Class Notes: November 28, 2011

Urban/Rural Health

Critical Regionalism

1.)  Culture and Civilization

a.     Skyscraper and highway – efficiency

                                               i.     Highest and Best Value

b.     Progress – Growth

                                               i.     Civilization – reason/ration

                                              ii.     Culture – collective – expressions at a difference pace

2.)  Avant Garde –Rise and Fall

a.     Arts & Crafts, not Neoclassicism or Universal

                                               i.     Local and Slow

b.     The Modern Project – Corbusier

                                               i.     Art = Art

3.)  World Culture and C.R.

a.     C.R., assimilation + C.R. not equal to reactionary

b.     Identity-giving, through dialogue = physical, social, and environmental

c.      Regionalism not equal to abstract vernacular - local, universal regional, abstract

d.     Facade, modular

4.)  Against Form

a.     Resistant arch = clearly defined form

5.)  Culture + Nature

a.     Tabularasa - clean slate

6.)  Visual Over Tactile

a.     Sensory engagement, how you hear yourself in a space.

What is this Architecture Resisting?

1.)  Simple, regressive past/nostalgic

2.)   Simple progress, assimilating

3.)  Meaningless/placelessness (discovered this isn’t a word), over abstraction

4.)  Passive architecture

Critical Reg.

1.)   Local, universal balance/dialogue

2.)  Bring meaning-identify

3.)   Medium to express ideas

Response to a Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance and Landscape as Urbanism

Response to a Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance:

In regards to question number two, Tzonis and Lefaivre state that, “Regionalism has dominated architecture in almost all countries at some time during the past two centuries and a half.” As a “general definition we can say that it upholds the individual and local architectonic features against more universal and abstract ones… Despite these limitations, critical regionalism is a bridge over which any humanistic architecture of the future must pass (Page 20).”

I think that architecture can’t move into the future without first understanding architecture of the past.  We have to learn how to merge new architecture with old architecture and make it some how related to the existing conditions of the area where the architecture is to be built.  For example: the new MassART residence hall doesn’t fit in with it’s surroundings and stands out like a sore thumb.  I personally think that the building should have conformed the height of the buildings around it and the façade of the building, in my mind, will be out dated in the next decade. 

Response to Landscape as Urbanism:

Stan Allen of Princeton University states, “Increasingly, landscape is merging as a model for urbanism.  Landscape has traditionally defined as the art of organizing horizontal surfaces… By paying close attention to these surface conditions – not only configuration, but also materiality and performance – designers can activate space and produce urban effects without the weighty apparatus of traditional space making (Page 37).”

         Landscaping around a building ties the building to it’s surroundings.  A building without landscape makes the building look like it could be picked up and plopped onto another site.  Creating a green space is just as important as creating a building.  If Boston, or any other city for this matter, didn’t have green spaces, such as parks, we would live in a dismal and dull.  Can you imagine living in a place with no greenery or water?  I can’t.

Response to Absence, Urban Space, and Civil Participation in Rabin Square and The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space

Absence, Urban Space, and Civil Participation in Rabin Square

The square was meant to be a space “intended as an urban social instrument (page 26).”  There are many different parts to the square that were determined by three different competitions.  The first was in 1947 and the main goal was to create a continuous façade around the site.  This was a great idea, but the spaces and local shops around the square ended up getting more business and use than the square.  The second competition was focused more on the plaza itself and third was focused on a building for city hall.  I think that by having city hall on the plaza, it makes the plaza a more political environment.  Using Tel Aviv in comparison to Boston city hall, I get the same feeling.  Both environments are uninviting and cold, in my experience with Boston city hall.  I think that both plazas should attempt to be more inviting and less cold.  I think that having a park in front of the buildings would be more beneficial and welcoming to the public.  The spaces would become livelier than what they are now.  Boston city hall always seems to be dead and the reading states, “The empty plaza stands in…contrast with the lively space around it (page 27).”  The reading gives the impression that the plaza is empty most of the time and that the spaces around the plaza are livelier.

The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space

In regards to question four of the reading question, author D. Mitchell says that the right to housing is a privately owned things that the public have a right to control if things happen to get out of hand.  This means that police can come and can control any type of disturbance.  This concept is much different than the right to inhabit since, this right says that it is where one lives that makes it one’s home, but this can also be controlled by the public, because this can be considered squatting in or on someone else’s private property.

Back Bay Project Guidelines

Areas of Study (One Block)

Sophie: Newbury Street

Jillian: Commonwealth Ave

Matt: Esplanade on the Charles River

Individual Interviews (5 each)

Please ask at least 5 questions.

Name

Age

Occupation

Where do you live?  Town or Street?

1)   What draws you to this (location)?

2)   What to you use this (location) for?

3)   What is your favorite thing about the Back Bay Neighborhood?

4)   Residents:  Why have you chosen to live in Back Bay?

a.     How long have you lived here?

5)   Tourists: What made you want to come visit Back Bay?

6)   What type of transportation do you use to get to Back Bay?

a.     What type of transportation do you use once you are here?

7)   How often you to visit the Back Bay area?

8)   Is there anything you would want to see change?

9)   What would you say is the boundary to the Back Bay Neighborhood?

a.     Activity:  Draw Back Bay how you think of it.

10)                   What’s one word that you would use to describe Back Bay?

a.     What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Back Bay?

Observations

-       At Least Stream of consciousness

-       At Least One Sketch

-       Unlimited Photos

Analysis

-       Analyze People Types and Circulation in addition to one more Mode of Analysis

Sophie, Jillian, and Matt

I.                   Public Space Projects

A.                 The Red Swing Project

·      Strive to positively impact under-utilized public spaces with simple red swings.

·      Red swing remains the constant while the environmental backdrops and cultural contexts change from place to place.

B.                 Before I Die…

·      Before I Die transformed a neglected space into a constructive one to help improve our neighborhood and our personal well-being.

·      Stenciled with the sentence “Before I die I want to _______”, the wall became a space where we could learn the hopes and dreams of the people around us.

C.                 I Wish This Was…

·      These stickers are an easy tool to voice what you want, where you want it. Just fill them out and put them on abandoned buildings and beyond

·      The stickers are custom vinyl and they can be easily removed without damaging property

D.                Street Chairs

·      Intervention of Chairs in streets and parks.

·      Pictures of Chairs or and Actual Chair

II.               For the “Public good”

A.                See Click Fix – Involving Communities in Neighborhood Decisions

·      See a Problem in your city and report it to fix it.  Much like a work order list.

·      The city will respond, saying whether or not the problem will be fixed

B.                Amplifying Creative Communities 

·      They are creating more sustainable ways of living and working for themselves.

·      Creative Communities are groups of citizens whose actions bring positive change to their neighborhoods and the environment.

III.            Collaboration

A.                 Ioby brings environmental projects to life, block by block.

·      We represent a new face for change—one that’s hopeful, positive…and visible

·      All of these projects are conceived, designed, and run by neighbors—which ensures community buy-in, long-term caretakers and daily reminders of what’s been achieved

IV.             Communication

A.                 Information Networks

1.                  Engaging Cities

·      An online magazine that shares creative strategies and new technologies to foster public engagement for livable communities

·      Our goal is to inspire urban planners, architects, developers, educators, economists, and policy makers to apply new approaches and technologies in ways that make community development more participatory, collaborative, and effective

2.                  Polis

·      A collaborative blog about cities, with a global scope

·      Cities are as old as civilization, but 2009 is the year we officially became anurban species. As cities grow and the globe shrinks, we hope to be part of the conversation.

3.                  CoLabRadio

·      A site where people who are committed to improving cities and communities can express their ideas and share their projects

·      Sometimes the routes we take are not so obvious. We encounter barriers. Alternate paths present themselves. Our travels may even seem counter-intuitive.

V.                Education  

A.                 Jane’s Walk

·      Celebrates the ideas and legacy of urbanist Jane Jacobs by getting people out exploring their neighborhoods and meeting their neighbors

·      The walks helps knit people together into a strong and resourceful community, instilling belonging and encouraging civic leadership

VI.             Mapping

A.                 Green Map 

·      Creates adaptable map-making processes, accessible tools and universal icons that allow local Green Map teams to identify and share information about the green living sites and natural, cultural and social resources in their communities

·      Helps local teams to gain valuable skills in collaborative decision-making, project management, community organizing and communications as part of their map-making process

VII.         Blurring Boundaries / Exchange Value-Use Value

A.                 Land Share – share land for people who will use it

·      Landshare brings together people who have a passion for home-grown food, connecting those who have land to share with those who need land for cultivating food

·      For people who want to grow their own fruit and veg but don’t have anywhere to do it

 Found Intervention

Park(ing)

·      One of the more critical issues facing outdoor urban human habitat is the dearth of space for humans to rest, relax, or just do nothing

·      An investigation into reprogramming a typical unit of private vehicular space by leasing a metered parking spot for public recreational acti

Response to Once and Future Kings

New Orleans in the 1990’s tried to pass a law making all carnival festivities equal for all.  Eliminating the private sector of all “discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation (page 242)” The public people ignored this law, because they thought, “carnival tradition ought to supersede the law (page 242).”  This resulted “in a ethnically complex and divided city… for the playing out of the cultural politics of social identity and difference (page 243).”

            Carnival and law seem to largely contradict themselves.  Carnival is “limited only by human imagination or stamina (whichever exhausts itself first) (page 243).”  This seems to “apparently flourishes beyond the law, above the law and even against the law (page 243).”  With this idea the “common people become powerful and the powerful people become ridiculous (page 243).”

            Carnival, itself, becomes the law, based on the “historical process: in earlier times, especially under slavery, many carnivalesque practices were unpunished illegalities (page 244).”  Today this concept has made carnival a law.  Carnival traditions still “asserts and enforces historical claims of entitlement, priority and exclusivity (page 245).” 

            In regards to the racial politics; it still exists in today’s Mardi Gras celebrates and lives silently in the community “on a year round basis (page 245).”

            The people of New Orleans “are ‘conditioned’ to restrain themselves to innocent fun (page 246)” until Mardi Gras arrives, where the people unleash themselves mental and physical.  They throw beads, cups, coins and other souvenirs from the floats and balconies into the streets for the people to claim.  “Grown men plead for these rifles.  Young women flirt with the masked riders, and now some expose their breasts, bartering for the prized tokens (page 256).”  These women, who flash their breasts to those who throw the beads, have become known as “Bead Whores (page 256).”

Response to "The Social Functions of NIMBYism" and "One country, twenty innovative public space management authorities"

Response to The Social Functions of NIMBYism

When a developer begins a project there usually is a meeting with the neighborhood that the project is being developed in.  When there is a meeting, people of the neighborhood will “complain” they didn’t get the notice of meeting until the last minute.  I can relate to this because sometimes I feel that if it is a town meeting the noticed aren’t posted in good areas for advertisement or you have to know where to look.  At any type of meeting there is usually a controversial item that people can’t seem to agree upon or come to a mutual agreement, and usually this disagreement happens because the topic at hand has a personal impact on one or more people.  Another point to make is that different meetings attract many different people based on the topics on the agenda.

Response to One country, twenty innovative public space management authorities

One study on a town that I thought was very interesting was the study on Greenwich.  The town monitors the graffiti and gives cleaning supplies to “young people… to help clear up the problem areas in local social housing estates, schools and youth clubs.  In some places graffiti is give a wall or area that graffiti artists are allowed to call their canvas and spray away to the hearts content.  While other places have no way of controlling the areas or the amount of graffiti that is being spray-painted.  I think that educating the spray paint artist is a good idea, because the removal process takes a while and there are different ways for removing graffiti from different materials.