve these conflicts by creating a wide variety of forms in the same space. Solutions are made recognizable by distinct design and understandable form of manipulation. For more complex situations an expandable catalogue of modules can be provided by professional as a starting point of self-organization. Application of these principles are illustrated by preparing an urban space activation proposal for part of Vilnius' district Naujamiestis where functional diversity and lack of space are the highest. The project aims to empower individuals to change the form of urban space for their personal needs by creating an environment perceived as "changeable" and "appropriative". It is expected that if suggested strategies become common practice for lost space conversion to adaptive spaces, any underused space will be perceived as appropriative and be activated by initiative of citizens.