WATCH ABOVE: There’s a competition that just started in the city looking for ideas for those lost spaces. Carolyn Kury de Castillo explains how you can get involved.
CALGARY- Do you know any places in Calgary that could use some TLC? Forgotten places that could be put to better use?
Well there’s a competition in the city looking for ideas for those lost spaces and anyone can get involved.
There’s small parcels of public land around the city that aren’t being used for much, even small spaces out in the open that tend to go unnoticed, like the bare triangle on Edmonton Trail.
Known as “Lost Spaces” by urban designers, they can sometimes become a community sore spot.
“These are spaces that we ignore but they provide negative energy to a community.they are often neglected, they’re filled with refuse, often times they are places where crime can occur and so it’s important that we look at them under a new light and it often takes very little effort to turn them into something really special,” Councillor Druh Farrell said.
A Calgary group called “Design Talks” started the competition called ‘lost spaces’ asking people to point out under-utilized spots and get them creative.
“This call is for thinking about ideas. We are not asking communities to actually do it. What we are asking is what are the possibilities? What could be done in the spaces if we were to rethink them differently what could we do?” amery Calvelli from Design Talks said.
The Sunnyside ‘Container Village’ was once a lost space before it was turned into a place for everything from gardening to performing arts.
But the ideas don’t have to be as big as that, they could include basketball hoops under a bridge, art, or trees and a bench.
“Because we have thousands of these throughout the city and we can just start changing the perspective on them I think that’s really the intention. We can’t transform all of them, that’s what Calgarians can do. Just realize the potential and transform the spaces within their own neighborhoods.”
The lost spaces competition is open to anyone but people are encouraged to team up with an artist, designer or engineering professional and use imagination to create new opportunities.
A top prize of $7500 will be awarded. Winners will be announced in April and the contest deadline is March 20th.
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