Today, it is exactly 6 years since I established Pedestrian Space.
At the time I was living in a city in central Sweden and decided to start an Instagram account to simply begin documenting aspects of walkability that I was experiencing daily, especially as a mom to two young children and navigating around regularly with a stroller but also as a human ‘waking up’ to an awareness that issues of walkability are so central in my own personal life and value system as well as a professional and academic interest.
Pedestrian Space started as a media project, basically, in the midst of the first months of the pandemic and lockdowns being triggered globally. Living in Sweden, there were many restrictions on the ground but no official lockdown. I was honestly fascinated, watching the news about various changes happening in city spaces and communities worldwide while also experiencing the changes to public space and urban life in the city we lived in.
Looking back at the context in which Pedestrian Space was born, it makes sense that as it has developed, the focus on walkability has broadened to various dimensions of urban and community resilience.
A year after I established Pedestrian Space as an Instagram account, I set up a website, knowing I needed much more space for writing and media, and also for content. People were writing asking how they could participate, and so I started welcoming content as well.
First a social media site, then a website, then an NGO. In 2022, I established Pedestrian Space as a ‘Fundacja’ (NGO) in Poland. The same year I began my PhD program, and in 2023, the year of my dissertation fieldwork (during which I designed and facilitated multiple ‘Urban Mobility Thought Lab’ workshops across Warsaw), Pedestrian Space was instrumental as I used the channels of the NGO as a vehicle for community engagement and outreach for workshops and surveys as well.
My husband snapped this photo of our youngest child and me in 2020, the year of Pedestrian Space’s founding, enjoying a walk and the space of a sidewalk that we walked countless times. This stroller held both my children through a significant part of their early childhood, walking commutes to preschool, and running around town.
At the bottom of the image is the Pedestrian Space logo, which is based on a watercolor that my youngest painted around that time as well. For me, it captures the movement, freedom, and liberty that are at the heart of my personal love of true walkability in city spaces.
I look forward to further activating Pedestrian Space as an NGO focused on media and communications, but also engaging in local action. Later this year, in Szczecin, we will pilot the ‘Sustainable Urbanism & Planetary Health’ curriculum I’ve been developing, while also cultivating international partnerships for it to be adapted in locations around the world. I’m also excited to begin to activate dialogues and partnerships in Szczecin, our next home base, while also continuing with the Historic Preservation study I’ve activated for Radom and nurturing the relationships I’m glad to have formed there.
Pedestrian Space was founded with an international mindset as well, and I look forward to continuing to create media and content that engages individuals worldwide on issues of walkability.
As my family and I prepare to move to Northwest Poland, and I prepare to deepen the activities of Pedestrian Space to connect to and enrich local life, I will be seeking a Polish-speaking collaborator to activate projects with. If you have been following Pedestrian Space and appreciate the approach, are also passionate about issues of walkability and urban development + resilience, and interested to collaborator, please email info@pedestrianspace.org. Dziękuję. Thank you.
-Annika