Katariina Kivi

• Creating instructions for building a diy bench, using the principles of tactial urbansim
• Tutor: Maria Pukk MA

Lately, there has been a lot of discussion about Tallinn’s urban space and how to make the city more livable for its residents. This bachelor’s thesis focuses on the search for the meaning of a lively city and tries to find ways to achieve it. In my research, I came to the conclusion that the most important characteristic of a lively city is to focus on pedestrians and their needs. This is a good way a city can become more vibrant, healthy, sustainable, and safe. I started to look into ways in which I, as a product designer and a Tallinn citizen, could contribute to positive changes. I discovered that a suitable method for this would be tactical urbanism, which is based on the idea of making big changes with small steps. As a practical part of my work, I designed a DIY bench instruction, following the principles of tactical urbanism. The bench is designed to be placed on peoples’ home streets to make them more lively and perhaps encourage people to make new friends. If each of us practices a little bit of tactical urbanism, then we could make big changes together.