From squatters to creatives. An innovation perspective on temporary use in planning

Abstract

Practices that originate outside the traditional constraints of planning can be sources of planning innovation. This paper researches how temporary use shifted from an element of alternative lifestyles to a strategically embedded procedure of planning in Germany. The paper reconstructs this long-term process of collective reinterpretation by focusing on a semantic layer of innovation discourses, a pragmatic layer of actions and practices as well as the institutional setting as the innovation’s grammar. Based on results of quantitative and qualitative document analyses and semi-structured interviews, it separates the innovation process into five interlinked phases and shows how novel practices initially gained relevance within a few places with extraordinary conditions. Promoted by a new generation of urbanists and diverse framing discourses, temporary use became mobile and succeeded in having a significant influence on planning in Germany.

Keywords:

• Urban regeneration
• innovation in planning
• temporary use
• policy discourse analysis
• urban shrinkage
• Germany
• policy mobility

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my colleagues involved the research project InnoPlan for the many fruitful discussions, as well as the editors and the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and thoughts.

Notes

1. The author formed part of that research project and was involved in the development phase of the model (see funding).

2. The sample contains the following journals: Informationen zur Raumentwicklung, Raumforschung und Raumordnung, disP – The Planning Review, Stadtbauwelt, Planerin (1996–2014), Garten + Landschaft, and Dérive (2000–2014).

3. International Building Exhibitions (Internationale Bauausstellung) are events in Germany carried out over a period of several years in cities or regions with particular problem statements. The Exhibitions aim at enhancing innovative solutions by providing funding, integrating administrative responsibilities, and stimulating multidisciplinary coalitions between actors of different fields.

4. Berlin’s Tempelhof airport was closed for aviation in 2008. During the planning process of the reuse, the airfield was made accessible as a public park and sections were designated for temporary use. Because of the space’s large popularity among citizens, a civil initiative claimed that it should remain free of construction. Eventually, a referendum secured that the airfield would be kept as a park employing temporary use.