Chapter Three: Innovating 24 Hour Cities
How can the night lead the cities recovery?
Those in the emerging field of night-centric planning, design and policy are uniquely positioned to offer alternatives to unsustainable curfews and lockdowns, or present a route out of them when appropriate.
When space for social distance is in such high demand, urban strategies which address the temporal opportunities of the night hours can decongest valuable space and offer economic and social opportunity.
GNRP Chapter 3 contains advisory information to plan and programme in the present conditions to create a better after-dark future. The pandemic presents a chance to reconfigure our cities at night for the better. Let’s take it.
“It is time for the world to pick up the examples in this chapter and to adapt them; to create their own solutions that can be shared amongst the growing number of cities worldwide that realise that the night is not to be feared. Nightlife is in fact a shared competitive edge, a point of difference as well as a point of coherence, something woven into the very DNA of who we are.”
–Alistair Turnham (MAKE Associates), GNRP Chapter Three Lead
What’s included?
GNRP Chapter 3: Innovating for Safe and Welcoming 24-Hour Cities explores case studies, challenges and possible solutions for welcoming citizens back to their cities at night, presented in three key sections:
i) The activation of our streets and urban spaces in the nocturnal hours
ii) Foregrounding the undervalued but critical role of illumination
iii) Developing more inclusive approaches to movement around our cities after dark
Ideas addressed within these sections include means of increasing access and mobility for night workers, communication campaigns and diverse offerings to entice citizens back to city centres, flexing regulations to unlock the night hours and enable business pivots, using light to create identity or encourage physical distancing – and plenty more.
What happens next?
Whether your city is in lockdown or edging towards recovery, now is the time for urban innovation and improvement.
The GNRP is a launch point: industry stakeholders, urban planners, academics and nightlife participants alike are encouraged to engage in this solutions-oriented global discussion, then take action within their own communities.
We invite you to…
1. Circulate the GNRP within your professional network.
2. Sign up to a Meet the Authors conference call on to discuss the chapter further and meet with its creators. Info on date to be announced shortly.
3. Determine opportunities and challenges in your city through 1:1 consultancy sessions
4. Develop a 24-hour action plan unique to your city
Who is behind the GNRP Chapter Three?
The GNRP project is a global collaboration of nightlife experts and advocates, led by nightlife advocacy agency VibeLab and hosted on VibeLab’s nightlife news and features platform, Nighttime.org. It aims to provide all members of the night-time ecosystem the tools and inspiration to aid their industry and city in planning and executing a responsible re-opening.
Chapter 3 is led by Alistair Turnham (MAKE Associates) and Leni Schwendinger (International Nighttime Design Initiative).
Contributors: ElsaMarie DSilva (Red Dot Foundation) and Carlos F Pardo (despacio.org, NUMO)
Interviewees: Cornelius Harris (Underground Resistance) and Dimitrios (Jim) Mastoras (Arlington County Police), Chrystel Oloukoï, PhD Candidate, Harvard University
GNRP editing and coordinating team: Michael Fichman (PennPraxis/University of Pennsylvania) , Richard Foster (Worm, Rotterdam) Lutz Leichsenring (VibeLab), Mirik Milan (VibeLab), Diana Raiselis (Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation), Andreina Seijas (Harvard University) and Jia Yuan (PennPraxis/University of Pennsylvania).