Tactical Urbanism

We can also use tactical urbanism to create a safe and pleasant public space that children enjoy and move around safely. It is an urban planning and design approach that emphasizes quick and temporary interventions to improve public spaces.

Tactical urbanism often uses flexible and quick solutions at low cost, such as art installations, cycle paths, portable furniture and greenery, to improve the quality of life in cities and make public spaces more attractive to residents and visitors.

Tactical urbanism also includes so-called asphalt art, or painting on asphalt. This artistic intervention is created on pavements, pedestrian crossings and intersections to increase pedestrian visibility, highlight pedestrian areas and facilitate orientation for all road users. Painting can create welcoming public spaces and safe road corridors for the most vulnerable road users – pedestrians, including children, people with limited mobility, and seniors.

Thus, these creative interventions not only aesthetically enrich the public space and urban environment but also contribute to increased safety and comfort for all residents and visitors to the city. This approach can be helpful when long-term and permanent urban changes take time and effort to implement.

Tactical urbanism in Bratislava

List of streets

Mudroňova Street

The intersection of Mudroňova Street with Slávičie údolie and Myjavská Streets will undergo a change, where we will add asphalt to expand the area dedicated to pedestrians and enliven the public space with plants, benches, drawing boards and barrels with herbs, based on the request of the children from the nearby primary school. The changes will also include adding a drop-off point for children arriving by car.

Natreto Studio enhanced the intersection in front of Mudroňova Primary School with paintings on the asphalt. photo: Natreto

Vazovova Street

The intersection of Mýtna and Vazovova Streets has undergone a makeover, turning it into a more pleasant and safer place for children and adults. The main modification consisted of changing the geometry of the intersection. In its original state, it was immense, which allowed cars to pass through it at high speed. We aim to respect the maximum speed limit of 30 km/h by narrowing the traffic corridor.

The measures also included the creation of places for children to get out of their cars safely, the addition of cycle lanes and a new crossing on Mýtna Street.

In addition to the physical measures, there will be a new traffic regime. Soon, we will also modify the intersection of Vazovova and Radlinského streets, where a right-turn ban will be added. The modification aims to lighten the traffic at the Blumentál stop, making its use safer.

Tbiliská Street

Thanks to a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, an internationally renowned artist, Oto Hudec, brought the asphalt area to life in front of the elementary school with a painting. He also involved schoolchildren in the design process.

In addition to the artistic intervention, there have also been structural changes. We removed the parking in front of the school and added a mud island with trees and benches in the vacated space. We also raised the pedestrian crossing over Tbiliská Street to the pavement level.

Nevädzová Street

Asphalt art was added in front of the main entrance to the school, where many children move every morning, and also on the pavement that lines Nevädzova Street from the intersection with Sedmokráskova Street. The design of the asphalt art was created as a collaboration between the Playground Project and the Metropolitan Institute of Bratislava. The motif of the painting is based on drawings by children from Nevädzová Primary School.

Budatínska Street

The public space in front of the Budatínska Primary School in Petržalka has come to life thanks to the cooperation with the Faculty of Architecture and Design of STU. The author’s team based the design on the ideas of the children who participated at the school. Part of the design of the space is asphalt art in the theme of the urban jungle, whose petals show the children the distances to places near the school, thus encouraging them to move around the neighbourhood. The author team also designed and created playful furniture – monsters – to sit on, put down bags or various other activities according to the children’s imagination.

We will add a continuous sidewalk at the beginning of the street to slow down cars coming from the main drag of Budatínská Street, creating a quieter and safer street directly in front of the school.

Photo: Matej Kováč