Last week's threads...

Prompted by the presentations last Wednesday I mentioned some books and urban concepts that could assist you with your work, please find below some of these threads:

For urban public space (street project):

Gehl, Jan. Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1987.

A great website dealing with the same topics discussed in the book at: http://www.pps.org/info/placemakingtools/placemakers/jgehl

Part of the PDF book can be downloaded from this website: http://a.parsons.edu/~creanm/interface/interface_readings/gehl_lifebtnbuld.1.pdf

Also check out Jane's Walk, a website dedicated to Jane Jacobs' work: http://www.janeswalk.net/

We also discussed some top-down approaches to the development of cities--Dubai and Brasilia were mentioned as examples. I suggested that comparison of cities such as these, conceived in different historical circumstances, need to consider the different social/ecological and economic context of today and that of some decades ago. Richard Sennett has extensively discussed the effect of these conditions in society and their resulting effect on cities, particularly in regards to people engagement or capacity to engage in social processes (including solidarity and democracy). See for example: "Fighting the flexible firm" and "Capitalism and the City". See also:

http://on1.zkm.de/zkm/stories/storyReader$1513

http://mondediplo.com/2001/02/16cities

and book in www.scribd.com, "The Culture of New Capitalism"

Finally, we talked about Rem Koolhaas and (in my view) his often contradictory critique to the current social/political and economic conditions--a critique that does not prevent him from successfully using these conditions to exercise a top-down approach to urbanism. Two articles reflect his views and perhaps epitomize his postmodern approach:

Koolhaas, Rem. "Junkspace." October, no. 100 (Spring 2002): 175-190. http://www.btgjapan.org/catalysts/rem.html

Koolhaas, Rem, and Sanford Kwinter. Rem Koolhaas : Conversations with Students, Architecture at Rice University 30. Houston, Tex: New York : Rice University School of Architecture; Princeton Architectural Press, 1996. (Available from the ABP library)

See you all on Wednesday. Presentations will run for 7 minutes and 3 min. for comments from your classmates, Prof Louis Sauer and I. Find details of your presentation and essay requirements in the website under Programe.


Beatriz C. Maturana

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Grocon awarded bushfire cleanup contract

Stumbled on an obscure bushfire-related link while doing some research for another project.

http://www.grocon.com.au/pdfs/melbourne/BushfireCleanup.pdf

further links:
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25116284-661,00.html

It is interesting because Grocon are known for their work with concrete-based construction. Eureka tower is an extremely unusual building because it is a concrete-based extra-tall skyscraper, rather then the usual steel frame.

Many of the residents of the bushfire areas were concerned about ending up in over-regulated concrete bunkers that would destroy their lifestyles in order to make them fire-safe. It is interesting that Grocon has won the contract for this job, as it would seem that the Government is indeed leaning towards concrete-based reconstruction. It should be noted that the contract is just for clean-up and demolition, but I'd imagine this would position the company excellently for reconstruction tenders.

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dream, time and reality

Yue and Hannah are investigating how imagination acts as the medium of understanding
the healthy ecologies of land by human minds. Through the study on ‘Walking City’
and other un-built imaginary architecture, the expression of discontentment with their
reality while seeking to a ‘dream land’ is explored. From there, issues arised
politically, socially, economically, environmentally are analyzed corresponding to 
particular period of time. By discovering these, we would able to identify the roots
and the social demand for sustainable developments. Cases such as ‘Palm Islands’
will also be investigated as a contemporary approach to how people are trying to
create sustainable ' fantasy' place.

We are really sorry for the late posting, because we could not use the
blog properly. We have to use Kelvin's account to blog it.
Thanks for his help.

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Imagination&Reality: It's role in Ecotopias

Nicole and Jingyi are looking at the role of reality and imagination in the steps towards a more sustainable future, and designs of Ecotopias. They argue that the roles of reality, imagination and the future are all interlinked and inform eachother in a continuous cycle. As a case study, they are investigating how the design elements of Ecocity, Dongtan, has responded to reality and imagination, and affect our future.

ImaginationShow&Tell

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PLAY: Understanding sustainability through experience of materials

Samantha and Cherie are researching the role of play of Understanding sustainability through the experience. Experiential play in our approach is the hands on learning process of understanding sustainability. Every small step of educating the society to change the worlds' take on sustainability makes a difference, and several model projects were taken to study the success of them. The Greenhouse by Joost, the Notley Green Primary School and the Children's Activity Centre (Melbourne) by Phooey Architects were chosen based on its high interaction with its users.
Sam and Cherie

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