Conjunto de reportagens do Estadão, lançamento 03 de Agosto de 2008. São discutidas as seguintes megalópoles: São Paulo, Tóquio, Lagos, Chongqing, Moscou, Londres, Nova Iorque, Xangai, Rio de Janeiro, Cidade do México, Mumbai e Brasília.
www.estadao.com.br/megacidades
As reportagens providenciam uma boa introdução de cada cidade com fotografias e vídeos e alguns dados, sem aprofundar muito.
Megacidades, a lista
Represa Guarapiranga, São Paulo
Arbat Prospekt, Moscou
The former Island (now peninsula) – located in Brooklyn New York and named “Coneyne Eylandt” (Rabbit Island) by the Dutch – has been an icon of upcoming mass spectacle and entertainment and also of fast urban decay and deterioration. Today, the area is undergoing processes of new investment and urban revitalization.
History
The island was developed as a beach resort from the 1860´s when it was connected by rail to Manhattan. Against the will of those who wanted to preserve the area as a nature reserve, the beach front was filled with amusement parks, restaurants, bars etc. By the beginning of the 20th century Coney Island was the largest entertainment zone in the world. At the time the wooden Boardwalk was the most expensive street in the Monopoly game. Attractions like the Cyclone and Thunderbolt rollercoasters, the Parachute Jump, Steeple Chase, Luna Park, Astroland and the hotdog gained world fame and attracted millions to Coney Island. Spotlights were installed so that the beach might be occupied 24 hours a day.
After World War II the entertainment cluster entered in decline, due to the rise of less crowdy leisure alternatives and cheaper automobiles that put more distant beaches in range. A period of abandonment and closing of amusement parks followed, in which several wooden structures were lost in fires. Several closed parks were purchased by Astroland, which eventually sold all land to the Thor corporation in 2006.
In 2003 the City of New York launched a revitalization project for the area as site for the 2012 Olympics, but did not succeed.
New development
Thor Equities now pretends to turn the area into a contemporary amusement zone with hotels and a new aquarium, investing about $2 billion. The controversial plan has been widely opposed to and still waits for approval in a modified form. During the legal preparations for the development of the site, the company is leasing it back temporarily to Astroland and other amusement businesses.
Read more:
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coney_Island
Coney Island Under Siege – article by David Hershkovits
www.papermag.com/…
Coney Island
www.coneyisland.com
Delirious New York: A retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan –
book by Rem Koolhaas, London 1978
Berlin-based studio Raumlabor designed an air blob that can be blown into a temporary space for eating and dancing at about every available spot in the city. The object has travelled between several points in Duisburg and Mülheim (Germany). In October the studio will realize an intervention on a vacant spot in New York.
The project was developed together with Plastique Fantastique, which is specialized in pneumatic spaces.
Architect Teddy Cruz, born Guatemala, is one of the leading figures in community based design and bottom-up development strategies (as opposed to corporate or State development of real estate).
Today he has his practice in San Diego, California. Most of his projects deal with the complex San Diego – Tijuana border zone. At the same time his studio receives theoretical support by Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums [Planeta Favela].
Although Cruz himself states that only the strategy is important – not the resulting physical aesthetical form – he has established a specific visual language over the years, based on the recycling of building materials, sometimes whole wooden houses or sheds, transported from the United States to Mexico, where they are integrated in Tijuana suburbs. The projects manage to incorporate all these aspects, the border dynamics of suburban poverty, informal urbanism and recycling.
Read more:
Monumental urban implantation of the olympic village and stadiums. Not really an example of democratic urbanism, but they sure get the job done in a very organized way.
