LEARNING ACTIVITY: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF GROWTH AND SHRINKAGE, TASK 1: RESEARCH SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN BRATISLAVA - FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE Feriancová Barbora, Tundérová Alena In our essay we focus on context of shrink- age. First we have studied impact of defunct industrial areas on urban structure. Stefanie Rössler´s “Green Space Development in Shrinking Cities: opportunities and constraints” helped us to understand ways of revitalizations for urban structure – advantages and disadvantages of individual models; importance of green and public areas (“Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space” by Jan Gehl). To better understand of public spaces, we have studied “Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to another” by Philip Ball, which talks about the behaviour system of organism in space. After we familiarize with the topic generally, we chose small size city in Slovakia and demonstrated acquired knowledge. Lučenec and its satellite city Opatová are good example of contrast between growth and shrinkage. Lučenec as a growing city. Opatová as a shrinking city in favour of Lučenec. We analyse Opatová closely in TASK 2. On the left - Opatová
Transcript
LEARNING ACTIVITY: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF GROWTH AND SHRINKAGE, TASK 1: RESEARCH
SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN BRATISLAVA - FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE
Feriancová Barbora, Tundérová Alena
In our essay we focus on context of shrink-age. First we have studied impact of defunct industrial areas on urban structure.
Stefanie Rössler´s “Green Space Development in Shrinking Cities: opportunities and constraints” helped us to understand ways of revitalizations for urban structure – advantages and disadvantages of individual models; importance of green and public areas (“Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space” by Jan Gehl). To better understand of public spaces, we have studied “Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to another” by Philip Ball, which talks about the behaviour system of organism in space. After we familiarize with the topic generally, we chose small size city in Slovakia and demonstrated acquired knowledge. Lučenec and its satellite city Opatová are good example of contrast between growth and shrinkage. Lučenec as a growing city. Opatová as a shrinking city in favour of Lučenec. We analyse Opatová closely in TASK 2. On the left - Opatová
LEARNING ACTIVITY: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF GROWTH AND SHRINKAGE, TASK 1: RESEARCH
SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN BRATISLAVA - FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE
Feriancová Barbora, Tundérová Alena
SCHRINKING CITIES IN EAST GERMANY
• demographic aspect (changes in the size and structure of the population) vandalism immigrants migrants from different countries and cultures = international society
= heterogeneous society • economic aspect
deindustrialisation → surplus of housing, commercial property, social infrastructure, buildings
→ demolition of devastated buildings and failed factories →empty spaces = “City holes” → shrinking → financial grant from the government to demolition of surplus housing stock + obsolete infrastructure and enrichment of affected quarters
SCHRINKING CITIES AND THEIR IMPACT ON GREEN PLACES: - urban restructuring and green pace development – mission = sustainable development
GREEN SPACES - requirements: • social interactions (take into account a population, age and
cultural diversity) • usable green places (sports facilities, playgrounds, …) • location close to residential quarters • economic sustainability/benefits (commerce) • ecologic aspect • adaptation to the urban concept (new green, current
green)
GREEN SPACES - threats: • unusable green spaces • dark thicket →fear, vandalism • unsustainability
LEARNING ACTIVITY: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF GROWTH AND SHRINKAGE, TASK 1: RESEARCH
SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN BRATISLAVA - FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE
Feriancová Barbora, Tundérová Alena
MODELS AND VISION FOR URBAN DEVELOPMENT + ROLE OF GREEN SPACES:
A) COMPACT URBAN STRUCTURE = strong division of inner densely built up areas and the surrounding landscape (possibility to make a natural border of city) (-) missing network of diverse green space systems
B) FRAGMENTED CITY
= stable areas with a density of buildings and uses - open spaces = green as stable network to ensure the
cohesion and perception of the urban area
C) PERFORATED CITY = open spaces and green spaces as a result of demolitions (-) absence of urban structure
D) DISINTEGRATED CITY -density of building decrease -open spaces become the defining structure of urban areas (+) more green spaces (-) isolated built structures
→ loosing quality of an urban element
Lučenec, Slovakia: Jewish Ghetto after the WW2
Opatová, Slovakia: Industrial area
Using the broader context we can define Lučenec as combination of compact urban structure and perforated city. There is the strong division in the core of town, but we can also find many random gaps, which are after-effect of the WW2 (currently = urban wilderness). The Town Management have plans to renovate this area.
Opatová is example of “the disintegrated city”. Big open spaces and built-up areas are not organized and we can see chaos in existing structure. Town is split to half by the Main Road and these parts don´t communicate together. Social life is poor and absence of public space and amenities forces people to travel to Lučenec.
LEARNING ACTIVITY: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF GROWTH AND SHRINKAGE, TASK 1: RESEARCH
SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN BRATISLAVA - FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE
Feriancová Barbora, Tundérová Alena
STRATEGIES IN GREEN SPACE PLANNING IN SHRINKING CITIES:
A) URBAN FORESTRY = “man-made forest” = effort to create sustainable spaces with stable ecosystem with high benefits of biodiversity B) URBAN AGRICULTURE = characterised by approaches to plant energy crops as renewable resources (+) usable green places (+) ecologic aspect – bioenergy – agricultural production C) GARDENS = collective (temporary) garden usually placed in vacant lots (+) usable green places
• allotment gardens = private landlords (+) cost reduction for maintaining (by the city)
• community gardens
– privacy=available for closed user group (familiar) – public = available also for strangers
Opatová, Slovakia: “forest around an apartment building”
Opatová, Slovakia: “the apartment building” - detail
When walk parallel to the Main Road in Opatová, we come to the small “forest”. If we look at details, we can see touch of man here (combination of trees, their organization in space). There is the apartment building hiding in woods.
Unfortunately, this “forest” is not available to public. Fencing is around the entire site and it is locked, so no one can get in.
LEARNING ACTIVITY: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF GROWTH AND SHRINKAGE, TASK 1: RESEARCH
SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN BRATISLAVA - FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE
Feriancová Barbora, Tundérová Alena
D) URBAN WILDERNESS = concept of unattached green with no usable function (+) low cost for maintaining (-) unavailable green places → ecologic aspect:
(+) maintaining green = enriched urban structure (-) no maintaining (uncontrollable growth of green)
= degradation of urban structure
E) CITY PARKS AND PUBLIC SPACES WITH AMENITIES (+) sustainability/benefits (commerce) (+) usable green places (sports facilities, playgrounds …)
Opatová, Slovakia: enriched structure
Opatová, Slovakia: degradation of urban structure
We can find both samples of “urban wilderness” in Opatová and Lučenec, too. The town mana - gement is trying to keep the green in used and unused public areas in effort to make a decorative brooch of urban space. The best example of un-used green is a park around a mansion in Opatová. But the biggest problem there is a lot of sites in a private property and usually locked, so the city is not able to manage them. Typical examples are industrial areas in Opatová and Lučenec, too.
LEARNING ACTIVITY: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF GROWTH AND SHRINKAGE, TASK 1: RESEARCH
SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN BRATISLAVA - FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE
Feriancová Barbora, Tundérová Alena
Lučenec, Slovakia: City Park with playing fields, small “zoo”, amphitheatre, pond, restaurant …
Opatová, Slovakia: backyard with court
Lučenec, Slovakia: square with well and amenities around
Opatová is the opposite of Lučenec. This “satellite city” is shrinking in favour of Lučenec. There is no public green space; there is no public space in general. We just can find some of backyards (semi-public spaces) which are not fully used, because of its position next to the Main Road. Lučenec as a growing city, has a lot of public spaces like squares/green squares/city park and there is not lack of green. Gradation between public a private is made sensitive, so you feel very comfy walking through them.
LEARNING ACTIVITY: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF GROWTH AND SHRINKAGE, TASK 1: RESEARCH
SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN BRATISLAVA - FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE
Feriancová Barbora, Tundérová Alena
STRATEGIES FOR USING PUBLIC SPACE (GEHL: ”LIFE BETWEEN BUILDINGS”) Sample 1 – compact structure:
• To make complex with clear hierarchical division: dwelling- dwelling group, housing complex, city
• To design space for social interaction • To locate housing(residential apartments) around the communal
(group) spaces/outdoor (group) squares/group streets/centres of social life
• No outdoor private spaces Main public space = arena for life between buildings (short stays, playgrounds simple social activities) → possibility to make a network of more (bigger/smaller) diverse public spaces. Sample 2 – diffuse structure:
• Family house hold = the smallest unit • Hard to find “borders” between individual dwelling and residential
area • Less of organized places for social activities • Missing hierarchical division of public spaces
= undefined physical and social structure
DEGREES OF PRIVACY & EXPRESSION OF FUNCTION AREAS: The good way is gradation of spaces (private-semi-public-public) with gentle transition between sections, but border line should be clear. In reality, it is no rare to find the private space in touch with the public space.
• Private character – private unit (house/apartment) with own garden/balcony – in Slovakia is private space usually limited by fence (it is closed,
unavailable space)
• Semi-public character – “public space” in residential group area/or in close connection
to a limited number of residents (small units) → collective responsibility, social activities
– It has gleam of “private” space → safety, less of vandalism
• Public character - the communal spaces in neighbourhood, town squares, etc.
TO ASSEMBLE FUNCTIONS: It means: concentration of people, their activities (diverse of functions) and the social interaction → to construct building in human scale (walker – radius of action 400-50m ↔ degree of concentration 20-100m)
LEARNING ACTIVITY: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF GROWTH AND SHRINKAGE, TASK 1: RESEARCH
SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN BRATISLAVA - FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE
Feriancová Barbora, Tundérová Alena
To concentrate function around the main spaces (squares, main streets). Activities shouldn’t be disperse to more (many) vertical levels. Maybe people can sense over the levels, but their sense is limited by high (circa 5 floors) and there is no real interaction (direct contact) between these levels. That’s why it is better to design low-rise buildings. To provide contact between levels it is good to locate transitions between them (stairs). Using balcony we provide just a visual connection, not physical. TO DISPERSE FUNCTIONS: It means: to provide equitable distribution of function in wide range of the town → achieve diversity between vividness and peace + quiet. If all the function were concentrated just in a centre of the town, outward quarters would be “death”. Also the human scale would be lost in favour of car scale (large distances) To achieve a street life in this method is good to design urban space as line composition of smaller blocks with many enters → reduction of walking distance. Substitution of small (short) frontages and large (long) frontages is small-scale permissible, too.
LEARNING ACTIVITY: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF GROWTH AND SHRINKAGE, TASK 1: RESEARCH
SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN BRATISLAVA - FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE
Feriancová Barbora, Tundérová Alena
SMALL SPACES IN LARGE ONES: Size of the space depends on population of the town/city, planned utilization but also on natural factors. For example: - South countries used to have small squares and narrow streets to gain sun protection. - North countries try to get sunlight into their spaces → wider
streets and squares Too large spaces = social isolated species: → to reduce space, small architecture or green are usually inserted in Horizontal reduction of space: a) the town centre, squares: inserts = small markets (stands)
= the vividness b) large street in the town: inserts = allies of trees
= peace and quiet c) large street in residential area: inserts = small garden plots
= intimacy, peace Vertical reduction of space: a) by added canopies/gates/frames = partially covered space b) to made a roof (glazed) = completely covered space
Lučenec – Opatová- the Main Road Lučenec – Opatová- parallel street to the Main Road
The Main Road connecting Opatová and Lučenec split Opatová to half. Together with small parallel streets, they create wide noisy space. To reduce large of space, there were two alleys of trees placed between the Main road and side roads. Trees also work as a noise insulator, what is necessary because of residential area touching the Main road.
LEARNING ACTIVITY: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF GROWTH AND SHRINKAGE, TASK 1: RESEARCH
SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN BRATISLAVA - FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE
Feriancová Barbora, Tundérová Alena
THE PHYSICS OF GROUP MOTION
Model, which describes bacterial motion created by Vicsek and his student Andreás Czirók /4/ follows similar rules like Reynolds’ boids. According to them, bacterial motions include an element of randomness. Then, the researchers simulated the movements of their bacterial automata on a computer, and found out very interestig factcs: • If the noise level was low, the cells displayed collective behaviour: they all moved in the same direction. • As the noise was increased, the degree of coordination decreased. • At some critical noise level, all semblance of coherence was lost: the particles each did their own thing. 1986, Craig Reynolds ‘BOIDS’ = program simulates the flocking behaviour of birds following the 3 algorythmic rules: 1. Separation 2. Alignment 3. Cohesion
Separation (behavior) – avoid crowding neighbors (short range repulsion) /1/ Alignment (behavior) – steer towards average heading of neighbors /1/ Cohesion (behavior) – steer towards average position of neighbors (long range attraction) /1/
LEARNING ACTIVITY: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF GROWTH AND SHRINKAGE, TASK 1: RESEARCH
SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN BRATISLAVA - FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE
Feriancová Barbora, Tundérová Alena
PATH FOLLOWING WITH MULTIPLE SEGMENTS
Helbing /4/ and his team let loose a steady stream of peoploids across an open space, all coming from and going to a few destinations at the periphery. If the atraction is small, these direct routes persist and become well-troden trails.
If the attraction is appreciable, the direct routes evolve into somethig else: a trial system that represents a compromise between directness and the tendecy to follow existing paths. In this case, the diagonal routes between opposite corners and „edge „ routes between adjacent corners merge into gently curved trails which take all walkers out of their way.
Example: Well-troden trails is possible to see in the open space of Opatova in Slovakia. Actually, there is no attraction, so people are just going across the space, directly, without stopping. The final stop is the urban highway to the city Lučenec.
LEARNING ACTIVITY: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF GROWTH AND SHRINKAGE, TASK 1: RESEARCH
SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN BRATISLAVA - FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE
Feriancová Barbora, Tundérová Alena
THE CENTRAL ISLAND
/2/
When the attraction is so appreciable, routes merge into gently curved trails which take all walkers out of their way.
Moreover noone passes through the centre: the trails intersect to leave a central island, just as they tend to do in real life. Central island is a dominant place of the open space, a reach of people’s destination.
Let’s imagine a circle around the attraction with a given radius. If the person is within that circle, he slows down - at the edge of the circle, its desired speed is maximum speed, and at the attraction itself, its desired speed is 0.
Example: Physical experiment seen in nature.
The central island are the magnetic lines of force of a cube magnet shown by iron fillings on paper /3/.
LEARNING ACTIVITY: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF GROWTH AND SHRINKAGE, TASK 1: RESEARCH
SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN BRATISLAVA - FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE
Feriancová Barbora, Tundérová Alena
DESIRED SPEED
This picture illustrates how people predict their future location as a fixed distance in front of it (in the direction of their velocity), draw a circle with radius r at that location, and pick a random point along the circumference of the circle.
That random point moves randomly around the circle in each frame of animation. And that random point is the people’s target, their desired vector pointing in that direction.
Example (industrial area Opatová):
That random point for predicting the distance is the chimney in the industrial area because of the high as a benchmark.
LEARNING ACTIVITY: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF GROWTH AND SHRINKAGE, TASK 1: RESEARCH
SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN BRATISLAVA - FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE
Feriancová Barbora, Tundérová Alena
When two groups of peoploids try to to pass in opposite directions through a single doorway, alternating bursts pass first in one direction and then in the other. Each group temporarily “captures“ the doorway – a trailblazer passes through and several others follow in its wake. The other group looks almost as it fit stands back to let this stream through, through this apparent courtesy is the result of nothing more than the wish to avoid close contact.
Example:
The parallel movement is diffusion, which represents the herd.
Diffusion is the net movement of molecules from a region of high concentration to a region of lower concentration down a concentration gradient.
LEARNING ACTIVITY: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF GROWTH AND SHRINKAGE, TASK 1: RESEARCH
SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN BRATISLAVA - FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE
Feriancová Barbora, Tundérová Alena
SOURCES
GEHL, Jan: ´Life Between Buildings - Using Public Space´, Washington-Covelo.London: Island Press, 2011.Sixth Edition, 216 pages, ISBN: 978-1597268271
RÖßLER, Stefanie: ´Green Space Development in Shrinking Cities – Oppurtunities and Constraints´, Urbani Izzi, Vol 19, Iss 2, Pp 147-152,2008
BALL, Philip: ´Critical Mass – How One Thing Leads to Another´, London: Arrow Books, 2005, 656 pages, ISBN: 978-0099457862
