Vacant urban land abounds, often locked behind chainlink fences in neighborhoods sorely in need of green space and other amenities such as fresh produce. A multidisciplinary group (including a programmer, designer, and artists) formed 596 Acres to encourage communities to re-envision the possibilities for the vacant lots in their own backyards. The name refers to the quantity of vacant city-owned land in Brooklyn, which the group catalogued, mapped, and printed on a poster that reads “Find the lot in your life. Contact the owner. Work out a deal. Grow something. We can help.†They hung the posters on hundreds of lots, prompting locals to action. Their interactive online map, combined with educational workshops, “labeling walks,†and more, have made 596 a valuable community resource.
- Projects
- 61st Street Farmers Market
- 78th Street Play Street
- 596 Acres
- 1415
- ACTIVATE!
- Air Quality Egg
- AirCasting
- Amphibious Architecture
- Aquaponics Container System
- Art in Odd Places
- ARTfarm
- Astoria Scum River Bridge
- Bartering and Sharing Networks
- Bat Cloud
- Bench Press
- Better Block
- BK Farmyards
- Brooklyn Night Bazaar
- Bubbleware
- Building Projections
- Bunchy Carter Park for the People
- By the City/For the City
- Campito
- Cart Coop
- chainlinkGREEN
- Chair-bombing
- Chicago Rarities Orchard Project
- City Farm
- The City from the Valley
- City Sensing: Signal Spaces
- Cleveland Bridge Project
- Come Out & Play Festival
- Community Living Room
- Crown Heights Participatory Urbanism
- Cut.Join.Play.
- Day Labor Station
- Depave
- Dérive App
- Detroit, Demolition, Disneyland
- Dream It. Grow It.
- Eco-Playground
- Edible Estates
- Edible Schoolyard
- Edible Wall
- Faubourg St. Roch Project
- Field Guide to Phytoremediation
- Flint Public Art Project
- For Squat / Reuben Kincaid Realty
- Fresh Moves Mobile Market
- Ghost Bikes
- GOOD Ideas for Cities
- Grassroots Mapping
- Greenaid Seedbomb Vending Machine
- Guerrilla Bike Lanes
- Guerrilla Drive-Ins
- Guerrilla Gardening
- Guerrilla Grafters
- Harvest Dome
- Holding Pattern
- Hypothetical Development Organization
- I Wish This Was
- ICE-POPS
- Iluminacción
- Imagination Playground
- Imaging Detroit
- Insert____Here
- Intersection Repair
- Islands of LA
- Kingshighway Skatepark
- KISS Popup Chapel
- LA Green Grounds
- Legal Waiting Zone
- LentSpace
- LightLane
- Linden Living Alley
- Local Code: Real Estates
- Local Previews
- Making Policy Public
- Marcus Prize Pavilion
- Mobile Dumpster Pools
- Moving Design: Civic Intervention
- Museum of the Phantom City
- MyBlockNYC
- Neighborland
- New Public Sites
- NY Street Advertising Takeover
- No Longer Empty
- Notes for Anyone
- Occupy Wall Street
- OpenPlans
- Paintings for Satellites
- Parking Plot
- Parklets
- Parkman Triangle Park
- Parkmobiles
- Participation Park
- People Make Parks
- Periscope Project
- Phone Booth Book Share
- PHS Pops-Up Garden
- Piazza Gratissima
- Pixelator
- Place It!
- Place Pulse
- Placemaking in Bronzeville
- Pop Up City
- Pop Up Lunch
- Pop-Up Art Loop
- Popularise: Build Your City
- popuphood
- Post Furniture
- Power Cart
- Power House
- proxy
- PUPstop Project
- QR_Hobo_Codes
- Queens Boulevard Intervention
- re:NEWS
- Red Swing Project
- San Francisco Garden Registry
- SeeClickFix
- Serendipitor
- Skipping Only Zones
- Soil Kitchen
- Spatial ConTXTs
- Stairway Stories
- Streetfilms
- Syracuse Downtown
- Tactical Urbanism Handbook
- TrafficCOM
- Ten New Historical Markers
- TERRITORY
- TreeKIT
- Trees, Cabs and Crime in San Francisco
- The Uni
- Version Festival 12
- Visionary Chicago
- Walk Raleigh: Guerrilla Wayfinding
- War Gastronomy: Recipes of Relocation
- #whOWNSpace
- Yarnbombing
- Teams
Various
596 Acres
Brooklyn, New York
2011 to present
Community, Information, Sustainability
2,230
ongoing
6 + community help
Problem - vacant city-owned land
Solution - education about vacant land ownership