Tactical Urbanism emerged as a movement of grassroot groups that were frustrated with their local governments that failed to improve liveability and sustainable mobility. Individual groups in the US started to make small ‘guerilla’ type improvements to streets and public space to combat inaction. The term ‘tactical urbanism’ was coined by planner Mike Lydon who has also supported scaling the approach, by producing guides for both community level interventions and by building broader programmes with local governments. Tactical urbanism aims at more ‘people friendly’ streets and spaces where people feel comfortable walking, cycling and playing safely. The approach is based on testing new uses in low-risk and low-cost way, allowing the community to ‘test out’ a solution before it’s implemented on a more permanent basis.  

It is important to think of the long-lasting change when starting with the short-term interventions. The more ambitious the goals are, the more crucial it is to involve diverse groups of people and stakeholders.

There is often a small core group ideating and crowdfunding the first interventions but mostly the aim is to then continue the ideation with as many stakeholders as possible. Profound interaction helps to find good solutions that can be welcomed also by those who were not part of the first phases. Stakeholder relations are also crucial to secure funding for the long term solutions. In case the local administration is involved, they may adopt the role of facilitator and to cover the costs in the end.

When initiated and carried out by community organisations, a single intervention of tactical urbanism typically lasts a couple of days – or one week in order to see how it works on different weekdays and with different types of users. The intervention preparation time depends on the level of ambition and on how much of the physical materials is do-it-yourself type and how much is sponsored and/or purchased (e.g. street furniture). The city-led, highly-visible and formalized interventions are often built to last longer or even become permanent arrangements – if proven successful through the intervention.

Evaluation should include qualitative and quantitative metrics, often surveys or observational data collection at the site. The prototyping approach allows public input to be gathered through  demonstrated preferences instead of stated preferences only. For more comprehensive evaluation efforts, partnerships with universities can be helpful.

As the interventions are low-cost, temporary changes to the built environment, the approach is very accessible to various actors.  At the same time, successful projects are typically very collaborative and context sensitive.

For a city the approach is a great opportunity to crowdsource new ideas from the people. With some support - or at least by allowing things to happen - the city can turn into a laboratory of more sustainable citizen-approved design.