New looks

After using the elegant WordPress theme called ‘ArtsEmerging’ for three and a half years, designed by Nathalien Stern, it’s time for something else. The new ‘Ettison’ theme design, by Jason Sanzone, is contrasting and crispy and will hopefully last some time as well. Adaptations of the theme were made possible by Fiveblackcats.

The reader may also have noticed that the blog title is now both in English and Portuguese, and that most of the recent posts have been written in English. The reason for these changes is that the blog is not only intended for readers in Brazil and the English language offers the broadest possible audience and opportunities for people to write comments. Some posts will still be written in Portuguese though. As yet there are no plans for posting in the Dutch language, my mother tongue. From now on, the blog will also be available at urbanchange.eu


The old looks

Bostheater Amsterdam

In 1985 a group of actors and their director, in need of a place to perform their plays, decided to bring new life to the abandoned open air theatre in Amsterdam. ´Bostheater´ lies at the southern edge of the city, not far from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, in the middle of a large suburban park from the 1960´s called Amsterdamse Bos.

When the weather is good, the theater is an enormous success. Hours before the show starts, many of the 1600 seats are already occupied by spectators who bring picnic baskets and bottles of wine. During the show, actors sometimes suddenly pause, when a roaring airplane bound for Schiphol airport flies over low. This doesn´t bother the theater so much anymore though, since the airport became main sponsor a couple of years ago.

The outdoor stage made of concrete supports various types of scenery, from gigantic wooden structures to piled maritime containers. Before and after the play, the stage functions as a bar.

Read more:
www.bostheater.nl

Marianne Kleijer, thanks for the tip.

65 years after Fat Man

On 9 August 1945 the US airforce dropped an atomic bomb, nicknamed Fat Man, on Nagasaki. Three days earlier, Little Boy had been dropped on Hiroshima. Nagasaki had a population of about 450.000, 65.000 of whom were either killed or injured by the bomb. The entire city was rebuilt afterwards. The bombing of Nagasaki was reason for the Japanese to surrender and therefore counts as the ending of World War II.
Yesterday the yearly memorial service was held in Nagasaki. For the first time, an american official was present at the occasion.


Nagasaki during the memorial service in 2010


Nagasaki after bombing in 1945


Nagasaki areal photography – before and after


Fat Man

Read More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagasaki_and_Hiroshima

Praça Roosevelt – revista Acrópole

A praça Roosevelt foi construída há quarenta anos e está prestes a ser demolida para poder realizar um novo projeto municipal. Os posts sobre a praça em Projetos Urbanos têm sido muito bem lidos e geram uma discussão em torno do futuro deste local importante do centro de São Paulo. Portanto, novas informações sobre a praça são sempre benvindas.

Em um dos últimos volume da revista Acrópole – extinta em 1971 – foi publicado o projeto original da praça Roosevelt, projetado por Roberto Coelho Cardozo, Antonio Augusto Antunes Netto, Marcos de Souza Dias, com colaboração de Luciano Fiaschi. Projeto estrutural: J.C. Figueiredo Ferraz Ltda. Construção: Consórcio Técnico de Engenharia. Realização: Prefeitura Municipal.

Clique aqui para baixar a matéria completa, publicada na Revista Acrópole, n.780, Dezembro de 1970.

Leia mais sobre a praça Roosevelt em Projetos Urbanos:
Praça Roosevelt – os projetos
Praça Roosevelt – cleaning up
Praça Roosevelt – praia Roosevelt
Praça Roosevelt – mais uma revitalização

A revista Acrópole, na época a revista Brasileira de arquitetura com o maior número de edições, publicou em 1970 uma edição especial da Universidade de Brasília.
Clique aqui para baixar a edição completa.

Leia mais sobre a extinta revista Acrópole:
www.vitruvius.com.br/revistas/…

Agradecimentos:
Jorge Eduardo Rubies (associação Preserva São Paulo); Universidade de Brasília (UnB)