Everyday Life Architecture

The IKEA Disobedients video (2011, MoMA Archive) by Andres Jaque Architects was pretty interesting for the cinematography of a pedestrian approach of visiting close to a dozen New York City and suburb residents who are using architecture in unusual ways.  The film depicted small, clever, tactical approaches to changing architecture from the user's needs: a woman who operates a hair salon in a back portion of her home, a man doing research on growing hydroponic gardening and leasing the rest of the apartment to raise income, a woman who owns her own restaurant while her children spend their time in the restaurant after school, a homosexual couple who rent out their apartment while collecting books to open a future bookstore, a man living free of rent in a small shack while developing and maintaining a garden between empty lots and having a small store selling collectibles.  These were small changes by the users of the buildings who were making a change to their spaces to adapt to their needs.

Everyday Urbanism celebrates the every day life that occurs in the city in a simple, practical, functional way.  Margaret Crawford writes that practices of Everyday Urbanism should, "inevitably lead to social change, not abstract political ideologies imposed from the outside, but instead of specific concerns that arise from the lived experience of different individuals and groups within the city."  

My favorite urban intervention was a tactic by Rolighetsteorin / FunTheory, a subgroup by Volvo - where a stairwell in Odenplan, Stockholm has an overnight short term makeover where the steps are converted into a musical piano where walking on the stairs plays music.  This encouraged 66% more people to take the stairwell instead of the adjacent escalator - and it was a lot of fun.