Urban Acupuncture and Jaime Lerner

 

Urban Acupuncture is an idea - a practice. It is also a new book that just released by renowned architect and previous Mayor of Curitiba, Brazil: Jaime Lerner.

 

Renowned urban designer and architect Jaime Lerner describes urban acupuncture as “a spark that sets off a current that begins to spread.” It begins with fundamental ideas of what makes cities thrive: familiar sounds and smells, gathering places, people, key infrastructure, adequate land use, and mass transportation. It is when those things are missing or need resuscitation that urban acupuncture steps in to make small but fundamental changes that alter city life for the better. These pinpricks of change—urban kindness where people come together to share their lives; good recycling for revival of lost spaces; aquapuncture that treats rivers, canals, and streams as part of a city instead of the problem; or 24-hour shopkeepers that keep the city alive—are the lifeblood of cities and keep its heart beating.

 

See the book synopsis below:

 

During his three terms as mayor of Curitiba, Brazil in the 1970s and ‘80s, architect and urbanist Jaime Lerner transformed his city into a global model of the sustainable and livable community. From the pioneering Bus Rapid Transit system to parks designed to catch runoff and reduce flooding and the creation of pedestrian-only zones, Lerner has been the driving force behind a host of innovative urban projects. In more than forty years of work in cities around the globe, Lerner has found that changes to a community don’t need to be large-scale and expensive to have a transformative impact—in fact, one block, park, or a single person can have an outsized effect on life in the surrounding city.

 

In Urban Acupuncture, Lerner celebrates these “pinpricks” of urbanism—projects, people, and initiatives from around the world that ripple through their communities to uplift city life. With meditative and descriptive prose, Lerner brings readers around the world to streets and neighborhoods where urban acupuncture has been practiced best, from the bustling La Boqueria market in Barcelona to the revitalization of the Cheonggyecheon River in Seoul, South Korea. Through this journey, Lerner invites us to re-examine the true building blocks of vibrant communities—the tree-lined avenues, night vendors, and songs and traditions that connect us to our cities and to one another.

 

Urban Acupuncture is the first of Jaime Lerner’s visionary work to be published in English. It is a love letter to the elements that make a street hum with life or a neighborhood feel like home, penned by one of the world’s most successful advocates for sustainable and livable urbanism.

 

Urban Acupuncture takes readers around the world from Barcelona and San Francisco to Seoul and Paris, showcasing the best examples of urban acupuncture. Lerner proves that small interventions like revitalizing a park, removing a freeway, or simply not standing in the way of citizen creativity can repair past planning mistakes and create vibrant, lively cities that encourage people to gather and engage with each other. 

 

Jaime will also be having a book release tour over the next few months largely around the United States. For details on the dates and information for those events, click here. That same link will give you access to how you can get yourself a copy of his work.

 

Also, Jaime will be having a FREE webinar soon - see the details and sign up.

 

Jaime Lerner

 

Jaime Lerner first became mayor of Curitiba in the early 1970’s (he has been mayor three times). His leadership was crucial to the changes. Curitiba did a number of things, best described here:

 

• Built parks instead of canals to reduce flooding. Also used parks to make the city more liveable.

• Pedestrianised the downtown area.

• Invented and built the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) – a bus system that works like a light rail system but is 10 times cheaper.

• Gave people bus tokens in return for waste.

• Started a massive recycling scheme – all initiated by children.

 

(Text quoted above from the Security and Sustainability Forum)

 

Lerner has a deep respect for cities, the people who inhabit them and the myriad ways design and infrastructure facilitate city life. This has driven him to develop innovative ideas to improve cities with small but meaningful initiatives. In Urban Acupuncture (Publication Date: September 16, 2014), his first book to be published in English, Lerner writes an ode to city life, reflecting on what makes cities wonderful and sharing wisdom from decades of experience navigating the politics of transforming cities. 

 

Lerner is best known for creating one of the first bus rapid transit systems while he was mayor of Curitiba, Brazil. But this was only the first of his “urban acupuncture” strategies of small changes that made a big difference, like turning floodplains around the city into parks and creating an innovative recycling program in which residents could exchange trash for currency in the form of tickets for buses, shows, or sports. These small changes were critical for making Curitiba more livable and were the beginning of his new approach to city design. In his new book, he offers examples of not only why urban acupuncture is important but also how it can be done with speed and precision.