Atlantis 27_2

ATLANTIS MAGAZINE FOR URBANISM & LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

#27.2 JANUARY 2017

DIALOGUES CONNECTING SCALES

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!

The Board year of 2016 is coming to a close. After months of hard work it is now time to hand over our responsibilities to the new guard, ending what would surely be part of our most treasured memories. Working together with so many different personalities on so many projects has been a challenge and it the same time, an absolute joy.

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

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.

We had some pretty high ambitions at the beginning of our year, and we have strived to meet them. Luckily, the fruits of our labour have not been small. This year we worked on our goals to “internationalize” and to “organize”. During the year we managed to spread our magazines to the furthest reaches of the globe, set up a new discussion platform, attract international speakers, collaborate with fellow students in Split, Croatia and initiate an international student network to further facilitate collaborations between urbanism and landscape architecture students.

We are proud of the achievements, but realise that they would not have happened without the support of our friends and colleagues. Also, a round of appreciation goes out to our current Board of Advice members, along with the former Board of Advice members Leo van den Burg and Marjolein Peters, who have provided us with sound council, as always. Their places have been filled by René Kuiken and Marco Lub, and we have no doubt that they will be just as valuable to the new Polis Board. A big shout out also goes to all our committee members and the faculty’s administration who have worked very hard this year to make all our activities work out. All this would also not have been possible without the support from our sponsors, and we hope that this collaboration continues onto the next years.

Finally we welcome the new Polis Board of 2017, who will be taking up where we shall leave off. They have a long road ahead, but we are certain that they will enjoy it just as much as we have.

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

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

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ATLANTIS

EDITORIAL

MAGAZINE FOR URBANISM & LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

ATLANTIS VOLUME #27 Are you passionate about urbanism and landscape architecture and would like to contribute? Contact us at: atlantismagazinetudelft@gmail.com

Each scale is in a dialogue with another. It tells a story about the one before and the one after, forming an endless weave of relations. Scale is a fractal expression of space that connects geographies, stretches boundaries and defines territories. It is a cohesion of different elements over one common ground, on which a landscape for people, movements and space is moulded.

We call our faculty building the BK city. So, how can a building be a city? It is again an expression of a fractal of the city equally composed of people’s activities, narratives and interactions. Contained within a construction of brick, glass and steel, interspersed with elements that engender everyday routines, it is a world in itself.

At the same time it is part of the campus of the TU Delft, and that is a living lab connected with worldwide knowledge. And so on…. The faculty building is therefore more than just a place; it is a point in a landscape, one of many. It contains a myriad of smaller fragments, magnifying into the larger idea of a city. For what is an object without its landscape, its process, its story. To conclude, the power of scales is to make ourselves aware of the invisible while interacting with the visible. Parts that present the whole.

Atlantis 27.2 is about transitioning parts into scales. We explore stories that are part of our history and our present, the here and now, that envision futures unknown and speculate a larger image of the global world that we live in. This starts with an article

by Jere Kuzmanic, who is hopeful about creating a new language for an unwritten future, followed by 3 sections- one based on our perceptions, the other based physically in place, and a third titled reflections.

“Dialogues connecting Scales” then continues by adding other layers such as migration and ephemerality - challenging the notion of permanence, as illustrated

by Giulia Spagnolo. The second section reads as a narrative spanning different geographies within the physical realm - across boundaries in Chocó, overcoming tourism in Croatia and celebrating the sustainable network of food production in Havana. The concluding section includes a piece by IJsbrand Heeringa, profoundly contemplating the idea of compromise in a city.

As in the previous issues, Gaila Constantini, with her radical eye for layouts (and a love for pastels) lends cohesion to the diverse articles that Atlantis presents.

The next issue titled ‘Dialogues over Tools’ investigates how various forms of expression from photography, films, drawings to exhibitions, maps and models communicate our architectural thoughts and intentions.

Enjoy reading and seasons’ greetings to all!

Editors-in-Chief, Shruti Maliwar, Kritika Sha

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85o

10o 5o 0o -80o

-75o

-70o

Hans Island

-65

o

-60o

-55o -50o -45o -40o -35o 80o

Qaasuitsup

-30o

-25o

-20o

-15

o

-10

o

-5o

Greenland National Park 75o

05

Upemavik

Illoqqortoomniut

Uummannaq

70o

Sermersooq

Qeqertarsuaq Ilulissat Qasigiannguit

53

Kangaatsiaq

Sisimiut

Qeqqata

Maniitsoq

Tasiilaq

65o Nuuk

Paamiut

Kujalleq

27

Narsaq Nanortalik

Qaqortoq

60o

City/Town

Hans Island

Off shore licens

On shore licens

Possibility of finding unexplored oil and gas: <10%

10-30%

30-50%

50-100%

Population per region of total population:

3

0,4%

12,7%

17,1%

31,0%

38,8%

CONTENTS

//

05

THE

FUTURE

IS

UNWRITTEN

JERE

KUZMANIC

PERCEIVING // 05 THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN JERE KUZMANIC // 07 EXPANDING MATERIAL PERCEPTION INTO THE URBAN REALM

JENNA ERNESTRAND

// 09 NEW GEOGRAPHIES OF

INFORMALITY KRITIKA SHA // 13 MIGRATION THROUGH SCALES GIULIA SPAGNOLO // 17 OVERCOMING TOURISM

SAŠA RANDIĆ

// 19 ARCHITECTING INTERACTION INTERVIEW WITH STEPHANIE AKKAOUI

HUGHES BY MARYAM BEHPOUR

// 21 QUESTIONING THE NOTION OF SCALE NADIA KALOGEROPOULOU

PLACING

// 27 IS URBAN AGRICULTURE JUST AN UTOPIA?

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TERRITORIES

RISKY

PLACE

LAURA

ALEJANDRA

MARCELLO FELICE VIETTI

REFLECTING

//

FLUID

GARCÍA

GEOGRAPHIES

//

43

NIKLAS

APPROACHING

VIGAN

BUENOS

GAILA

KNAP//

AIRES

// 47 IS PUBLIC SPACE DYING IN THE UAE?

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THE

BIG

TRIP

-

SPLIT,

CROATIA

BY

COSTANTINI

39

BASED

KRITIKA

SHA

// IN &

KARISHMA ASARPOTA

BIG

// 53 CONFLICTS OF AN URBAN AGE: AND ISSUES IN DISCOURSE

TRIP

PARTICIPANTS

IJSBRAND HEERINGA

// 55 HOW TO WORK WITH AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE FRANZISKA UNZNER & FRANCISCO MARÍN NIETO

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The future is unwritten Future is unwritten. This is how Oregon based insurrectionist collective CrimethInc. summarized the tabula rasa of contemporary days, offering an immediate response to our illiteracy: the idea of positive nihilism. It is a view of our future as being intentionally differentiated from our past, or a thoughtful 'transgression' against the concepts of the old world. What if we could not count on the inherited ideologies and knowledge we have, in creating a better future? In this way, abolishing old normative, and normative discourses can become an act of active creation of new history, new spaces or new society presence; the unwritten future.

Nowadays it's more and more clear that we cannot predict the future. Neither its best, nor its worst. Who, only 6 months ago, would have confidently said that Trump would win the elections or that LePenn would storm the lead for French election polls?

We are still trying to rationally plan the scenario’s for inclusive and better cities, playing the game by the rules. What we don't realize is that these rules are melting and we still didn’t decolonize our imagination from them. The bold visions of the better world fought by big, old men of old times in military uniforms that victoriously smoke their cigarrillos seem to be buried together with Fidel’s one.

And what now? All the best architectural schools of the world are already importing their knowledge to Havana. Academic colonialism still has the best

scenario for the island in the sun. The stories heard of our professors sitting in La Fabrica del Arte Cubano leaves us the impression of Havana as the new Berlin.

Viva la Gentrificación Global!

by

Jere Kuzmanic

MSc Student, Urbanism TU Delft

So, the future is unwritten for the precarious society of the 21st century. Accomplishment principle collapsed.

Future makes us restless. In quest of the rest, our primary task is to deconstruct the terminology that shapes our disciplinary ambitions. The task of our generation is to decolonize our future from old well known paths into nowhere. We should look into urban future beyond catastrophe management: risk plans, survival guides and dialectic disagreements. History is repeating but in unpredictable patterns, scales, impacts and reactions. Old language of political, social and ethical dialogues does not seem to work in today's world.

Actually, a curious step towards new linguistics of a more just society already emerged, and offered a horizon of ideas: unions of cities, basic income, self-managed housing, sharing commons and more.

We can still communicate our beliefs in the post-truth age. What is our profession or, as we sometimes call it, discipline, in this restless context? We are all invited to work on this answer. The constellations of social and power structures of today can’t tell us about what is going to be.

That is why we need to be pioneers, the ones who will write, write the unwritten. •

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1. Making a boat - from the ruins of a gas station A series of instructional drawings teaching basic skills for success in challenging situations - part of the digital print portfolio Essential Knowledge: Volume 1 © Colin Matthes

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Expanding material perception into the urban realm Considering that a bit more than half the surface of Sweden is covered in forest, it only takes one minute to grow enough timber for a wooden building of eight floors, as per Folkhem a Swedish company that builds only with wood. For a country with a long history of the use of wooden building techniques, and the amount of acquirable timber, the presence of the material is not felt as strongly as it could be in our cities.

The romanticized image of Sweden is often a red-painted wooden cabin in a meadow of pine trees. A symbiosis between the human and the never-ending landscape of the trees surrounding her. A balance of the beauty of the nature and the simple home. This imagery does exist, yes, but not within the global context of urbanization, now currently also experienced in Sweden where most of the population lives in cities.

Can we then take the forest with us into the city again and densify our cities with wood? To fill the spaces in our urban areas as a visual and tactile reminder of what we are surrounded by?

The availability of the forest is the foundation of building traditions and timber techniques. It is a part of the geographical heritage and knowledge that has been transferred verbally overgenerations. Corner log timbering is a technique used to build massive wooden

structures with a joinery that creates a stable corner, and by the expansion of the wood overtime, creates a stronger and more thermally secure construction.

Until the middle of the 19th century this was the most common building technique used in Sweden 7

by

Jenna Ernestrand,

MPARC Student, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

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but then it rapidly decreased. Of course, the factors that led to the loss of this technique are complex, but industrialization and the establishment of sawmills is one of the reasons the technique did not make its way into the cities. It was kept on the outskirts even though the knowledge existed, but fire regulations in the city prohibited the wooden craft to enter the urban environment.

Incidents of heavy fires in cities like Sundsvall, which burned down completely, and UmeĂĽ which was partially destroyed the same day, in 1888, created a policy change which discouraged massive timber constructions. The regulations now demanded for a fire wall security and a ground floor in stone or cladded in a non fire hazard material. These regulations, and the fact that sawmills provided new dimensions of timber, changed the way we build with wood. The focus and the technique was no longer about the detailing of the joinery.

The wood would now be layered inside a wall. Other materials were used to secure thermal insulation and the surface material was something else altogether. Since the regulations prohibited the surface to be of wood, the recognition of the wood disappeared and the public realm was surrounded

by facades of stone, brick, and glass. This pushed away the visibility of the wood and the local material disappeared from the cities. The detailing of timber joinery is not so present in the urban environment and this distanced the appreciation of the wooden craft in Sweden. Expressions in detailing is a scale that we can relate to, it is a size that can be experienced by our hands with the touch and feel of the materiality. To fulfill the need of denser cities, wood should preferably be the choice to show appreciation of our nature.

Technology pushed the tradition of the craft away, and now we have the possibility and resources to combine this and enhance the material of the forest that surrounds us giving it character and multiple tactilities in the urban realm.

I think that the implementation of the visual and tactile expression within craftsmanship gives a kinesthetic and pedagogical value to our environment, and can create a consciousness of the making. To create a broader awareness of the beauty of the manmade, next to the possibilities that new technology gives us. â&#x20AC;˘

References Folkhem - Environment, http://folkhem.se/en/environment

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1. Illustration by Author

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NEW GEOGRAPHIES OF INFORMALITY This article explores and argues for the recognition of new geographies of informality. Often seen as a purview of the urban poor, and related to the production of space limited to slums and squatter settlements, this essay presents for the need to view informality though another lens. This has been echoed by several other authors, especially Ananya Roy (a scholar of international development and global urbanism known for advancing the theoretical concept of “urban informality” and the call for “new geographies of theory” that are attentive to the urban condition of the Global South) through 3 broad propositions(Roy, A., 2005). This article explores these propositions, based on a case of an infamous informal settlement in India (Dharavi in Mumbai). Dharavi, once had the notoriety of being called “Asia’s largest slum” (Sharma, K., 2000), is an informal settlement located in the geographical centre of Mumbai (often called the financial capital of India). It houses close to a million inhabitants and presents itself as a unique study of how informality can cross geographical scales and borders.

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by

Kritika Sha

MSc Student Urbanism, TU Delft

The premise: The discourse on informality rises out of a paradox that, although most of the urban growth of the 21st century will take place in developing countries (Nations, U., 2014), many of the theories on how cities exist, thrive and function and are rooted in the developed world (Roy, A., 2005).

In recent years, the urgency of addressing informal settlements and slums have caught the attention of governing bodies, practitioners and academicians.

The recent Habitat III in Quito, Ecuador is proof that implementing measures to counteract informal settlements in developing economies is of prime importance. In this discourse, there has been a particular line which calls for a better understanding of “informality” as a phenomenon which transcends geographical borders.

Several scholars such as Ananya Roy(Roy, A. and Crane, E.S., 2015) and Jan Nijman(Nijman, J., 2010) have presented a different perspective on informality.

Roy discusses informality over broad propositions: 1.Informality is not synonymous with poverty 2.Informality is a deregulated rather than unregulated system 3.The state is an informalized entity, or informality from above

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The article then explores the new geographies of informality in the above propositions, via an informal settlement, which had gained the notoriety of being called “Asia’s largest slum” (Sharma, K., 2000).

Informality and the urban poor Informality has been argued by both Roy and Nijman as not just the purview of the urban poor but is also the responsibility of the urban elite. Previous authors such as Mike Davies and Hernando De Soto have failed to connect the phenomena of the “slum” to the occurrence of wealth and power. Davies (Davies, M., 2007) sees the slum as the global phenomena of both rural and urban poor, which occurs through a structural framework of marginalization. On the other hand, De Soto (De Soto, H., 1990, De Soto, H., 2000) looks at informality as a revolution from below, the entrepreneurial strategy or tactical operations of the poor marginalized by bureaucracy and state capitalism(Roy, A., 2005).

A closer look at informal settlements, like Dharavi reveal that informality is not just the realm of the poor, but also of the rich (Nijman, J., 2010).

Roy also posits the argument that informality is a mode of production of space which connects the separated geographies of the slum and the suburb (Roy, A., 2009). This is often credited of the “privatization of informality” enabling it to cross from the public realm to the private, further encouraged by rise of neo-liberalism. These new forms of informality are no longer in the form of shanty towns or squatter settlements, but are more expressions of wealth and power. They, therefore, command and are provided

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with services of infrastructure and legitimacy, which are generally absent from traditional forms of slums and informal settlements. This becomes important in the context of India, where Dharavi now commands a position to demand legitimacy, in the wake of other forms of informality which are at times sanctioned by the state. Informality, therefore can cross borders of wealth and social-economic relations, transporting itself into new geographies of governance, separate from the territory of the slum.

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1. Jewelry production line in Dharavi (a slum); http://www.deccanherald. com/content/216254/dharaviself-created-special-economic.html 2. Areal view of Dharavi; in Mumbai http://www.panoramio.com/ photo/49850476

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The state as a form of informality In the previous paragraphs, informality was described as a mode of production of space stemming from deregulation. It is argued by De Soto as “extra-legal” (De Soto, H., 1990) or as “para-legal”(Chatterjee, P., 2004), a grassroots phenomenon (deep democracy) by Appadurai (Appadurai, A., 2001) and as “a feature of the structure of power” by Roy(Roy, A., 2005).

Most of these propositions imply that informality works in parallel with the “legal system” and the “illegal system”. This is not completely true in developing countries such as Brazil or India, where informality forms the heart of the state regulatory body and is an important part of the execution of its authority.

Often land acts in India, allow the state to legally expropriate the land in the name of public interest and reform. Informality, therefore can also mean illegal mechanisms of regulation. This is not seen in prominence in inner-city slums or informal settlements such as Dharavi, but is more visible in peri-urban areas of Indian cities in the form of SEZs (Special Economic Zones). It therefore allows a certain flexibility in regulation, leading to an informality from the “top-down” or the state.

Conclusion

crosses the notions of informality. When addressing the problem of “informal settlements” or slums or squatter settlements, it is important to develop a more clear understanding of how informality crosses its preconceived geographies, delving into the urban elite, regulation and the authority of the state. • This article is part of the authors current research.

References: APPADURAI, ARJUN 2001. Deep democracy: urban governmentality and the horizon of politics. Environment and Urbanization, 13, 23-43.

CHATTERJEE, PARTHA 2004. The politics of the governed: reflections on popular politics in most of the world, Columbia University Press.

DAVIS, MIKE 2007. Planet of slums. 2006. London & New York: Verso Google Scholar.

DE SOTO, HERNANDO 1990. The other path: The invisible revolution in the third world.

DE SOTO, HERNANDO 2000. The mystery of capital: Why capitalism triumphs in the West and fails everywhere else, Basic books.

NATIONS, UNITED 2014. World Urbanization Prospects: The 2014 Revision, Highlights (ST/ESA/SER. A/352). New York, United.

NIJMAN, JAN 2010. A study of space in Mumbai’s slums. Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 101, 4-17.

RAO, VYJAYANTHI 2006. Slum as theory: the South/Asian city and globalization. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 30, 225-232.

ROY, ANANYA 2005. Urban informality: toward an epistemology of planning. Journal of the American Planning Association, 71, 147-158.

Although, Dharavi is taken as a reference to illustrate the above-mentioned propositions, it does not mean that all informal settlements or slums can be equated with each other.

Dharavi, like other informal settlements presents a unique case and a mode of production of space, which

ROY, ANANYA 2009. Why India cannot plan its cities: Informality, insurgence and the idiom of urbanization. Planning theory, 8, 76-87.

ROY, ANANYA & CRANE, EMMA SHAW 2015. Territories of poverty : rethinking North and South, Athens, Georgia, University of Georgia Press.

SHARMA, KALPANA 2000. Rediscovering Dharavi: Stories from Asia’s largest slum, Penguin Books India.

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3. A potter in front of his shop in Dharavi; http://media.gettyimages. com/photos/an-indian-potter-id86379400 4. A worker at a paint making factory in Dharavi; http://www.artefacting. com/project-context/aboutdharavi/ 5. Sorting the Recycling in Dharavi; https://urbanchoreography. net/2011/04/01/notes-on-thethird-ecology-via-landscapeurbanism/

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â&#x20AC;&#x153; Informality forms the heart of the state regulatory body and is an important part of the execution of its authority.â&#x20AC;?

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Migration through scales and its consequences on the built environment.

The scale of people’s movement across the world is increasing every year. The reasons behind this phenomenon lay in politics, economy, culture and leisure.

Investments and private interests have made possible a more affordable and frequent connection. Conflicts force a continuously increasing number of people to leave their country in search of a safe haven every year. The tourism industry pushes and facilitates the mass movement across the globe towards temporary destinations in a more or less condensed period of the year. Leisure events concentrate people in temporary gatherings that sometimes give origin to real settlements dismantled at the end of their life cycle.

The physical existence and the fruition of temporality characterizing these settlements is, however, sometimes hard to define. The life cycle of these so-called temporary settlements covers two or three generations at times, blurring the boundary between ‘temporariness’ and permanence.

Moreover, the scale of temporary settlements has the power to shape the built environment and modify the dynamics that rule it.

The high pace at which the scale of migrations is increasing is gaining the attention of researchers, planners, developers, artists and urban designers trying to define the phenomenon of migrations, its characteristics and envision a possible response to it.

The Venice Architecture Biennale 2016 Reporting From the Front”, directed by Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena stresses on the new challenges for architects and urban designers, and enhances the need for creative solutions in a world at a time where resources are fewer and challenges are wider and more complex. (Aravena, 2016).

Within this framework, the ideas and works of architects

and urban designers are free to show different points of view and possible solutions.

Many of them have focused on housing and ‘temporariness’, once again showing the urgency and importance of the migration themes.

Indian architect and lecturer at Harvard University Rahul Mehrotra (RMA Architects) with his concept of “Ephemeral Urbanism” has taken the research one step further, claiming the importance of ‘temporariness’ as the only constant in urbanism and the illusion of permanence (R. Mehrotra, 2016).

Questioning the fundamentals of urbanism gives origin to the complexity of facing the ‘temporariness’ theme in architecture and urban design.When the definition of permanence itself is questioned, what are the principles that define and sustain the design project?

What is the scale of these movements and what kind of impact do they have on the built environment?

How does ‘temporariness’ influence the built environment at different scales?

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by

Giulia Spagnolo

MSc Student Urbanism, TU Delft

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How does ‘temporariness’ influence the built environment at different scales?

L Worldwide At the global scale in 2015 the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency has registered the highest number of displaced people worldwide. 65.3 millions have been reported as asylum-seeker, internally displaced, or as refugees (UNHCR Global Trends Report, 2015) which is roughly equivalent to the population of the entire United Kingdom, 22nd most populated country in the world with 65.1 million inhabitants (ONS, 2015).

More than half of the displaced population worldwide is hosted in refugee camps. Although the UN is seeking for alternative solutions and considers the refugee camps as temporary shelters, some of the camps are assuming the structures and the dimensions of permanent settlements where three generations have already been housed.

The biggest is the Hagadera, located in Kenya, established and recognized in 1992, with a population of 184,550 inhabitants, bigger than the population of Delft. The scale of these camps and their permanence leads to open scenarios about the future of settlements and their design. The oldest camps defined, ruled and structured by the UN, have been founded in 1948 following the 1948 Arab - Israeli War. This

means infrastructures, housing and services provided and structured by the UN for three generations of Palestinians.

The challenge is to find the differences between the so-defined temporary camps and urban settlements. Is this the new frontier of urbanism?

Forced displacement is not the only reason behind massive migrations. The touristic industry allows and facilitates an increasing value of people’s movement across the globe every year. In 2015 has been registered by the UNWTO, the World Tourism Organization, the highest number of international arrivals (overnight visitors) worldwide ever, with an increment of 50 million tourists in comparison to the previous year.

The agency, operating worldwide, aims to develop a world economy enhancing the potential of tourism.

The promotion of these dynamics has direct consequences on the built environment in terms of infrastructures, services and trends. The tourism machine, in fact, influences people’s movement according to its demands and, consequently, it shifts its pressure from place to place.

Investments and typologies of infrastructures and services are developed according to its needs. Airports expansion, cruises facilities, luxury hotels and holiday housings are built along the coasts to facilitate the incoming of tourists. However, this extreme development of one kind of economy leaves places and spaces depending on touristic trends.

The challenge for urban designers would be to at the local scale, take in consideration the global dynamics and their consequences.

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1-2-3. Photographs from exhibition “Making Heimat.

Germany, Arrival Country”, German Pavillion, The Venice Architecture Biennale 2016 “Reporting From the Front” © Author

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M Europe The European macro region is facing the pressure of both refugees and touristic incomings. Having a strategic geographical position, Europe has seen in 2015 the highest number of asylum seekers since the first record (1985) (Pew Research Centre, 2016). 1,3 million people have asked for asylum in Europe almost as a direct consequence of the start of the Syrian conflict (2011).

Half of the asylum seekers originate from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq and the preferred destinations are Germany, Hungary and Sweden. However, the desired destination country does not always become the host and refugees are not spread equally all over Europe. The highest number is welcomed by Hungary with 1,770 applicants per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Germany and France.

Most of the refugee population in Europe is housed in reception centers generally located in the cities.

However, the great wave of incomings has led to the construction of new refugee camps. The famous example of Tempelhof in Berlin, the former airport turned into a camp, is the biggest one. Working as a shelter for 1,200 refugees, the centre is located in the immediate surroundings of the city. However, as well as the others, the camp works independently from the urban area, for safety reasons. Projects and plans are being discussed in order to reconsider and re-arrange the organization and design of the accommodation centre. The management of refugee migration in Germany is representative of how the country is tackling the issue.

The statements have been displayed at the German

Pavilion during the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale. On one side, the fear of the ghettoization of these populations pushes towards the politics of integration, on the other side the boundary between integration and the negation of social and cultural differences is endangered to become blurry.

The exhibition aims to legitimize the possibility of informality and semi-legal practices where an agreement and a balance could be achieved. The global trends regarding migration make Europe the key - country for testing new possibilities for services and settlement arrangements in cities.

The questions regarding touristic migrations are not easier to answer either. The European country, in 2015, in line with the global trends, has faced the biggest number of international arrivals (+ 5 %). For the 6th consecutive year, the touristic industry has seen an increment in terms of visitors and the number is expected to further grow in the future, although at a slower pace due to the development of the Asian market (UNWTO, 2016). Its impact on the European scale on the built environment is massive, in terms of economics, jobs, services and infrastructures.

The leading country in Europe in terms of accommodations is France, followed by Italy and Spain. Aiming for the economical regional development, investments are welcoming and facilitating the touristic industry regardless the transformation of the environment into leisure-cities and territories.

The monothematic development of the economy capitalizes the attention on single economical resource and does not allow the development of sectors. The consequence is not only visible in monothematic range of services in the built environment, but also in terms of different typologies and qualities of jobs. This monothematic economy, in fact, leads to a lack of jobs generally in the field of higher educated inhabitants.

How to develop the regional realities in terms of economical varieties without compromising the economical resources of tourism?

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4. Photograph from exhibition “Ephemeral Urbanism”, The Venice Architecture Biennale 2016 “Reporting From the Front” © Giulia Spagnolo

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“ With the increase and scale of Ephemeral settlements, the notion of ‘the city’ as a stable and permanent entity is challenged ” from the exhibition “Ephemeral Urbanism”, Rahul Mehrotra & Felipe Vera The Venice Architecture Biennale 2016, “Reporting from the Front”

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S Local Scale It is generally hard to relate a global trend with the direct consequence it has on the environment we live in. However, the massive changes and migrations of the last decade have transformed the appearance of our cities and our perception.

Multicultural societies are not anymore a prerogative of big European cities, which is a sign of a more fluid and mixed population. Refugee centers in cities aim to work as integration and “re-settlement” hubs with a management structure for the refugees applying for the European citizenship. However, the scale of incomings makes evident the inadequacy of these solutions. The refugee population in most cases remains at the margins of the European cities society, trapped between being hosted and the impossibility of developing their own lives and expectations.

The question for politicians and urban designers is therefore how to facilitate the self-development and life of a refugee living in an European city in order to contribute to the life of the city itself ?

On the other side, the difference in policies and perceptions applied to tourists emerges as a strong contrast. The touristic industry is facilitated and promoted at the local scale as a powerful source of economy. However, the downside of tourism becomes more evident at the local scale. Great investments in the tourism sector for territories and cities are transforming the local realities into leisure environments. Local economies are disappearing or converted in favour of touristic facilities.

Moreover, the spread in cities of Air-bnbs has

consequences on the livability and on the care of cities. The temporary usage risks to transform cities in settlements temporarily used, with periodical shifts between massive pressure in terms of incomings and empty houses.

This situation, although it is able until a certain level to sustain the local economy, makes it massively dependent on one typology of economical resource and therefore dependent on its trends. Moreover, the local identity, which the tourist seeks, risks to disappear in favour of touristic services and facilities easier to be developed and with an immediate economical revenue. As suggested by the UNWTO, the goal would be to use the touristic economical power to develop local economies. Sustainability, local characteristics and culture are the key words used to aim towards a smarter development of the potentials of tourism.

The study of migrations and their trends show how global realities affect the local realities and therefore they show the possibility for architects and urban designers to react accordingly. In an increasingly connected world, physical boundaries are questioned, opening the discussion to different possibilities. When the fundamentals are not stable anymore, creativity and open minds lead to unexpected solutions. The increased global mobility of people, their effect on local realities and the production of new temporary landscapes claim new statements regarding permanence and our built environment. • References La Biennale di Venezia - Introduction by Alejandro Aravena (2016) Philippa Nicole Barr (2016) Nothing is permanent, nothing is sacred.

5. Photograph from exhibition “Inverted Ruins”, Paulo David, The Venice Architecture Biennale 2016 “Reporting From the Front”

surges to record 1.3 Million in 2015

Paulo David’s opera aims to find a sustainable architectural answer to the needs of mass tourism in the vulnerable landscape of the island of Madeira, Portugal.

UNWTO (2016) World Tourism Barometer

© Author

Interview with R. Mehrotra. Domus S. Maliwar (2016) Architecture as a coalition of varied dynamics. Interview with R. Mehrotra. Atlantis 27.1 Statistics, O.F.N. (2016) United Kingdom population mid-year estimate.

Connor, P., (Pew Research Center)(2016) Number of refugees to Europe

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Overcoming Tourism Explorations in Croatia An important aspect of today's society is the mobility of population. Today, 3% of world's population does not have a permanent address. On top of that, there are 1,13 billion tourist transfers per year – another level of mobility, defined by the UN and World Tourist Organization as remaining in one place for less than a year.

Since the 1960s, tourism has been recognized globally as one of the main generators of economic development. However, it has also been noted as a leading cause of irresponsible consumption of space.

Thus, following such a development, we see a number of dilemmas emerge in field of spatial planning.

Discussions, until recently, have focused on oppositional realities; the relationship between tourist infrastructure and their relative cities. However, contemporary tendencies of tourism are gradually erasing this polarity.

For example, we see traditional housing increasingly being used as occasional and seasonal accommodation, with websites such as Airbnb attracting over 500,000 visitors daily. This has been joined by the parallel development of similar platforms which are based on the 'Shared Economy'', and are driving significant change in the ratio of accommodation in the private sector and the traditional tourist sector. During The Croatian Tourism Days, the nation’s ministry of tourism highlighted a fact that 15 billion of USD is earned in 'Shared Economy' sector, whereas the traditional tourism sector earns up to 240 billion USD, expecting these two to even until 2025.

Although platforms such as Airbnb were accepted positively, this initial reaction is being substituted for caution due to their uncontrolled growth. Surprisingly, the resistance to these new market players has not come from the traditional tourism sector, but rather from its base – the citizens themselves.

Opportunities to earn through short term rentals have led to noticeable rises in both the housing and regular rental markets. Instead of making city life easier, Airbnb made it harder. For this reason, cities like Berlin, Barcelona and Amsterdam have begun to look for ways to restrict this new practice of

accommodation sharing in order to keep control over the rental market.

On a personal level, the sharing of a living space made an impact on an individual’s perception of an apartment or house, as these are part of both personal memory and identification. The practice of receiving money from others in exchange for the use of your personal intimate space has been termed the ‘pornification of living space’. However, the connotation of the term is not necessarily negative.

This year Oslo triennale showed a movie by Ila Beke and Louise Lemione (Authors of the movie 'Koolhaas house life') demonstrating this concept, which followed a tax officer from Copenhagen that lived in hotels whilst renting out his apartment. He paid close attention to his temporary tenants, carefully keeping track of the way they made use of his belongings.

by

Saša Randić

Architecture Department, FGAG, Split, Croatia

“ ...the sharing of a living space makes an impact on an individual’s perception of an apartment or house, as these are part of both personal memory and identification.

Unlike Amsterdam, Berlin and other European metropolis which have encountered this mass shortterm rental phenomenon more recently, Croatia has experienced the pornification of private space since the 1970s. Large numbers of coastal inhabitants would move into garages, basements and other options to make their own house available for seasonal renting.

Today's global phenomena reflect on the experiences of Split and other coastal towns, particularly the effects on urban space and contemporary culture.

The Shared Economy is eroding the boundary between the space of tourists and citizens, while till nowadays the clear separation between those two was basic paradigm for the spatial management of Croatian coastal areas.•

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1. Collage - “Overcoming tourism through as a spatial- temporal phenomenon in Split, Croatia”, illustrating the three different scales of the city through which it can be perceived © Sumanth S Rao

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A rc h i te c ti n g i n te ra c tion Designing the context for creativity, collaboration, and learning “Architecting interaction explores human interaction at the scale of interventions and the context of their design. ” Stephanie Akkaoui Hughes The design of space that promotes social interaction within diverse socio-spatial scales is an active debate not only amongst our fields but also amongst other professionals, each with different ideas. Amidst the diverse ideologies, AKKA -a design office based in Amsterdam- has presented a new story “Architecting Interaction”. Within AKKA, interaction is not only the outcome of design – it is a process, inclusive to its users and therefore a necessity. To get to know the idea behind AKKA’s ideologies for “architecting interaction," Atlantis visited Stephanie at her studio in Impact hub, located at the first floor of a 19th-century building within Amsterdam’s Westerpark. Stephanie provided an insight on her particular experience of architecture developed by the phenomenon of “interaction” and how the initial idea evolved.

This was followed by a brief discussion about her architectural process and its related issues along with her newly published book titled “Architecting Interaction”.

Where did the concept of ‘Architecting Interaction’ stem from? How would you describe Akka and its main focus to Atlantis?

The idea of "architecting interaction” was born whilst working for OMA. Then I gradually left OMA and opened my own firm to follow my desire to search for more than what was happening there.

In Akka, ‘designing the context for social interaction’ rather than interaction itself is the main concern.

In AKKA “interaction” is not seen as just the result but rather a necessary process which is inclusive to users from the beginning of the project. We believe that people are the main designers, and we assist with technique. In Akka, the context for interaction is designed through an interactive process containing 4 stages: Appreciation, Kernel, Kickstart, and Adaptation.

The first stage is defined by the community of the project: the community consultation. The second stage is about finding the shared vision by and with the community concerned by the project. The stage of Kickstart is all about learning by doing; the development of the project. The last stage takes

Interview with

Stephanie Akkaoui Hughes, Founder of AKKA

by

Maryam Behpour,

MSc Student, Urbanism TU Delft

place after people have moved in the space. During the Adaptation stage, we observe how people move around the physical space and how they use it; we keep the design open for experience. At the end, what matters is that the design should foster interaction and to do so, we need to involve users from the very first step of the project.

Earlier you mentioned the notion of "designing the context for interaction"; What exactly do you mean by "context"? How is it defined by the users of your design?

“Context” could be everything: simply put, the pen you are using, the chair you are sitting on, this room, the building, the city and the people in it. It is our responsibility to create the context for interaction.

Defining ‘context’ could thus be very complicated as people have different socio-cultural ideas and therefore this varies among individuals and across scales. And there lies our main responsibility: to translate those ideas into what we call the ‘profile’.The profile is not the opinion about a specific context but rather the philosophy behind that opinion. It represent a whole group with similar characteristics, and in this way the definition of “context” varies with each community.

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1.Impact hub, Amsterdam Source: http://akkaarchitects. com/projects/impact-hub/ 2. Drawing-The AKKA's process for design ©Stephanie Akkaoui 3. Drawing- The Impact hub's community ©Stephanie Akkaoui 4. The adaptation stage, interactive nodes. ©Stephanie Akkaoui 5.Groundwork discussion ©Stephanie Akkaoui

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While talking to you, I see how people are freely moving around us in ‘Impact hub’ and are engaged with different activities. I wonder, what has created such a social interactive place and how did the design contribute to this result?

The Impact hub was designed to promote human interaction. In the Impact hub, every space and its furniture has one purpose: fostering interaction.

To do so, we had to consider all sorts of possible interactions which are crucial for “collaboration” and “innovation”. In this project, we let people start using the space before it was completely finished and, monitored this. This way, the space was designed on the basis of peoples’ flows and the created interactive nodes. Here, people are engaged with different activities because the space supports diversity.

In ‘Impact hub’, the design is adaptable to new experiences and for users to make it their own and keep it alive. In this manner, Impact hub will never have a fixed design.

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Within the academic discourse we explore ideas through different tools and across multiple scales. How would you describe these keywords from the perspective of your projects?

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What we are dealing with in our projects, is too organic to be called tools. Dynamics and mechanism can be the better representative for our work in AKKA. People usually work in very fixed ways and methods, to achieve certain results.

We use “dynamics” because we don't know what is going to come out but we know and trust the process.

The dynamics and mechanisms we work with, is thus applicable to different disciplines and scales, from private residence to offices, museums and city parks.

This is what we have recently shared in our book, ‘Architecting Interaction’.

What does your book present as design or solution to architects, urbanists, and other professions?

The book presents a vision in writing not the design nor the solution. What is presented in the book is not the conclusion, it is a part of the process. It is not an architecture book and thus it is not only for architects.

It talks about designing the context but a context doesn’t’t need to be spatial. If you are a manager of a bank, you are also dealing with context for interaction.

The context in that case is your team, projects, programs and how to deal with them.

The subtitle of the book is how to “innovate through interactions”. And it concludes with a very ‘open end’ we believe in. •

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About AKKA: AKKA was founded by a Lebanese architect Stephanie Akkaoui Hughes.

AKKA involves a team of architects, urbanist, engineers, designers, thinkers, and strategists who are specialized in designing spaces that foster interaction, creativity, collaboration, and learning. They do not design interaction, instead, they design the context for interaction.

For more details, visit: www.akkaarchitects.com 20

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Questioning the notion of

Scale

Land Art projects by

Nadia Kalogeropoulou MSc Student, Landscape Architecture TU Delft

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When referring to art, the first thing that instinctively comes to mind is paintings or sculptures enclosed within the walls of a museum or an art gallery. The scale of a work of art is usually perceived with respect to human dimensions, or at least as something that is quantifiable. What separates the work of art from a viewer is not its inconceivable size, but rather the physical boundaries placed around it, like a protective fence. One could argue that these limits invisibly augment the value of the artwork, because they create a distance and make it unreachable by the audience, both literally and symbolically. Physical boundaries eventually turn into mental ones.

With land art though, the concept described above becomes invalid. In land art (or else earth art, or earthworks), an art movement in which landscape and the work of art are inextricably linked, notions like scale and size acquire a new meaning. These works are created by blending natural elements (soil, rock, water, organic media) and artificial materials (such as concrete, asphalt, metal and plastic) within a natural environment, sometimes located far away from the urban realm. There is no physical limit between the artwork and the viewer: usually the audience is allowed not just to visit the land art project, but to touch it, to walk on and/or through it, to digitally capture it, to revisit it. What creates the mentaldistance is the unbelievable size of the artwork, which unfolds through the landscape and disappears into the horizon. Land art projects challenge the notion of scale and put the experience of the artwork in a whole new perspective.

In the late 1960s, American artists were compelled to find alternative ways of expressing themselves against the artificial and commercial nature of art, which was the force that led to the birth of the land art

movement. They rejected museums and art galleries as ideal settings of artistic expression1 and instead opted for the freedom offered by the open air. They worked on site-specific sculptures, exclusively designed for a particular location. It is probably no coincidence that most of the first well-known land artists were American: compared to the densely built European environments, the American landscape had a lot of free space to offer. The deserts of Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona, therefore, hosted several of the earliest land artworks.

Since land artists have been inspired by minimal and conceptual art and by modern movements like De Stijl and Cubism, most projects consist of simple yet bold interventions on or with the earth and water.

Some of the works are of an ephemeral nature, in the sense that they are set to last only for a few days or even hours, being eventually decomposed by either the creators or the natural phenomena. Temporality, as employed in the works of Jim Denevan2 or Christo and Jeanne-Claude3 for instance, can be a powerful tool, because it emphasizes the importance of the 23

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artwork as a particular event, to be experienced in a particular place at a particular moment of time. It is remarkable how an object –or a group of objects- in its impermanence, has the ability to make a powerful statement and become part of history.

Creating transient artworks is only one of the ways to represent land art as a notion of time. Another case of time-dependent projects worth mentioning can be summarized in the example of the Spiral Jetty, a wellknown artwork by Robert Smithson: on the surface of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, U.S., the artist created a spiral by arranging rocks, earth and algae4 and made use of the fluctuating water levels to determine how much of the project would be visible each time.

In general, time adds a fourth dimension to the already three-dimensional land art projects, a dimension whose scale is hard to grasp, yet powerful.

One could argue –and rightfully so- that land artists are not the only ones that use time as a magic tool.

But what separates their works from the rest of the art world, is the fact that in this case time is actually materialized through nature and natural forces.

Land art is largely environmental, in the sense that its projects are truly integrated in the landscape.

Hence, weather conditions can be main determinants when experiencing the artwork. Whether it is about sudden events, such as a lightning storm, or ongoing processes, like sea level rise and erosion, the influence of time might be hidden, but is always present, and it can be witnessed on the artwork’s physical changes.

In a world that is struggling to eliminate its geographical and political borders, yet is constantly creating new limits –economical, cultural etc.- art has proved to be a means of overcoming differences and creating bonds. At the same time, it can address issues in a critical and straightforward manner – besides, politeness is not always the answer. In that perspective, land art can be a powerful tool. The impact of an artwork in a museum can be strong.

But the impact of a land artwork that surrounds the viewer from every possible direction and that seemingly tames the natural forces, while its own existence depends on natural processes, can be even greater. The acknowledgement of land art’s capacity of transmitting messages to its audience is not new: several artworks of that size have been created to reinforce public awareness on contemporary matters, especially on issues of environmental vulnerability and risk5. By using the power of large-scale interventions in order to create dramatic scenes and encourage a dialogue between man and its surrounding landscape, land art in the end puts into question that exact same notion: the notion of scale. •

References 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_art 2. for more information on his work, visit http://www.jimdenevan.com/ 3. for more information on their work, visit on http://christojeanneclaude. net/ 4. http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/land-art.htm 5. http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/land-art.htm

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1. Running Fence © Christo and Jeanne-Claude 2. Lightening Field-Walter de Maria © The Guardian 3. Spiral Jetty-Robert Smithson © Scott Haefner 4. Sand works© Jim Denevan

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"Land art projects challenge the notion of scale and put the experience of the artwork in a whole new perspective."

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IS URBAN AGRICULTURE JUST A UTOPIA? Multi-scale organic urban agriculture in Havana.

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With seven billion mouths to feed, agriculture plays a fundamental role in human survival on earth. Once designated to the countryside, the past decades have seen it infiltrating modern cities. From Berlin to London, urban agriculture on small allotments and rooftops has become the new urban fashion trend for dozens of perfectly- bearded, bicycle- equipped, pro-organic hipsters. But what is its future? Can landscape architects and urbanists use it as a tool or will it remain just a dinner topic to make us feel at peace with the world?

With the growing interest in this activity, landscape architects might also wonder: is urban agriculture scalable? Can it be translated to a larger scale able to fulfill the needs of not only the farmer but also it's community or it's city?

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by

Gaila Costantini

MSc student, Landscape Architecture TU Delft

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Alamar

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Many of these questions might be answered through an existing example: the multi-scale urban agriculture in Havana, Cuba. A unique series of historical events, led to the advent of urban farming in Cuba and has since evolved in to a complex system of self-sufficient food production unlike any other country. This unique city model may provide lessons for architects seeking food security for future cities.

While urban residents built community gardens to meet their own temporary needs, the government undertook a sweeping national agrarian reform program to educate people on farming organically (3). To give farmers incentives to grow produce for the domestic market, the government permit the creation of farmers’ markets in the cities, a break from the formerly state-dominated food system (9).

Historical background

Cuban Cities became not only places for living but also for producing food. Urban farming began in Cuba as a survival enterprise, but it shortly grew into the largest organic agriculture network ever initiated, making Cuba a world example in urban farming.

Carey Clouse in his recent book Farming Cuba: Urban Agriculture from the Ground Up1 writes that, more than two decades ago, in the early 1990s, Cuba was a state strongly bonded to the Soviet Union, depending on its imports and trades. The Cuban agricultural model had productivity for exporting as its primary goal, and resulted on the nation dependency on chemical fertilizers, machinery and oil.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba entered a crisis stretching from 1991 to 1996, that Fidel Castro euphemistically called “The Special Period”, and the country found itself with the sole responsibility of feeding its population. Foreign trade dropped, food scarcity became acute and as Cubans lost weight, cats disappeared from the streets in Havana, doomed to be dinner. Justifying the term ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, people found new alternative ways of feeding themselves by spontaneously growing their own food wherever they could. Playgrounds, courtyards, roof-tops and balconies got populated with cabbages, carrots, and tomatoes (2).

1. Organoponico on Avenida de los cocos, Alamar, Cuba. © Author 2. Havana's urban agriculture pattern © Ruojing Wu 3. "To have more we need to produce more", propaganda along the road, Cuba © Author

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Alamar neighbourhood case study Today in Havana, Cubaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capital, urban farms supply 90 percent or more of all the fresh vegetables consumed by its inhabitants.

The city is a living example of a systematic approach to rethinking urban landscapes for productive means.

Infrastructures for food production were incorporated into the existing city fabric, with interventions that ranged in size, from backyard gardens, to large peri-urban farms. The multi-scalar character of this phenomenon is essential to understand its dynamics and for the success of the overall system. Each scale brings with it a different working force, different target groups and different kinds of food produced.

The unique characteristic of the project is the special emphasis on production without external inputs (as these were not available in the beginning and are still rare today), which results in an effective organic system.

But, beyond international studies by foreign professionals, does this system really work for ordinary Cubans?

The answer is yes, or at least this is what I observed during my visit to Havana. In order to better understand this system I chose to study Alamar, one of the lowest-income neighbourhoods of Havana, but perhaps the best example of a self- sufficient food production community.

Three scales of food productivity Urban agriculture in Havana and particularly in Alamar occurs at a host of different scales, from the balcony garden to multi hectare fields. This unplanned system, is a multi-scalar system, that was a result of different sizes of the productive land available.

Each individual scale is crucial to the system and if removed, the setup would not be so effective.

Patios

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Patios are small scale, private production spaces that can be found everywhere: on balconies, terraces, small gardens, and house backyards. A few people tackle production through containers or small parcels of land. These spaces are usually a single household initiative and the produce is consumed by the family or partly sold. Production is not limited to fruits and vegetables, but also extends to medical herbs and various plants aimed at Santeria worship 2. As per the FAO, (Food and Agriculture Organization) of the United Nations, home micro-gardens, which involve more than 150 000 families, are the most important form of family farming in Cuba. Moreover, family farming plays a key role in the maintenance of biodiversity and creates an ecosystem for nearly 650 plant species.

In the first years of the crisis, most of the food harvested in Havanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s popular gardens went directly to the families, friends and neighbours of the producers. With the relaxation of laws governing the sale of urban produce, production increased and allowed gardeners to also make economic gains.

Due to its detachment from the main city of Havana, Alamar was severely impacted by the food shortage during the special period. Its strategic position beyond the green belt of the capital, in the outskirts of Havana also ensured that a large amount of space and soil was available. Soon after the Cuban Revolution (1959) the construction euphoria exploded, and a series of great interventions were planned in Alamar: hospitals, public buildings and squares. However, many of these interventions were not realized due to the lack of funds, leaving huge gaps in the urban fabric, the perfect opportunity for agricultural appropriation.

So what exactly are these production scales and the respective food production spaces? The urban farming structure can be characterized in three different scales â&#x20AC;&#x201C; patios (4), heurtos (5) and organoponicos (6).

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Huertos

Organoponico

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Huertos exist as productive spaces of a slightly larger scale, offering different fruits and vegetables aimed at feeding a larger group than just a single family . There are two different types of huertos: huertos privados and huertos populares. The former are privately allotted spaces handled by a single family or a private collective. The latter are production spaces managed by schools and educational institutions. In the case of Alamar, there are huertos outside each main kindergarten, middle and even high schools with both a productive and educational purpose. Here students come to learn about organic production and the different products and simultaneously food is produced for the school canteen.

Organoponicos are the main urban spaces for mass food production on a large scale, with the ability to feed an entire neighbourhood and beyond. A wide variety of products are raised in a bio-intensive manner. The most important aspect is that the production is completely organic, based only on green and natural solutions during all agricultural phases.

The main objective of the organopinicos is to keep the producer close to the consumer by giving them access to fresh and local food, while eliminating intermediaries and the negative impacts of transport.

Many organopicos and intensive huertos have their own stalls next to their fields with affordable prices (7-8-9).

4.Example model of a patio © Author 5. Shading technique, Organoponico Vivero Alamar, Havana, Cuba. © Author 6.Example model of an educational huerto. © Author 7.Workers in Organoponico on Avenida de los cocos, Alamar, Havana, Cuba. © Author 8.Example model of an organoponico © Author 9.Farmers’ markets, Alamar, Havana, Cuba. © Author

Urban farming began in Cuba as a survival enterprise, but it shortly grew into the largest organic agricultural network ever initiated.

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With this classification in mind, let us consider two concrete examples of these categories. And if you ever happen to be in Havana, reserve some time to take a visit!

and people come to buy her products from other districts.

Patio Susana

The monotony of Alamar’s uniform architecture may seem to have abolished any local initiative and creativity, until one comes across Vivero Alamar.

Surrounded by seven-story apartment buildings, Vivero Alamar is a 27-acre working farm. This is not only one of the most successful organoponicos of the city, but is also a touristic attraction offering guided tours to sweating visitors braving the cuban sun.

Founded in 1994 on a small 9-acre parcel of land, Vivero Alamar today has grown into a 140 person cooperative, growing a wide range of fruits and vegetables. A patchwork of orchards, shade houses, and row crops provides a harvest of green lettuces, carrots, tomatoes, culinary and medicinal herbs.

Vivero Alamar, is a completely organic operation, all crops are grown without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides (1-7 -13).

Patio Susana, is managed by its eclectic, original and welcoming owner, Susana (10-11-12). She has been managing her own small business for the past 25 years, originally behind closed doors and in the last few years she has been permitted to open the garden to the public. The place is a secret treasure of shadows and colours. The love and passion that Susana has for her plants is immediately conveyed as you enter the space. Her unique set, consists of a wooden gazebo, and different kinds of containers for her plants, old cans, plastic basins and in one case even a bathtub.

She uses this beautiful and fresh environment to grow plants mainly for medicinal and religious purposes. However, she is a point of reference for the community and overtime, her patio has gained fame

UBPCs Vivero Alamar

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10. Susana in her Patio.

Alamar, Havana, Cuba. © Author 11. Patio de Susana entrance from the road. Alamar, Havana, Cuba. © Author 12. Plant cotainers. Patio de Susana, Alamar, Havana, Cuba. © Author 13. Cattle in organoponico Vivero Alamar used both for farming and for natural fertilizers. Cattle is borrowed by the state and is fed in exchange. Alamar, Havana, Cuba. © Author

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Designer’s perspective.

From an urban and landscape design perspective, the agricultural initiative in Havana happened spontaneously, without any kind of organization or overall framework. They lack in coherent built elements and are not connected to the city structure, and are often simply fenced off pieces of land. Carey Clouse1 writes that, urban agriculture has become a permanent type of land use in Havana’s master plan since the year 2000. The formalization of these initiatives into a land-use typology, guarantees the recognition of its value and sets the basis to regulate these foodscapes. But whether formally designed or not, these spaces strongly affect the urban structure and has become an integral part of the city’s anatomy and its inhabitant's identity.

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Organoponicos have a large impact on the community.

They enable the local residents with regular access to fresh food at cheap prices. Agriculture is also a source of jobs for the locals, especially women and the elderly.

Organic farms are changing how Cubans think about food and agriculture, with farming becoming a well-respected career and providing an awareness of healthy eating habits.

From an urban design perspective, Havana’s agricultural landscapes demonstrate that productivity can be infused into a rigid urban fabric. While food security is not traditionally considered within the domain of architects, landscape architects and planners, designers could however be a great asset to situations where food production is still to be implemented.

Urban farming not only adds greenery to the cities but also reduces harmful runoff and, especially important in Havana, increases shading. Architects, looking for time-tested models addressing the issues of resource scarcity, can refer to Cuba’s example as an important precedent. Not only does it incorporate appropriation of public space with food production but, even as an unplanned system, it proves that a good mix of technology, community will and state support can be a winning combination.

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Cuba’s model – affordable, accessible, comprehensive, and de facto organic – could be particularly instructive for other nations seeking improved food security. •

Notes 1. Carey Clouse. "Farming Cuba: Urban Agriculture from the Ground Up " 15 Jun 2014. ArchDaily. Accessed 20 Nov 2016. <http://www.archdaily. com/514669/farming-cuba-urban-agriculture-from-the-ground-up/> 2. Santeria is a cuban religion developed in the African slave's communities of the 18th Century sugar plantations. It adopts elements of Spanish Catholicism while maintaining the central beliefs of Africa’s natives. Herbs, roots and flowers are a santeria's fundamental element and can be used both

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for cure and for magical rituals.

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Risky Territories Fluid Geographies Since the UN Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone1 was established, Canada and Greenland have been claiming the same 1,3 km2 large island located in the Nares Strait, named Hans Island. The island will redefine the territorial rights to the seabed surrounding it, in which there may be natural wealth in the form of oil and gas resources.

The case of Hans Island is particular because of its long history of attempts to define its ownership both through political negotiations and use of technological definitions. Recently from 2005 to 2012 it was attempted to define the maritime border, and it was even proposed to split the islandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s land territories between the nations, but all attempts were unsuccessful and Hans Island stays without defined sovereignty to this day. Even though a solution does not seem possible in the near future an eventual definition of ownership to either nation will without a doubt have major different outcomes. Due to Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strong economy and relatively larger population they will experience less radical changes in their society than Greenland.

Therefore, in order to analyse the consequences of benefitting from natural resources and the transformation of an arctic society that follows, it makes sense to dig into the situation of Greenland. By laying out the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s political, economical and social landscape the paper will answer to; What will happen if Greenland finds oil in its exclusive economic zone? What will the international, national and local consequences be?

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by

Niklas Vigan Knap

MArch Student University of Applied Arts, Vienna

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Greenland and the Danish Realm

A liberal liberation

Greenland’s economy consists of a dominating public sector and foreign trade of fish and seal products, which has resulted in a fragile economy with periods of growth, significant inflation and unemployment.

Not only the changing export demand contributes to an unstable economy but also due to climate change the seal population and production has decreased since the 1920’s. From 1979, under the home-ruled scheme, the local government overtook a series of responsibilities from the Danish state; church, culture, education, labour and healthcare. The operating costs followed the responsibilities and the ‘block grants’3, became a reality. In 2009 Greenland and Denmark agreed on the Autonomy Act, which transformed Greenland’s state into a self-ruled government. The self-ruled government decided in November 2009 to take over the mining area, whereby Greenland obtained the right to exploit resources in the subsoil.

Finally the act contains a specification on Greenland’s access to independence. This specification means that if the people of Greenland, through a public vote, decides on independence, negotiations will be carried out to realize the request.

If Greenland finds natural resources like oil and gas in the seabed surrounding Hans Island, the society may undergo what could be called ‘A liberal liberation’.

One could imagine that Greenland will undergo a gradual transformation from a self-ruled welfare state, to an independent liberal state. However, before even starting selling out licenses to oil production, there will be an overshadowing decision that the Parliament of Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaanni Inatsisartut) has to take, on behalf of its people; are we ready to change our cultural and national identity?

Deep within the Greenlandic culture there has been a strong relation with nature, in particular fishing, because it has been the resource of any household as well as the general economy. One could argue that this will not change, nevertheless many locals fear that oil production will be a violation of living in harmony with nature. To a large extent the same critical voices believe that Greenland should focus more on tourism than today, showcasing its beautiful landscape and wildlife. However, these people seem to forget that the main access to Greenland is through 34

1. The off shore exploratory drilling rig in the Davis Strait between Greenland and Canada; http://blog.geogarage. com/2012_01_29_archive.html

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Denmark and Iceland, and other routes has proven not to be financial sustainable. Most tourists arrive by cruise ship, but they do not spend money locally, since the ship provides accommodation, meals and entertainment. The poor results are also due to short summers, poor mobility and expensive infrastructure.

Another critical point is climate change. If Greenland starts producing oil, the production and its use will increase CO2 emission and contribute to the environmental threat that Greenland is extremely sensitive to. It will result in warmer surrounding oceans, which previously has proved to change or worsen the conditions of local fisheries, resulting in lower production activity. This may over time jeopardize the nations fishing industry and eliminate a profession that is a vital part of Greenlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s culture and history. The hard truth is; what other choice does Greenland have?

If the Greenlandic government agree to undergo this drastic transformation they should consider many positive as well as negative outcomes and consequences that will reshape their society. Initially the self-ruled state of Greenland will obtain all licence and tax revenues from the findings. As the self-ruled scheme is currently constructed the Danish state can still control the immigration of foreign qualified labour, taxation and demand that all labour complies with Danish wages and working conditions, which previously has proven to be a large burden for the oil companies. In this situation Denmark may be politically and financially strong enough to withstand lobbying from the oil companies, but

Greenland cannot afford to loose the investments due to their fragile economy. Therefore Greenland will most likely demand to overtake these state related responsibilities from Denmark. The lobbying from the oil companies will then shift from the Danish state to the Greenlandic government, which may easier give in to more concessional conditions on both immigration and taxation.

Initially, the generated jobs may not directly employ the Greenlandic citizens due to a lack of qualifications, but mainly the immigrated workforce, this will result in economic growth for the state, but not for the private Greenlander that in general may still battle unemployment.

Looking further into the future, the Greenlandic population may become a larger part of the actual oil extraction process, working on the platforms and overtake some of the skilled jobs that immigrated workers previously had, this will decrease unemployment. Another consequence of allowing too concessional conditions for the oil companies is the lobbying to insure profitable agreements on royalties and taxation to allow higher revenues for the license companies. In fact, Greenland has already published their business models on this matter, and they have already placed themselves on lucrative conditions for the licensed companies. This gives Greenland a great global market position, but also risking to receive a lower than possible tax income.

Even though a majority, supporting Greenlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rights to exploit mining area, already exists in the Danish

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parliament, under the Autonomy Act, Denmark will still indirectly benefit financially from Greenland’s oil related incomes. The Autonomy Act states that any tax revenue to the Greenlandic state based on mining, offset the block grant that Greenland receives every year from Denmark. But what will happen if Greenland no longer needs block grants from Denmark, and become financially independent? Why should they stay in the Danish Realm? The answer is solidarity. Rooted in the socialist society model, initially imposed by Denmark. For the last 30 years, Greenland has been financial depended of Denmark and a few decades of financial independence may not change the cultural, political and social unity within the Danish Realm. To imagine that Greenland, at some point in time, will support Denmark to achieve a higher common wealth and larger international political influence within the Danish Realm, is absolutely plausible. However they might also use this position to lobby in the Danish Parliament to achieve improved conditions on other political topics related to Greenland, maybe even request an increase of Greenlandic representatives in the Danish Parliament, to achieve a larger direct democratic influence.

Greenland may probably be willing to accept strict policies on fishery since it would no longer be a vital part of its economy and the European Union would stretch far to make Greenland join the delegation, due to their strong economy. One could imagine that Greenland would not only join the European Union, but also establish strong financial and political relations with United States. According to documents made public in 2011, the United States was convinced that independence for Greenland was just around the corner and there would be “a unique opportunity to influence the circumstances a new independent state is created under,” as former ambassador of the United States in Denmark James Cain wrote in an internal message to the American Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Further he stated that he had introduced American financials to Greenlandic politicians to secure American investments on the island. If Greenland decides to join the European Union, they might be a small nation, but they could grow into having a significant financial and political influence. If they decide to tighten close bands with the United States, then the liberalization of the newly independent nation will be severely increased.

Another point of negotiations may concern the Greenlandic relation to the European Union. Today most laws of the European Union do not apply to Greenland8, however, because of its relation with Denmark, Greenland continues to enjoy access to the market of the European Union. In the case of liberation from Denmark, this access would either disappear or be changed to make Greenland an equal member of the European Union. At this point in time,

During this century, Greenland may become an important factor in the world economy, with an exponentially increasing oil fund that all the global players will attempt to get a piece of. But when it comes down to it, is Greenlanders ready for independence? They will be, because they need to be. The ability to handle independence will always come after the independence itself. A development, no matter if it’s personal or national, it will always

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2. A typical Greenlandic urban condition with colourful parcels embedded into the rocky landscape surrounded by a serene arctic water body; https://www.ft.com/ content/3cbf907e-9fdd-11e4aa89-00144feab7de 3. Hans Island is the centre of a territorial feud between Canada and Greenland. Not because of the island itself but because of its potential priceless seabed; http://pasaulis.lrytas.lt/ivykiai/ del-negyvenamos-salosarktyje-kariauja-viskiu.htm

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be activated by outside demands. It is possible, or rather completely certain that there will be mistakes, scandals, and accusations of nepotism and corruption, some of them irreversible, but that is one of the privileges of being independent and to take responsibility for development. Greenland may make mistakes and it is important that Denmark stays in solidarity with Greenland, despite that they might end up with a radically different society and rejecting the social model that Denmark, throughout history, has imposed.

National and local urban transformation By laying current the urban landscape of Greenland, the allowed oil licenses and the possible oil reserves it is clear that the national urban order of Greenland will change in the aftermath of oil findings. A large part of the Greenlandic cities are located on the east coast facing Canada, while a large amount of the possible unexplored oil reserved can be found on the upper west coast and northern coast including beneath Hans Island. Based on this mapping, it is evident that the initial urbanization on the east coast may continue under an oil-based economy, with relatively low mobility required for the workforce and where existing infrastructure can be used. Further the city of Nuuk will most likely continuing functioning as the nations political centre, where administration, lobbying and international relations will be focused. This may reshape the city’s identity into an international political node that will generate economic and urban growth.

flourish, or specialize and overtake a larger part of the fishing industry that other regions may have partly or completely demoted. Which of the two cases will largely depend on to which extent other regions have done so. This sharp differentiation in profession, where one is more progressive and stabile than the other, might end up in an economically divided nation where income, health and general quality of life is unequal across the nation.

The near future of Greenland may, as this paper points out, depends on many layers of different political, social and economic variables, all triggered by the potential sovereignty of Hans Island and Greenland may indeed stand at the brink of a new age, but the anticipation of what is within reach must not prevent Greenland from seeing the dangers ahead; otherwise Greenland might find itself lost at sea with no land in sight. •

References Andrew, Thomas, USA vil fedte for Grønland, Article, Jyllands-Posten International, Aarhus, Denmark, May 12th 2011 BBC News, Europe: Canada island visit angers Danes, Article, London, United Kingdom, July 25th 2005 Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum, Hydrocarbon exploration & exploitation licences, Interactive Map, Nuuk, Greenland, 2014 CBC News, Denmark agree to resolve dispute over Arctic island, Article, Ottawa, Canada, September 19th 2005 CBC News, Report: Satelite imagery moves Hans Island boundary, Article, Ottawa, Canada, July 27th 2007 Christopher Stevenson, Hans Off!: The Struggle for Hand Island and the Potential Ramifications for International Border Dispute Resolution,

The remote areas of the upper east coast of Qaasuitsup and along the entire Greenland National Park a lack of urbanization may occur due to extreme climate conditions. Therefore the urban growth as an outcome of oil findings might mainly be industry-based and the workforce requires larger mobility to travel between workplace and residence.

This workforce will be working and living for longer and more intensive periods near the oil platforms and return to residence for longer periods as well.

Further, these areas will experience an improvement of infrastructure and housing, financed by the Greenlandic state, to service the industries. It may also be an opportunity for architects to challenge the harsh climate to reinvent housing and make it possible to live in these regions. This would allow residencies and urban communities to appear closer to the remote industries.

Boston College International and Comparative Law Review, Paper, Boston, Massachusetts, December 1st 2007 Det Nye Arktis (red: The new Arctic) under the Energy Agency of Denmark, SVIPA-rapportens opgørelse over de store skjulte olie og gas reserver i Arktis, Illustration, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2011 Embassy of Denmark Canada under Ministry of Foreign Affairs Denmark, Article about the Hand Island, Article, Ottawa, Canada, June 22nd 2008 Grønlands Statestik, Befolkningen pr. 1. januar 2004-2013, Illustration, Nuuk, Greenland, January 1st 2013 Hauptmann, Aviaja Lyberth, Bliver 2014 året, hvor Grønland bliver selvstændige?, Article, Ingeniøren, Copenhagen, Denmark, January 6th 2014 Jensen, Thomas Klose, Grønlandsk valg: Turisterne skal redde den skrantende økonomi, Article, DR Nyheder, Copenhagen Denmark, November 20th 2014 Leine, Kim, Selvfølgelig er grønlænderne ikke parate til selvstændighed, Article, Politikken, Copenhagen, Denmark, March 12th 2013 Nielsen, Finn, Planned reforms in Greenland Vol. 4 No. 1, Book, Arctic Institute of North America, Denmark, May 1951 Marquardt, Ole, Change and Continuity in Denmark’s Greenland Policy, Book, Verlag Ludwig, Kiel, Germany, 2006

In the south-western coast of Greenland may be one of the new regions that will not benefit economically from this nation-wide transformation, since the nearby seabed do not contain any possible gas or oil resources. This region may either undergo economical recess and fall behind the nationwide economical

Stræde, Mathias Koch, Danmark vil tjene milliarder på Grønlands råstoffer, Article, Information, Copenhagen, Denmark, March 2nd 2013 Sørensen, Bent Højgaard, Kampen om Grønlands oliemilliarder, Article, Berlingske Tidende, Copenhagen Denmark, October 7th 2007 The Prime Minister Office of Denmark, Den grønlandske selvstyreordning, Article, Copenhagen, Denmark, June 21st 2009

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4. Mapping of licens and population ©Author

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10o 5o

-95o

0o

-90o

-85o

-80

o

-75o

-70o

Hans Island

-65o

-60o

-55o -50o -45o -40o -35o 80o

Qaasuitsup

-30o

-25o

-20o

-15o

-10

o

-5o

Greenland National Park 75o

Upemavik

Illoqqortoomniut

Uummannaq

70o

Sermersooq

Qeqertarsuaq Ilulissat Qasigiannguit Kangaatsiaq

Sisimiut

Qeqqata

Maniitsoq

Tasiilaq

65o Nuuk

Paamiut

Kujalleq

Narsaq Nanortalik

Qaqortoq

60o

City/Town

Hans Island

Off shore licens

On shore licens

Possibility of finding unexplored oil and gas: <10%

10-30%

30-50%

50-100%

Population per region of total population: 0,4%

12,7%

17,1%

31,0%

38,8%

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Based in Place

Alternative economies in the region of Chocó Our challenges as urban planners of the 21st century are different from planners in previous centuries. Today we are facing several events, such as climate change, radical political phenomena, social inequality and globalization, that we need to consider in every project, transcending scales, place or function.

This graduation project explores those challenges in a very specific context, the Chocó Region in the Colombian Pacific, a vast rainforest, with an immense biodiversity and natural resources. This region has faced a model of destructive economy since colonial times, with the extraction of raw materials (gold, platinum, fine wood, timber, rubber and more recently, natural species), each leaving a negative trace into the social, economic, ecological and cultural structure. This situation is causing socioeconomic inequality, lack of opportunities and competitiveness of the region with the rest of the country. The neoliberal model of development in Colombia and many other countries in Latin America is based on the extensive economic liberalization, privatization and irresponsible consumption of natural resources.

cultural layers into regional planning In order to understand these challenges in one specific country, I have proposed the following questions in relation to the Chocó Region: • How much does the urban environment influence fragile landscapes, in particular contexts?

• How to generate conditions for an alternative model of development in environmentally fragile regions through a spatial strategy approach?

• How the strategy positively/negatively integrates itself within the existing natural and social conditions?

Because of this, regional planning in environmental fragile regions must consider, among others, the following challenges:

First, it is important to understand the main drivers for urban development. According to Arturo Escobar, “one of the most common ways in which places have been transformed in recent centuries throughout the world is, of course, by capitalism.” (Escobar, 2010) Therefore, Economy is the first driver of development, and as a result, most of the urbanized and developed areas relate to economic activities, such as commerce, trade and services.

The second driver is Geography. Most of the biggest and most productive cities in the world are located

1. Enhance planning through all the scales: national, regional, urban, local, human 2. Think of all the systems in an integral way 3. Include ecosystems as basic elements in planning 4. Consider transitioning models of development, from a local perspective towards a global gain 5. Integrate functional, environmental, social and

How much does the urban environment influence fragile landscapes, in particular contexts?

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Laura Alejandra García MSc Graduate, Urbanism TU Delft

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in coastal areas, near large rivers or high points for control. The third driver, Colonization. During the colonial period in Latin America, foundation of cities related to strategic locations for control and power, of both indigenous communities and natural resources.

In the case of the Chocó region, development started with colonization, followed by an economic boom in the mid twenty century, and later threatened by hard geographical conditions. Today, its fragile ecosystem is endangered by the amount of natural resources that it contains, leaving space for all types of extracting and harmful activities such as deforestation, mining and cocaine production. The city of Quibdó, the biggest urban center, has experienced an introverted process of development, from an orthogonal and colonial morphology on the waterfront of the Atrato River, to an organic growth in recent decades following topography, leaving the natural context aside. Today, the growth of the city responds to informality, lack of environmental control and migration due to armed conflict, having a huge impact on the environment.

The natural structure in the city, part of a bigger rainforest ecosystem, is broken.

For this reason, in order to have a transition between city and natural elements in environmental fragile regions, it is important to include urban and rural strategies into an inclusive planning.

Therefore, this project raises the following hypothesis:

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A Spatial Strategy, which is able to provide guidelines for a structural plan at different scales, in different time frames, hosting flexible programs, mainly through infrastructure and environment elements.

An integrated model of development defined as: environmentally based, multifunctional, providing more job opportunities in traditional activities, integrating ecological and social perspectives, a local model of production "Based in Place".

How to generate conditions for an alternative model of development in environmentally fragile regions through a spatial strategy approach?

Having considered the drivers for development, and the current model that the region of Chocó is following, this project intends to propose conditions to make things in a different way. The key elements that will set the conditions to achieve an alternative development for the region of Chocó are: 1.Integration of ecological and social potentialities, in order to increase economic opportunities in the region.

2.Implementation of a structural plan at different scales, different timeframes, through infrastructure and environmental elements.

3.Flexible programs that enable transformation of different spaces in time and function, according 40

1. Transition to productive areas - Agroforestry © Author 2. Multiscalar nature of project © Author 3. Classification of Alternative economies © Author

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to the current needs and shared benefits of local communities for the future.

4.A model of development defined as environmental based, multifunctional, which provide more job opportunities in traditional activities, integrates ecological and social perspectives, and has a local model of production “Based in Place”.

In this order of ideas, the spatial strategy gives space for different economic activities to happen.

These alternative economies are the result of the appropriation of the inhabitants of their territory, and the enhancing of social and environmental potentialities. This way, the main guidelines for development are spatial interventions that will open up spaces for multiple activities, such as commerce, entertainment, tourism and entrepreneurship.

Mechanisms of ecological restoration that will create jobs in nature preservation, innovation and research.

Finally, co-creation processes between stakeholders that will open up spaces for social integration of different disciplines in education, social studies, social support and non-governmental occupation.

The integration of spatial, environmental and social aspects allows the strategy to host flexible programs, enabling change of different spaces in time and function, according to the current needs and shared benefits for the future. As a result, communities can grow more robust and ready to adapt to new situations, find alternative economic opportunities, reduce their vulnerability to threats and preserve their traditions and behaviours.

How the strategy positively/negatively integrates itself within the existing natural and social conditions?

The implementation of the elements of the strategy can be synthesized in a structural plan, which is flexible in time and space. For this project, one first pilot area was selected, the city of Quibdó and the village of Tutunendo. The strategy aimed to decentralize services and functions of Quibdó and turn Tutunendo into a new pole of development, complementing with new functions. This way, Quibdó will have a stronger relation to its waterfront and to the Atrato River, focusing on distribution functions to the region, while Tutunendo will develop as an important production center in relation to its strategic geographical condition along the road that connects the region to the metropolis of Medellín. An innovation pole, in relation to productive landscapes will establish the path for growth of the town.

The way this strategic plan inserts in the immediate context has to do with two dimensions: space and time. The hubs, gradients and connections are spatial elements that determine certain function. The implications of these elements in space, at different scales, are represented in the functions that each one of these elements host. Hubs work as catalysts of specific functions (economic, social, and educational); gradients are shared spaces that can host different functions; and connections provide accessibility and conceive multimodality and functionality.

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The strategy also considers flexibility in time. This is achieved by implementing a phasing, for a short, medium and long term planning, in which there is an initial action (with the objective of recover a lost function), and is continued in time under the following parameters: 1. The action develops and creates conditions for a next action to happen 2. The action can be continued with another action or through time 3. The action can work in parallel with another, in order to create new conditions for the next; there is dependence or engagement between actions, one cannot work without another.

The relation between the project and the social context, in which is immersed, has become the essence of the whole research process. This can be explained in three main aspects: First, understanding the regional and local context to abstract possibilities and opportunities (for sustainable development) in the place. Second, thinking of a spatial way (innovative solutions) to tackle multidisciplinary issues, defined by the context analysis. Finally, learning from traditional practices to propose innovative ideas, which can be applied on the regional and local context.

The importance of considering the wider social context remains in the fact that it will give the tools of operate in the region. By knowing how the local system works, it is easier for the project (or strategy) to

adapt, merge and transform in a coherent and realistic way.

Conclusions Through a systematic approach, it is possible to develop a methodology that is able to tackle different systems at different scales. In the case of the Chocó Region, because of the complexity of the study case, it was necessary to implement such a methodology, not only with a multiscalar approach, but also from the perspective of social, economic and environmental dimensions. The result of this methodology is a structural plan capable to define the integration between ecosystem services and socio-urban structures, at different scales, at different timeframes and with different spatial implications.

Through strategic planning, it is possible to establish a systematic transition process to pass from a current situation to a desired future (vision). The integration of spatial, environmental and social aspects into one strategy, gives the guidelines to reorganize the territory and enable change of different spaces in time and function, according to the current needs and shared benefits for the future.

And because the future is uncertain, communities with an integral and flexible structure can grow more robust and ready to adapt to new situations, find alternative opportunities in places that are not offering much today, and reduce their vulnerability to threats by staying together and working for the same benefits.•

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4. Quibdó and Tutunendo Structural Plan © Laura Alejandra García 5. Recovery of natural space- Tutunendo River © Author 6. Accessibility & Infrastructure © Author

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Approaching Buenos Aires The value of scales in strategic planning

For the last 10 years, TU Delft has had the pleasure of collaborating with FADU in Buenos Aires, in a masters studio, which explores the inequalities caused by the dynamism of globalization economic drivers in emerging deltaic metropolitan regions. The studio groups in MayJune 2016, in collaboration with University of Stuttgart primarily focused on developing a comprehensive strategic and spatial framework which could be translated from the larger scale of the metropolitan region to the local scale of the neighbourhood (Comuna 8 & 9).

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Kritika Sha & Marcello Felice Vietti MSc Students, Urbanism TU Delft

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The three groups focused on 3 very different topics: Spatial Fragmentation, addressing risk via public space and spatial manifestation of economic activities. Although the topics were quite broad, the main objective remained the same, i.e., to formulate how an increasing globalised Buenos Aires can incorporate and develop with the foreseen changes.

This was undertaken via the formation of an in-depth theoretical framework which set the base for desk analysis. This was supported by an intensive field work, where the groups could explore the scale of the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires and develop a firsthand understanding of its complexities. This article is not intended to illustrate the projects of each group, but in fact, a reflection on the extent each group was able to incorporate the need for multi-scalarity in the project. This reflection helps us to understand and comprehend, in which aspects the approach of “working through the scales” has worked and where the strategical framework needs additional support.

Exploring through the themes The three themes, although broad, hold importance for the city of Buenos Aires, especially in the selected site of Comuna 8 & 9. The chosen area, at the border of the central part of the city (CABA), is the manifestation of social segregation and spatial fragmentation of the metropolitan city of Buenos Aires. To this extent, the three themes try to cope with some of the most relevant issues affecting the area.

Spatial fragmentation The group’s hypothesis, based on literature review, is that globalization and metropolization processes fostered the growth of spatial fragmentation which accompanies rising levels of inequality in Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area. They aim to create an activity network, built on the existing spatial configuration

of the city, in order to gather different social groups within the fragmented urban tissue. Furthermore, they introduce punctual interventions, by establishing a strategic framework which is able to integrate urban developments in different scales.

The students developed an inter-scalar approach consisting of six main steps, which aim to be applicable for the whole of Buenos Aires. Starting with the hypothesis, different patches within the city are defined and analysed. The analysis leads to formulate the vision, which sets the goals for the final strategy. Finally, the strategic framework takes place on different levels of space and time. Comuna 8 and 9 are taken as case study and used to illustrate the strategy further.

Urban Risk: The group sees contamination and flooding, high social stigmatization and limited income and access to basic needs as the key component of urban risk for the city of Comuna 8 and 9. The extended surface of neglected and disused public spaces and the low quality of the existing ones has the potential of being conceived as embracing the notions of integration, sustainability and cultural principles. To this extent, the group aims to attenuate urban risk through integration of public space at different scales. The strategic framework attempts to define spaces by giving “meaning” to the neglected areas and taking into account the broader system they are part of. Different functions, able to cope with the surrounding areas, are delineated in order for people to becoming aware of their potentials. If people can relate to these spaces as something positive, a more positive “image” emerges.

Clarifying borders, accessibility, ownership, program and design become therefore crucial. The possibility for a programmatic use can then stimulate the feeling of “identity”. This is the foundation for public space.

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1 . Co-existence of Villas along with developed areas in the city fabric; Source: https://www. reddit.com/r/UrbanHell/ comments/3tm4tr/villa_31_ buenos_aires_argentina/ 2. View of Buenos Aires city from comuna 9 © Authors

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Spatial fragmentation: methodology

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Urban risk: methodology

6

Economy: analytical framework 45

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Economy The group which worked with the spatial manifestation of economics activities sees economy as driving force of spatial and social developments.

Social, spatial and economic structures, at the same time dependent and interdependent from each other, interacted during centuries leading to the current situation. By studying different economic activities, the students try to understand how economy influenced space throughout time and use it as a trigger for counteracting social segregation and spatial fragmentation. Different type and scale of economy are defined and their spatial effects revealed. For instance, a small kiosk and an industry have very different features: on one side, a kiosk has a limited number of clients and often uses public spaces as working place, on the other side industries are providers of jobs, the need connection to the main infrastructure and have an influence on the urban scale. One of the main goals is to understand how different scales of economy can work together in order to increase social inclusion and improve living condition of local inhabitants. At the same time, understanding how the space relates itself to economy and reflecting on the social consequences is crucial.

In Ground Reality Although the three strategic frameworks and the methodological approaches address three relevant topics which are of urgency, especially in comuna 8 & 9; however there are some complexities, which the projects failed to respond to.

Following a more linear methodology (3), the first group aimed to integrate a segregated urban structure of comuna 8 & 9 in order to profit from each other’s creativity, thereby gathering trust. The idea of using “puncture” interventions in order to enhance social cohesion, faces a challenge of tying it up in a system that works together through the different scales of the city. The implications of several smaller interventions, placed in areas of comuna 8 & 9 need to be tested on how they can affect the CABA and even the AMBA. A framework which incorporates the implications of the smaller projects along with an additional factor which ensures the continuance of the overall strategy, even if an intermediate project becomes unfeasible is essential.

Buenos Aires shares a complex system of governance, but with a disconnection between the AMBA (greater Buenos Aires) and the CABA (City of Buenos Aires).

This becomes relevant, especially in the framework proposed by the second group to address urban risk through public space (4-5). For this framework to work and to have a more comprehensive reach, an additional perspective of governance and its role is required. In its present form, the strategy cannot reach its desired “area of effect” (AMBA), and would be

limited to its “area of control”(Comuna 9 & 9). The strategy also aims for a balance of a “top-down” and “bottom-up” in its execution. This can prove to be problematic, especially in the project site. Comuna 8 & 9 are by no means small in area, and implementing a spatial and policy framework requires a heavy lean to a top-down approach, especially in developing country like Argentina. This becomes problematic in Buenos Aires, where there is no metropolitan authority or a governing body that can take the required lead and be the facilitator in such a project.

The third project, which used economy to address social segregation and spatial fragmentation faced a challenge on how to include the local residents and to directly involve them into the framework (6). The framework currently presumes a hypothesis with respect to the local actors, without developing a deeper understanding of their needs and requirements. This becomes a relevant issue, as the idea of “activators” or triggers can only work if there is a better understanding of the diverse actors involved and their shared relationships. Only then can a supportive platform be created where different interests, scales and structure can work together for defeating social segregation and spatial fragmentation, not just as a localized problem, but working through the scales of the Buenos Aires.

"This reflection helps us to comprehend, in which aspects the approach of “working through the scales” has worked and where the strategical framework needs additional support."

Conclusions The three projects aim to develop ambitious solutions and approaches to a globalizing Buenos Aires. The common thread of these very diverse approaches remains inter-scalarity. All three groups in some aspect or the other understand that the implications of a local framework at the scale of Communa 8 & 9 has a larger implication upto the level of the CABA and even up to the AMBA. This is explicitly evident in all the three methodological approaches in varying degrees of success, where social-spatial segregation is understood both at a local level of the comuna and the metropolitan level of the AMBA •

Note: The above article is based on the final projects of the student groups from the May-2016 cycle of the globalisation course at Urbanism, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, TU Delft. All images in this article have been produced by the studio groups involved Course Coordinator: Diego Sepulveda Carmona

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3. Methodology for dealing with Spatial fragmentation © Studio group 4-5. Methodology addressing urban risk © Studio Group 6. Analytical framework for the economy of Buenos Aires © Studio group

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IS PUBLIC SPACE DYING IN THE UAE? Typological evolution through time

1

2

3

Public space in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has transformed completely in the last five decades. The idea of what public spaces are and their contribution to the urban environment has changed. Spatially, this has reshaped the scale, function and users of these spaces.

These changes are illustrated by examining the context of public areas during different development phases in UAE, namely, the foundation era, post-oil era and the urbanization era.

These typologies of spaces have impacted the way people mingle and defined the social structure of the society. Each of these spaces has its individual role in the larger city framework. The change in interrelation of this function over time is the first step to understanding the impact of urban spaces in facilitating social interactions and its contribution to community well-being.

The Foundation Era

Post-Oil Era

Characterized by slow growth from the beginning to middle of the 20th century, communities in the foundation era consisted largely of residences and mosques. Mosques lie at the centre of the neighbourhood with residences surrounding it.

‘Gathering’ or ‘Interaction’ spaces were of two types: open areas around the mosque and private courtyards within the houses. Figure 1 illustrates the community area at the heart of the neighbourhood. Apart from the occasional use as a market place or for festive celebrations, daily interaction after prayers at the mosque kept this space alive. The inner courtyards within each residence is also an important point of social interaction in the daily lives of the community.

All the rooms in the houses face the inner courtyard making it the ‘living room’ (2) of the house.

The economic boom related to the discovery of oil in the early 1960’s largely impacted the trends of neighbourhood development. An increase in population and an international interest had an impact on the urban form. Influenced by western designers and the mid-century modern movement, medium rise buildings surrounded community facilities at the centre of the neighbourhood. The courtyards in individual houses began to shrink to make space for the addition of new rooms.

Public spaces didn’t grow as fast as the housing, although the typology of small pocket spaces for interaction spaces still remained. Small neighbourhood parks, squares outside mosques and markets were the primary gathering spaces.

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Karishma Asarpota MSc Student, Urbanism TU Delft

1. Typical arrangement of a neighborhood © Author 2. Detail at A - Traditional Emarati residence © Author 3.New neighborhood typology © Author

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Urbanization Era Rapid development starting in the early 1990’s has seen a drastic change in the urban form of cities in the UAE. Mixed use buildings and high rises residences became the norm as housing supply responded to the sudden influx of population.

Although denser building typologies are prevalent, development occurred in smaller pockets spread across the city. Public gathering spaces grew larger in scale. Large parks, shopping malls and coastal developments are dominant public spaces at the city scale. Pockets of green spaces and plazas are prevalent at the neighbourhood level.

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Conclusion The context that contributed to the change and growth of the city over time in the UAE is vital to understanding current patterns and speculating future trends in development of public spaces.

Change in lifestyle and demographics has changed the role of public spaces within the urban fabric.

Intimate courtyards within homes and small pockets of gathering spaces around mosques addressed the needs to close knit community in the foundation era. Interaction occurred as a consequence of daily life. As the city has expanded over time, large parks, malls and commercial plazas are becoming the norm for gatherings. There is an evident shift in scale of public spaces over time. Undoubtedly, the rise in population, city density and lifestyle choices have impacted this transition.

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The ‘busyness’ and size of public spaces facilitates interaction among people and impacts their perception of ‘life’ in the city. At the crux of it, we are still designing for human being. This makes one question, how relevant are modern public spaces to the social context and its relation to the human scale?

‘Places’ become ‘spaces’ when individuals interact with their surroundings and make meaningful changes to it. This change is more evident at the level of an individual home or room, but in fact urban spaces are also affected by this. These transformations are visible at a much slower pace as it is built upon by many actors. Although each individual adds their unique and personal preference to the space, the changes reflect the collective vision of the group. This was definitely true in the past when the city grew organically and slowly. Nowadays, decisions within cities are made much more differently. The way we built and perceive cities is also changing. Urban designers and planners are shaping our urban future, especially when it comes to public spaces. Quality and characteristics of urban life are in many ways the building blocks for social interaction within

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the community. The underlying question to be answered is whether cities nowadays represent the ideals of the collective group of city dwellers?

Urban designers face the challenge to create contextually befitting urban spaces that are sensitive to local climate, social context and human scale.

After all, cities are a representation of its people want and as designers in the contemporary city system we face the challenge of reflecting these ideals in the modern urban landscape. •

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4. Corniche Waterfront, Abu Dhabi www.fortytravels.com 5. Atrium, Dubai Mall www.youtube.com 6. Za'abeel Park, Dubai www.guide2dubai.com

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the BIG trip Split, Croatia 49

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Every year students of TU Delft's Urbanism department organize a week-long trip to a city or country that they find interesting to be introduced to from a professional perspective.

It is called the Big Trip. This year it took us to Split, Croatia; the second biggest city of the most recent member of EU. This coastal city is situated on the east side of Adriatic sea and is recognizable for its waterfronts and local culture deeply immanent to the life with the sea.

The key attraction for many architects and urbanists is Diocletian's Palace. It is a walled roman emperor's Palace turned into a small town during barbarian invasions. This well preserved piece of late roman colossal architecture is still inhabited, and it may be the oldest 'slum' settlement of the world about which the greats like Robert Adams and Herman Hertzberger have written. A unique urban structure dating from the third century A.D., protected by the UNESCO. That, together with the context that consists of numerous islands and impressive morphological surroundings, makes Split an attractive place to visit.

The other reason is tourism. Recently its 200 000 citizens are experiencing Split becoming a top tourist destination on the European scale. Around 1 million sleepovers are recorded during the first 6 months of 2016, and that figure is just the number of legally registered ones. Once a true reincarnation of Fellini's fictional towns, today, has changed under immense pressure of holidays preachers. Restaurants, luxury shops, excursion agencies, street shoe cleaners, ice cream shops, history spoken in broken English by tourist guides is taking over. Most of the locals are trying by all means to participate in this new goldmine.

Although they feel a huge relief after decades of war, stagnation and crisis, just 5 years after Split came into the spotlight it is becoming obvious that the relationship of this city towards tourism doesn't function well. This triggered a number of questions about the strategic planning and management of this overwhelming phenomenon.

For this reason we were invited by the department of architecture of University of Split (FGAG Split) to open a space for professional discussion on the influence of tourism on the city. Upon our arrival, local professors and visiting lecturers gave their views in the form of a one day conference 'Split Talks' that brought to stage professionals from Croatia, Netherlands, Albania and Indonesia. The lectures were challenging the positions of our profession towards global changes in society that are influencing

local communities and their economic micro-systems, through tourism. After that, a 4 day student workshop was held concluded with presentations of the research done by the students.

It was observed how, on one side, tourism reflects its expectations on what local values should be, resulting in a deformed image of 'Mediteranean as it once was'.

There is something deeply untrue in every 'authentic' image of a place. Because places change. A monument that has become a home of many, a two thousand year old town centre that is becoming a theme park, a fisherman that rents luxurious apartments. This speaks of consumption of images over everyday urban life. No wonder old Native Americans were afraid that a camera can take your soul away. All of these contradictions happen at the same time in the same space causing conflicts. That results in uncontrolled consumption of space and obstruction of the city's rhythm. However these embodied contradictions can learn from and exchange a lot within themselves.

Recognizing this potential and directing it towards mutual benefits is the task of our profession. We named that task overcoming tourism.

New societal and technological concepts of sharing homes, cars and practically everything are playing on everyday level with our privacy, intimacy and are bluing the boundary between earning and living.

At the same time this allows host to stay in contact and exchange with the guest. It breaks the difference between what is 'normal' and what is 'foreign'. For this reason design should foresee specific scenario's in urban environments that go beyond the notion of what is 'public' and 'private', ‘local’ and ‘touristic’, profitable or ‘authentic. That way common ground is given for moving both, the tourist and the local, out of their comfort zone into the space of cultural and economic exchange. This is a potential tactic for diminishing the conflicts of difference.

To accomplish this, the first step was to hold a discussion between students from two universities focused on understanding the problem in its depth, not solving it by all means.

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Introduction by Jere Kuzmanic,

workshop text by Ijsbrand Heeringa, Algimantas Vaepucanskis

conclusion by

Abraham Berumen MSc Students, Urbanism, TU Delft

1. A street corner in Split © Sumanth S Rao

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To reconcile the conflict mentioned, the projects attempted to find ways to redefine the relationship between the locals and tourists, reviewing the interception of the overwhelming demonstration of the tourism industry within Split.

Groups had various approaches, from critical ones to optimistic ones. Hesitating to go in details with each group's work here is presented just in short lines the central ideas of two groups. Two of them are chosen to show the vast diversity of ideas that were formed around one specific problem. First one extended the outreach of information tourism as a commodity.

The other group worked with exploring preservation of green urban space as a form of territorial ecology against the rise of tourism.

The first discussion was triggered by the limit of the intervention of local industries into the urban realm.

The reasoning behind this was based on the onset of the tourism phenomenon in Split that caused many traditional occupations being neglected and marginalized. Farming is an example of occupation that was previously a big part of the Croatian culture and thus very present in cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s region, but now completely disintegrated from surrounding neighbourhoods. It thus became difficult to follow current needs of society, and keep businesses profitable.

This was mainly the result of a comparatively low revenue in comparison with tourism. Also the scarcity of land for tourism oriented development came along with an ever increasing land price, putting agriculture under pressure to sell the land, seeking short term revenue. Hence to resolve this, the project aimed at rehabilitating the image of the farmer, and intertwining it within the everyday typical routine of Split.

The outcome of this was a proposal to provide urban farming with contemporary agricultural knowledge and open up greenhouse industry for the rest of the city - make it more playful and engaging. The long term goal of improving agricultural practice was to make Split less dependent on tourism, and make the city more self-sufficient and resilient for possible economical shifts in the future, where tourism might retreat as a main source of income.

The other group dealing with territorial ecology as a strategy for overcoming tourism started off by observing that bakeries and butchers had become souvenir shops. Local cinemas also either disappeared or had been turned into frog museums. These examples led to establishing the fact that amongst the local population, there was a general feeling of loss.

Thus the goal was to create public spaces that cater to the needs of both tourists and locals. Spaces left pristine no matter how often they are used. Resilient spaces that were solidified in the public memory, not only loved by the local population, but protected by them. However, the financial situation in such places allowed for limited money for anything but the tourism sector.

Parks are analysed as a particular urban typology in cities which seemed to be resonating their observation remarkably well. They stated that somehow parks provide a quality which is less easily capitalized upon then for instance a public square or high street.

Looking into Split, the analysis led to the most notable example of this; Marjan hill. The park is of a simple and rugged nature and is deeply ingrained into the local culture and history. This gives it its layer of protection. Split is not known for protests against 51

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Tourism consumes the city, presetting itself as a spectacle. The crowds of tourists stampede over the landmarks and squares of the city disrupting the flow of local inhabitants.

commercial development, but when plans were put forward to capitalize on the value of Marjan hill, the locals did not hesitate to take to the barricades. The park was defended with such conviction that the plans were abandoned. The park thus remains a blissful retreat to the population of Split, and Marjan hill is kept in balance between tourism and localism because of the bond between the space and the people. These factors make for a brilliant urban space, and also provide a layer of protection, a sort of social-based resilience.

Conclusion is made that this form resilience is of great importance when it comes to overcoming tourism. In a context of weakened governmental structures and development in cities plagued by an over-dominant tourist sector the local population needs to lay claim upon those spaces which are rightfully theirs. Project demonstrated how Marjan hill became such a socially resilient space and how that typology could lead to similar inclusive development in cities which are plagued by an over-dominant tourist sector.

Conclusion Except giving a mostly optimistic view on how Split can live with tourism, the discourse and the thematic proposals of the research conducted by the 8 groups, led to broader reflections on the effects of new ways of consuming goods, new forms of harvesting energy, new mobility systems and other emergent technological advances, that have opened up an array of possibilities to help cities endure change.

Just as our profession began to lose significant impact in the past decade by relying too much on automation and giving profitability the priority for planning, it comes in the right time to change what we understand

as our task and role in society and what possible future we can help create. This professional perspective was of a great importance for the students of both faculties bringing differences as a tool for learning.

The workshop helped us understand why it’s important to create synergy with other urbanists and architects in a different part of the world. The local students demonstrated their understanding of the subject by showing us it’s many faces; overspecialization of the local economy, the impact on their own leisure time and how new technologies have morphed the problem into potential solutions.

Interpreting how cities are affected by what drives the economy today, the end research showed us the creative power of our profession and how it is enhanced through our collaboration.

Together we are opening new windows of opportunity on how to change the future. We are able to portray to the world that the threats we presently pose to our prosperity, our political organization, and most urgently our environment can easily be guided into becoming equitable opportunities for society as a whole. If indeed these new phenomena have the capacity to transform our space and our economy, they have to help improve the livelihoods of even those most the excluded from their reach.

Whether it regards new urban centres that emerge around internet services or new forms of reclamation of rural land by radical landscape movements, it is clear that the new generation is changing its understanding of what it means to be an architect during another unstable and critical chapter of society.

Let us learn from these explorations and maintain our creative fight towards the best possible future. • 52

3. Members of the trip from TU Delft along with Prof. Ante Kuzmanić © Sumanth S Rao 4. Impressions of Split, Croatia © Natalie Chow

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Conflicts of an Urban Age: And issues in discourse Reflections on the Biennale With the best will in the world, this contribution to the discussion on the Venice biennale is on the tardy side of things. I nonetheless felt inclined to put some of my reflections on paper.

Unless you really have not been paying attention, you will know that this year's biennale was curated by the South American architect Alejandro Aravena, and was titled ‘Reporting from the front’. A fitting title for an age in which our cities, are on the brink of an almost staggering amount of disasters. Overpopulation, mass starvation, social unrest, gentrification, mass immigration. To discuss these topics amongst others, Aravena invited architects and urbanists to present their interpretations and possible solutions. The results were numerous and varied.

However, I do not want to discuss the Biennale as a whole. Rather, I would like to address one specific exposition. The Urban Age exposition, “Conflicts of an Urban Age” curated by LSE’s Rick Burdett, aimed to document and quantify the numerous challenges which threaten the world's metropoles.

The exposition of Urban Age was among the most visually stunning expositions on the Biennale. One hall of the Arsenale was filled with monitors, screening animations concerned with physical and demographic development of some of the world’s best know metropoles. Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Delhi, London, Addis Ababa. All cities of which face considerable challenges, mostly related to the need to accommodate the next 1 billion city-dwellers that will flock to the cities in the next fifteen years. The main challenge being supplying these new city-dwellers with liveable and sustainable cities.

The information provided by the exposition was

plentiful. Through the exposition, the people of Urban Age showed the wealth and detail of information which Big Data has provided the world's (urban) researchers. Yet, when one was finished being impressed by the amount of data, one realised, from the banality of Urban Ages final recommendations, that we still do not have the slightest idea of what to do with this absurd amount of digits.

To conclude the exposition, two canvases were hung on either end of the exhibition hall. Upon these canvases Urban Age provided several example of good and bad practice. On one side of the room, was a selection of projects, all looking like potential 53

by

IJsbrand Heeringa

MSc Student, Urbanism TU Delft

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headquarters of Bokanovskification, which were portrayed as ‘what not to do’. These were of course the top-down master plans, which according to Urban Age at least, are a thing of the past. The inflexibility of these - future - urban environments is lamented by the Urban Age, as is the inability of these projects to represent and respect local cultures and communities.

The canvas adjacent to that was exhibiting a rather smaller selection of three projects from the portfolio of ‘urbanXchanger’. ‘Planning from below’ was the title. These projects were hailed as prime examples of practice capable of providing for the multitude of needs for citizens. The exhibit contained a selection of close up pictures of a staircase built from old tires in Mexico City, some community gardens from Sao Paulo and an art-led regeneration neighbourhood in Delhi.

With the graphs and numbers still flashing around on the screens behind me, I was struck by the sheer contrast. Here I stood surrounded by some fifteen screens telling me that just about every metropole in the world is going to sprawl itself to death, and apparent solutions are a bunch of old tires stacked against a hillside. Such ‘low-cost’ solutions are not even remotely in the same ballpark as the problems they should be facing. These are not solutions that aimed at providing to the basic needs of citizen.

The massive slums of cities such as Delhi of Mexico City are the essence of bottom-up, and what you get when you leave few million immigrants to build their own cities. We know this. And we know that these places are not to be romanticized. And so do the people of Urban Age, for they are perfectly capable of naming the problem. The graphs and statistics in the expo seemed to warn of nothing else than more favelas. And yet the narrative of Urban Age seemed to provide no other solution to the problem of overpopulation and widespread social unrest than bottom-up urbanism. This would make Yossarian walk over to Doc Daneeka’s tent.

The Urban Age exhibition professes a certain discourse within architecture and urbanism which is deeply troubling. The romanticised vision of the selfbuilt, self-governed city. Yes, it is good if cities allow for enough flexibility for citizens to shape their own environment, but that is simply not enough to provide a sustainable life for the next billion city dwellers.

Planners and designers can simply not leave it at that.

This fetish with bottom-up urbanism is worrying.

What is also problematic is the flip-side of this fetish.

Not only does it place too much trust in people’s abilities to take care of serious societal challenges all by themselves, it also entails an almost ludicrous amount of disgust for the master plan. As if master plans have never brought anything but sorrow and misery upon our citizens. Yes, master plans can provide the basis on problematic urban environments.

Take a look at the banlieues of Paris. However, there are examples of master plans that have actually

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created good urban environments. There is a very good reason why Cerda’s plan for Barcelona is such a cliché in the architecture schools.

I have followed urban age for a while now, and have been impressed by the level of nuance and depth with which they and their companions have been able to uncover the great struggles we face for the cities of tomorrow. But what really worries me is the one sidedness of the narrative we are presented.

We know that we cannot fix the future with a few knackered old tires and a bit of graffiti. We need infrastructure, affordable housing and accessible services. Everybody knows this. But we simply do not seem to want to talk about it. It was not just the exhibition of Urban Age, the whole biennale was filled with ’’low-cost urban interventions that emphasize the use of inexpensive, sustainable building materials’’.

Though there is definitely a place in our common urban future for ‘these low-cost urban interventions’, there is also a place for urban interventions which might not be so cheap but are essential for a sustainable city life.

If we are at all serious about the conflicts of the urban age then our narrative should be much more eloquent and nuanced. We need events which discuss the future of our cities with thought and consideration of all the relevant aspects. The city from below certainly has a place in this narrative, but so does the city from above. We need to break the mirror. We need to stop talking about the extreme ends of the spectrum. The liveable city lies somewhere in between bottom-up and top-down. Though this might be an annoying compromise, it is the compromise we should be discussing.

For what is a city if not a compromise. • 54

1 -2. Images at the Venice Biennale, November 2016 © Author

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HOW TO WORK WITH AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE An afterthought to the Urban and Landscape Week 2016 The future is a topic that is largely connected to our hopes and fears, as an individual and as society. Will we manage the energy transition and the effects of climate change? What effects will changing technologies have on the way we live, work, and communicate? Can we become a more just society, or will inequalities continue to increase? These questions were taken up by the Urban and Landscape Week 2016 ‘20:61 – Dialogues for the future’. This article reflects on different perceptions on the future and ways to work with uncertainty.

The world is in a phase of rapid transition. Especially over the last century, human civilization has transformed in all aspects - socially, economically and spatially - and will continue to do so. New advances in technology have always shaped our society in ways that have not been foreseen. What will the future bring and how can we work with it? During the ULW from the 17th to the 19th October 2016, a set of speakers and students from various disciplines were invited to debate on these issues. In a short idea competition, groups of students explored different scenarios for the year 2061.

Outlooks on the future We are constantly trying to imagine our future, not only as professionals but also as individuals. It is part of our human nature to try to anticipate future changes, so that we can plan to ensure adaptability.

Imagining the future seems like a game with no rules, however, it is possible to identify two different tendencies. On the one hand, optimistic visions paint colourful images of how technological developments could shape the future. This goes in line with the statement by Bert Enserink, and researcher at TPM, who stated in his lecture that “we tend to think that tomorrow will be the same, but a little better”.

Accordingly, in the past, futuristic visions have imagined technological advances without foreseeing changes in society. The future cities of today are envisioned to be smarter, greener and more energy efficient, sporting high rise towers, renewable energies, self-driving cars and connected inhabitants supported by robotic workforce.

However, on the other hand, the rapid emergence of technological advances also raises ethical questions.

This goes along with a growing pessimism and discomfort with the future. Current megatrends and predictions, including climate change and related migration waves, political radicalisation and population growth and ageing make our visions turn increasingly dystopian.

by

Franziska Unzner & Francisco Marín Nieto MSc Students, Urbanism TU Delft

Where technological optimism meets a negative outlook on the future, futurism turns into escapism, as described by Studio Aitken. Technology allows the construction of utopian visions outside the Earth, which can be seen as acceptance of the inevitable destruction of our planet.

Uncertainty This heterogeneity of perspectives, together with the imperative challenges that our generation has to face, has led to a growing interest in future studies. The two first lecturers of the event, held by Carsten Beck and Berst Enserink, provided the participants of this year’s UL Week with some initial notions on the matter. Both agreed that the future cannot in fact be predicted due to the high number of uncertainties that come into play. The speed of change in technological advances is constantly increasing, and together with other political and economic factors, these constitute elements capable of provoking rapid societal disruptions.

Ways to work with the future How can we thus work with this uncertainty? Derived from the different perspectives of the lecturers during the ULW, we have summarized three approaches: Innovation, Pragmatism and Anticipation.

The ‘Innovation approach’ follows the motto “the best way to predict the future is to create it” and hence recognizes the capacity of actors to influence, even shape the future. This proactive attitude is easily relatable to the private and technological sector, in which corporations continuously create new needs and open unanticipated horizons. During the lecture series, reference was often made to the case of Elon Musk his bold visions, by creating a discussion about topics that seemed unfeasible before, seem to open up new horizons and create pathways for development.

The second, pragmatist perspective, is largely present in current design practice and was presented by Kees Christiaanse. Accepting that we cannot predict the future, Architecture and Urbanism should not dwell 55

1-2. Schemes showing the working of a scenario method, derived by the Author based on the lecture by Bert Enserink at ULWeek-2016 3. Discussions at the competitions at the ULWeek © Yi Yu, ULWeek committee 4. Poster illustration from winning team: They worked on a scenario in which the extensive use of virtual reality technologies leads to a neglect of the physical reality in the city and continued the given storyline by imagining a natural catastrophe that acts as a wake-up call. Using the medium of a newspaper article, they explored the development of the city until 2061 and projected strategies for the re-integration of physical aspects of sustainability in the urban fabric. ©Abdul Said Ahtar, Timothy Djagiri, Yafim Simanovsky, Piyali Sircar

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on visions but provide solutions to the problems of today. At the same time, the design or plan has to be resilient to changing conditions. Flexible and adaptive structures are needed to cope with growing uncertainties. The importance of this is widely acknowledged, to an extent that resilience seems to alomost have replaced sustainability as buzzword in media and academic discourse.

Resilience is also a key word in the third approach, Anticipation and Preparation. This approach tries to explore the possibilities of the future, in order to find ways to react to, prevent or induce certain developments. It is very relevant in policy making, for urbanists and also the private sector, where the work of future institutes and futurists has been largely used for the sake of anticipating upcoming consumer trends. The goal is not to predict what is to come, but to explore well-founded future paths and to try to prepare in advance for a multiple set of uncertain futures. Scenarios allow anticipating change and test the robustness of policies and strategies. They can be used as tool to reduce complexity, initiate dialogue between different parties, structure thinking about the future and determine strategic actions.

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In order to create consistent and useful scenarios, first the system or problem needs to be delineated clearly, and the trends that influence that system be researched. Then, a scenario logic can be created by defining key uncertainties and variables. These schemas (examples illustrated in Image 1) help to develop scenario stories and define the respective opportunities and threats. From there on, strategies can be formulated or evaluated – to be responsive to either outcome or to actively steer into the direction of a desired future.

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During the workshops of the ULW, scenarios were used as tool for creative exploration to imagine extreme far futures and position oneself within the developments of the scenario storyline. In ‘what if ’ scenarios, the participants (Image 2) had to develop a reaction to the projection of our hopes and fears into the year 2061 – for instance, “What if the energy transition fails?” or “What if global corporations take over?” The winning team (Image 3 - illustrates an impression of their envisioned scenario), developed a storyline as reaction to the scenario of increased use of Virtual Reality in the future, resulting in the neglect of the physical space. All teams reflected on the implications on external trends and driving forces, but also decisions us as individuals and society on the future.

The ULW 2016 recognized the relevance of this dialogue and chose to highlight its importance through debate by exploring future-oriented content.

This should also be given importance in academia, as it brings forth discussion covering different geographies and scales of urban interventions. •

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Colophon Cover image The Human Scale © Riccardo de Vecchi The image recalls upon the “human scale” within an architectural context. The use of physical models and drawings in order to communicate a project forces us to confront the notion of scale as a basic element defining the proportions and dimensions of the built environment.

The photograph features an installation by Liu Jiakun Architects, titled "People Mountain People Sea - A celebration of everyday life" at the 2016 Venice Biennale.

ATLANTIS Magazine by Polis | Platform for Urbanism and Landscape Architecture Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft Volume 27, Number 2, January 2017

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

Editor in Chief Shruti Maliwar, Kritika Sha

Atlantis appears four times a year.

Number of copies: 500

Head of layout Gaila Costantini

Correction for issue 27.1: Due to a misprint, the complete article for Rise Raise Rose was not printed. The link gives access to the whole article https://issuu.com/atlantismagazine/docs/raise_rise_rose

Public relations Marina Ðondraš, Giulia Spagnolo Editorial Team Maryam Behpour, Nagia Tzika Kostopoulou, Marcello Felice Vietti, Nadia Kalogeropoulou, Selina Abraham Eva Ventura

IJsbrand Heeringa, Karishma Asarpota Jere Kuzmanić, Isabella Del Grandi, Alexandra Farmazon

This issue has been made with great care; authors and redaction hold no liability for incorrect/ incomplete information. All images are the property of their respective owners. We have tried as hard as we can to honour their copyrights.

ISSN 1387-3679

Cover competition Top 3 entries:

2. Old and new - Andrea Gentilini

3. Jhamsikhel Life - Isabella Del Grandi

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