Guerrilla Wars in Everyday Public Spaces: Reflections and Inspirations for Designers

Kin Wai Michael Siu

In the recent years, many governments tend to take a rational and development-oriented approach to plan, design and manage city spaces. In contrast to this approach, some sociologists have started to give their criticism, and begun to advocate the importance of the consideration of the everyday lives of ordinary people. These sociologists offer us a new perspective to review how "city users" are tactically living in the cities. Their perspective may not be accepted by all, and may have quite a lot of practical limitations. Nevertheless, their ideas at least give today's designers as well as policymakers and other professionals some reflections and inspirations for further explorations and discussions. Through the theoretical review of how theorists and sociologists see city space and its order from different perspectives, and the empirical longitudinal studies on market streets, this article attempts to ascertain whether the habitants of a city ─ city users ─ are "tactical practitioners". This article then explores the role of city users and their interactions with the spaces in which they are living, and tries to give advice to designers who aim to have more user-fit designs.