January, a month people tend to loathe… why? Well here in the UK, people tend to have less money just after the expense of the Christmas and New Years holidays, there is no public holidays until Easter and in January you are only half-way through winter with short days (although lengthening) and miserable weather still plentiful. A lot of time and money is spent on Christmas markets, street-lights, festive entertainment and public space decoration in the build up to December 25th and January 1st… but shortly after, it all disappears to leave a cityscape that feels bland, boring and, well, harsh in comparison.
A bulletin by the US based ‘Projects for Public Spaces’ examines the animation of cities in the build up to traditional European winter holidays and then follows these lessons in looking at how certain conurbations apply these creative placemaking techniques to form winter-long programmes. Alarmingly notes Walljasper, author of the piece:
‘A common and tragic mistake that many North American winter cities have made in recent decades is to try and engineer winter out of existence. This is seen most prominently in second-story walkways (called "plus fifteens" in Calgary, "skywalks" in Winnipeg, "skyways" in Minneapolis and Des Moines, "pedways" in Chicago and Edmonton) that allow people to circulate around downtown areas without stepping outside. A good idea on paper, perhaps, but in practice, the life of the city is removed from the streets and eventually disappears’.
With examples of ice-skating in Paris, seasonal lighting in Salzburg and sculpture exhibits in New York - it is clearly important to remember that cities need attractive and varied cultural programming to create welcoming, interesting, curious, comfortable, accessible and innovative spaces. The weather or climate shouldn’t be seen as an obstacle to this, and with the correct thinking behind any socially convivial planning, should be an active, positive central element in any outcome. Lessons to be learnt for all manner of built environments facing a less temperate climate at some point throughout the year:
‘A frequent mistake made in winter cities is to overemphasize the impact of the weather, using it as a rationale for why they don't have great public spaces. "When people in a city use the climate as an excuse for mediocrity--and that happens in hot places where we work, too, like Dubai and Tempe, Arizona--" says Nikitin, "then I know the problem is not weather but the need for a bigger vision in that place’’.’
A call-to-arms for urban designers, planners, landscape architects, architects, councils and so on to enage with and/or consider the likes of artists, theatre companies and local business in responding to inclement weather with imagination and ingenuity... Lets just remind ourselves that we are thinking about climate's link with daily weather, and unlike weather alone it is longer lasting and paints more the annual picture and patterns of weather over many years.
Any investment in evolving public space to be just as useable during more adverse conditions, or in using public space full stop, to be fully successful, should be met with a long-term, broad vision – rather than just with advent in mind.
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