Fast Company had a piece on how public use of spaces has changed the spaces and art for the better. The bottom line is basically, design spaces to facilitate flexible use and don’t try to re-assert your vision of order to too large a degree.
Author Andrew Zimmerman cites the example of the way people use the Getty Museum’s steps and lawns for picnics, sketching, socializing and reflecting. The original intent was to provide an attractive entry to the facilities but the use of these spaces has resulted in longer visits and positive perceptions of the museum.
NYC’s Chelsea Market is also spotlighted.
….the design at New York City’s iconic Chelsea Market didn’t stay fixed for long. Shop owners regularly shifted displays, reworked lines, and pulled seating in or out depending on the crowd. What started as clearly defined footprints, where one retailer ended and another began, quickly blurred once real people entered the mix. Those small, practical adjustments weren’t part of some grand plan, but they created a truly organic market that could respond to crowd patterns in real time. In many ways, that flexibility is what made it feel authentic and alive, it is another reminder that adaptation can serve the community, the vendors, and the space itself.
Then there is the example of NYC’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority transit stations and Times Square where poetry installations, myriad performances, public art, graffiti, some officially sanctioned, some less so, occur amid the swirl of humanity.
Along with designing spaces for this type of participation, inviting collaboration, and not being too afraid of letting things get a little messy, I appreciated the tip provided by the article related to measuring the success of these efforts.
Measure engagement differently. Metrics tend to prioritize aesthetic loyalty or operational efficiency. But the real signs of success are more often how long people spend in a place, how often they revisit, and how willing the community is to engage spontaneously in them.
