Hands-on / practical, involving action based on active participation. Urbanism / urbanization: the culture and way of life of urban dwellers.

Hands-on urbanism, bottom-up urbanism, and irregular urbanization are not the exception to the rule – they are the driving forces behind urban development and often behind changes in urban policy. From the onset of industrialization, first in Europe and North America and then in the Southern hemisphere, to today’s neoliberal, developer-driven global city, the history of urban transformation processes unfolds as a sequence of critical situations.

Gardening and informal settling are indicative of these crises. Taking root from the bottom, these self-organized, self-help practices are dynamic and inspiring agencies of change.

This book presents historical and current case studies of urban development from over ten cities, including Chicago, Leipzig, Vienna, Bremen, Amsterdam, New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Porto Alegre, Havana and Quito. It gives an overview of the self-organised, collective, and informal movements in urban areas. Hands-on Urbanism 1850-2012 – The Right to Green is published on the occasion of the spring 2012 exhibition at the Architecture Center in Vienna.