Author Archives: Merten

Blogging the city

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Blogs on urban issues are an increasing resource and platform for urban projects and innovation. As usual, discussions through the Internet lead to meetings in the real world. October 4th 2012, Pop-up City organizes the second edition of the Blogging the City festival in Pakhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam.

‘Blogging the City brings together Europe’s leading city, design and art bloggers, and will be a day full of inspiration for everyone interested in cities, urban development and new media. If you’d like attend the one-day festival, you can RSVP for the afternoon program, the night program, or both of the programs.’

 

 

The post-Olympic city

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What happens to a city after the Olympics are gone? This question is asked frequently these days, now mostly concerning the East London area. The exhibition on The Post-Olympic City, opened today in Storefront, New York, tries to answer this question.

“The Olympic City” is an ongoing project by Pack and Hustwit that looks at the legacy of the Olympic Games in former host cities around the world. Since 2008, Pack and Hustwit have sought out and photographed the successes and failures, the forgotten remnants and ghosts of the Olympic spectacle. Thus far they’ve documented Athens, Barcelona, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Montreal, Lake Placid, Rome, and Sarajevo, with plans to document Beijing, Moscow, Berlin, London, and other Olympic cities.

40 years of massive growth

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How much have we built on the earth’s surface over the last 40 years?
Wired Science features satellite images of urban settlements in the 1970’s and this decade, demonstrating massive urban growth.There is also a set of videos about Landsat’s most historically significant images, including the Kuwait oil well fires and Amazone deforestation.

Growth of Las Vegas

“In celebration of four decades of collection of irreplaceable data and incredible images, the Landsat team released these images of change in 11 cities and urban areas all over the world. Images courtesy of NASA and the USGS.”

Growth in the Pearl River Delta

Growth in Dubai

 

London olympics 2012 – inauguration

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The games have begun!

After years of planning, building and preparations the Olympic Village has been inaugurated and is now fully functional. For the period after the games, a legacy plan has been drawn up. The utility of the venues, infrastructure and accommodations is to be guaranteed by downscaling of the stadiums, reuse of the hotels as apartments and further redevelopment of the East London area.

The first frustrations of the event have already floated to the surface as well:
Local residents complain about missiles and other military equipment installed on their roofs, for security purposes, while taxi drivers complain about the exclusive VIP traffic lanes, reserved for IOC personnel and sponsors. The Olympic cauldron had to be extinguished and lit again in order to move it out of the way on the opening night. And a great number of the temporary seats in the Aquatics Centre does not seem to have a clear view of the dives, due to the curved roof. Architect Zaha Hadid however is not to blame, they say, since it concerns the temporary seats and tickets should not have been sold for those seats during diving sessions. Anyway, all of these troubles will be over after the spectacle.

For the period after the games, many doubts were raised regarding the gentrification of the East London neighborhoods of the already rather hyped Hackney Wick, and the traditional working class neighborhoods Tower Hamlets and Newham. What will happen there, when the athletes are gone, remains to be seen. As yet, the Shard, now the highest tower in Europe, designed by Renzo Piano and located in Southwark, is still largely vacant. Smaller and more flexible projects are mushrooming in the Olympic area, such as the White Building, a refurbishment of an old industrial building by architect David Kohn.

The Shard building

The White Building

Does the Olympics bring sustainable developments to East London and will they bring long term jobs to this area plagued by unemployment? Will gentrification of the East lead to a less segregated London? We’ll take a look at the site again at the end of the games and see what happens.

In the mean time, have a look at ‘London’s Loss? Why Hosting the Olympics Is Bad Business’ – Time

Or take a look at the Olympic Village in Google maps:

London Games open larger map

Peri-urbanisation in Europe

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A new kind of space is emerging in Europe: The Peri-urban contains the urban fringe and urban periphery and is located in between the urban and rural areas. It is here in this in-between-space that major demographic, economic and land use shifts will take place, presenting the urban regions with several challenges of sprawl, air- and spatial quality and accessibility.



The PLUREL program has done research on peri-urbanisation in 27 EU countries, on the regional level, and with 6 case studies, including Haaglanden in the Netherlands. According to PLUREL’s definition, the Randstad Holland consists almost entirely of urban and peri-urban areas. And in the top-20 of peri-urban regions in the EU-27, 9 regions are Dutch!

In the Synthesis Report (download full PDF), dynamics and driving forces of the peri-urban are discussed, as well as possible future problems and policy challenges. Peri-urban agendas are put forward regarding Economy and employment, Population and migration, Housing and community, Mobility and transport, Food and farming, Environment and landscape, Recreation and tourism, and Managing growth.

Four scenarios are used in the project:

  • High Growth (‘Hypertech’)
  • Climate Change (‘Extreme Water’)
  • Energy Crisis (‘Peak Oil’)
  • Social Fragmentation (‘Walls and enclaves’)

The report ends by setting out new concepts for urban-rural linkages and providing recommendations for targeted policies for rural-urban regions across Europe.

Flooding of the Elbe river, Germany, 2002

View over Warsaw, Poland (PLUREL case study)

Editors: Annette Piorr, Joe Ravetz, Ivan Tosics
Publisher: University of Copenhagen/Academic Books Life Sciences
(ISSN: 978-87-7903-535-5)