Presentatie en overzicht van het studenten werk dat in vijf workshops met Cass Cities en Mark Brealey werd gedaan op de Brusselse Noordrand in het kader van het territoriaal ontwikkelingsprogramma Noordrand
11. We may be blindly
heading towards a
situation where London
becomes a densely
packed, high value
residential dormitory,
instead of a vibrant
global city.
Jessica Ferm, London’s industrial land: Cause for concern?
Vibrant is the annual town fair, where everyone dresses nice and is happy
Vibrant as a workers meeting in Trafford park, the first european industrial estate in Manchester
Vibrant like New York Philharmonic orchestra, perfoming in the hall of Volkswagens’ Dresden Factory
Or during a triatlon or any Big event
Playing in a pond
Relaxing at ghent city beach in Blaarmeersen
Even the entrance Kattevennen to the hoge kempen national park can be seen as a vibrant place
Vibrant as in a global city – Kings Cross in London. Vibrant might as well be a very fragile state, more and more threatened by its own succes, as Jessica Ferm said recently:
Where vibrant clearly equals more than just liveable.
Liveable is like the Brussels up side housing estate, where the working port area is being transformed into middle class residential heaven
Converting a lively, confronting, active and industrious port into a dormant suburbian dream
As is happening throughout europe with many old industrial sites
A vibrant city embraces the whole society. And allows everyone to
play
Party – the poperinge carnival
shop
And protest
Working hard and being proud of what you produce in the city
Making the world’s best chocolate
Just next to brussels Midi station
Producing felt from rabbit’s skin
Or other textile manufacturing in small towns
Leading up to contemporary versions of small scale industry. Small industries that evolved in the same way as large ones
To an industry that produces 7 million cars.
Producing felt from rabbit’s skin
Or other textile manufacturing in small towns
Party – the poperinge carnival
Or the inner city production plant of Umicore, in Hoboken, Antwerp
Working hard and being proud of what you produce in the city
Making the world’s best chocolate
Just next to brussels Midi station
Leading up to contemporary versions of small scale industry. Small industries that evolved in the same way as large ones
Away from universal planning language of CIAM 4 developped by Walter Gropius, away from what we still use in land use planning. Leaving behind the static view on urban life
Meaning: the old crocodiles, as Marjolijn Claeys and Hans Leinfelder call them, these crocodiles should evolve or disappear.
And leave behind the sterile warsaw extension plan, with the separation of urban functions and social segregation – all cities have tried these
So, Goodbye charter of athens, and the beautiful pruit igoe estate – which eventually
Was the first to be demolished
And back to what it was before, a vibrant part of a magnificent city (St Louis Missouri) with lively streets, fine grain housing, shopping, everyday life, mixed with industry (in brown)
Being nimble requires a modest attitude, and cautiously moving between the value of the existing, the numerous possibilities that can be nurtured and pinpointing what is lacking that could raise the territorial performance.
Nikolai Gomes, a CassCities student brought six concepts together that would revitalise Tottenham in North London