The 3 Urban Halls proposal arises from a new alliance between the Daniel Foundation and Nina Carasso, Izaskun Chinchilla and Concentric. An open process that we have developed since December 2021 together with its author, Izaskun Chinchilla. One hundred citizens have been able to design their chairs and get involved in reflecting on how our cities are and how they should be to guarantee us more sustainable spaces that provide a better quality of life and better use of public space.
They are temporary structures designed to occupy urban spaces previously destined for cars when our cities systematically implement their low-emission areas. The rooms are proposed as spaces of coexistence, inspired by the domestic sphere, allowing the population to use the public space, meet and converse without consuming or paying for any service.
The objective of the rooms is that the critical release of space that supposes a change in urban mobility already proposed by many municipalities, such as the City Council of Logroño, is used for civic good and not colonised exclusively by the hospitality industry. Likewise, attempts are made to make these spaces play an essential role in supporting biodiversity in the city. It is about associating, in the citizen’s mind, our spaces of enjoyment, those of humans, with actions of care towards other species and our environment.
The strategy that has been proven most effective in cities that lack biodiverse corridors is the use of squares and public spaces as nodes in a species support network. The squares and roofs are part of a reticle that can allow environmental and health preservation. The strategy is to increase the nodes of that mesh that already form green spaces and squares with the most significant number of new points, including our biodiverse rooms, guaranteeing proximity and diversity.
Parking Day, held on the third Friday of each September internationally, has already tested many formulas for private vehicle parking spaces to be temporarily transformed into green spaces. Urban halls intend to make this action more durable.
