Temporary Tactical Urbanism
About the exhibition
The Temporary Tactical Urbanism exhibition was conceived to address the questions: what do the terms ‘temporary’, ‘tactical’, ‘do it yourself’, and ‘guerrilla urbanism’ mean? How do these terms differ? Who benefits from approaches to urban intervention? What do these words mean in the UK following the 2008 financial crisis, and specifically in the context of Huddersfield?
The research underpinning this exhibition was developed by a team of postgraduate students at the University of Huddersfield: Yreilyn Cartagena, Tabassum Ahmed, Eduardo Baldauf and Yue Li, led by Dr Ioanni Delsante, Reader in Urban Design, Department of Architecture and 3D Design. More information about the case studies and precedents that led to the exhibition can be found here.
The content of the exhibition included material developed through literature reviews, field trips, design workshops, research symposia and conferences. It examined specific case studies and tactics. By looking at precedents and relevant case studies (such as Bologna, Rotterdam and Seville) the exhibition aimed to showcase opportunity for further conversations and for bottom-up transformations in Huddersfield town centre. The starting point and conclusion of the exhibition are encapsulated by Danish architect and urban design consultant Jan Gehl, who says:
First life, then spaces, then buildings, not the other way round.
Jan Gehl
Temporary Tactical Urbanism
Temporary Tactical Urbanism
Temporary Tactical Urbanism
About the lead researcher
Dr Ioanni Delsante is Reader in Urban Design, Department of Architecture and 3D Design, University of Huddersfield. He was awarded a PhD in 2006 having previously obtained an MSc in Building Engineering/Architecture EU at the University of Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. In 2008, he was appointed Assistant Professor in Architectural and Urban Design at University of Pavia. Delsante has lectured at Tongji University of Shanghai, PRC since 2009 and in 2014 was Visiting Professor at the University of Seville, Spain.
Delsante has organised and coordinated international design workshops in Europe, Asia, and South America. He has published on the topics of contemporary Chinese courtyards, the peer-production of culture in Milan, the creative city, regeneration and social inclusion. In 2016, he co-organised an international conference titled “Regional Urbanism in the Era of Globalisation” (2016). He has co-curated a number of international exhibitions on architecture and urban design, including at La Triennale of Milan (2012) and the East-West China exhibition at Huddersfield Art Gallery (2016) as part of the ROTOR programme.