SOCIO SPATIAL PROCESSES IN THE CITY

THE LINE Making the old Zaagmolenstraat a more livable street

Laura Alejandra Garcia V. Socio-spatial processes in the city TU Delft

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Introduction

Starship said: We build this city on rock n’ roll. I say, we build this city on lines. Lines of people, of thoughts, of spaces, of nature. Guide lines, narrow lines, long lines, dot lines; the line is the street.

Do you remember the old Zaagmolenstraat, the busy tram line street in the old north of Rotterdam? The street that has been taken by cars and traffic. What happened to the stores?

What happened to the trees? What happened to the people?

Today, the street is part of the network of the neighborhood, next to pocket parks, squares, restaurants, and De Rotte River.

In our cities, the streets represent around the 30% of the public space. They are democratic spaces, in which people exchange ideas, interact with each other, react to changes and move, making transformations every day in the urban routes. The socio spatial processes related to the life of the streets are determined by the quality and livability of the public space. By changing the actual situation and creating new scenarios for people to walk and stay, the streets become the most important space in the public life of the cities.

To close up, Jeff Risom explains that: “The streets and public areas in which people come together are the lifeblood of cities. Unlike parks, traffic and buildings, however, the life between these spaces does not fall under a specific municipal, state or federal jurisdiction—and it shows. By putting people—their behavior and activity—at the center of design and planning processes, cities can promote social interaction and public engagement.”

Jeff Risom, Gehl Studio

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Gerard Scholtenstraat, Rotterdam. Source: Own source.

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City, neighborhood and streets

The whole urban system is represented by a series of layers that overlay people’s behavior with buildings and infrastructure. The complexity of the city today, is given by the networking of these layers and the relation with intangible layers and items. By studying the city of Rotterdam, there is a clear division between the urban structure and the natural structure (the Rivers and canals, for example, represent most of the “natural” landscape of the city). For instance, the case of De Rotte River, which has a wonderful journey through the urban landscape, and traverses the city center, the old neighborhoods of housing and commerce and the urban wetlands, before vanishing in the fields.

One of its “stations” is the Oude Noorden, the old north of Rotterdam, a neighborhood that has been changing since postwar time, and has been transforming and adapting to the social processes of the city. It is now one of the most known areas of the city, and is the home of a very mixed society, with a high percentage of immigrants living there. The cultural background of the neighborhood allows the public space to have certain personality, attributing to streets and parks different characteristics that makes each one of them special. The Zaagmolenstraat is the tram street for more than fifty years and is today, one of the busiest street in the old north of Rotterdam. In spite of being close to other important streets (view diagram below), the tram street seems not to be connected to the network of the neighborhood, because is a barrier itself. Due to his crowded atmosphere, the Zaagmolenstraat becomes not very attractive to the eyes of the residents and visitors. Is it possible to transform the busy street into something else?

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Current Street Network. Diagram

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Rotterdam. Diagram

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Localization, Oude Noorden. Diagram

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Problem/Current situation

The streets in a city are owned by the people. By children, grandpa’s, youngsters, workers, by all. Despite of being a public space, the street is considered mainly for traffic and mobility. However I personally believe that streets have the chance not only to serve as a public area, but to mobilize ideas, needs and rights. The street is a democratic (public) space; so are the squares and the parks, but these two have the characteristic of congregate people and activities, instead of mobilize them.

As said before, the difference with the streets is mainly that they have very mixed activities: cars, public transport, bicycles, motorcycles, pedestrian, recreation, etc. How to give the street the importance that it requires and how to organize the hierarchy of these activities, in order to optimize the use of the network of streets and create a network of public space?

The city of Rotterdam has a very strong public space which contains different kind of activities and users.

Near De Rotte area, a more residential area, parks and small squares are not connected to the river or to the main commercial streets, which means that there is a lack of continuity between these public spaces.

Oude Noorden is a multicultural neighborhood, in which more than half of the population is immigrant. The street network holds commercial use, recreational use, traffic and mobility and some urban connections related to the general system of the city. Some of these streets have a low livability, especially the ones that have public transport (Tram), cars and commercial activities.

Among the Oude Noorden streets, the Zaagmolestraat can also be called the “busy street�. For more than 50 years it has been the Tram Street, but with the development of the neighborhood, the traffic has increased and today is a complete chaos. It is very busy during the day, with parking areas on both sides of the street, with no bike lanes and very narrow sidewalks. Nevertheless, it still is one of the most important streets in the neighborhood, due to its connectivity to the rest of the city. Now, the design question I have is how to make the old Zaagmolestraat a more livable street?

I have identified three main problems in the site. First, there is a junction of public transport; traffic, bicycles and pedestrian flows interact, but with no physical space organized for each one of them. By changing the profile of the street and proposing a new hierarchy, actors would easily identify their space and appropriate it. Second, there is no relation between the buildings and the street; it should exist a clear transition from public to private in the ground floor. Enlarging the range of activity from the ground floor towards the street, creates a dialogue between the public and the private, enriching the use of the space. Finally, the third problem is that there is some existing commercial activity on the ground floor, but there is no public space available for people to stay; in the intersections of the Zaagmolenstraat with other streets should exist a more clear and delimitated space in which different kind of activities can be contained.

In few words, the street has a problem of continuity and of walkability. Therefore, the strategy of the project is to approach the line (the street) by three elements: the nodes (container of activities), the lines (materiality and continuity) and the planes (volumes, textures). This project is about regenerating the public space with the purpose of increasing the livability of the area.

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3 Land use map. Actual situation

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1. Tram line + traffic + bycicles + pedestrian

2. No relation between the buildings and the street

3. Commercial activity on the ground floor- no public space avaiable for people to stay

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Strategy In order to answer the design question of how to make the old Zaagmolenstraat a more livable street, I am going to explain the strategy mentioned in the previous pages. The intervention has three approaches to the street: the nodes, the lines and the planes.

In terms of the line, the change of the profile of the street will prioritize the pedestrians, giving the area of the parking spaces over the south side of the street to a more wide and walkable sidewalk. By this, the profile of the sidewalk would change from 1.90 meters to 4.00 meters wide. Also, due to the high amount of parking spots on the street, there is the decision of not removing the 100% of the parking, but only the 50% and replacing it with a bike lane of 2.10 meters wide on the north side of the street. Other 25% of the parking spots will be substituted by urban parklets, a place in the street with furniture and vegetation, where people can sit, have a chat, have a coffee, or read a book. Despite being next to traffic, the parklets will be separated from the cars and public transport and would be a complete urban atmosphere for the visitors of the street. The line is basically a strategy of materiality and continuity. The introduction of a new material for the sidewalks, asphalt color turquoise, would remind us of the streets of Moroccan cities, and would definitely bring a new explosion of color towards the experience in the line.

The second strategy is the plane and is about levels, volumes and textures. As explained before, the urban parklets are a proposal of staying and sitting in the sidewalk, and not only to pass by. They also become an extension of the ground floor of the buildings and a possibility of having a public terrace. These new spaces will bring a lot of life to the street and will also help the local commerce to have more clients. So, the levels that appear on the line are going to be dynamic, meaning a transformation of the plane itself: the street is no longer flat, but has movement, volumes and textures.

The third strategy is the node. After understanding that along the street some existing cross sections had different characteristics, which allowed the crossings to become containers of activity. Each node has a different composition, depending on the existing conditions. After some research, I decided to make some experiments in a 1:125 scale model of one of this nodes. This with the intention of discover the way of transform these spaces into places. My conclusion was that in each case, the node was suitable to have a roof of a tridimensional atmosphere, and then the experimentation kept on going. (Go to page number 09-10 for more details)

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Nodes - Activity, platform

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Lines – Materiality and continuity

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3. Planes – Levels, volume,textures

Strategy map. Nodes, lines, planes.

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PROBLEM

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No hierarchy of commuters

Change the profile of the Street, priorizing pedestrians

No relation between buildings and the Street

Bring the private activity to the public space, by element

The Street is just a passby line. No places to stay.

Nodes of activity, relating street intersections and commerce

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Experimentation and composition During the design process, I decided to build a 1:125 scale model of one of the intersections of the street and try to see how the existing elements related to the new elements I was proposing. I had as a reference two cultural backgrounds, the Moroccan and the Turkish, in which I tried to see the way people used the streets. There exists a very strong appropriation of the public space, and people normally use it to hang multicolor fabrics, to sell their goods and share their inspirations. The street also serves as an extension of the houses and buildings, where families and friends get together to talk under the sun or the shadow of trees and shelters.

The experimentation was basically about adding different elements and materials to the space of the street and the buildings. I tried with different materials to give the street new characteristics or spatial conditions.

For example, I used white paper to wrap the street and facades, creating one single surface. How would the street look in just one color?

After trying different materials, textures, perforations and playing also with light, I had many design questions that could help or not to proceed with my proposal in the street. Since I was looking at the model of one node, I decided that I could also see the relation between the node and the whole street. How to lead people to the Line was my main concern at this point. In the pictures, I show some results of these experiments. You can see how I put a roof on the intersection, and it was indeed a very ambitious idea. But after some desk analysis in combination with this model making experiments, the idea of the roofing and the connection to other existing public spaces was very strong. The question I had at this point is how to approach to this new profile from the distance?

In the proposed design, I interpreted the roof over the street and transformed it into a very simple street lighting system. These lights are going to be placed in a way that from far you can only see dots of light, and while you come closer to them the cylinders of light appear over your head and suddenly vanish; that means you have reach the Line. The lights are only going to be placed in the adjacent streets, because it is a guide to approach the Zaagmolenstraat. In the case of the second node, there is a circular lightning structure over the intersection. In this case only, because of the unique characteristics of the node this decision has been made; a square like typology invites to a great idea. The circle of lights (as has been showed at this stage of the process) is the place making strategy for this space. Also, the connection to the commercial street on the south demands a higher visual relation. In the case of the other nodes, the lights vanish in the Zaagmolestraat, because there is a whole new event: the street itself. Of course, with more time for the design I would probably experimented other ways to have the same “roofs” on every node.

However, I believe that the whole composition of the street is very coherent. There is the line, expressed with the new materiality, there is a series of events where the street enlarges and creates this new places for new activities and there is a series of lines of light that can be seen from the distance. If you come from the Zaagmolenstraat or come from other streets, you would always have a guide that takes you to it. In a bigger scale, the project appears as an “art intervention” in which the city breaths through colors and experiences and as an urban intervention, in which the street is transformed and the space is made.

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Solid surface

Surface with holes

Reflective surface

Stamped surface - reflective

Solid surface

Surface with holes

Reflective surface

Stamped surfaces on the line

Wrapped surfaces - The same texture

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Nodes of Activity To have a better understanding of the interventions, I will go through the five nodes explaining the guidelines for the spatial composition.

1. The beginning of the line starts in the intersection between the Zaagmolenstrat and De Rotte. This node has the characteristic of crossing the river towards old Crooswijk. The first outline for its design is to respect the existing infrastructure and only have a change in the materials of the public space.

The aim of the node is to generate curiosity among the visitor and the street, and to be an attraction for people that is passing by.

2. The next node has the typology of a public square, in which the lines of the buildings are placed and flat corner of the buildings and open the in between space. By having this wider spaces on the corners, the sidewalk become wider and creates small squares that can contain different kinds of activities.

3. The third node is the diagonal, where a street approaches the line in an oblique way. The curious approach to the line is redirected in a perpendicular way, gaining some extra space for the sidewalk, generating a wider space on both sides of the street.

4. The fourth node is the extension of the street to an existing park and the connection to the line. There is an important public space and the aim of the node is to bring that activity to the line, by widening the sidewalk of the street and taking the existing flows to the Zaagmolenstraat.

5. The final node is the end node, and is the meeting of the Zaagmolenstraat with the Berweg Street. By proposing a safe and continuous pass from one street to the other, the node look at the connectivity with the network and provides new signs to walk through.

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The line - Diagram indicating the nodes

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The crossing as a public square.

3 The oblique approach. Guiding lines of light,dying when reaching the Line.

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Connecting the existing public space to the Line. A more public street.

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The square like node.

The roof over the square

The approach to the node

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The diagonal node

The guidelines of light in a oblique way

The oblique approach to the street

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The connecting node

The connection between a park and the street

The oblique approach to the street

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The final node

The closing belt - the end of the street

The articulation between new and the existing

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Conclusion

Who owns the street?

The everyday activities of our society are demanding more spaces, new spaces, flexible spaces where creative people can share their experiences. Social participation is going up and people are appropriating the space that is theirs. Place making events, in which people of one community gather together and play with the city, mold it to their needs and make fair use of it; they are making the decisions of their urban environment and actually owning the streets.

In this studio, after a process of analysis and design, the reflection on the public space and the small scale is very important for me as an architect and urbanist. The relation between the human scale and the built environment needs to very clear to determine the role of urban actors. These actors are the ones that experience the city and own it. However, when the physical conditions of a public space are not adequate (in terms of order and quality) is very hard for people to take over this and start doing something. But if they are given livable spaces, they would start doing great things and owning the spaces they pass by every day.

The general question is how to give the streets the importance that they require and how to organize the hierarchy of its activities, in order to optimize the use of the network and create a system of public space. Having this into mind, the design question of the project that has been raised is how to make the old Zaagmolenstraat a more livable street?

With the aim of improving the quality of the street by three strategies, “The Line� is a project that recovers public space and creates new scenarios for social mobility. The intervention has three approaches to the street: the nodes, the lines and the planes. With the application of these three concepts as parameters of design, the project regenerates public space in which the good quality of the physical space and the mixture of activities and actors increases the livability of the area.

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Intervention in the context. Diagram

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Detail plan and materiality - Node 1

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Detail plan and materiality - Paklet and street

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Intervention in the context - Urban plan