Guest Article
www.parkworld-online.com
park design and to understand how they can influence each other. For example, the analysis of Coney Island by Rem Koolhaas in New York Delire, the Instant City concept (by Archigram), the Luna Tour (by Jean Tinguely and Claude Parent) or even Walt Disney’s initial concept for EPCOT (Experimental Project Community Of Tomorrow) in Florida. The intensity of urban life, its forms and functions were then re-examined with another point of view, inspired by an experiential approach more than a functional one.
The revolution in new urban-based leisure is quite new but we already feel that it can be very useful to the territories that consider it because:
• It increases the quality of life of a territory by multiplying the types of experiences to be had when one resides there.
• It creates an appeal that benefits other neighboring urban functions
(F&B, transportation, retail, hospitality, etc.).
• It generates a whole chain of local jobs that cannot be relocated and generates a creative economy of experience that is more positive and virtuous than a globalized consumer economy based on goods.
• It offers regeneration opportunities to an obsolete real estate asset, either temporarily or permanently.
• It revitalizes existing urban places (sports halls, swimming pools, museums, etc.) by offering a new fun and social approach to sports practice or access to culture.
New urban-based leisure and their booming development partly explain the popularity of a trend such as staycation, these new vacations that are spent at home. They have also helped to redefine the notion of tourism which no longer considers only visitors from the outside but is now oriented to local populations.
The strong development of these places of a new kind, based on the experiential economy, is an excellent signal for the territories. But it also raises a number of questions that deserve to be looked at closely:
• How to balance the leisure offer between retail districts and city centers?
• How to design and organise city-based leisure in a sustainable way? • How to plan different kind of urban activity from a vibrant leisure district to a quiet residential area
• How to really welcome everybody with inclusive leisure? • How to keep flexible and remain close to visitor’s expectations when you operate a leisure venue « in a box ».
What places for free time in the cities of tomorrow? Places of leisure and attraction can now take a new position, sometimes at the heart of certain real estate, retail and territorial strategies. Major territorial or tourist development projects call for innovative and diversifying programs that new leisure venues are able to provide. This is the case in Toulouse, where the creation of a new district revolves around a new site of the Compagnie des Machines (Halle de la Machine, Montaudran). Or in Brest with the Atelier des Capucins, which transforms a piece of the city’s heritage into a place of life and leisure. Also, ephemeral urban locations are relevant places for recreation because not everyone can afford a permanent place to run. Some of the most successful experiences may also be the most limited in time. An exceptional and ephemeral character is often a convincing argument to generate a visit using the “fear of missing out” effect. A revitalizing industrial area, a reinvented funfair, a convention center out of season, major festivals or events… all of them can offer an opportunity to attract the audience to new experiences. In Munich, the large urban renewal project for the Ost-Bahnhof district is temporarily organized around a Ferris wheel, Umadum. Let us not forget either the
46 42 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021
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