BAT-YAM Biennale of landscape urbanism

Interesting how everywhere around the globe are happening similar things. These pictures are from Bat-Yam biennale in Israel, but they might just as well be in Lasnamäe :)

http://www.biennale-batyam.org/eng/article_page.asp?id=185&scid=100

Multiple Tallinn – following an archipelago of islands?

Subject: Invitation to participate in a panel discussion

Place and time: Tallinn, 20^th of May, 19:00, Arts Academy

Initiated by Bauhaus Kolleg IX – Border Cities, Dessau, Germany

Multiple Tallinn – following an archipelago of islands?

Based on the research undertaken by Bauhaus Kolleg IX – Border Cities, detected a sharpening of the historically developed archipelago like city pattern of Tallinn. The addition of global connections and the integration of different time layers in the city, we want to discuss the possibilities, potentials and obstacles to Tallinn’s future spatial development.

With regard to the status quo of the city’s future development, we state that the original spatial structure of an archipelago, strengthened by the Helsinki-Tallinn relation, now reverses and will blur into the direction of a more isotropic city structure. In this process top-down initiatives or real estate speculation guiding the gentrification processes would negate the existence of bottom-up initiatives in less defined areas. The bottom-up developments loose their significance in urban development.

The questions that could arise are stated below:

. exchange value vs. use value

[Who owns the city? What’s the value of local bottom up developments compared with economic interests? Alienation of locals to rapid changes in city development. How is the city negotiated? Participatory systems in city planning.]

. gentrification – the possibility of a directed deliberate city-planning

[spatial impact of dynamics within the city. How to direct city development in an atmosphere of neo-liberal, market orientated economics? Forces within the city – bottom up vs. top down vs. real estate speculation.]

. archipelago structure vs. Isotropic city – advantages and disadvantages

[Archipelago vs. Isotropic city? Would the maintenance of an archipelago structure necessarily lead to hierarchical and social segregation as well as to stigmatisation? Is it possible to maintain characteristic qualities of different areas without negative impact?]

BORDER URBANISM

06-03-08 // MONU #8 RELEASED!


One of the most grotesque effects of globalisation is that a process which is supposed to unify the world and bind people and the biosphere more tightly together into one global system, ended up increasing the amount of individual countries worldwide. When in 1983 the term "globalisation" was popularised, only 159 countries were members of the United Nations. Today, we recognize 191 states. It has been speculated that there are still more than 200 unrecognised regions around the world which strive for seperation. Such a global particularisation process is going to produce large numbers of new political entities and new jurisdictions with thousands of kilometres of new borders, which will reshape entire regions and cities.

MONU – magazine on urbanism has released its 8th issue –
Border Urbanism. Check it out at MONU .

SlaveCity - Interview with Joep van Lieshout
Potential Nation States by STAR
Global Islands in North Korea by Simone Cartier and Katrin Gimmel
Operation Desert by Peter Mörtenböck and Helge Mooshammer
Kaliningrad by Ines Lüder, Dominique Hurth and Ciarán Walsh
Segregated Istanbul by Pelin Tan
Crisscrossing Lives by Horng-Chang Hsieh and Vittaya Ruangrit
A Fictional Dialogue between two Curators by Umi
Cross - Border Suburbias by Teddy Cruz
Reciprocal Developments by Arjan Harbers and Kristin Jensen
Tijuana - Vernacular by Federico Diaz de Leon Orraca
Border Models by Annemarie Strihan
Bohemian Cheapness - Interview with Jaroslav Kubera
Sin City by Daan Roggeveen
On a Trip Down Memory Lane by Lukas Feireiss
Windsor: The American Sector by Justin A. Langlois
Westberlin - My Cold War Heroine by Vesta Nele Zareh

Fast cities

While some of us try to cut down the stress and the fastness of the city rush, others praise the "fast cities". Here you can find a classification of cities in a world scale, by their characteristics, intention, approach, history and current development. For them, slow cities are "bad" (and they dont even know of the slow city movement..)

Basic urban studies criticism and knowledge to be put into test:


The 30 Fastest Cities In The World. Plus: 5 Cities Too Fast For Their Own Good and 5 Cities That Are Too Slow.

The life in a city without a car

It is possible to survive without a car in a city from the USA. This interesting article explains how the life of a San Franciso citizen changes when he decides to make all his activities by public transportation or bike instead of a car. He compares the expences and the time spent. His feelings and thoughts are also interesting.
I would read it, it is worth: http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/16289155.htm

2010 IMPERATIVE

If you are visiting this weblog you might be a city planner, an architect, a geographer, a designer, or just and interested person on The City.
Even if you are not into any of these fields, surely you have heard about the global warming and the climate change. The question is: Are city planners being trained for the world we will inherit?.
Architecture 2030 (hosted by the New York Academy of Sciences) has arranged a live web-cast for 20 February.
The idea is to reach students, teachers, schools and diferent organizations to change the way of teaching desing and planning. The goal is to prepear ourselves better for the challenges we will face sooner that we thought.
Some schools have already changed the common classes for that day and will participate online in the web-cast. Will you?

http://2010imperative.org/

Visual planning and urbanism in the mid-twentieth century

Town and Townscape, School of Architecture, planning and landscape; Newcastle University Library

13-15 September 2007

The early to mid-twentieth century was a time of intense debate over the future of cities and the form and appearance that they might take. In the UK the Garden City Movement, with a tendency towards lower densities and decentralisation, was an important influence. Internationally the radical reformation of the city was being promoted by Le Corbusier and others. Other radical models were promoted including ideas of linear cities or Frank Lloyd Wright’s radical decentralisation of Broadacre City. In amongst these grand concepts we can discern a strand of more practical urbanism, modernist in flavour but historically informed, seeking to recover positive conceptions of the city and town after the perceived deprivations of the nineteenth century. One manifestation of this was the UK townscape movement, with its emphasis on pictorial composition.

This conference will consider some of the key ideas of visual planning and the urban of the period, with a particular focus on the advocates of visual and three-dimensional planning as a means of achieving a reformulated twentieth century urbanism.

The keynote speaker at the conference will be Professor Stephen Ward, Oxford Brookes University.
The conference forms part of a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, “Town and Townscape: The Work and Life of Thomas Sharp”. Thomas Sharp was a key figure in the town planning profession in the mid-twentieth century and a major influence on thought about planning and design and as such his work will be one of the themes of the conference.

Continue reading at:
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/sharp/conference.php

Another chinese development

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2237937.html

shaman town

the project

WHO: Union of architects, Russia; Union of Moscow architects; A.Asadov Architectural Studio

WHERE: RUSSIA, LAKE BAIKAL, JULY 14-22th 2007

WHAT: The erection of "SHAMAN-TOWN" - haven of ancient gods and places for meditations on wild nature!

DETAILS: Dear friends! We invite you to take part in the international architectural festival “TOWNS”!

The next (fifth) holiday of architecture, beauty and health will take place in one of the most picturesque places of the planet - on Lake Baikal! It is necessary for participants of the festival to build up various arch-objects, suitable for living and meditation. It is possible to use wood (1 cube meter), metal cables for construction and a varnish/paint for exterior. (You can also use other materials after coordination with the organizers).

During the brakes and after the end of the construction of TOWN we plan various sport events for which each command is recommended to have a mountain bicycle and any swimming tool. The organization of horse, pedestrian walks and water rounds is also possible. Living in tents. Each command is given a room in the neighboring tourist hostel.

For participation in the festival it is necessary to build up a team, to fill in an application and to send it to the following address: goroda2007@mail.ru (your sketches of constructions are accepted till June, 20th).

The organizers will appreciate any invitations of sponsors by participants of festival. You can also invite foreign friends and colleagues to participate (the Union of architects will provide support for getting visas), any help in the organization is welcome!

download application form >>> download poster >>>

THE PRELIMINARY PROGRAMM:

13.07 (Friday) - a start from Moscow to Irkutsk

14.07 (Saturday) - road to the TOWN place, distribution of sites

15-18.07 (Sunday-Wednesday) - construction, presentation of TOWN

19-21.07 (Thursday-Saturday) - free time, sports events (the organization of excursions or extreme rounds are possible)

22.07 (Sunday) - departure, excursion in Irkutsk, fly to Moscow.

PRICES:
Air tickets (2-way) ~220-400 euro
Transfer (2-way) ~15-40 euro
Habitation ~4-15 euro/day
This are initial prices. All the reductions depends of sponsors ;)

CONTACTS: goroda2007@mail.ru , ICQ 310548284

UP TO THE MEETING ON BAYKAL!!!

P.S. It is necessary to make a vassination against encephalitis (before 3 month)!

http://www.asadov.ru/2007_gorod-shaman(eng).htm

4th International Congress on Virtual City and Territory "Re-Think the City"

To be held in Guadalajara, Mexico from October 1st to 3rd, 2007

Website: http://www.ctv2007.udg.mx/index.php
Information: info@ctv2007.udg.mx

Conference Overview:

The challenge of renewing the conceptual structures and the technical
applications to the complex problem of human development, the active
metropolization, the accelerated occupation of territory and, all the
accumulated consequences throughout modern history worsened with
Globalization's dynamic process, have been the fundamental approach of the
"City and Virtual Territory" International Congresses, fulfilled in
Barcelona (2004), Concepcion (2005) and Bilbao (2006). During these, ideas,
studies and projects have been struggled and displayed, under the optic of
contribution to knowledge by the new computer science technologies, concrete
proposals and achieved actions by an interesting group of scientific
investigators, enterprises and prestigious institutions.

In this perspective, we propose to continue this joint effort and generate
an ample space for meeting all those who search for solutions to the
urban/territorial development with social equity, the preservation of
natural environment, the impulse of a citizen's participation culture, its
democratic consequences and the possibility to find out better ways to trace
a qualitative horizon to our cities' development; as well all those that
contributes positively to face the territorial-entail challenge and the XXI
century's imaginaries.

In order to continue this process, the Art, Architecture and Design Center
of the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, accompanied in this effort by an
important group of public and private institutions from several countries,
we CONVOKE public and private organizations, researchers, students,
professionals and all those who may be interested, to the 4th International
Congress on Virtual City and Territory, "Re-Think the City," to be held in
Guadalajara, Mexico from October 1st to 3rd, 2007.

Towards Carfree Cities VII conference, Istanbul August 27-31, 2007

Towards Carfree Cities VII - Istanbul, Turkey

- 2007 Conference - Registration - Call for Proposals - Draft Programme - Accommodation - Payment Options

Istanbul, Turkey will be hosting Towards Carfree Cities VII from August 27-31, 2007. Our local hosts this year are the Turkish Traffic Safety Association, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and Istanbul's City and Regional Planning Department. The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of World Carfree Network will take place on the last day, August 31. There will be optional excursions on the weekend after.

Theme

This year's conference theme "Building a Livable Future in a Changing Climate" emphasises the positive potential and urgency of addressing global climate change through the creation of high-quality, carfree human habitats. We will be looking at how proximity can reduce our dependence on mobility - how cities can be transformed into a compact, space-efficient urban settlement pattern in which one's daily wants and needs can be met within walking distance. We will focus on how an urban environment transformed in this way can increase people's quality of life.

On another level, the theme hints at the growing potential for change in the social and political climate. For example, walkable communities are increasingly seen as a solution to various negative global health trends, ecological building methods are rapidly gaining in popularity, and public opinion on global climate change has shifted rapidly towards universal recognition of this pressing global problem.

Based on the insights of experiencing Istanbul's world-class carfree areas, the conference will bring these concepts together into a coherent recipe to be adopted and adapted by cities worldwide.

See our call for proposals for programme content (presentations, workshops, activities, etc.). The deadline to submit a proposal is April 30.

http://www.worldcarfree.net/conference/

COMPETITION: Design For The New Centre Of Riga

The subject of the Competition is an urban construction and architectural idea which graphically and textually describes integrated development of the Competition Site. The urban construction and architectural idea and the explanatory note should include an urban design for the New Centre of Riga in Tornakalns and an architectural solution for the Riga City Council and the public administrative complex in line with the Assignment of the Competition.

The registration and submission deadline is 3rd September 2007.

Visit the website for further information: http://www.rdpad.lv/en/rcnc/

Rotterdam Architecture Biennale STARTS

We already warn it, but it's always interesting to remind important events.
TODAY starts the Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam, whose main theme for this edition is THE CITY and its future.
Activities will run till 2nd September.
Rotterdam is also the "City of Architecture" in 2007. It seems a scape to The Netherlands is worth. Did you already plan your holidays?

Info:
http://www.biennalerotterdam.nl
http://www.rotterdam2007.nl

Continuity and Change in Cities

May 23, 2007 - May 25, 2007 / Alkmaar, Netherlands
2nd Meeting IFHP Working Party Continuity and Change in Cities
Theme: Continuity and Change in Cities: A Game with Many Players
www.alkmaar.nl/workingparty