33 32 #15 Urban acupuncture: from “repellent spaces” to “healing places” by Vedrana Ikalovic The alienation has become a common characteristic of metropolises and urban space, where individuals have less and less opportunities for unintentional encounters and social exchange. Side by side with a sense of attachment, they have been used and (re)interpreted by academics and practitionaires whose efforts move towards a creation of inclusive urban spaces which foster social proximity. The proposed workshop reflects these efforts. Firstly, students observe their immediate environment using walking as a metaphore of reading (de Certeau, 1984). They identify repellent spaces (“stealthy”, “slippery”, “crusty”, “prickly”, and “jittery” spaces) as categorised by Steven Flusty (2001). In the second part of the workshop students work in groups to identify spatial elements that create specific ‘repellent’ sensation. Visual (Pink, 2012) and ethnographic (Covatta and Ikalovic, 2020) methods are applied to analyse, classify and discuss findings. After discussion students select a location to create an urban installation and temporarily “heal” specific repellent space. Students create the proposals using urban acupuncture and place-making techniques as contemporary tools that assist affordable and meaningful urban interventions. With the selected literature participants (1) understand and learn specific placemaking strategies, and (2) develop projects at the intersection of local needs and subjective experience of space. Finally, they temporarily transform one “repellent space” into a meaningful place that fosters social exchange. One of the objectives of this exercise for students is to react to specific (un)favourable urban conditions, further stimulating social exchange that focuses on a constructive problem-finding approach and results in a tangible urban intervention.
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