| Popis: |
It is impossible to make a generous city alone. Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, we are bound by our identity – by i.a. our physique, our abilities, knowledge and history and by extension our preferences and position. And thus our daily places and the city “work” (or don’t work) in a different way for different (groups of) people. For example – restricting bicycle parking at the center of Groningen has a very different effect for the visually impaired citizens who have experienced the bikes as a nuisance in the city for decades, and for a working parent who can only afford these extra ten minutes to make a stop and visit the city centre before picking up the kids from the daycare. Nevertheless, the dominance of a certain identity and by extension preferences are still ever-present in the ways our cities are planned and built. The Generous Groningen project aimed to make visible what is possible beyond doing the city-planning ‘in the sort of normal way’ - what is possible when different viewpoints, voices, identities and skills are put together in a pressure-cooker style setting, to generate new ideas and concrete solutions for a more generous city. In this essay I look at the Generous Groningen project through the lens of newly emerging discussions in spatial planning focusing in particular on the commons and commoning . |
