The Manhattan Airport Foundation

Posted on July 24, 2009 by Merten

The Manhattan Airport Foundation (TMAF) was founded to improve the access to air travel for the inhabitants of central New York. Today one passes several hours in traffic jams before reaching one of the distant airports (JFK, Newark and LaGuardia). Why wouldn´t Manhattan, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, deserve a central airport?

The question is, of course, where they would build it. No problem! There is a big rectangular plot of free space in the middle, 3,41 square kilometers in size, New York´s largest remaining undeveloped parcel of land. It is called Central Park. Most New Yorkers go about once a year to the park, while they need to go to the airport a lot more than that.

And what about the park? No need to worry, all green parts that can be saved, will remain in the middle of the airport layout. It is possible to donate money to the group and join them on Facebook and Twitter. Two design competitions are announced on the website, but you´ll have to be invited to be able compete. A joke? Could it ever become reality? Who knows…

More information:
http://manhattanairport.org
http://viajeaqui.abril.uol.com.br/blog/fim-icone… (in portuguese)

Detroit unreal estate agency

Posted on July 4, 2009 by Merten

The Detroit Unreal Estate Agency is an organization that monitors the public plans, personal and artistic initiatives and other events in the derelict area of central Detroit. It has American and Dutch integrants and sponsoring. It features many rundown buildings and vacant lots, role model neighborhoods of modernist planning, urban poetry and ‘un’real estate offered at the price of a mere $3432.12

http://detroitunrealestateagency.blogspot.com

“Detroit Unreal Estate Agency will produce, collect and inventory information on the ‘unreal estate’ of Detroit: that is, on the remarkable, distinct, characteristic or subjectively significant sites of urban culture. The project is aimed at new types of urban practices (architecturally, artistically, institutionally, everyday life, etc) that came into existence, creating a new value system in Detroit.
The project is an initiative by architects Andrew Herscher and Mireille Roddier, curator Femke Lutgerink and Partizan Publik’s Christian Ernsten and Joost Janmaat.
In collaboration with the Dutch Art Institute and the University of Michigan, generously funded by the Mondriaan Foundation.”

Abandoned Michigan Central station, 2004

Lot 13015 Back

Abandoned property

Russell Yard

Short documentary on the idealist neighborhood Lafayette Park, Detroit, designed by Mies van der Rohe and Hilberseimer

Nova Detroit SJC, Brazil

Posted on July 4, 2009 by Merten

In the industrial and technological city of São José dos Campos, State of São Paulo, Brazil, there is a neighborhood called Jardim Nova Detroit. Like the ‘old’ Detroit, Nova Detroit is inhabited by industrial workers of the General Motors plant nextdoor.

The difference is, even with the late automobile crisis, that ‘old’ Detroit has been in a phase of abandonment for decades, while the new Detroit is still growing. What happens when GM also starts cutting jobs in Brazil, no one knows, but São José dos Campos seems to have plenty of alternatives to the automobile industry.

Back to the land below sea level

Posted on April 28, 2009 by Merten

After more than five years in Brazil, I have recently moved back to the Netherlands. For the moment I´m living in Rotterdam. The Projetos Urbanos website and email will continue to function normally.

Port of Rotterdam

North-South connection of Rotterdam over the river Maas

New mixed use developments on the south bank

Zeche Zollverein revisited

Posted on April 28, 2009 by Merten

Zeche Zollverein is part of the greater regional plan Emscher Park for an obsolete industrial region in the German Ruhrgebiet. The plan is supposed to attract leisure functions, culture, innovative companies and design firms to the green postindustrial setting. The Zollverein project, with master plan by OMA, is still running with lack of funding. The design academy with a brand new building by SANAA went bankrupt for lack of students. On the one hand parts of the complex, such as the Kohlenwäsche and the public space in front of it, are being beautifully renovated for cultural events and museum use. On the other hand, most tourists seem to prefer the rundown parts of the Kokerei, dusty, rusty and derelict.

Map of the premises: the Coking Plant, Mining Shaft XII and Shaft 1/2/8