Urban Neighbourhood

NVS: My Playground

A teaser for an upcoming documentary, MY PLAYGROUND by Kaspar Astrup Schröder. It is a film about movement, tricking, freerunning and parkour in the urban space. Keep a look out for more clips released during the winter and a premiere of the film in summer 2009. The film will feature parkour, freerunning and tricking by freerunners: TEAM JIYO teamjiyo.com

It will also feature interviews with urban planners, local politicians, architects and philosophs.

Shot, edited and directed by
Kaspar Astrup Schröder
kasparworks.com

Gridlock in New New York

The next week or so is going to be pretty busy here at  Urban Neighborhood, what with all the deadlines and projects that need to be completed in the next week or so.  So for the next couple days we’re just going to bring you a collection of interesting things we’ve found from other neturbanists.

To start off we have a post from Super Colossal an architecture office in Sydney.  On their blog they have a post about a Doctor Who episode titled Gridlock.  The episode takes the Doctor and Martha to New New York where they come face to face with the future of commuting and congestion.  Traffic has become so bad that it can take 12 years to reach an off-ramp, or six years in the carpool lane where traffic flows at a brisk 5 miles.

Read Super Colossal » The Perpetual Traffic Machine of New New York

Atlas of True Names: The world without the curse of Bable

England...in English

Playing around on Stumble upon found me this fantastic link from Der Speigel, the world translated into English. This map gives the image of a peaceful world where people understand each other. Where someone could travel from the land of the long beards to the town of happiness.

The map makers researched global place names to find their origins, and then translated them to English.

Marmormolen: The Marble Warf

The handshake across the harbour

The City of Copenhagen has been working on a master plan to redevelop its port area and create and attractive neighbourhood between Amerika Plads and Nordhavnen. The project is called Marmormolen, or the Marble Wharf. It is a comprehensive plan to give the quarter of Østerbro access to the harbour and to the waterfront.

The project is made up of three islands, this will add approximately 1.3 kilometres to the length of the whole wharf system. A major tenant of the plan is to create a bridge will connect Østerbro and the new neighbourhood. What is most interesting about this particular bridge is the scale. The plan calls for a monumental structure that is both a bridge and also a town gate, creating an easily identifiable entry point to the city on a monumental scale that measures up to the size of the ships and cruise boats that will pass through it.

Two compact towers with the pedestrian link

The proposal at night

The master plan for the area was put together by 3XN and lays out the general guidelines and design goals in a manor specific enough to properly direct growth, but at the same time also leaves creative licence for the developers of the individual parcels to create a diverse and lively architectural environment.

The winner of the competition for the bridge structure was the office of Steven Holl Architects.

The jury was convinced by the compact towers adapted to the harbour environment and the bridge being “like a handshake across the harbour”.

The winning project is characterized by two spectacular and robust towers – one at Marmormolen and one at Langelinie. The towers are connected by a delicate pedestrian bridge that, according to the jury, resembles “a handshake” between the points of the two wharves. The jury finds the expression of the suggested plan “exclusive” and notices that it is also open for facilities appealing to the public, e.g. terraces, restaurants and, of course, walks on the spectacular pedestrian bridge connecting the two areas.S

As a planner and an urbanite, or maybe just as an urban romantic I feel that to an extent right now there has been a lack of truly monumental structures being built, there are a number of starchitect buildings being done and a number of large projects, but in terms of things like town gates, visual focal points, and monuments are in short supply. Of course an economic recession may not be the time to build these projects, but none the less Copenhagen is building one of these monumental structures so we have an opportunity to create one. While the proposal that the jury selected is a dynamic proposal and there are very few examples of buildings of this scope, to a certain extent it doesn’t quite go far enough. The project still appears to the eye as two separate buildings with a bridge connecting them.

The 3XN Proposal

3XN was nice enough to send us their proposal for the Marmormolen City Gate, when considered from afar, the 3XN harbour gate proposal satisfies the urge for a true monument or gate more completely.. in my opinion at least.  A bridge structure between two buildings isn’t all that revolutionary, while the span is longer then examples like the Petronas Towers or other commercial buildings with sky-walks or bridge links, it isn’t that surprising or unique. The 3XN proposal for the Marmormolen project in Copenhagen appears as a single structure that flows from one side of the harbour to the other rather then as two separate buildings with a bridge between them, something that we haven’t really seen before.

A bridge spanning a body of deep water, providing the only dry connection between two stretches of land, is one of the most powerful architectural experiences in the landscape. Another classical element is the town gate, which marks the boundary between the countryside and the town, and ‘contains’ the town, physically, structurally and aesthetically.

3XN’s proposal for a construction on Marmormolen in Copenhagen is both: a town gate and a bridge that links Marmormolen with Langeliniekaj, creating a new coherent area in Copenhagen Harbor.

The towers and the bridge constitute one single, floating dynamic movement, characterized by the bold span across the harbor entrance in terms of both the plan design and the facade. Establishing a connection across the harbor radically improves public access and creates brand new opportunities for life and growth in the area.

Write up furnished by 3XN.

The #XN proposal as seen from the ocean

The 3XN plan view

Of course often it comes down to a matter of opinion, so what’s yours?

Seen In The City: Turning Cars

NVS: Ensuring the Future of Food

A Japanese video that takes on the issue of the global food supply and a vision of what Japan needs to do to insure the safety of its own food supply.

The Bethesda Metro Center

A common refrain of the New Urbanist Movement that Transit Oriented Development or TOD grew out of is; “thou shalt mix uses”(Porter 2004) However when planners think of transit oriented development we usually think of predominantly residential uses. Most new urbanist transit oriented developments concentrate on the residential, usually leaving only street level and small scale boutique type commercial services when it comes to the commercial uses.

(more…)

Model Activism: Townhouse Neighbourhood 1:35

Model Neighbourhood

It isn’t every day that you come across a new kind of activism, but I would like to suggest model activism as a new term. Wouter Osterhold and Elke Uitentuis, the artists in residence at Cairo’s Townhouse Gallery, used architectural modeling to spur their neighbours into action and spur discourse on the plans for this city neighbourhood.

The Artists have recreated the urban area they live in in Downtown Cairo into a miniature model (1:35 scale as the title suggests) in an effort to stimulate the individual ideas of its inhabitants. The goal is to enable residents and workers in the neighbourhood to understand the urban fabric in its complexity and reflect on their surroundings. The city of Cairo has targeted this area for redevelopment and gentrification and wishes to ‘clean up’ the central city;

The government has the wish to ‘clean up’ the Downtown area. They want to remove the improvised extensions and commercial signs, they want to clean the roofs, renovate the monumental colonial architecture and relocate and accommodate the small businesses on the outskirts of Cairo. In addition to this a group of architects and urban planners developed a plan to transform the abandoned ‘Said Halim Pasha palace’ into a museum of Cairo. The ‘Townhouse neighbourhood 1:35′ project focuses on the development of an alternative vision on the future urban renewal developments.S

As is roof details

The Artists are hoping that by bringing the scale of the neighbourhood down to a level that is easily understood by its inhabitants it will empower them to become involved and try to influence the government’s current top down approach to development in the area.

We try to create a participatory exhibition in which the inhabitants will be challenged to think about their own ideas with regard to the future developments of their direct surrounding.S

The First Gallery Show was from January to March of the past year. The models are not just of the buildings but of everything from the broken windows to abandoned furniture, posters, laundry lines, and even the garbage. The level of detail gives residents a whole new perspective on their properties and this has caused some residents to see their homes and buisnesses in a new light. “When he noticed the trash on his roof in the model, one man decided he finally had to do something to clean it up,” S

The artists plan to take the results of the first gallery show, workshops and other feedback gathered from residents and compile them into a publication that they plan to present back to the residents and more importantly to the architects, urban planners, and politicians who are deciding what to do with the neighbourhood.

The second Gallery Show is from January 1st 2009 to March 8th 2009 at the Townhouse Gallery in Cairo Egypt.

Balconies on the left side of the townhouse model

The local coffee shop

The Townhouse Model

Model of the factory building

The Townhouse Gallery is located in the rear of the factory building

Model of the neighbouring Prince Said Halim Pasha Palace

If you are a planning nerd, or would just like to see even more pictures and write ups on the residents of this Cairo Neighbourhood check out the blog, it has a wealth of information, and it is all just so darn interesting…

Wouter Osterholt en Elke Uitentuis, residency at the Townhouse Gallery, Cairo

Big Brother is Watching, but don’t worry it is for your own good.

Big Brother Is Watching, but its for your own good!

The Future of defence in New York City is taking shape, and it looks a lot like 1984, or the UK for that matter.  Part of the plan is for over 3000 security camera’s to keep a watchful eye on things.  While social libertarians most likely are not impressed with the increasing presence of security features in our day to day lives, New York is also not interested in being hit, again. The 1.7 square miles below Canal Street boasts the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve Bank, City Hall, and four major bridges and tunnels. An attack at any of these locations would most likely kill hundreds, and shake up the world financial markets even more. Not to mention cost the city a lot of money.

Plans are in place for an upgrade of the subway surveillance systems, electronic licence plate readers, that are both stationary at a number of access points to the island and mounted on police cruisers. It will also be possible for the city to block off a number of streets, with massive vehicle barriers embedded in the streets that can be raised within moments by a command from the city’s counter terrorism bureau.

Of course on a counter point a number of vehicle barriers have also been removed as they have been deemed pretty much useless, or at worst counter terrorism experts have concluded that a poorly anchored planter, struck hard enough by explosive force or a speeding vehicle could become, to use police jargon, “weaponized”: it could shatter into deadly shards or go flying. s

The whole thing is both frightening and reassuring at the same time.  What interests me most, is what do people who live in New York think about all the security.  When I do a google search for security opinions most of it is all official, or companies who sell security services, I have had a surprisingly hard time coming up with a personal opinion from a New Yorker, so I if anyone reading Urban Neighbourhood is a New Yorker with an opinion on this, please comment, or if you now of a blog or two with a New Yorker’s opinion on the security initiative please point me the right way.

via NYC Panopticon Plans Take Shape | Danger Room from Wired.com

NVS: Palestra

Alsop’s ambitious office building in Southwark.

In this film, animation techniques site the future building ‘Palestra’ within its surrounding area of Southwark, London. The film was commissioned by Blackfriars Investments and is shown in their on-site marketing suite.

Bats Dying in the Wind (Turbines)

It happens time and time again, we come up with a fantastic new technology that will be the solution to many if not all of our problems only to find out that it brings a problem that we were not aware of before. Such is the case with wind turbines. Turns out they are only environmentally awesome and good for the planet if you hate Bats.

Scientists have discovered that wind farms and wind power generating wind turbines are killing bats. It isn’t the obvious thought of, bats being too stupid and flying into spinning blades… see bats detect the propellers just like they detect anything else using ‘echolocation,’ the bats are not actually flying into the propellers, simply flying too close to them. It turns out that wind-turbine blades create an atmospheric-pressure drop around themselves. This pressure drop is causing the bats to die of internal hemorrhaging due to barotrauma when they  fly into the low pressure zones around the turbines. The bats are unable to see these low pressure pockets, much like we are unable to see a temperature change in the water at the lake.

Image from Gizmodo.com

Turns out that the respiratory systems of bats are more like other mammals, being balloon like with two directional airflow and a pair of thing flexible sacs surrounded by capillaries. When the pressure drops suddenly the sacs (lungs) over expand and often times burst. Bird lungs are much more rigid and therefore able to handle pressure changes much more easily.

The implications are a little frightening when you think about it… as wind power expands in popularity so too could the miquito population, more and more of them don’t get eaten by bats. There are a whole bunch of reasons we don’t want that not least of all the irritation factor and the spread of blood borne pathogens.

Scientists say that there is no obvious way to reduce the pressure drop at wind turbines without reducing their use and effectiveness.

Sustainability -1, Bats -1.

via Why Wind Turbines Can Mean Death For Bats

Also Why Are Wind Turbines Killing Alberta’s Bats

Seen In The City: Public Fountain

A Transport Development Analysis of the Toronto Transit Commission

The Toronto Transit Commission currently operates the largest public transit system in Canada.  For the time being it is the most comprehensive rapid transit system in the country. The Toronto system saw the majority of its growth in the late seventies through the early nineties(Transit Toronto 2008). The Subway is run by the Toronto Transit Commission and is one of Canada’s oldest rapid transit systems. The first train left the platform in 1954 when the Young Line opened along a former streetcar route that ran south down Younge Street from Eglinton Avenue to Front Street before making a turn into a station that was then called Bay Street but later renamed Union due to its proximity to the city’s main railway terminus Union Station. (more…)

Satellite Imagery School, Can you Spot the Missiles in your neighbourhood?

Think you are an expert at looking at google earth. Can you spot your house? The center of town? How about a missile silo? I came across this site while looking at urban issues as they related to military actions and war zones. The site has an exercise in reading satellite imagery, being that its a military centered site the exercise is to identify assorted military assets. Its an interesting exercise, though I have to admit I only kept to the instructed height of 14km for a very short period of time.

Spot the Military Assets

Type “Peenemunde, Germany” into the search box of Google Earth. Adjust your “Eye Altitude” to about 14 kilometers. Keep this ‘full’ picture in mind as I will refer to it in one of my questions.

Peenemuende is the tip of the island to the right of center. Center your picture on the SE tip of the main runway in view. Adjust Eye Alt to 7 kilometers.

Within the picture you now have in front of you, you should be able to locate:

• One A-4 (V-2) rocket
• One Fi-103 (V-1) cruise missile
• The original launch track for the Fi-103 as used in WW2
• Pruefstand VII (Test Stand VII), the launch point for A-4 rockets
• Two East German naval vessels
• A variety of East German aircraft

Find the rest of the assignment and exercise at; ArmsControlWonk: Wonk School: Overhead Images

Put the WeedWhacker and Herbicides Away, Get a Goat

Eco Freindly Lawn Mower

A Study by University of Northern British Columbia professor Annie Booth, tracked the effectiveness and eating habits of a herd of goats over the span of two years in Prince George British Columbia.

Turns out that goats are incredibly effective in clearing weeds;

“As soon as we unloaded them, they turned around and started eating dandelions,” Booth said. “They do their job — which is clear up and clean out the weeds here.”

“We were very pleased to discover that goats do provide a very effective form of weed control, particularly for some tricky weeds that are difficult to eradicate even with the use of herbicides.”

While any farmer could have told you that this was the case, Booth’s study is the first that actually quantifies the lawn management skills of a heard of goats. Another important effect is the lessened environmental impact of the goats on the (munched) environment, unlike weed whackers and herbicides the surrounding area had very little in the way environmental impact. The only detrimental effect would be the fertiliser deposits that goats leave behind.  More a danger to shoes though, then the actual environment.

Booth suggests that municipalities could save themselves some money, and manage their green spaces by leasing herds of goats during the summer months.

Of course Booth isn’t the only one to have this idea, the University of Washington State has also had a heard of Goats running around its campus, In August of 2007 the University’s Integrated Pest Management program hired a herd of goats as an alternative to chemical processes. s

The University of Washington’s Bothell campus hired a number of goats a few weeks earlier, and is considering acquiring a permanent herd. The University has discovered that, not only are goats cheaper than human labor, but they also provide free fertilizer. The university says that  the goats are a way to cut their carbon emissions. s