LEIDEN
G E N E R I C FRONTIERS ATLAS
BY
NATALIE
CHOW
ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF URBAN FORM MSc1 Urbanism TUTOR: Dr. L.M. Calabrese
Natalie Chow B.Arch, Monash University, Australia. Ma.Urban Design, Melbourne University, Australia. CONTACT: necwsr we@gmail.com
G E N E R I C FRONTIERS An Evidence-Based & Experience-Driven Analysis of (Sub)Urban Form in Leiden
A
DEFINITION
OF
TERMS
GENERIC
F RO N T I E R
Non-specific, hence not particular to one urban space, hence potentially global and universal.
A physical or mental edge that divides territories. These edges can be borders, with diminishing intensity of urban activity; or boundaries, that inhibit urban activity.
THEORETICAL
FRAMEWORKS
H.LEFEBVRE
R.SENNETT
A philosopher & sociologist who critiques the production of segregation and marginalisation in cities.
A sociologist concerned with the reconciliation of social groups in cities.
F. PA L M B O O M
R.
A practitioner with a clarity of drawings and grounded methodology, that captures the history and physicality of a place.
An expert in the Dutch method of reduction and abstraction for dramatic effect. He sensationalises the generic and banal, to bring attention to the pervasive power of the everyday and commonplace.
KOOLHAAS
CONTENTS
PRETEXT
TYPOMORPHOLOGY
THE EDGES
URBAN LANDSCAPE
THE VISTAS
OPEN CITY
THE BORDER
COMPLEX CITY
THE LIVED SPACE
THE SUBURBAN METROPOLIS
THE FRONTIERS IN SUBURBIA
THE PROGRAM OF VISUAL EXPERIENCE
THE RAILWAY AS A PARADOXICAL SITE
THE CONCIOUSNESS OF A CITY
A Metropolit an Center Leiden in the Randst ad
Randstand Context
Regional Context
Leiden is part of the Randstad, forming the physical metropolitan agglomeration and functioning as a part of it’s metropolitan System.
Leiden is an attractive place to live, with a well-preserved historic center and surrounded by natural environments of the Sea, Lake and Green Heart.
The city intersects the national logistics and production network, and is an transnational node for education, reasearch and innovation industries.
The urban agglomeration of Leiden was eager to stretch out towards and along the two branches of national highway that connect to both Amsterdam, Schipol Airport and the Hague. Leiden Urban Agglomeration
th
Se
Se
a
a
Location of Leiden in the Randstad
rth No
N or
AMSTERDAM
LEIDEN
THE HAGUE
ROTTERDAM
UTRECHT
50km
10km
Randstad Highway Network
Aggomeration Intersects Highway Network
LEIDEN URBAN AGGLOMERATION
LEIDEN URBAN AGGLOMERATION
50km
10km
4
A Metropolit an Function Leiden in the Economy
Economic Context
Economic Cataysts Stimulating Leiden’s Urban Growth
The location of Leiden has created an array of opportunities for businesses from knowledge-based, to agricultural to set up. Agriculture activity profits from The Bollenstreek and Green Heart. Industrial and logistics activities gather along the transportation networks and on route to Schiphol. However, Leiden’s economic leverage as a city is it’s knowledge-based economy that is an international center for bioscience research and innovation. The conditions for a metropolis have concentrated in Leiden - a cosmopolitan population, history of culture, world-class infrastructure, transnational economy ... Yet why does the City feel Suburban?
Map of the Economic Functions in Leiden Urban Aggolmeration
Greenhouse Area
Sassenheim-Zuid Industrial Area
Katwijk Industrial Area Royal FloraHolland Rijnsburg
Leiden Bioscience Park Leiden University Medical Center
Greenhouse Area Leiden University
LEGEND INDUSTRY
BUSINESS/COMMERCIAL PARK
BIG BOX RETAIL
AGRICULTURAL FACILITY
NATIONAL HIGHWAY NETWORK
REGIONAL HIGHWAY NETWORK
Heineken Brewery Grote Polder Industrial Area
N
5km
5
A Part of the Suburban Metropolis Leiden’s Suburban Environment
Suburban Quality with Metropolitan Function
Leiden Urban Agglomeration
Leiden has a different metropolitan form and experience to other cities in the Netherlands and overseas I have experienced. Leiden retains an idyllic, suburban quality. The city center may not be as shiny, busy and tall as other cities, but performs the economic function effectively. The city is an assemblage of districts with a suburban character, i.e. Low density, planned, small scale, generic typologies, local neighbourhood centers, local open spaces, few commercial strips.
‘Leiden is a densely populated city with a relatively highly educated population. Beginning in 2016 the city had 122,600 inhabitants. There are many students / many young adults in Leiden: 24, 000 Leideners are 18 - 26 years. This is about 20% of all Leiden citizens, while this rate nationwide is 11%. In the city are 56, 600 homes and employs over 60,000 people in 4200 companies and institutions.’ - Introduction by Gemeente Leiden (https://gemeente.leiden. nl/over-de-stad/leiden-in-cijfers/)
Statistical Urban Comparisons
Leiden
Amsterdam
Hague
Rotterdam
Population=123,000
Population=779,000
Population=495,000
Population=610,000
Population Density=5,524/km2
Population Density=2,969/km2
Population Density=6,240/km2
Population Density=2,969/km2
Road Density=16,000m /km2
Road Density = no data
Road Density = 13,000m /km2
Road Density = 10,000m /km2
Main Urban Activity=Education, Research, Bioscience, Medical
Main Urban Activity=Business, Finance, Port, Logistics, Trade
Main Urban Activity=Service, Government
Main Urban Activity=Port, Logistics, Trade
Source: CBS, https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2010/47/total-length-dutch-roads-stretches-halfway-to-the-moon https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/society/population
6
A Metropolit an Park Leiden Bioscience Park
Leiden’s Urban/Suburban Functions and Network
Leiden Bioscience Park This experience of Leiden is dominated by the ideal urbanity of the historic center, or by the suburban environment of majority of the rest of the city. The irony of the major economic activities are concealed in ‘Parks’, bioscience park, business park, logistic park, industry parks. The purpose of which seems to assure the suburban qualities of the rest of the city will not be threatened by urban activity. Although these Parks of Leiden may not appear ‘city-like‘, other than the humming of traffic, it is these programs that allow Leiden to function as a metropolis and attract a cosmopolitan population. LEGEND
SUBURBAN FUNCTION
URBAN FUNCTION
NATIONAL HIGHWAY NETWORK
MAIN LOCAL ROAD NETWORK
SUBURBAN ROAD NETWORK
N
5km
Employment Centers in Leiden
Leiden Bioscience Park Statistics
Bollenstreek Logistics Park
33% Employment in Leiden is generated by the Bioscience Park and Leiden University. Leiden Total Employment = Approx. 60,000 Leiden Univeristy + Medical Center = €1 billion Yearly Revenue = 9000 Employmees = 20,000 Students
Leiden Bioscience Park
Commercial Retail & Service Center
Leiden University
Leiden Bioscience Park = € 456 million GVA = 6, 500 Employees
Industrial Park
N
Source: Biggar Economics, http://media.leidenuniv.nl/legacy/lu-umc-economic-impact-report-31-aug-12.pdf
5km
Suburban Qualities of Leiden Bioscience Park
Low Density, Introverted Buildings
Pedantic Gardening 7
Non-urban Open Spaces
The Spread of Suburbia Histor y of Urban Development
Era of Development
Area Developed
Area Developed for Economic Activity
Contained Growth 10th Cent
N
19th Cent
1km
Southern Expansion 19th Cent
Northern Expansion 19th Cent
Satellite Estates 20th Cent
LUMC LBSP
After World War II, the unity of the city is broken, multiple island neighbourhoods surface and some even reproduce their own town centers outside of the historical city. LUMC - Leiden University Medical Center LBSP - Leiden BioScience Park
Dispersed Infill Growth 21st Cent
The 21st Century is a new era for Leiden, having built up most of the available land for development within the municipal boundaries. Development is now sporadic, filling in spaces between and on the edge, or reconstructing parts of the city.
LUMC LBSP
N 10km
8
9th
10th
860
Settlement village on the left of the Rhine
1100
Location of Court of Residence for the Counts of Holland
11th
12th
13th
Contained
14th
Town has quadrupled in size
Fortifications constructed
1573-74
Spanish Seige / Dutch Revolt Population declines from 15,000 to 12,000
1575
15th Leiden is the largest city after Amsterdam in the country Population of 70,000
16th
1637
Universiteit Leiden Established Galileo Galilei publishes ‘The Discoursi’ in Leiden
Era of culture and painting City requires expansion as population grows due to immigration for labour Dutch Golden Age
17th 1650s
18th 1842
1807
Ship carrying gunpoweder explodes destroying several houses (now ‘Van der Werf’) Pesthuis, hospitals & almshouses are built
Plague Population declines from 70,000 to 34,000 Leiden Centraal Train Station Opens Industrial Revolution gains traction in the Netherlands
Expansion
19th
Fortifications demolished Leiden established metal & printing industry to recover
Satellite
20th
Industrial base declined 1984
WWII
Leiden Bioscience Park Established 1998
21st
Leiden received major funding to restore historic city center
Infill
Characteristic Typology of the Era
9
Leiden Centraal Train Station Reconstructed with Two Accesses
TYPOMORP THE EDGES: THE FRONTIERS OF SUBURBIA The boundary is an edge where things end; the border is an edge where different groups interact.
Leiden is an assemblage of neighbourhoods that have been extended, annexed and infilled around the historic city. Discrete units of development reflect the disengagement of neighbourhoods from the larger community of the city. These boundaries are physically and socially divisive, decreasing accessibility to parts of the city and limiting the citizens’ apprehension and participation in collective life respectively.
No transgression at the boundary: Keep Out! Which means the edge itself is dead. - Richard Sennett, The Open City (2006)
There has been paradigm shift caused by the new generation of city dwellers who want to live in more dynamic and integrated urban environments that is pushing the cities and new developments to embrace a more ‘open’ and urban lifestyle, and remedy existing boundaries.
10
PHOLOGY Type of Edge Conditions in Leiden
Zweiland
Leiden Centraal Station
NS
A4
4
Leiden Bioscience Park
1km
A4
N
LEGEND RAILWAY
HIGHWAY/ MAJOR ROAD
GREEN BUFFER/PARK
RIVER/CANAL
UNDERUTILISED SPACE/PARKING
11
The Edge Conditions
How are Neighbourhoods Separated? Types of Edges in Leiden
N
1km
LEGEND
This typomorphological analysis investigates the issue of relationship between residential developments as the city expands. Hence, highlighting the continual production of the edges between developments in urban planning and design. These separation of space into units is a method of design used to contain residential neighbourhoods in a ‘closed system’. They keep out external factors that make the city unpredictable, to more effectively engineer predetermined outcomes. These boundaries materialise as green buffers, canals, roads, lack of physical connectivity or unorganised space.
12
STREET STITCH
NATURAL NATURE
SUBURBAN OPEN SPACE
CANAL CUT
INFRASTRUCTURAL WALL
The Urban Fabr ic
How are Neighbourhoods Brought Together? Connection of Neighbourhood Nodes to Edge Connections
N
1km
Streets stitch Edges together, and Highways, Parking, Water bodies, Rail, Green Barriers divide. Streets are able to stitch because they create physical connectivity between areas. A ‘stitching street‘ should give inhabitants of each area access to more/more choice of facilities, destinations, services, etc after they are connected. i.e. The areas can only be ‘stitched’ if they have destinations of nodes of urban activity.
13
THE HISTORIC CENTER (13t h Centur y) The T ypology Of The Center
1. Shadow of a Fortification Demolition of the fortification walls leaves behind a green and sloped embankment on both sides of the River, that is now planned to be Leiden’s urban ‘Singel Park‘.
SOFT/SOFT Sloped Grass
HARD/HARD River Canal Commercial St
HARD/HARD Canal Parking
SOFT/SOFT Planted Park
2. Network Public Realms The historic center has few open spaces and plazas, hence streets become important public realms, that are active throughout the city and connect the center to the surrounding districts.
3. Continuous Urban Fabric Numerous streets and bridges connect the historic center to the surrounding district by extending existing street grid.
LEGEND
SOFT EMBANKMENT EDGE
HARD CANAL EDGE
ACTIVATED PUBLIC SPACE
STREET CONNECTIVITY
N
1km
14
LEYHOF (1998)
How T ypologies Separate From Their Context To Maint ain Illusions 1. A Separating Landscape Located on the periphery of Leiden’s urban agglomeration, it is in denial about the beautiful polderscape that stretches around it. Instead, Leyhof creates a highly constructed illusion of a post-modern suburb, straddling the ‘balance‘ of urbanness and suburban-ness. This illusion of is fragile and Leyhof protects itself by surrounding itself in a moat and expanses of manicured lawns, where other urbanity and nature cannot encroach upon.
2. Isolated Public Realms Playgrounds and unprogrammed postmodern plazas make up the few dispersed public spaces in Leyhof. These spaces are small and localised, hence these public spaces do little to become spaces of social urban activity within the community and much less for people outside the area.
3. Discontinuous Urban Fabric Leyhof minimises it’s contact and connection with the neighbouring residential district and the polderscapes. The order of the roads attempts to focus the community towards Leyhof center which has an oval plaza in a square square.
LEGEND
MOAT AND LAWN
PUBLIC OPEN SPACE
COMMERCIAL CENTER
STREET CONNECTIVITY
N
1km
15
NIEUW LEIDEN (2014)
How typologies strengthen relationships within the urban block and to their context 1. A Stitching Landscape The green landscape of the modernist estate to the north and the fortification embankments are connected through Nieuw Leiden, with a landscaped bridge and opening of a green park and canal in the middle of the development, connecting several parts of the city together.
2. Pedestrianised Public Realms The urban blocks in Nieuw Leiden are kept free from cars, allowing residents to appropriate the streets between their houses more often, more freely and more intimately. These public realms bring the community closer together but are not of a scale or program to become destinations for the rest of the city.
3. Continuous Urban Fabric Nieuw Leiden continues and connects to most of the existing streets, embracing the urban phenomenon of transiting visitors who may travel from other areas to the historic city, train station, university and bioscience park.
LEGEND
LANDSCAPE STITCH
PEDESTRIANISED PUBLIC SPACE
COMMERCIAL CENTER
STREET CONNECTIVITY
N
1km
16
One Man’s Seam is Anot her Man’s Stitch Suburbs Stitching to the City at Different Scales
N4
45
C LE E I ST NT DE AT R A N IO A N L
NIEUW LEIDEN (2014)
LEYHOF (1998)
A
THE HISTORIC CENTER (13th Century)
4
N
1km
What was a dividing edge at the smaller scale of the neighbourhood is an important connection for another neighbourhood. A ‘stitching street‘ should give inhabitants of each area access to more/more choice of facilities, destinations, services, etc after they are connected. Suburbs on the edge of suburban sprawl, like, Leyhof, choose to ‘stitch‘ to the city instead of the neighbourhood around it. While Nieuw Leiden ‘stitches‘ into the modernist estate to the north and historic center to the south. Depending on the location and intention of the suburb, each of them ‘stitches‘ into the city at a different scale to be able to give it’s inhabitants access to the the urban quality of diversity of choice.
17
CONCLUSION: TYPOMORPHOLOGY
NO FRONTIERS LEFT TO CONQUER Leiden Municipal Limits
1km
Leiden has built up to and exceeded it’s municipal limits. There are no more new ‘frontiers‘ for Leiden to expand and suburbanise. New development can only occur as in fill or renewal. In these cases how the edge is treated becomes an important factor for the nature of the city.
Richard Sennett’s theory of the Open City proposes that embedding edges with shared programs and facilities can approximate a more border-like condition between neighbourhoods, and ‘stitch‘ the city socially. The treatment of these edges can become sites of separation and connection in the future, encouraging urban life or perpetuate suburbanism. 18
Map of Undeveloped Edges in Leiden Urban Agglomeration
N
1km
However, Leiden is able to fulfil its contradicting functions and desires to be a functioning city and suburban havens precisely because of these prominent boundaries.
Or Leiden could gradually urbanise it’s existing suburban landscape, starting by generating more urban conditions by diminishing edges between neighbourhoods to create urban communities.
If the future of Leiden insists on continuing to suburbanise, it must do so very creatively - bigger moats, tree houses, de-industrialising areas, repoldering estates that are not a nice kind of urban. 19
URBAN LAND THE VISTAS: THE PROGRAM OF VISUAL EXPERIENCE
Everything great and splendid is founded on power and wealth. They are the basis of beauty. - Henri Lefebvre, Critique of Everyday Life (1981)
The programme is its temporary legitimacy, the alibi for building. At the same time the programme is the motor that sets everything in motion. -Frits Palmboom, Drawing The Ground (2010)
The churches and state buildings were the tallest buildings in the city and defined the the skyline of Leiden with their height and ornamental spires. An early voyager would have approached Leiden meandering through the River Rijn. The presence of Leiden in the horizon must have been poetic, with fortified in heavy stone and crowned with multiple gilded spires, all kept afloat by slowly rotating windmills - oh, the wonders of a well-governed city with faith in God. This awe-inspiring effect of the original urban landscape can no longer be experienced from afar, but these vistas can still be admired from the streets and with new perspectives a moving train, speeding car or from tall buildings. The program of today that is shaping out visual experience of the city now has a capitalist nature. Advertising, signs, marketing, branding are producing the vistas of the city.
20
DSCAPE
21
Per iods of Prog ram Formation of Landmarks
Location of Landmarks in Leiden
N
1km
Periods of Production of Landmarks
LEGEND
LANDMARK
UNDERLYING POLDERSCAPE
RETAINED CANALS
1. UNMARKED LAND Natural landscape defines settlement patterns of the urban landscape.
2. RELIGIOUS LANDMARKS Built landscape defined by medieval guild of craftsmen and trades people within the constraints of polder and natural landscape patterns. RELIGIOUS LANDMARK URBAN LANDSCAPE
3. INFRASTRUCTURAL LANDMARKS Historical landscape creates a strong physical and symbolic context that is preserved as the City grows with regional transport infrastructure and residential expansions. INRFASTRUCTURE LANDMARK (Leiden Station)
RELIGIOUS LANDMARK & HISTORIC URBAN LANDSCAPE
MODERNIST LANDMARK (Residential Slab Block)
4. ECONOMIC LANDMARKS New landmarks in the urban landscape are capitalist in nature, featuring headquarters and logos of large corporations. CAPITALIST LANDMARK (Company Buildings)
INRFASTRUCTURE LANDMARK (Leiden Station)
22
RELIGIOUS LANDMARK & HISTORIC URBAN LANDSCAPE
MODERNIST LANDMARK (Residential Slab Block)
The Religious Prog ram
Skyline & Vist as Created by Religious Monuments Religious Buildings Exempted from the Street Grid Molen de Valk (1900s)
1
At the beginning, the natural landscape had an impact on the form of the historical city center.
20m Marekerk (1649)
4
25m Hartebrugkerk (1836)
20m Waalsekerk (1275) (Now Stadsgehoorzaal)
The River Rijn meanders east-west through the landscape, numerous canals are then dug perpendicular to the river to drain the land for the building of the city. This formed the basis of the street grid with evenly spaced and straight north-south streets and a few long curving east-west boulevards.
35m approx. De Burcht (1100)
3
The Churches were allowed to disrupt this grid, as they were religious monuments that held the faith of majority of the citizens.
5
70m Pieterskerk (1100)
2 25m Stadhuis (1597)
N
70m Hooglandekerk (1300)
200m
LEGEND LANDMARK
Churches pre-1600 oriented East-West, going against the underlying landscape and grid of the city. While churches post-15th Century responded more to the constraints of the existing landscape and orientation of the local precinct. In both cases these churches defined the surrounding urban fabric with plazas and vistas to emphasise their urban presence.
LANDMARK HEIGHT LANDMARK NAME (YEAR CONSTRUCTED)
VISTA
Static, Sculptural Vistas formed by Monuments
1
2
3
4
23
5
The Infrastr ucture Prog ram
Vist as created by Transport Infrastr ucture
Communication dominates space as an eleÂment in the architecture and in the landscape. But it is for a new scale of landscape. The commercial persuasion of roadÂside eclecticism provokes bold impact in the vast and complex setting of a new landscape of big spaces, high speeds, and complex programs. -Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Steven lzenour, Learning From Las Vegas 5
4 3
6
2
N
200m
1
Dynamic, Panorama & Textural Vistas formed by Movement 1
2
3
4
24
5
6
The Economic Prog ram
Landmarks created by Cor porations
2
7
3
8
10
9
6
4
5 LEGEND
1
LANDMARK BUILDING
FACADE
N
SIGN LINES OF SIGHT
Landmark Building
1
200m
Facade
Sign
8
4
5
2
9
6
3
10 7
25
Change in Infrastr ucture Prog ram
Change in Vist as created by Transport Infrastr ucture 1960s - Celebration of the Car
Buildings That Define the View from the Road in 1960s
In the 1960s, modern planning placed belief in car travel as the future of the city. There were also plans to destroy part of the historical city to construct a highway that were not implemented eventually. However major traffic was still channeled through the city center.
N
1km
2000s - Marginalisation of the Car
Buildings That Define the View from the Road in 2000s
Contemporary planning is now concious of the negative effects of prioritising cars on the urban environment and presevation of the historic center. Major traffic now bypasses the historic city center, as well as serve the expanded ring of residential developments around the city. LEGEND
VISTA BUILDINGS
URBAN AREA 1960s
URBAN AREA 2000s
NATIONAL HIGHWAY
N
1km
NATIONAL RAILWAY
26
Increasingly Suburban Vistas of Movement Historic Center ‘cut‘ by major roads
Cars drive through commercial streets and the historic center to access the suburbs
Cars drive through suburban sprawl to access the city center
Transformation of Urban Landscape due to shift in belief in the car
Urban Expansion
Historic Center ‘healed‘ from cuts
Major Roads designated to an outer ring through the suburbs
27
Urban Expansion
CONCLUSION: URBAN LANDSCAPE
URBAN EXPANSION OF VISUAL EXPERIENCE Timeline of Programs of Leiden
Historic Vista 10th Cent
19th Cent
Today
RELIGION
Trainline Vista 10th Cent
19-20th Cent Today
INFRASTRUCTURE
Highway Vista 10th Cent
19-20th Cent
Today
INFRASTRUCTURE
‘Park‘ Vista 10th Cent
19-20th Cent
Today
ECONOMIC
28
Visual Experiences overlaid on the Form of the City
N
1km
A number of qualities of the concept of Landscape are relevant for understanding the contemporary city.
It is revealing that more of our visual experience of the City occurs on the edges.
The first quality is its amplitude. The extensiveness of the geographic landscape surpasses the limited and balanced scene within the frame of a painting.
Dynamic Vistas from trains, cars and roads, make the vast urban landscape of the city is how we grasp the ever expanding city.
One must be In motion, or travel. The challenge is to direct the eye to the large scale (the whole film) and and not just the composition of the individual scene
The extents of what we see of the city and the speed at which we view the city has increased, this is an opportunity for greater awareness of the city, yet all we can see are advertising, signs and corporate landmarks.
-Frits Palmboom, Drawing The Ground 29
OPEN CITY
THE BORDER: THE RAILWAY AS A PARADOXICAL SITE
This prevalence of the boundaries and borders between neighbourhoods may be the cracks of a brittle city, or an important element to enable the heterotopias of economic centers and all the variations of suburban dreams.
a e e
This investigation into the openness of the city focuses on the most experienced boundary in Leiden - the railway tracks.
a
This boundary created by railway is a paradoxical site that is both entry and exit, dead ends and crossings, pollution and desertion. The few tunnels that allow inhabitants to cross under the tracks are areas of intense, highspeed, high-volume traffic. A few meters away there can be a pocket of children’s playspace, a parking lot or dense lush shrubbery and trees, private gardens or a pragmatic warehouse.
a
e
d a x b
a
a
The boundary establishes closure through inactivity, by things petering out, not happening; to say that the edge-as-border is a more open condition means it is more full of events in time.
c
- Richard Sennett, The Public Realm
30
THE BACKSTROKE An ancient swimming style where the swimmer can breathe easily but cannot see where he is going.
31
T rang ressing The Border Multiple Crossing Conditions
Connectivity of Public Open Spaces and Commercial Areas across the Railway Border
5 4 3 2
1 N
1km LEGEND
PUBLIC OPEN SPACES
ROAD CONNECTION BETWEEN PUBLIC SPACES & STREET
PUBLIC COMMERCIAL STREET
Comparison of Crossing Conditions 1
2
3
4
5
N
100m Lage Morsweg Underpass Minor Road / Bicycle / Pedestrian
Plesmanlaan Underpass Major Road / Bicycle / Pedestrian
Leiden CS Ticketed Gantry
32
Joop Walenkamptunnel Pedestrian / Bicycle / Bus
Rijnsburgerweg Underpass Major Road / Bicycle / Car
Inhabiting t he Border Multiple Spatial Conditions
Variation Of Public Open Spaces Along The Railway Border
N
1km
Variation Of Building Typology And Scale Along The Railway Border
N
1km
33
Living on t he Edge
Spatial Conditions created by Residential Land Use Residential Urban Block The Edge enables a heightened sense of privacy, safety and shelter that encourages inhabitation. Location of Residential Block
Open Space of Residential Block
Built Form of Residential Block
N
250m
DIRECTION OF SUN
Angled Blocks create triangular pockets of space.
Low Building Height allows sun to hit the corners up against the edge of the railway.
Residential Block orients away from railway. N
100m
Road Road
Concrete Wall Parking
Planter
Concrete Wall Pavement
Playground
Nature
34
Metal Sheet Road
Nature
Canal
Nature
Working on t he Edge
Spatial Conditions created by Commercial Land Use Commercial Urban Block The Edge lacks visibility, footfall and presence and is not commercially valuable to occupy.
Location of Office Block
Open Space of Office Block
Built Form of Office Block
(None)
N
250m
DIRECTION OF SUN
Tall Buildings cast shadows along the edge of the railway
Buildings orient parallel to the railway and maximise the space between for parking, logistics and storage.
Landscape ‘lifts‘ to join pedestrians to a crossing bridge
N
100m
Wireframe Fence Offices
Road Nature
35
Landscaping
Pedestrian Bridge Railway Crossing
CONCLUSION: OPEN CITY
EVERY BOUNDARY CAN BE A BORDER The Multipliciy of the Railway Border
1. Sloped Embankment Canal
2. Hard Pavement and Wall
1
3. Overgrown Nature
4. Picnic Benches and Attempted Garden
2
4 3
LEGEND
HARD PUBLIC OPEN SPACE
NATURAL NATURE OPEN SPACE
GRASS OPEN SPACE
SEMI-PUBLIC SPACE
N
250m
36
The Network of Public Spaces Connected by along by the heterogenous space of the Railway Border
N
1km
The wall is not a stable, single entity. It is more a situation, a permanent, slow-motion evolution, some of it abrupt and clearly planned, some of it improvised. The same phenomenon offered, over a length of 165 kilometers, radically different meanings, spectacles, interpretations, realities. In spite of its apparent absence of program, the wall had provoked and sustained an incredible number of events, behaviours and effects. - Rem Koolhaas, SMLXL on the Berlin Wall 37
The railway border is the most heterogenous edge in Leiden, where many typologies abutt, where streets move parallel or perpendicular to the rail. The railway border is a central experience to the inhabitants of Leiden as major cultural, employment and education centers are on the two sides of the railway tracks, and could play a more urban role in the city.
COMPLEX CITY THE LIVED SPACE: THE CONCIOUSNESS OF THE CITY Collection of Impressions from Leiden’s Youth
This section of analysis attempts to map the more amorphourous form of Leiden, as experienced and used by the inhabitants. Although the Atlas attempts to capture the essence of the city as a whole, the lived experience of a city’s inhabitants can never encompass the entire city. The complex nature of the city enables the diversity of individual experience. People of different ages, jobs, schools, diets, race, religions, neighbourhoods, hobby groups, etc, will use different parts of the city, take different paths and modes of transport. Each experience is authentic, no matter how little of the city they actually experience or whether the experience is negative. Mapping the city into fragments of individual experience can reveal a more revealing shape of Leiden, that is influenced by typomorphology, public spaces, urban landscapes and infrastructure but from how it travelled, lived, and remembered.
38
Observational Sketches inside Leiden University Medeical Center Foyer
Being satisfied: this is the general model of being and living whose promoters and supporters do not appreciate the fact that it generates discontent. For the quest for satisfaction and the fact of being satisfied presuppose the fragmentation of 'being' into activities, intentions, needs, all of them well-defined, isolated, separable and separated from the Whole. Is this an art of living? A style? No. It is merely the result and the application to daily life of a management technique and a positive knowledge directed by market research. The economic prevails even in a domain that seemed to elude it: it governs lived experience. - Henri Lefebvre, Critique of Everyday Life
39
Lived Space System
Dat a Analysis of population and transport ation
Destination Nodes Statistics taken from the Gemeente Leiden (https://gemeente.leiden.nl/over-de-stad/ leiden-in-cijfers/) are used to approximate the elements in a ‘Lived Space System‘. These statistics are however limited to within the municipal boundaries of Leiden are not able to include the inhabitants of the urban agglomeration and floating population that lives in other regional areas. The relationship between where demographic locate and urban form, has yet to be explored because of the host of social, financial, historical factors that also influence where people choose to live in cities.
Demographic Locations Families with Children
Non-European Migrants
Cosmopolitan
Student
Socially Disadvantaged
Elderly (>75)
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Movement System Total Network
Bus Network
Pedestrian Network
Cycle Network
Pedestrian Crossings
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Lived Space System
Dat a Analysis of Destination Nodes their Temporal Patterns LEGEND 6am 6pm
6pm 6am
M T W T F
S S
Higher Education
Employment
Churches & Mosques
Commercial Shops & Restaurants
Libraries
Kiosk
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Lower Education
Parks & Gardens
Grocery Stores
Fitness
Museums & Theatres
Doctors & Apotheek
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Lived Space System
Reconstr ucting Inhabit ant’s Living in Leiden Scenar ios
Retiree who walks his Dog in the local park in the evenings
Student of Leiden University who visits Amsterdam and Utrect regularly for social events
Care & Medical Services in the Center
University Campus in the Center
Central Walking-Bike Based Transport Compact/Dense Urban Lifestyle
Outer City Suburbs Public Transport Based Low Density Small Community Lifesyle
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Satellite Town Isolated Low Density Village Lifestyle
Young Working Professional meets friends for Friday night movies and drinks after work
Parent sends child to school before going to work and picks up groceries after work
Bioscience Park & Medical Center & University in the Center
Bioscience Park & Medical Center in the Center
Central Walking-Bike Transport Urban Work-Live Lifestyle Dispersed in ‘Garden Suburbs‘ Car-Based Transport Local & Regional Commuter
Suburban Car/Bike Based Transport Local Commuters
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CONCLUSION: COMPLEX CITY
THE LIMITS OF CONCIOUSNESS OF THE CITY The demands of putting together livelihoods, managiing domestic space, and demonstrating accountability to key institutions and personal networks all limit the ways in which we engage cities. Yet these questions point to what is a simultaneous promise, threat, and resource of cityness i.e. the city’s capacity to provoke relations of all a kinds. -Abdoumaliq Simone, On Cityness Different social groups have distinct relationships to this anyway differentiated mobility (in the city): some people are more in charge of it than others; some initiate flows and movement, others don’t; some are more on the receiving end of it than others; some are effectively imprisoned by it. - Doreen Massey, A Global Sense of Place
The cosmopolitanisation of Leiden’s center threatens to leave behind the drab suburburban neighbourhoods and far-flung ‘garden‘ estates. However the historical city remains a unifying representation of the ideal city for the rest of Leiden, holding together the identiy and the concept of a center. While the central train station becomes the physical intersection of the inhabitant’s of Leiden’s lived spaces. The future of Leiden needs to consider the city in it’s entirety. The valourisation of the Bioscience Park and the historic center may be good for economic numbers and marketing material, but the heart of the city is where the people live. The new frontiers for Leiden are in the heart of the city, where everyday life leads to.
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Student City
Yuppie City
Elderly City
Family City
LEIDEN CITY
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TO BE CONTINUED THE NEXT FRONTIER