Urban Change - Projetos Urbanos » Incubators

Luz – Left Hand Rotation

Merten — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:33:59 +0000

In the last couple of years, project Nova Luz has begun to transform one of the liveliest and most central parts of São Paulo. Low income groups fear they will have to leave the area soon, due to expropriation, demolition and gentrification. Questions are raised regarding the inclusion of these social groups in the urban plan. Spanish media collective Left Hand Rotation recently launched a documentary on this topic (Portuguese/Spanish).

Nos últimos anos, o projeto Nova Luz começou a transformar um dos bairros mais centrais e movimentados de São Paulo. Moradores de baixa renda são expostas á desapropriação, demolição e gentrificação, processos que acabam expulsando-0s da região central. A inclusão desses grupos no projeto, na forma de zoneamento ZEIS, está sendo debatido no momento. Coletivo Espanhol Left Hand Rotation recentemente lancou um documentário sobre essa situação (Português/Espanhol).

Welcome to Lagos

Merten — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:35:17 +0000

Lagos is the fastest growing megacity in the world. In the process of attracting millions of new people, its inhabitants have found resourceful ways of making a living, building homes, recycling materials and trading goods. This creative attitude of the Nigerians are at the center of this BCC documentary.

Part 1 focuses on recycling and making money from waste in one of the city’s major land fills.

Part 2 tells the story of a shantytown built on poles in the lagoon (a type of settlement that would be called Palafitas in South America)

Part 3 describes the ambition of Lagos to become a succesfull megacity through implementing infrastructure and regulations. Both elements obviously clash with the existing informal settlements and commercial activities.

(all parts available on youtube, by clicking through the different sub chapters)

Flagship developments

Merten — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 10:58:24 +0000

On November 3, 2011, Paul Lecroart (senior urban planner at Île de France) gave a lecture on Flagship Developments at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). The focus was on his research which looks at the impact of major events, such as the Olympics, on world cities. How can they give an impulse to the development of urban areas and the collaboration of various parties at different levels? Even though plans have become much more flexible and less monumental in character, grand scale master planning still proves to be a useful instrument for metropolitan development in France. The most recent important example is Sarkozy’s vision on Grand Paris.

The next day I attended the expert meeting on Flagship Developments, held in the Amsterdam WTC at the Zuidas, which focused on this development area particularly. Besides Paul Lecroart, the meeting was attended by Willem Salet and researchers of the University of Amsterdam, planners of the Zuidas, architects with projects on the Zuidas (Architecten Cie and Benthem Crouwel), a respresentative of ABN bank (one of the big players at the Zuidas) and a few colleagues at the Deltametropolis Association.

One of the main issues at Zuidas is the proposed tunneling of the infrastructure (ring road, metro and railway) by the so-called Zuidas-Dok. Due to financial problems in the real estate sector, smaller alternatives of the tunnel have been considered. The question is, whether this tunnel doesn’t in fact hide one of the main characters of the site: a lively traffic axis, and whether this is the best way to make Zuidas into a more lively part of Amsterdam.

Some fragments of the discussion:

Sebastian Dembski – How can symbols mobilise new energy in urban development? The name Zuidas already gives a certain idea about the project. However, it is not clear what exactly the identity of the site is: an office park, a new urban district? Many large scale projects are too much state driven (top down) and fail to include the energetic society at the starting point. Also is it important to find a ‘real’ symbolic marker, linked to the site’s historical, geographic or social identity. Made up ideas with no local roots are bound to fail.

Rick Vermeulen – Exhibition and entertainment centres, such as the RAI at Zuidas, have often been planned in a functional way, based on modernist separation of functions and car logistics. In order to become part of the city once more, the RAI could take a rather culturalist (Choay) approach, moving some of the events to urban outdoor space, focusing more on quality than on quantity of event space, and looking for synergy with neighboring complexes such as the VU University Amsterdam, the new railway station and the financial sector at Zuidas.

Willem Salet – The creative class has turned its back on the Zuidas and moved to sites along the river IJ. The current setting of Zuidas is too exclusive for small businesses and the creative sector. The project is still very young. I’m curious about the turning-point at Zuidas, as we have seen in other mega-projects such as the implementation of social housing at the Rive Gauche in Paris.

Heymen Westerveld – Small interventions, such as opening up parts of office blocks to a wider public, or making cross-connections underneath the infrastructure, may be a very wise first step to develop the area.

Robert Dijckmeester – More attention is needed for the public realm. Squares and streets need to occupied by urban programmes and activities, this is crucial to make the area a success.

Pero Puljiz – The planner’s attempts to make multi-functional and penetrable buildings at Zuidas were frustrated by the developers. They preferred to build traditional mono-functional typologies instead. There should be top-floor restaurants and clubs, shared auditoriums etc. With the current real estate crisis, I would choose to completely freeze development at Zuidas and first try to improve the liveliness of the existing areas.

Douglas Grobbe – ABN already shares it’s auditorium with other organizations, VU already shares facilities with RAI. Many of these synergies are already starting to emerge at Zuidas.

Hans van der Made – Between 9 and 5, Zuidas is a real beehive. We need housing and amenities to make the area lively at night.

Paul Lecroart – If it were be possible to slow traffic down and build retail and amenities on ground level close to the roads, this would turn the Zuidas into a attractive boulevard. The Champs-Élysées in Paris makes lots of noise, but still the space on the first levels is very expensive and attractive.

Lecture: the Atlanta Beltline

Merten — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:20:49 +0000

Thursday October 6, the Deltametropolis Association and the Department of Spatial Planning (TUDelft) organize a lecture by Ryan Gravel, on Transit Oriented Development (TOD). As urban planner he is responsible for the development of the Atlanta Beltline, a new light rail connection on an abandoned cargo track around the city. The project emerged bottom-up with help of local stakeholders. The lecture is part of our project SprintCity.

Time and Location
9:45 – 11:30h | Delft University of Technology, faculty of Architecture, Julianalaan 134, Delft – Berlagezaal 1 (ground floor) | Free admission

Debate panel
- Ryan Gravel (Perkins+Will)
- Caroline Bos (UNStudio)
- Dominic Stead (OTB)
- Paul Gerretsen (Deltametropolis Association)
- Roberto Rocco (TUDelft)

Click here to read more and register for the lecture.

Lecture: Bernd Fesel on cultural clusters

Merten — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 15:47:48 +0000

tIP lecture #1: Bernd Fesel on cultural clusters
TU Delft, department of Urbanism and Association Deltametropool invite you to the International Perspectives: Cultural Clusters. A lecture by Bernd Fesel on the creative economy and Randstad Holland on Thursday September 22, 2011.
Bernd Fesel is the assistant director of the European centre for Creative Economy and was the main advisor Creative Industries for the European Capital of Culture, Ruhr 2010.
For all the cities of Randstad Holland, the creative industry is an important focus. The competition between cities within Randstad Holland (RSH) implies that RSH is disregarding that the real opponents for attracting creative entrepreneurs in North-West Europe are cities like London or Paris.

Three questions to be answered:
- Could combining the efforts of the various cities to the RSH region scale improve the international attractiveness of Randstad Holland? And if so, how can cultural clusters in the various cities support this international perspective?
- How can culture clusters and economic activity strenghten each another?
- What lessons are learned form the European Capital of Culture, Ruhr 2010?

For more info and registration, click here.