398 research outputs found
Railway station development in post-industrial Rotterdam - path dependency and shifting priorities
The combined effects of industrial decline and the development of a service economy currently bring about a change in urban economies. Accessibility, proximity and an attractive urban climate are considered important factors of urban competitiveness. These are all combined in railway station area, which is therefore considered a focus point of urban economic development. The paper investigates the role of station development projects in the perspective of these long-term social and institutional processes in contrast to the continuity found in a city’s estab-lished economic structure, prevailing policy arenas, objectives and cultures. It does so by means of an analysis of station development in Rotterdam, a manufacturing and seaport city now strug-gling to find ways to develop a competitive service economy. The paper draws a comparison with Rotterdam’s rival Amsterdam, showing that differences in present economic performance and urban development are partly rooted in different economic histories. The paper investigates to which extent these differences affect the role of major railway station redevelopment projects in both cities, and the way these projects are implemented.
Missionaries of modernity: technocratic ideals of colonial engineers in the Netherlands Indies and the Philippines, 1900-1920
This study compares the role played by Dutch and American engineers in the colonial governments of the Netherlands Indies and the American-controlled Philippines in the 1900-1920 timeframe. It contends that these colonial engineers extensively influenced the practical implementation of the civilizing missions of that were formulated in the United States and the Netherlands around 1900. Through the use of a sustained comparison between the activities of the engineers in these two Western countries and their tropical colonies the unique aspects of the American policy of “benevolent assimilation” and the Dutch “ethical policy” will be drawn into focus. This study makes use of the technocracy heuristic to analyze the behavior and ambitions of the engineers. Technocracy in this case refers to rule by experts, a goal that many members of the engineering profession that had emerged in both countries in the 1890s strove for. Such a political system could not be implemented in the Dutch and American metropoles, but in the colonies the engineers faced fewer obstacles to their political agenda. The technocratic ambitions of the engineers are reconstructed here by analyzing the rhetoric they used and the discourses they drew upon in their journals. In the first part of this study the emergence of the engineering profession in the Netherlands Indies and the United States is compared. The rhetoric of the engineers on either side of the Atlantic evinces important similarities, as does the receptiveness of politicians and public to their ideas. The new mode of imperialism and the civilizing missions that either country articulated concurrently also bear close resemblance. A series of vignettes in the second part of this study describing the practices and ideology of the colonial engineers working in the Netherlands Indies and the Philippines reveals how the meanings of the technologies they used were socially constructed. They show that the Americans possessed a unique willingness to have the Filipinos participate in their developmental strategy, whereas the Dutch did not cross the ethnographic separation from the Indonesians. This finding to an extent confirms the “exceptionalism” of American empire in this period.M.A.Includes bibliographical referencesby Jan-Jacob Blussé van Oud-Albla
Bloemhof der doorluchtige voorbeelden, daer in door ware, vreemde en deftige geschiedenissen, leeringen en eygenschappen, alles dat de mensch tot nut en vermaek verstrekken kan, te bemerken is : uit de schriften van Philippus Camerarius, Michiel de Montanje en andere schrijvers getrokken en vertaelt /
Signatures: *⁴ A-3A⁴.T.p. vignette and 6 emblematic engravings by Jan Swelinck, taken from Zacharias Heyns' Emblemata of 1625. See Landwehr.Landwehr, J. Emblem books in the Low Countries,Mode of access: Internet.Binding: vellum, lapped foredges. Author, title & date written at head of spine
Railway station development in post-industrial Rotterdam - path dependency and shifting priorities
The combined effects of industrial decline and the development of a service economy currently bring about a change in urban economies. Accessibility, proximity and an attractive urban climate are considered important factors of urban competitiveness. These are all combined in railway station area, which is therefore considered a focus point of urban economic development. The paper investigates the role of station development projects in the perspective of these long-term social and institutional processes in contrast to the continuity found in a city's estab-lished economic structure, prevailing policy arenas, objectives and cultures. It does so by means of an analysis of station development in Rotterdam, a manufacturing and seaport city now strug-gling to find ways to develop a competitive service economy. The paper draws a comparison with Rotterdam's rival Amsterdam, showing that differences in present economic performance and urban development are partly rooted in different economic histories. The paper investigates to which extent these differences affect the role of major railway station redevelopment projects in both cities, and the way these projects are implemented
What makes a city: Urban quality in Euralille, Amsterdam South Axis and Rotterdam Central
Escaping Casablanca: Resorting to Inversions of the Everyday
Over the last century, Casablanca has become the economical capital of Morocco. To deal with this ever congesting metropolis, the French Europeans and later wealthy Moroccans, have established an entire region to escape from Casablanca's everyday. The research investigates this relationship between the escape from the everyday into spaces for the holiday. Spaces wherein the political and economical norm are suspended, resulting in an opportunity for play (in contrast to work, labor and action). In Casablanca, beach club structures barricade the relation between the coastal boulevard and the Atlantic as natural common resource, resulting in a condition wherein one needs to pay to enjoy the ocean and its consequent holiday. Through investigating the characteristic figure of the club, the research unfolds its strategies and motives, to subsequently learn from it for a counter-project.As a response to the disparity between the everyday and the holiday in Casablanca, to the research on the club and to the investigation on spaces of play, the project proposes a strategy to infiltrate the Casablanca with spaces for the holiday. By exploiting the newly established infrastructure of the tram network, the project taps into many daily routines, claiming territory adjacent to the strategically chosen tram stations. These territories are then reserved for the holiday, accommodated in an urban void, guaranteeing the possibility of refuge in the holiday and the livability of the metropolis.To offer an alternative to the exclusive figure of the club, the proposed spaces for the holiday must ensure to be inclusive, both socially and architecturally. The absolute architecture of the club is broken open and becoming, transformed into a dual project; a pliant surface and a set of autonomous architectures. Together, they provide a protected holiday space separated from Casablanca’s everyday visually, acoustically, thermally, emotionally. While still providing accessibility from all sides due to its resulting porous nature. Therefore offering a true and pleasant sanctuary in middle of Casablanca’s turmoil. Through the duality of the project, a certain ambiguity is achieved, resulting in a range of conditions wherein citizens can celebrate their holiday. In order to evoke direct associations of holiday within the interventions, the Casablanca’s collective memory is being exploited through abstractions of the coast in architectural form. The pliant surface is materialized in bright white natural stone, mimicking the tactics of Casablanca’s beach clubs, which imported white beach sand to create paradisaical beaches. The white (artificial) surface offers a first inversion of the everyday on which the autonomous architectural elements are imposed, in turn referencing to the beauty of the natural coast. Each element subtly referencing to phenomena of the Atlantic. Together resulting in a predefined set of elements and rules which can generate precise architectural interventions when confronted with given urban conditions. The project is therefore designed as a tangram, from the scale of the entire configuration to the detail. In the thesis, three sites are fully developed, as proof of concept, exploring the potential to offer an inclusive form of holiday, inverting Casablanca’s everyday life.<br/
Rail-rail Hub-terminals as an Alternative for Shunting: An Explorative Comparative Case Study
Theory and Practice of the Creative City Thesis: Experiences from Amsterdam and Rotterdam
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