Report Harbour and Landscape

design into research method.

title:redevelopment of ex-functionalist areas of water’s cities

door/gate of the city

harbour

urbanartifact/new monument

water front

topic

Refences

redevelopment

HAFEN CITY -Hamburg

density

industrial area

VREESWIJK HOORD NIEUWEIGEN BORNEO SPOREMBURG IJ-oever Amsterdam Waterfront

infrustructure

KOP VAN ZUID-Rotterdam DOCKLANDS -London

history

collective spaces utopian-competition-paper architecture

Master3 Hybrid Building: Architectonical Research.19/01/2007 AR3Auh23.

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Carlotta Pinna 1238728.

The role of architecture and urban planning in the urban renewal of waterfronts of harbour cities. “when urban design casts off” 1.0- EVOLUTION OF HARBOURS IN NOTHERN EUROPEAN CITIES. A brief evolution of historical ports through the history, from morphological and typological viewpoints.

2.0- TYPES OF PLANNING INTEGRATION: KOP VAN ZUID, IJ OEVER AMSTERDAM, HAFENCITY HAMBURG New dynamic of transformation from the 1970’s: the AIR competition for the redevelopment of Kop Van Zuid Rotterdam 3.0-Focusing on the contemporary transformation of the Amsterdam IJ riverbanks and the Hamburg Hafencity project.

3.1Amsterdam IJ riverbanks 3.2 Hamburg Hafencity project.

4.0 COLLECTIVE SPACES ;the ambition to extend the city centre is it really working?

Bibliography.

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The role of architecture and urban planning in the urban renewal of waterfronts of harbour cities. “when urban design casts off” The urban renewal of waterfronts of north European Harbour cities as Amsterdam, Hamburg, Rotterdam, represent a great occasion for port industrial cities to get a new redevelopment through a reconvertional functional program ,which attempts in several cases to fill the void of huge dismissed platform and banks , and to get the ambition for the city to extend the interest from the inner center to new collective spaces.

The challenge to fill the voids of ex industrial docks harbour spaces is a contemporary topic. The former harbour city doesn’t exist anymore and every metropolis attempts to get more residential and cultural areas in its old claims.

The waterfront of a river is not considered anymore as a place of transit traffic, warehouses, market, but as a ‘pastoral” element of contemplation and landscape which achieve more quality for the living city experience.

…..Redeveloped waterfronts have a vital importance for re-vitalizing old centre: the particularity of the historic ports adds something special to enhance public space* 1 The contemporary question is then : how to deal with the fragment and the old historical industrial building complexes as warehouses which represent the contemporary monuments of nowadays. Furthermore which kind of typology to choose for residential housing and how public space can adopt to fill the voids of the urban renewal.

The goal of this research is to show the level of transformations of city ports through urban and architectural typological analysis.

The example of Rotterdam is mentioned as one of the first transformations of the 1970’s; Amsterdam IJ banks is a contemporary case of urban and architectural experiments and Hamburg Hafencity represents the future of Harbour transformation planning.

The report attempts at least to show the typological solution adopted for the waterfront renewal through housing, public and hybrid building forms.

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Extract from « Ville ports » by Anne Wilson Architecture d’auhourd’hui

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EVOLUTION OF HARBOURS IN NOTHERN EUROPEAN CITIES. 1.0-A brief evolution of historical ports through the history, from morphological and typological viewpoints.

Let’s step back to the historical development of port cities and the meaning of the harbour river for the city:

Today, port areas are once again undergoing a metamorphosis to redefine their profile in the cityscape.

The shifting of port activities away from the city centres to the territorial scale has led many cities to seek for a new image of their waterfront areas.

Port development schemes have accumulated a number of models for composition and urban function and are often laboratories for experimenting new concepts in urban design.

Throughout the history, the evolution of maritime activity and new urban dynamics have brought many changes in the relation between city and port.

The rhythm at which this evolution took place and its extent depend on the characteristic of each site- determined by the nature of the areas.

Northern European ports as Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Hamburg were built behind seawalls and dykes with the fragment of the city around the docks. th Until the 19 century the port represented for these cities the nerve centre of all transport routes and was solidly anchored in the city .

In medieval times it was a defense front; then a warehouse and the hearth of merchant activities. But after the 1850s this situation began to give way to much wider extensions of harbour facilities. Cargo ports began to be laid out in linear fashion, extending outside the old city borders . th In 20 century the accelerated rhythm in shipping movements, the standardization of storage and transport by containers, new techniques for handling cargo and the need for more rapid links led the dilatation of ports, which became poles for specialized distribution: huge industrial areas removed from the city centre. (see diagrams of evolutions)

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2.0 TYPES OF PLANNING INTEGRATION: KOP VAN ZUID, IJ OEVER AMSTERDAM, HAFENCITY HAMBURG New dynamic of transformation from the 1970’s: the AIR competition for the redevelopment of Kop Van Zuid Rotterdam Since the 1970 ‘s the Dismission of former port areas and the redevelopment of them starts to get the attention for new architectural competition: Rotterdam’s Kop van Zuid competitions attempt to plan on a urban scale through the architectural composition.* 2 For a large area south of the river Maas, which until the last century had set Rotterdam’s development limit lying between port and industrial equipment and workers’ brick housing ,the architects Kleiheues, Rossi, Ungers and Walker have been asked to design a set of development and alterations proposals for a site bordered by the river ,by the former port’s docks and crossed by railway tracks.

The city of Rotterdam is characterized from the second world war by a zoning town plan, which divided it in different parts according to the functions: city centre(?) terziarized , the residential function in the suburbs and the port were expanded around the estuary of the river Maas, where large unbuilt areas were suitable for the shifting of new storage installations. From the early seventies with the moving of harbour activities through the west docks of the Maas on the North Sea, the authorities presented a structur plaan for the city which had the occasion to redefine the city centre and renovate the port area.

Four selected architects had the challenge to face first of all the confrontation with the historical city centre with urban relevant peripheric areas as the east side Maas Banks and second solving the transition between planning and architectural design.

Four competitions entries for Kop van Zuid represent ,in fact , a significant earliest example of possible solution for the problem between planning and architecture; professional exercise to replace with housing industrial buildings.

The Aldo Rossi-Braghieri-Reinhart projects.

The Aldo Rossi’s project is a “cyclopic character “*³far away from the real building possibility, it will remain on the archive of paper architecture.

The planning design is an anti- master plan.

The projects re-propose a sort of new “citta analoga “where piece of ideal Holland cities plan are pasted on the composition, based on residential blocks where the type of typical gothic Dutch housing is employed .

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“The air competition of Rotterdam” Umberto Barbieri ,Casabella

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Small line of brick houses are cutted by squares , to break the repetition of the typical dutch row housing huge tower as Manhattan island dominate the waterfront.

The architects design according to an ideal architectural composition as an exercise and not only because of a functional program division typically of the urban plan before.

We are in front of a planning crisis where the zoning rules cannot confer a urban character to the expansion of a city .

“….If the master plan, the comprehensive planning approach is not appropriate anymore ,then the question arises how can one provide a development for a city of place” * 3 Warehouse, cranes, large shipping company buildings and the docks which represents the monument of this Kop van Zuid are combined in Rossi’s plan with typical row Dutch housing, square ,tower.

The contrast between tower, waterfront low rise building and high density will be used as well as a guide line for the master plan from west 8 for the urban renewal of Borneo Sporenburg 20 years later.

(See plan Kop van Zuid)

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“The air competition of Rotterdam” Giacomo Polin ,Casabella

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3.0-Focusing on the contemporary transformation of the Amsterdam IJ riverbanks and the Hamburg Hafencity project.

3.1-Amsterdam IJ riverbanks The historic city of Amsterdam was established around a dam that separated the Amstel river from the IJ river, a former tributary of the South sea. The river IJ was Amsterdam’s connection to the world until the construction of the Central Railway Station (1882-1889). The IJ meer in the east is the largest lake in the Netherlands and Amsterdam’s site for major extensions of the city .

The south banks of the IJ river is from the 70’s object of several metamorphosis through the years, due to the transfer of all harbour industrial and transport activities to the Western side of Amsterdam.

The water redevelopment of the docks and islands occurs without a rigid plan. The city has been able to adjust decisions on developments in response to shifting market expectations through the years.

The reason of a not fix master plan for all harbour banks is a strategic choice after the failure of the past zoning plans. Moreover the harbour of the city has never been anchored in one spot: over the centuries the port has moved 360 degrees around the IJ and demands in this way different strategies on different sites.

The IJ quays are divided in several docks and Islands. Western Docks-Oosterdocks-Haven Oost- Entrepothaven.

Houthaven area: traditionally characterized by wet industry. The water element is used for waterfront housings .The development contains a mix of terraces ,blocks, houseboats and apartments. The characteristic of this districts is the creation of a urban residential neighborhood surrounded by water.

The area can accommodate 1700 homes- the canal house id is the typology employed.

Silodam Wester-docks Island :In former times it was the shunting place of trains and railway carriage .The transformation points out on transforming the recent no–mans-land in housing and commercial districts with metropolitan functions.

This area offers two large scale examples of project and design, proposal: SilodamHousing complex (MVRDV) and Wester Ijdock complex (Dick van Gameren).

Eastern harbour districts is the most huge dismissed port area and its based on six different neighborhood :Oostelijke Handelskade; Java ,Knsm , Borneo-Sporenburg islands ; Veemarkt-terrein .

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KNSM Jo Coenens' Masterplan for KNSM-island- provided big buildings, referring to the harbour scale. The buildings which accord to one block are among others the "Piraeus" from Hans Kollhoff and Christian Rapp and the "SkyDome" from Wiel Arets. At KNSM there are still traces of the old harbour history to be found. Apart from houses for retired captains and former administration buildings of the shipping companies, there is still a passenger terminal dating from the sixties to see. Additional to the predominating housing small galleries, shops, cafes and boot-workshops are spread out.

JAVA-EILAND On the eastern part of the island a different strategy has been followed. The old houses were entirely torn down, before an urban and small scale housing district after plans of Sjoerd Soeters was built. The big housing blocs with intimate yards are structured by small canals referring to the flair of the Amsterdam city centre. The buildings designed by different architects are repeated in each of the urban blocks in varying positions. The housing project of the Swiss architects Diener and Diener links Java and KNSM within the urban plan.

The Jan Schaefer bridge from Venhoeven CS connects Java island to the city centre.

BORNEO-SPORENBURG For the two peninsulas Borneo and Sporenburg West 8 made a striped, three layered housing proposal, which reminds of long warehouses.

The narrow housing types are conceived as introverted patio houses. All private outside spaces as well as parking places are to be found within the plot. Different architects are interpreting these rules. On Borneo the "Architects-houses" show an even wider range. This "sea of houses" is related by big city blocks (superblocks) such as "the Whale" as most prominent example.

See diagram

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Large urban block building Piraeus -Housing 64 dwelling

Fountainhead hybrid residential offices,hotel building (never buitl) Housing blocks -close block sloping roof lines 200 apartemnts Pacman superblock dwelling

Houthaven

Silodam westerdocks islands

Station Island

Eastern harbour districts Java-knsm Borneo Sporenburg island Oosterdoks-Handelskade island

IJ AMSTERDAM WATERFRONT

3.2 Hamburg Hafencity project.

Hamburg is an international port in which are still its harbour activities maintained.

The Hamburg renewal master plan includes a huge area of 155 hectare which is called HAFEN CITY and represent the future ambition of planners and architect for the contemporary water city expansion question: how to extend the traditional core of the city and how to intervene under the name of urban architectural design .

The urban redevelopment project consists of a large percentage of residential buildings, living directly by the waterfront and benchmark – setting implementation process.

The goal of Hafencity beside the waterfront renewal is to give chance to expand down town Hamburg by 40% in about 20 years ,from 1.7 million inhabitants to 4.2.

To avoid the expansion as a suburb, the residential function will be integrated with retail, leisure facilities, bars and restaurants and cultural amenities ;there will be also a parks, squares and promenades.

The new city centre will be characterized by the diversity and heterogeneity of typology ,collective spaces and mixed function.

The Hafencity is composed by a multitude of districts, herein the first phase already focused on the Kaispeicher quarter and Sandtor, Dalmann and Kaiser Docks.

4 Those areas in proximity to the Speicherstadt are made by open housing blocks through the water .

Dalmannkai quarter dock gets particularly attention because of its variety of function and typology with a view over the water.

It offers an hybrid overview of retail and housing, but also schools and cultural activities as the watermusic concert hall (Elbe philharmonic) complex by Herzog and de Meuron .

The diversity of projects is also due to the diversity of the target people for the dwelling complex buildings.

Dalmannkai district provides ,in fact ,high quality apartments, condominiums ,living concepts for seniors, individual maisonettes ,residential tower and luxury apartments.

See summary diagram

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(“storage house city�)

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4.0 COLLECTIVE SPACES ,THE AMBITION TO EXTEND THE CITY CENTER ,IS IT REALLY WORKING.?

It is not automatic to recreate the dynamic integration typically of the busy merchant harbour.

Urban and architectural approach are both responsible of the success of new port cities.

One reason for the lack of identity in those transforming area is due to the idea of planning the city in zones; dividing the expansion of the living city in specific functional areas.

The residential docklands areas cannot be propelling in itself, for new meaning and identity ,if they are disconnected from public spaces and central infrastructure.

The urban planning strategy to re-inject another meaning to those dismissed harbour areas wouldn’t work, if there was a lack of continuity from the history.

One main aspect of this continuity is the urban character that the harbour functions established with the inner city: the great role of the ports inside the city was in the past to integrate heavy infrastructure to the urban context.

Planners today would consider the vital role of harbour activities in structuring space well.

Amsterdam‘s Eastern harbour district is on one side a nice location living environment close to the city centre: so in terms of density it can be urban ,but on the other hand the mainly mono-function as residential area and the isolation from the infrastructure are a characteristic of a suburban area.

The eastern IJ docks (Borneo-Sporenburg, Java ,KNSM) are manly inhabited by middle and upper class: this homogeneous society within the individuality of the architectural blocks represent the prerogative for suburbs of high architectural quality ,far away from the attempt to transform the dismissed harbour docks into an expansion of the city centre.

The architectural attempt has to bind together new water -typologies with the historical fragment with the ambition to reproduce new collective spaces.

The only task of re-using some old pre-existing elements like hangars and silo dam as isolated monuments is not supporting the dialogue among harbour urban artifact and new constructions. …..The project of Amsterdam IJ renewal waterfront…..reflects fantasies related to the sea or to ship then the reality of the original meaning of harbour cities whose identity was characterized by port activities.

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….”Worse still, intentions of this kind often caricature ,the port in attempt to link it to the city. It is shown in a pretty miniature in a mirror that belies its real scale: dykes, docks, hangars and giant cranes. We must look elsewhere for authentic aspects that might serve in defining guidelines for urban design. Not in the traditional function of the port ,nor even in its seafront location ,but in its cultural history of the connections between infrastructure zone and city. “ 5 The Hafencity Hamburg Project represents a chance for the future development to connect the traditional down town centre with the new other living environment urban spaces on the waterfront side.

The prerogative to integrate infrastructure and residential areas with other mixed functional program ,parks and green areas in a huge no man land, are all positive intentions to transfer the effort of planning solutions into an interesting potential of architectural variation.

Nevertheless all master plan strategies have to face the cultural and historical old identity that the industrial harbour docks tracks through the city; the architectural experiment and functional attraction cannot succeed, if the society and inhabitants are not ready to accept the waterfront as a reference centre for the city.

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Hans Ibelings “ Architecture as the continuation of urban planning by other means”Eastern harbour district -Amsterdam

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Bibliography:

“In Dienst van de Stad/Working for the city- 25 Years of Work from the Urban design department of Amsterdam The Hague Rotterdam” Han Meyer, Leo van den Burg –Uitgeverij SUN ,Amsterdam 2005 “West 8” Adriaan Geuze-Editor Luca Molinari SkiraEd. Milano 2000 ”Atlas of the Dutch Urban Block”Susanne Kommossa,Han Meyer,MaxRisselada,Sabien Thomaes and Nynke Jutten THOTH Publisher Bussum Den Haag 2005 “IMPACT Urban planning in Amsterdam after 1986” Marlies Buurman,Maarten Kloos Arcam/ Architectura &Natura Press,2005 “Revisions of Space-an architectural manual” Dick Van Gameren NAI Publisher, Rotterdam 2005 “Eastern Docklands-New architecture on historic ground” Egbert Koster Architectura &Natura 1995 ”Eastern Harbour District Amsterdam: Urbanism and Architecture.“ Ibelings, Hans and Ed Melet, Bernard Hulsman, Allard Jolles.

NAI publisher Rotterdam, 2003

Links:

www.hafencity.com.

Magazines:

CASABELLA n°564 1990,January “Amburgo politiche urbane per la citta’ portuale”p.44-51,61-62.

CASABELLA n°487/488 1983,January/February “The AIR competition in Rotterdam”by Umberto Barbieri, Giacomo Polin p.14-25.

Topos European Landscape Magazine n°35 2001 “Public space in Hafen city at Hamburg ‘s harbour”.

AREA n°60 January/February 2002 ” Master plan Borneo-Sporenburg: West 8, Heren 5, BEB Architecten, van Velsen”.

Quaderns n°228 January2001 “Hypersuburbia”by Hans Ibelings p.98-102 “Dutch Panorama”p.52-98 LOTUS (n°94), 1997,107-8.”Borneo Sporenburg,Amsterdam”by Aldo Aymonino.Baumaster (n°100) 2003,May p.5887”Hafencity:Hamburg’s new district” by Ralf Lange.

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A+T (n°27) 2006 ,Spring OASE 71 / Journal for Architecture ”Urban formation &Collective Spaces” NAI publisher Rotterdam Architecture d’Aujourd’hui (n°332), January/February 2001 p.28-71 “Villes portuaires”by Ariane Wilson

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