We’ve delivered a project with Swansea BID focused on transforming public space by adding a bit of green to the grey with the city’s first pop-up park.
Based at the top of Oxford Street on the space adjacent to Castle Square, the pop-up park came complete with its own green, picket fence, gazebos and seating area. Local organisations Playright and Circus Eruption provided the entertainment and activities whilst parents took full advantage of the seating provided.
The pop-up park ran for three days at the end of August 2015 and attracted hundreds of people who wanted somewhere to eat their lunch, somewhere they could let the kids play and enjoy the different activities, or somewhere they could take the weight off their feet and have a conversation with somebody new.
Gabriella and her daughter Daphne (pictured) were just two of the passers by who made the most of what the pop-up park had to offer:
“This is a great idea,” said Gabriella, originally from Swansea who now lives in Italy teaching English, “It’s something very simple and easy to do and has given me an idea of an event to run in Italy for teaching English to young people. My daughter has really enjoyed the different activities the pop-up park has provided.”
The pop-up park is another example of our commitment to using great ideas to make a difference – in this case by activating public spaces and getting people to think differently and creatively about utilising the spaces around them.
We wanted to demonstrate how something simple can make a big difference to the spaces around us and that it doesn’t have to be grand or cost a lot of money, rather it was about using the public spaces that we have more creatively and engaging local people to use them in different ways.
The project has parallels with with the great success we have had with similar projects such as the street markets we established in the Uplands and the Marina in Swansea, which are also about using good ideas to make great people places.
