The joy of experiments: Instructions in experimental urbanism

Place-making always includes an experimental dimension in the complex and irrational world of urban planning. Hillier suggested “the conceptualization of planning as magic; a creative activity in which multiples of different elements and forces – physical, psychical, and verbal – perform together. Places become a means of performing difference”. In response, we present findings from ongoing action research organised under a ‘critical realism collective’ with a procedural grounding in experimentation. Through the adaptation of a systematic scientific method to fit this ‘magical world of planning’, we present findings from case study experiments and interventions in the “apparent disorder and disarray” of our contemporary public realm and rethinking the role of ‘third places’ for community building. From our project involvement at different scales; ranging from temporary urban street art trails, normalising cycling in a low-active travel neighbourhood, a pop-up acoustic festival / street karaoke, repurposing ‘found’ spaces and public infrastructure, through to the establishment of a community-led social enterprise art gallery; we place the scope of these experimental projects within the enabling dynamic legislative planning context and the plethora of potential funding sources. Finally, we provide insight from professional reflective practice on transferable procedures; from project initiation to design and implementation stages; for the promotion of urban experimentation and the requirements for supporting / enabling policy as a formalised methodology and ‘how to guide’ with emphasis on participatory research, active ethnographic approaches and how these relate to urban design and project management.