Idea description:

Post-socialist cities suffer from poor quality of public and semi-public spaces, of which. often, there is no one (and limited finance) to take care of. They also have an excess of unused space, which hangs in limbo because of bureaucracy, property settlement, speculative investments, or is the product of frozen real estate market.

Thereare many ‘spaces’ in Bratislava. They can be plots, buildings, urban, private, clerical. This excess space is not just the product of economic and administrative process dysfunction but also the consequence of degradation of urban structures. Unused urban spaces are an opportunity for temporary use.

Project “Voids” is an effort to recognize the potential and constructive approach to find a new temporary use of the premises. Our solution has two stages. Activity-based and system-based stage.

Activity-based stage = a platform bringing together data, experimenting and popularizing the concept of temporary use, simplifying contact between social innovators and owners of unused premises.

System-based stage = self-government in response to the success of these various interventions adopts simple tools motivating owners of voids making them accessible for city-creating activities. The Local taxes. Fines. Tax credits. The Tools do exist. Only the will is lacking.