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Extending the living room to the street |
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Score
85%
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59 votes,
Feasibility
0%
Originality
0%
Humour
0% |
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Inner city residents in Stavanger, Norway (population 108,000) have transformed a whole street into a permanent 'social space' by furnishing it with benches, tables, a pergola, potted plants, a notice-board, wiring for those who want to sit in the street with their computers and surf the internet and a flagpole (a flag is hoisted on the pole to celebrate residents' birthdays).
It all started one day when Trond Sigvaldsen took his father's garden bench out in the street to give it a polish, taking with him his newspaper and a coffee flask. People started to gather around his bench for a chat. So, they thought, why not make the whole of Vikesdalsgata street into an open air living room?
Having first knocked on doors to get the agreement of all the residents, they spent tedious months negotiating with local authorities and then more months furnishing their new dwelling space.
The launch took place in the spring of 1999 and nowadays the street has become something of an attraction for surrounding neighbourhoods. The improvements are much appreciated by the elderly waiting for their buses and by school pupils in their lunch hours.
Olav Stav, City of Stavanger, 4005 Stavanger, Norway (tel 00 47 51 50 70 90; fax 00 47 51 50 70 21; e-mail: infoavd@stavanger.kommune.no; web: www.stavanger.kommune.no).
This scheme won the year 2000 Social Innovations Award in the Neighbourhood category. The following is adapted from an item entitled 'Residents furnish the street in Stavanger' which appeared in the Norwegian Ideas Bank (Stiftelsen Idebanken, PO Box 2126 Grünnerlokka, Norway, tel 00 47 2203 4010; fax 00 47 2236 4060; e-mail: idebanken@online.no; web: www.idebanken.no).
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