The Project

In the Canillas neighborhood of the Hortaleza district, the active community of the Luis Cernuda Public School proposed an initiative called “Common Sidewalks” to rethink and enhance the public space around the school building. The goal was to create an environment that responded through art to the academic and play needs of students and to the social atmosphere created by families and visitors to the school. The Public Art Department of the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage supported the idea, which was carried out by the artist collective Boa Mistura, in collaboration with students and community members.

Transforming a Space into a Meeting Place for Children

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The Project

The Game Street project aimed to develop safe, lively, and joyful streets and to improve pedestrian safety, mobility, and visibility using the power of art. The project on Prof Dr Sulhi Donmezer Street in the Maltepe Altaycesme neighborhood connected three schools, prioritized children’s safety, and encouraged vibrant street play through the artistic interventions. With a focus on inclusivity, the project also offered an opportunity for direct community and artist involvement in shaping the larger area’s ongoing renewal.

Best Practice Highlight: Pop-Up Street Experiment

Prior to the project’s implementation, a pop-up event was held at the project site for local residents to help design the artwork for the street. Among the day’s activities were a sketching workshop with children, interviews and surveys conducted with neighborhood residents, sports activities, and a street renewal workshop. These activities proved instrumental in understanding the area’s needs and connecting with residents before the implementation, as well as raising awareness about the upcoming street renewals. Simultaneously, it provided valuable insights for municipal authorities to assess the traffic flow on the street and pilot the proposed redesign.

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The Project

Yser Square was a formerly congested area that was pedestrianized in June 2023 as part of the “Good Move” regional mobility plan and in advance of a total redevelopment slated for spring 2024. During Mobility Week and the annual Car-Free Sunday, the new asphalt mural transformed the space into a place for artistic expression, public gathering, and improved safety.

Presented by the art collective Patrimoine à roulettes, “Ys’Air, Sur leurs traces” was imagined together with Salvation Army’s Foyer du Selah as a way for diverse local communities to express themselves and reappropriate urban space through art. The stated thoughts and dreams from passersby and workshop participants were converted to Morse code and painted onto the ground. Further building on the common themes of cleaner air and reengagement with the natural environment, images of animals were painted onto furniture made with decommissioned street signs as a way to imagine the return of wildlife to a city free from automobile traffic and with more open space for migration.

Reclaiming a high-traffic area in the heart of Brussels

Overall, the mural aims to raise questions about how cities can evolve to become more welcoming, more resilient, and more creative, while the pedestrianized space is designed to reduce traffic crashes and vehicular emissions.

• A 22% reduction in the dangerous air pollutant NO2
• Up to 700 fewer vehicles traveling through the intersection during peak hours following the creation of the public space

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The Project

The City of Zagreb is known for nurturing the culture of street art and also for prioritizing the expansion of pedestrian zones.  Often referred to as the “living room” of the city, such pedestrian areas are lively places for people to shop, dine, and meet friends. 

Vibrant Marticeva Street is located in the heart of Zagreb, and as it became increasingly popular for businesses and pedestrians, it was closed to vehicular traffic and an open call was conducted to identify a local street artist to create an asphalt mural. The selected design incorporated motifs found in the courtyards and staircases of historic buildings, then traced onto the asphalt.  

Similarly, Masaykova Street reflects the true spirit of Zagreb with its street performers and thriving shops and restaurants. There were several previous attempts at closing the street to cars, but this new installation is designed to make the new pedestrian zone permanent. 

For both of these projects in the city center, the goal was to create a greener, more humanized urban realm. During the weeklong installation for each, residents came out to watch the murals being created, demonstrating that the goal of the installations—to create spaces for people to gather—was already achieved. The hope is that these projects will inspire further expansion of pedestrian areas across the city.

• There was a 24% increase in people reporting feeling safe on the street after the installation
• Cycling on the street increased by 57% after the installation
• Pedestrian travel in the area grew by 77% after the installation

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Press

Marticeva:

Martić Got a New Magical Outfit. It is Arranged Like a Living Room. (Journal, June 2, 2023)

Living Room in the Middle of Zagreb: The Floor Mural in “Mala Martićeva” Delighted Passers-By (Gloria, June 2, 2023)

New Clothes for ‘Mala Martićeva’ (Grazia Croatia, June 2, 2023)

See What Zagreb’s Martićeva Looks Like After it is Closed to Traffic (Jutarnji, June 1, 2023)

Masarykova:

Do You Even Know What the Mural in the Center of Zagreb Shows? (Index Magazine, September 22, 2023)

The Painted Intersection of Masaryk and Preradović Attracted the Attention of the People of Zagreb (Index Magazine, September 18, 2023)

Author of Graffiti on the Street in Masarykova: ‘Cats Indicate Various Moods of passers-By, and Lightning was Drawn for Tesla’ (JutarnjiList, September 17, 2023)

New Pedestrian Zone Opened in Masarykova (City of Zagreb, Archive of City News, September 16, 2023)

The Project

Located in the heart of the city of Varna, Sevastopol Square serves as the city’s most popular meeting space but has long been separated from surrounding streets by heavy vehicular traffic. By enhancing four pedestrian crossings and one portion of the interior park with vibrant murals, this project reconnects the main public space in Varna to the rest of the city center. Aptly named, “Reconnect the City,” the project had a robust community engagement component: over 300 people and 20 institutional partners took part in the realization of the project, and over 11,000 people voted for the artistic designs. An informational campaign at the schools located close to the intervention also reached over 500 schoolchildren.

The newly activated pedestrian zone is now a more colorful and vibrant space close to the City Art Gallery, two schools, and an urban park. After studying the benefits of the temporary intervention, the municipality will explore the next step of creating car-free streets around Sevastopol where only public transport will be allowed. “Reconnect the City” is designed to be a community initiative for a safer and more beautiful city where people and public art are central to Varna’s future.

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Press

The Drawings of the Project Reconnect the City are Ready (CityBuild, June 6, 2023)

Drawings with Sea Scenes Decorated the Center of Varna (Bulgarian News Agency, June 4, 2023)

Look at the Finalists’ Proposals from the First Stage of the Asphalt Art Open Call in Varna – Sevastopol (CityBuild, April 10, 2023)

A Competition for an Artistic Idea, Giving a New Look to a Central Area, is Being Held in Varna (Bulgarian News Agency, February 28, 2023)

Varna Will Activate Public Spaces Through a Competition for Asphalt Art (Stroiinfo, February 27, 2023)

The Three Amigos Who Want to Change Varna (Capital Bulgaria, January 6, 2023)

Varna Wins $25,000 Grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to Increase Street Safety (Bulgarian News Agency, October 10, 2022)

The Project

Tirana’s “School Block” project converted 1,900 square meters of former roadbed and 1,770 square meters of courtyard into a cohesive 3,670 square meters of protected walking and rolling space. The project captured all four sides of a city block containing four educational facilities: two primary schools, a kindergarten and a nursery school. The project provides safe places for students to travel to and from school and addresses the lack of open space for recreation, as well as the extreme car dominance in the neighborhood. The primary stakeholders of School Block are 2,000 families that are served by the four schools on the site, and the names of the students were incorporated directly into the graffiti-inspired artwork created by Naim Frasheri and Gustav Mayer, providing literal space for the children on the site and cementing their sense of belonging in their neighborhood.

• The percentage of people who felt safe around the school more than quadrupled, from 17% to 90%
• Nearly 99% of survey respondents said they were satisfied with the project
• Following this project, the City of Tirana announced plans for similar safety projects at 20 more schools

Best Practice Highlight: Piloting Citywide School Streets

Following the success of this “School Block” project, the City committed nearly €1 million to install similar improvements at 20 additional schools, converting the adjacent streets into permanent “school streets,” which would either banish or significantly limit car traffic and redesign them around children’s needs instead. The effort would double the number of kid-friendly corridors in the city and get it 40% of the way toward its goal of protecting every neighborhood school by 2026.

How Tirana Used Asphalt Art to Make This Busy School Intersection Safer

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Press

An Albanian City Creatively Reclaims Streets for Kids (Bloomberg Philanthropies, June 25, 2024)

This Albanian City Should Inspire America to Go Big on ‘School Streets’ (StreetsBlogUSA, January 4, 2024)

Public Space Near Primary Schools Gustav Mayer and Naim Frasheri is Revitalized.  (Shqiptarja.com, September 25, 2023)

Recreational Space in Gustav Mayer and Naim Frasheri Schools. (ABC News Albania, September 25, 2023)

New School Streets in Tirana. (Vizion Plus TV media, September 25, 2023)

The Project

The “Time to Slow Down” project in Old Town Košice in Slovakia transformed an important but dangerous intersection and neglected plaza into a safer, more vibrant downtown destination. The project included the reimagining of the four-lane road where traffic collisions and dangerous encounters between vehicles and pedestrians were common, encouraging safer driving speeds, making it easier to walk and cycle through the neighborhood, and creating a more attractive public space complete with a new ceramic mosaic created by the local community.

• The percentage of drivers exceeding the speed limit dropped from 62% to 24%, and the highest measured speed dropped from 79 kph to 59 kph
• The percentage of people feeling unsafe dropped among all travelers, with the steepest drops among pedestrians, cyclists and parents with kids, which each fell by 50% or more
• The shortened crossing distance allowed pedestrians to cross the street 31% more quickly.

Reshaping a critical and dangerous intersection and neglected plaza in Košice

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Best Practice Highlight: Slowing Traffic Speeds to Save Lives

This project used traditional engineering techniques to slow traffic speeds and make it easier for pedestrians to cross, creating new spaces for artwork in the process. The enhanced design shortened several crossing distances, widened crosswalks, removed one vehicular travel lane, protected sidewalks with new mobile curbs, and expanded an important center refuge island, making pedestrians more visible.

Press

Colors Flooded the Dangerous Intersection near Jumbo Center. Crossing the Road Will Be Safer (Korzár SME, August 30, 2023)

The Dangerous Intersection in Košice Will Change: Cars Will Slow Down, Pedestrians and Cyclists Will Get More Space (Dennik N, August 25, 2023)

In Košice, it is One of the Most Dangerous Places for Pedestrians. It Will Be Changed (Korzár SME, February 10, 2023)

The Area Around the Roundabout on Gorkého Street Will Change its Face (telKE, October 13, 2022)

A Grant from an American Billionaire Will Support a Transport Experiment in Košice (Korzár, SME, October 11, 2022)

The Project

Bratislava’s goal with their Asphalt Art project was to motivate students to walk to their school, instead of being driven. To accomplish this, they worked with students from Tbiliská Elementary School and Oto Hudec – an artist known for using art as a force for social change – to create a visual intervention that made the public space surrounding their school safer, more appealing and more fun. For the visual inspiration, the team chose sailing and ships as a symbol of traveling to the safe harbor of the school yard. The project uses artwork to enhance the pedestrian space outside of the school entrance as well as nearby crosswalks, in addition to replacing informal parking spaces with new street furniture and vegetation. Students also had the opportunity to contribute directly to the design through a collaborative workshop with the City and artist.

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Best Practice Highlight: School Mobility Plan

In addition to the project, the City also worked directly with school leadership, parents and students to develop a mobility plan for the school and will be able to track the impact of the project over time. The goal is to encourage students and families to walk, bike or take other safe, sustainable transportation options to school whenever possible.

The Project

In the historic municipality of Kessariani in greater Athens, the intersection at Ethnikis Antistaseos connects this busy city center to the Ymittos mountain. The street is the core of the neighborhood, connecting multiple schools, a cafe, an outdoor cinema, two green spaces, and a municipal center for the elderly. Yet drivers often maintain highway speeds, leading to high rates of automobile crashes and danger for pedestrians, especially young children and elderly people.

By creating what is known as the “Inclusion Crossroad” at the main intersection in the neighborhood, the interventions prompt drivers to slow down when entering the city, while also creating a safe connecting route between the parks and community landmarks. The concept for the artwork was co-created with the members of the senior center and features stencils of student drawings from the nearby schools. Students and other residents participated in the installation of the finished mural design and the artwork features stencils of students’ drawings that they designed specifically for the intervention. The art also extends to Filadelfias Street, which is a low-speed road and partly pedestrian area, providing a sense of safety and comfort for all groups in the area and supporting their independence and inclusion in community life.

Watch this City in Greece Paint one of Their Busiest Streets… and Learn Why

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Press

“The Best Asphalt Art Projects Bring Community Engagement into Every Step of the Process” (Zag Daily, August 29, 2023)

Public Space Returns to Citizens Through… Art (Kathimerini, June 15, 2023)

Athens: Colorful American-Sponsored Intersections are Coming (Gocar, October 14, 2022)