DRS2012 Bangkok Proceedings Vol 4 - Design Research Society

1968 Conference Proceedings
Interventions in Urban Regeneration
Sandra Viña
The actual experience of urban public places deals with a design from a human scale
viewpoint in which interactions and expressions occur and develop in everyday places
and from the reach of the human sight. The functions and character of interventions can
be evaluated and defined in an array of ways. In previous sections, I have illustrated
some examples of the financial, cultural, recreational, political and design intervention in
public places. Each carries specific qualities and aims at particular interactions and
results. However, they often intertwined in terms of functions as seen in figure 9. Each
intervention contributes (whether positively or not) to make changes in city spaces, and to
look over the utilization of city environments. It also helps to appreciate the city from new
perspectives and conceptual notions. It contributes to urban regeneration as interventions
help to uncover new uses, meanings and experiences.
Figure 9 Functions of urban interventions
Source: Sandra Viña (2012)
The role of interventions vary, some emphasize commercial activities, others cultural and
artistic while others focus on the wellbeing of people and the image of the city. The act of
intervening and appropriating public places links to people’s participation and needs. It
also relates to the fact of intervening in consensus or dissensus ways. While interventions
occur new places and images come into play to provoke other interactions, scenarios and
experiences within the city. These events alter the identity of places and create new
venues recognizable by the new character. Different functions, uses and values about
urban interventions construct and deconstruct the city environment in practice and
theoretical forms.
The nature of design interventions compared with non-design interventions differs in the
aim, research and design scope. However, urban interventions deal with aspects of place
identity and build on local identity whether through active or passive acts in the public
space or, as temporal design ideas. They create new spaces of interaction and
communication. Urban interventions have shed light to a variety of ways in which places
can be revitalized or bring into new forms; they can generate new experiences, new
services and a new image. There is much to learn from different types of interventions as
they help to construct new paradigms and ways of reflecting about (negative or positive)
experiences in the urban form. Consensual/dissensual, professional/amateur;
passive/active; open/restricted; big/small scale interventions are actions of people that