PUBLIC SPACE AS A CATALYST FOR CHANGE
METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR URBAN QUALITIES
Helle Juul, creative director, Ph.D & Kristine Samson, Industrial Ph.D.
Performative Aesthetics in Urban Space
JUULFROST Architects
JUUL  FROST Architects David Ferner / KIT

PUBLIC SPACE AS A CATALYST FOR CHANGE
METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR URBAN QUALITIES
CITY
URBANITY AND SUSTAINABILITY
JuulIFrost arkitekter
JUUL  FROST Architects

PUBLIC SPACE AS A CATALYST FOR CHANGE
METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR URBAN QUALITIES
JUUL|FROSTARCHITECTS
Kgl. Porcelænsfabrik - Housing Bøgebakken - Housing and landscape Master planning Campus planning
Juul I Frost Architects are:
RESEARCH + COMMUNICATION
41 employees:
CITY + URBAN SPACE + LANDSCAPE 28 architects and planners
4 landscape designers
HOUSING + BUILDINGS 3 construction architects
1 business PhD.
1 cand. mag.
1 ethnologist
1 architecture student
1 account administrator
1 intern
ØI JuulIFrost arkitekter
JUUL  FROST Architects

PUBLIC SPACE AS A CATALYST FOR CHANGE
METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR URBAN QUALITIES
RESEARCH + COMMUNICATION
1
BYENS RUM

PUBLIC SPACE AS A CATALYST FOR CHANGE
METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR URBAN QUALITIES
ORGANISATION PROJECT
PUBLIC SPACE AS A CATALYST FOR CHANGE
SUPPORT: 466.000 EURO FOR 2 YEARS FROM REALDANIA
INTERDISCIPLINARITY
Crossdisciplinary research- group: sociologists, architects, art historians
Project management:
Helle Juul, arkitekt MAA ph.d. – Juul | Frost
Think Tank:
Mats Olsson
Academic partner: Kristin Feireiss
Peter Hanke
John Pløger,Urban Sociologist, RUC/Center for Urban studies
Bert Mulder
Projektmedarbejdere:
Kristine Samson, Industrial Ph.D.
Rikke Kirstine Larsen, Architect
Pawel Antoni Lange, kommunikation
Juul | Frost arkitekter
JUUL  FROST BYENS RUM 2008

PUBLIC SPACE AS A CATALYST FOR CHANGE
METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR URBAN QUALITIES
Role of public space
1.Public space accepts diversity as a norm
2. Public spaces act as cultural and social transformers of society in relation to
culture, life forming and as attractors for mix of segments of people.
3. Public spaces should be inclusive everyone. They should function as urban hubs
that ­ physically and mentally ­ connect different parts of the city and its inhabitants.
JUUL  FROST BYENS RUM 2008

PUBLIC SPACE AS CATALYST FOR CHANGE
METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR URBAN QUALITIES
Cross­disciplinary approach
Planning Architecture
A holistic understanding of the relations and
interactions between the architectural environment
and the socio­spatial 8ield.
EXCHANGE PLATFORM The urban space as an exchange platform between
various perspectives
Cultural theory and aesthetics Sociology /ethnology
BYENS RUM 2008
JUUL  FROST Architects

PUBLIC SPACE AS A CATALYST FOR CHANGE
METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR URBAN QUALITIES
Analytical approach
The city Spaces Life forming The body
How the city, its spaces, life forming and the body interact in urban space
Juul I Frost Architects Byens rum

PUBLIC SPACE AS A CATALYST FOR CHANGE
METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR URBAN QUALITIES
Theoretical approach
We use thoughts from urban theorists pointing to the
relation between the city, its spaces, life forming and the
body.
The idea that an aesthetical and sensory oriented
approach is called for due to the new demands in the
experience city.
JUUL  FROST
JUUL  FROST Architects BYENS RUM 2009

PUBLIC SPACE AS A CATALYST FOR CHANGE
CASES
DUBLIN GRAND CANAL PLAZA
JUUL  FROST Architects

PUBLIC SPACE AS A CATALYST FOR CHANGE
METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR URBAN QUALITIES : DUBLIN GRAND CANAL PLAZA
JUUL  FROST Architects

PUBLIC SPACE AS CATALYST FOR CHANGE
DUBLIN GRAND CANAL PLAZA
Performativity
e square attracts flows from a distance.
High degree of material, spatial and sensory gestures both attracting, distributing and orienting the user. The
plaza allows movement across the space in any possible direction as it is accessible from various angles.
JUUL  FROST Architects

PUBLIC SPACE AS CATALYST FOR CHANGE
DUBLIN GRAND CANAL PLAZA
The use of the spatial and bodily affective shaping of the physical environment to attract, distribute and
integrate the visitor in the space. The design invites the user to integrate and perform on its stage.
JUUL  FROST Architects

PUBLIC SPACE AS A CATALYST FOR CHANGE
DUBLIN GRAND CANAL PLAZA
A way of framing interaction.
Formal structures and sensory gestures are combined to attract and direct the 8lows of the square.
A representational space with bodily experienced qualities
JUUL  FROST Architects

PUBLIC SPACE AS A CATALYST FOR CHANGE
DUBLIN GRAND CANAL PLAZA
METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR URBAN QUALITIES
Performativity is the inclusion of an action, a performance, an event etc. in urban space, which is intended to
in8luence – permanently or temporary ­ a given urban space. In other words performativity is to make
something happen in the urban realm. The performative intervention can be the use of physical or social
elements or the creation of new identity giving narratives. JUUL | FROST Arkitekter

PUBLIC SPACE AS CATALYST FOR CHANGE
PROEIXAMPLE, Jardins de la Torre de les Aigües
BARCELONA
Pool in the summer - recreational parc in an old backyard
X
!
JUUL  FROST Architects !

PUBLIC SPACE AS CATALYST FOR CHANGE
PROEIXAMPLE, BARCELONA
Jardins de la Torre de les Aigües is established by the public­private partnership ProEixample.
They initiated the regeneration and development of more than 40 backyards in the neighborhood, Eixample.
Each backyard has its own functions and aesthetical atmospheres.
But all recreational, green semi public urban psaces developed through a parallel initiative.
JUUL  FROST Architects

PUBLIC SPACE AS CATALYST FOR CHANGE
PROEIXAMPLE, BARCELONA
METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR URBAN QUALITIES
Parallelism is the notion of creating coherence between several places by simultaneously
implementing identical interventions in the urban fabric, physically or socially.

PUBLIC SPACE AS CATALYST FOR CHANGE
METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR URBAN QUALITIES
STRATEGIES
JUUL | FROST Arkitekter
JUUL  FROST Architects

PUBLIC SPACE AS CATALYST FOR CHANGE
METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR URBAN QUALITIES
Performativity is the inclusion of an action, a performance, an event etc. in urban space, which is intended to in8luence –
permanently or temporary ­ other agents in urban space. In other words performativity is to affect and change matters
in the urban realm.
Parallelism is the notion of creating coherence between several places by simultaneously implementing identical
interventions in the urban fabric, physically or socially.
Area strategies covers chosen, limited districts within the city where a given theme or approach is implemented. The
goal is to apply interventions that activate the chosen area as a whole.
Mnemonics is a way to create a collective memory by visually referring to given narratives or signi8iers.
Acupuncture is an accurate intervention that is capable of both activating a larger area than itself or even in8luence an
area different to the one being pierced.
JUUL | FROST Arkitekter
JUUL  FROST Architects

PUBLIC SPACE AS CATALYST FOR CHANGE
METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR URBAN QUALITIES
STRATEGIC PLANNING
We propose an integrated and holistic understanding of the complex transformation proceses in the city.
Through strategic tools initiating urban processes,
A new role for the planner: a strategic and proactive coordinator of urban processes
The use of urban architecture and design as strategic planning not as material development.
Thus planning is no longer a form imposed upon urban matter, but is rather strategic tool to be used in the broader
perspective of urban transformation processes.
JUUL | FROST Arkitekter

PUBLIC SPACE AS CATALYST FOR CHANGE
METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR URBAN QUALITIES
1
BYENS RUM 2
Publication autumn 2009
BYENS RUM JUUL | FROST Arkitekter

PUBLIC SPACE AS CATALYST FOR CHANGE
METHODS AND STRATEGIES FOR URBAN QUALITIES
THANK YOU!
www.byensrum.dk
JUUL | FROST Arkitekter