Pedestrian body parking artefact

With a constantly increasing population, urban sprawl creates greater distances reflecting overconsumption of cars by citizens. My project raises questions about the occupation of urban spaces that are provided for public use by motor vehicles. On-street public car parking spaces are constantly filled with cars blocking enabling spaces for pedestrians. This project proposes an activist solution for these spaces that promotes pedestrian use rather than motor vehicle use.

Design activism and urban social movements inform my proposal to reclaim the public space as a pedestrian. I assembled a DIY pedestrian body parking artefact from old furniture, wheels, and cardboard boxes and placed it on the on-street car parking space. With my artefact as a pedestrian, I was using the public parking space and I was trying to bring the balance in the use of these shared collective areas. My work demonstrates how car parking can be used by pedestrians and emphasizing that they do not have to own a car to use it. The definition of car park stating that it is a space that can be occupied by the mobile object and in order to stay within the regulations I have attached wheels to my artefact. The project was demonstrating how any object by adding wheels to it can occupy the parking space. After creating the body parking artefact, I have decided to make a manual. The manual shows how to occupy car parking spaces and it introduces the key elements of what needs to be used to create a personal body parking artefact.