Atlantis 22.1 urban society

ATLANTIS
#22.1 April 2011

Paul Stouten 04

Justina Muliuolyte 08

Wouter Vanstiphout 14
MAGAZINE BY POLIS | PLATFORM FOR URBANISM
MSc Urbanism TU Delft 22

Hui Xiao-xi 26

The Why Factory 30

Luuk Boelens 34

Ekim Tan 40

Rietveld Landscape 44

MSc Landscape Architecture 48

Gabriele Rendón 50

BVR 55

Henco Bekkering 60

URBAN SOCIETY 1

Editorial
Since urbanism is a practical science, and therefore draws from different disci- The outline for Atlantis volume 22.
plines, the challenge for the student urbanist is to construct a meaningful whole If you have ideas and would like to
out of this input. In order to fulfill this, perspectives from different communities contribute, please do not hesitate to
have to be judged. contact us at atlantis@polistudelft.nl

At the TU Delft department of Urbanism these different perspectives are made #22.1 Urban Society
explicit in eleven chairs. Four chairs are organized around what are considered Keywords: society, regeneration,
to be the ‘fundamentals’ of the discipline, which are: Urban Compositions, Land- politics, housing, neighborhood.
scape Architecture, Spatial Planning & Strategy and Environmental Technology.
Alongside these chairs there are some practically orientated or thematic chairs, ATLANTIS
MAGAZINE BY POLIS | PLATFORM FOR UBANISM
#22.1 April 2011

concerned with the topical aspects of the discipline. They are Urban Design,
Regional and Metropolitan Design, Environmental Design, Cultural History and
Design, Strategic Planning, The Why Factory and, the latest addition, Design as
Politics. URBAN SOCIETY 1

These different chairs each provide, apart from the research side of matters, #22.2 Urban Form
input for the education of students. Because the chairs represent different world Keywords: form, density, typolo-
views, the challenge for the student is to deduct a narrative out of this. That gies, design, public space, urban
means finding relations but also question certain ideas. This ‘synthesizing’ is, to techniques.
my mind, the most important academic and professional quality one must have.
The noun synthesis refers to compiling information together in a different way ATLANTIS
#22.1 April 2011


by combining elements in a new pattern or proposing alternative solutions.

The purpose of Atlantis volume 22, published in 4 issues, is contributing to this
challenge by exposing different, maybe sometimes opposing perspectives on URBAN SOCIETY 1

urbanism. It will be organized by setting up four frames. Within each frame dif-
ferent ideas, methods and techniques will be shown. This is done by means of #22.3 Urban Economy
articles, essays, interviews, designs, photos and models obtained from students, Keywords: globalization, urban
academics and practitioners. Finally, at Atlantis #22.4 a carton bookbinder will economy, competitiveness, brand-
be provided to literally tie up all the issues. Hopefully this combination will form ing, foreign direct investment.
a more coherent whole than a mere collection of isolated issues would have done.
ATLANTIS
#22.1 April 2011


Every issue will have a similar set-up. Paul Stouten will open this issue of Urban
Society by providing a historical framework on the topic of regeneration. Jus-
tina Muliuolyte shows her recent graduation work on the regeneration of social-
ist neighborhoods in Lithuania. Hui Xiao Xi explains the urban renewal in URBAN SOCIETY 1

Beijing and its existing challenges and The Why Factory proposes an inspiring
alternative to these challenges. Wouter Vanstiphout introduces the new chair of #22.4 Urban Landscape
Design as Politics. Luuk Boelens, BVR and Rietveld Landscape present inter- Keywords: landscape, metropolitan,
esting ideas and insights derived from practice, while Ekim Tan and Gabriela urban-rural, biodiversity, border
Rendon give us an insight into their current academic research. Finally, Henco conditions.
Bekkering will reflect on the topics discussed in this issue. Along these lines, the
work of students will be exhibited. ATLANTIS
#22.1 April 2011


On behalf of the editorial team, I want to thank all contributors, since it is their
work that makes this issue of Atlantis possible!
URBAN SOCIETY 1

Jasper Nijveldt

2

From the board
A new Atlantis, a new board and five wildly enthusiastic Committees 2011
new committees! First we have to start with thanking the
2010 board for putting Polis back on track. By organizing a Atlantis
great amount of activities they made Polis visible again and Jan Breukelman, Edwin Hans, Jasper Nijveldt & Jan
by that they gave the board of 2011 great opportu ities to
n Wilbers
bring Polis again a step further. These ambitions we have
summarized in our renewed mission statement: ‘’Our Lectures
goal is to construct a network for intellectual transmission The lecture committee of Polis will organise lectures
within the Department of Urbanism and beyond. Connect- throughout the year, and a symposium later this year.
ing students, researchers and practitioners, by exposing and The goal is to explore, and get new insights from fields of
investigating contemporary affairs and academic ideology. Urbanism that are not part of the traditional curriculum.
We will do this by means of a magazine, organizing excur- The first lecture theme will be Digital Urbanism, consi
sions, lectures, debates, expositions and other activities’’. sting of two lectures, of which the first will be about the
The current activities play an important role in this, but we role of serious gaming in contemporary urban planning.
want to strengthen our goal with the use of two pillars. Remmelt Oosterhuis, Sylke Koumans & Thomas Paul

The Polis board 2011 would like to dedicate more effort Small Excursion
to the monitoring of the quality of education. We aim to This year's small excursion committee started with a sur-
do this by organizing for example an evaluation meeting plus of ideas, and has already had their first excursion to
with the students and coordinators after every quarter. Antwerp. Now the team, consisting of five enthusiastic
Besides that we would like to focus more on the work students is looking for even more exciting places to go,
field: connecting students to practitioners working at which would ideally match up with the changing themes
design offices & municipalities by means of lectures, within the current urbanism stream.
workshops and case studies. In doing so, Polis will Hannah Cremers, Gijs Briet, Andre Kroese, Verena Roell &
become more than only the study association for stu- Wieke Villerius
dents. Through the mentioned activities and the Atlantis
magazine Polis aims to become an interesting medium for Big Excursion
academics and professionals. Polis' Big Excursion committee has been organising
excursions since 2008. A group of Urbanism and Archi-
Of course Polis is more than that. Polis organizes a com- tecture enthusiasts strive to combine the educational with
bination of valuable and enjoyable activities. Not only the fun, having visited Paris, the city of light, and Ham-
excursions, lectures and case studies, but we would also burg, the city of trade. This year we will go and explore
like to organize a Polis Urbanism Week in autumn. Fur- Vienna, the city of Sachertorte!
thermore, we would like to plan small workshops for the Maike Warmerdam, Alicia Schoo & Liselotte van der A
bachelor students to get a bit more in touch with urban-
ism and landscape architecture. Borrel
The Polis Borrel committee is a newly found group of
For all members we proudly present our new website students which organizes social events for the students of
which is launched this month. On this website we’ll inform the Master tracks Urbanism and Landscape Architecture.
you about all kinds of events coming up – inside and out- After the stress of a presentation you can count the Borrel
side the TU Delft –, let you browse through the Atlantis committee for some hard earned relaxation and fun
Archive, filter interesting internships and give you the pos- times! Keep checking the POLIS website and the Polis
sibility to sign up for Polis activities. Bookmark our new Facebook events for more party information!
website (www.polistudelft.nl) and keep in touch! Maaike Zwart, Nazanin Hemmati, Ani Skachokova &
Laurens de Lange
Urban greetings from the Polis board 2011,
Jorick Beijer, Karien Hofhuis, Vera Konings, Tim Ruijs &
Noor Scheltema

3

Changing Contexts in Urban
Regeneration paul stouten

The need to combat decay of obsolete housing and ser- Urban renewal, urban regeneration and sustainable
vices in urban renewal areas has been recognized by development
every major country in Western Europe, including the The 1970s saw a fundamental change in policy on urban
Netherlands (Couch et al., 2003). Urban regeneration in renewal. Besides placing a greater emphasis on rehabili-
general can be considered as developing an approach in tation and improvement rather than demolition of exist-
a complex urban context that includes a variety of spa- ing building stock, the approach called for participation
tial scales, sectors, actors and disciplines. Urban regen- of present residents in the renewal process and decentral-
eration needs to respond to changing contexts with new ized control. The approach involved the decentralized
economic concentrations in cities that are accompanied direction of the entire process by local authorities and
by new markets for new population groups within the tenant groups working in cooperation. The fact that pri-
current urban population (Sassen, 1991). This situa- ority access to new or modernized housing was given to
tion is sometimes in conflict with the living conditions the lower paid made the aims of building-for-the-neigh-
of specific groups in the urban population trapped in borhood (bouwen voor de buurt) unique in the history
economic difficulties, excluded from opportunities and of social housing. Building-for-the-neighborhood meant
rights. The other side of the same coin and with as the that the then present tenants got priority with regard to
common underlying factor a change in economic struc- the improvement of their housing and living conditions.
ture caused by global competition and technological
innovation (Drewe et al. 2008). Urban regeneration By the end of the 1980s a market oriented approach and
needs to respond to new conditions and can therefore the recognition of new sets of problems and challenges had
not be a static phenomenon. Two basic concerns have become dominant in much of Europe. What was new in
become part of the agenda in all new strategies for urban this approach was the acceptance of the need to take into
regeneration, namely the search for lasting solutions account environmental objectives related to sustainable
and an integrated approach to physical, environmental, development. In the Netherlands urban renewal became
social and economic programs. more or less part of a more comprehensive form of urban
regeneration of a city or region. One of its core activities
Urban renewal was and is an important issue in the relates to the functional obsolescence of buildings and
Netherlands and particularly renewal of the city of Rot- the changing requirements of their users. Roberts (2000)
terdam was an interesting example nationally and inter- summarized the essential features of urban regeneration
nationally in the period 1975-1993 (Stouten, 2010). Due by defining it as: “comprehensive and integrated vision
to large investments from financial and social capital, and action aimed at the resolution of urban problems and
large parts of old neighborhoods have been modernized. seeking to bring about a lasting improvement in the eco-
Fundamental changes on the labour and housing market nomic, physical, social and environmental condition of an
put the housing question of the constructed buildings, area that has been subjected to change”. The main compo-
environments and living conditions on the agenda again. nents put forward as relevant to the regeneration of cities
Since mid 1990s approaches led to a degree of integration are essentially a strategic activity, including economic
of social, economic and building policies. Most of these regeneration and funding, physical and environmental
programs of social renewal, subsequent Big City poli- aspects, social and community issues, employment and
cies (Grote Stedenbeleid) and neighborhood approaches education (including training), and housing.
started in Rotterdam and were later adopted by the cen- In 1987 the report of the Brundtland Committee
tral government. Against this background, an evaluation (WCED, 1987) introduced sustainable development in
of the results is very worthwhile, particularly because a worldwide policy guideline. The committee pleaded
urban renewal policy has to deal with a new context in for sustainable development ‘to ensure that develop-
the last decades, in which privatization and being market ment meets the needs of the present generation without
driven are the main topics. compromising the ability of future generations to meet

4

their own needs’. The point here is that besides its con- sible for much of the deterioration. Because these owners
sequences for the here and now, the way of developing had made no investment or too little investment to main-
affects the long-term prospects of the earth and its inhab- tain their properties, an attempt was made to bring their
itants. In this tradition sustainable development involves properties into the social sector by the use of compulsory
reaching a new balance between rich and poor, today and or voluntary purchase.
tomorrow, mankind and nature.
For our research into sustainable urban regeneration At the end of the 1980s greater emphasis was put on the
we have chosen a dynamic concept directed at the inte- status of the urban renewal areas in the city as a whole.
gration of physical, economic and social factors (Stouten, Preparation of urban development plans started consider-
2010). Sustainability will therefore be interpreted here as ing the functioning of the city’s housing market and the
the quality of a residential situation and human urban relationships with adjacent areas and boroughs. Future
environment which is suitable for continued use by its res- production should match the heterogeneity of the popu-
idents and permits improvement in their physical, social lation in a better way by increasing the differentiation
and economic conditions including an overall strategic within the housing stock by more variation in housing
framework for city-wide development. typology, housing size, price class and type of financing.
Developing new types of human environment including
Urban renewal and urban regeneration in Rotterdam: residential environments e.g. on the former harbor areas
1974-1993 became a great challenge.
In the course of the 1970s, residents in urban renewal
areas of Rotterdam, like residents in such areas in other Reflections on the ‘building for the neighborhood’ period
cities, became actively involved in actions pressing for the Nearly 72.000 dwellings (60% of the total housing stock
improvement of their housing situation. The post-war in the old areas) were radically improved by new housing
policies with their mass model of housing provision were and the modernization of pre-war housing estates. Addi-
no longer able to meet the special needs and requirements tionally, 45 primary schools and a large number of new
of tenants in old city areas. Their poor housing conditions welfare provisions (community centers, medical aid cent-
were an important reason for the change in policy that ers and so on) were built in the old areas. Moreover, urban
took place in 1974. Apart from the poor quality of housing renewal included the realization of 220,000m2 of retail
and the residential environment, other important factors and commercial space. In 1976, 54% of the housing stock
included the possibility (or impossibility) of improving the was structurally in a poor quality, whereas after urban
housing situation and reducing social and economic dep- renewal this proportion fell to no more than 8%. After
rivation. A cooperative planning and housing model was 1993 poor quality dwellings were mainly concentrated
developed to manage this improvement. in the housing stock supplied by private landlords. The
The special attention for the lowest paid meant for findings of urban renewal in other Dutch cities revealed
example providing affordable new housing for residents the same poor conditions in the private rental sector (ABF
of the old areas including brown field areas. The purchase research, 2002).
of private properties was an important instrument in the For reflections on the ‘building for the neighborhood’
urban renewal strategy. It meant that almost 69% of all period, a distinction should be made between changes
private properties became social rented properties. in conditions for urban renewal brought about through
external developments and those which could be traced
The principles underlying the urban renewal strategy back more or less directly to the urban renewal policy
were: itself, i.e. the building of social housing for the neighbor-
- ‘Building for the neighborhood’, i.e. working in line hood population and purchasing housing from private
with the needs and requirements of the population of landlords by the local government.
the areas subject to urban renewal, thus avoiding forced External developments are implemented to include
removal and displacement. the economic recession, long-term unemployment and
- Decentralization and democratization, meaning that changes in the structure of employment, the affordability
decisions about renewal measures should not simply be of housing costs, changing ratios of immigrants to natives,
taken centrally by municipal departments, but should social and cultural changes and new relationships between
take account of input from and participation by the resi- central government, municipalities, housing associations
dents of the area involved. and residential groups.
- Socialization of the housing provision, resulting from Economic developments in the 1980s – including an eco-
the city council’s view that private landlords were respon- nomic recession – had a radical effect on urban renewal.

5

Area-based activities declined in the wake of national was mainly concerned with privatization. Urban housing
developments. A number of large industries and service policy was characterized by a decrease in the resources
companies moved to the edge of the city or beyond. About made available by government and a greater dependence
18% of the loss of employment can be ascribed to exter- on private initiatives. The combination of urban renewal
nal developments, i.e. the economic recession, and not to and decreased priority for inner-city regeneration led to
urban renewal itself with its priority on housing. increased pressure on economic aspects. At the beginning
The second point regards the affordability of hous- of this millennium the integral approach returned to the
ing costs, particularly for tenants. Unemployment in scene in the former urban renewal areas through the rein-
the urban renewal areas led to a large proportion of troduction of the area approach, the designation of prior-
the residents suffering a severe reduction in income. ity areas and the designation of ‘prize areas’ ��
(prachtwij-
The affordability of urban renewal for tenants on low ken) in 2007.
incomes was threatened.
Another point of reflection arises if the changes in
composition of the population led to changes in the social "It is an illusion that with
infrastructure and social networks. New urban lifestyles,
not based on the traditional family, clashed with more design one can change the
traditional lifestyles. Many urban renewal areas had for-
merly occupied a position on the housing market as part urban fabric over 10-15
of a transitional zone, in which accommodation was partly
occupied by recently arrived house-seekers such as stu- years."
dents and immigrants. In the meantime a highly hetero
geneous area, but nonetheless an area where moving
house became less frequent, was coming into being. In Sustainable urban regeneration requires more than tra-
these areas ‘residents of old’ and ‘new urbanites’ – several ditional land use plans have to offer. There was a need
of which practiced new forms of cohabitation, were better to improve planning and develop new methods to deal
educated and lived a more luxurious life – were housed with new problems. Strategic planning was no longer
and lived next to one another. With regard to the partici- only concerned with so-called flagship projects, but
pation of residents: by and large participation had worked helped to give shape to the renewal. The general strate-
well for native residents of the area, but not so well for gies were based on the use of specific features of the city,
immigrants. The new situation, which could be classed such as the river, the harbors, the canals and so on. These
as one of stable heterogeneity, required those involved to strategies concentrated on the intensification of the exist-
reshape social relationships. ing urban area in combination with high-quality public
transport and services. Residential environments were
From the 1990s onwards: Urban regeneration developed for specific lifestyles, taking into account an
Between 1975 and 1993, urban renewal and social housing increase in the flexibility of labour and the consequences
had a major effect on urban planning in the Netherlands, of internationalization and migration. All this under the
particularly in its major cities. In this respect it should be expectation that phenomena as the home as workplace
noted that the Netherlands has the highest proportion of (teleworking), as school (tele-education) and as shop (tele-
social housing in the EU, about 33% of the housing stock, shopping) were still capable of spectacular growth. The
and in the current large Dutch cities this percentage can content of the area-based strategy was different for the
be as high as 50%. From the mid 1980s onwards the poli- centre than for other urban areas. To increase the vital-
cies of different ministries defined objectives creating a ity and attrac iveness of the centre the aim was to increase
t
real patchwork of urban policies and problems. Social the number of residents to achieve a ratio of 1:1 between
measures were brought under the ‘problem accumula- jobs and dwellings. At the time only 28,000 people lived
tion areas’ policy. This policy was concerned with social in the Rotterdam’s city centre, while the number of jobs
renewal and urban problems. Furthermore it is character- was 80,000. According to central government, a great deal
ized by an increase of the opportunities available to the of investment will be necessary in coming years to make
long-term unemployed and poorly educated, by improv- cities attractive to middle-income and higher-income
ing quality of life and social security and by measures to groups by increasing the number of owner-occupied
stimulate the integration of minorities. properties. This objective – attracting higher-income
The beginning of the 1990s saw an increase in socio- groups – could to a considerable extent already be found
economic problems in the larger cities. Policy however in the policy of the city of Rotterdam.

6

Till 2008, the central government expected an increase erogeneous social fabric. This situation could be threat-
of the demand for the owner-occupied sector. As it was ened due to the development of a more homogeneous
argued in a period of economic growth but also during vulnerable social fabric. This development is caused by an
the current crisis policies are driven on stimulating this increase of households becoming dependent on social ben-
tenure at the expense of the social sector. Since mid 1990s efits, decrease of purchasing power and new European
the construction of 100.000 dwellings per year were fore- regulations on limited access to social housing for only
casted but this number was never reached. At the same incomes below 33.000 euro per year.
time the waiting lists for tenants looking for new homes
were not cleared and prices in the owner-occupied sector Conclusions
increased. Due to new European regulations, in the near The approaches of urban renewal areas fluctuate between
future, middle class households will run into trouble in inward and outward looking strategies. The first is more
finding a decent home. They get sandwiched between driven by an area-based strategy while the second is driven
the social and owner-occupied sector. When they earn by developments beyond this level of scale e.g. changes on
more than 33.000 euro a year, they become excluded from the housing and labour market of the city or region. It is
the social sector and will have hardly any chance in get- important to develop strategies that connect these inward
ting a mortgage. Moreover a lack of training and a low and outward looking approaches as seen complemen-
level of education mean that a number of young people tary. The determining condition for strategic planning in
entering the housing market as starters will be in no posi- urban renewal areas is the heterogeneous character of the
tion to buy. social fabric. This presumes to take account of the strong
mix-use of housing, shops, amenities and services that is
Sustainable Urban Regeneration connected with the multi-cultural characteristics of the
Last decade there have been a lot of critics on urban population. Strategies based on the so-called social climb-
regeneration about failing measurement against social ers are recommended. That means to take a middle class
deterioration e.g. social safety and criminality. The posi- including different minority ethnic groups seriously in
tive results of urban renewal were mostly ignored while development of planning strategies. It is an illusion that
policies contributed to vast improvements of the build- with design one can change the urban fabric over 10-15
ing stock, services and amenities (see also ABF research, years. The population and her requirements will change.
2002). According to my research (Stouten, 2010) floor Flexibility in use of the urban fabric is an instrument to
plans of newly built housing were highly appreciated by adapt to eventual new requirements.
the residents. The appreciation of tenants and profession-
als of modernization of old housing is sometimes less posi-
tive. The current residents rated houses flexible in use of References
the floor plan and specific dwellings for elderly highly. ABF research (2002); Stadsvernieuwing gemeten: Basisanalyse KWR
Solving structural problems, e.g. unemployment and 2000. Delft: ABF research.
income division, goes beyond the area level. In the period Couch, C., C. Fraser and S. Percy (2003); Urban Regeneration in
1975-1993 urban renewal was part of welfare strategies Europe. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
with opportunities for low-income groups and minor- Drewe, P., J. Klein and E. Hulsbergen (eds.) (2008); The Challenge
ity ethnic groups to improve their living conditions. of Social Innovation in Urban Revitalization. Amsterdam: Techne
Due to urban renewal strategies including a broad soci- Press.
etal orientation of housing associations the development Roberts, P. (2000); The Evolution, Definition and Purpose of Ur-
of ghettos was avoided. One of the important aims that ban Regeneration. In: Roberts, P and H. Sykes (eds.): Urban Regen-
were reached is to prevent displacement. Residents of the eration: A handbook. London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi: Sage
Oude Noorden area did not want to move house from Publications, 9-37.
their newly-built or modernized housing (Stouten, 2010). Sassen, S. (1991); The Global City; New York, London, Tokyo.
Also, middle class households did want to continue their Princeton and New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
housing career in this urban renewal area. The quality of Stouten, P. (2010); Changing Contexts in Urban Regeneration; 30
the services and facilities is well appreciated but concern- years of modernisation in Rotterdam. Amsterdam: Techne Press.
ing social safety, drugs and crime the balance is still shaky. WCED (World Commission on Environment and Development)
Despite these negative experiences most of the tenants (1987); Our Common Future. New York: Oxford University Press.
wanted to stay living in the area and a small majority said
that ‘people live together in a pleasant way’ though ‘they
hardly know each other’. Urban renewal areas have a het-

7

City, catch the time!
Rediscovering socialist neighborhoods in a new capitalist society.
Study case - Vilnius, Lithuania justina muliuolyte

The graduation project “City, catch the time! Rediscovering socialist neighbor-
hoods in a new capitalist society” focuses on the regeneration of large scale hous-
ing estates in post socialist cities. The case study is Vilnius, the capital city of
Lithuania. The combined research, planning and design project which was car-
ried out in the graduation year intends to offer alternatives on how to develop
housing estates in post-socialist micro districts by overtaking coming threats
and satisfying current city needs. Since the restructuring of socialist neighbour-
hoods is an important topic in all post socialist cities, the proposed strategy and
design could become a pilot project for other similar sized cities in Lithuania, in
the Baltic States, or even in all of Eastern Europe.

In 1970s western European cities have recognised the problems of modernist hous-
ing and started regeneration strategies. Contrary to this, the former USSR contin-
ued the construction of modernist blocks up until the 1990s and on a much larger
scale. Currently huge housing estates in the peripheries of post socialist cities show
their first signs of decline. If revitalisation strategies are not started soon, most
cities in the entire Eastern Europe will face serious urban problems.
After the analysis of Vilnius, it was found that the city has more problems
than the housing estates alone. There is a big threat of urban sprawl and envi-
ronmentally unsustainable developments. Currently, housing estates are popu-
lar among citizens for their public transportation, green spaces and room for
development and changes. All in all, Vilnius needs to search for a more sustain-
able vision of future development.

The graduation project focuses on two scales: city and neighbourhood. The
advantages of socialist housing will contribute to the new structure of the city,
while the new city structure will be the way to revitalise neighbourhoods.
The project can be explained in three main parts: vision for the city (1), regen-
eration strategy for the housing estates (2), and design of the public space system
in the new centrality (3).

Vision for the city “Polycentric city with network of centralities”
Vilnius has the characteristics of a compact European city, as well as features
of a modern socialist city. Its development can be defined in three main phases
(image 1). In the beginning Vilnius was a compact European city with a busy old

Figure 1. Vilnius development and vision

8

Figure 2. Qualities of the site

Justina Muliuolyte (www.justinamuliuolyte.eu) town, diverse functions, houses and neighbourhoods. During the rule of the
socialist regime, Vilnius was developed as a modern city, with the separation of
Graduated June 2010, Urbanism, functions and the development of huge housing estates in the peripheries of the
Complex Cities studio. city centre. Currently the city is sprawling and losing its boundaries, whereas
Mentors: Roberto Rocco, John Westrik, Qu Lei all the functions are concentrated in the centre and housing estates are declin-
ing. What could be the future structure of Vilnius? The graduation project
suggests a development of the city utilising the qualities of all the past phases:
to learn from the old town structure and apply these features to the modernist
nucleus. Consequently the city should be developed into a compact city with a
network of centralities connected by better public transport links. The sub cen-
tres could be those same modernist estates but enhanced with extra functions,
diversity and connections. The area selected for the proposal is a huge socialist
housing estate in the north of the city, which is supposed to become one of the
new centres.

Regeneration strategy “From the periphery into the centrality”
Currently the estate has 150.000 residents and covers an area comparable in size
to Delft. It has only one dominating function which is residential, just one type
of housing, and the same open modern space everywhere. The goal of the strat-
egy for the housing estate is to change the monotonous periphery into a diverse
and compact centrality.
The revitalisation strategy was designed according to local site qualities
(image 2), TOD principles and general planning rules on how to change a

9

Figure 4-00. Design route and program

4-01. Design urban centre 4-02. Create urban street and add program

4-03. Define closed and calm courtyards Figure 4-04 Add new housing typology

10

modern city into a compact one while keeping its existing
qualities – not through demolition, but by addition. The
strategy promotes the development of a mixed use district
centre according to transit oriented development (TOD)
principles: where the highest density is in the most acces-
sible point, decreasing to the edges of the neighbourhood.
The centre will be in the triangle where three main roads
are crossing, the tram is passing and a transport inter-
change hub is planned. The road structure of the cen-
trality is changed from a branching modern “tree” into a
network, by adding extra links and connections. A con-
tinuous urban area is created to replace the existing frag-
mented neighbourhoods. The new centrality will contain
a diverse set of functions, housing typologies, densities and
open spaces. This new system of public space would con-
nect the socialist neighbourhoods with the new sub centre,
surrounding landscapes and other neighbourhoods. In the
design phase one of the routes linking the housing areas
with the centre was elaborated.

Design of the route from the housing estate to the
centre
The project presented here is a route that covers all inter-
vention areas: the transformation of the centre, the revi-
talisation of housing estates and park design. The route as
a connection to the centre is a tool to revitalise neighbour-
hoods by changing their public space system and adding
functions to the nodes. The goal of this project is to create Figure 3. Design toolbox
a mixed use environment in a vital urban artery.
Currently the open space on the route has two main project is to have less open space but of higher quality and
characters: in the housing areas it is very empty and to create spaces for new low rise housing. The result of
unmaintained, whereas in the planned centre it is these interventions is a combination of lively, integrated
unfriendly to pedestrians, dominated by roads and car housing areas, centralisation, and a polycentric city.
parks. Before designing the route observations were made
about common open space problems and based on these
observations principles were suggested on how to make Evaluation
public space more attractive. Public space problems with All in all the revitalisation strategy demonstrates a new,
their suggestions for improvement are collected into a creative and feasible approach on how to transform dull
design toolbox (image 3). socialist estates into lively and attractive sub centres.
The route project (image 4-00) is split into a few phases. The modernist city is changed, but by keeping its exist-
Firstly the mixed use district centre is designed (image ing qualities, diversity in housing is created, functions are
4-01), with a high density, a multitude of functions, urban added, a higher density is generated and the public space
streets and squares. Subsequently the centre is linked with becomes dedicated to pedestrians instead of cars. The
the neighbourhoods and parks by a main street - form- fragmented periphery becomes an integrated centrality.
ing the route (image 4-02). The proposal provides missing The effect of this strategy could have an influence on the
connections and added functions along the nodes, while city as a whole, since it focuses on compact developments,
some functions are replaced entirely. Finally, a distinction on low rise housing within the city and not in suburbia.
will be made between private and public spaces. Modern The proposal opens opportunities for real estate in the
blocks will be closed by creating private courtyards modernist housing areas through its emphasis on public
(image 4-03). The empty plots are developed into a new transport and mix of uses. The approach is realistically
type of housing (image 4-04). All of these interventions applicable and can contribute to new town development
were made using the design toolbox. The approach of the and regeneration at the same time.

11

adaptation aging airport architecture barrier bloc

civil-engineering climate coast communication community

depthmap design development disaster diversity

form fragmentation garden gentrification glass glob

housing identity industry informal infrastructure inte

mapping market masterplan metropolis migration mixe

network node nomadic olympic park par

politics post-war poverty problem program pub

recreation regeneration region renewal research rest

sport sprawl square stakeholder station stra

theory third-world transforma- transport TU typo
tion

vinex virtual vitality waste-land water wind

ck business campus cemetery centre child

compact complexity connection culture delta density

economy energy environment exclusion flexibility forest

balization harbour heat-island helofytenfilter heritage history

egration intervention knowledge landscape leisure liveability

ed-use mobility morphology movement multimodal neighbour-
hood

rticipation patio pedestrian place planning polder

blic public-space public-transport quality rail randstad

tructure revitalization rural segregation social space

ategy street suburban sustainable temporality territory

ology university urban-design urbanism urbanization village

This datavisual shows the most used keywords from master theses, books, dissertations and articles which are digitally published in the
d repository by the Urbanism department of the TU Delft. A total of 206 entries of the last five years are used.

Design as Politics
Interview with Wouter Vanstiphout

In this recurring segment, we zoom in on one of the in formulating a description of society in which certain
chairs within the department of Urbanism in Delft, to get interests are consciously given higher values than others,
a more detailed overview of the background, the current and the skilled use of a toolset to physically enforce this
status, and the future plans of the chairs, with particular descriptive approach.
focus on the views on education and current events. The chair of Design & Politics does not consider design
For this edition we approached the relatively new chair and politics to be two separated worlds, but rather con-
of Design as Politics, led by Prof. Dr. Wouter Vanstiphout. siders politics to be an important dimension of design
In this interview he explains the role of the chair within and, simultaneously, design an equally important tool for
the Faculty of Architecture, and within the current politi- political action. An alternative name for the chair could
cal climate. Furthermore he gives his views on education, thus be ‘Design as Politics’. This means that the toolset
the chairs’ work for the IABR (International Architec- of the designer will be renewed by looking at the realm
ture Biennale Rotterdam) and a must read list of books of politics, while the spatial perspective of developments
that are related to his work approach. in society will be considered to enrich the existing set of
political instruments. The chair is explicitly looking for
About the chair alternatives for classical top-down planning methods and
Initiated by the ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and control mechanisms, through which governments have
the Environment (Volkshuisvesting, Ruimtelijke Orden- manifested themselves in the 20th century.1
ing en Milieu) of the Netherlands and housed within the
faculty of architecture at the Delft University of Tech- Background of the Chair
nology, the chair of Design as Politics will be exploring, ‘There is a longer running project called Design and Poli-
researching and defining the boundaries, commonalities tics which is run by the Department of Planning at what
and tensions between the fields of politics and design. used to be the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and
The chair understands politics in the widest sense pos- the Environment. This project resulted in a number of
sible: it defines it as that level in society on which con- books, four by now, and in the creation of a chair at the
flicting interests of groups of people become visible and Technical University of Delft.
are being solved, oftentimes through debate and nego- The idea behind the whole program and the chair is to
tiation, but possibly by exerting power or using physical bridge the gap between planning, architecture and poli-
violence. The political consequently implies succeeding tics. This means that designers should know more about

Drawing by Yu Zhang, In the Ghetto studio

14

politics and should involve the political process and agendas more into their Wouter Vanstiphout graduated in 1991
work. The other way around, which was maybe more specifically aimed at, in Art and Architectural History and Ar-
there could be a revival within the political world of the interest in planning and chaeology at the University of Groningen.
architecture as real tools to get what they want. He is currently a member of the research
When I started with the chair, one of the very first things that we did was collective Crimson Architectural Histo-
to change the title from Design and Politics into Design as Politics, because I rians, which he founded in 1994 together
wanted to avoid the idea that you would see design and politics as two sepa- with Michelle Provoost.
rate entities. What I found much more important to stress is the fact that design Crimson Architectural Historians car-
beyond a certain scale, beyond the interior, is always political by definition. The ries out historical research, creates cultural-
other way around politics has nearly always had a spatial dimension to it. This historical value assessments and develops
is because it’s about a lot of things happening at the same time in a limited space, visions on the organisation of exhibitions.
forcing people to make choices. If everything would happen with no spatial or The collective also focuses on issues relat-
temporal relation to each other no one would have to make choices. But it is ing to regional development and delivers
because of the fact that things influence each other that you have to. keen observations and interpretations of
current design and planning issues. Van-
Therefore politics is always spatial and planning and architecture is always stiphout also give lectures and fulfils guest
political, because you’re always spending other people’s money and you’re lectureships at various educational insti-
always doing something that has an effect on people that you do not know. tutes at home and abroad, and is Professor
If you make that effect happen you better have a good explanation for it, so it of Architectural and Urban Design at the
has to be legitimate in some way. You can either enforce that legitimacy or there Technische Universität Berlin.
is a real legitimacy, but it’s always an issue. For me these things are more fun- For the Akademie der Bildende Kün-
damental than the instrumental definition, which is that architects need politi- ste in Vienna, he developed the new his-
cians, and politicians can use architects. But without those instrumental aspects tory and theory of architecture curriculum,
the chair would have never been launched.’ which focuses on the social embedding of
architecture and urban development. As
Current and future projects Professor of Politics and Design, he will
‘The first year we were up and running mostly based on a autonomous defini- again focus on this social embedding of
tion of the chair, we needed that to create our own identity that students could architecture and urban development, but
hook up to, or stay far away from. This is why we did the In the Ghetto gradua- with the emphasis on the political-admin-
tion studio and the Blame the Architect lecture series on the relationship between istrational aspect. (bk.tudelft.nl)
riots and planning. These courses do not have a direct instrumental relation-
ship with any of the agendas of the ministry, for instance segregation or problem 1) designaspolitics.wordpress.com/about/
areas. Of course these things are hugely important to the ministry and to local
politicians, but this was a very autonomous content-based way to deal with it.
This year the Biennale has become our main focus, in which we deal with

15

things in a very instrumental way. Apart from the collaboration with the
Biennale organisation, partly run by the ministry, we are also working directly
with people from the ministry on projects that are instrumentally important to
them. These are for instance the new infrastructure through the green heart,
planning the edges of the green heart, dealing with vacancy in office buildings
in central cities, the role of finance, etc. This year we hope to be useful in the
most direct possible way.’

One of these instrumental projects the chair will be working on is a study for the
A3 highway through the Green Heart.
‘The highway is a direct result of the new government, and the only reason it’s
on the agenda is because of the PVV, the freedom party. What we found inter-
esting is that a highway which has been out of the question since the late 60’s,
early 70’s is now on the agenda again. It’s a combination of ‘everything for high-
ways, and everything for cars’, a populist right wing obsession. The other thing
is resentment against environmental protection, against an open green heart as
some sort of fetish of environmental protectionism. So the party wants a high-
way through it in a straight line from Amsterdam to Rotterdam. We will start a
graduation studio on it coming September.’

Rotterdam Biennale 2012
The chair is also working on the TU Delft contribution of next year’s Biennale
in Rotterdam. Themed Making City, it explores the relation between planning,
design, and politics.
‘The whole point of the Biennale is to study similar projects in entirely dif-
ferent contexts, in order to learn about them, and to expand the range of
possibilities that we can see for these projects. One example, we are going
to study a new highway around Sao Paulo and a new highway through the
green heart. We will study them in parallel and propose solutions in parallel.
Sao Paulo was given as one of the locations for the Biennale, we created the
equivalent in the Netherlands and as a saviour Geert Wilders came and pro-
posed this new A3 highway.
The interesting idea is that whereas in Sao Paulo you would say everything
is different than in the Netherlands, it is often the conservative liberal right
wing agenda or institution that push large scale infrastructure to deal with
the city. The left wing progressive institutions push for more planning, more
environmental protection, and more social housing. You see the same role and
the same interaction, or no interaction between infrastructure, planning and
designing in a place like Brazil as in the Netherlands. The problem is that
with a more progressive definition of planning, highways always land on the
ground as UFO’s. Nobody has anything to do with their design except engi-
neers, and then it is up to planners and landscape architects to mitigate. This is
also happening in Sao Paulo.

If a highway like this is coming anyway let’s, instead of being passively against
it, completely embrace it and see what happens if we would be able to design
it. Can we design a highway that is the biggest, most brutal insult to decades of
Dutch planning and nearly a direct molestation of the green heart, and is there a
way to deal with it? One of the things I am interested in is this head-on confron-
tation with something that comes from another part of the spectrum.
Another thing of course, is that politics is the art of the compromise, not just

16

“One of the things I am interested in is this head-on
confrontation with something that comes from another part of
the spectrum.”
in the Netherlands but everywhere. Bismarck once said
that politics is like sausage; you do not want to know how Changing planning culture
it is made. It is always a dirty compromising business in With the formation of the new government, the plan-
which two parties try to keep hold of their side of the ide- ning culture has also changed, with most projects no
ology for as long as possible. So in that sense the design longer being on a national level, but on a provincial and
studio should not just be about designing exactly the thing municipal level, which will have an effect on planning
that you want, in the sense of purifying everything that is culture in the Netherlands.
bad. Rather, it should be about a confrontation. Of course ‘There are different ways of speculating about this.
there are loads of architects in Delft who love highways, The realistic, slightly fatalistic view about it is that noth-
so, that will be the big problem.’ ing will change, because this is the Netherlands, where
nothing ever changes. There will be ways in which the
With the new government in place, the ministry of infra- system and its institutions absorb any change that is
structure and the ministry of spatial planning have been forged on them from above into a kind of stasis. But let’s
merged into one. not go on that road.
‘In that sense it is a very instrumental studio, it’s a direct Another way of speculating is that it will create a sit-
translation of the new challenges for this ministry into a uation of action is reaction. The government has said
graduation studio. The infrastructure people and planning there are certain things that will be planned and exe-
people didn’t even speak to each other for the last 40 years, cuted nationally. They will plan things like infrastruc-
they didn’t know each other. And now they are forced into ture, power plants or airports, and locally, provinces and
one building, literally, to do projects together. Now they municipalities will have to mitigate that and embed it
have also been forced to study this highway proposal, and into the area. Within these provinces and municipalities
they don’t know what to do with it. So everyone is push- there is less and less money and professionalism, and less
ing it around, and in the end we said: we will study it.’ money for professionalism, so they are getting an extra
task, but they are not getting the extra means. This will
create a situation in which officially these provinces have
to embed, mitigate, absorb, and plan whatever comes at
them. The Ministry now says they do not want to do all
that planning and all those details, but I think in the end
it will come back like a boomerang. It will mean, I hope
that once they start laying out highways they will have to
take in account all these contextual things, and they will
have to start designing anyway. At least then they will not
be designing on the abstract planning scale that they have
been used to for the last fifty years, because they will have
to design much more in context. So I think design will
make its comeback within national institutions in a cer-
tain way.

I’m not even so negative about what is happening right
now on that level, because I think that the whole tradi-
tion of spatial planning in the Netherlands, with huge
bills for spatial planning for the entire country, and a very
abstract, extremely bureaucratic, map based way of plan-
ning, was already completely bankrupt for fifteen years
anyway. Therefore this more realistic action is reaction

17

based practice has a lot of potential. even deal with the whole idea of architecture being about
One other thing to speculate on is a more extreme sce- professionalism, because then I would have no place in
nario. If you think through the idea of letting provinces teaching it at the school in the first place.
make their own planning policies on a more fundamental One of the ways to deal with politics right now is to
level, in which it would be regionalised on a deep legal make young architects and planners understand that
level, then it would be interesting. It would be more like the business that they are in is deeply political. It is not
America, where the planning is up to the states and one just internally political, like the politics of getting a job,
state has no planning at all, nothing, and another state or getting a commission, but it is undistinguishable from
plans everything. politics in general, it is politics in its most concrete form.
In places like the Randstad, because of their tradition, I am not from the school that says you can have right
their density, their history and their culture, planning is wing architecture or left wing architecture as a result,
still very dominant. Everybody accepts that their neigh- but I think architecture is political during the whole
bour cannot just do anything he wants in his backyard process. Where do you get the money? Where do you
because planning has a big acceptance here. In places like get your legitimacy? Which parts of the program do you
Brabant there is a more Belgian culture of do-it-yourself, implicitly or explicitly see as more important than other
it is much more autonomous and anti-planning. There is parts of the program? In that sense, for each building
more illegal stuff going on, and much more informality. that is bigger than the interior, these questions are being
So you could even speculate on every region of the Neth- answered every day, even if they are never being posed.
erlands having a completely, really utterly different idea That is, I think the school of thought about the relation-
of planning. I find that interesting because on the Euro- ship between architecture and politics that I would some-
pean scale, you notice that these things are much more how like to describe and get across.
regionally and culturally bound, rather than by national-
ity or within national borders. It would mean that some Something that I find increasingly interesting in Delft is
regions make a structural plan while others make a real the fact that more than 50 per cent of the master students
master plan, and a third group does nothing at all. That is in Delft are, as the Dutch would say niet westerse alloch-
something that could be interesting.’ toon, meaning they come from outside of Europe. Delft
is always worrying about having an international repu-
Education and politics tation, but I think that it should be turned around. The
Politics does not play a big role in education at the Faculty internationalism within Delft is something that should
of Architecture at the TU Delft, but perhaps it should be used in a much more concrete and direct, and more
become a more integral part of education. expressive way than it is now. Having come from teaching
‘I think there are three dominant schools in Delft. in Vienna and Berlin, especially Vienna is the most terri-
There’s one that is all about a quality, professionalism, fying provincial city in the world. The most exotic people
craftsmanship, and it is mostly apolitical. Then there’s you could find there are Czechs, who live 60 km away.
the school of for instance the Why Factory, which is In Delft it’s the other way round and it creates an enor-
about architects and politics being wound up, or joining mous opportunity to study other situations and other
on a kind of visionary ray. It’s about building the future cities in depth, and to do that in a kind of no-budget or
and visionary thinking, so it is political, but also apoliti- low-budget way. We can do amazing things by using
cal, because it doesn’t talk about it exactly. In that vision- the master student body in a much more pragmatic and
ary sense of architecture, politics plays an important role professional way, by having them work much more with
because politics is power, and you need power to make the knowledge and the networks of the students them-
this architecture. Then there is the third school, which selves, which I think you can expect from a student in
is the activists’ school. It’s wound up with this anti-glo- the master phase.
balist, left wing, bottom up, outside of the system alter- Our instrumental studies for the Randstad are now
native or independent position. embedded in a very wide research in which we study
All of them more or less avoid the issue and go around cities all over the world and we try to understand them
politics, and I think that is the niche where our chair on an equal basis. In all these cities we try to understand
comes into, because we try to deal with politics in a politi- the relationship between the political situation, econom-
cal way. We do not try to keep our hands clean by just ics, the size of the city, the fairness of the city, the way the
staying in an activist enclave. We are not obsessed with city is built, the way it is designed, planned, by whom the
power as a tool to make visions because I am really not choices are being made, and we try to understand cities as
interested in visions, and of course as a historian I cannot political entities. There are cities that are extremely politi-

18

cal, that are on the political headlines too; cities like Teheran, Cairo or American Selected readings
cities like Detroit. In a ridiculously easy way we are able to find people who are 'A book that I really like is Seeing like a
from there, and are doing their PhD on those cities, have lived there forever and State by James Scott. It’s a book by a social
know everybody there. This is something I am trying to mobilize, much more scientist who writes about how big plans
strongly now. that were made with the best intentions to
reform entire countries have resulted in
Views on regeneration terrible failures. Its’ an interesting book,
‘The funny thing with regeneration is that it assumes the death, or at least not that you have to completely agree
the near death of an area, and that is rarely the case. So one of the first ques- with the author, but to see how the outside
tions you could ask is: what are motives behind it? The motives are of course world looks at the visionary planning that
intimately connected to the parties involved. It’s often very predictable which architects love so much.
motives a party has.
For example, when we (Crimson Architectural Historians) worked in
Hoogvliet, we actually came in because of a huge regeneration project that
was being started by three parties; two housing corporations and the local
municipality. They had a very simple motive, which was to destroy two fifths
of the housing stock, thereby creating a new housing stock that would bring
in more money and that would exclude the most difficult inhabitants, either
because they were too poor, too criminal, or too ethnic. We rode in piggyback
on that agenda, and then once we were in we jumped off, and we created our
own regeneration agenda. Their agenda was in a way generic, it said there
is some sort of spread sheet of quantitative criteria to check the housing area
on, and when it didn’t respond, it didn’t comply. So they started changing the
housing area until it did comply with the spread sheet. That is, you could say
the modernist way of doing regeneration.
We tried to do it the other way around, and I hesitate to use the term bottom
up, because we were both top down and bottom up. We tried to do it from an
understanding of this specific place, but then as a whole, instead of the most Another book that I found a breathless
institutionalised way of looking at a very limited number of elements or crite- experience to read is Bombay Maximum
ria; like the size of the housing, the price of the housing, or the ethnic make- City by Suketu Mehta. He’s an Indian
up. This is very housing based approach, which is logical because these days the journalist from Mumbai, and he writes
entire initiative for regeneration lies in the hands of the housing corporations, about daily life in the city. It’s an incred-
and no longer in the hands of the planners, or the city. The city planners would ibly busy book, like the city, in which he
by definition have a more integral view. describes for instance the way in which the
Indian mafia or the Bollywood industry
These corporations look at a very limited number of elements, but they look at works. Basically he writes about the life
these elements in a universal way. In a way you could say they are more limited in the city, the climate, and the impos-
and smaller than what we do. We look at the entire community, everything, and sible density in this city. In a sense it is
not just everything now, but also everything in the past and everything in the comparable to the TV-series the Wire,
future. So in a way we are much more megalomaniac and more modernist than because it peals open a part of the city as an
these corporations. We try to wring a narrative out of that, and use that narra- interlocking system; school system, drugs
tive as the legitimisation of the interventions that we propose. system, the port system, the police system,
It’s like the whole modernist project has split in two directions, in which we etc., but it does this from an extremely
would look at everything, but then just for one place, and they would look at a subjective and personal point of view.
small selection, but then for all cities. I think our way is the best way, to look at
the whole thing as one unique thing.’ (JW) Lastly, my personal biggest hero as an ar-
chitectural historian is Reyner Banhman.
A personal favourite is his book on Los
Angeles; Los Angeles; The Architecture of
Four Ecologies, a book from 1971.’

19

Blame the Architect
Riots in Riga Viktorija Prilenska

This project is a follow up on the Blame “Le Corbusier called houses “machines for living.” France’s housing projects, as
the Architect lecture series given by Wout- we now know, became machines for alienation.”
er Vanstiphout at the Faculty of Architec- Christopher Caldwell, New York Times, November 25, 2005
ture, TU Delft on the relation between
large scale housing projects and riots. This 'As a hot spot for Blame the Architect research by design I have chosen the city
study explores the possibilities for riots to of Riga (Latvia). In this view, Riga does not have components for an 'urban' riot,
occur in other, imaginative situations, in since there are no compact areas where people of certain ethnicity or income
this case the city of Riga. live. Besides that protests and strikes are usually well-organized and go off with
no incidents. The only time when a peaceful demonstration resulted into an
This visual essay by Viktorija Prilenska, outbreak of violence followed by looting and hooliganism happened on 13 Janu-
gives the background to these riots, the ac- ary 2009 during the hardest phase of the financial crisis. Back then the police
tual riots, and the results of the riots from troops suppressed the riot in several hours, property damage was negligible and
different angles, including different forms there were no casualties. However, if there had been a strong political party or
of media. The full poster presentation can trade union behind the riot, the march might have had severe consequences. As,
be found at polistudelft.nl/atlantis/archive/ for instance, in 1991 during the collapse of the Soviet Union when the people
erected barricades all over the old town and blocked major governmental and
media centers protecting the legal government from the militaries. (figure 1)
In my doom scenario for the city of Riga the riot begins as a protest against
the state policy. Demonstrators demand from the president that he dissolve
the parliament and sets a date for the new elections and introduces a fair and
transparent governance (figure 2). However, the dominant coalition does not
react to these demands and the people lay a siege to the building of parliament.
Further on the events develop rapidly, the city core with all the governmental
institutions, the entrances to the city and the bridges are blocked by improvised
barricades and heavy machinery (figure 3). The president and the ministers
introduce the state of emergency and give an order to the army to put down the
uprising. (figure 4, 5, 6) During the clashes between the military and the rebels
the first casualties occur and the army splits up. Anarchy spreads all around the
country, mass disorders are stopped by foreign peacekeepers who intervene in
the country. A new president and parliament are erected. Latvia turns from the
parliamentary republic into a presidential.
TV and radio provide a full live coverage of the riot. There are mass discussions
on internet forums, blogs and social networks. (figure 7, 8) Although media does
not give any appraisal of the events or involved parties, the rioters are supported
by the people and thus depicted as national heroes. Afterwards some independ-
'However, the described riot is a fiction and ent journalists reveal some unwanted truths about the riots, but the information
cannot be used as a case study. In my opin- does not spread out into masses.
ion, urban conditions have little influence The new coalition launches big infrastructure projects, such as bridges and
on urban violence, it is the modern society, roads, in order to prevent the city from being blocked in case of a new riot. The
the gaming, movie and music industry that governmental buildings are secretly connected via a network of underground
celebrate violence and encourage youth to escape tunnels. Despite of an economic recession architects, urban planners and
commit crimes.' developers receive big governmental commissions.'

20

Figure 1. Blocking goverment centers in Riga, 1991 Figure 2. Demonstrators hit the streets

Figure 3. Improvised Barricades blocking goverment buildings Figure 4. Results of the riots

Figure 5. Results of the riots Figure 6. Results of the riots

Figure 7. Online video coverage of the riots Figure 8. TV News coverage on the riots
21

MSc 1 Urbanism
Q1 - Analysis and Design of City Fall 2010

Figure 1. Plan drawing of the new city center

Zwolle in the Wetlands
A. Skachokova, R. van Dijk, W.Villerius
'Although Zwolle is located in a delta this is not tangible
in the city. Our masterplan consists of four interconnected
projects aiming to reconnect Zwolle with its waterscapes.
A new promenade will connect the center with the canals
and its surrounding areas. A new residential area inte-
grating water storage and housing and the reopening of
the Willemsvaart will make new connections between
Zwolle and its surrounding rivers. To deal with future
water level rise we proposed a `bypass` combined with a
city extension. We used the designs made for the existing
city as a toolbox (Figure 2).'

Detail - City Ring Figure 2. Masterplan for Zwolle
R. van Dijk
'The borders surrounding the city center will be designed
as a promenade. The promenade defines the character of
the connection between the city center and the area sur-
rounding the city center. It also connects the surrounding
areas with each other. The northern part of the prome-
nade will be defined as a quay area, the southern part as
a singel area. New program will function as a ‘stepping
stone’ to the surrounding areas. The north mixed-use area
will be a wharf area, connected to the quay typology. The
new residential area in the south east will be an avenue
area, connected to the singel typology (Figure 1, 3).' Figure 3. Plans for the city center

22

Figure 4. Public spaces behind residential buildings

Apeldoorn Day Trip City
E. Machedon, J. Berg, T. Galesloot, A. Stobbe
'Apeldoorn is a Dutch mid-size city located on the east-
ern borders of the Veluwe. The city faces the danger of
shrinking partly because of its young inhabitants’ emigra-
tion. Our main aim is to ensure the population continu-
ity, on a regional scale by better positioning Apeldoorn in
its city network and on a city scale by improvingt hous-
ing supplies and amenities for young people. We defined
the city’s profile as a Day Trip City thanks to its existing
recreational features which should be further on strength-
ened and better connected in order to increase the city’s
attractiveness (Figure 5). The detailed projects focus on a
new city window along the rail tracks, a new residential
area for starters and two public space interventions.'

Detail - Backgarden
E. Machedon
Figure 5. Masterplan for Apeldoorn 'The main goal for Apeldoorn’s city centre is structuring
a higher quality public space. This will not only serve the
city’s day trip visitors which have little time to explore
along their way but also the city’s inhabitants which need
a wider set of activities for spending their free time. The
distinct quality of this detail project is its use of public
spaces situated behind collective residential buildings,
now used under their potential as parking lots (Figure
4, 6). The projects ambition is to integrate these spaces in
the city’s public space network by using soft urban design
interventions. This green pedestrian path will connect the
Figure 6. View on the public spaces from the street. train station to the city hall plaza.'

23

MSc 1 Urbanism
Q2 - Socio-spatial processes in urban societies

Boulevard as a window
Liang Wei
'Nijmegen is facing a challenge. A plan has been made to
connect the two parts of the city segregated by De Waal
River by means of a city ring with an extra bridge. This
provides opportunity for the development of Citadel and
Lent. This new city ring will integrate the urban context
and become an interesting route with a diversity of urban
activities (Figure 1). The River Park with the boulevard
is a strategic spot within this city ring (Figure 2). Instead
of being an edge of the city, the River Park will become
an important place where people meet as a recreation area
inside of the city. Eventually, River Park will be incor-
porated in the mental map of Nijmegen citizens and
becomes a booming place.
The boulevard is the centre of the River Park is facing Figure 1. Diversity along the ring road
Nijmegen’s historical window, namely the waterfront of
the old city centre. The goal of this project is triggering
development at the boulevard in order it be the best spot
where people could see the beautiful panorama of old
centre of Nijmegen and the Waal (Figure 5, 6). Mean-
while, the opposite view to this Boulevard could be attrac-
tive as well. A variety of space, interesting program, and
collective activities represent spatial, social quality of this
place to become a new window for Nijmegen.
Therefore two strategies are applied. The first strategy
is adding new programs of recreation and events. This
could be the Wandelvierdaagse as an international event
to catalyze activities on the boulevard. The second strat-
egy is making the area well accessible. At present most
city activity happens in the old centre of Nijmegen. When
the Citadel plan is executed there will be a lot of social
movement between the old centre and the new Citadel Figure 2. Orientation of the River Park
centre. In this way, the Boulevard could be a hub for the
flow between the two centres and one of to the island as
well. (Figure 3, 4). In the end the Boulevard will become a
destination from both sides of Nijmegen’s river.'

Figure 3. Section towards the water front

24

Figure 4. Model of the River Park developements

Figure 5. View on the new boulevard along the water front

See more projects?
Go to
http://polistudelft.nl/
atlantis/archive/

Figure 6. View towards the bridge and old centre of Nijmegen

25

Urban Renewal in Beijing:
Its Transition and Existing Challenge
Hui Xiao-xi, Sebastian

As with many other cities, urban renewal is a critical question in the urban Ir. MSc. HUI Xiao-xi, Sebastian
development of Beijing. The idea of large-scale urban reconstruction can be Director, Beijing Institute of Sustainable
traced back to the dream of modernization in the 1950s, but the pro-growth Housing and Urban Renewal (BiSHUR),
engine within market-oriented economic reform has also accelerated its reali- Beijing University of Technology
zation. While urban reconstruction has significantly changed the cityscape
and promoted urban development, it has also resulted in the destruction of
the city’s historical urban morphology and led to an increase in social conflicts.
Since 2004, many urban renewal projects have started to come to a standstill.
Although some new strategies of urban renewal were developed in recent years,
the urban renewal of Beijing is facing a dilemma. In this short essay, I would
like to briefly review the transition of urban renewal in Beijing and reveal the
challenges it faces at present.

The history of urban renewal in Beijing 1) Under the planned socialistic system,
In Beijing, urban renewal was first proposed under the ambition to fundamen- the housing provision was thought a basic
tally reconstruct the old city in the 1950s. But under the planned economic system, welfare for Chinese urban residents and
in which either urban development or housing construction is highly dependent the responsibility of the government.
on public investment, large-scale urban renewal was never really implemented The socialistic public housing was largely
due to a lack of funding. From the 1950s to the 1980s, urban renewal only con- developed in Beijing and other Chinese
sisted of a few reconstruction projects for the development of public buildings or cities. But till the 1990s, many public hous-
infrastructure, with housing renewal considered a non-priority for the govern- ing areas that were developed in the 1950s
ment. Until the middle of the 1980s, many of the older housing areas had dete- immediately after the People’s Republic
riorated considerably, and thus urban renewal became a key issue in the plan of was founded also started to be aged and
urban development. outdated.
After the success of several pilot projects in the late 1980s, the municipal gov-
ernment decided to launch the large-scale urban renewal of “decrepit and old”
housing areas at the beginning of the 1990s. Many historical Hutong areas in
the old city, as well as the earlier developed socialistic public housing areas¹,
were earmarked for demolition and reconstruction (see figure 1). In the transi-
tion from the planned economy to the market economy it has been proposed
to combine large-scale urban reconstruction with real estate development in
order to solve the funding problem of urban renewal. Several years later, the
radical housing reform in 1998 fundamentally changed the urban housing pro-
vision system and the approach of urban renewal. After 1998, the era of socialis-
tic public housing finally ended, with the majority of public housing becoming
privatized, and the task of solving the housing problem in the city was com-
missioned to the market. In Beijing, the policy of “Urban Renewal by Hous-
ing Reform”, which intends to promote urban reconstruction through housing
privatization and “monetized” rehousing², further boosted the market-oriented
urban reconstruction. However, the urban reconstruction combined with for- Figure 1) The presently most popular ap-
profit real estate investment caused an inevitable series of new urban problems: proach of urban renewal in Beijing:
many historical neighborhoods were demolished completely and with this came Wholesale demolition and reconstruction

26

2) According to the policy of “Urban the displacement of local residents, as many could not afford the newly con-
Renewal by Housing Reform”, the public structed dwellings.
housing tenants in the urban renewal Along with the increasingly potent argument for private property, the con-
areas are asked to buy the subsidized stitutional amendment in 2004 and the promulgation of Property Law in 2007
resettlement dwellings. The rehousing in legally confirmed the protection of private property for the first time in the his-
the urban reconstruction is defined as a tory of the People’s Republic. As a result of the legalization of private property,
“marketized” and “monetized” process. housing speculation and the conflict between different actors and social groups
The original tenants are impelled to increased. During the same period, historical conservation was emphasized for
become the homeowners. the first time. After 2004, disagreements with residents and difficulties in bal-
ancing investments led to the suspension of a large number of urban renewal
projects.

The latest attempts
With the current dilemma of urban renewal in Beijing, new solutions need to
be explored. As of 2007, social housing development has been re-emphasized in
China. Among the new social housing policies, the renewal of old housing areas
is listed as an important theme by the government. In Beijing, some new strate-
gies for urban renewal have been tested. These latest attempts include:

The rehabilitation of historical Hutong areas
In the historical conservation areas of the old city, the municipal government of
Beijing has finally abandoned the ambition for wholesale reconstruction. The
small-scale and gradual rehabilitation of historical Hutong areas was initiated
in 2008 with the aims of “Renovation, Improvement and Evacuation”. The new
approach combines housing renovation and reconstruction and is planned to
improve living conditions (see figure 2). In order to decrease the residential den-
sity of these populous areas, the government has provided attractive rehousing
conditions to encourage the relocation of residents³. At the same time, the pri-
vate purchase and restoration of courtyard houses are promoted.

“Pinggaipo” project - a renovation program in the former public housing areas
For the “later” developed former public housing areas4, which are absent from
the reconstruction plan, the government supports urban renovation. These
Figure 2) The housing renovation renovation projects are mostly identified by the replacement of flat roofs with
in a historical Hutong area pitched roofs (for the purpose of aesthetics and improved insulation) and are
often referred to as “Pinggaipo” (‘flat to pitched’) projects. In Beijing, “Ping-
gaipo” projects were largely initiated after 2007 and often publicly funded. As
well as roof replacements, these projects would also usually consist of repainted
facades, the repair or replacement of building components, landscaping and
improved communal facilities (see figure 3).

The new rehousing strategy for urban reconstruction
The latest proposal for urban reconstruction focuses on the modification of Bei-
3) If a household involved the rehabilita- jing’s rehousing strategy. In 2009, a new municipal decree on rehousing was
tion chooses to relocate in resettlement announced with two creative emphases: the prioritization of eligible households
housing out of the old city, the replaced to apply for newly developed social housing, and compensation for housing
housing area will be equivalent to at expropriation in accordance with “market price”. Some pilot projects for the
least 1.75 (for public housing) – 1.85 (for reconstruction of decrepit housing areas have been launched according to these
private house) times of its original hous- new strategies. In January 2011, new national legislation was introduced that
ing floor area. demands all property expropriations to be sentenced in court, thus reducing the
government’s influence.

27

Atlantis 22.1 urban society

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