Atlantis 27_1

ATLANTIS MAGAZINE FOR URBANISM & LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

#27.1 OCTOBER 2016

DIALOGUES INTERACTING PRACTICES

FROM THE BOARD Committees 2016

Dear Polis members,

We could not be as visible as we are without the great effort of a lot of active students. With the help of them we can organise excursions, lectures, workshops, drinks and events. The Polis board wants to thank all the people involved for their great efforts and positive input!

We hit the ground running alright. Every committee on the POLIS team has been racing at full speed since day one of the new academic year. And so they should, for there is a lot to do. All the plans that were made during the past eight months are finally set for realisation!

We are always looking for enthusiastic people to join.

Interested in one of the Polis committees? Do not hesitate to contact us at our Polis office (01.west.350) or by e-mail: contact@polistudelft.nl

URBAN AND LANDSCAPE WEEK ATLANTIS EDUCATION PR COMMITTEE BIG TRIP & SMALL TRIP

Polis board Supriya Krishnan - Chairman Alex Chih-Chu Lee - Secretary IJsbrand Heeringa - Treasurer Alankrita Sarkar - Public Relations Panagiota Tzika-Kostopoulou - Atlantis

Putting things in perspective: We welcomed new students at the start of the year with POLIS Welcome drinks at the Bouwpub in September, where we had the more enthusiastic members joining the family. Atlantis pulled all of its creative minds out of summer holiday slumber to reach the press in less than a month. The Education committee saw a major overhaul of their way of conducting studio reviews. The Urban and Landscape Week committee seems to have skipped summer all together and has been working as hard as possible to rein in more brilliant speakers for their big event this October (17, 18, and 19). BIG trip has finalized the schedules of the much awaited journey to Croatia in November. Organization for the POLIS Alumni Event / Network Dinner is running at full speed to be in time for the big day on October 19. It is imperative that we appreciate the dedication of our Public Relations team that has been working overtime to keep communications in line for all our endeavours to our members. In the midst of all the hustle, we still managed to conduct another successful edition of our in-house event HARDTalks in September.

Registrations are open for ULWeek/BIG Trip (drop to our office or the website) and if you are looking to be part of the next Board or a member of POLIS, this is the right time to join in all the fun! As said earlier, everything seems to be happening at once and it is indeed incredible to race towards the grand finish all at the same time. But truth be told, so far so good.

Hats off to everyone.

With regards, IJsbrand, Alankrita, Nagia, Alex, and Supriya

Become a member Not already a member of Polis? For only €12.50 a year as a student of TU Delft, €30 for individual professional membership, or €80 for organizations you can join our network! You will receive our Atlantis Magazine (for free) four times a year, a monthly newsletter and access to all events organized by Polis.

You will also get the warm feeling of supporting the work of a passionate group of students!

E-mail contact@polistudelft.nl to find out more.

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ATLANTIS

EDITORIAL

MAGAZINE FOR URBANISM & LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

Atlantis Volume #27

As a discipline, we need to speak up more.

Are you passionate about urbanism and landscape architecture and would like to contribute? Contact us at: atlantismagazinetudelft@gmail.com

In order to establish our unique voice behind the idea of ‘Taking a Stand’, we thus started to try and navigate our position as Urbanists and Landscape architects in order to cope with the urgencies of the rapidly changing landscapes of today. For us, this could no longer be ignored, and rather than coming to terms with this, we chose to address our concerns.

The first issue, in a 4 part series following the broader narrative of ‘Dialogues,’ is thus about the intersection of politics of different practices of, for instance, art, media, culture or even violence and human rights with Urbanism and Landscape architecture. It argues for creating a potential new history and a new role for our field and its impact on a society in flux. By shedding pre-conceived notions about the field, we gave ourselves the opportunity to question what our practice now needs to embody and portray. What issues do we now need to deal with in order to make sense of a city, as it already exists? We realized that in order to have a transformative impact as designers, we cannot function in isolation, but as an assembly of dynamics. The articles explore the limits of this co-existence by conversing with multiple knowledge bases, cultures and practices.

By addressing several constituent groups with his designs, Rahul Mehrotra talks about the need for creating intersections for differences to exist. It leads us to question: who does our practice even address? The article about Stealth, studies the context in which we place these creations, asking the question, ‘Who builds the city and who is it for?’

An interview with David Knight and Finn Williams explores regulation, policy and politics in the built environment, and how these impact ad challenge agency, creativity and design.

In contrast to this, Ruiying Liu offers us a choice to interpret reality ourselves, by exploring the practice of drawing as a procedure, synthesizing the ‘genius locii' of a place. Supriya Krishnan analyses the paradox of discomfort experienced due to the act of being watched, in the digital realm. When did we let technology take precedence over privacy? Neda Taiyebi lets her art do the talking, introducing room for play, by transforming war-machines using paint. Perhaps sometimes a quiet gesture is all it takes to make noise. Other articles included in the magazine are interwoven with questions of temporality, free access to basic human rights, local economies, and media in the digital age to try and explore solutions that we as Urbanists and Landscape architects need to now adopt.

As a narrative of articles, which have been very attractively arranged by Gaila Constantini, we hope the magazine compels enough provocation among the readers to look forward to the next issue which interprets ‘Dialogues over Intersecting Geographies.’ Enjoy reading!

Editors-in-Chief, Shruti Maliwar, Kritika Sha

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CONTENTS

UL WEEK // 06 20:61 DIALOGUES FOR THE FUTURE SAHIL KANEKAR & SUPRIYA KRISHNAN

INTERACTING

PRACTICES

OF

DYNAMICS

VARIED

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15

JERE

KUZMANIC

WORKS PRABU

//

SAI

35

WARPED

OF

JSBRAND

ART

NEDA

THE

M

//

CONFLICT

HEERINGA TAIYEBI

29 OF

// 39 SHELTER LANDSCAPE (IR)RELEVANCE

INTERVIEW

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INTERVIEW

GEOGRAPHIES

&

MANOJ

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WITH

WITH

RUIYING

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//

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27

RAISE

//

LIU

AIRBORNE

•

RISE

MNIF

DAVID

RAHUL

•

&

AS

A

19

STAD

WIND ROSE BEING

IN

WAR

MALIWAR

THE

MAAK

MACHINES

ENERGY

UN

COALITION

SHRUTI

MEHROTRA

TRANSFORMING

WATCHING AMINA

ARCHITECTURE

HABITAT

INTO

TECHNOLOGY

COMPETITION

WATCHED

SUPRIYA

TEAM

KRISHNAN

// 43 SEEKING (IM)BALANCE, CHALLENGING

KNIGHT

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AND

FINN

WILLIAMS

BY

KATE

UNSWORTH

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Dialogues for the future #ULW2016 is coming #2061 is coming.

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Our imagination for the future has been restricted by our individual expertise and resultant perspectives. We have been looking at possibilities through our own set of glasses resulting in a limited, one-sided inventory of perceived futures. What if we widen the imagination spectrum to look to the future together?

ULWeek Committee MSc students, Urbanism TU Delft

Sahil Kanekar & Supriya Krishnan

It will be the best of times, it will be the worst of times, it will be the age of wisdom, it will be the age of foolishness, it will be the epoch of belief, it will be the epoch of incredulity, it will be the season of Light, it will be the season of Darkness, it will be the spring of hope, it will be the winter of despair, we will have everything before us, we will have nothing before us, we will be all going direct to Heaven, we will be all going direct the other way. . .

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

What is ULWeek? ‘ Urban and Landscape Week’ is the biggest annual academic symposium hosted by TU Delft’ s Faculty of Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences. It is organized by study association POLIS comprised of masters’ students from the urbanism and landscape architecture. The ULWeek, as it is known, provides a platform for collaborative and multidisciplinary engagement by inviting students, researchers and professionals within different academic disciplines from within Europe and overseas. The week sees a series of curated lectures, seminars, workshops and debates which revolve around a particular theme in an attempt to understand routes, practices and issues of contemporary urbanism, while trying to find its future possibilities.

The goal of the ULWeek is to bring together people interested in future development of urban landscapes and the built environment together, and provide a platform for discussion with creative and technical practices. Each year, the ULWeek formulates a theme

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1. Man with the glasses image derived from Life Magazine 2. Aim and objectives of ULWeek © Organising team

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based on current or controversial discussions about the built environment by consulting different professionals and students. This theme is the guiding factor around which all events are positioned.

realities the outcomes of which will have to be dealt with our generation.

2061 - Dialogues for future

The aim of the ULWeek 2016 is to create a platform for a multidisciplinary dialogue between students, academicians and professionals, to inspire the participants to ask questions outside their usual routine and initiate a holistic imagination of future scenarios. Spanning across fields of infrastructure, communication, technology, politics, sociology, environment, energy, the idea is to think multidisciplinary across time and space.

The world is in a phase of rapid transition. This evolution can be illustrated on how human civilization has transformed in all aspects (social, economic, spatial) over the last two decades. Giant leaps in technology and their impact on human behavior are an example of how this transition has had an impact on human life. It is worth noting that this impact had not been foreseen.

What do we aim for?

The future, therefore, is uncertain.

What if we step out of our field of expertise and our comfort zone to create a more inclusive dialogue for the future? Will this dialogue expand the range of possible future scenarios or narrow it down to a select few? What would the role of our profession be in this new dialogue? Will a new era of post-globalization emerge out of these uncertainties? How will that affect our future way of life?

The event has been christened 2061 as a subtle reference to legendary writer George Orwell’s classic political fiction and dystopian science-fiction Nineteen Eighty-Four. The novel, conceptualized in 1948. It presents a future narrative in an imaginary state based on the themes of nationalism, futurology, censorship and surveillance for the year 1984. ULWeek 2016 will explore outlooks for the year 2061. An event which takes place in 2016 about a discussion for year 2061, utopian or dystopian backdrop? Upto the audience!

Different scenarios reflect the growing uncertainties we live in. Climate change, depletion of fossil resources, demographic shifts, migration and transformation in political paradigm are a few of the obvious and drastic

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Process As mentioned before, every year ULWeek has a theme to position all the discussions and debates around it. After studying the format of previous ULWeek symposiums, the current committee decided that we need some new thoughts, open questions, etc. as a conclusive result for the event. This could range from a concrete product, ideas, to non-conclusive, but theme based questions that remain unanswered.

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3.The "Revelation".

Event at BK City, TU Delft Š Organising team 4.Competition outline developed by the organising team

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The discussion started with how to achieve this through the current format of the event. How can we make the event intense, provocative and multidisciplinary at the same time? Over some discussions, we came up with an idea of compressing the symposium in three full days instead of a week, which shall make it more intense and engaging. Moreover, to have an end product, we took a decision to modify the format by introducing an interdisciplinary competition.

Multidisciplinary Aspect But still, the question was how to make the event multi-disciplinary. What will excite students and professionals from other departments and make them participate in the ULWeek? It all started from a very casual discussion over energy transition and imagining how it will change everything in the future; our lifestyle, our job, our built environment, etc. We, as a committee, decided to have similar conversations with our fellow students, but from departments other than architecture, urbanism and landscape architecture.

We all knew that all professions of the future will be affected by radical shifts in the environment. This gave us a framework to decide on speakers for the event.

Speakers who not only belong to field of urbanism and landscape architecture, but also from aerospace, civil engineering, sociology, economics or politics, who talk about their expertise and about its future projections.

active participation and rewards for students from all faculties at TU Delft.

The Build up To gauge how much interest such a topic will generate within the audience, the ULWeek committee placed a panel in the architecture faculty with two questions written on it; “2061 is coming closer, what are your hopes and what are your fears?”. The comments we received from every passer by gave us confidence of this topic being very thought and conversation provocative.

As mentioned above, the most important outcome of the event will be the starting of a thought process and the opening of a multidisciplinary discussion about our future. Through lectures and discussions with teammates in the competition, the participants will get insight into other disciplines and fields of practice and different perspectives on how to approach the uncertainties of the future. We hope that the event generates innovative ideas and broadens the spectrum of future possibilities and hereby invite all students, researchers and professors from the TU Delft to be a part of 2061: Dialogues for the Future Revelation event A revelation event and a sneak peek of the ULWeek was held in June. This event revealed the key note speakers and event format in the form of a movie and was extremely well received at the Bouwpub.

Urban and Landscape week Commitee 2016

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After finalizing the theme, the name, and the content of the lectures, a very important element of this year’s ULWeek is the competition. Three words describe it the best: intense, provocative and multi-disciplinary.

The intention of the competition is to explore and conceptualize ideas about the future while engaging in a dialogue with different fields of expertise rather than having a space specific solution for future.

Capitalizing on the diverse faculties at TU Delft, the ULWeek 2016 for the first time will open its doors to

ULWeek 2016 committee consists of diverse group of enthusiasts from different nationalities. We organized ourselves into various sub-teams of students from both Urbanism and Landscape Architecture, who have been working tirelessly for the last few months. With Sahil Kanekar (Chairman) keeping an overview over the entire event, Supriya Krishnan (POLIS board representative) acted as the go-to for most of the administrative work. Franziska Unzner, meanwhile kept a tight rein on our finances. The program team, with Francisco Marín Nieto, Judith Schweizer and Rahul Dewan were predominantly responsible for contacting and coordinating with possible speakers and mentors, to ensure a truly multi-disciplinary event. Public relations was an important part of the committee. Yi Yu, Juan Gutierrex Beltran, Bhavna Thyagarajan and Kallirroi Taroudaki ensured that news of our event reached all ears. Milan Mallinath and Enzo Yap taking charge of the logistics, rounds up our enthusiastic team.

On behalf of the team, we hope this is enough food for thought to entice you to be a part of the dialogue! •

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The speakers carlo ratti

Carlo Ratti is an Italian engineer and architect.

He is also the director of the Senseable City Lab, a research group within the Massachussets Institute of Technology that explores how technology affects the way we design, live and interact with cities.

barbara imhof

Barbara Imhof is manager director and cofounder of LIQUIFER System Group, Vienna.

She is a promoter of Space Architecture as a field of expertise, with exploration of design possibilities for inhabited environments in space.

Carsten Beck

Carsten Beck is the Director of Research at the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies. His goal is to strengthen the basis for decision-making in all kind of upcoming scenarios, by creating awareness of the future and highlighting its importance to the present.

han admiraal

Han Admiraal is the Chairman of ITACUS, the ITA Committee on Underground Space. His research focuses on how sustainable urban development can take into account the potentials of the subsurface.

kees christiaanse

Kees Christiaanse is an urban planner, founder and partner of KCAP, based in Rotterdam, and Programme Leader of the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore, which explores the sustainable future of our urban environments from a scientific, local and design-oriented perspective.

els leclerq

Els Leclerq is a PhD researcher at the Design as Politics Chair, as well as the director of the urban design practice Studio Aitken (London and Rotterdam). Her current research focuses on the real impact of the European ‘urban renaissance’ over the last decades.

the virtual dutchmen

The Virtual Dutch Men is a team of specialists in the field of Virtual Reality. Using the latest technological innovations, their goal is to create virtual experiences capable of making us experience the world in a different way.

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Architecture as a coalition of varied dynamics Political and cultural landscapes are in a state of constant change today. So what is the stance that an architectural firm needs to adopt? Do we just portray what the government wants to represent? Who are we designing for and who are we addressing? In dealing with a multiplicity of users and issues, Architecture, Urbanism and other practices need to overlap and respond cohesively by stretching existing notions to react to the urgencies of rapidly changing territories and real events. In the following interview with Rahul Mehrotra, the Founder Principal of RMA Architects, and Professor of Urban Design and Planning and at Harvard University’ s Graduate School of Design, we discuss these questions and try to examine to what extent Architecture and Urbanism can respond to issues of safety, gender, government bureaucracy, identity and empowerment.

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Interview with Rahul Mehrotra

by

Shruti Maliwar,

MSc student, Urbanism TU Delft

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What comprises the main challenges of you practicing as an architect in India among varied publics and issues?

The challenge of working as an architect especially in India, is that you're working with many different constituent groups. For instance, there is the private sector and the public sector, which is yet present inspite of our liberalization. You sometimes work on self initiated projects or you partner with NGO’ s or segments of the civil society. Each constituent group requires completely different attitudes to time in terms of the way you engage not only with them, but also the time in which things are made and occupied or not. So time becomes a very interesting leveler and instrument in negotiations as well as speculating and projecting.

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The protocols required by each of these constituent groups are also very different. As an architect, if you're conscious about this, you begin to become very nimble in terms of engaging with projects. Protocols are finally what establish the processes for architecture to be made, and so navigating the space through a multiplicity of protocols also needs to be traversed.

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The most challenging part however, is that certain checks and balances do not exist in very formalized types of protocols. These then become the values you bring as an architect. So whether its being sensitive to questions of gender, caste or safety, its just about basic standards. You've got to be self-regulating in order to do that, and to be able to excel in what you produce.

There are no safety nets when you practice in India – its free fall if you don’ t have the self regulatory mechanism in your mind.

So I think the combination of self-regulation while simultaneously navigating different protocols is what really makes working in a place like India challenging and interesting, mainly because your constituencies are never clear. In many societies architecture is regulated by norms, whether its by-laws and their complexities, whether its awareness among clients or whether its just interest in a culture for good architecture. In India today, in the private sector these protocols don't exist. There aren't many regulations and they become very self centric, without often really thinking about the larger community. So as an architect you have to regulate that and simultaneously safeguard the interest of several constituent groups or society more broadly.

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your constituent groups start blurring. Who are you building for and who exactly are you representing?

How does the constant political and social change influence your design consideration?

Society in India for instance, has always been in flux, but the last 5-10 years have been particularly complex due to certain transitions. One is an economic transition, which is happening due to us liberalizing our economy from a social state run economy to a privatized one. Simultaneously, India is moving out of socialism possibly fully in the next two decades and into some hybrid form of capitalism.

We are a society in flux, going through complex transitions in terms of movement and demographies.

Many underrepresented groups are beginning to want to empower themselves. So there is a social churning and politics is sensitive to it. Where theres a churning of societies like that, the boundaries of

There is also an amazing mobility of underrepresented groups, so that’s a transition in itself, where people are suddenly becoming empowered.

This stems from the fact that 30 years ago, the single party norm was very strong and now we are just a collection of fragile coalitions because regional

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1. KMC Corporate office © Tina Nandi 2. HaathiGaon © Rajesh Vohra 3. HaathiGaon © Tina Nandi

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“I tried to question why we take permanence as a default condition.

Temporality is really important now when everything is in constant flux.�

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parties have gained strength as they're representing different groups and demographies. The result of that is pluralism, which can be negative or positive. It can be negative when you want to reinforce difference, whether its done through religion or the right wing. So what does this mean for an architect?

With all these fluctuations, and no constants, how does the political and social context of a place then influence design?

For me, the way you can navigate space like this is that you cannot be too site specific, and I mean that in a political and social sense. However architecture is also not a moveable feat, and at another level it is very specific, to the site, the climate, the soil, the people that use it, the culture.

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A colleague of mine at Harvard, Neil Brennar, shared this idea with me once, of how to then negotiate the context of the context. As we know it as architects, we deal with climate, material, economies, etc, which are local. But it also shifts into another paradigm which is the political and the social. We then have to negotiate and construct other kinds of metanarratives that help us nestle these two.

So globally where do you place these ideas?

The notion of nationhood is a good political concept, but for architects, our flows of ideas and material come from around the world. The territory is continuous. We have to consider varied contexts simultaneously, and as an architect respond to that.

Emblematically, I don't see the local and the global as a binary, I actually see them as interconnected.

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Most of our projects are very local in a program like houses for mahouts and elephants (1), or a toilet in a slum in Mumbai, but for us global ideas inspire those more than local ideas because you don't want to caricature them in making mud-huts for instance.

Then there are often global programs for us, like office buildings like in Hyderabad (2) and many others, where we try to through design localize these global programs and inverse them, because those are where you blur these binaries.

So I think that my approach to practice is that the binary as an idea is a useful one to understand and organize the world around us, but its not a productive one to us as designers. So how can we state and dissipate the polarity of binaries? How do we not polarize differences?

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I have tried to consider how to make cities when you have theses different kinds of space occupations, whether its a state v/s private or its the developer v/s the government client. I think these are things we tend to do to understand the world, but as architects we should be careful about not organizing our ideas around only differences.

5.KMC Corporate office © Tina Nandi 6-7-8. “ Does permanence matter. “, Venice.

Installation at the Venice Biennale © Rahul Mehrotra 12

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How do you then work around these binaries?

Does design then act as a catalyst to blur boundaries?

What I try to do when I work with the government is to kind of bring a corporate culture to them. When I'm working with corporations I try to make them want to do things more socially, for example. In this building we did in Hyderabad which is a corporate office (2), the idea was to take the gardeners and make them access the corporations, blurring social hierarchies by just the way space was organized, by means of a vertical green porous facade. There is visual and social transparency which is thereby generated.

Architecture is a very dangerous instrument in the way to separate people. Places like Mumbai work better because this blur happens automatically as there is no space as we live in a high density condition. But around the world, the gated community is a great example,where architecture has been employed as an instrument to separate not connect, and I believe that it has largely got to do with the way we organize our thoughts about architecture. We are continuously explaining the world in these binaries and so one has to deconstruct that argument.

When you talk about architecture around the world acting as a tool for separation, its a political statement, I think it also should be especially currently. Should architecture be more conscious about politics? How critically should politics be implemented in design?

Architecture by default is political, because when you

organize space in a certain way, that itself is a political statement. The fact that I created gated communities is a political statement.So yes absolutely, politics is critical. Then I think the question is whether architects are conscious about this. Its not being discussed enough, and is not part of our vocabulary. Also, in this post neo-liberal economy the privileged feel more comfortable not raising these issues, because why disturb the status quo.

Our biggest challenge is going to be how do you deal with inequity, what is the expression of inequity and how do we create the illusion of equity? As the state moves away from architecture in places like India, the construction of social institutions is also becoming a privatized activity. Like the many gated campuses or universities that are coming up which aren't affordable or need a car to access becomes a form of exclusion, and we thus perpetuate inequity. So that's political.

Is temporality then the answer to deal with the constantly churning social and political issues, like in the Kumbh Mela project? For instance, its grid system can be viewed as an element of separation, however the groups that occupy it organize themselves in a way wherein everything is not homogenous, leading to a preservation of identity.

Temporality can be factored into the way we design and imagine. One interesting thing about the Kumbh mela is that even their governance structure is on a temporal basis, and shifts every 3 month hierarchically.

I have just completed a catalogue with the Chilean architect Feliepe Vera called ‘ Ephemeral Urbanism,’ published in ARQ , a Chile, Santiago based journal. It 13

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corresponds to my installation at the Venice biennale; ‘ Does permanence matter.’ It was intended as a provocative question. The question is on ephemeral Urbanism, where we created a taxonomy of celebration, of extraction, mining towns, of military, of religion, of transaction, of strife, of refuge and mapped about 300 cases of camps of markets, around the globe. Its about cities being in constant flux. One half is just of the Kumbh Mela and its inculcation of diverse communities, individualism and temporality. I tried to question why we take permanence as a default condition and I would like to use it to clarify, provoke and unsettle pedagogy. Temporality is really important now when everything is in constant flux.

As a professional community together, how do you think we can respond to these societal issues faced today? How could Architecture and Urbanism then challenge the conflicts that arise today, be it in an Indian context, or around the world?

Urban design is a bridge discipline, because it takes policy, and projects and connects them. It is intrinsically about advocacy and it has to be. The spirit of urban design as a practice of advocacy, becomes a way in which one can bridge planning, urbanism and architecture site specificity and actually work at the intersection of politics, of society.

Architects have to make a more complex reading of the environment they build in. One big problem which we tried to highlight in our exhibition, “The State of Architecture,” at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Mumbai, is what is happening with the media, and what is being celebrated. That’ s why in the exhibition we had no weekend houses, no farm houses, no

architecture of indulgence. And the question we then asked is what are architects actually doing in society.

We found that in most magazines, architects are being projected as lifestyle designers, not people who can be instruments in society. So if we want society to listen to us, if we want out voice to be a contributing factor in society, then we have to find more complex ways of defining the agenda.

We have to find how these intersections of politics, economics, culture come together in a particular location, and relate it to the larger contexts, and how it can actually be transformative within the political and social discourse, not as an isolated exercise. Because were making our objects autonomous by not linking them to these intersections and not making the space for these intersections to occur. •

Notes (1)Haathigaon: A housing project for Mahouts (care-takers) and their elephants, Hathigaon (or elephant village), situated at the foothill of the Amber Palace and Fort near Jaipur.

(2) KMC Corporate office: Located in Cyber City, Hyderabad, the corporate buildings employ the idea of a double skin. The inner skin of the building is a reinforced concrete frame while the outer façade comprises of a custom cast aluminum trellis with hydroponic trays integrated for growing a variety of plant species.

(3) Kumbh Mela: The Kumbh Mela project focusses on how infrastructure and street grids are deployed in a way that not only enables the Kumbh Mela festival itself, but enhances its ephemeral and democratic spirit. The city of the Kumbh Mela is planned and built all at once, as a unitary effort.

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9-10. “The State of Architecture,” National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai.

State of the exhibition. © Dinesh Mehta

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Warped Geographies 3 Drawings Ruiying Liu was interested in the redevelopment of Crooswijk in Rotterdam, not by designing a “fixed” image on the basis of either our standard ways of doing urban analysis, nor by choosing a more or less sentimental image of the past. She wanted to design not an image, but a procedure.

One that was based on the character of the area, but leaving ample room for interpretation.

At some point in the design phase, Ruiying must have concluded that the “character” of an area is not necessarily represented best in Cartesian space. She started experimenting with deformed and warped images that allowed to highlight spatial fragments otherwise not possible to capture in one image.

Drawing 1 is an early version, produced somewhere halfway through the project. What strikes is the flipped perspective in the streets, changing from concave to convex, combining multiple sections, perspectives and a top view in once. The horizon is welded into a circle, as if drawn with an inner 360˚ camera. This is even more clear in Drawing 2 presented here. This was the final one, combining all Ruiying wanted to show of Crooswijk in one image.

Not only are the analytical possibilities of the “warp” driven to extremes, the drawing derives from this

a new and unexpected aesthetic quality no longer corresponding to the actual location.

The reality of it is transformed and becomes a poem. And as in any poem, realism is left behind in order to describe reality with more precision.

Some of the impossible geometries we recognise in the drawings of Maurits Escher. But I would much rather compare the drawings to the surrealism of Dali, Bellmer or Magritte. In surrealism, geometry is not defied for mathematics’ sake, but in order to release thought. In these drawings of Crooswijk, anyone may read a different story and this is exactly what Ruiying set out to achieve with her project.

Drawing 3 shows the finished product. It is a design for a small neighbourhood park in which the rooms of a house are turned inside out to create a central urban space. What I think is special in this series of drawings, is that it presents a design method. Starting from the actual map, the designer deforms space in order to describe, compress and integrate its qualities into a single image. This image defies geometry but enables sharp and unexpected interpretation. This interpretation is the basis for a design. A beautiful line of thought brought to us in beautiful drawings. •

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by

Ruiying Liu

(Project & Illustrations) MSc Student Urbanism, TU Delft

Leo van den Burg

(Introduction) Lecturer, Faculty of Architecture & Built Environment (Urbansim), TU Delft

1. Bent section of key features depicted with idealized structure 2.Sections, scenes, places and overall identity depicted with cognitive structure 3. Design plan for the empty triangle parcel

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Drawing 1

Drawing 2

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Drawing 3

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Stad in de Maak New economy of the home, neighbourhood and city There is a change within the narrative of bottom-up approaches. It seems like small scale neighbourhood related projects like urban gardens, temporary interventions, co-housings, local breweries, and pop-up bicycle repair shops are becoming more aware of the importance of the economy in which they exist. Initiators of practices that create lasting value in urban neighborhoods are becoming more pressed while rethinking their financial structures. It is important, not just to pay for the projects, but also to consider the consequences of a free market. If local initiatives have a desire to create a lasting value for the city and its communities, they have to consider what happens to these values when facing gentrification and speculation.

Therefore we decided to take a closer look into a particular project, which seems to have thought ‘one step ahead,’ located in Rotterdam Noord. Their name is Stad in de Maak and they are Erik Jutten, Piet Vollaard; and Ana Džokić and Marc Neelen, founders of Stealth Unlimited architectural practice. Stad in de Maak (SidM) stands for City in the Making. On their website, they shortly describe themselves as creating: new urbanity + unconventional resurrection management. Stad in de maak has a number of projects through which they are experimenting with urban economy and housing. They aim to find new social functions for long term vacancies by directly involving the citizens in the process.

The article is based on a set of two interviews we conducted during this spring and summer, and is aimed towards clarifying the connection of locally oriented, self-managed space production practices and issues like gentrification, housing affordability and long term vacancy.

19

by

Jere Kuzmanic & IJsbrand Heeringa

MSc students, Urbanism TU Delft

atlantispractices

1

Our first interview found the group in one of their projects at Pieter de Raadtstraat 35-37, which was once a run down property within Rotterdam Noord, and is now one of SidM’s urban experiments. The owner of these properties, Havensteder, acquired many others in this area during the first decade of the century. However, due to the crisis in 2008 and due to some of the more local problems, several of Havensteder’s properties have stood vacant for years now. SidM came into action mainly because they realised that Havensteder was not going to solve the lasting vacancies. Feeling that these vacancies were actually harming the communities, SidM approached Havensteder and asked if they could try their hand in regenerating the vacancy of their housing stock. After going into numbers involving costs of maintenance of vacant property, they made a first deal that the yearly costs and profits of the buildings would be directed to SIDM. With the money they earned from the tenants, they could mobilize the property under their own principles, for a period of ten years.

Today they have a number of properties in the area, experimenting in new housing and economy based on the principles they set themselves.

The group has outlined nine goals towards which they aim their project.

• secure the property from the speculation of the market • convert it into affordable housing and workspace • create collective ownership / collective use of the property • create commons free of rent • create an economical, social and ecologically sustainable model • organize it democratically with the users • ensure self-organisation and independence for the users • create a revolving fund, which allows renewed investment in new estates • work on our own terms, and on our own strength

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2

Approach The group quickly realised that if they indeed wanted to create lasting economic and social quality for the neighborhood they had to reconsider their financing.

Havensteder’s agreed to the SidM proposal on the basis of it being a temporal solution to their vacancy problem. This would mean that if SidM would have managed to revitalize the properties after the given period, Havensteder would subsequently look to sell the buildings or simply take them back and capitalize upon the value created by SidM. This led to a deadline for the group. SidM was granted a time of ten years to bring value to the neighborhood of Rotterdam North. After this period, the group would most likely lose the properties to the market again.

The challenge with which they are faced is such: unless the group is able to gain control over the properties in ten years, all their hard work would be lost to the market. This has forced the group to think beyond temporal regeneration. If they wanted to create lasting value, their projects should be secured from the market for good. The only way of doing this, is by gaining legal tenure and being financially independent.

This has forced them to make a long term financial strategy. The program of the properties are set up in such a way that they are able to sustain themselves financially, while still providing affordable housing and commons. Each one of the properties controlled by SidM has several functions on different layers of the

buildings. On the ground floor the properties provide a collective space which enables production for the neighborhood. This space is free to use for all the residents of the area. The ground floor is paid for by the other functions in the properties. On the second floors of the buildings there would be office spaces or artists’ studios, and on the third, there would be affordable living space for students. The tenure of the top two floors is able to pay for the costs of the ground floor. In this way each property becomes selfsustaining.

However, this is not enough to complete the challenge.

By having this construction the properties can be selfsustaining and financially independent, but to create lasting value it needs to generate enough money to purchase the property from the housing association at the end of the contract. Otherwise all the work would still be for nothing. This means the group has to make money, while at the same time provide affordable living and workspace, not to mention renovate the entire structure of the buildings.

This makes for a tight budget. One of the ways in which they are managing this, is by relying on the support of the community. The functioning of the properties relies heavily on voluntary work and non-monetary payments (i.e. services paid for by services). The community has become a vital aspect of the strategy. This fits with the aim of creating democratically governed communities, but also adds an additional challenge to the projects. In their

21

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3

experimental phase, the group has still been able to rely largely upon their own immediate network, but to actually expand their ideas, they are a forced to find other solutions.

It is not for certain that the group will be able to purchase the properties at end of the contract.

Nonetheless the signs are promising.

The Model At this point the initiative is still in an experimental phase, merely working with a handful of properties in the north of Rotterdam and across Europe. However, their aim is to go beyond piecemeal solutions and to actually create new means of dealing with long term vacancy in urban development.

The group is under no illusion that they can provide affordable housing all over Europe just by themselves.

Creating a sustainable business model for one property at a time is no way to change the city. This is why they are making sure every step in their experiment is shared open source. From the very start of their operations the SidM has constantly been aiming to

make their practice adaptable to others. They are not alone in this. The group is working together with several other groups in different countries.

Exchanging knowledge and experience with other projects in Germany, Croatia, Serbia, Portugal and the Netherlands is their method to establish a generic toolkit for alternative urban regeneration. The adaptability of their approach is of vital importance to the success of their projects.

Colleagues The group is using its internal structure of economy as a tool to benefit from dysfunctional mainstream practices and maintain its projects in a sustainable way. By doing this they pull into question our current way of producing the city. The group is not alone in the endeavour.

Many small and larger initiatives like it are currently popping up all over Europe, most of them come from the bottom, but some of them are already starting to connect into a network. For instance, getting housing off the market. It sounds absurd, but it is actually

22

1. Facade of Pieter de Raadtstraat 35-37 Š SidM 2. Meeting in one of the new SidM projects Hands on complexity of housing Š SidM 3. Explanation of the concept of self-sustaining properties Š SidM

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4

what governments did during the height of the welfare state when they created social housing.

Projects such as SidM have not been terribly visible for the eye of the public. Lack of information and the large amounts of time spent dedicated to the project in ‘stealth’ mode keeps many citizens distant from these experiments. To overcome this, the SidM became one of the initiators of Vrij Co-op, the platform for cooperative housing directly inspired by German Mietshäuser syndikat (Tenant’s syndicate).

Both are there to support projects of new experiments in economy and space production, to make a long term move. They provide structure for them to become owners of their own spaces, take the property off the market, become financially independent and support each other. This way they do not only provide solutions for their own problems, but also support new projects, financing them and creating shortcuts to sustain their path.

A challenge to the Establishment?

Despite the experimental phase in which this movement finds itself, it does pose a relevant question.

In a time where gentrification and affordability are some of the most pressing issues of urban development, can local initiatives really develop an alternative method for urban regeneration? And what are the consequences if they do?

Urban governments all over the world have been happy to let ‘temporal urban use’ solve some of their lasting vacancies, but how will they react to this non-liberal form of city development? Removing properties from the market is not exactly in the urban agenda of most urban governments.

Yet, one could also question the level of choice these governments have. SidM came into action not because they wanted to challenge the government or the housing corporations. They came into action because a neighborhood was deteriorating and the establishment, Havensteder and the municipality, was unable to turn the tides. The wake of the crisis left Havensteder with no other option than to give SidM control over their worst properties. A similar story goes for the municipality.The services SidM is trying to provide to the communities, are aimed at the void

which is left by the government cuts on social housing subsidies. Thus, the question is not only whether urban governments content should allow this sort of anti-liberal behavior, but also if they are able to make good cities without it.

There is still a very long way to go for SidM and their fellow initiatives before they become a real challenge to the establishment. Yet their ideas hold promise for the future.

Conclusion Neighborhood initiatives and the liberal economy seem quite far removed from one another. But the connection is not illogical. The consequence of a free market is that we need to capitalize on the quality we produce. This means the market uses the city as a platform to create profit based on speculation with property value. At the same time cities are globally becoming more unequal places where chances to settle on your own terms and preferences are becoming thin. Based on the number of questions opened by researching deeper practices described above, we might say that cities and citizens need to rethink the way space is made in relation to existing economy.

We should take into account restructuring financing on a small scale, but also consider the extent to which our actions in the local scale are part of wider, even global scale of processes. The shift in realizing the effects of our actions is needed.Thinking ‘one step ahead’ by small initiatives can make them into more permanent solutions that bond local and global, citizens and economies, individual and collective efforts for creating better cities. Projects like those of Stad in de Maak create new imagery for these processes and are pioneering new ways of urban development.

About City in the Making City in the Making has been initiated by Erik Jutten, Piet Vollaard and Ana Džokić + Marc Neelen (STEALTH.unlimited). Together with Daan den Houter they coordinate the activities of this growing network of buildings in Rotterdam.

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Erik Jutten (1976) is a visual artist (Royal Academy).

He is initiator of and partner in cultural projects in public space. Besides the daily activities at City in the Making in Rotterdam he is: - Board member Foundation Pink Pony Express, designer collective, Amsterdam. (2011-present) - Practice Lecturer at the Masters interior INSIDE, The Hague. (2012- present) - Co-founder maker space Fabrique Urbaine, Rotterdam. (2012- present) - Board member Popps Packing Foundation. Artist in Residence, Detroit. (2014-present) Piet Vollaard (1955) is an architect (TU Delft), architecture critic and cultural entrepreneur.

Recent activity: - Founder, managing director and chief ArchiNed, thé architecture site in the Netherlands, 1996-2013 - Include initiator and board member of Foundation for Natural City; to strengthen urban ecology and biodiversity (2012-present), member Supervisory Board of Stichting Archis (since 2007) - Initiator and coordinator of 30KUUB; a nomadic (almost) No-Budget gallery for design (2012 - present).

- Author of publications in the field of architecture, among (many) more: Nuisance and caking, architecture and society in the work of Frank Klingeren (2003); Designing with Urban nature (2015 forthcoming) Ana Dzokic (1970) and Marc Neelen (1970) (STEALTH.unlimited, 2000) are internationally

operating architects, curators and cultural kickstarters. STEALTH have, as co-curators, been responsible for many projects, for example the Dutch Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Bienale (2008), the Tirana International Contemporary Arts Biennual (2009), the IMPAKT Festival Matrix City (2010) in Utrecht and the exhibition ‘A life in Common’ for Cittadellarte - Michelangelo Pistolleto Foundation, Italy (2012). They have organized the research program ‘Commoning the City’ with the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm (2012-2013, Stockholm).

Recently they have realized a project about the past and future of urban commons as assignment for the Vienna Biennale 2015. Ana is practice-based PhD researcher at the Royal Institute of Arts in Stockholm, since October 2011.

Daan den Houter (1977) is a visual artist (KABK).

“Parodying himself and the art world, DAAN DEN HOUTER keeps on reinventing his practice, swapping disciplines likes haircuts. Thus far this has led him taking up the role of painter, photographer, skate park designer, wigmaker and professional grill master. The Rotterdam-based bon vivant is fascinated by how our subconscious works and investigates the way we make sense of the world around us.” [Glamcult 2015] Together with visual artist Alex Jacobs he initiated the Bcademy, an institute that coaches recently graduated art students. The Bcademy's goal is to close the gap between the graduation and the practice of an autonomous visual artist. With a combination of peer learning and guest lecturers the group helps each other make better choices. •

5

24

4. In their experimental phase, the group has still been able to rely largely upon their own immediate network, © SidM 5. The SidM team © SidM

Transforming

War machines

into works of

Art

by Neda Taiyebi

Iranian artist Neda Tayebi, works with painting objects left behind as a consequence of conflict. In the featured project, she works towards transforming abandoned military objects in the the Khair Khana neighborhood of Kabul, Afghanistan, into art. By painting them, she reconceptualizes brutal objects of war into possible playgrounds for children to combat the dearth of play areas for children.

Traces of past events still persist owing to the presence of these objects, triggering memories of war, loss and destruction. Neda creates a new use for these objects. The works offer the choice of interpretation. The vibrant patterns frame subjective analogies for the different publics that view and use it.

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1

Airborne wind energy technology Potential alternative for clean energy Climate change is one of the main concerns of our time. The fact that the planet’s average temperature is rising, is unquestionable: the North Pole is 50% thinner than it used to be 50 years ago. The evidence is clear, but the most important query is to investigate to which extent human activities or natural cycles are responsible for these changes.

Natural cycles operate on a time-scale of millennia (centuries).However, a closer look at global warming reveals a spike in temperatures in 50 years. Several researches bring scientists to confidently believe that human activity (mostly burning oil and coal) is the main reason for global warming.

Currently, and most likely in the near future, most of the consumed energy is and will be derived from fossil fuels because of the low production costs and prices.

Due to the unavoidable threat of availability, disaster risks of fossil fuels supported by global warming, many countries are focusing on renewable energy technologies. Recently, thanks to the Paris Climate Agreement, 195 countries across the world committed to limit global warming.

Winds at the ground compared to the ones at high altitudes, are relatively slow. The idea of obtaining energy by taking advantage of high altitude winds roots centuries back and it has been overshadowed by fossil fuel technology. During the energy crisis in 1970, renewable energy production drew strong attention and the idea of extracting energy from high altitude winds has been revisited. Within the last decade, conventional wind turbines became one of the most widespread renewable energy harvester in the world.

However, the saturation of in-land windy areas along with structural limits made us realize that conventional wind turbines alone might not be the most suitable and potential alternative for clean energy. Moreover, onshore wind turbines face local resistance due to 27

by

Prabu Sai Manoj M

MSc Student Kite power research group, TU Delft

various reasons such as safety, noise and aesthetics.

Installation and maintenance costs of offshore wind turbines makes them less attractive.

atlantispractices

Population growth and related technology advances require an increase in energy supply able to support daily needs. Wind farms (group of conventional wind turbines in one location) require vast unused and windy areas. However, availability of such in-land areas is not always possible and some countries might face the threat of saturation of such locations. In addition to this, noise pollution due to wind farms makes the installation more challenging.

On the contrary, airborne wind energy devices fly at higher altitudes therefore they have a much lower rate of noise pollution. Because of their features, multiple devices might be connected to a single generator and, compared to wind farms, they would be much more effective in terms of space usage. These qualities could allow airborne wind energy to be more accessible and acceptable by society. Consequently, a reduced number of wind farms in populated areas would be expected. As far as abandoned areas are concerned, extracting wind energy from a wider range of altitude, using both conventional wind turbines and airborne energy devices, would be extremely productive.

Because of their altitude, the interaction between airborne devices and air traffic especially in urban environments, should be further investigated.

2

It is known that in areas of underdeveloped or developing countries, because of their remote location and the availability of technologies, are not connected to power grids and they often lack ground wind (especially the equatorial countries). Airborne wind energy could represent the most effective way of producing and providing electricity to those areas.

The technology With the airborne wind energy, towers from the common wind turbines will be replaced by a tether which connects a kite to the ground. This tether can be reeled out in order to reach high altitudes and to tap the highest density source of renewable energy. Kites can have different shapes and materials, from fixed wings (similar to a glider airplane) to completely soft wings (as used by surfers). This kite is the equivalent of the wing tips of the conventional turbine. It flies in circles or figures of eight to increase the effective wind speed. By removing the heavy components (blades and towers) from the system, this type of power plant is much more flexible in terms of location and considerably cheaper in construction.

Currently, different airborne devices designed on several engineering principles are utilized to harness power from high altitudes. The capacity of reaching higher altitudes of the conventional wind turbines is restricted by their structural limits. When raising the height, costs of the tower increases exponentially, and sophisticated infrastructure is required for transporting heavy components and assembling the power plant.

On the other hand, airborne wind energy overcomes

3

the conventional restrictions and enables production of high-efficient and low-cost energy. This technology is currently under investigation by researchers, start-up companies and universities.

Airborne wind energy, considering its advantages over conventional wind turbines, can be a potential alternative for clean, sustainable energy. Especially, the limitless availability of high altitude windy areas to tap energy makes it more attractive. A successful airborne wind energy technology would reduce the need for expensive wind turbines and wind energy can be made a much more inclusive part of the society. In remote areas, especially in the equatorial zone where ground wind is less significant, airborne wind energy can be the most effective means of energy. • 28

1-3. Project Images, testing airborne wind energy Š Kite power research group, TU Delft

RAISE RISE ROSE DIVERSIFYING NAIVASHA'S LOCAL ECONOMY THROUGH CIRCULARITY

Countries in development share many issues. Large international companies (may it be in the service industry, manufacturing industry or in our case, floriculture) tend to exploit cheap labor force and restriction-free raw-material mining of the Global South.

Competitions in the global private sector create a vicious circle, an ever increasing gap between what the locals give and what the locals get back in return.

Our design focuses on providing Naivasha (its region, the lake as well as the city itself) a sustainable future with site-specific design elements. The methodology, however, is applicable, and could be replicated in any other location on the planet where fragile and precious local resources (soil, minerals, climate or workforce) are turned into profit for the welfare societies of the Global North. rain water

by

Alkmini Papaioannou, Lilla Szilรกgyi Pereira, Nikita Baliga, Wahyu Pratomo Hariyono & Wenchi Yang Urbanism Graduates

public space constructed wetland rose export

clean drinking water fishing

local economy

S water for irrigation water storage

grey water

biodiversity

rose farm global economy

S

construction

natural pesticides

biowastes

A ASH AIV M N CARE O R F H WIT

energy bio-brick host plant

public space

economy biobrick

public space

local economy

S host plant benifits

bio-brick production

local economy

S biological pesticide industry

The flower industry is the backbone of the economy in Lake Naivasha. Therefore, it is used as a basis for developing a strategic plan for the region. Inspired by the concept of metabolism, space for potential alternative economies is designed, which are derived from inflows and outflows of the existing industry.

1

water in the lake. The largest outflow of the industry is the bio-wastes, which includes the cut stems and leaves.

This could be used to produce bricks for construction, which could meet the demand for housing and public space. In this way, the flows of the industry could be circulated and the local economy could be diversified.

The major inflows include pesticides and water, which are essential resources for the industry but are critical in maintaining the environmental quality of the Lake basin. The chemical pesticides, currently polluting the soil and water, could be substituted by natural pest control. The constructed wetland along the bank of the lake could provide an environmentally sensitive approach to filtering and recycling the water back to the industry subsequently maintaining the level of the

BIO-BRICK PRODUCTION

29

atlantispractices

Flower World Trade

Netherlands

Schiphol Airport

273 85

62

21 Ksh

the netherlands 59

Nairobi Airport

87

finland

87

40

56

43

62

80

lithuania

china 160,000 ha

74

830 10 ireland

52

8 11

1

the netherlands

21 4

FloraHolland belgium

130

7% norway

kenya 4,000 ha

ecuador 6,629 ha

germany

6

3% australia

17

12% ROW

7% germany

0

10

ethiopia 2,000 ha

colombia 6,494 ha

poland

10

0 14

87

323

52

UK

37 7

41

764

8 Ksh

151 41

248

61

48

41

79

Kenya

denmark

40

malaysia 2,000 ha

czech

france

austria

switzerland

Kenya rose export USD 540 million

UK Retail

10% russia 49% netherlands 12% UK

Retails

italy

Lake Naivasha

100%

80 700 600

garden center

400

street (market)

300

supermarket

200

300 Ksh

40

20

K U

0

ita ly

florist

2013

y

2012

nc

2011

fra

2010

ds

2009

an

2008

an

2007

rm

2006

erl

2005

ge

2004

e

kiosk

100 0

60

grower

th

2 Ksh

other

500

+375%

ne

Naivasha

2

PUBLIC HABOR

Kenya in the Global Flower Market

HOUSE OF LADYBUGS

Kenya is the third largest exporter of cut flowers in the world, accounting for the about 35% of all the flower sales to Europe. Due to its famous long lasting quality, the popularity of the Kenyan flowers is also increasing in the U.S. and Russia. The primary reason attributing to the high-quality blossoms all year-round is Kenya’s tropical climate. With the strong transport links from Nairobi airport to Europe, from where it is transported to the rest of the world, the export of cut flowers is made smooth and feasible. To further facilitate the transportation of the perishable flowers as swift as possible, there is a terminal dedicated especially for flower cargos.

Kenya’s high stake in the global flower market is encouraging foreign direct investments, resulting in the booming flower sector alone contributing 1.3% to the national economy. In the process of transferring these flowers from the grower to the consumer, the economic value of the flower increases by 375% when compared to its original worth in Kenya. However, the main beneficiaries of this operation are foreigners and the local economy of Kenya is still stagnant. There is a higher focus on meeting the global demands rather than catering to the local needs and there is a rising need to relook at this form of economic development driven by global giants and steer it to promote the local economy.

1. Central mechanism 2. Kenya in the global flower market 3. Lake Naivasha with the three interventions 4. Environmental impact 5. Social impact 6. Rejuvenating the lake 7. Repositioning of Kenya 3

30

1891 1890 1889 1888

1885

Malewa River

1884

Lake Levels (m) 1893

1931 Malewa River1941

Year

Karati River

1890

1892

1889

1891

1886 1885 1884 Year

Outflow

1888 1887

1890

Malewa River

1931

1889

Lake Levels (m) 1893

1888

1892

1886 1890 1941

1951

1889 1885

1961

1884

1887 1886

Year

Outflow

Karati River

Year

Ground water

Karati River outflow

Evaporation 260 Other

Other

Tuberose Lisianthus Tuberose

Chrysan

Chrysan

Cut Foliage Cut Foliage

Bupleurum Wages Solidster

Fert

Other Lisianthus Tuberose

Cut Foliage

Lisianthus

Carnations Statice

Spray Carn

Alstromeria Rose

Bupleurum

Tuberose Solidster

Carnations

Chrysan Statice

Solidster Carnations

Cut Foliage

Spray Carnations

Bupleurum Alstromeria

Statice Carnations

Rose

Spray Carnations

Solidster

Rose

Statice

Statice Alstromeria

Spray Carnations Alstromeria

Carnations

0

0

100

Spray Carnations

100

200

300

Alstromeria

Rose

Rose

0

100 Other farms

grey water footprint

0

200

Ros

Outdoor flower farm

Other farms Indoor flower farm Swamp area

Outdoor Lake flower farm depth 2m Indoor flower farm Lake depth 6m Lake depth 4m

Outdoor flower farm

Other farmsLake depth 9.5m

Indoor flower farm

Outdoor farms 5,627,000 m³/yr

Outdoor flower farmTSS

233 mg/L Lake depth 2m Indoor flower farm

Lake depth 2m

Swamp area Lake depth 4m

Lake depth 4m

TDS 357 mg/L

Lake depth 2m

Lake depth 6m

Lake depth 6m Lake depth 4m

Outdoor flower farm Lake depth 9.5m

6m 9.5m Lakedepth depth

URBAN SETTLEMENT Lake Increase in population Need for housing Lake

labour migrants Lake depth inflow 18m of (deepst point)

Indoor flower farm

BOD 138 mg/L

depth 9.5m

233 mg/L

Lake depth 2m Lake depth 4m URBAN SETTLEMENT IncreaseLake in population depth INFORMAL9.5m SETTLEMENTS lack of public space Need for housingLow quality of life URBAN SETTLEMENT inflow of labour migrants Lack of access to water lack of clean drinking water Lake depth 18m (deepst point) Increase in population Need for housing

BOD 138 mg/L

Average wage : 5500 Ksh Cost of living in Naivasha : ......Ksh

low wages & unemployment

URBAN SETTLEMENT Increase in population Need for housing

GREEN HOUSES Top down economic system Lack of social consideration

lack of safety at work

deforestation as economic source

lack of clean drinking water

INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS Low quality of life Lack of access to water

inflow of labour migrants

lack of public space

INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS URBAN SETTLEMENT Low quality of life Increase in population Lack of access to water lack of clean drinking water

Need for housing

lack of clean drinking water

L SETTLEMENTS y of life cess to water

lack of aquatic life for fishing

lack of public space

NATURAL HABITAT Destructive economy Disruption of natural system

Average wage 5500 Ksh endangered : wildlife

Cost of living in Naivasha ill: affects ......Ksh on masai pastoralists

low wages & unemployment

Average wage : 5500 Ksh GREEN HOUSES Number of employees : 50000 Cost of living in Naivasha : ......Ksh Top down economic system Number of unemployed : Lack of social consideration lack of safety at work low wages & unemployment GREEN HOUSES Top down economic system Lack of social consideration lack of safety at work

INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS lack of public space Low quality of life deforestation as economic source Lack of access to water

lack of aquatic life for fishing

NATURAL HABITAT Destructive economy Disruption of natural system lack of aquatic life for fishing

deforestation as economic source

endangered wildlife

lack of public space

ill affects on masai pastoralists

Average wage : 5500 Ksh Cost of living in Naivasha : ......Ksh

NATURAL HABITAT Destructive economy low wages & unemployment Disruption of natural system

endangered wildlife

of employees ill affects onNumber masai pastoralists

Average wage : 5500 Ksh 31 Cost of living in Naivasha : ......Ksh

low wages & unemployment

GREEN HOUSES Top down economic system deforestation as economic source

GREEN HOUSES Top down economic system Lack of social consideration

: 50000

Number of unemployed :

lack of safety at work 5

Number of employees : 50000 Number of unemployed :

T 357

TSS 233 mg

4

TDS 357 mg/L

Lake depth 6m

COD 569 mg/L

Outdoor farms 5,627,000 m³/yr

Lake depth 18m (deepst point) Lake depth 18m (deepst point) TSS

Swamp area

inflow of labour migrants

Indoor farms 2,122,000 m³/yr

Swamp area Lake depth 18m (deepst point)

Swamp area

Other farms

TSS 233 mg/L

grey water footprint

Other farms

P

Cut Foliage

Pesticide

Chrysan Other

Bupleurum Bupleurum

Moreover, the insensitive use of natural resources is having social implications on the settlements along the lake. The polluted water is no longer able to sustain the aquatic life in the lake, which was one of the main sources of employment and income for the local inhabitants. The fresh water of the lake is also a source of water for drinking and domestic purpose, but now has now become detrimental to the health of people.

The monopoly of the large flower industries has lead to the high dependency of the local inhabitants on the industry for employment. The low standard of working environment is a consequence of this powerlessness of the workers and the pressure of the global forces. The poor working conditions of workers and the lack of alternate sources of employment is compelling the local people to indulge in destructive and illegal activities like deforestation, overfishing, etc.

This is causing further damage to the environment.

Tuberose

1160 euros / ha / yr

14048 euros / ha / yr

Lisianthus

Lisianthus

Chrysan

6567 euros / ha / yr

14048 euros / ha / yr

Fertilizer

Other

Flor

16 1941

1931

Outflow

55

Fertilizer

1931

1885 1884

Solidster

inflow of labour migrants

Ground wat outflow 1971 188855 1887

1891

Karati River

Though on the one hand the flower industry is increasing the economic opportunities for people in the region, it is damaging the environmental quality of the lake basin. The extensive use of fertilizers and pesticides in order to enhance the flower yield is deteriorating the quality of the soil and water gradually. The groundwater extraction for irrigation is resulting in frequent fluctuations in the level of the lake affecting the biodiversity of the region adversely.

196

Lake Levels (m) 1893

1891

grey water footprint

Lake Naivasha is an important hub for flower farms, by virtue of its abundant freshwater reserve and fertile soil for agriculture. Its close proximity to Nairobi airport and skilled labor force in the region are advantages for this flourishing industry. The highest percentage of flowers grown in this region is roses.

There are about 5,627,000 cubic meters of outdoor rose farms and 2,122,000 cubic meters of indoor rose farms around Lake Naivasha.

1951

1892

Gilgil River

Inflow

Lake Naivasha: The floral basin

Inflow loss

Inflow

1886

(1

Outflow

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Karati River

1887

Gilgil River

Ye

Rainfall Surface inflow 95 220

Inflow

Gilgil River

Inflow

Rainfall Surface inflow 95 220

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Inflow loss due to deforestration and over-farming

Rejuvenating the lake

Levels (m) 1893 1892

The main goals of the project are the protection of the ecosystem and enhancing the urban vitalityCalculated alonglake level the lakefront. The first spatial strategy incorporates the cordoning of the environmentally sensitive zones and Observed lake level restricting future development in these areas. These zones mainly comprise of the riparian area along the 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 lake and the two estuaries of Gilgil and Malewa as well as the area around the Kenyan wildlife services.

Floriculture water extractioncorridor and This would conserve the existing wildlife 16 Ground water the ecological flows of the region.

1891 1890 1889 1888 1887 1886 1885 1884 1941

Outflow

1931

(106 m³/yr)

outflow 55

Evaporation 260

1160 euros / ha / yr

6567 euros / ha / yr

14048 euros / ha / yr

The second spatial strategy is a consequence of the spaces created by the circular flows of the flower industries. Additionally improving the accessibility to the lake and enhancing theWages spatial quality of the public Fertilizer Pesticide space accomplish urban vitality. The circular industrial flows generate revenue at the local scale by engaging stakeholders at different scales. By redirecting the investments of international and regional stakeholders, environmentally and socially sensitive production of flowers can be made feasible.

100

200

300

TSS 233 mg/L

KWS

Lake Naivasha

house of ladybugs

400

500

(Ha)

At the global scale, these local interventions would improve the credibility and quality of flowers exported Rose Farm from Kenya. This would further augment the Kenyan flower trade across the world, which would lead to the economy of the country to flourish. The increasing contribution of the flower business in the national Outdoor farms Indoor farms 5,627,000 m³/yr 2,122,000 m³/yr GDP could further trigger national and international TN 5.1 mg/L investment in the business. This TPwould lead to the 0.04 mg/L COD overall development of the Naivasha lake Basin and 569 mg/L TP BOD TDS 5.1 mg/L 138 the mg/L facilitate improvement in the quality of life of the 357 mg/L local inhabitants.

Flower Farms

grey water footprint

0

constructed wetland

1991 1993 1995 1997

Repositioning of Kenya

s

Naivasha Town

Karagita

bio-brick production 6

local benefit from floriculture attract investment and tourism

future expansion

expanded flower trade

32

7

atlantispractices large roselarge farm rose farm

constructed constructed wetland wetland

biological industry presticide industry biological presticide

recreational waterfront waterfront recreational

small rose small farm rose farm

Rose farming Rose farming

accessibleaccessible canal for boat canal for boat deck

Natural flow

bio brick production bio brick production workshop workshop

deck

breeding space breeding space

Natural flow

Biomass production Biomass production

attached to the attached to the existing farm existing farm

local trade local trade

unwanted pest unwanted pest

polluted water polluted water

Rooted plant Rooted plant Phragmites Phragmites australis australis

Yarrow plant Yarrow plant

Achiella Millepolium Achiella Millepolium

water pumpwater pump Reduce lake Reduce lake water usage water usage

floriculture waste floriculture waste

Water filtration Water filtration

Mycelium Mycelium Rooted floatingRooted floating plant plant Nymphaea Nymphaea spp. spp.

3-7 tons biomass 3-7 tons biomass waste per daywaste per per day per industry industry

predatory mite predatory mite bio brick production bio brick production

Fishing

other products other products

Free- floating Free- floating plant plant Eichornia Eichornia crassipes crassipes

tea and medicine tea and medicine

brick kiln

brick kiln

molding

molding

Chemical

clean waterclean water to lake to lake

cubic mm/ month

20

runoff

20

10

0

local species local of species of ladybugs ladybugs

Low

High

100

Low

Moderate

Moderate High

Water pollution affecting Water pollution affecting Enhances the quality Enhances of waterthe quality of water aqualtic life aqualtic life

50

30

cubic mm/ month

30

Chemical

12 million Euros 12 million Euros

Ladybug

10

JAN

FEB

0 MAR

usable runoff

JANAPRIL FEBMAY

MAR JUNE APRIL JULY

usable runoffblue & grey

water footprint

MAY AUG

JUNE SEPT

JULY OCT

AUG NOV

SEPT DEC

Low

runoff 56 cu.mm blue & grey 27 cu.mm water footprint OCT

NOV

wetland

DEC

56 cu.mm 27 cu.mm

wetland

Lake Naivasha Lake Naivasha

Rose Farm

Rose Farm

EXISTING

8

Constructed Wetland This intervention is proposed to maintain the quality of water and to harvest the rainwater in the region.

The constructed wetland is strategically located in the region where the quality of water is undesirable and needs to be filtered. In this case, the waterfront along the urban center of Naivasha and near the large flower farms of Karagita is the identified polluted area.

The constructed wetland are planted terraces, which have different functions. The first two terraces have plants, which naturally filter the water and also provide biomass for the production of bio-bricks. The lower terrace is used for cultivation of fish, which further filters the water. The constructed embankments of the terraces are constructed with the bio-bricks and provide public access to the lake. Besides the filtration and protection of the waterfront, the designed edge provides recreational spaces for the local inhabitants as well as tourists.

houses

houses

pavements pavements

wetland deck wetland deck

10

Bio-brick production The abundant source of biomass provides a potential for a new type of construction material, bio-brick. The main ingredients of this bio-brick are the decomposed biomass from the industry and wetlands and the mycelium of the mushrooms, readily available in wet areas.

These materials are added to brick molds and burnt to produce a sustainable construction material.

The bio-brick production industry also doubles up as a space for local markets and recreational spaces for the locals and tourists. It is located in the interspace between the flower industry, the urbanized area and

9

11 33

EXISTING

Low

Moderate

Moderate

High

High

0

100

Total50area Total area 1781 Hectares 1781 Hectares

PROPOSED PROPOSED

Safe handling for the Safe workers handling for the workers Unsafe enviromentUnsafe for the enviroment for the workers workers

Percentage of land under use of chemical pesticides

local construction local construction material material

Recreational harbor Recreational harbor

Ladybug

no more chemical no more chemical pesticide! pesticide!

Percentage of land under use of chemical pesticides

Fishing

Biological

Biological

6 million Euros 6 million Euros 0

atlantispractices large rose farm

biological presticide industry small rose farm

breeding space attached to the existing farm

unwanted pest

Yarrow plant

Achiella Millepolium

floriculture waste 3-7 tons biomass waste per day per industry

14

predatory mite

other products

The Competition - Team 1001

tea and medicine

local species of ladybugs

Chemical

molding

100

Low Moderate

12 million Euros

High

Water pollution affecting aqualtic life

Enhances the quality of water 50

Low Moderate High

EXISTING

Unsafe enviroment for the workers

Safe handling for the workers

0

Percentage of land under use of chemical pesticides

brick kiln

Ladybug

no more chemical pesticide!

Total area 1781 Hectares Biological 6 million Euros

PROPOSED

12

the constructed wetland.

House of Ladybugs The intention of this intervention is to reduce the dependence of the flower industry on chemical pesticides. To control the pests on the rose plants, a practice called “seeding” is applied, which basically means relocating a branch containing the predatory mite from the host plan to the rose plant. The most common pest on the rose plant, the red spider mite or Tetranychus urticae is the prey for the predatory mite, here the ladybug or Coccinellidae, keeping it safe.

The host plant chosen in this case is the yarrow plant or Achillea millefolium which attracts the ladybug by providing the pollen on the yarrow flower. The yarrow plant, native to Africa, has medicinal values and can be cultivated for economic benefits. This plant can be grown in farms as an outdoor extension to the existing small flower farms, which could enhance the spatial quality of the working environment.

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On the 11th of January, UN-Habitat in collaboration with Ministry of Land, Housing & Urban Development: Urban Development Department, Kenya, started looking for creative planning and design ideas for sustainable urban development in Kenya. Students from around the world were invited to participate in a student design competition for 9 Kenya’s towns: 1. Embu, 2. Kitui, 3. Machakos, 4. Malindi, 5. Mombasa, 6. Naivasha, 7. Nakuru, 8. Nyeri and 9. Thika.

Team 1001 consists of 5 Urbanism Students: Alkmini Papaioannou (GR), Lilla Szilágyi Pereira (HU), Nikita Baliga (IN), Wahyu Pratomo Hariyono (ID) & Wenchi Yang (CN).

The Urban design proposal: Rise. Raise. Rose : Diversifying Naivasha Local Economy Through Circularity, got selected and was awarded with a Special Mention, as The Best Proposal for the city of Naivasha. Out of 700 participants from all over the world, Team 1001 was one of the 9 teams that got invited to the exhibition and nomination ceremony at the UN-Habitat Headquarters in Nairoby, Kenya.

Links about the Competition and the Project: • http://unhabitat.org/over-700-applicants-tointernational-design-collaboration-for-kenyacompetition/ • http://unhabitat.org/over-700-applicants-tointernational-design-collaboration-for-kenyacompetition/ • https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=41ObDHgl_0I • https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=FbiO8oZZ2sI

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8. Constructing wetland 9. Bio-brick production 10. House of ladybugs 11. Mechanism of the Constructing wetland 12. Mechanism of the Bio-brick production 13. Mechanism of the House of ladybugs 14. TU Delft team in the UN-Habitat headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya

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THE CONFLICT OF WATCHING & BEING WATCHED In his book,'The Seventh Sense: Power, Fortune, and Survival in the Age of Networks,' Joshua Cooper Ramo explores the terrain of eternal interconnectivity. He speaks of forces that engulf us all, exposing us to events never seen before and how being aware is the only option. Networks permit us to connect everywhere with everything and the world connects back to us with equal and opposite vengeance. As Ramo puts it ‘Should we be surprised when the exotic shows up and murders us right back?’ Or do we take a stand on the trend of being watched and why living with it should be the only possible peril.

‘Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship."

Bruce Coville - author of young-adult fiction.

On my weekly trip to the supermarket, I sparked up my smartphone application for the groceries list. To add value to my user experience, my smart device application also referred a few articles about cooking Chinese food to me. Since my personal details on my digital account still refer my nationality as ‘Indian’, something had clearly spied on the research I did to make the perfect Chinese fish curry. Ideally, this would be the zenith of extolling consumerism where an artificial being reminds a biological being to spend more on attractive products he/she would not buy otherwise.

While I was delighted to find specific things I was reminded of to add to my shopping list, it reminded me distinctly of the ‘Burglar App’ that was developed by for the Apps for Amsterdam initiative by the Amsterdam Smart City (ASC) programme1. The

1

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by

Supriya Krishnan

MSc student, Urbanism TU Delft

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app combined data of wealth concentration in neighbourhoods (based on income and investments), distance from police stations and street lights density to highlight the houses that were the easiest to burgle.

While one can acknowledge that the accuracy of the parameters cannot be assured, the cheekiness of the concept to extract conclusions from seemingly harmless information is a revelation of the potential that data holds.

Phenomenon that previously transformed the world includes the steam engine, electricity and the automobile which fuelled revolutions in the socioeconomic-environmental domains and led to the flourish or decay of economies. Human civilisation has seen waves of transformation due to political

upheavals, climate related changes and migration among others. The digital revolution has been touted to be and has proven foresights to be regarded as the next big historical sweep in civilisation over the coming century. This can be judged in practice when we observe that almost all urban inhabitants beyond teenage years own at least one digital device.

It brings us to the overused term ‘smart’, which is used to sum up all discussions for technology oriented dialogue for the future- starting from education to engineering, apples (pun!) to aircrafts, medicines to Mars, cities to cyborgs. For the purpose of this discussion we focus on the term ‘Smart City’ which is associated with urban areas that are driven by data infrastructure and technology. ‘Data’ today is

2

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1. Seemingly harmless: Civic data assembled for unforeseen utilities’ © Supriya Krishnan 2. Word cloud derived from the varying definitions of the ‘smart city © Supriya Krishnan

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a hotbed of everything that seems relevant in urban city management. Historically, records related to the produce and people of the city were recorded manually. As cities exploded, so did the format of managing this information and processing it faster using computer programmes. A general read of the Wikipedia page titled ‘Smart City’ highlights at least eight different standard definitions of the concept. An analysis of the varying descriptions of the same topic yields recurring words as illustrated in Image-2 Most technologies were initially invented to accelerate propulsion of industrial manufacturing processes with no clear foresight of the impact of its application of the workforce and the world. While computerised records of data have been in use since the 1960s to process user information for better applications, the digital revolution sets itself apart by its fundamental terminology that is blatantly confident about its end result – ‘improving quality of life’. It has its ambitions in place before the actual realisation of the process. The process in itself is described in terms of managing, embedding and improving systems.

Hence, the widely used terminology is also a culprit of ambiguity.

of are not free, the ecosystem is such that the user feels fair that his data be useful to the service provider as long as his needs are being addressed to. Hence, ‘I agree to the above terms of conditions’ is possibly the only checkbox the user ticks with the blind faith that the data revelation does not harm him/her- and for the most part it doesn’t. While most aspects of data access remain out of public understanding (like the proverbial sausage that everyone eats but no one knows how to make), the anarchy that technology claims to impart where the user apparently gains control over his life, he is a probable illusion of our times.

Why Not The problem lies with the monopolisation of the technology driven data management that bounds every citizen knowingly or unknowingly to part with their personal information. Data that was shared to obtain a bank account or insurance is now used to track health, suitability for jobs, vacation allowances, ownership of wealth and essentially to ‘pick the best’ apple from the lot.

The quality of life that is a supposed popular result of realisation of the smart city is defined as the general well-being of individuals and societies, outlining negative and positive features of life. It observes life satisfaction, including everything from physical health, family, education, employment, wealth, religious beliefs, finance and the environment2.

"I can give you nice stories that we are doing great stuff with data and information, but we are very much at the starting point"

Data is Good

Major companies that hold this information not only know where you are, but can also gauge what you eat, when you eat it and how much you spend buying it.

The flipside that lowers the users stake for demanding privacy is that he ‘agreed’ to share his personal details with the service provider. But, who is the judge of validating whether the usage of information is correct?

Partnership with private companies is being developed as a model for future smart city applications. Unlike the government, the private agency has no allegiance to protect the owner of the data. Then, who would take the blame if the data of the users visit to the supermarket are utilised to burgle his house when he is not there considering the smart device knows the weekly time of shopping?

‘I can give you nice stories that we are doing great stuff with data and information, but we are very much at the starting point’- Ger Baron- Chief Technology Officer, Gemeente Amsterdam (in an interview with MIT Sloan3) The case of the Amsterdam Smart City (ASC) Initiative which is a pioneer in bringing together different stakeholders for smart project implementation has its focus on mobility, living, education, government, circularity and infrastructure as key areas for investing in data strengthening- areas that sum up almost all technical aspect of surviving in an urban space, which if implemented well might possibly lead to raising the stakes to achieve the parameters enlisted for a better’ quality of life.

Studies on the impact of usage of data do indicate improvement in access to information about personal commitments, transport and health among other domains. Hence, most people do not mind ‘agreeing’ to part with their personal data for institutional, governmental or private procedures that provide them with services. While most services that the user avails

- Ger Baron- CTO, Gemeente Amsterdam

It seems outrageous to think this might be real, since laws do exist and not all data is free. But this might be just one of the possibilities of the ‘idea’ of controlling information. How much really is too much?

The Flipside The year is 2016. 60% of the world has no access to internet connection. It is essential to note that the privileged 40% who have received access to internet

37

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have received it over the past 25 years – which is how long ago the phenomenon of ‘world wide web’ was introduced. With the exponential rise and affordability of internet access along with global initiatives such as Facebook’s ‘Internet.org’, it may not be too long before most of the seven billion of us are able to send out an email. The mission statement of the world’s largest technology company Google also mentions ‘to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful’. Knowledge is certainly powerful, but it would be debatable to assign ‘knowledge’ the same status as ‘information’.

According to a report in 'The Guardian,' digital omnipresence in our lives is leading to the phenomenon of ‘techno-stress’ where people are compelled to be connected because they ought to.

The ease of staying in touch makes it a kind of moral obligation to be available to respond all the time. The fall outs are especially visible in incidents of internet suicides and violence. This makes one consider the prospect of minimising the utilisation of technology or avoiding it altogether. While the human race has survived the past 200,000 years, a study of modern urban life indicates an extreme dependence of digital networks. A slowdown of the internet network server at offices can mean the end of the day of work at most workspaces. Not many of us memorise phone numbers or email addresses anymore. Commodity transactions can be facilitated online without as much as knowing the person on the other side. Banks in developing and developed countries have made registration of email addresses mandatory, which means that without a connection to the digital world, you may have to hoard piles of cash you forced your employer to pay in hundred euro bills, in a mini cellar at home. We no longer have a choice but to be entwined within the system.

Now Knowledge is an essential tool to regulate this jumble of dependencies while protecting the rights of the end user who is most vulnerable. Amsterdam has learnt from its extensive seven year experience with data experiments and had led by example by creating the position of the ‘Chief Technology Officer’ at the Gemeente. The CTO as he/she is called would be equipped with the political and scientific bent of mind to validate the usage of data for specific purposes.

As he quotes appropriately, ‘He recognized that the city needed someone with a vision for technology and cities, someone who was looking at how outside organizations were using technology, and told the city it needed to avoid being a bunny on the highway while big technology trucks were bearing down on it.

Take a Stand

transitioning to ICT (Information Communication Technologies) to optimize production chains, understand traffic flows and make policy decisions based on available information and data mining.

While, information brings forth aspects of society that were erstwhile unknown, what is the extent to which this right of access of information can be stretched?

"Ger Baron recognized that the city needed someone with a vision for technology and cities, someone who was looking at how outside organizations were using technology, and told the city it needed to avoid being a bunny on the highway while big technology trucks were bearing down on it" The layer of data infrastructure will inevitably guide the next global revolution. The bargain between data and its usage can only be fair when the technological ambitions are in sync with the social ambitions. This needs agencies that are neutral by power but influenced by knowledge to regulate the overview of the smart city. This will determine the future integration of the built environment to the ‘datasphere’.

Urban life can only be improved when the user is allowed to truly take a stand. A democratic philosophy, while placing emphasis on the aspirations of the majority, also makes space to respect the needs of the minority. This would be the true test of the fourth revolution. Or we may all just be part of a larger virtual reality space being played out by all those who can process the data. •

References 1 https://amsterdamsmartcity.com/ 2 Barcaccia, Barbara (4 September 2013). "Quality Of Life: Everyone Wants It, But What Is It?". Forbes/ Education. Retrieved 10 May 2016.

3 http://sloanreview.mit.edu/case-study/data-driven-city-management/ http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/tech-savvy-the-stress-effect-ininformation-and-communication-technologies/ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/03/internet-deathprivacy-google-facebook-alex-preston https://cities.dpmc.gov.au/smart-cities-plan http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/tech-savvy-the-stress-effect-ininformation-and-communication-technologies/ https://ec.europa.eu/research/fp7/understanding/fp7inbrief/whatis_en.html https://issuu.com/amsterdamsmartcity3/docs/asc-twopager-

Several major nation-states of the world are gradually

0416/1?e=25011940/35781111

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SHELTER LANDSCAPE

A LANDSCAPE APPROACH TO THE REFUGEE CAMP Since the beginning of the Syrian war, refugee waves hitting Europe were reaching unprecedented heights that sadly will be outdone continuously through autumn and winter. For the first time since World War II, the number of refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people exceeded 59 million people.

These waves of Refugees are often seen as disturbance on the flowscape generated by newcomers’ surges: If social and economic measures are failing to absorb this disruption, a spatial solution particularly a landscape approach can provide a different perspective and build a mutually beneficial intervention.

The purpose of the project is to apply a landscape

However, a landscape based approach is often contextual, while refugee camps are global. To fill the gap between local solutions to global problems, issuing principles derived from the research by design perspective have upgraded the strategy from contextuality to replicability.

The site gave more than a context, it gave processes, potentials and vectors of integration and growth. The Austrian Hungarian border with its shrinking cities, fragmented ecologies and intensive agriculture has set more than background to the camp. It has given it a mission and a purpose.

When the camp is addressed as more than ‘a place’, with no social identity stuck in a permanent emergency, when the region, the camp and networks are considered as infrastructures, ongoing processes, shaping, reshaping and dynamic, then the camp becomes more than a graft and the region further than a matrix, with different infrastructures where flows are directed or diverted with inevitable connections.

The asset approach developed by Caroline Moser gave a first impulse to a renewed vision of a camp, a producing, more self-sufficient camp, where people are more than numbers and anonymous names, but a sum of skills, knowledge and stories.

based approach to complement the efforts of NGOs, governments and related-design disciplines to solve the refugee camps issues. By using the formative powers of landscape, the intention is to transform the refugee camp from a singularity to a continuity, and by doing so ensure a regeneration of the urban and peri urban tissue along the Austrian Hungarian border. Ultimately, this will strengthen the role of the landscape architect in filling the gaps of incomplete political, social and sometimes spatial 1 reforms of the refugee issue.

It is no doubt that refugee camps are descendants of the roman camps, and while the romans had more symbolic and social components into their

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by

Amina Mnif

Graduation project Landscape architecture TU Delft

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re-connection

new zoning

the produce

new patterns

the local

natural fence

the standard vs. the local

1

settlement, the refugee camp took the grid, and the organization: 16 tents make a community, 16 communities make a bloc and so on.

The analysis of actual camps leads to a diagnosis: camps are dysfunctional because they are too rigid; camps are dysfunctional because they have a parallel system of supply and waste management; camps are dysfunctional because they grow bigger than their optimal size, bigger than the resources that are allocated to them, bigger than the cities, or urbanities they relate to.

From there came the first strategy of the “shelter necklace� a network of camps, along the border, sometimes running beside it, sometimes stitching its parts.

On carefully chosen locations, camps are established and activated one by one. Whenever the flow hits bigger numbers, a different location is chosen and prepped. The criteria for the choice of locations

are first economic: room for growth and need of work force. The social consideration is that human diversity is more prone to welcome refugees.

Finally, the ecological, being the missed connections that can be re-established through the spatial intervention of the camp.

Through research by design on these locations, and through the continuous thread of the reciprocity in benefits, principles of design emerged, confronting the traditional camp setting with the new landscape approach derived principle. There is the grid versus the patterns: patterns of road in urban continuity, of agriculture, in rooted consistency, of culture in social production. Another change has emerged in the enclosure where water courses, shared infrastructure and roads make a better integrated isolation than the wall; built, barbed, segregating.

One of the main issues of sustainability in camps is the use of standardized yet perishable materials

40

1. Principles to shape new conditions on the refuge camp Š Amina Mnif

2

for camp construction, using local materials and taking advantage of the construction works, digging, available stones and especially local and refugee vernacular techniques allow the shaping of a more sustainable camp. In this optic of optimization, the ability of the camp to produce is not only a matter of financial balance, but also a matter of integration and dignity. By helping people develop assets, we get to know them more, than by just dropping goods into their hands. We get to understand their stories, appreciate their skills and exchange humanly, socially, and economically.

A producing camp is a camp that gives back people the right to own their lives, to earn, to support themselves and somehow be a part of the participative effort of supporting the region.

In time, these changes are interlaced with the more traditional criteria: the wall goes shorter and shorter as the forest grows, the tents fade one by one as houses emerge, and the aid boxes are less and less distributed as the people build assets.

To give more substance to the principles and different scenarios of application, a different case study exploring a different region with a different urban landscape infrastructure can give more substance and new arguments to this plea for change.

When we begin the design process by asking, "How can the landscape shape the camp?", it already places the region context as a highlight to any possible answer and therefore, we can expect that a different location with different challenges can give unforeseen observations and research outcome.

2. Implementation of a progressive strategy for the camp incrementation © Amina Mnif 3. Shaping of the camp within a regenerated region © Amina Mnif 4. Transition from private to public © Amina Mnif 5. Waterfluctuation: few centimeters to two meters - Low, medium, high © Amina Mnif

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4

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atlantispractices

Seeking (im)balance, Challenging (ir)relevance

‘SUB-PLAN’ and other explorations into the remit of the spatial designer

1

In 2009, David Knight and Finn Williams led a summer school workshop at the Architectural Association. The topic was the change in permitted development rights - the set of laws that determine what can be built in the UK without planning permission. This led to the publication of ‘SUB-PLAN: A Guide to Permitted Development’, a publication that looked to translate these laws into something anyone can use, push them to their limits and explore the urban potential of this kind of activity [image 1].

7 years later, Atlantis caught up with David and Finn, to find out what happened next and what it was all about in the first place. Was it meant to be a critique of regulation? Were they ‘taking a stand’ on how the profession should engage with the public? By writing this book, were they trying to mark out new kind of remit for the spatial practitioner?

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interview with

David Knight and Finn Williams

by

Kate Unsworth

atlantispractices

2

What is, or was, SUB-PLAN? Where did it come from?

David Knight [DK]: Well, in research terms it came about as a result of the Killian Pretty review of planning which happened towards the end of the last Labour government in 2008. It advocated a liberalisation of Permitted Development (PD) with the aim being to free up planners to look at bigger questions, or bigger schemes. It was a pivotal change for this regulation and ideologically tied to the increasing trend of liberalisation. The rules were rewritten super quickly and they were fascinating, partly because of that stated intent to free up the bottom end of the development sector, what could be called the ‘sub-planning’ world, but also because they were done so quickly and so badly.

We thought it was a really interesting topic to bring to the summer school. There’s something pedagogically interesting about taking what is supposedly the least ambitious stuff - porches and back extensions – and taking them seriously as spatial and political things.

Finn Williams [FW]: We’d both worked as architects interpreting, translating and working our way around legislation and planning policy. At the time, I was working for Croydon Council - I still work for the public sector - and was also involved in implementing, or designing policy at a local authority level. I think we’ve both always been interested in the thresholds of control and lack of control, both from the perspective of the role of the state, but also the agency of the public. In SUB-PLAN and other projects we’ve collaborated on, we’ve been keen not to present regulation as necessarily all bad, or all good. We’re interested in how good regulation can

actually liberate rather than constrain design, but also how intelligent design can find opportunities in badly written legislation.

DK: Regulations are a site of creativity that designers should be engaging with, challenging, manipulating.

FW: It’s easy for architects to become victims of regulation if you start off with an ideal of what you want to create and then see it watered down or compromised by all these rules that seem to be imposed by other people. But if you start with a critical understanding of the rules, as well as how to design the rules themselves, then they stop becoming constraints – they become a powerful way of creating change on a bigger scale. We wanted the architecture students that we were working with to see the opportunities within permitted development, to see that even in the porches and the extensions you have the ability to programme change at a bigger scale. We probably visualised that most clearly in a project that followed SUB-PLAN where we played out permitted development at an urban scale, in Poundbury, to see the cumulative potential of all these small moves [image 2].

There’s obviously a tension between regulation and freedom. Do you think we’ve reached a balance? Is there a way that you think it could be done better?

FW: There is something, for me, almost fundamental about an ongoing, unresolved tension between regulation and freedom that’s actually quite healthy.

Like the pendulum effect of our political system, the competition between bureaucracy and deregulation forces you to consider the built environment from 44

1. Cover -'SUB-PLAN' by AA School with David Knight, Finn Williams et. al 2. Poundbury in Dorchester is one of the few places in the UK where Permitted Development is explicitly banned, making it the ideal place to explore the consequences of the newlyexpanded legislation. What if, counter to government expectations, everyone in a community decided to take advantage of their collective right to build?

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3

“There’s currently a fundamental gap between the process and popular knowledge of that process. For example, the language that these disciplines use.”

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3. 'SUB-PLAN' provides tools to non-architects to ease the production of architecture.

Courtesy Sub - Plan by David Knight and Finn Williams, published by AA

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multiple perspectives. Having said that, the pendulum in the UK has definitely swung further towards greater deregulation, marketization, and even commercialisation of whole areas that were previously controlled by the state.

But then at the same time, there are some really interesting shifts happening through technology.

Expectations from the public about democratic involvement and our relationships with regulation are fundamentally shifting. The immediate feedback loops that you get through social media or people sharing information online are forcing policy to be more responsive. When big data allows you to analyse how the city is changing every minute, and online petitions can be organised in a matter of hours, reviewing your planning policy every 5 years is starting to look absurd.

I think we’ll see a movement towards regulation becoming more responsive, more open source in a way. But it’s only just starting now.

DW: There’s a structural failure in all that though.

This is something I’ve been looking at in my PhD. Since the advent of planning as we know it in the late 1940s, successive changes have apparently been about connecting the public up better, there has been a whole narrative of opening up planning through participation, neighbourhood planning and so on.

But there remains an incredible disjunction between how planning works and popular understanding of that process. I think there’s currently a fundamental gap between the process and popular knowledge of that process. For example, the language that these sorts of disciplines use. Obviously every profession has its professional language, and there’s a certain value in that. But in the case of planning, its hugely alienating and, from a public point of view, needlessly so. I mean, why on earth do we have a phrase like ‘section 106 contributions’ to describe something that has been a vital part of the planning decision-making process; it’s a brilliantly opaque term for something so fundamental.

FW: It’s almost as though the planning system itself is getting more and more complex in an effort to protect itself from risk – all the legal terms are there as insurance against being challenged. Local Plans are being written for planning inspectors, when the real audience should be local people.

At the same time, other tools are available to the public, communities and interest groups which are arguably more effective, more powerful than the tools the public sector have available to themselves for planning in any case. From change.org to oppose a development, to Facebook to organise a community meeting, or crowdfunding platforms to finance a project to sketchup for designing it. There’s a real risk that we, the public sector, get completely outflanked by a new kind of civic third sector movement, in partnership with the private sector – and are left with a less equal system. So I think there’s a real urgency for the public sector to reengage, to reinvent

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its relationship with communities and the public, to stop things like Local Plans or permitted development becoming a complete irrelevance. And to reinvent how we communicate about planning. SUB-PLAN is one attempt at that [image 3], but there are lots of other projects we’ve been involved with, trying to use technology in particular to de-mystify planning and get people involved in it.

“There is a real urgency for the public sector to reengage, to reinvent its relationship with communities and the public, to stop things like Local Plans or permitted development becoming a complete irrelevance.”

DK: One of them is a web service called Building Rights [image 4]. After we’d finished ‘SUB-PLAN’ and got on to other things, we realised that the book had become out of date. And we had to ask, do we actually want to spend the rest of our lives updating a book relating to PD? And of course there are amazing people who devote their lives to this kind of thing but, with my PhD and with this project Building Rights, I was instead trying to find a way of making the information exchange embodied in SUB-PLAN more systemic, such that it doesn’t need a permanent, on-going process of professional translation. Instead I am proposing to help shift planning dialogue and knowledge into a form that makes sense to people, and is collectively authored and debated in real time, by means of a peer-reviewed, indexable forum, similar in many ways to existing ‘places’ like Mumsnet.

From our conversation I have in my mind an image of an increasingly empowered civil sector, collaboratively expressing their views, with a private sector facilitating action. Where does that leave the public sector? If their role was originally to think of the greater public 46

4. The website Building Rights (buildingrights.org) aims to bring the world of planning closer to the general public.

It is an on-line resource of planning expertise that is user-generated, peerreviewed and independent of party-politics.

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good, now that we have technology that allows the opinion of the ‘public’ to be voiced, how does the public sector fit in?

FW: Well for me that is the defining question, and why I chose to work for Croydon Council then the GLA (London Authority). It’s the biggest challenge for anyone that works in the public sector. Really throughout my whole lifetime in the UK there has been a decline in resources and expertise in local authorities and government, particularly in this field – planning, architecture and design – and a decline in their ability to take the lead on delivery.

The private sector has inevitably grown in influence since the 1980s to compensate. But the biggest shift recently isn’t between public and private sectors, I think it’s between the public sector and the public.

This isn’t just a shift in scale of influence and control, the boundaries are blurring too – community charities managing local public spaces, private sector consultancies taking over contracts for running planning departments, an increasing reliance on voluntary design review services instead of in house urban designers.

So, one of the things I’m doing is trying to redefine the agency of what it is to work for the public sector now. I’ve set up this organisation called NOVUS which is a think tank for public planners run by public sector planners. It gives a cloak of anonymity but also a platform to amplify the voices of people who work within the system, allowing them to freely share their opinions and experiences on how the public sector could work better.

And one project we’re working on in my day job at the GLA points a way for a new relationship between the public sector and the emerging civic sector. This is the work we’ve been doing on civic crowdfunding [image 5]. Crowdfunding is one of these tools that community groups are increasingly using; it’s massively powerful in terms of the scale of projects you can fund, but there’s nothing fundamentally democratic or equal about crowdfunding. It’s a model where the people with the best skills and resources, with the most friends with the most money, are most likely to get their project realised. It’s one thing if it’s a new kind of watch, and another if it’s choosing between a playground or a co-working space in the centre of a park.

building among community groups. It’s also forced us at City Hall to completely rethink our governance, finance, and legal processes around traditional grant and funding programmes. We simply can’t use the same contracts and approach to risk for a £20k project with a community group as we would for a £2m project. So we’re redesigning our processes to be quicker and simpler, and learning how to, rather than deliver a few big projects, work directly with citizens to deliver lots of small ones.

A lot of what you’ve been doing as practitioners, to ‘take a stand’ you could say, are networks, funding pots, websites… Is there a shift? If you want to make a difference, is it all about processes? What do you see as the role of physical design? Are our design schools preparing us to engage in this way?

FW: This is exactly the kind of thing David and I try to teach in ADS2, the studio we’ve been running together with Charles Holland and Asif Khan at the RCA. If you look at the way that the built environment is produced, certainly in the UK, a lot of the most important decisions are made way before an architect gets commissioned. That’s not to say that the traditional role of the architect, the detailing, the materials, or the strategic decisions an architect will make in the scope of a traditional commission aren’t important - they’re vital. But you need a great person writing the policy as much as you do a great person detailing the window. But the reality in the UK at the minute is that there are fewer people with spatial intelligence or a design sensibility making the more important decisions that tend to be earlier upstream.

So a lot of the things we’ve been talking about are ways of applying architectural intelligence further upstream to see what opportunities that can create for really good architecture further downstream.

The fact is, there are lots of brilliant architects in London, but there aren’t a lot of brilliant buildings.

So something’s going wrong in the system, and I don’t think we’ve got the balance of expertise right. That’s not to say we should all abandon designing buildings to concentrate on policies or design briefs instead. We still need architects to build something at the other end. For me there’s no hierarchy of importance,

5. The Seething Freshwater Sardine Festival by the Community Brain (https:// www.spacehive.com/ the-community-kitchen) in Surbiton is just one of the many activities funded by the GLA crowdfunding platform. Photo credit: Tangle Photography 6. View of the results of the Barkingside Town Center Improvement Project (http:// www.dk-cm.com/projects/ better-barkingside/). The project offered a unique opportunity to get involved at various stages in the design process.

We were conscious that if we didn’t engage with crowdfunding properly, as a city authority, we were going to get outflanked by it. So we set up this fund where we managed to get hold of £1.3 million and, instead of giving that to one project, we’re giving it out in pledges of up to £20,000 to not-for-profit, community groups: they propose a project, we pledge to them, they crowdfund the rest, and if they hit their target we help them deliver it.

The really interesting thing has not just been the projects themselves, but also the collective capacity

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there’s just an uneven distribution at the moment.

DK: Our work in ADS2 tries to communicate to students that, yes, wonderful architecture is absolutely the point of why you’re doing all this, but the chances of delivering that in the world in which we live are significantly higher if you’re able to use your design skills in a much larger territory. So, getting the brief right, tweaking an existing bit of policy, making policy, setting up a relationship or network, building up a third party’s agency, these are all territories for spatial designers to work in as well.

But, when I started DK-CM in 2012, it was partly a reaction to being very involved in exploring policy and regulation and thinking, wouldn’t it be nice to translate some of this learning into the design of some buildings and spaces, to investigate whether it’s possible to engage in really strong, assertive architectural design in a way that also pays heed to all the things we’ve been talking about? With my practice, the most notable thing we’ve done so far is for a project in Barkingside, a GLA funded scheme to improve the town centre, where we got in early enough to challenge and shape the brief quite profoundly. As a result, we were able to get our hands dirty in things that were simultaneously formal architectural ideas but also very much about networks, agency and community relations and taking those as sites of design [image 6].

FW: Yes, it’s really important that both the commissioner and the architects see the brief as something that can be challenged and redesigned. It’s similar to what we were saying about regulation – the brief, the budget, or even the marketing strategy aren’t necessarily constraints, they’re all fields for us to work within as designers. To influence.

DK: There is a trend that I personally find worrying in some strands of contemporary architecture which foregrounds political questions to the detriment of aesthetics and space and form, as if these latter things don’t matter so long as the politics is right, or feels right. And a lot of politically-aware architectural teaching carries a subliminal message that form and space and aesthetics aren’t as important as getting the politics right.

FW: Or worse, they have an implicit style but never openly discuss it. No matter how much ‘bottom-up activist public engagement’ is done – the results still somehow always look the same.

DK: Yes, I think it marginalises the architectural profession, to deny that a lot of the things that traditionally it’s been extremely good at - form, organisation, space, light, colour - all these traditional things that are deeply unfashionable in many circles - they are actually where a lot of our agency as designers resides. So, to deny those things and say it’s all about the political achievement, I think is an understandable impulse, but I think a really dangerous one. It’s wonderful and necessary, say, for a designer

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to operate as a politician or an activist, but they need to retain their design agency too. That’s where the politics takes on form.

FW: This kind of fashionable embarrassment about real architecture can also be an excuse to retreat from actually just doing stuff as well. And doing stuff is the most effective way of making a difference.

“It's worrying - a lot of politicallyaware architectural teaching carries a subliminal message that form and space and aesthetics aren’t as important as getting the politics right.”

DK: In the same way, a lot of apparently communityfacing work can abscond from decision making – ‘the community wanted this, so here it is’. Which again, could be wonderful, but it’s a very neutralising and not very complex understanding of what the community wants. It can reinforce unequal power relations within a community instead of challenging them. I mean, how did you choose which of the community you were going to listen to? You listened to the ones that said they would like a garden and you made a garden.

What about the guy over there who wanted a model aerodrome? • David Knight is a designer and author, and founding co-director of DK-CM (www.dk-cm.com), an architecture and research studio based in London. David has exhibited, lectured, taught and published internationally, including twice at the Venice Architecture Biennale, and his PhD work (‘Making Planning Popular’) at the Royal College of Art represented the UK at the Hong Kong & Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism & Architecture.

Finn Williams is an architect-turned-planner based in London. He worked for Office of Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam and General Public Agency before joining Croydon Council’s Placemaking team in 2009. Since 2013 he has worked for the Greater London Authority, where he is Regeneration Area Manager for North West London. Finn is the founder NOVUS, a thinktank for public sector planning run by public sector planners, and Common Office, a platform for independent research on planning, politics and the public.

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Colophon ATLANTIS Magazine by Polis | Platform for Urbanism and Landscape Architecture Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft Volume 27, Number 1, October 2016 Editor in Chief Shruti Maliwar, Kritika Sha Head of layout Gaila Costantini Public relations Marina Dondras, Giulia Spagnolo Editorial Team Maryam Behpour, Ioana Ionescu, Iulia Sirbu, Louise Kragh Hjerrild, Nadia Kalogeropoulou, Selina Abraham

IJsbrand Heeringa, Nagia Tzika Kostopoulou, Marcello Felice Vietti, Jere Kuzmanic, Isabella Del Grandi,

Editorial Address Polis, Platform for Urbanism Julianalaan 134, 2628 BL Delft Office: 01 West 350 tel. +31 (0)15-2784093 www.polistudelft.nl atlantismagazinetudelft@gmail.com Printer Drukkerij Teeuwen

Cover image Summer Š Rianne de Beer, Taken in front of Poortgebouw, housing community of 33 people in Rotterdam Zuid, Netherlands. This home of artists, sailors, old squatters, anarchists and dreamers is a true example of collective housing and struggle for tenant rights.

Amazing history of 36 years (It was squatted back in 1985!) counts numerous political actions, concerts, theatre and circus acts and nights of fun and dedication that happened inside these people's living space. Because home is much more than a place.

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ISSN 1387-3679

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