IV - European Urban Summer School

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A design proposal for Place Anatole France
(AESOP, 2014) Khawaja, Hadeel
During my studies in Polytech Tours for the Master Programme Planning and Sustainability, we were asked to deliver a conceptual design proposal of developing Place Anatole France- Tours. The project was supervised by Prof. Laura Verdelli under the unit of Heritage and Sustainable development. Each group - made up of four students - had worked on a different proposal, with altered approaches to analyse the project components. This article is devoted to briefly explaining how we understood the project and what is the suggested proposal for developing Place Anatole France. Our concept design proposal suggests: unifying the space and creating interactive nodes within the site boundary would add a new experience to Place Anatole France. The group members are: Abinaya Rajavelu (India), Manasvini Hariharan (India), Alice Frantz Schneider (Brazil) and myself Hadeel Khawaja (Jordan). The design proposal was divided into three main phases: –– Phase ‘A’ focused on understanding the project through thorough site analysis and divided into three divisions: 1) its urban fabric, 2) studying the previous proposals already made by the municipality/developers for the site area and 3) notes of the site users. –– Phase ‘B’ focused on coming up with observations influenced by the site analysis. –– Phase ‘C’ is the concept design proposal. Starting with Phase (A), the urban fabric had examined four components; the thoroughfares, the landscape and streetscape, the building types around the site, and the open public spaces.
Open Access
A different perspective on architectural design: bottom-up participative experiences
(AESOP, 2013) Cimadomo, Guido
The weight of the financial and real estate components in the present crisis, and their impact on millions of people give a renewed importance to the right to housing and the wider right to the city. The paper of architects in planning the city is also changing due to new social relations and the empowerment of citizens, and we have not to forget that scarcity is a great impulse for social and technical innovation, among them architecture. Henry Lefebvre’s “The right to the city” (Lefebvre 1968), can be considered the starting point for the understanding and reconnaissance of the right to urban life, transformed and renewed (Paquot 2012). At the present moment, the idea is growing that to change the life would be necessary to change the city, and the same concept of “right to the city” should be filled with new contents. The right to the city can be related with the right to freedom, to the individualization of sociability, the right to habitat and to live. The right to the work and to the appropriation, the right for inhabitants to meet, and also the right to reject be quitted from urban space by a social and economic organization moving to segregation and discrimination. It has been developing for almost 40 years, with a renewed interest at the beginning of this century, evolving to the more contemporary “right to configure the city”.
Open Access
A long view on the European Urban Summer School in Madrid in 2013
(AESOP, 2013) Ryser, Judith
Taking a long view from inception of the European Urban Summer Schools, EUSS in Madrid marked a natural progression along a steep learning curve. Initiated through AESOP - with Izabela Mironowicz as the creative driving force - EUSS took off in 2010 with very high goals. In Wroclaw Poland, nine projects on ‘Urban change’ were tackling the city as a whole, conceptually transforming specific districts and making fine grain urban design proposals. A state-of-the-art publication supported by UN Habitat put EUSS on the global professional map. The theme of ‘Urban change’ ran through all the subsequent summer schools. They all focused on concrete sites while relating to time- and location-specific, often complex planning issues. They addressed ‘quality of space – quality of life’ in Lisbon, ‘times of scarcity – reclaiming the possibility of making’ in London, and ‘strategies for the post-speculative city’ in Madrid. Each EUSS took place in a large city, often a capital. Each had selected sites as a challenge to current planning wisdom which stretched the imagination of the participant young professionals. They delivered, in the very short time available, also in Madrid. A purpose of the EUSS publication series is to document these very rich and original contributions to pressing urban issues by young professionals from all over the world. Madrid after the property market collapse was a great opportunity for young professionals to think about alternative urban futures while making concrete proposals for the given sites within realistic constraints. They came up with innovative ideas for acity unknown to most of them. The three adjacent sites, starting from the heart of Madrid and reaching the southeast fringe with progressively increasing scales confronted the participants with a large range of issues. They benefited from well balanced formal contributions from academics as well as practitioners and were tutored by academics with both practical experience and local knowledge.
Open Access
About the workshops
(AESOP, 2013)
Aiming to bring young professionals together to discuss and work on planning issues, the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) launched the European Urban Summer School (EUSS) in 2010. From a great variety of backgrounds and countries, encompassing North and South America as well as Europe, a total of 15 young professionals started their work in Madrid, Spain, on 8 September 2013. This was not a random day; it was a Sunday, which showed how motivated and interested the group was on this course. Getting to know about the programme and its purpose the students had to register themselves, following the instructions, which were clearly stated on the official AESOP website. The event consisted of field work, lectures and team work, which after 7 days was transformed into a presentation of clearly identified problems and solutions. After one site visit and the theoretical part, at which local problems were critically presented, together with some background requests, the professionals were divided into 3 groups of 5 students, which the organisers divided according to the professionals’ formation to create diverse as well as balanced teams. During the week, it was not just the comprehension about the topic that got clearer, but also its complexity and the necessity to link the sustainable triad: social, economic and environmental. The groups were expected to articulate their life experiences with each other. It required time and an open mind when seeking to fill the gap that existed between individuals and their approaches. (Extracted from Delicias Group final report) The selected working areas encompassed three different urban circumstances: the Delicias Axis, a void of 23 hectares located in the inner city, requiring new ideas for its proper inclusion in the existing urban fabric; the Vallecas neighbourhood, a large development built during the last decade, when the sustainable principles specified at the end of the past century were mandatory; and the areas encompassed in the Southeast Strategies, the largest urban expansion ever planned for the city of Madrid which were facing a new meaning in the present period of stagnation. After a week working on their respective sites and hours discussing the situation they were involved in, the three groups produced fresh, stimulating and innovative proposals which are presented in the following pages.
Open Access
Accessing quality of life through physical parameters
(AESOP, 2013) Lourenço, Júlia M.
As cities keep growing in size, it becomes more and more important that urban expansion takes place a planned way, so that cities can satisfy the needs of its population. Unplanned growth or planned growth with scarce implementation lead to environmental degradation, traffic jams, urban sprawl, pollution, low access to basic services and equipments, loss of identity, communities’ disintegration, pockets of poverty, etc. Urban planning is the set of tools through which interventions attempt to create urban spaces that contribute to the quality of life of citizens in the context of urban design. This can be defined as the relationship of inhabitants with the different elements that constitute urban space. Urban design determines, directly, the physical component of urban space, and indirectly, its socio-economic, political and cultural elements, influencing the relationship between the urban environment and its components.
Open Access
An addicted view on the European Urban Summer Schools
(AESOP, 2013) Lourenço, Júlia
Taking an addicted view from a former participant in 1994 at a Young Planning Professional Workshop (YPP), to an organiser of a YPP in 2009, from a lecturer at European Urban Summer Schools (EUSS) in Wroclaw and Lisbon to a tutor at EUSS in Madrid, I can recall some memorable moments in all of these. Nevertheless, this last EUSS experience makes for one of the best. Reasons for this may lie, at the start, in the previous knowledge all tutors of Madrid had and the long-time connections they partially shared. For most tutors it was through being lecturers at CEU, for others through ISOCARP, where they shared joint meetings or creative happenings at least since the late nineties. Therefore, the tutors were at ease under the coordination of Teresa Franchini who made things even easier by allowing choices of the site where the tutors thought they could perform best. The same applied to the participants who chose the site they would work on, provided the right mix of specialities was guaranteed. Further reasons derive of course from the participants who shared an enthusiastic motivation that matched the vibes of central Madrid and the excitingly modern topic of post-speculative cities. Going through their specific personal motivations, for several of them EUSS came as a break-through in their studies and a turning point to decide on further avenues of expertise in their professional careers. For that reason they may have lacked some knowledge in urban planning, but they had an extra-abundant thirst for learning and understanding when this topic was the right choice to follow in their future careers.
Open Access
An example in Delicia’s axis, Madrid
(AESOP, 2013) Perepichka, Anzhela; Villamor, Jose Miguel; Lihtmaa, Lauri; Mathews, Mary; Pletsch, Mikhaela A. J. S.; Ryser, Judith; Franchini, Teresa
Measuring approximately 23 hectares, the Delicias Axis is an area of Madrid with great potential. It is connected by metro and train stations, and is not far from the central museum district. Furthermore, several businesses, such as Repsol, Spain’s major oil company, are moving into the neighbourhood, and there are several attractions such as the Planetarium and the Train Museum on the site. People from Madrid use the park for flea markets and social activities like dance. However, the Delicias axis does not currently garner the attention it deserves. The Delicias working group of the 4th European Urban Summer School made several proposals to improve access and connectivity of the area into the larger fabric of Madrid. Improved urban design features were envisaged to revitalise the area and make it a real destination for locals and tourists. Through field work and discussions, the group produced a development plan focusing on the goals of attracting tertiary activities and linking the area with the adjacent Tierno Galván Park, the largest green open space in south Madrid.
Open Access
Approche historique de la Place Anatole France, un espace en contact permanent avec l’histoire A historical approach to the Anatole France Square: an urban space in permanent contact with history
(AESOP, 2014) Durdevic, Jan; Lamirault, Valentin
Anatole France Square is a public space in the oldest part of the city of Tours. Through the centuries it has undergone many changes, but its unique historical wealth and identity are inseparable from those of the city of Tours as a whole. The purpose of this short chapter is to briefly trace its history. During the Celtic era, the Tours region – called ‘Touraine’ - was occupied by the Gallic people of Turones, so Anatole France Square was probably an agricultural site with orchards. Tours was founded following the Roman annexation of Gaul in 52 BC. The area now covered by the Anatole France Square was not included in the first settlement, implanted in the present Saint-Gatien neighbourhood. In the medieval era, Tours, like many contemporary cities, was divided into two distinct urban centres: the Cité and the Châteauneuf. Even though the square did not belong to either of these neighbourhoods, an abbey dedicated to St. Julien was located on its perimeter and the successive enlargements of the abbey since 1240 are still partly visible. During the Hundred Years War, to defend Tours against the English, the ancient walls of the Cité and the Châteauneuf were replaced by a new wall which enveloped the area now known as Anatole France Square.
Open Access
Après nous le déluge? Climate adaptation and urban development in Antwerp, Hamburg and Rotterdam
(AESOP, 2013) Kustermans, Clenn
Fear of water is embedded in our human minds. This natural reaction (based on the indisputable knowledge that we cannot survive in water) has been portrayed in many forms of classic and modern culture. Although Biblical examples and Hushpuppy lived as nomads in an ever-changing world, the majority of the world consists of permanent urban structures. Cities are normally perceived as strongholds of culture and prosperity, and must therefore be protected against external threats such as water. Despite a growing consciousness of shortening production chains and reducing energy consumption, port cities are still the turning wheels in national and international economies. While their economic importance remains unscathed and local populations are growing, port cities are increasingly challenged by major climate changes. Port cities have always intertwined with water, and they therefore encounter the advantages and the disadvantages of water. Of all climate implications, water level rise is perceived as the most important one for port cities. Besides the rise of the general sea level, the unpredictable occurrence and implications of storms have increased too. Longer and more intense periods of drought and heavy rainfall inland lead to flooding of the main rivers on their way to the sea. These climate changes necessitate new water protection measures.
Open Access
Architecture & Planning in Times of Scarcity Reclaiming the Possibility of Making
(AESOP, 2012) Iossifova, Deljana
UN-Habitat, represented by its Central European Office in cooperation AESOP in September 2010 organized the 1st European Urban Summer School (EUSS) for young planning professionals. The host was the Wrocław University of Technology, Poland. The topic of the EUSS was Heritage and Sustainability. Izabela Mironowicz was the head of the school while Krzysztof Mularczyk acted as UN Habitat Coordinator. The 2010 EUSS took as its starting point the fact that urbanisation is a global process, yet it has left a particular legacy in European cities. Students and tutors with diverse backgrounds congregated from all over Europe and beyond in a central European city to gain a better understanding of urban change. Reconciling heritage with development was the challenge to achieve a more sustainable urban future. ‘Sustainability’ was conceived here as a balance between historic legacy, regeneration and citywide urban transformation. Wroclaw, the host city generously provided the empirical setting to test these assumptions, to verify their validity through international comparisons, and to offer young professionals the opportunity to elaborate interventions towards a more sustainable urban future.
Open Access
Architecture with architects: urban proposals for three villages in the province of Tarragona, Spain
(AESOP, 2014) Peralta Zaragoza, Anna
land in Spain; by 2006 that had increased to 1.014.000 hectares, almost doubling urbanization in 20 years. Thousands of hectares of rural land have disappeared by applying a model of city-building with many shortcomings, such as priority for traffic above people, poorly used public space, mono-functional areas and low density. As a result there are sustainability problems (both environmental and economic), inefficient public transport, bad quality of the public realm and loss of ‘place identity’. This study focusses on the fact that there still exist a large amount of land with an approved urban plan with the same deficient characteristics. This article shows the conclusions of a study of some villages in the province of Tarragona by students and professors from La Salle architecture school in Barcelona, on alternative ways for planning our built up areas. The aim was to establish a balance between both the history and the culture of the settlement and between high environmental quality and functional issues. The research project has resulted in a new method of interpreting and projecting the settlement and its landscape, which could be more widely applied.
Open Access
City Deep, River Wide: shifting axes changing perceptions of the upper rue Nationale
(AESOP, 2014) Basic, Jasmina; Stroud, Alfie; Peralta Zaragoza, Anna; Sitarz, Anna
The topic of the 5th European Urban Summer School – ‘Heritage Conservation and Sustainable Development’ – gave us our prompt for getting to know Tours. It told us that the city has valuable assets but that it should be adapted to the contemporary and future needs of its users. Indeed, there’s a lot going on in Tours. It has an evidently rich built heritage and, maybe even more valuable, the natural heritage of the river Loire. However, an over obsessive preservation of aspects of its heritage could risk Tours becoming a museum, which would not provide sustainable circumstances for a place for people live and work. This premise is why we came together in the city to talk about it. Our approach to researching this urban area was to explore potentials of the characteristics we found in it, and to show the richness of the whole area. We acquired a strong feeling from our growing acquaintance with the place that everything it needs already exists, but just needs to be reinterpreted to improve the urban life of its users. Tours does not want to become a museum but rather a sustainable urban entity. To that end, there’s no need necessarily to build something new, or to change everything that already exists. The research we summarise in this paper would like to illustrate that sometimes it is enough to change our perception and try to see things in a different way. In this way, they become new and can provoke alternative responses for guiding the processes of change. At the same time, it is the method that preserves our heritage.
Open Access
City on water : Proceedings of the 6th AESOP European Urban Summer School 2015, Bremen
(AESOP, 2016) Warsewa, Günter
The publication of the book documenting our London summer school was possible thanks to the integration of the Young Planning Professionals Award (YPPA) into the 3rd EUSS. The YPPA was an annual international competition for three years (2012-2014) funded by the Directorate responsible for spatial planning at the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment (mI&M). Its primary aim was to stimulate thinking and promote innovative ideas amongst young planning practitioners on how spatial planning in Europe can deal with important present-day challenges and transformations facing our human settle¬ments and surrounding areas. The underlying thinking was that it is largely the younger generation (< 35) of planning professionals who will have to come up with the answers, as it is they who will have the responsibility to plan and develop our cities and regions in the future. This is very much in line with the aims of the EUSS. Secondary aims were to bring young practitioners and academics in working contact with each other and to encourage a better cooperation between the international planning organisations and try and reduce the fragmentation of their efforts regarding young planning professionals. The integration of the YPPA into the EUSS was on all three accounts therefore very logical, and mI&M was ready to expand its sponsorship of YPPA into an integrated publication of the combined proceedings. The YPPA winners got free participation at the EUSS and presented their papers at a special YPPA session. This grant was a good opportu¬nity to develop closer collaboration between AESOP, IFHP and ISOCARP.
Open Access
Community participation for heritage conservation
(AESOP, 2014) Cimadomo, Guido
Urban development is always related to social transformation. This can be seen in several examples through history, from the French “luxury polemic” of the 18th century, discussing where new real estate should be developed, through the Grossstadt discussion at the beginning of the 20th century about the relevance of the masses, up to the 1968 social protests, when the theory of Lefebvre about the “right to the city”, gave a new interest to the quality of everyday life (Secchi 2013:7). In the last of these, there is an implicit new role for ‘the ordinary citizen’, who became an important stakeholder in the development and regeneration of urban regions. During the seventies several attempts to strengthen the role of citizens in urban planning and design developments were attempted, notably the ones by Yona Friedman and Giancarlo de Carlo, but they did not reach a wide audience, and tended to be only limited, single experiences (Cimadomo, 2014a). They did, however, show the necessity to get the citizen’s opinion and get to know their needs, as a relevant social act in any design and urban transformation intervention, considering not the administration, but the citizens themselves as the real clients. The weight of the real estate and subprime lending components in the financial crisis at the beginning of this century had, and still has, a great impact on the lives of millions of people. In particular, cuts in welfare benefits have generated protests everywhere, giving a renewed importance to the role of citizens in policy-making. The 15M movement in Spain, or Occupy Wall Street in the United States, just to mention two, constitute a profound transformation and a point of no return in the way public policies are administered. Such movements have also had an effect on urban transformation, leading to a more bottom-up approach to, and the participation of, ordinary citizens in the planning process.
Open Access
Culture de l’eau et projet de paysage: annotations pour une réflexion (Water Culture and Landscape Project: reflective notes)
(AESOP, 2014) Ercolini, Michele
The map of historical human settlements, with a few exceptions, corresponds to the one of the rivers and waterfronts of the world. At the origin of everything, always, and despite everything is: water. Rivers have shaped the landscape over the centuries. They have signified important means of communication and, at the same time, constraints. Natural fords have determined the direction of roads. Writers, painters and poets that have described and enjoyed the rivers, led them to be loved by revealing what can be seen of their forms. One of the cornerstones of the European Declaration for a ‘New Water Culture’, introduced and signed in Madrid in February 2005, refers to the ‘cultural values’ of water territories. Rivers are presented as a natural heritage that hosts territorial and collective identity values; they are referred to as the soul of many landscapes and of many human communities that lived near their banks for hundreds or thousands of years. The ecological and landscape functions generated by the rivers, as well as the cultural, social and functional values should be recognized and cherished. Renzo Franzin alerts us on the fact that: “We can identify today, particularly in the most water-rich countries, a gradual disappearance of the Culture of water, although it had produced along the centuries a knowledge rich in signs and crafts, all aware of the amazing and valuable aspect of this resource, that was run as a heritage to safeguard and develop in a wise utilitarian vision, limiting wastes and risks”
Open Access
Development planning and evaluation: stakeholders, vision, actions
(AESOP, 2014) Đokić, Irena
Since his existence, man has made plans1. In the very beginning, planning was about solving existential issues – the need for food and a place to shelter. Ancient nations (Greek, Romans and others) planned towns in the widest sense of the word, the management of space, land, ownership and providing services to citizens2. They planned places in which they lived, streets as corridors of movement, squares as festive places/ places of celebrations, pyramids in which people were buried. They also cared about the living space (habitat), art-cultural and sport facilities and economic activities, aiming at managing all aspects of people’s life (Đokić et al., 2010). Therefore some notion of planning is known to any reader even with only a basic idea of what it encompasses; today it is almost impossible to live without a prepared or at least roughly sketched plan. Everyday life is characterised by planning. We plan how much time we want to spend sleeping, which food we will eat, how we are going to spend our leisure time, whether we have sufficient sources to ensure basic living needs, etc. It is therefore not surprising that planning is the basis for the efficient management of much more complex systems such as schools, hospitals, firms, towns, ministries, and finally states.
Open Access
Digital society and smart territories
(AESOP, 2013) Manuel, Jorge; García, Martín
At present, the massive use of information and communication technologies (often called ICTs) is changing everything faster than ever. We are living in a new revolution era that will bring us from the industrial society, characterised by the intensive consumption of energy to the digital society which uses information as a power to transform. These changes will affect every single aspect of our lives and, in the near future, no matter what our profession will be, we will need to understand, deeply, how to adopt and use these technologies. Our ability for adopting digital services will be crucial in the path to a successful professional career, even if our personal way of life is not very “digital” we will work, with and for digital citizens, and digital companies. It is not an option. We need to digitalise as much as we had to mechanise in the past, because it will help us to build a better world, and improve people’s living conditions. It is important, therefore, for everyone to understand what lies beyond this technology, and have a good understanding of what to do, and how to do it to incorporate these technologies in our field of expertise. As we will look forward, collaboration between professionals will be key for creating value in the future. For a better collaboration, a closer look at the ICTs and a better knowledge of the digital world could be useful.
Open Access
EUSS 2013 Outlook : What has been done and what is needed for future times
(AESOP, 2013) Franchini, Teresa
On September 20, 2013, exactly after 10 days of intense coexistence in Madrid centred on planning strategies for the post-speculative city, the participants of the EUSS presented the results of their respective workshops. Their proposals for the selected areas - Delicias, Vallecas and Southeast Developments - were the result of the visions and the methodologies that the different working groups had generated in order to articulate coherent planning outcomes in a very short time. And they did it, producing outstanding propositions followed by a fruitful final discussion. And once again I enjoyed the plasticity of those young planners to cope with a given problem all together, no matter the difference of languages, their academic profiles and backgrounds, and even the way of understanding reality. But at the very end of the session one of the students raised a question which was unanimously supported: the need to understand their professional role in the uncertain context of today’s cities, exposed to multidimensional processes in constant change. Two aspects were added that increase the lack of perception of their own role: the difficulty of apprehending these dynamics in a holistic way due to the partial vision derived from their academic degrees, as well as the lack of knowledge of the planning tools needed to address the current urban complexity.
Open Access
From dream to nightmare: Madrid Eastern Strategy "mending or pushing through"
(AESOP, 2013) Ynzenga Acha, Bernardo
The present paper deals with the rise, fall and possible futures of the Madrid Eastern Strategy, arguably the largest urban operation undertaken in Spain in the last decades; probably the largest in Europe. The Eastern Strategy is the name given to a development proposal extending over close to 60 km2. (5.865 Has. 14.492 acres) on the southeastern fringe of Madrid. It was part of the 1997 General Master Plan of Madrid (Plan General de Ordenación Urbana de Madrid -PGOUM). It was designated for 158,000 dwellings and an expected population of about 450,000 people. The Plan also included other, smaller but not minor operations elsewhere which were supposed to attract their share of future population and push additional potential growth significantly. However and in dire contrast, when those decisions were made the total population of Madrid was less than three million people, and declining2. These numbers depict a panorama of unbounded development optimism, remote from demographic and urban realities.
Open Access
From grey to green - Regeneration of the Aller- Harbour Areain Bremen- Hemelingen
(AESOP, 2016) Rembarz, Katarzyna; Shin, Heewan; Koshy, Mrudhula; Knyzelite, Evelina; O’Connor, Olivia
The area of study which we were given as a group was Hemelingen, Aller-Harbour, Bremen. This area is located in the eastern part of Bremen on the river Weser. The area is considered to be in a commercial and harbour area. This area produces a fifth of Bremen’s gross domestic product. The is a rich industrial past. There are many companies located here that export internationally, these include Coca-Cola, Mercedes Benz, Daimler AG and Atlas Electronik. Aller- Harbour is one of the three inland shipping ports. In this area there are two residential areas, these are Hemelingen and Sebaldbruck. These are highly densely populated, however these areas are cut off from the harbour by a large motorway. At Stadwerder there is a nature reserve and recreational area. This area is only a short distance away but unfortunately is separated by the infrastructure present. Over the last number of years shipping has moved outwards towards the Bremerhaven which is closer to the North Sea. This is due to much larger ships and a change in technology. The main industry now in Hemelingen is the large coal fuelled electricity plant, which is expected no to exist into the next thirty years due to advances in biotechnology.