Rootball Parks: An Urban Activation Prototype

ROOTBALL PARKS: ROOTBALL PARKS are pop-up parks using future street trees Their goal is to create permanent street improvements by fostering creative programming and unexpected uses of underutilized space.

Through highly visible events and programs, this low-budget, high-impact project uses short-term events to affect positive permanent change.

The project seeks to galvanize social and community activities and promote volunteerism and entrepreneurship.

AN URBAN ACTIVATION CONCEPT

Storage as Activator: A new park, greenway, or street tree campaign begins with a landscape design and, typically, a large order for new trees.

These trees, once purchased, are typically stored at nurseries or other off-site holding centers until they are ready for planting.

This project transforms this tree storage into a new kind of civic infrastructure designed to activate, connect, and generate new opportunities for underutilized urban sites.

Street tree species are hearty and drought-resistant making them ideally suited to the often demanding requirements of Rootball Parks.

Urban Nature as a point of connection:

IMPLEMENTATION: SOCIAL CONNECTORS

From the sidewalk pop-ups of flower shops and seasonal Christmas tree stands, cities have a long history of displaced, transplanted, and surreal urban nature.

Envisioned as a nation-wide initiative, the project offers a special point of contact between a city, its people, and the public landscape of the built environment.

Trees often live longer than buildings and form an indelible part of the urban streetscape.

Rootball Parks can highlight both the transient and permanent nature of these “naturalized citizens”.

ARCHITECTS

ARCHITECTS

ARCHITECTS

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ARCHITECTS

Installation as Performance: Even the act of installation, itself a kind of performance, can bring attention to new urban initiatives, remediation projects, or other municipal greenspace improvements.

We believe the project will give people an opportunity to appreciate trees as a living part of their city and learn about how urban nature can support a healthy urban lifestyle.

The pop-up nature of Rootball Parks allow for the activation of paved spaces, parking areas, and other urban environments using shading and seating.

With Rootball Parks, otherwise drab streets and plazas become immediately tree-lined and green.

ARCHITECTS

ARCHITECTS

Event-Based Programming: Rootball Park’s event-based programming offers many opportunities for people of all ages to connect with the trees in meaningful ways.

Beginning with the assembly of the project itself, a local community can become involved with the creation of rootball parks. Assembled from readily-available materials with a simple handson approach, a rootball park can be built in a few days with 4 volunteers.

A Rootball Park can sponsor an Adopt-a-Tree program or function as a Street Arboretum where people can learn to identify trees around the city.

Designed and built primarily from biodegradable and recycled materials, the lifecycle of Rootball Parks creates minimal impact on the environment. Most materials able to be reused or recycled after use.

ARCHITECTS

One Project, Two Approaches The project can work in two ways. In one, a municipality can use the Rootball Park concept as a way to signal the coming of a new civic project, such as a new street tree campaign, a new park, or other greenspace initiative. The project’s highly visible installation can create buzz and raise awareness about the value of urban nature.

Another approach is to use the project as “guerilla-style” urban intervention. With its low-budget/ high impact design, groups of motivated individuals, arts organizations, or grassroots volunteers can create Rootball Parks.

By galvanizing community efforts and building pop-up parks with real trees, these groups can facilitate larger and more permanent initiatives. Once the trees and community initiatives are in place, the trees are significantly more likely to be used on parks, streets, and for other urban improvements.

ROOTBALL PILOT PROJECT: COSHOCTON, OH

Short-Term Activation Toward Infrastructural Change:

Possible Partners or Sponsors:

In the short-term, this project is a site-specific public intervention that explores the potential for temporary event-based design.

It creates simple and immediate acts of public architecture designed through orchestration - that open opportunities for public discovery and dialogue.

Over the long-term, the project can motivate cities and towns by improving volunteerism, community-based entrepreneurship, and the improvement of public places.

This project demonstrates the power of design to create opportunities for social interaction in public spaces and foster community-driven eventbased projects. It highlights overlooked and neglected spaces through a low-budget, high-impact approach to design.

AFTERPARTY: STREET TREE CAMPAIGNS