OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, OCAT in short, is based in an old industrial area in the Nanshan district in Shenzhen. Warehouses and factory buildings have been preserved to house creative companies, restaurants, galleries, bars and exhibition spaces, as well as a lecture room. Among others, the famous Chinese architecture firm Urbanus has an office here. The complex provides a pleasant small-scale oasis in the middle of new high-rise neigborhoods. The OCT (Overseas Chinese Town) is also well-known for it´s theme parks, such as ‘Window of the World’, ‘Splendid China’, and ‘Happy Valley’.
Out My Window is a beautifully interactive tour around the world, looking out the window of people’s homes in highrise buildings, directed by Katerina Cizek.
“[…] one of the world’s first interactive 360 ̊documentaries – about exploring the state of our urban planet told by people who look out on the world from highrise windows. Its’s a journey around the globe throught the most commonly built form of the last century: the concrete-slab residential tower. Meet remarkable highrise residents who harness the human spirit – and the power of community – to resurrect meaning amid the ruins of modernism. With more than 90 minutes of material to explore, Out My Window features 49 stories from 13 cities, told in 13 languages, accompanied by a leading-edge music playlist.”
At the conference, Association Delta Metropolis will present two papers on the project SprintCity (in Dutch: SprintStad), together with the Centre for Serious Gaming (TUDelft). An additional demonstration of the SprintCity multi-player serious game will be held during the event. SprintCity explores the possiblities of high frequency rail transport with ‘metro-quality’ in the Randstad region (or Delta Metropolis), in tandem with urban developments around railway stations, thereby improving the connectivity, diversity and sustainability of the region. The name SprintCity refers to the new local train service in the Netherlands, called Sprinter. In the game, the players develop station areas until the year 2030. To be succesful, cooperation and negotiation with the other players is required.
The first paper – Gaming the Interrelation between Rail Infrastructure and Station Area Development: Part 1 – Modeling the Serious Game ‘SprintCity’ – applies existing theory and models, describing the relation between mobility and land use, to the Delta Metropolis. A more extensive model is presented, with external factors, variables and specific actors (stakeholders) from the region. Finally, the paper explains how this model forms the basis for the serious computer game SprintCity and why the game is a suitable instrument to investigate the complex problem of mobility and urbanization in the region.
The second paper – Gaming the Interrelation between Rail Infrastructure and Station Area Development: Part 2 – Insights from the Serious Game ‘SprintCity’ – describes the preliminary results of SprintCity game play with the real stakeholders in the field. The prototype version of the game has been played 13 times, with decision makers, planners, real estate developers and other public and private organizations. Version 1.0 is to be released this week and will be played for the first time November 8 2010. The paper confirms that the game leads to interesting exchange of knowledge between science and practise, giving insight to the players regarding their role and the most important factors in the real-world proces. The players also give feedback for improvement and adjustment of the underlying model.
This year, Urban farming is a hotter topic than ever before… “In February, Mayor Mike McGinn and Seattle City Councilmembers announced the “2010: The Year of Urban Agriculture” campaign to promote urban agriculture efforts and increase community access to locally grown food.” … and not only in Seattle. September this year, at the Rotterdam Harvest (Oogst) Festival, the planning department of Rotterdam presented a plan for urban agriculture in that city. Local urban agriculture organizations are mushrooming around the globe and dozens of debates and events are held.
Let´s see what else is going on in urban agriculture and which questions are at the center of the current debate.
1: Urban agriculture as an answer to urban decay
Many initiatives for urban agriculture arise from the existence of urban voids. Abandoned urban land is often the result of financial crises and loses its productive function during a period of time. The Zuidas development area in Amsterdam, for example, is rather paralised by the current real estate crisis and therefore copes with vacant lots at this moment. Temporarily an entire block has been transformed into a corn field with a pig farm and tennis courts in the middle.
September this year Stipo and Cities organized the seminar ‘Farming the City: Temporary Urban Agriculture in Amsterdam’, to explore current trends in urban agriculture and ways to stimulate initiatives in temporary use of vacant land for farming. A number of questions were posed: How can the (economic) benefits of urban agriculture be assessed? How can excessive bureaucracy around this kind of temporary use be avoided? How to deal with pollution in urban brownfields? How to organize and represent all small initiatives together?
In Detroit, more than just a temporary crisis occurs. The vast abandoned inner city areas are screaming for new use and the city is desperate for new jobs, after GM and other automobile manufacturers went bankrupt. Fast Company writes: “A quarter of the city is nothing more than vacant lots–40 square miles of “urban prairie.” […] And what will Bing [the mayor] do with all of that empty space? Turn over as many as 10,000 acres to John Hantz to farm.
The owner of an eponymous financial services firm, Hantz is prepared to sink $30 million of his personal fortune into coaxing peaches, plums, lettuce, and heirloom tomatoes from the ground (or in hydroponic greenhouses). In exchange, all he’s asking for is free tax-delinquent land and tax breaks on agriculture. The city is considering giving him both. Hantz told Fortune he’s aiming for an average cost of $3,000 per acre, valuing it no differently than outlying farmland. But he also promises to create hundreds of green jobs, grow a surplus of fresh produce for residents, attract tourists, and “reintroduce Detroiters to the beauty of nature.”
2: Urban agriculture as sustainable metropolitan food production
Despite all great initiatives and ideas, an important question remains whether urban food production can replace traditional country side farming. The Why Factory (TUDelft), with MVRDV and Stroom Den Haag investigated the possibility of producing food for the city The Hague, in the Netherlands, completely within the existing city limits. This turned out to be quite impossible or at least undesirable. A study of intensive food production in Barcelona gives a similar result. And even if it worked, if the entire food production of cities could take place inside the city itself, what on earth would become of the countryside? Jungle?
This does not mean, however, that urban agriculture leads nowhere. Perhaps the goals of urban agriculture should be set differently, for example emphasizing on social, cultural and ecological aspects, and not so much on economic effects. In the master plan for the suburban Shenyang university campus, a special role was maintained for the traditional rice cultivation in the area, as a landscape element. Besides creating a comfortable and interesting green space for students and employees, part of the land actually remains agricultural in a new urban context.
3: Urban agriculture: farming or gardening?
Indeed it seems unavoidable that part of our food, especially wheat, corn, soy etc., will be produced outside the city. Fresh vegetables, chickens and fruits, on the other hand, can perfectly be grown in urban areas, while at the same time providing a pleasant job or hobby for the inhabitants. This type of urban gardening fits perfectly with the existing local community initiatives, that mix food production and gardening with social networking, exchange of healthy recipes etc., for example as happens at re:farm the city. And yes, why shouldn´t the authorities promote and stimulate these activities?
And in case of an emergency, a city like Amsterdam could always produce its own food using empty office buildings. According a project by Jurgen Hoogendoorn (municipality of Amsterdam), green areas such as parks are way too small. If the current 1,3 million square meters of empty office space were transformed into highly productive greenhouses with LED lamps, just like illegal cannabis farms, food could be produced for about 2,6 million people.
