1) The Heidelberg Project transformed a blighted Detroit neighborhood through public art installations, inspiring residents and improving social and economic conditions. 2) NYC addressed public health and recreation issues in the 1930s by building public pools, providing relief from heat and disease while creating jobs during the Depression. 3) Raahgiri in India transforms streets on Sundays by closing them to vehicles, encouraging physical activity, reducing pollution and congestion, and fostering community.

1. What is an activity?

2. activity noun (MOVEMENT)
the situation in which a lot of things are happening or people are moving around

3. activity noun (WORK)
the work of a group or organization to achieve an aim

4. activity noun (ENJOYMENT)
something that is done for pleasure and that usually involves a group of people

5. What is Transformation?
a complete or major change in someone's
or something's appearance, form, etc.

11. Transformation of a
Place Through Activity

12. Detroit: The Motor City
“Now the lord is that spirit
and where the spirit of the
lord is, there is liberty.”

22. BEFORE AFTER

23. BEFORE AFTER

24. BEFORE AFTER

26. The Heidelberg Project is a Detroit-based
community organization designed to
improve the lives of people and
neighborhoods through art.
Inspire people to appreciate and use artistic expression to enrich their lives and to
improve the social and economic health of their greater community.

28. Transformation Of Streets

34. NYC’s Greatest Pools

35. In New York’s hot summer months,
before the days of air conditioning, many
children escaped the heat by swimming
in the river—jumping off the piers or
using enclosed swimming areas known as
“floating baths.”
Swimming in the river was legal but it
was also dangerous.
Drowning occurred regularly, and kids
contracted diseases like polio and
typhoid that were transmitted by the raw
sewage that was dumped directly into
the rivers.
No Safe Place to Swim

36. By the 1930s, many forms of child labor
had been abolished, and the
unemployment of the Depression years
eliminated those jobs that children of poor
and working class families still held.
So children spent more time in school and
at play than they had in earlier times.
But in New York’s congested, tenement
neighborhoods, there was no safe place to
play.
The few parks and playgrounds that existed
were outdated and badly deteriorated. As a
result, many children played in the streets,
and in and around the rivers.
Social reformers blamed high disease,
illiteracy, and delinquency rates on the
shortage of public recreation spaces, and
worked to change the situation.
No Safe Place to Play

37. In 1934, Robert Moses, appointed Parks
Commissioner by Mayor Fiorello La
Guardia, proposed building large
swimming pools throughout each of the
city’s five boroughs.
In one fell swoop, the pools could
address economic, social, and hygiene
problems, and provide delightful
entertainment to kids and families on hot
summer days.
A Solution

38. New York City received federal funding to
construct eleven pools, each of which
cost nearly a million dollars.
The project also received funding from
the Work Progress Administration.
The pool projects created thousands of
jobs for unemployed New Yorkers who
worked in construction, provided
entertainment for the inauguration
ceremonies, and staffed the complexes
throughout the year.
Paying for Pools

39. The sites for the pools were carefully
chosen.
Pools were also located in neighborhoods
which would benefit the most from new
public recreation space.
In dense areas filled with crowded
tenements, the pools could bring
children off the streets.
Planning the Pools

40. The pools were sites for courtship,
spectacle, and display, but they were also
designed for exercise and education. The
pools offered swimming lessons as well
as races, diving competitions, and water
ballets.
With the pools and bathhouses designed
to serve off-season as basketball
gymnasiums and volleyball or handball
courts, the complexes served New
Yorkers all year round.
Making the Most of the Pools

41. The WPA pools have had their share of hard times, along with the city, but the
pools have endured. Eleven pools—all recently renovated—continue to serve
more than 950,000 visitors in the hot summer months.
The pools, all built in underserved or economically challenged areas, brought
relief from the punishing heat to many who had limited options for cooling off
or recreation.

42. Transformation Of
Streets

43. ROAD SAFETYAIR POLLUTION
PHYSICAL INACTIVITY
Why Raahgiri?
TRAFFIC CONGESTION

51. IMPACTS OF RAAGIRI

52. YUSRA VIKRAM
M. Arch, Sem II, Urban Regeneration, JMI