Atlanta Beltline

Posted on September 8, 2010 by Merten

Ryan Gravel is one of the few urban designers who is actually seeing his graduation project come true. In 1999 he presented a plan for re-use of the obsolete Amtrak rail tracks around Atlanta. With help of local communities and public partnerships the plan turned into a grassroots movement.
Today, Gravel still works on the project with design firm Perkins + Will, chosen by the Atlanta BeltLine Inc.

The Atlanta BeltLine at its core is the addition of a new 35 km transit system that connects to existing and proposed regional transit networks, linking riders to major activity centers and attractions. BeltLine transit will connect Atlanta neighborhoods, businesses and destinations and create a more accessible, affordable, sustainable and walkable city in the years to come. In total the Atlanta BeltLine will create more than 52 km of multi-use trails in a linear park that will connect 40 Atlanta parks. Along the park, new building development and other economic activities will take place.

Several kilometres of linear park have already been inaugurated. And to strengthen the recreational use of the corridor, a design competition called Playable Site is being held to develop a master plan for play at the Atlanta BeltLine.

Reonald Westerdijk, thanks for the tip.

Incubator projects Rotterdam

Posted on September 7, 2010 by Merten

The municipality of Rotterdam doesn’t have a specific portal for incubator projects, the way Amsterdam does. However, several industrial buildings in the former port areas are being used by creative industries.
The artist collective De Fabriek occupied abandoned spaces in Delfshaven, Crooswijk and Spaanse Polder. Some, like Poortgebouw, are the result of squatting. Others, like Creative Factory, Creative Cube and Schieblock, have been negotiated with the owners by cultural groups. The neatly renovated units of for example the Schiecentrale attract more established young entrepreneurs, in search for well a designed post-industrial loft with a view. And the RDM wharf area is being transformed into the RDM campus, an area with several educational institutes and working space for start-up businesses.

In general, more scepticism exists with regard to incubator projects in Rotterdam. They usually take a longer time to get filled up by young creative professionals than in Amsterdam. On the other hand, the supply of empty industrial and office buildings near the centre is more generous. Despite this fact, creative industries in Rotterdam fear that none of these low-cost spaces will eventually remain.

Vacant NL

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Merten

Vacant NL is the theme of the Dutch pavilion at Venice Architecture Biennale 2010.

The blue urban landscape consists of styrofoam models of empty buildings in the Netherlands. Quite a lot altogether…

Incubator projects Amsterdam

Posted on September 1, 2010 by Merten

Click here to open interactive map

The city of Amsterdam has quite some experience in organizing incubator projects, due to the local incubator policy (Broedplaatsenbeleid).
Incubator projects are basically contracts of temporary use of vacant buildings, between the owner (private, municipality, housing corporations etc.) and a cultural end-user (individual or group). Subsidies for these projects – available for both owner and end-user – are centrally managed by Bureau Broedplaatsen Amsterdam, following certain rules for building renovation, maximum rent and minimum rental period. Since 2000 this bureau is part of the municipality of Amsterdam and maintains close contact with owners, real estate investors, districts councils, cultural end-users, incubator groups, real estate brokers and banks.

Incubator project in former chewing gum factory – click here

Incubator project in former garage – click here

65 years after Fat Man

Posted on August 10, 2010 by Merten

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