Paldiski: Landscape + urbanism

Part of the course of landscape architecture, every year a workshop is being held. The habit is to go directly to the site and have a direct contact in the creation of landscape(s). This year the place was Paldiski, which was a former closed military city. Different from previous years was that together with students of architecture, the course was open to urban studies people. The rooms were provided by local municipality. In Paldiski we had bicycle excursions in the city and around the peninsular.

The purpose of the workshop was to find different ways to approach urban landscape and the method was named ‘prototypical’. Which meant, that students formed groups which each looked at one landscape topic such as: 1- geology, plants, climate; 2- new clear plant, pollution; 3- ports, infrastructure; 4- fauna; 5- industry, services; 6- build environment. Then they had to extract the strongest element of their topic and tune it to maximum. Landscape prototype should be seen in this context like any other prototype. Like for example in car industry, where prototypes are made to test certain characteristics and look at different performative aspects. Students were asked to concentrate only to their topic and make “no compromises”. In this way a bottom-up approach was tested, where particular landscape characteristics were enhanced.


6 Groups were mix of 2nd and 5th year students of architecture, to provide more internal discussion in the department. Chair of Urban Studies was represented successfully by two students. The course of landscape architecture is managed by Katrin Koov and the workshop was tutored by her and Kalle Komissarov. Guest critic was Lilia del Rio.

Time of the workshop: 22-24.09.2006
Nr of participants: 25

Text by Kalle Komissarov, photos by Tarmo Stöör

80th Anniversary of the Bauhaus Building in Dessau

From December 2nd 2006 is running an exhibition for celebrating the 80th anniversary of the building designed by Walter Gropius that hosted the Bauhaus school in Dessau. The exhibition will be open till March 11th 2007 and it explores the topic on three levels:
-the restoration of the Bauhaus Building
-the building’s impact on the media
-its interior architecture as a prototype of modern spatial organisation

Official web site:
http://www.bauhaus-dessau.de/
Short article on the building’s restoration:
http://www.bauhaus-dessau.de/images/body/sanierung_7_2006_en.pdf

GREATER HELSINKI VISION 2

_international ideas competition_

Greater Helsinki municipalities and State of Finland (Ministry of Environment) organize an open ideas competition for the future land use and spatial vision of Greater Helsinki. The organisers are expecting refreshing entries to participate the competition and vision the future Greater Helsinki 2050.
The aim of the competition is to find innovative ideas for the future land use planning and develop sustainable strategies and concrete solutions for strengthening the status and competitiveness of Greater Helsinki as an attractive region to live and conduct business in. The competitors are expected to present their general vision for the Greater Helsinki in 2050 together with the detail study supporting it.
Total of EUR 500 000 will be awarded as prizes and purchases.
The sunmission of entries is 31 May 2007.

All the information here: http://www.greaterhelsinkivision.fi/

1st ARCHITECTURE, ART AND LANDSCAPE BIENNIAL OF THE CANARIES

To creatively involve the people of the Canary Islands, its residents and visitors in a reflection on the conservation of its unique natural surroundings whose beauty and variety never fail to surprise us, with a view to promoting the interest of different social groups and collectives in the configuration of a large space for shared co-existence, preserving the natural environment, valuing the urban landscape, promoting dialogue between the different islands for a better understanding of the needs of the people of the Canaries and of its visitors, instigating actions and debates with renowned architects, urban planners, landscape architects, artists and sociologists, while also attracting young generations of creators and experts. The seven islands making up the Canaries could be seen as a metaphor of the diversity of man or microcosm, conceived as a complete summary of the universe or macrocosm. Starting off from the term microcosm we will then pose questions affecting man’s encounter with his surrounding environment and his optimum use of it. To encourage the setting in place of the necessary synchronicity between “celestial bodies” represented by the conjunction of man and the environment in which he develops and inhabits. Questions pertaining to the preservation of the natural environment and the urban environs, the infrastructures and equipment most suitable to the characteristics of each island, will make up the central axis of the actions, even when the importance of certain equipment already in place in various countries makes an exhibition event essential, required, and even exemplary. We want to offer residents and visitors examples of actions by leading urban planners, architects, landscape architects and artists which stand out for their suitability, respect for the user, the environment and the surroundings in which they are emplaced, and for their innovative character and the proportion and beauty of their lines.

Rosina Gómez-Baeza, Director

Official web site:
http://www.bienaldecanarias.org/

city as it is

‘Now let me call back those who introduced me to the city’

Walter Benjamin

This part of the blog is for sharing each others city experiences. The modest aim is to introduce the city theme from a persons point of view. This person can be you or somebody else, but it has to be someone.

If we do not notice the city, it ceases to exist. So help us to keep it real and thought-provoking.

Smacked by the city is meant for your own individual translations and findings about the city. This is your direct way of seeing things in the way they coincide with your life.

City as image is about representations, the way people see cities through certain mediums. Here you will get acquainted with the filtered and somehow distorted city.

SMACKED BY THE CITY

Sometimes the city just hits you, showing its twisted and unexpected sides.

The urban space as a reservoir for expressions is waiting to be translated and revealed. What is happening on the streets, behind the corners or inside the buildings, how do people feel themselves and how do they show it. Whenever you find a message, some unlike logic or a statement, please share it with us by describing and explaining it.

Open your eyes and your mind, the deepest content is often hidden and disguised. Look for the meanings of a city!

CITY AS IMAGE

"It's time we were on our way. I'm hungry, and the city awaits."

-Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)

When you first enter a new city, it`s more than likely, that this is not the first date between you... You probably already have some kind of image in your head about the city and the first impression of your new lover can be enchanting or dissapointing pending on the expectations you had before.

We all tend to have a personal kaleidoscopes about every important city in our head, before we have really visited the place. The image is composed of the books we have read, films we have seen, poems we have learned by heart, comics and photographs we have explored.

This blog is a place to share these images, which have had strong influence on you and designed your vision of the citys. You are very welcome to
write personally about films, books, pictures, photographs, comic strips or poems where you have find interesting representations of a city. Visual material to illustrate the topic would be also very welcome.

Bon apetit!

WEBSITE FINALLY LAUNCHED!!!!

I am most happy to announce the launch of the final website urbanistika.ee

There is a list of 12 blogs which deal with different issues, related with urban planning, architecture, society, transformation of cities, everyday life, studies, readings, activism, etc.

you are all welcome to start posting on it sooner than soon! (i will send you the invitation)
If you would like to be invited, please write us- urbanistika@urbanistika.ee

A toast for the website!

Innovative planning

Historically, urban planning has been understood as big scale blueprints for future urban extensions, or as managing the elements of urban system, to take two examples. Currently, it is near paradigmatic to view planning as communication and the fabrication of consensus between conflicting interests. The planner is now in the city, among its citizens.

While innovative approaches to collect users’ experiential knowledge and facilitate multi-actor processes are developed and tested, the older practices and institutional structures often sideline new ideas. Simultaneously, planning is increasingly seen as economic development, as project-driven or facilitating activity. Entrepreneurialism may be a contradictory development vis-à-vis public participatory planning. However, private processes do represent a different set of stakeholders.

The practices and the judicial frame of urban planning are changing across Europe. Estonia makes no exception. This blog aims at collecting actual experiences of new planning approaches both in micro and macro scale. We are interested in new coalitions, urban agenda setting and liminal bodies, but also in the practices of real-estate companies and scenarios of IT investors.

We hope to shed light to meta questions, such as legitimation after participatory democracy or the societal utility of planning, without forgetting concrete issues, such as efficient methods of brainstorming or technological solutions of web-based opinion tagging. In the end, we assume that the future planning system and the relevant professionalisms are quite different from the current ones. Who can plan? For who?

Text by Panu Lehtovuori

gentrification and tallinners blog

"No more yuppies, please! Thank you" says one piece of New York anti-gentrification graffiti.

Gentrification is a process, in which an area’s existing low-income residents are replaced by a more affluent section of society. This is a process that also involves investment into an existing residential area that is initially marked by low cost properties. The first people who begin this process and move into these areas are initially drawn by low prices. However, these areas often have a sense of authenticity and bohemian character about them, which before long, becomes attractive to the existing middle class or the new middle class, the young urban professional or ‘yuppie’, who are – in a certain sense - buying into history… ‘’Oh, I fancy Kalamaja, it would be cool to live there!’’ Thanks to process of gentrification, former blue-collar worker areas, turn to white-collar residences.

Like all things, there are two sides to this issue: firstly, the renovation of dilapidated houses and buildings of historical significance, alongside the opening and development of new social gathering places etc, can only be considered a positive change. Conversely, as an area moves ‘up market’, the original inhabitants are eventually ‘priced out’ of their homes, as value increases due to demand, and succeeding generations of original inhabitants are forced to look for property in other areas.

In Tallinn the process of gentrification is apparent in the ‘wooden-house’ areas such as
Kalamaja, Kassisaba, in Kadriorg. Here a huge amount of buildings have been renovated. However, some buildings stand empty - sometimes due to uncertain ownership, or sometimes simply because the new owners don’t care about them. Perhaps their aim is to damage the buildings in the hope of receiving planning permission, when they would simply tear down the existing building and build new one – bigger of course?

The Estonian ownership reform has been very influential in this process of gentrification. This reform granted the return of properties, which had been nationalised during the Soviet regime in the 40s, back to their former owners - and in the event that the previous owners were no longer living, then to the closest relatives. However pleasant this may sound for the receiving parties, the returning of old property now meant extra subtenants and extra problems for the new owners. While the issues related to new ownership such as unwanted subtenants, and real-estate markets are very complex and difficult, they undoubtedly have had an influence on the developmental process. Because city support to these areas is very poor - only protected buildings and some certain details (for example, historical doors) have received financial support from the City’s Cultural Heritage Department – the responsibility for this culture depends upon the inhabitants and the owners.

As an art historian, I welcome the processes that give shape to a neighbourhood’s physical appearance, especially when it comes to renovation and redevelopment. In Kadriorg, several buildings have been restored, and the overall appearance of the streets has changed tremendously. Of course we must be aware that there can be bad examples as just easily as good examples.

With all this in mind, my question is this…. Is it necessary to bring in the yuppies to save our cultural heritage?

Contest

ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY IS LOOKING FOR A NEW LOGO

Architecture for Humanity, the american organization that promotes architectural and design solutions to globla, social and humanitarian crises, has open a competition for a new logo.

The top 10 proposals will get the book ‘Design Like You give A Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises’ and the winner will receive 1000$. You can work individually or in a team, but send your design before December 15th.

You will have more information in their web site, it is worth to visit anyhow. Good luck!! http://architectureforhumanity.org/logo/index.html

QUOTES

I post here some quotes i've found from famous movies or tv shows, that can fit for the subtitle for the website (right under urbanistika.ee, which is the main title) Please comment on which one you prefer and suggest others that you may like!


Example:
U R B A N I S T I K A . E E
City is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get (from Forrest Gump)



• The Truman Show
Christof: We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented.

• Murphy's Law
The first myth of city is that it exists.

• "Angels in America" (2003) (mini)
Roy Cohn: A city! Good! I was worried... it'd be a garden. I hate that shit.

• "Avatar: The Last Airbender" (2005) {The Serpent's Pass (#2.12)}
Katara: Let's talk about this on our way into the city.

• "Batman" (1992) {Christmas with the Joker (#1.38)}
Dick Grayson: How one man holds up an entire city. Sounds familiar?

• "Batman" (1992) {I Am the Night (#1.34)}
Robin: This city would fall apart without you.

• "Biff Baker, U.S.A." (1952) {Grey Market (#1.2)}
Tom Davenport: I'll give you each a Marseilles. This cocktail is a special creation of mine. I call it that because, like the city, it has everything: warmth, intrigue, wickedness, coldness and, as you can see, beauty.

• "Cheers" (1982)
Carla: There's an entire city that agrees with you.

• "Friends" (1994) {The One Where the Monkey Gets Away (#1.19)}
Joey Tribbiani: You're a monkey lost in the city. Where would you go?

• "Monty Python's Flying Circus" (1969) {How Not to Be Seen (#2.11)}
Second City Gent: Well, I've been in the city for twenty years, and I must admit...I'm lost.

• "Naked City" (1958)
Narrator: [regular sign off] There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.

• "Pokémon" (1998)
Flint: Pewter City is grey, the color of stone. My name is Flint, and you're sitting on my merchandise, young man.

• "Pokémon" (1998)
Flint: Pewter City souveneirs, you want to buy some?

• "Power Rangers Mystic Force" (2006) {Broken Spell: Part 1 (#1.1)}
Vida Rocca: I'll go with you. Not everyone in the city's a coward.

• "Powerpuff Girls, The" (1998)
Princess: I know you think I'm too little to own my own city, but don't worry. I won't let you down. I'll be the best little capitalist piglet Princess you ever had.

• "Seinfeld" (1990)
Jerry: Oh, come on, there's a lot of people walking around the city that look like me.

• "SpongeBob SquarePants" (1999) {The Sponge Who Could Fly (The Lost Episode) (#3.16)}
Old Man Jenkins: I knew no good would come from city folk and their flying machines.

• "Stargate: Atlantis" (2004)
Col. Steven Caldwell: Can we submerge the city again?

• "Stargate: Atlantis" (2004)
Dr. Rodney McKay: [sighs] It's a city, not a yo-yo.

• "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (1987) {Leatherhead Meets the Rat King (#3.36)}
Leatherhead: This city is no place for this gator. I'm going back to my swamp!

• "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (2003)
Nobody: Who am I? I might just be a glimmer of hope for a lost city. I'm the guy the cops would thank if they knew I existed. But they don't. Who am I? I'm Nobody.

• "Transformers" (1984)
Megatron: Is there anyone brave - or stupid enough - to oppose us? This city is under martial law... and I am the marshal!

• "Viva la Bam" (2003)
Bam's Uncle: [In Pisa, Italy] The whole goddamn city is named after pizza

• 'Round Midnight (1986)
Ace: It would be the best city in the world if I could just find some okra.

• 1776 (1972)
Roger Sherman: Might be the city tavern.
(this one I chose because maybe our blog is like a city tavern..)

• Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (2002)
Mars: My dad used to say, "Mars, don't ever live in a big city, nobody knows you." But isn't that the best part of it - no one to judge you, no one to tell you how to live your life?

• Alithini zoi (2004)
Joy: In this city, you always have to turn somewhere

• Annie Hall (1977)
Alvy Singer: I don't want to move to a city where the only cultural advantage is being able to make a right turn on a red light.

• Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
Stationmaster: I never will understand you city folk. Always rushing, rushing, rushing, always in a hurry. That's why you have stomach trouble.

• Babe: Pig in the City (1998)
Ferdinand: Face it, you're just a little pig in the big city.


• Band Wagon, The (1953)
Tony Hunter: The city was asleep. The joints were closed. The rats and hoods and killers were in their holes.

• Dark Avengers, The (2005)
Bryan Yuen Sage: The city never sleeps. Ha, I love that phrase... and it's true. But only because I woke it up...

• Easy Rider (1969)
Stranger on the highway: I'm from the city... Doesn't matter what city; all cities are alike.

• Fando y Lis (1968)
Young Lis: The tree disguised itself as a leaf, the house as a door and the city as a house. The same scene over and over.

• Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Sloane: The city looks so peaceful from up here.

• Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
Capt. Gray Edwards: The city may be lost, but we're not.

• Ghostbusters II (1989)
Ray: [of the insulting birhtday party kids] Ungrateful little yuppie larva. After everything we did for this city.

• GoBots: War of the Rock Lords (1986)
Crasher: [to Solitaire upon seeing Cordax for the first time] What a primitive place. Ha ha! You can't tell the inhabitants from their surroundings. You call that a city? Huh?

• Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
Power Worker: Hey, you. This is city property. No trespassing. What are you, deaf? Don't try that Halloween shit with me.

• Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
Kevin McCallister: Excuse me, but this is an emergency. What city is it out there?


• Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)
Claudia: It's time we were on our way. I'm hungry, and the city awaits.

• L.A. Vice (1989)
Detective Jon Chance: Don't you miss the city?

• Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003)
Gothmog: [sniffs] Fear. The city is rank with it.

Prepared for war at 9 am

Some signs in EKA say "Bush is a UFO"

When they told me I couldnt walk this way, I ask but why?, really why? What does the life of this person has to do with my life?

This morning, the city centre of Tallinn was turned into a graveyard, a murder scene. Streets were empty of cars, pedestrians, life and everything except those flashy yellow vests in every corner. Most of these flashy yellow vests were just looking at the shop windows, talking and spending the time. When I came out of home at 6.30 they were already there. There were not even souls in the street, but they were "guarding" bodies.

Physical bodies which can never experience a city as it usually is. They are cursed to live in empty streets full of yellow ghosts, for all their lives. I feel sad for them. Life under constant protection must be horrible. And it is in moments like today, that ideotic movements and closings in the space it interacts with us. This is the way Bush interacts with Estonia. It is all a game, what are they playing behind those fences? The magic circle is closed to those who carry no metal parts nor are normal. You must be abnormal to play such a game.

TALLINNA VISIOONI KONVERENTS

What is really the vision of Tallinn as a City?

Is Tallinn a Global City? Should it BE a Global City? What is a Global City?

"City as Eternity"

How to "import brains"? Why "importing brains"? What to do with the "imported brains"?

Irony within the Major of Tallinn

Tallinn wants to marry Helsinki?

post your comments and opinions of the Tallinn Vision Conference!

Official website

Movements Against Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart, the biggest chain of hypermarkets in America, came to colonize Mexico in the last decade. Since then, they have become the biggest chain in Mexico also, taking over the cities as if no context was around.

This is the Wal-Mart from my neighborhood in Guadalajara. The scale from the 1970's grid is interrupted by the cluster of Wal-mart, Sam's Club, Costco (Price Club), Megamercado and the recently finished Plaza Galerías (shopping centre).



During the political situation of Mexico, the leftist movement organised a campaign against Wal-mart and all big american enterprises that find shelter in Mexico. Yesterday there were manifestations where they took over one of these hyperstores in a protest against americanization. Here some videos:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUvP5wqh4ec



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hVKcpPb4s8

ANARCHITECTURE

A concept first proposed By Gordon Matta-Clark in 1970's, anarchitecture was retaken by architect Lebbeus Woods as a political act and manifesto. It has been used since then often by architects to oppose the capitalist architecture which is commodified by consumerism.

Last weekend there was a camp dealing with that. Luckily, the exhibition remains open one more month!

Camp for Oppositional Architecture 2006 >Theorizing Architectural Resistance >
10 - 11 November
Exhibition: 10 November - 10 December

A project by An Architektur, Berlin

The small part of the built environment that is subject to planning at all is almost completely controlled by the claims of capitalist utilization: globalized markets and cultures ask for commodified spaces, nation states and corporations require spectacular architectures for representative purposes, the multitude of consumer subjects demands room for individualized privacy. What's left to do? Join the Camp for Oppositional Architecture!

Lectures by: >Tatjana Schneider + Jeremy Till (Sheffield), Alexander Levi + Amanda Schachter (Madrid), Maria Theodorou (Athens), Miguel Robles-Duran >(Rotterdam), Craig Buckley (New York), Ole W. Fischer (Zurich), BAVO >(Rotterdam), Elisabeth Blum (Zurich), Markus Miessen (London).

The camp is accompanied by an exhibition, which will be on show at Casco from 10 November - 10 December 2006. The venue is Expodium, Boven Vredenburg 27, 3511 DL, Utrecht, the Netherlands.

www.cascoprojects.org
www.oppositionalarchitecture.com
www.anarchitektur.com

HI EVERYBODY!!!

SOME NEW WORLD EVENTS

**ON-SITE: NEW ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN **
September 22nd - January 14th, 2006
Pabellón Villanueva in The Royal Botanical Gardens of Madrid, Spain

This exhibition was created by MoMA of New York some months ago and now we have the opportunity to visit it in Europe. The exhibition shown in Madrid has been enriched by two new complementary activities: “On Site Tour” and “On Site Talk”. First one are six thematic itineraries through Madrid and the second one a series of lectures related to the topic where relevant architects will be invited.

Further Info: http://www.promomadrid.com/onsite/

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2006/on_site.html


**MAGICAL URBANISM**

Well, this is not an event…….or not a usual one. Here i point you out a web site i found by chance. It is created and maintainined by Mike Ernst. He is right now traveling around the world with a urban studies programm, and this site is focused on this experience that i dare to call as an “event”
The site is interested because of the trip itself, but also all the links and archives he proposes. I am in touch with the boy and i invited him to participate in our future web, when ready.
If i were you i would really have a look to Mike’s site.

http://www.magicalurbanism.com/

alternative mapping

Flight Patterns

Wanted to share this with you: "Here’s a hypnotically beautiful image, generated using flight pattern data from the US Federal Aviation Administration. Done by Aaron Koblin" (from YouTube).

Besides, in the seminar in Helsinki we were shown very similar videos called TRacescape done by and Finnish photography student about the city and the cars & pedestrians moving there. Sadly there's only one shot to show you know.

the rich - the poor

Although the notions of richness and poverty need so much more discussion & clearance - as was started in one of the Key Concepts seminar- I just wanted to post here a link for a quite surprising recent research.

Basically, it says that low-income people who were living in higher-income neighborhoods died at substantially higher rates than the poor who were living among the poor.

Why?
One theory is primarily economic. "They may have a home right next to a health clinic, a pharmacy or a private gym, but proximity does not mean access,'' said Winkleby. Instead of enjoying a movie or a game of racket ball after work, the poor person living in the wealthy neighborhood might be working her second shift just to keep up with the rent.

Another theory reaches for a sociological explanation -- that people who feel isolated or out-of-place tend to have poorer health than those who feel part of a community, no matter what their economic status. “You look out every day and you’re at the bottom of the social ladder.” Loneliness can be a killer.

For example:

70% - The higher risk of death during the period of the study for low-income women who reside in higher-income areas compared with their wealthier neighbors.

60% - The higher risk for low-income women who reside in higher-income areas compared with low-income women in poorer areas.

---

I haven't managed to find any responses to the research by any planners-urbanists. Would be very interesting though.

For more see the Stanford Institute homepage and an article in "Postimees" ("Rikkurite naabrus lühendab vaeste inimeste eluiga").

global:ideas:bank and Curitiba

Residents of Curitiba, Brazil, think they live in the best city in the world, and a lot of outsiders agree. Curibita has 17 new parks, 90 miles of bike paths, trees everywhere, and traffic and garbage systems that officials from other cities come to study. Curibita's mayor for twelve years, Jaime Lerner, has a 92 per cent approval rating. read the whole story here





The Global Ideas Bank is a digest of innovative and creative ideas for the betterment of cities, ecology, social empowerment, etc. as they describe it themselves:

- The Global Ideas Bank aims to promote and disseminate good creative ideas to improve society. It further aims to encourage the public to generate these ideas, to participate in the problem-solving process.

- These ideas we term social inventions: non-technological, non-product, non-gadget ideas for social change. These are a mix of existing projects, fledgling initiatives and new bright ideas.

- In this way, the Global Ideas Bank is part-suggestions box, part-ideas network and part-democratic think-tank, giving the "ordinary" person a chance to have their creativity recognised, rewarded and even put into practice.

- The Global Ideas Bank further aims to provide information and a community to help those individuals who wish to make their idea or project a reality in their own community. See the Practical Help and Success Stories sections for more on this.

Calendaristika

Regina has created three (google) calendars for the urbanistika master:
urbanistika 1 (1st year schedule)
urbanistika 2 (2nd year schedule)
education-extra (other events and things that are interesting)

you should have received an invitation by now. If you havent, let us know and we will invite you.
as Regina wrote,

i really think that kind of an online constantly updated calendar is a good tool for improving the studies.

anybody of you can make changes there,
just have a look before how the information has been written down there already, not to double anything or so.

besides,
i suggest - if you have reached the 3 calendars finally - to make a search in the public calendars [we too have an option wheather to make our calendar public or just to keep it to ourselves] for one that is called Urban Issues. there's information about future seminars and conferences. for that look at the bottom left corner of the browser, there's a search box.

what do you think about it all?
ah let's just give it a try and see.
best, regina

fear

President Bush signed a bill authorizing the construction of fencing along nearly 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. The bill calls for at least two layers of reinforced fencing and other security measures. Where fencing is not practical, the other measures, including cameras, lighting, sensors and surveillance, may be employed. - CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/26/border.fence/index.html

"A fence will slow people down by a minute or two, but if you don't have the agents to stop them it does no good. We're not talking about some impenetrable barrier," said T.J. Bonner, who heads the National Border Patrol Council, the AP reported. -CNN


I think the formula for fear is very simple: Increase the security = increase the fear. The more self-enclosed and paranoid a country generally becomes, the easier it is to scare it. Just say BOO and they will jump and search your body and history. Sadly, it is not only the USA's problem: the disease spreads.

Luckily they keep the balance on that side. Those of us who are on this side, searching for openness and peace, can keep doing what we think is best. At the end all that will remain will be their karma and insanity.

the metamorphosis of marginality

I found a good study made by the American researcher Janice Perlman about favelas in Rio. Her 1970's book "Myth of Marginality: Urban Poverty and Politics in Rio de Janeiro " has been developed further in 2002 and has been presented to the World Bank under the title "The Metamorphosis of Marginality: The Favelas of Rio de Janeiro: 1969-2002"

you can see the presentation here

Beautiful Urbanism

Call for submissions - magazine on urbanism - monu.org

The one movement in urban design that included the name beauty in its name, the City Beautiful movement in the 1890’s and 1900’s, had a vision of beauty that was limited to the reproduction of planning and design concepts that had long been outdated. In short, a feeble attempt to clad a banal and old conception of urban life in even older clothes.

Today the term beautiful is virtually banished from any discussion about urban life – the design professions sometimes secretly talk about the beauty of buildings but otherwise are completely ignorant about the beauty that emerges and really matters – the life in the city. Most of those who are concerned with the part of cities that are not made of concrete, steel and glass, eschew the term altogether – sustainability, fairness and justice, are words that we feel comfortable with – beauty not.

As a consequence, when architects and designers start thinking big they have tended to draw caricatures of urban life: The utopian planners of the 60’s and 70’s started with an ambition to reintroduce the scale of day to day life into thinking about the city but mostly got caught in scale-less structuralism. Another extreme is the 90’s chic to embrace the bigger is better, the uncritical entertaining of the endless growth fantasies of high capitalism and its real estate markets.

While the urban professions shied away from a progressive use of the term, it has been co-opted by those in the business of mindless real estate development or those who seize conservative images of the city like the infamous new urbanism gang.

This issue of Monu wants to tackle the issue of beauty in urban life and jumpstart a discussion about how to reclaim the term for progressive urban thinking. What is the beauty of urban life? What are the conditions that create beauty? Where do we find our own places of beautiful urban life? Is it (window-) shopping along fancy boulevards, the seductive gazes cast on a crowded sidewalk, traffic circles crowded at rush-hour or bike messengers zipping through streets? Is it dingy bars and obnoxious car-repair places or romantic parks and rooftop terraces? There are thousands of moments and images that can come to mind. How can planners, designers, builders, thinkers and activists relate to an agenda of beauty in urban life and recapture a vital concept.

We invite writing and photography, speculation and sophisticated analysis -whether roughly outlined and collaged or beautifully written and arranged.

The next issue will appear in the Winter of 2006. Contributions or questions should be sent to editors@monu.org by the end of November.

International Competition in Valencia

Hi!

You might know that Valencia (Spain) is hosting the 32nd America's Cup in 2007. Around this event a lot of political decisions have been taken, especially related to urbanism. Basically in less than 5 years all the areas near the port have been changed (or will be changed). Before, all those areas were almost forgotten by polititians and city planners, therefore they had their own characteristics, an own personality as a fishmendistrictc, ex-industrial area or harbour reserve. Now all this is turned (or will be) into sailing and leisure facilities and high standard apartments.
All the urbanism changes related to 32nd America's Cup are managed by Consorcio Valencia 2007, a supposed public organizationthat gathers national, regional and municipal authorities. Their lastest proposition is launching an international ideas competition to plan all the maritime areas of the city.

Rita Barbera, Valencia major, presented the competition some days ago in Venice Biennale. She urged to participate to "the best architects and urbanists of the world to create the best seafront ever", whatever...
This competition, and the whole idea of changing Valencia seafront is supported by the International Union of Architects (UIA) and its president Mr. Giancarlo Ius (by the way personal friend of some valencian polititians).

The project is huge and, actually interesting...but, i guess the criterion of our beloved Consorcio Valencia 2007 is far from the one we might have. Or not, you never know.

Further information:
http://www.uia-architectes.org/texte/england/valencia2007/annonce.html
http://www.valencia2007.com/

Inés (in Valencia)

World Events Blog starts running

Hi everybody!!

The World Events Blog withing the website Urbanistika dot ee starts running now. We will use this preliminary blog until the final web site is ready. Here we go!!!

What is World Events Blog?

This permanent blog as part of the web site urbanistika dot ee belongs to the section of Worl Wide blogs. Its intention is to serve as source of information to all those interested in the City as a topic to be studied, thought, analysed and planned. We would like that this little corner of the ciberspace is used as an easy way of being aware of all those events related to the Urban Studies all around the world. It is our will that this blog serves as a complement to the other ones in urbanistika dot ee. Therefore, we will try to list the interesting information commented or proposed in the other blogs for all those interested. Openings, exhibitions, courses and seminars, competitions, books and publications, magazines, documentals or films and any interesting links related to our topic will be included in this blog.
The task of being updated and aware in a word wide scale is difficult, and certainly something will be missed. Therefore this blog is open to anybody willing to participate, the more participants the better this blog will be. Any suggestion will be also welcome in order to improve this little enterprice.
Please participate by creating new entries in our blog or by sending a mail to ines.urbanistikadotee@gmail.com. Thanks a lot.

tartu mnt

Biking around the newly finished tartu mnt, I realised it is the paradise for bikes and pedestrians-- now. Without the cars, both sides of the street seem quite close and reachable. The old feeling I got about it - looong and far - dissapears when the linearity is gone. But the cars, when they come, will mark the linearity again, as they usually do. I must admit, I enjoyed the street quite a lot. It is funny how wide and short it is.

The only cars I saw were the gardeners'. I wonder why they are actually putting flowers in late october? Its all part of the image of it being ready and beautiful for its opening. I feel bad about those tiny and defenseless trees, how they will survive the winter and the traffic with only half a meter away from cars and their snow.

SWISS evening

To help you recover what we did in Switzerland, we will gather on 27th of October. PLACE- PÄRNU MNT 27-13 at 7.00pm.
Call Lilja or somebody else who is already there if you cannot get in.
We will continue looking for the truth:
What was Herzog & De Meuron about after all? How does Renzo Piano get light to his buildings? What to do with kapuns? Who was actually humming in Vals baths? How to survive a night in the barn? How to cross the Rhein river? Where was Zürich's nigthlife? How to make touristic turns? Why did we like Swiss people and why not, and how we made them angry? And last but not least, who actually grabbed the apple from the tree?

Photos from our trip to Switzerland

Hi everybody!!

I have created an account for sharing with all of you my pics from our trip to Switzerland with the EKA Urban Studies MA partners and some other friends. Here it goes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ialsowannashare/

Laura has also created another one with her pictures: http://my.opera.com/digipisik/albums/show.dml?id=146231

Hope you like and will to share yours.

Greetings from Spain!

Inés

about privacy

an 'ideological' topic that for me grew out from the calendar proposal (and of course, more generally, from the whole subject of having a blog) and although there might be actually no problem at all i'd still like this topic to be discussed -
the privacy.
i've understood that till now the conception has basically been a blog that is in whole, (pardon,) saba ja karvadega, opened for everybopdy to see.
with all the things that may be too stupid for that (like us discussing about railways for example) and thus not very flattering to us and
with all the things that are too clever for that (like us discussing about railways of course) and as such could attract "academic espionage".

and then showing our calendar with all the preprepresentationmeetings to the publicity ....

in summer somebody asked me why estonians - while taking part in international projects - never tend to give out information. so i gave it a thought and could think of two (opposing) reasons:
1. letting other people know that you have some information is dangerous, a feeling conceived by the soviet time
2. keeping information to you gives you an advantage. a feeling kinda related to the postsocialist time. god knows who else may benefit if you share what you know.

heh. equally ridiculous reasons both. but i'm still made careful about publicity. so what about public and semiprivate spaces in the website (and private-private?)?
or if i am just personally lacking the "western-style" free and opened working skills, this blog would be exactly the place for practicing it?
what are your thoughts?

error fixed

I apologise for the mistake, but I have sent an invitation to all I know are interested so far in the website so you can post. Please let me know if there is somebody else I forgot or that might be interested!

suggestion, no 1

greetings,
i raise my cup of coffee to you all,
and
wanted to propose that we could have
a calendar on the website.
online and with the latest information updated as soon as something new is heard. it would especially convey the timetable of the urb.studies as the lectures are still quite an unstable materia and the information about sth taking place comes from very different sources and is always missed by somebody.
one look at the calendar and you get the picture. at least the latest version.

MEETING NEXT WEDNESDAY

Wednesday at 21.00 in Noku
be there! tell those who are interested as well.

Before the meeting, at 18.00 there will be the weekly screening of a movie dealing with urban culture in Tallinn University (meeting point is at 18.00 in front of the main bldg). This week's movie is the Brazillian "City of God". There will be a short intro and outro about favelas in Rio and in Caracas.

welcome notice

While the website is in creation, this is a temporary blog to discuss the urbanistika dot ee website ideas, new blogs, moderators, etc. Feel free to post your opinions and questions, and anything you think about the upcoming website.