ABSTRACT
In urban studies, there is growing recognition of a particular type of urban space emerging in the developed world: vacant land temporarily available owing to stalled developments. The phenomenon is not new. Vacant land tends to follow a cyclical itinerary, always reemerging at times of recession in the development cycle. Examples of “shrinking cities” in the US and Eastern Europe, and abandoned developments in Greece and Ireland, warn of the consequences of a sharp drop in investment. Yet such decline offers its own potential for improvement in terms of interim and everyday use of alternative types of public space. In Detroit, some 33,000 empty lots and vacant houses have been reclaimed for urban farming (Bull & Edwards, 2010). Temporary uses that only last for a short time can range from environmental art projects, such as Agnes Denes's 1982 “Wheatfield—A Confrontation” in New York, to creative industries located in old railway buildings in Berlin (Oswalt, Misselwitzz, & Overmeyer, 2007). In some cases, temporary uses can become permanent, as for instance in London's Camley Street Nature Reserve, Gillespie Park, and Meanwhile Gardens (see Kamvasinou, 2011). All examples point to using available resources creatively in times of scarcity, while highlighting issues of transition from a site's previous use to interim use and future development, including public perceptions and possible opposition.
