Founded on a grid by the Greeks. But all grid cities are not the same. The way the grid adapts to the topography, nature and artifice fusing. The height/depth of the city blocks. Like a cut in the earth. What happens when the narrow streets step back, a sense of relief, the space to slow down. The baroque churches make sense here.
Sunday 21 November 2010
Urban agriculture
Sources of research
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2010/oct/21/nagoya-biodiversity-summit-food-security
Particularly the Edible Estates section which deals with urban food growing within inner city social housing estates
http://www.london.gov.uk/londonfood/
http://www.london.gov.uk/londonfood/board/
http://www.growingcommunities.org/
http://www.foodvision.gov.uk/pages/growing-food
http://foodurbanism.blogspot.com/
http://nomadicallotments.wordpress.com/
http://www.transitiontowns.org/
http://www.ealingtransition.org.uk
http://westealingabundancew13.wordpress.com/
The Union Street Orchard it describes has just been taken down but is described in the above link.
Two years ago the site was the location of the Southwark Lido by French architects Exyzt
Last year Exyzt built the Dalston Mill project, partnering with muf as part of the Barbican's Radical Nature exhibition:
http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=9311
This year they partnered again for the Dalston Barn project, testing for muf's masterplan for Dalston:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23851003-the-big-society-begins-in-dalston.do
The Vacant Lot Project:
http://www.what-if.info/Vacant_Lot_no1.html
Its expansion last year:
http://www.what-if.info/20_vacant_lots.html
A collaboration with artist Jeremey Deller to reproduce the original garden in the Westfield Centre
http://www.what-if.info/Vacant_Lot_Louis_Vuitton.html
The Manor Garden Allotments, removed for the Olympic construction.
In Hackney:
http://www.growingcommunities.org/
Precedent studies for food proximity
Andrea Branzi, Agronica Project, (1995)
Manzini, E. and Susani, M, The Solid Side, V+K Publishing/Philips, 1995
‘Symbiotic Metropolis: Agronica’, by Adrea Branzi, D.Donegani, A.Petrillo, and C.Raimondo, p 101-120
Domus 878, Feb. 2005, Per una architettura enzimatica, Enzymatic architecture, by Andrea Branzi, p. 48-57
Incredible Edible, Town of Todmordens
Wageningen Food Valley, Netherlands
Potager du Roi, Versailles, France
Holkham Hall Walled Garden, Norfolk
Different models of urban agriculture
Ancient Persian, the usage of waste
Machu Bishu, water was conserved and reused as part of the stepped architecture of the city and vegetable beds were designed to gather sun in order to prolong the growing season
Lake inlay in Burma, floating rafts on the water
Allotments
The Bedding areas in a park are replaced by food growing plots, so that users do not realise at first sight that planting is entirely made up of over 150 varieties of heirloom vegetables, herbs and edible flowers
A fish farm as part of a river ecosystem where they are able to harvest watercress and fish to sell to local restaurants. This holistic system goes one step further, by feeding some of the fish on worms that are produced as part of a large scale composting enterprise on site
Saturday 20 November 2010
T 18
Revised Manifesto
I want to further understand how the processes by which decisions and judgments about the city are made. I was fascinated by Peter Bishops brief presentation of the process by which the King's Cross area got planning permission. At what point does design become part of the process. What is the designer's role? Politics is exciting, but at some point a city is physically manifested, who writes the brief? Who is the city made for, to whom does it belong?
T17
Revised glossary
Glossary of Terms
(10 words useful to the world of spatial planning and urban design)
Planning - Considering all the many elements that make up a place, and bringing them to bear on an idea about how the city might materialise
Spatial planning - to bring an understanding of how spaces are used and how they relate to each other
Design - arranging different elements to bring coherence and understanding, so they work both separately and together as a whole
Urban design - understanding and arranging the different elements of a city so they are integrated, and it is coherent, and the city works at different levels, both in physical terms, and how it exists in our minds
Place - a destination, a space that speaks of a use, with a sense of shelter, somewhere to be
Community - a network of connections between people
History - a sense of the past, an understanding of why things are as they are
Urban fabric - the physical materiality of the city
Point of orientation - a point, or place, or building from which we orientate ourselves
Skyline - the line of the city against the sky, moments that give character and scale
T 15
History/theory/policy essay
Is urban planning a symptom or a cause of the progression from a richly layered urban order into the flattened complexity of contemporary 'world cities'?
MA dissertation on urban agriculture
History
The origin of cities, the spiritual and practical connection with the sun, the earth, food, compared to our relationship with it as modern urban dwellers.
Look at Roman aedicules, frescos depicting architectural fantasies, showing hunts, sacrifice (before feasting), and plates of food, and compare this with urban dwelling anti-hunt campaigners, horrified by the murder of animals, (but many of whom wear leather shoes). They illustrate the disconnection of many urbanites from nature and the natural cycle of life, unfamiliar with the process of food production.
Historical examples showing practical solutions.
An argument for the relevance of urban agriculture
Urban agriculture is an old idea that has become current both as a strategy for adapting to the challenges of climate change and oil depletion, (by making food production more sustainable), and because of the recognized benefits to health (both mental and physical), and of engaging and building communities to improve green spaces and the environment in general.
An understanding of the policies in place, and analysis of what effect these have
An analysis of what is happening around London, how it came about, what is working.
Community coming together, beyond apples rotting on the tree, localization
Giving responsibility back to the people? The big society? Localization?
What makes a good city?
Good people, ergo good communities. Attachment theory?
Friday 19 November 2010
T14
Rip it up 3: Liverpool – city as shopping opportunity?
Paul Domela, with responses by Torange Khonsari and Ines Weizman
Thursday 28th October 2010
A neon sign of a child's drawing, attached to a church tower.
Something that provokes an emotional response in a viewer.
Is this architecture? Does it transform a space?
It's part of the story.
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