Blank Space: Exploring the Sublime Qualities of Urban Wilderness at the Former Fishing Harbour in Tallinn, Estonia

Abstract

The gradual relocation of industry and other related activities out of the core areas of cities often results in voids in the urban structure-spaces that are 'left over'. These places-in transition between their past and future functions-are landscapes with no formal spatial arrangement or current use. Their state of limbo often allows for a variety of informal and spontaneous uses that may enrich the urban structure, albeit temporarily, with their diversity. However, they are usually shown as blank areas on city planning maps with a status of awaiting some future use: thus the space is considered to be empty. As a case study, the temporary inbetween status of a disused and abandoned fishing harbour in Tallinn, Estonia, is documented, in order to present and discuss ways of analysing both positive and negative aspects of dereliction in a post-Soviet context. This blankness, the paper concludes, is an opportunity and a quality, not always a vice but in some cases a virtue and that the rich content of derelict places is worthy of consideration in city planning.

Informal Urban Green Space: Residents’ Perception, Use, and Management Preferences across Four Major Japanese Shrinking Cities

“…What follows is a dilemma: on one hand, vacancy often has negative cultural associations [52], while on the other hand a freedom of purpose can be a freedom from purpose, opening up space and possibilities that would otherwise not exist. Such notions have been explored in detail in prior work on IGS [53][54][55]. This issue then brings into focus more general opinions on using space in shrinking cities.…”

Urban foraging: Land management policy, perspectives, and potential

“…It includes vegetation surrounding managed structures such as roofs, power lines, and verges [5,6], managed formal spaces such as public parks, gardens and forests [7], unmanaged informal spaces such as vacant lots and edges [5], as well as urban forests [8]. It provides numerous ecosystem services such as macro-and micro-climate regulation and resilience [6,8], biodiversity conservation and connectivity [9,10], and cultural and recreational value [11][12][13].…”

Commemorating economic crisis at a liminal site: Memory, creativity and dissent at Achill Henge, Ireland

“…(Woodyer, 2012: 322). The Henge might be considered as a loose space (Franck and Stevens, 2007), a deterritorialised realm, or a species of 'found space' (Unt et al, 2014) which is underdetermined in meaning and function. Though explorations of the intersection between geographical scholarship and creative practice have been critiqued as lacking a political potency, more recent work has explored 'the potentialities of arts practices with respect to socio-political transformations' (Marston and Leeuw, 2013: xiii).…”