119 research outputs found
Critical Points of Contact:Between urban networks and flows
No full textIn this brief article, we shall illustrate the application of the analytical and interventionist concept of ‘Critical Points of Contact’ (CPC) through a number of urban design studios. The notion of CPC has been developed over a span of the last three to four years and is reported in more detail elsewhere (Jensen & Morelli 2011). In this article, we will only discuss the conceptual and theoretical framing superficially, since our real interest is to show and discuss the concept's application value to spatial design in a number of urban design studios. The 'data' or the projects presented are seven student studios made at the 1st semester of the Urban Design Master Programme in the fall of 2009 and 2010. The CPC concept is double edged since it both provides the stepping-stone for analysis as well as scaffolding for intervention and re-design. Thereby, it fits the underlying philosophy of teaching in urban design at Aalborg University, where urban design consists of both an analytical and an interventionist field of operation. Furthermore, the content of the CPC concept links to research in mobilities, the network city, and urban design. These are among the core pillars of both the masters programme curriculum as well as the urban design group's research
On The Edge
Full text link´På Kant´ er et afgangsprojekt på specialiseringen Urban Design, Institut for Arkitektur & Design, Aalborg Universitet. Projektet er udarbejdet af Jens Rex Christensen og Ditte Bendix Lanng fra februar til juni 2008.Projektet beskæftiger sig med kanten af Danmark. Det arbejder med en dobbelt læsning af begrebet ´kant´:- Kanten af Danmark er der, hvor vækst og udvikling har sin periferi. Det er udkant og yderområder - steder, der ikke længere er på den store dagsordenen med de strukturelle ændringer i Danmark.- Kanten af Danmark er også der, hvor land møder vand - et særligt landskabsrum med sine specifikke kulturelle aftryk, der måske kan bidrage væsentligt som ressource i nye lokale dagsordener på kanten.´On the Edge´ is a master thesis project at the Urban Design specialisation, Institute of Architecture and Design, Aalborg University. The project has been composed by Jens Rex Christensen and Ditte Bendix Lanng from February to June 2008. The project is concerned with the edge of Denmark. It works with a double reading of the notion ´edge´: - The edge of Denmark is where growth and development has its periphery. It is the outskirts – places which are no longer on the main agenda after the structural changes in Denmark. - The edge of Denmark is also where earth meets water – a special landscape space with specific cultural imprints which might hold the capacity to contribute as a resource in the development of new local agendas on the edge.. The project responds to a prevailing issue in Denmark: The polarised Danish geography where the rural and remote areas – in particular along the western coastline – experience decline while people and jobs move towards the urbanised areas in the east. The project is formulated as a journey on the edge; a journey into the exploration, understanding, and interaction with spaces on the edge. With the project we seek to propose how we – as urban designers – can reflect the profession in the shaping mechanisms of the edge. Problem With the present planning discourse as a frame, the project seeks to define and locate energies and development potentials on the edge. The official planning discourse is established by the latest version of the National Planning Report (Landsplanredegørelse 2006). The Report constitutes a geographical opposition in Denmark between central growing areas and declining remote areas. The outskirts on the edge of Denmark suffer from the structural shift caused by the transition to knowledge society and the globalisation. The dominating infrastructural and economical logics, making the cities into the primary forces of attraction, has made it very difficult to maintain the energy which used to be on the edge, let alone to infuse new energy. The project opposes the polarisation and searches for possibilities for physical development on the edge which can meet the challenges facing the remote areas. The landscape of the edge is the space for the physical interventions of the project. ´On the Edge´ understands the landscape as an operational space shaping and organising processes and elements. The landscape of the edge is more than a picturesque conception; it is a multifunctional space which can simultaneously be developed and utilised, as well as protected and sustained. Methodology The project is carried out along two tracks: an explorative journey on the edge and a perspective overview. The journey is undertaken in a field of exploration, demarcated by a day-long journey on the edge. The explorative process recognises intuitive, impulsive and narrative conceptions and seeks to unfold the edge for new readings which can challenge the established perceptions. The overview track treats the framing conditions of the material that we move through. With this track we seek to position the experienced reality on the edge in its greater strategic context. In close relationship with the field experiences and with the result of the empirical analysis, we have employed processes of conceptual design which facilitate a simultaneous and dynamic work with analytical data and forward-striving potentials. On the journeys, the thesis of the project is formulated. The thesis is that place-specific amenity values of the edge landscape together with existing economies can form the basis of developing energetic local hybrid projects on the edge. The projects are spatial and architectural interventions which insert new stories and development perspectives in the local situations. Thus, ´On the Edge´ seeks to compile creative links between the energy of the functional-economic landscape and of the natural values of the same landscape. Project results ´On the Edge´ points towards a process of distinction on the edge, grounded in place specific conditions and potentials. Both the method and the hybrid concept support the aim of distinction. The explorative method has created an understanding of the edge as a highly diverse field – a mosaic. The method performs as an alternative point of view, challenging the dominating conceptions and showing new varied interpretations and treatments of the edge. The concept deploys a hybrid with the multifunctional landscapes of the edge. In these landscapes economical and spatial resources have been uncovered. They form the basis of physical interventions containing new stories and energy. Finally, in a conceptual design the project manifests a proactive relationship of exchange between a large economical actor on the edge - the wind turbine industry, and a local society on the edge – Thyborøn. In a local spatial anchoring this pilot project seeks to create a field of energy in the landscape of Thyborøn: applicable, distinctive urban spaces which anchor the landscape of wind production in an urban and recreational quality and supply the small town with new energy
WE LOVE THE CITY:- a pragmatic approach to urban design
No full textWith a point of departure in amongst others the Danish office of ADEPT’s approach, ‘The city in the building and the building in the city’ (ADEPT 2012), it is consequently the aim of this article to show how workshops can help shape and develop a spatial and architectural approach to form finding in the urban design scale. Secondly, the article will also show students that working with urban design on a large scale are also about designing. Thus, urban design is perceived as a discipline bridging the scales from that of the building over urban space to urban planning. The author of this article sees this as a key challenge if urban design is to avoid becoming stuck within a paradigm of designing urban life(styles)
A 'more-than-representational' mapping study:| lived mobilities + mundane architectures |
No full textIn urban design mapping is a generative tool that can evoke site conditions and animate design potentials. James Corner has stated that a “map is already a project in the making” (1999b, p.216), and thereby points to the evocative ‘agency’ of mapping in composing a design project. This paper takes Corner’s essay as its starting point. It couples his considerations with non-representational research to elaborate mapping as a ‘more-than-representational’ tool with which to think and work when we seek to understand and evoke design sites in conjunction with the lived world. This coupling is done through a concrete mapping study of a suburban site of lived mobilities and mundane architectures. From this standpoint the paper elaborates three central attentions of mapping as a creative and reflected more-than-representational tool in urban design: the evocations of eventfulness of sites, intricate relations between lived lives and architecture, and the potential yet-to-be of sites
Is there a doctor in the room? An analytical exploration of local planning in Denmark and a remedy for a healthy future
No full textThe built landscape and urban structures of Danish cities have gone through significant changes, however, it can be presumed that the democratic origin of local planning is challenged in its contemporary context. There is growing evidence that the local plan has a tendency of primarily focusing on legal and technical matters and too narrow detailing of urban environments. This inherits several planning issues. Firstly, the built environment is fluid and living, in that sense, we must work with locally-specific urban qualities as something, which is variable and transforming. Secondly, only planners and perceptive citizens can navigate and fully understand the local plan. Thirdly, planners tend to use informal and creative methods to communicate ideas and visions during the planning process, however, much of this material is excluded in the final local plan. Against this situation, this master thesis sets out to experiment and challenge the local plan's current process and format to set a forward direction for future local planning. To do so, the project firstly frames an analytical exploration that maps the conflicts and controversies in present local planning, to later construct a research question and diagnosis that lead to two qualified scenarios. The two scenarios consist of potential solutions that aim to re-democratize today’s local planning. Leading to the epistemology, that a re-democratization of local planning can fertilize ‘urban quality’ in the built environment
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