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.