Urban Neighbourhood

Babel Tales: Peter Funch’s look at life at street level.

Peter Funch is a Danish Photojournalist who resides in New York city. One of his recent works is the series ‘BABEL TALES’ which is a sometimes gritty, at other times whimsical look at urban inhabitants. Using composite photography he catches; a bride on her way down the street, a frenzy of tourists at times square, or a pimp daddy on his way home his photos offer an intriguing look at what happens on street level. Here at Urban Neighbourhood we bring you a selection of his works, but highly recommend you go to his own gallery to see the complete collection.

Babel Tales as a series of works that focus on human relations (or the lack thereof) in big cities. Peter Funch’s project is a junction between documentary photography and manipulated photography. Through repetition and juxtaposition he zooms in on human similarities and collective behavior and ends up creating a strange poetic and detailed picture of our presence both as individuals and community in the public sphere.

Jesper Elg, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen

Where Construction Stalls The Iceberg Rises.

Woods Bagot architects have come up with an innovative and better yet, inexpensive way to a number of the approximately 100 stalled construction sites scattered around Manhattan.  As the recent economic downturn demonstrated when times get tough,  cranes and construction tend to slow down, or stop entirely. When this happens the construction sight turns into a boarded up hole in the neighbourhood. Architect Jeffery Holmes calls them “Urban-life killers,” but what is a city to do with these sites? Enter Icebergs by Woods Bagot.

In Woods Bagot’s own words:

Across New York City, the dilapidated blue boards covering stalled construction sites are a constant reminder of troubled times and a blight on the urban landscape. Enter Icebergs NYC.

With this innovative concept, Woods Bagot has stepped up to address a community issue – simultaneously solving a problem and creating an opportunity. Representing fresh thinking about the intersection of use, function and design, Icebergs NYC embraces the financial and temporal realities of our current times. Big in volume and light on resources, like their namesakes, these 100% recyclable structures have been designed to turn stalled construction sites into  unique, multi-purpose spaces.

Icebergs NYC provides an iconic venue for a variety of functions, while creating a revenue stream on an otherwise dormant site. Designed for quick assembly and disassembly, the modular structures are constructed of a steel frame topped by inflated pillows of ETFE to create a dynamic, memorable form. Transportable in a single shipping container, Icebergs can quickly be set adrift to sites in cities around the world.

In collaboration with Arup, Design on Earth, Pentagram, and AECOM Economics.

The structure is a modular  steel frame wrapped with a polycarbonate base and architects favourite new material ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene, or ETFE.

Masdar Springs From The Desert

“The environmental ambitions of the Masdar Initiative – zero carbon and waste free – are a world first. They have provided us with a challenging design brief that promises to question conventional urban wisdom at a fundamental level. Masdar promises to set new benchmarks for the sustainable city of the future.” Norman Foster of  Foster + Partners

I remember seeing a post about Masdar in the past, back during the height of the Dubai construction orgies when it seemed like every week there was a new project coming out that was fantastic this, super-sized that!  Given that I had a bit of an anti Dubai stance, (take a look back at the Dubai tag and you will see how little attention I paid to it) I have to admit that I wrote Masdar off as just another mega project of a dubious nature. Well it seems that I am now playing catch up on this project as it is in fact being built and it is a significant chapter in the development of new sustainable cities.  My attention was re-piqued after a colleague of mine sent me a link to a New York Times article in the Critic’s Notebook about the opening of the first phase of Masdar. They also have an awesome photo slide show given that they were able to fly a photographer over there.

The New York Times takes issue with the fact that the city is at this point essentially a gated community and identity is not helped by its construction techniques.  Visitors to the city drive through the desert until they reach the blank wall of the city.  While the city wall has a function and basis in sustainable design; enabling the raised city to capture desert breezes and regulate transportation functions to its lower level.  It reinforces the perception that this is a city for elites, and not a city for every one.  Of course given that the city just opened and its first residents are only now moving in the government (who happens to be the landlord) still has time to make sure that the city houses a cross section of society.

Upon arrival to the city a visitor must leave their car at a parking garage just inside the city’s edge. All transportation functions within the city are covered by a fleet of driver less cars that navigate through a series of tunnels at ground level, below the main pedestrian level of the city 23 feet above.  Once the transportation system comes online a fleet of hundreds of personal transportation pods that have been likened to the transportation pods in 2001: A Space Oddessy will transport people and goods around the city by following the destination commands inputted by users through a simple LCD screen interface.  It’s a method of separating circulation functions that Le Corbuiser first envisioned and would have loved to employ in many of his residential projects.

The design aesthetic for the city is a combination of modernism and traditional aribic architecture.  Laboratories and office spaces are predominantly hosted in large concrete buildings that have been clad in panels of ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene. Residential buildings tend towards the traditional and appear similar to the Terra Cotta construction techniques found across the Middle East.

By way of design the city aims to tackle one of the biggest issues in the modern day Middle East; obesity. Elevators from the lower levels are tucked out of sight behind stairwells, and on the main level the only way to get around is by foot.  It’s a design response to the growing problem of obesity in the Middle East as anyone can afford to travel by car to escape the heat does so.  The city also uses traditional wind towers to funnel winds down to street level, and orients the streets at an angle to the suns trajectory in order to maximize shade. On top of all of these features the city is also aiming to be one of the first truly solar cities.

Some of the public spaces will also feature reactive architecture: international architectural firm LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture) won an international design competition for its proposal to utilize a series of giant umbrellas base on the sunflower principle that open during the day to provide shade, store heat, and then close during the night opening the public squares to the sky and releasing their stored heat.

It is impossible to see the city as anything other than visionary in the way it approaches new city building.  While the Times is correct to raise questions about its utopian purity and its creation in isolation from the real city that lives next door, the Times also ignores the fact that brand new from scratch cities is a reality for the next century.  Experts agree that in order to handle the world’s growing population at least 20 new cities will need to be constructed, predominantly in the Asia, Africa and the Middle East in order to handle the world’s growing a urban population.  In Korea New Songdo is being used as a test case for a fully wired its city, and in the middle east Masdar is most definitely a test case for a carbon neutral city that responds to the constraints of its environment.  It is entirely likely that future cities combine the lessons learned from both in their construction.

From Foster + Partner’s Website:

The Masdar Institute

The Masdar Institute (MI) is the first part of the wider Masdar City Master-plan to be realized and creates a focus for the entire programme, as well as setting the context for subsequent development. Initially, five MSc programmes will be established and as well as undertaking research with MIT, Masdar faculty members will be able to work within the Masdar Research Network. The MI campus embodies the principles and goals of the Masdar City Master-plan to create a prototypical and sustainable city, one in which residents and commuters can enjoy the highest quality of life with the lowest environmental footprint. All developments within the city are to be carbon neutral and zero waste.

The buildings are oriented to provide optimum shade and reduce cooling loads. Shaded colonnades at podium level exploit the benefits of exposed thermal mass and transitional thermal spaces are integrated to mediate between internal and external zones. Facades are designed to respond to their orientation and photovoltaic installations on every roof are combined with carefully positioned photovoltaic panels to shade streets and buildings. Green linear parks adjacent to the buildings capture cooling night-time winds, with wind gates employed to control hot winds. The ventilation strategy for the streets and night time cooling is further enhanced by wind towers and courtyards.

Pedestrian circulation is primarily at podium deck level, where a shaded route throughout the campus is provided. The buildings within MI are made up primarily of laboratories and residential accommodation, supported by a gymnasium, canteen, café, library and landscaped areas that contribute to the campus environment and forge a new destination within the city. The laboratories – and the interactive laboratory space – are at the heart of the development and offer the optimum flexible, column free space possible within the strict loading and vibration criteria. The residential element further integrates the principles of the master-plan and provides one, two and three bedroom apartments in low-rise, high-density blocks. These complete the master-plan street-scape and urban form, while acting as a social counterpoint to the intense laboratory environment. Source

Urban Infill: 130 St Philippe

Urban infill

In the urban planning and development industries, infill is the use of land within a built-up area for further construction, especially as part of a community redevelopment or growth management program or as part of smart growth. It focuses on the reuse and repositioning of obsolete or underutilized buildings and sites. This type of development is essential to renewing blighted neighborhoods and knitting them back together with more prosperous communities.^{[2] Wiki}

The city is an every changing, ever evolving thing. Businesses and buildings come and go as needs and uses evolve. The St Henri neighbourhood in Montreal QC has been on a gradual progression to more a more genteel state and as part of this a number of lots in the area are being redeveloped, when I first moved to town 130 St Philippe was a friendly automotive garage that helped boost my car one winter when the battery died. However as time in this neighbourhood rolls on and property values increase the real estate that the garage was sitting on became a little more valuable then its use as a secondary parking lot for cars waiting to be fixed.  130 St Philippe is actually the back half of a larger project that started over on Rue St Marguerite, but I didn’t manage to catch any construction photos for that half of the site.

Infill can be a tricky proposition as in many ways it is simply the less maligned form of gentrification, people often ignore it in the debate as it is usually the creation of something new versus the property inflation of something that was already there, but the effects are usually the same.  Personally I take the long view on gentrification and the life cycle of cities.  Most neighbourhoods that are poor were at one time wealthy and a lot of neighbourhoods that are wealthy will become poor at some point in their lifespan, and eventually cycle back to wealthy, (I am looking at you Harlem.) The city is not a static entity and must be allowed to adjust itself. I just wish that more cities had effective and well funded property development arms so as to take advantage of infill sites in neighbourhoods when they are on the low swing to provide affordable housing. This particular street is a great example of how the Société d‘habitation et de développement de Montréal took advantage of the downswing in Saint Henri, (When I first moved here most reactions were that I had moved into the hood) as there are already two low income apartment buildings and two affordable housing multi unit properties on this block. These will help insure that with the pendulum swinging back up, i.e. gentrification, that is  happening in St Henri now, there will still be a mix of income levels as the bourgeoisie move in.

This project was put together by Groupe Vistacorp,  Vistacorp is a property developer here in Montreal that specializes in residential properties and based on their website and project break down appears to develop two to three sites at a time. While the website doesn’t specifically state it, the company appears to specialize in infill and has a construction roll out that is reactive and flexible to the economic climate based on the number of units that they put on the market in a given year.

I was only able to get my hands on a couple of the unit plans by casting about in darkness of the Internet (think randomly adjusting page IDs) as the majority of the condo’s have already been sold. S Whatever your perspective on Infill stay tuned for future additions to the Saint Henri Infill Series as Vistacorp has already started the prep-work for the lot across the street.

Life on the Canal: Hausboot auf dem Eilbekkanal

Houseboat on the Eilbekkanal, located in Hamburg Germany

Compled: 2009

Living and working Surface: 110m²

Architekten Rost Niderehe

If you have ever wanted to change your neighbours without having to buy a new house then Canal living may be for you. Rost Nidereche Archiects has designed a houseboat that is moored on the  Eibek-canal in Hamburg Germany. The boat is a blend of clean wooden lines and modern design.

Roadsworth: Crossing the Line

Over a period of three years, the stencil artist Peter Gibson, aka Roadsworth, made his mark on Montreal in the early hours of the morning by launching a self-described “attack on the streets.” Armed with spray paint and handmade stencils, he began to play with the language of the streets, overlaying city asphalt markings with his own images: a crosswalk became a giant boot print, vines choked up traffic dividers, and electrical plugs filled parking spots. Each piece begged the question, Who owns public space?

Pedestrian and Pavingstones

Photographer Adam Magyar provides us a series of birds eye photographs of pedestrians crossing public areas in Hong Kong and Tokyo. Pedestrians in clusters, on their own, and sometimes even in neat little rows. Check out his series entitled ‘Squares’ on his website for more.

The Portrait Building, a new face in architecture.

For years buildings have been covered with imagery; signs, graffiti, and advertisements are commonplace on the sides of buildings, but something new is about to happen in Melbourne Australia. The city has a proposal for a building that is itself an image. A 32 storey apartment block proposed as part of the development on the former Carlton & United Brewery site in Melbourne Australia, named the Portrait building will feature an architectural first, the contouring of the building’s balconies and the play of light and shade  will feature the face of indigenous leader William Barak when viewed from the correct angle.

It is an ingenious idea really, while other buildings have featured screen prints of landscapes, think Bjarke Ingles Mountain Dwellings, and others have featured contoured balconies like the Aqua building this building will be the first to combine the two if completed in 2014.

The best line of sight for viewing the image will be from the Shrine of Remembrance, Victoria’s largest and most visited war memorial which is approximately 3 km away. When viewed from close up the building will simply appear to have an oddly contoured facade. The portrait will be created using a number of horizontal white panels that have been cut to make Mr Barak’s face to appear via positive and negative space. The panels will be distanced from the balconies themselves so that residents will not accidentally make Mr Barak appear to cry by hanging a towel in the wrong place.

The building design is by Australian architecture firm ARM and its principal architects; Steve Ashton, Howard Raggatt, and Ian McDougall. The brewery project is a five building development by Australian firm Grocon who is firmly behind paying tribute to an important figure in Australian history.  Grocon’s representative for the Carlton Brewery site, David Waldren states: ”That technique and that idea has not been delivered anywhere in the world before to the best of our knowledge. It is a world first.” … ”It’s not meant to be that from every angle you will get the perfect image of it; it’s that you will get the perfect image in glimpses.” Mr Grollo, and by extension Grocon see the building as an important social statement, and have received the blessing of both the Wurundjeri elders and the trustees of the Shrine of Remembrance. S

William Barak (c. 1824 – 15 August 1903), was the last traditional ngurungaeta (elder) of the Wurundjeri tribe, which was based around the area of present-day Melbourne, Australia. He became an influential spokesman for Aboriginal social justice and is considered to have been instrumental in bridging the gap between aboriginal and white cultures. Barak is now best remembered for his artworks, which show both traditional Indigenous life and encounters with Europeans. wiki

The ARM architecture firm has attempted buildings with portraits on their facades in the past,  the Dupain Building and 347 Camberwell Road however, neither of these projects were completed. Currently the Portrait Building is still in the planning approval process, so we can only hope that it will not meet the same fate.

Software wish list: CityEngine 2010

As an urban planning student who has been involved in a number of planning studio’s 3D modelling often cames up as necessary evil. While when putting together presentations and proposals for assorted studio classes there is no rule that says you have to have a 3D model, the presentations that get all the ooohhs and ahhs are the presentations that have 3D models. Of course the problem with creating a 3D model for an urban planning studio presentation is that the majority of the programs that can be utilized to create these models are incredibly complex and hard to use. Often times the modelling program is too simple, or to complicated for the task at hand. Any student who has done an introductory class in urban design is made familiar with Google SketchUp, and is often forced to curse their way through modelling a city block, pushing and pulling a city block into existence from the most recent CAD file that the university has in its database. Later we graduate to ArcGIS and its shape files (which tend to get pushed back to SketchUp,) or for those who really want to marry their computers for a semester AutoCAD with a healthy sprinkling of Photoshop also tend to make an appearance.

The thing is that these programs are not exactly easy to use when it comes to modelling the urban environment, alternatively too simple or overly complicated its easy to get buried in shape files,  axis’  and vectors when all you want to do is draw a street. Enter CityEngine 2010.

CityEngine 2010 is an intuitive city modelling program that makes me want to weep a little when I think back on all the hours I spent labouring over shape files in ArcGIS. Often these labours just end up looking like little more then basic block forms with no detail once exported out of their respective programs.  Check out Turcot Quartier Eco Santé or Corridor Of Life – Ave du Parc LRT Proposal to see what I mean.

The demo for CityEngine 2010 shows how easy with it is with a couple of clicks to draw a city block and play with everything from the  street width, to the age and design details of the buildings that just pop into your city blocks as you click them into existence.

In their own words some of the features include:

While at the moment the 149$ student price tag is not yet in my budget… not because it isn’t a great deal when I consider the time to cost ratio (basically 10 hours of work,) and all the time I spent using other less user friendly programs, I had better pay for my tuition and books first. For now it goes on my wish list, either as a Christmas present or maybe someone in the marketing department at Procedural Inc. would send me a copy so I can write a full review!

Neighbourhood News September 13th: Urban Water and Bridges

Metropolis magazine calls for a new type of water infrastructure since most of it needs to be replaced anyway.

The Cleveland Rowing Foundation closes a deal to create Rivergate Park.

On the subject of Cleveland the city commissions architect Miguel Rosales to build three pedestrian bridges.

Minneapolis St Paul unveils the I35W memorial garden.

(more…)

The Mitten Field

A Field of Mittens Appears in St Henri.

The lot at the corner of Rue Saint Philippe and Rue Notre Dame spends most of the year as a ‘sort of’ green space that people mostly just cut across when they are heading to and from the Metro and Rue Saint Philippe. Every so often though one of the resident artists finds a way to turn it into an impromptu art space. One of these installations was a vast collection of mittens in various states of attention, most straight up, some on their way to the ground and some already there.
The mittens were of varying shape colour and size, most likely found in a bargain bin maybe or a lost and found? Whatever their origin they were a great addition to the neighbourhood before time and destructive individuals removed them.

*If you are the artist responsible for the mitten field please email us at: urbanneighbourhood@yahoo.ca so we can give you your due!

Adaptive Street Art

Street art isn’t a new phenomenon, graffiti art has been around for centuries, and street artists like Banksy, transition from street artist to fine art and back. The Toronto Sun has a great little slide show of artist Sandrine Estrade Boulet’s public art works that range from irreverent to cute to naughty. Her works embrace their surroundings and incorporate physical features in the environment.  Her Cheerleader stencil makes use of a pair of grass tufts peeking through the side walk, while a pile of garbage bags forms a cheering section along the side of the road. Its fun and ironic and a pleasure to look at.

Take a look at the full slide show over at the Toronto Sun.