tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30401743159684396742024-03-05T03:32:55.843-05:00GSD:ecologicalurbanismGSD:ecologicalurbanismhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17630631448250550718noreply@blogger.comBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-81349876803136563212009-05-12T14:30:00.003-04:002009-05-12T14:41:45.004-04:00conference summary“ to the more cynical, architectural fascination with this new concept has yet another significance: the concept of sustainability gave architecture a new purpose. According to this point of view, sustainability emerged not a moment to soon…just when the profession’s search for meaning (e.g. historicist trends of the late 20th c.) or the egocentrism of the signature designer (e.g., the legacy of modernism) had led to dead ends.” - Panayiota Pyla,” Counter Histories of Sustainability”, Volume #18<br /><br />To talk and reflect on the full pack of presentations and debates that were collected under the term of “ecological urbanism” , means one has to summarize, conceptualize, ignore and amplify, all in an attempt to define, retroactively, an agenda. Such superficial agenda will be traced through three sections. The first would be the departure point of the conference, its keynote lecture. The second will focus on its structure and the third on its unexpected moments.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Disillusionment</span><br />The keynote lecture, aimed at providing the framework for the whole conference, brought together Rem Koolhaas and Homi Bhabha, an unlikely combination of European late avant-garde (using Michael Hays’s terms) theorist turned into world famous rationalist practitioner and a post colonialist scholar with humanist and poetic inclinations. Koolhaas, type casted as architectural prophet, was expected to provide a new direction for architecture, steering it out of the financial crisis and its own impotence in addressing real world problems. For those with such high expectations, only painful sobering awaited. Koolhaas presented a futile trajectory, looking back at well-known historical moments in architecture, he lamented these modes of knowledge that were lost soon after. His conclusions however, shed no light on the future of architecture, design, ecology, urbanism or anything in between. Bhabha’s presentation, while displaying a certain amount of charisma and vitality did no better, and the discussion of Lagos, a project that was presented more than five years ago, seemed to be superficial and anachronistic. Ecological urbanism kept on being an opaque and amorphous idea as it was before and the conference was launched under the grim shadow of failed prophecy.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Absence</span><br />On its aims, the conference sought to establish an inter-disciplinary platform of discussion about the city, nature and ecology. Hosted by the design school, its structure gave a surprisingly small portion of its share to those engaged with design. Most presentations and their following debates were made through the lens of technological aspects of development, may it be electric cars or water management systems, leaving very little room for discussion about speculation, aesthetic qualities, the role of architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning and the directions theory and practice might take. Sustainability exposed its ugly side, as an all embracing, all including term that hides behind moral justifications and as such cannot be criticized and be reflected upon. Choosing not to oppose such prevailing techniques of oppression by including designers in the programme proved to be a problem. Inter disciplinary turned out to be the weakest point of the whole event as it faced the problems of design by simply putting them out of the way.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Negation</span><br />Salvation, so it seems, came surprisingly from the other side of the Atlantic, through the presentations of Andrea Branzi and Stefano Boeri, and to a certain extent through that of Inaki Abalos. Branzi, a figure of almost mythical status in the Italian neo avant-garde, gave a presentation that was exactly the opposite of everything else in the conference: anti-rational, anti-technological and completely aesthetic. He attacked sustainability and environmentalism as creating problems rather than proposing solutions and challenged the whole notion of minimizing the human footprint on the planet as the only viable solution. In a rare moment, when challenged by Matthias Schuler and responding that beauty might be more important than survival, two world views clashed: that of the technocratic, progressive view that seeks to improve human condition through technological innovation and the opposing view of deep pessimism and negation of progress and in fact the whole tradition of rational thinking, predominant in western civilization since the enlightment. Stafano Boeri, acting as narrator for Branzi’s presentation, conceptualized three current trajectories in contemporary design and its reconciliation with nature: the first is technological mimesis, reproducing natural forms by technological means. The second is confinement which deals with dominating nature through agriculture and progressive means. The third trajectory for Boeri is autonomy, which he interprets as a challenge to the current separation between human and natural environments. Illustrating this concept with images of cities reinhabited by natural forces (animals in the streets, plants covering buildings), Boeri sought to outline an ecology in which humans exist with no superiority over other forms of living. For the first time in the conference, a new concept of operation seemed to emerge. One that is not absolute and oppressive but rather multi-faceted and complex. Suddenly designers seemed to have an important part in the definition of a shared vision about the future of humans and their role in the environment. Their disciplines may have found a new purpose beyond the notion of sustainability and the cynicism that followed. For the conference and for the idea of ecological urbanism, that was the best provocation to be hoped for.dan handelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03332194745765232336noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-38116862391891362482009-04-21T10:50:00.001-04:002009-04-21T10:52:00.991-04:00timeline of sustainibility<a href="http://archis.org/history-of-sustainability/">The Complex History of Sustainability</a>- Amir Djalali with Piet Vollaard as appeared on Volume Magazinedan handelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03332194745765232336noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-30781008874122801902009-04-09T14:28:00.007-04:002009-04-09T15:24:33.273-04:00Klaus on GSD:ecologicalurbanismKlaus, a satirical cartoonist, takes on the ecological urbanism conference, first up: Rem Koolhaas<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeOQK6m7wpXxWNMOmAbf_3mjsMas6DYe8vAkky6GmPXCBxIGUFXNPnGYxCTW53F3XkRiTh-9ZfTwIoNoXuE-1IZYkyi8QPp1vtN5PvGGyRcz-lI4CRjfnCDKD-2fHDADhtP5Q9gOkbnwQ/s1600-h/ecological+urbanism+-+koolhaas+right.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 347px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeOQK6m7wpXxWNMOmAbf_3mjsMas6DYe8vAkky6GmPXCBxIGUFXNPnGYxCTW53F3XkRiTh-9ZfTwIoNoXuE-1IZYkyi8QPp1vtN5PvGGyRcz-lI4CRjfnCDKD-2fHDADhtP5Q9gOkbnwQ/s400/ecological+urbanism+-+koolhaas+right.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322774567035820450" border="0" /></a><a href="http://klaustoon.wordpress.com/">http://klaustoon.wordpress.com/</a><br /><br />related posts:<br /><a href="http://gsd-ecologicalurbanism.blogspot.com/2009/04/nature-society.html">-Excluded Thirds</a><br /><a href="http://gsd-ecologicalurbanism.blogspot.com/2009/04/liveblogging-koolhaas-bhabha-kwinter-in.html">-Liveblogging Koolhaas, Bhabha, Kwinter...</a>GSD:ecologicalurbanismhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17630631448250550718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-60505012900076010552009-04-06T16:53:00.002-04:002009-04-06T16:55:30.723-04:00Conference over....<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxexig7_VUxOTX7R8jW1R4RFMyxZzfjWx_lUcnvrcNNWSLZME2kiKNz2C3TntoweptV9KIPg4-2191CE7pHLVGhZwJHvl1GKuYTpkhBm-P24jYaeXCjamMkstsNNc98yOpW3MM6UgCsrI/s1600-h/_Device+Memory_home_user_pictures_IMG00006.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxexig7_VUxOTX7R8jW1R4RFMyxZzfjWx_lUcnvrcNNWSLZME2kiKNz2C3TntoweptV9KIPg4-2191CE7pHLVGhZwJHvl1GKuYTpkhBm-P24jYaeXCjamMkstsNNc98yOpW3MM6UgCsrI/s320/_Device+Memory_home_user_pictures_IMG00006.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321684903028227602" /></a><br />But an ecological urbanism lives on at the GSD.ilanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03138922396198388112noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-88531470376399343262009-04-05T20:57:00.005-04:002009-04-05T21:20:32.242-04:00Boeri on AutonomyStafano Boeri, in his morning lecture, gave an efficient presentation that seemed to me to be echoing <a href="http://gsd-ecologicalurbanism.blogspot.com/2009/04/defining-moment.html">Branzi's lecture</a> from yesterday in the sense that he was trying to shake the environmentalist notion of nature as exterior to human activity, e.g. the city. He went through three main trajectories for reconciliation: mimesis (that is copying natural forms by technological means), confinement (which he interprets as increased control over nature) and autonomy, for him the more promising trajectory. Boeri described autonomy as nature reinhabiting cities, creating a curious, essentially ecological condition of shared spaces between humans, animal, plants without moral or evolutionary hierarchies. For me this notion of autonomy plays a dual role: on the one hand it is presented as a positive, pragmatic way out of current failures in sustainable thinking while on the other maintains the dystopian imagery ever present. In this sense Boeri collapsed the two lines of human history: the apocalyptic and the progressive, presented by Koolhaas on friday, into a single, preversly irrational, post-technocratic view on the future of cities.dan handelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03332194745765232336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-38385406053071116162009-04-05T15:03:00.008-04:002009-04-06T14:43:36.449-04:00REDUNDANCY!I was just talking to a Leslie, a California-based landscape architect visiting for the conference, about my thesis when REDUNDANCY came up. She was saying that since I can never be 100% sure of how water flows and other ecologies will work, I need to build in redundant systems to make sure it works.<br /><br />I liked that idea a lot because redundancy is another <a href="http://gsd-ecologicalurbanism.blogspot.com/2009/04/informality-seems-to-be-coming-up-more.html">'humble'</a> design tactic. It makes us accept that we cannot control it all, we can just try to mediate it. I like it because in systems that are predetermined and completely engineered there is little to no room for design. Redundancy allows design to come in and mediate indeterminacy.<br /><br />In short redundancy can make sure that ecological urbanism is not about <a href="http://gsd-ecologicalurbanism.blogspot.com/2009/04/when-ecological-optimism-gives-way-to.html%5C">top-down efficiency</a>.qhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10573208186052406603noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-74625986352659548202009-04-05T13:01:00.008-04:002009-04-05T13:55:54.903-04:00On Ethics: "I don't believe in good intentions"<br /><br />On Infrastructure: "Infrastructure is the catalyzer of a new architecture"<br /><br />On Aesthetics: "To reach a new idea of beauty we have to pass through ugliness"<br /><br />-Inaki Abalosilanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03138922396198388112noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-32433372744972749922009-04-05T11:42:00.007-04:002009-04-05T12:21:09.664-04:00Bike Sharing in BostonIn response to <a href="http://gsd-ecologicalurbanism.blogspot.com/2009/04/velib.html">Ilana</a>, Boston's been planning a Velib-like bike sharing system for awhile. The RFP for the project went out sometime last month and the word on the street (in the bike lanes?) is that three teams are likely to bid: one is the group that actually runs Paris' system, the second is the Berlin based Wall (who provides and operates the Boston's street furniture) and the final one is a more home grown team (there is a bike sharing program in Kendall Square already). <br /><br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="368" width="450" data="http://www.streetfilms.org/flvplayer.swf"><param name="movie" value="http://www.streetfilms.org/flvplayer.swf" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /><param name="flashvars" value="displayheight=349&file=http://www.streetfilms.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/velibfinaluse_sfuse.flv&image=http://www.streetfilms.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/velibfinalposter.jpg&overstretch=true&showfsbutton=false&showdigits=true&backcolor=0x22313c&frontcolor=0xbfced8&lightcolor=0xc1d72e&volume=90&autostart=false&logo=http://www.streetfilms.org/wp-content/themes/woonerf/images/streetfilms-watermark.png&link=http://www.streetfilms.org&title=Vélib’ OFFSITE&id=996&callback=http://www.streetfilms.org/wp-content/plugins/streetfilms/statistics.php" /></object><br /><br />For Harvard, Anne Lusk from the School of Public Health is working around finding funding for having bike coordinators for all of the major schools in Boston and Cambridge (MIT, Harvard, BU and Northeastern). I think one of the first projects that would be realized should this go forward would be a student bike sharing program (see the one at UNAM in Mexico City below) on Harvard's campus. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zakcq/3179755281/" ><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3404/3179755281_73c8ddfc89.jpg" width="375" height="281" alt="México, DF" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zakcq/3180595908/" ><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3516/3180595908_50ab77a4d8.jpg" width="375" height="281" alt="México, DF" /></a><br /><br />The UNAM program consists of bike cages at main buildings throughout the campus, as well as a larger facility near the university's subway station. The cages are connected by separated bike paths, including bridges over major streets for bicyclists. As a student, you just walk up, swipe your student ID, take a bike, and drop it at any other cage. A similar program at Harvard is certainly within our reach. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zakcq/3179756929/" ><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3328/3179756929_b37a6ca1f5.jpg" width="375" height="281" alt="México, DF" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zakcq/3180595570/" ><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3326/3180595570_599aa67f4a.jpg" width="375" height="281" alt="México, DF" /></a><br /><br />For more info on biking in Boston, check out the <a href="http://www.livablestreets.info/">LivableStreets Alliance</a> (where I am on the board), <a href="http://www.bikesnotbombs.org/">Bikes not Bombs</a> and <a href="http://www.massbike.org/">MassBike</a>.onetenchelseahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233097411571147027noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-10361513806363002532009-04-05T10:20:00.008-04:002009-04-06T10:28:20.948-04:00On Informality - A Response by Guest Blogger Kazys Varnelis<span class="Apple-style-span" style=";font-family:Times;font-size:100%;" > <p style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://varnelis.net/"></a><a href="http://varnelis.net/blog/on_informality">http://varnelis.net/blog/on_informality</a><br /></p><p style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://varnelis.net/">Kazys Varnelis</a> is the Director of <a href="http://www.arch.columbia.edu/Research/netlab/index.php">the Network Architecture Lab</a> at the <a href="http://www.arch.columbia.edu/">Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.</a> With <a href="http://www.robertsumrell.com/">Robert Sumrell</a>, he runs the non-profit architectural collective <a href="http://www.audc.org/">AUDC.</a></p><p style="font-style: italic;">EXCERPT:<br /></p> <p><a href="http://varnelis.net/blog/on_informality"><span style="font-weight: bold;">ON INFORMALITY </span></a><br /></p> <p>Quilian Riano asked me to participate in the blogging revolving around the GSD event on Ecological Urbanism. Although Quilian is <a href="http://www.archinect.com/schoolblog/entry.php?id=87421_0_39_0_C">live blogging the event</a>, like the live blogging for Postopolis going on simultaneously, I think it makes much more sense to the participants than to those of us listening in at a remove, observing highly compressed fragments of the conversation.</p> <p>Even if I take my knowledge of the event second-hand, I thought I'd offer a response, prematurely broaching a topic that I've been engulfed in for the first part of this year. I'll begin with the event's <a href="http://ecologicalurbanism.gsd.harvard.edu/about">statement of purpose</a>, the core of which reads as follows:</p> <p class="rteindent1" style="margin-left: 40px;">The conference is organized around the premise that an ecological approach is urgently needed both as a remedial device for the contemporary city and an organizing principle for new cities. An ecological urbanism represents a more holistic approach than is generally the case with urbanism today, demanding alternative ways of thinking and designing.</p> <p>In ecological urbanism, the <a href="http://www.archinect.com/schoolblog/entry.php?id=87421_0_39_0_C345">informal</a> seems to crop up <a href="http://gsd-ecologicalurbanism.blogspot.com/2009/04/informality-seems-to-be-coming-up-more.html">repeatedly</a>. Instead of "green architecture" and its outworn advocacy of LEED to design our way out of a global ecological crisis, the conference proposes an urbanism produced bottom-up, in a natural way, like an ecosystem.</p> <p>Sanford Kwinter's keen observation that New York's culture has come to a crashing halt under the weight of capital, overdevelopment, and hipsterdom serves as a set-up to ecological urbanism. Instead of a vital urban realm, we have a stuffed animal (to use a phrase Peter Eisenman once applied to European cities…and let's just be clear that today cities anywhere in the developing world don't fare any better than Manhattan does). In the face of this collapsing formal urbanism, then, Quilian observes, informality is <a href="http://gsd-ecologicalurbanism.blogspot.com/2009/04/informality-seems-to-be-coming-up-more.html">thriving</a>:</p> <p class="rteindent1" style="margin-left: 40px;">[There is an]… anxiety around the failure of the formal structures in the West. Populations are dropping, immigration increasing, manufacturing and economic strength shifting to other nations. Western nations are facing a changing culture at home and a shifting power structure abroad. As formal structures fail informal systems take over. </p> <p>We've heard this before, in the recent fascination with favelas and their capacity for self-organization. When Rem Koolhaas spoke he brought out Lagos, his exemplar of such a self-organizing city, a nightmare condition that nevertheless he feels somehow works. In doing so, he replays Venturi, Scott Brown, and Izenour's <em>Learning from Las Vegas</em> as well as Reyner Banham's <em>Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies,</em> but in going to Africa, Koolhaas is not so much flipping the valence on a "low," pop phenomena as replaying the modernist obsession with the primitive (to be fair, on the East, the West is often seen in terms of the primitive). In the darkest places, the modern obsession with the primitive suggested, we would identify the next modernity. So Koolhaas hopes to do at Lagos...</p><a href="http://varnelis.net/blog/on_informality">READ THE FULL ESSAY ON VARNELIS' BLOG</a> </span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=";font-family:Times;font-size:100%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""></span></span></span>GSD:ecologicalurbanismhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17630631448250550718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-51157403539675915442009-04-05T08:55:00.013-04:002009-04-06T10:56:51.868-04:00Andrea Branzi VideosIf you were not there for Branzi's lecture you can catch up by watching the <a href="http://www.andreabranzi.it/ita/video.php#">videos on his site</a>.<br /><br />The following are my favorites:<br /><a href="http://www.andreabranzi.it/prog_pics/Video/nostopcity.htm" class="nav2" onclick="openChromeslessWindow('../prog_pics/Video/nostopcity.htm','video',550,350,null,null,'NO STOP CITY', '#FF6600', '#663366', '#FF6600', '#663366' ,true,'Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif', '1','#FFFFFF')">-No-Stop-City</a><br /><a href="http://www.andreabranzi.it/prog_pics/Video/waterfront.htm" class="nav2" onclick="openChromeslessWindow('../prog_pics/Video/waterfront.htm','video',550,350,null,null,'WATERFRONT', '#FF6600', '#663366', '#FF6600', '#663366' ,true,'Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif', '1','#FFFFFF')">-Concorso Internazionale di idee, bandito dalla New York Art Society, per la sistemazione del Waterfront Ovest di Manhattan a New York (2° premio)</a><br /><a href="http://www.andreabranzi.it/prog_pics/Video/agronica.htm" class="nav2" onclick="openChromeslessWindow('../prog_pics/Video/agronica.htm','video',550,350,null,null,'AGRONICA', '#FF6600', '#663366', '#FF6600', '#663366' ,true,'Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif', '1','#FFFFFF')">-Agronica</a><a href="http://www.andreabranzi.it/prog_pics/Video/verticalhome.htm"><br />-Vertical Home</a><br /> <br />I had not seen the videos before Branzi presented them last night. The music, editing and collage gave me new insights into his work. I now see clearly the connections to minimalist music, biological processes, and he even gave hints at these being set within real landscapes.<br /><br />The hints of real landscapes bring up some questions I have always had for Branzi:<br /><br />First, what is your site, your landscape. From No-Stop City to, my personal favorite, Agronica the site seems like an abstraction and a real place at the same time. In Agronica the video is edited with images of a real landscape organized in perfect rows. Where is that? Is that 'the site'? Does it matter?<br /><br />Second, why has the 'language' developed in No-Stop City never been deployed in a mountanous site? The language looks like it wants to be universal, yet as deployed right now it would work in very few places in the world. Does it matter? Would it be a fruitful exercise?<br /><br />Third, the projects with their extreme horizontality seem very American. More specifically, mid-western. Agronica remind me of the agro-industrial fields from Missouri to Iowa. Is that intentional?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoZE7mS3cYbrUI-YFOF5IeGjsxzI9_ghgzVW5bM4kaFkH5138JdY-PQjZNUiCD-qqWbyDUXrgqyY8eYYqnNCVgCvgE8nYUVULmoFqkkQ4Q97TDgeRO3E4OpBiUpKU9xHU6oOEnXEhOoOc/s1600-h/bild.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 311px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoZE7mS3cYbrUI-YFOF5IeGjsxzI9_ghgzVW5bM4kaFkH5138JdY-PQjZNUiCD-qqWbyDUXrgqyY8eYYqnNCVgCvgE8nYUVULmoFqkkQ4Q97TDgeRO3E4OpBiUpKU9xHU6oOEnXEhOoOc/s400/bild.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321197071539629986" border="0" /></a>Achizoom - No-Stop City, 1968qhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10573208186052406603noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-40031602335883514352009-04-05T00:04:00.006-04:002009-04-05T00:49:06.140-04:00defining momentAndrea Branzi's lecture was probably the highlight of the conference. After severely attacking environmentalism and environmentalists for creating problems as much as offering solutions and for simply making ugly things, Branzi was challenged by Matthias Schuler, an environmentalist himself, whether humanity should not prioritize, at this stage, survival over aesthetics. Branzi's simple "no" contrasted the progressive positive world view, characterizing much of sustainable thinking, with utter negation of both technology and rationality as means of improving human condition and offered a crisp, pristine moment of reflection saved for rare occasions of great intellectual clarity.<br /><br />++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++<br />to be continueddan handelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03332194745765232336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-59981538328521070182009-04-04T23:15:00.005-04:002009-04-04T23:36:12.360-04:00Mike Davis on Koolhaas' Lagos - By Guest Blogger Orhan Ayyuce<span style="font-style: italic;">Orhan Ayyuce is an architect and writer from Los Angeles. He is also a senior editor at </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.archinect.com/">archinect</a> and is the author of <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://elseplace.blogspot.com/">elseplace</a><span style="font-style: italic;">.</span><br /><br />Orhan sent us a section of an interview he held with Mike Davis:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Orhan Ayyuce: </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">What do you think of the current interest in slum communities. It is almost unfortunately 'interesting' to talk about slums and their informality. May I say that the trend started around the time you published <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=OJeQAQAACAAJ&dq=planet+of+slums">Planet of Slums</a>?”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Mike Davis:</span><br />You know, in architecture school most people talk about icons and counter icons, rather than try to understand the larger social networks, hierarchies, and conditions that produce particular types of urbanisms. That is taken to its highest level of trendiness by Rem Koolhaas. His stuff on <a href="http://icarusfilms.com/new2003/lag.html">Lagos </a>is crazy... In my mind it is a sleazy apology for social evil.<br /><br />If you want to see human self organization at work, go to Lagos, but face the poverty and oppression by the military regime ... Maybe he should talk to my friend *Chris Abani about that stuff... Chris would laugh at his hyperbolic exercise...<br /><br />*<a href="http://www.chrisabani.com/Abani_Fiction/Graceland.htm">http://www.chrisabani.com/Abani_Fiction/Graceland.htm</a>GSD:ecologicalurbanismhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17630631448250550718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-83022865445158023122009-04-04T20:40:00.005-04:002009-04-05T00:49:39.880-04:00candid photos<span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">followed by students and professionals' staring eyes, casual but never comfortable, Koolhaas provokes a curious atmosphere in the hallways.</span></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm30E_61Vg21sIYRrmddDuHkyFvHzlatod635T7BH4hklq3Ch79XKtz51nNK042WT3_RM9O9gSr6IeWLJ832qE8uBaOpNVHv9aVp0DdqFBjPFGfiiLPVvGBHkRtK4AU-BvEBiJ3YOtRFE/s1600-h/IMG_0274.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm30E_61Vg21sIYRrmddDuHkyFvHzlatod635T7BH4hklq3Ch79XKtz51nNK042WT3_RM9O9gSr6IeWLJ832qE8uBaOpNVHv9aVp0DdqFBjPFGfiiLPVvGBHkRtK4AU-BvEBiJ3YOtRFE/s400/IMG_0274.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321001181224098850" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjng5MVt_4TmKDBrpd0RVV-hNl6dqCxh0lnd2W-UVlTBqZUSzO5YykI-lOFqfPWHts5kYNfZV3uGdIrp4fvA2Xdb60Fvz36TYpt_FdoGhEi2DAyFob1TQPdaqabPfGu-nUyy_Yu-3eYbQg/s1600-h/IMG_0276.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 310px; height: 233px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjng5MVt_4TmKDBrpd0RVV-hNl6dqCxh0lnd2W-UVlTBqZUSzO5YykI-lOFqfPWHts5kYNfZV3uGdIrp4fvA2Xdb60Fvz36TYpt_FdoGhEi2DAyFob1TQPdaqabPfGu-nUyy_Yu-3eYbQg/s400/IMG_0276.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321001183670795458" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha3Kt42jzK6PqrZ958t5p5HfxPUUkKRmLS8UhbWjy9Hgm7e53j8GACxlizlbsVwJznIWCY2PhDik7xtZXcA8tuRqR7S757bKQNGgTRejcuzW93PdT3bR-1P2uipSTEmQMR_2M5M4ODAiE/s1600-h/IMG_0275.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 315px; height: 237px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha3Kt42jzK6PqrZ958t5p5HfxPUUkKRmLS8UhbWjy9Hgm7e53j8GACxlizlbsVwJznIWCY2PhDik7xtZXcA8tuRqR7S757bKQNGgTRejcuzW93PdT3bR-1P2uipSTEmQMR_2M5M4ODAiE/s400/IMG_0275.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321001178645864866" border="0" /></a>dan handelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03332194745765232336noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-70353776495053726502009-04-04T18:11:00.005-04:002009-04-04T18:18:15.179-04:00velib!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKTJ2y6IMZXdZ8qyD1mxL4xme1O4rsDnUO9L71MufBYAe1kSQ-I9aTp4eny8hRPd8iTOfHKSuHZF-ppWKs-yTFSM1-A_Ovyr9K1rj7ePH7fGQUBq-QHSz5FiFcu4rRpgHCn_WmIBFwiG0/s1600-h/IMG_6871.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKTJ2y6IMZXdZ8qyD1mxL4xme1O4rsDnUO9L71MufBYAe1kSQ-I9aTp4eny8hRPd8iTOfHKSuHZF-ppWKs-yTFSM1-A_Ovyr9K1rj7ePH7fGQUBq-QHSz5FiFcu4rRpgHCn_WmIBFwiG0/s320/IMG_6871.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320963712127340178" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNMX8z1Xjj5dNnNBsdKy2aU-pI_-TqfkbGhXJE_u4IFeXYtJHqk-MO2f8RGvm81ki_OcHhq0OuRll34zxUkCNWszzFCnQmWq-o6Eah35EQDCVonCQGc5-HCejWwgeAheCoxPFJs5Ea54U/s1600-h/IMG_6749.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNMX8z1Xjj5dNnNBsdKy2aU-pI_-TqfkbGhXJE_u4IFeXYtJHqk-MO2f8RGvm81ki_OcHhq0OuRll34zxUkCNWszzFCnQmWq-o6Eah35EQDCVonCQGc5-HCejWwgeAheCoxPFJs5Ea54U/s320/IMG_6749.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320963359543169538" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />A question from the audience during the 'mobility, infrastructure, and society' panel brought up the bicycle. The panelists hadn't really mentioned its role in mobility and infrastructure. The <a href="http://www.en.velib.paris.fr/">Velib</a> program in Paris is a great example of how the bicycle can become an integral part of urban transportation infrastructure. All cities should have this sort of program and at this scale. It's brilliant. 24 hours a day 7 days a week you have access to a free bicycle, available at stations spaced approximately every 300 meters throughout the city.ilanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03138922396198388112noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-57526976278784876912009-04-04T17:43:00.009-04:002009-04-04T18:05:16.245-04:00Architecture Imagined as Ecological - by Guest Blogger Javier Arbona<a href="http://javier.est.pr/2009/04/04/architecture-imagined-as-ecological/">http://javier.est.pr/2009/04/04/architecture-imagined-as-ecological/</a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Javier Arbona is a University of California, Berkeley PhD candidate in geography with a background in architecture and urbanism.</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">EXCERPT:</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://strangeherring.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/carbonated_mouthwash.jpg?w=180&h=180"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 180px; height: 180px;" src="http://strangeherring.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/carbonated_mouthwash.jpg?w=180&h=180" alt="" border="0" /></a><a href="http://javier.est.pr/2009/04/04/architecture-imagined-as-ecological/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Architecture imagined as ecological</span></a><br /><p>The all-encompassing discourse of sustainability is tangled up with global geopolitics at every turn, but that discourse hides its tail. What’s worse is that “sustainable architecture” can be the proverbial “greenwash,” as I think has become more than evident. We would only have to pass a roll-call of all the eco-resorts done in years of economic fluidity. Thinking about a sustainable practice is (still) supposed to arouse in us a moral instinct of how to satisfy our needs without “compromising the needs of future generations”. The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/garden/11tiny.html" target="_blank">small house movement</a> serves as a good example of an architecture informed by notions of what is said to be ‘basic’.</p> <p>Our “needs,” however, are a mirage. We know that they are essentially malleable. They’re subject to crass marketing manipulation. They evolve through the sieves of culture and desire. They’re hard to pin down and it’s no accident that capitalism pulls the rug from underneath us as soon as we try. Besides, unless the global economic crisis ends up destroying capitalism, we satisfy our so-called needs through an increasingly global economy, despite the localist and nationalist fantasies some may have. Even if we didn’t have capitalism, we’d still have trade, and subscribers to notions of Malthusian natural limits fail to adequately take this into account. Sometimes the sustainability talk sounds to me even xenophobic in its suggestions that a certain number of citizens will have a right to the city (blurring further the notion of what is natural: Numerical limits? Naturalization, as in citizenship?)</p> <p>The ideologues of sustainability might deny that it is an issue of power and not morals, but it is. It has to do with who determines how much is a reasonable need for some and not others, both at a local and global level. By the way, I’m sorry for even using these terms like “local” and “global” because they pertain to imprecise scales, especially when ecological processes are involved. But none of this has slowed down the field of architecture. As often times is clear in the works of architects like <a href="http://www.sorkinstudio.com/" target="_blank">Michael Sorkin</a> and other adherents to the “ecological footprint,” design indexes how much nature is judged to be fair and balanced according to some metric of consumption.</p><a href="http://javier.est.pr/2009/04/04/architecture-imagined-as-ecological/">GO TO JAVIER'S BLOG TO READ THE ENTIRE ESSAY</a>GSD:ecologicalurbanismhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17630631448250550718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-74266974236879072272009-04-04T17:42:00.002-04:002009-04-04T18:05:20.160-04:00ruralization of urbanism?according to Andres Duany, the environmental movement is elevating the value of greenspace and is ruralizing cities. And when you ruralize a city, it becomes a suburb. And suburbs, as we all know, are the root of all evil. <br /><br />I am skeptical. McHargian environmentalism, while still alive and relevant is not the only strain of environmentalism. Those that emphasize environmental health and or <a href="http://www.ejnet.org/ej/">environmental justice</a> tend to be more encompassing and less critical of the fundamental value of the city. While <a href="http://www.ssbx.org/">Sustainable South Bronx</a> and <a href="http://www.ympj.org/ourcenters_planning.html">Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice</a> might be advocating for the 'greening' of the Bronx, I don't think they fully embrace the McHargian disdain for the city. These environmentalists love their neighborhoods and want to make them healthy and sustainable. They understand that their neighborhoods cannot promote public health or support healthy economies without being ecologically sustainable. They are making the Bronx more 'ecological' and the suburbs have nothing to do with it.ilanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03138922396198388112noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-75336396085860363632009-04-04T15:52:00.019-04:002009-04-05T12:02:01.905-04:00Why Informal?Informality seems to be coming up more than I anticipated. We have heard it from <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=2&q=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rem_Koolhaas&ei=o8HXSbaYE5vslQepwLHkDA&usg=AFQjCNF8Vbtcu4okXxAYNT1GBQTXtKZtVA">Koolhaas</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=1&q=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homi_K._Bhabha&ei=wMHXSdzqGszflQelzJzDDA&usg=AFQjCNEYR7Ip5w9k2KubxHrXm_RBbeHM5w">Bhabha</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=1&q=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanford_Kwinter&ei=2MHXSeXPL-TulQf2sPDhDA&usg=AFQjCNGKfEORESqAW8CbPcgyzdHgHJabzA">Kwinter</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=2&q=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohsen_Mostafavi&ei=98HXSa-oD9P5lAfq3K3HDA&usg=AFQjCNFBMtFKkRd5Ckn3WIUgtUCKnEw9bQ">Mostafavi</a>, <a href="http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/people/faculty/kirkwood/">Kirkwood</a> , and others in different contexts. In fact I think it is being used as often, and with more focus, than ecology.<br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span>I want to share my first impressions as I try to find reasons for the focus on the informal in a conference about ecology.<br /><br />1-A WAY IN<br />Designers seem to have a hard time getting into ecology as way of working. The informal allows us a way into the discussion. The word 'informal' seems to stand in for the larger economic, political, environmental, and social contexts that designers cannot fully account for and thus control. This condition then produces many products including built environments.<br /><br />Using the shorthand 'informal' gives us a way into the problem. We can strategically choose some of the systems to act upon and be flexible to account for the rest. This is what I think Koolhaas means when he talks about the formal and informal growing together.<br /><br />Koolhas says that he learned that lesson after going to <a href="http://fruitfulcontradictions.blogspot.com/2008/12/makoko-slum.html">Lagos</a>. However, his design for <a href="http://www.oma.eu/index.php?option=com_projects&view=project&id=644&Itemid=10">La Villette </a>was already trying to design such a condition. The design provides the minimum infrastructure required while allowing major sections of the park to change as economy, community, and political-will allow.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvVGI3DQXPOR2Ih0SHxPmuJ_MYAnm55RljlbxX0EXDFEjjFTL4oqZDA17jYgE2U9cll_woidAciENRq9ppmj3YpWHX63Hj_Gnip8vwWm6vPaErPXG6st-VsOEPpRZ6oNLrhpaTkI5WikY/s1600-h/La+Villette+perspective.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 302px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvVGI3DQXPOR2Ih0SHxPmuJ_MYAnm55RljlbxX0EXDFEjjFTL4oqZDA17jYgE2U9cll_woidAciENRq9ppmj3YpWHX63Hj_Gnip8vwWm6vPaErPXG6st-VsOEPpRZ6oNLrhpaTkI5WikY/s400/La+Villette+perspective.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320928951052772402" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">framing informality, OMA's La Villette</span><br /><br />2- WESTERN ANXIETY<br />Kwinter officially declared NYC dead <a href="http://www.archinect.com/schoolblog/entry.php?id=87421_0_39_0_C345">last night</a>. He says that it is because it is a boring place now. Such a strong statement has to have a cause larger than a few porn shops turning into Disney stores.<br /><br />Maybe the statement has to more to do with anxiety around the failure of the formal structures in the West. Populations are dropping, immigration increasing, manufacturing and economic strength shifting to other nations. Western nations are facing a changing culture at home and a shifting power structure abroad. As formal structures fail informal systems take over (<a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=1&q=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/us/26tents.html%3Fpartner%3Drss%26emc%3Drss&ei=ocTXSePEI9fqlQfAtdnlDA&usg=AFQjCNG3fQjGa49bBcj2SSPCdNA-6fM3SQ">American Tent Cities</a> in NYT).<br /><br />This anxiety was partially at display <a href="http://www.archinect.com/schoolblog/entry.php?id=87421_0_39_0_C345">last night</a>. Koolhaas, Bhabha, and Kwinter talked about Lagos and Mumbai with excitement and interest, about New York and Europe with a measure of pessimism. Studies in the informal are a way to then anticipate and mediate changes in Western cities as well as in developing nations.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://thecityfix.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/busy-mumbai.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 399px; height: 299px;" src="http://thecityfix.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/busy-mumbai.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Mumbai Street Life</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgARM7s6cBaXyRAnXZWj9yxDtvJt0iup_LNCkhwMQGd86yUXxOKLT3kZLLoWBh2W2GoX7SmVMf5mbxpqLI2auSJY8Cq4JS3J9zEKttg4ndOu4ip5hJmo6Zmj7U-Zp-ChcjXsnJWhK92r_E/s1600-h/times-square+night.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgARM7s6cBaXyRAnXZWj9yxDtvJt0iup_LNCkhwMQGd86yUXxOKLT3kZLLoWBh2W2GoX7SmVMf5mbxpqLI2auSJY8Cq4JS3J9zEKttg4ndOu4ip5hJmo6Zmj7U-Zp-ChcjXsnJWhK92r_E/s400/times-square+night.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320930413323561746" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">New York as Mall</span><br /><br />3- PREEMPTING TOP-DOWN ECOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS<br />I wrote earlier about <a href="http://gsd-ecologicalurbanism.blogspot.com/2009/04/when-ecological-optimism-gives-way-to.html">Slave City and its dystopian look at the future of Ecological Cities</a>. It shows what can happen when the need for efficiency becomes the primary concern of the formal urban, architectural, and social structures.<br /><br />I think that all the talk about informality is trying to preempt such a scenario. It is partly about the humility by designers that Koolhaas and Kwinter called for <a href="http://www.archinect.com/schoolblog/entry.php?id=87421_0_39_0_C345">last night</a>. They are telling designers that they will really never know everything about a condition, there is no reason design as if you do... there are intelligences out there as great as your own.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.dezeen.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/cc_sleep_work-1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 278px;" src="http://www.dezeen.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/cc_sleep_work-1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;">Slave City - Model Work Sleep Unit<br /></span>qhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10573208186052406603noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-23231345371690273252009-04-04T15:46:00.001-04:002009-04-04T15:48:25.528-04:00Herbet Dreiseitl: Landscape Architecture needs to happen firstyes!ilanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03138922396198388112noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-39982499811443990592009-04-04T15:04:00.002-04:002009-04-04T15:06:34.155-04:00Since we're discussing food right now, I'd like to recommend my friend <a href="http://www.mundaneethnography.com/">Melissa's blog</a>. She studies the anthropology of food at the University of Chicago and her blog follows a lot of the interesting work in the social sciences dealing with food.onetenchelseahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233097411571147027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-37270834888974242122009-04-04T14:40:00.002-04:002009-04-04T14:44:25.865-04:00...and BEESre: <a href="http://gsd-ecologicalurbanism.blogspot.com/2009/04/chickens.html">Chickens</a>. I should also note that another easy-to-raise agricultural creature is the Bee. Urban beekeeping is essential to developing a system of urban agriculture. However, In NYC it is illegal to raise bees, as they are legally considered venomous insects. Just Food has a <a href="http://www.justfood.org/issues/index.html">petition</a> to change that. If you care about developing local food systems in our nation's larger city, I encourage you to sign.ilanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03138922396198388112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-37368409185723231702009-04-04T14:25:00.001-04:002009-04-04T14:26:34.344-04:00Homer's Second Appearance at the Conference"...turning crisis into opportunity" <br />– Harvard President Drew Gilpen Faust<br /><br />"Yes… Crisatunity"<br />– Homer Simpsononetenchelseahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233097411571147027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-46431384614506359632009-04-04T14:00:00.003-04:002009-04-04T23:39:31.072-04:00Farming the horizontal planeI was delighted to hear members of the panel on Productive Urban Environments seriously discuss urban agriculture in the context of a design conference without obsessing over the potentials of vertical gardens and mega farm towers in the city. It was an exciting discussion, which mentioned the work of brilliant community based organizations such as <a href="http://www.growingpower.org/">Growing Power</a> and New York City's Council on the Environment's <a href="http://www.cenyc.org/greenmarket/nfdp">New Farmer Development Project</a>. Vibrant community based organizations are not designing tower farms in the sky. They are BUILDING them on the ground. While designers are fantasizing about <a href="http://www.mvrdv.nl/_v2/projects/181_pigcity/index.html">pigs</a> floating high above us, community organizers and educators at <a href="http://www.eastnewyorkfarms.org/">East New York Farms!</a>, <a href="http://www.added-value.org/">Added Value</a>, <a href="http://www.thefoodproject.org/">The Food Project</a>, the <a href="http://www.peoplesgrocery.org/">People's Grocery</a> and many other organizations are making food system change happen right now.<br /><br />What is the role that designers can play in this bottom up movement? As my <a href="http://72.167.142.101/article.php?article_id=102">interviews </a>with Deborah Greig and Owen Taylor - two urban farmers, educators, and local food advocates - about the Work AC installation at PS1 illustrate, there is an wary enthusiasm amongst the local food community around the designer input into urban agriculture. <br /><br />This morning Nina-Marie Lister outlined for us some opportunities of designers and planners. We can map interstitial spaces in cities and facilitate growth of these community based, bottom-up systems. But is that all? Can't we do more?ilanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03138922396198388112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-83848708004804806102009-04-04T13:30:00.001-04:002009-04-04T13:32:43.701-04:00I have to disagree with <a href="http://gsd-ecologicalurbanism.blogspot.com/2009/04/good-quotes-from-day.html">Ilana</a> on the first panel and with <a href="http://gsd-ecologicalurbanism.blogspot.com/2009/04/nature-society.html">Matthew’s</a> characterization that “ecology is approached… as a matter of existential praxis.” I felt that the first panel, in fact, tended to reinforce what Kwinter later called the “false dichotomy,” negating much of its value in my opinion and showing just how deep the diametrically opposed Thoreauian conceptions of nature and city run. During the keynote, on the other hand, many of the issues that I hoped would be raised during this conference where, from the role of capital to showing alternatives to the nature/city dualism. <br /><br />As the sole planner writing about the conference, I have to admit that I was a little concerned about having an architect and a literary critic delivering the keynote at conference that is specifically urban. For someone who studies the city full time, architect’s presentations on urbanism can, at times, seem woefully naïve. Setting aside the (admitted) irony of Rem Koolhaas declaring an end to starcatecture, I was extremely impressed by the nuance and depth of his presentation, as well as the ease of his movement between the architectural and urban scales with clarity. <br /><br />I especially enjoyed the short look at the California Academy of Sciences building as well as the characterization that we have too often “equated literal greening” with ecological sustainability. I recently saw a project that included significant introduction of northern American foliage to a park in Albuquerque with the goal of “greening” the city. Yes, perhaps the color green will abound, but only at a huge environmental cost to create the necessary ecosystem for it to exist in that climate. This, as Koolhaas said, is the “artificiality to which we’ve become accustomed.”onetenchelseahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18233097411571147027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-63084872846509754692009-04-04T12:25:00.004-04:002009-04-04T12:30:18.878-04:00CHICKENS!I'll post some more links later, but the panel about the productive city makes me want to share the work that some very exciting organizations are doing throughout North America<br /><br />In New York Just Food is working hard to make it possible for people to raise their own <a href="http://www.justfood.org/cityfarms/chickens/">chickens</a> in the city.ilanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03138922396198388112noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3040174315968439674.post-738105011610356682009-04-04T11:20:00.003-04:002009-04-04T12:41:49.936-04:00Excluded ThirdsWe continuously bring up the city-nature dyad only to lament the exclusion of a third term. Practically anything can be framed as the excluded third of a dialectic pair. This is how post-Enlightenment thought works. Sanford Kwinter, in his opening address to the keynote, argued that what is excluded by the "false dichotomy" of technology and nature is nothing less than the "social and cultural dimension" itself. I would argue, to the contrary, that ecology is typically approached today as a matter of existential praxis - even by those technocrats and hippies that in the end address ecological problems within the narrow means of the technology-nature dyad. The problem is one of feasibility: a technological or naturalist scope each yield results that are implementable in our liberal/capitalist world, while an "existential ecology" yields unbuilt utopia. I would argue that the blind spot Sanford points out does not in fact exist; scratch a technocratic or hippie environmentalist and you will find the sensibility of a deep ecologist.<br /><br />Rem Koolhaas thankfully presented a resolutely hybrid interpretation of ecology. His argument incorporated a narrative of "reasonable progress" and a narrative of "disasters," each of which contained a social/cultural dimension. Rem's excluded third was the pairing of knowledge with ambition: he lamented the "devastating effect on knowledge" of ways of working with informal architecture that occurred during the growth of the market economy post-1970. The ways of quantifying ecology developed during the 60s were not advanced beyond a touchingly naive stage. The ambition to carry out large scale projects with serious ecological impact - exemplified by Buckminster Fuller - imploded during the same period.<br /><br />Both Sanford and Rem argued in a way that carved out a niche for themselves, one as a practitioner of the formal where it intersects with the informal, the other as a theorist working on the specific social and cultural dimensions of the science of ecology.<br /><br />Homi Bhabha spoke with greater disinterest and less directness; I will need to look over his argument once again before I begin to understand it.Matthew Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10597234090058444736noreply@blogger.com0