Brazil has a new ambitious architecture magazine: Monolito, edited by Fernando Serapião. The first issue of the magazine focuses on the work of Angelo Bucci and was launched in Rio de Janeiro in February 2011. This month, the second issue is launched in São Paulo. It shows the work of Andrade Morettin associated architects, where I worked from 2005 until 2008.
November 2010 Merten Nefs visited Shenzhen and Hong Kong, in the Chinese Pearl River Delta. On behalf of the Deltametropolis Association he presented the SprintCity project at an international conference in Shenzhen and spoke to several professionals in Hong Kong to learn about their strategies for development of public transport nodes and the surrounding areas. He visited a number of central and suburban metro stations of the MTR corporation, including the recent developments around Kowloon station and ‘new towns’ like Tuen Mun and Tsing Yi.
Click here to read the full report of the trip to China (Dutch).
New town around Tsing Yi metro station
Times Square, near Causeway Bay metro station, central Hong Kong
Urbanization, light-rail and bicycle parking near Tuen Mun metro station
Shopping center and residential towers near Tuen Mun metro station
Urban Change wishes you an inspiring 2011
Projetos Urbanos deseja você um 2011 com ótimas idéias
Merten Nefs will represent Association Delta Metropolis at the international conference ‘Next Generation Infrastructure Systems For Eco-Cities’, which takes place in Shenzhen from November 11 to 13, 2010. The conference is organized by Next Generation Infrastructures and discusses how innovative infrastructure systems may contribute to a new generation of sustainable cities.
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.
Read more:
Download paper 1
Download paper 2
http://deltametropool.nl/nl/sprintstad_presentatie_in_china (Dutch)
http://deltametropool.nl/nl/sprintstad (Dutch)
Take a glance at the prototype version of the game:
At the expert meeting ‘The Seriousness of Play’ the question was asked how art can be used to improve access of the population to cultural heritage. The meeting was meant to bridge the gap between artists, curators and heritage institutions such as museums. Merten Nefs was invited to shed light on the matter from the perspective of architecture and urban planning. A short number of inspiring examples were given of cooperation between a museum and an artist, for example at the Zuiderzeemuseum and Art Fortress Vijfhuizen in the Netherlands. However, this cooperation is rather an exception, not the rule.
As the border between art and the artist is quite subtle, some of the artists soon came to the conclusion that they weren´t eager to be used for anything by anyone, let alone to promote institutions, nations or cities. For example, in incubator areas throughout the world, young artists usually help to raise profits for the real estate industry. The benefits for the pioneers themselves are limited. The statement was made, that artists should actively propose interventions in a museum or other cultural heritage, instead of waiting for an invitation.
On the other hand, if the artist maintained a firm position in the process, instead of an ‘underdog’ position, both heritage institutions and artists would benefit. If the artists became more aware of their cultural and socio-economic role, perhaps they could negotiate better with institutions and investors to realize their personal artistic goals while at the same time performing a productive role in society. In this case, everyone uses everyone to achieve their objectives. But that’s a lot of if´s…
It was mentioned that one of the difficulties in practice is that an artist cannot guarantee the results of the artistic process beforehand, which makes it more complicated for companies and institutes to start a partnership. At the end of the evening, it was concluded that cooperation between heritage institutions and artists can be fruitful, but no one really knows what would be the best way to cooperate.
The Seriousness of Play was organized on September 10 2010, by Cultureel Erfgoed Noord-Holland, Kunst & Cultuur Noord-Holland, Saskia Monshouwer and Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen.