Inspiration for the Week 26’s project and the overall PARK(ing) Day London initiative came from the original PARK(ing) Day.

When I originally approached people about this project I had the following to say:

PARK(ing) Day centres around the premise of reclaiming urban spaces (in the downtown core) as park/recreation space for pedestrian use.

Over the past 5 years cities from around the world have taken a single day to turn on-street parking spaces into urban parks, reading spaces, cafes, oasis, among many other things. The purpose of these transformations is to raise awareness of the important roles that these types of spaces play in the structure of a city’s urban fabric and how crucial they are in fostering interactions among those who occupy urban spaces.

This year the PARK(ing) Day initiative is taking place on Friday September 17th, 2010 in over 200 cities around the world and I hope that it can be brought to the Forest City as an attempt to re-green London (even if only temporary).

I believe that this type of initiative has the potential for much larger things, not only raising awareness of the lack of green space in our downtown core but the important role that such spaces play.

More information about the general principals behind PARK(ing) Day can be found at http://www.parkingday.org