PARK(ing) Day, held every third Friday in September, is a worldwide event where parking spots are transformed into temporary public parks. Encouraging community members, students, and designers to re-envision their urban public space. Read more about the global initiative www.parkingday.org
September 2017, the Environmental Department of Herzliya Municipality in collaboration with the Movement for Israeli Urbanism and Green Course for sustainability, initiated a local Parking Day competition, for the best idea to take over 3 parking spots in the center of the city. Studio Youtovia won with this conceptual sketch:
We worked laboriously days and nights prior to the event, it was hectic to build the construction in a short time frame. Most of the construction was built from recycled abandoned cardboard cylinders we picked up from a cloth factory's excess waste bin.
We designed mini tipi tents for some shaded seating, and a colorful heart construct for interaction, intended for kids to throw a ball into the cylinders that make up the heart and get a surprise recycled gift!
The day of the event, 5 AM we 'hijacked' 3 parking spots in the center of the city, on Sokolov St., backed by the municipality of course, we took over 3 spaces meant for three cars and created a spot where the community and passersby can sit, relax, enjoy a drink, a friendly conversation, meet a new neighbor and interact together. We installed this pop up parklet for just a few hours, by 2 PM the whole construction was all gone, but the experience lingers on, we challenged the use of these parking spaces and offered a temporary alternative enjoyed by the community. By 4 PM we donated the cylinder benches to a local community garden and managed to
We created an opportunity for local community interaction that wasn’t there before
