The City Of São Paulo dances to the tune of washed out neon; Dancing Cities project by Brazilian artist Brüno Melo is a series of GIFs which with flashing washed-out colors and broken lines deconstruct the buildings that constantly crop up in the cityscape of modern day São Paulo. The images are both beautiful, stressful and mesmerizing and even though they are completely without sound, creating a rhythm and flow that makes you feel like dancing. Follow the link – or click on images – to see the GIFs in motion http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/the-city-of

Image Courtesy Brüno Melo and Creators Project

Image Courtesy Brüno Melo and Creators Project

Roads to nowhere: ‘Cul-de-Sacs’ – Love them or hate them? Two writers in opposition gives us their view upon growing up and living in this staple of the suburban landscape. – short and fun article from TheGuardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2006/jul/17/communities.homes

Mapping Barcelona Street Art and Onist Film look into the street art of Barcelona, the definition of street art and the ancient antagonism between street artists and governments. Follow links to an interesting read by co-producer and project manager Ian Currie and to a trailer for the documentary ‘Las Calles Hablan’ – that is available for free for all to enjoy (see link at the bottom of post). In the same way that the street artist leave and impression on us, the public, at no cost. http://www.mbpa.es/DOCUMENTARY - http://thisbigcity.net/the-ancient-antagonism-between-street-artists-and-governments/ 

Link to ‘Las Calles Hablan’ in full length https://vimeo.com/60149775

Enjoy!

Since we first met Coralie and Ryan from Gapfiller in Christchurch in May 2011 we’ve watched them go from strength to strength. They were prominently featured in our film, and we are thoroughly impressed with the way in which they have gone about transforming many empty sites left by the earthquake into unique, creative, lively, community places. They are now in need of some help maintaining their biggest project to date – The Pallet Pavillion. See the message from Coralie below. We’ll be supporting them, and we hope you can too.

Gap Filler’s Pallet Pavilion was built in late 2012 by 250+ volunteers using 3000 wooden pallets. It was conceived to respond to the loss of venues for live music and community events in post-quake Christchurch.  An extremely ambitious project, it has been an incredible success.  It has had amazing media coverage, too with features in Australian Geographic, Cuisine, the Daily Mail, the Weekend Australian and more.

More than 25 000 people have visited in just 5 months and it has hosted more than 100 events from live music to markets to children’s parties to lectures. 45 volunteers have contributed to it running across the Summer.

The Pavilion is a temporary project and its deconstruction was due to take place in May this year. So NOW in other words.  But across March and April many people have asked if we can keep the Pavilion in the space for another year.

But we can’t afford to keep it. So we’re putting it to you, our friends, fans, supporters and community to help us raise the money needed and also spread the word.

If you would like to support the Pavilion please go to https://www.pledgeme.co.nz/1064  and watch a beautiful little video about it.

- Coralie Winn, Gapfiller.

If you find yourself in Copenhagen these days, you might have noticed that people are behaving a little bit differently. It seems as if more people are smiling, holding their heads up a little higher, walking a little slower and just standing around – at corners, up against walls, coming  up from the metro etc., all because they want to enjoy the first rays of spring sun. This of course raises numerous questions… Where are they standing? Do more women than men stop to rest? Are they walking more slowly? What factors in the built environment can make us stop and enjoy the sun and the city life?

At the end of May, the Danish publisher Bogværket will publish the book Bylivsstudier by Jan Gehl and Birgitte Svarre. The book is filled with inspiration on how to go out in the city and study city life. In the fall, the book will be out in the US, published by Island Press and titled How to study public life. The book both presents tools on how to study the relationship between the built form and life, as well as a historic perspective on the field of city life studies.

This is what Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University, Peter Newman writes about the book:

“For decades the Public Space Public Life Studies developed by Jan Gehl and his team in Copenhagen have been a great inspiration for professionals, academics and city planners in all parts of the world. I have experienced their work in several cities but have never known how they do it. Now all is revealed and their secret tools are available to everyone in “How to Study Public Life”. It’s just a matter now of getting out there and putting them to use.”

While we wait for the book to be released, we invite you to comment on how you have studied city life. Have you made any interesting observations; do you have references of interesting studies or reflections on different types of methods? For instance manual versus automatic; qualitative versus quantitative studies; Observations or interviews. We would love to know more about your experiences of studying public life!

Many Danish cities are currently redeveloping their libraries or building new ones. The library is no longer a house of books, but a framework for learning, for new as well as old knowledge – both in digital and traditional book formats. We have seen many examples recently of new, library building formats in Seattle, USA, in Haag in Holland as well as the Idea Stores in London to mention a few.

In Denmark, there are also discussions about the role of the library in the neighborhood, in the city and in society in general. How can the library work as a meeting place and enrich public life? How can libraries be more integrated into the city both in daily life as well as in the overall strategies? These were some of the questions that were debated at The Danish Library Association’s big cultural conference in Odense, Denmark’s third largest city with app. 170.000 inhabitants, on the 23^rd April. Librarians, politicians and planners gathered and debated themes such as library design – interior as well as exterior, as well as how library related activities can take place in the city, and how new partnerships can bring about renewed synergies.

The library can be seen as a public space. It is one of the few non-commercial spaces in the city and also one of the few places with silence zones and no ringing mobile phones (more might come…). Then there is the democratic dimension, the libraries are where a mix of ages, income groups, young and old share the same place. The potential seems to exist for the libraries to play an even more vital and active role as public spaces. This was the conclusion at the conference in Odense, where one of the key strategies of the city, is to select a new location for a central library that would help Odense  to transform from industrial city to a city that has a broader profile and that is rooted in knowledge, culture and education.

The libraries will definitely play a role as one of the few non-commercial public spaces in the future, but the role might vary from city to city, from neighborhood to neighborhood etc.

The Danish Library Association is an organisation which lobbies for libraries, in particular public libraries: Read more here: http://db.dk/

I stumbled upon this really interesting article about Eco Visualization: Aesthetics for sustainability. Eco-visualizations place the use of resources in the lives of viewers, trying to connect the abstract “plundering of our natural environment” with daily life. It is defined as artwork that respond to ecological data by reinterpreting them through new technological and artistic means, with the aim of educating and actually changing consumer behavior. The article describes a variety of projects of both larger urban scale as well as smaller projects relating more directly to daily life of a single person, putting direct visualizations on our ecological footprints. http://urbanomnibus.net/2013/04/eco-visualization-aesthetics-for-sustainability/

7000 oaks and counting | Courtesy of Tiffany Holmes

Laser Forest by Marshmallow Laser Feast is a captivating visual and auditive experience. The project is an interactive installation that involves 150 rods that when touched trigger both light and audio cues, effectively creating a large interactive instrument, based on spectator engagement. See link for more beautiful images and a video of the installation in action. http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/exploring-new-canvases-meet-marshmallow-laser-feast

Photo courtesy of Marshmallow Laser Feast

This weeks’ last link is to a blog post by Visual News on the street art of Julien “Seth” Malland. Malland is a socially conscious street artist that journeys the world and spends periods of time in different locations, getting to know the local community, then creating lively and colorful pieces displaying children to ‘liven up’ the communities. See links for more of Mallands beautiful pieces. http://www.visualnews.com/2013/04/29/julian-mallard-and-his-street-art-go-around-the-world/  –  http://www.globepainter.com/#/?id=1

Photo courtesy of Julien “Seth” Malland

Enjoy your weekend!

Inspired by all the smiling faces I met biking to work this morning, this weeks’ Friday Fun features a bunch of links related to bikes and cycling.

Great Ideas; “Can a bicycle make up for everything a car have done? The Carma Project believes it can”. This Lisbon based project is using scraps of old cars to build brand new bikes, with the mission of compensating for the emissions lead out by the car. Everyone can join in and ride ‘a mile for a mile’.  http://renewpurpose.com/blog/bicycles-built-from-old-car-parts/ - http://carma-project.com/

Inspiring Companies; Ride a bike and change the world! Buenos Aires based La Vida en Bici launched Bikestorming.org at the Rio +20 summit.  ‘Bikestorming.org is about creating a systemic, global change on urban mobility for sustainable cities of the 21^st century’ – by having 51% of the worlds’ population biking by year 2030! Check out their www: http://www.bikestorming.org/ - http://lavidaenbici.com/

Blog Love; The Guardian Bike blog is packed with interesting articles, facts and figures and useful tips on how to maintain your bike. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog.

This article from the Bike blog takes up the issue of how to get more children in GB to ride their bikes to school. “Only 1% of children aged 5-10 and 3% of children aged 11-15 cycle to school, even though the average distance travelled is just three miles. Aside from the obvious physical health benefits, the CTC believes cycling can help “confidence, independence and sense of self-worth”…….. With 45% of children currently travelling by car contributing to 29% of traffic between 8-9am, encouraging more children to cycle to school would reduce local congestion and pollution.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2013/apr/12/children-cycling-school-run

Cities; on another note and the complete opposite of my morning experience of a lively Copenhagen is; ‘visions of cities without people’. Artist and photographer duo Lucie & Simon have created this post-apocalyptic series entitled ‘Silent World’ showing famous places in major metropolises emptied from the people that make them vibrant and lively.  http://www.lucieandsimon.com/works/silent_world

Data & Infographics; last but not least a wonderful diagram showing the simplicity of bicycle planning in Denmark from Copenhagenize:  http://www.copenhagenize.com/2013/04/the-copenhagenize-bicycle-planning-guide.html

For more Friday Fun, check out the Gehl Pinterest http://pinterest.com/gehlarchitects/

Have a great sunny weekend and be sure to send some smiles back, I know I will!

With a  background in architectural engineering I feel the need to give the blog an injection in the form of engineered urban methodology – not to worry it will be a diet version…. for now. So why this urge? It has become more and more common to think of sustainability in different aspects. Certification systems underline the importance of this by weighting and giving points for economically, socially and environmentally sustainable actions. Last year the Danish Green Building Council decided to work with the German certification system DGNB – Urban Districts which through 45 criteria (and many more sub-criteria) tries to reach every corner of these 3 sustainability aspects. So an urban space to die in would be a hodgepodge of best practice innovative architectural engineered elements.

Some of the points are already widely implemented in urban design and others are pop-up thoughts:

1. Neighbourhood Technical Core
A local technical core which displays the current incoming amount of wind power. This display will raise the awareness of renewable energy sources and will have low energy consuming LEDs which will glow more intensely the more the wind blows and thereby will have an embedded educational effect. By having a local technical core the adjustment to transition to a new power system are easy to handle.

2. Wind Adjusting Screens
To increase to the perfect breeze in (too) hot summer days.
To calm the wind in the midseason, to extend the outdoor season.

3. Waste Management
Instead of individual waste containers, the trash is separated in each home and at almost un-noticeable neighbourhood waste bins, the trash is thrown into a waste system where the waste is shredded and compressed and transported by suction to a local waste centre.

4. Local Rainwater Management
Instead of overloading with rainwater it can be detained in basins for evaporation or seepage. It can be obtained by vegetation or after a natural filtration system is used in a recreational function such as a paddling pool.

5. Stormwater Management
To prevent overflowing streets and severe damage to buildings the public space will be lowered and serve as an emergency stormwater basin from where the water slowly seeps into the ground or evaporates.

6. Pontoon Bridge
When the public space is overflowing with storm water the pontoon will adjust with the water level and ensure safe crossing and dry feet.

7. Bioreactor Installations
Algae growing when exposed to sunlight – from this process heat can be harvested and the biomass can be extracted and transported to a biofuel production site.

8. Heated Pavement
Surplus heating from the surrounding buildings is lead into the pavement to prevent it from becoming dangerously icy during winter. It will remove the need to salt the streets which speeds up the deterioration of the streets and messes up ecology, your footwear, your dog’s paws and last but certainly not least, for a Copenhagen resident it completely ruins your bike!

9. Noise Reducing Pavement
To prevent the many adverse effects on human health by traffic noise in the city.

10.  Wave Energy / Stepping Stones / Kayaking Docks
To harvest energy from the movement of waves and making these generators directly usable for citizens.

11.   Tempered Street Furniture
By using thermal mass in street furniture they could be perfectly tempered.

12.   Playground / Street Fitness/ Piezo-electric Pavement
By walking on the street or interacting with instruments on the playground (trampolines, swings) piezo-electric systems are activated and provide power to the street light.

13.  Green Surfaces
The lung of the city, filtrating the air. Casts shadow during hot summer days. Local food production; community vegetable gardens/ beekeeping on rooftops – bees more easily process pollution than pesticides.

14.  Light Reflective Elements
For narrow streets where sun and daylight haven’t been prioritised, highly reflective materials and/ or shapes will cast light down to the street.

15.  Non-toxic materials
Keep away from materials which cause acidification of the ground.

The documentary, The Human Scale, has been selected for the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto and will be screened several times in May. If you happen to find yourself in Toronto, we invite you to go and see the film. Our own Culture & Communication Manager, Vannesa Ahuactzin, will be attending the screening on May 5th at 9 p.m. For tickets, locations and further information click on the link:

http://www.hotdocs.ca/film/title/human_scale

A neighbourhood street in Palermo Viejo

Project manager at Gehl Architects, Louise Vogel Kielgast, has spent the past 3 and a-half months in Buenos Aires. Aside from appreciating the very unique urban character that characterizes Buenos Aires one theme was recurrent in most conversations: seguridad – from discussions over the choice of neighborhood to live in (“Why have you chosen to live in this neighborhood (Palermo Soho) and not Recoleta or Puerto Madero?”) to choice of holiday destination (“Punta del Este is great because it’s safe”) to general discussions of the development of Buenos Aires (“the city is just not so safe anymore..”) to urban planning discussions (“before addressing anything else we need to think about security”). The issue of safety or security is not unique to Buenos Aires – rather it seems to be one of the most pressing issues to tackle in many cities around the world (and definitely in Latin America) and thus one to be addressed. But the many comments kept me puzzled. Is Buenos Aires really that unsafe or is it also people’s perceptions of insecurity that are on the rise? And what is the most appropriate response to this inseguridad?

Whether there’s a discrepancy between statistics on safety and people’s perceptions of security is debatable, but the important thing is that statistics as well as perceptions influence the way that the city evolves and the ways that people generally perceive and use the city. In recent years the number of street police has increased tremendously in Buenos Aires, but the issue of security also manifests itself in other ways. Many of the new apartment buildings that are being built these years are small gated communities with a fence around, or if that is not possible, they will at least have security personnel who oversee people leaving and entering. This type of development is taking place both when renewing older neighborhoods and when building new city areas on the outskirts of the city. Apparently people are not only one of people’s greatest joys but also one of people’s fears.

When fighting security in cities like Buenos Aires, these fears must be taken seriously, but there seems to be a risk of escalating fear and crime if this gated community trend continues. Could we perhaps not fight back these trends by stressing and reinforcing the joy side of being with other people? Areas like Palermo Viejo that are quiet and walkable yet extremely lively and full of people who enjoy the many attractive public spaces with cafés, shops, restaurants, markets, children playing etc. demonstrate that people do like meeting other people in the public space. But it seems like these types of urban environments are taken somewhat for granted, and perhaps this is a place to start? Perhaps we need to create more awareness of and nurture the urban qualities that these types of neighborhoods offer. This is a task that politicians and planners can’t handle alone; the awareness has to reach a broader public – reach all those people who spend time in the city every day, and who eventually have to use and take care of the public spaces.

Another Latin American city, Bogota, has successfully up-graded many of its public spaces, thus demonstrating the potential of public space to act as a social equalizer in the city. Improving streets for people to walk and public spaces for people to spend time in is not a luxury, but a prerequisite for people (of different social and cultural backgrounds) to meet and through these meetings possibly minimizing the growing fear between people.

The City of Buenos Aires is currently taking the first steps of implementing a comprehensive plan for Micro Centro, which aims at making this part of the city more pedestrian friendly. Along with a number of other initiatives that strive to improve the public spaces in the area this seems like a step in the right direction of avoiding both safety and sense of security to escalate.