ERA21 #04/2018 Cities of Transport

kniha editorial

Cities of Transport, Transport of Cities

Ivan Gogolák, Lukáš Grasse, Kateřina Čechová

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news

kniha column

Rostislav Koryčánek

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reviews

kniha completed project

Alpine Style. Exit Station of a Cableway in Pustevny »

Kamil Mrva, Václav Kocián / Kamil Mrva Architects

Pustevny is one of the most visited tourist destinations in the Beskydy Mountains. Its attractiveness is mainly due to a group of buildings built in the traditional “folk secession” style, designed by architect Dušan Jurkovič and built completely from wood in the late 19th century. Today, inappropriate use and insufficient infrastructure are serious issues here. Last August, the new exit station of the cableway was opened, replacing the original and unsuitable facility, offering an open restaurant with panoramic views. The contemporary building of stone, wood and glass had to meet the client’s demands as well as those of heritage conservation and nature protection agencies. It’s considered the first step in the transformation of the whole area, which will include a new design of public spaces according to a single manual, among other things.

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intro

The World of Tomorrow »

Daniel Špaček

Welcome to 2117, the world of tomorrow. 100 Years From Now is a set of illustrations full of absurd images and weird futuristic fantasies using ironic illustrative forms and captions. It serves as a creative stopover, to improve the artists drawing style and to think through the approach to one’s own imagination. The series is closely connected to other illustration cycles of imaginary metropolises, visions of space, vast systems and knots of matter and relationships. That’s the world of tomorrow. The world of Daniel Špaček, illustrator from the planet Earth.

starting point

Cities of Transport »

Kateřina Čechová, Ivan Gogolák, Lukáš Grasse

How can we reflect on today’s relationship between the city and transport? Is the stigma of transport as an enemy of good urban environment still valid? The classic principles of transport and its demands are losing their footing. Despite several waves of humanization of public spaces, movement around the city is still a necessity. The hybridization of material and movement creates an environment that becomes a space for living and for architecture – a representative of comfort and luxury. What is the impact of the historical relationship between transport and cities? What kinds of environments are emerging now and which processes are shaping them?

vision

The City Above Transport. Examples of OMA Projects of Cities Intergrown with Transport »

Martin Hejl, Lenka Hejlová

Many practicing architects oppose the assertions that the urbanism of a city is defined by transport engineering by the means of strong integration of the monumentality of these structures, their scale and significance, into the urban fabric. How can transport influence and form the urban fabric of a city that is playing with transport principles? Is it possible to take the resulting forms for a manifesto of the movement inside cities? The answers can be found when studying the examples of urban planning concepts by OMA.

completed project

The New Heart of Paris. Transformation of Forum des Halles in Paris »

Florence Bougnoux, Jean-Marc Fritz, David Mangin / SEURA Architectes, Patrick Berger, Jacques Anziutti / Berger-Anziutti Architectes

Les Halles is a part of Paris with a very intense history. There used to be a fresh food market, nicknamed the “Belly of Paris”, dating back to the 12th century. In the 1970s it was replaced, this time by the “Heart of Paris”, a huge transport hub. France’s greatest underground urban design project, at the time, it also freed up almost four hectares of green space in the very centre of the city. Thirty years later a grand transformation of the “biggest of Paris’s city gates” is being finished. Les Halles has turned into a modern urban space, widening the pedestrian zone, connecting the city above ground to the city underground, and most importantly, providing access to the busiest metro station in Europe, Châtelet-Les Halles. The close proximity of the transport hub is also exploited by the shopping center.

study

City of Hubs. The Relationship of Transport and City – The Urbanism Concept From the Very Beginning »

Ivan Lejčar

Simplistically we can state that the primal and natural transport hubs of continental cities were squares and later square complexes. Life, transport, and business were functioning in perfect symbiosis. It wasn’t until the industrial revolution in the 19th century when the hybrid forms of movement and a city emerged. In large cities and agglomerations, increasing the capacity of rail transport became the main tool of sustainable mobility. What are the prospects, potentials, or disadvantages of today’s urban railway hubs?

completed project

View of Delft. The Main Train Station and City Hall in Delft »

Mecanoo, Benthem Crouwel Architects

In downtown Delft, the new combination train station and city hall opened to the public. The project is part of an ambitious transformation of the main train station and approximately forty hectares of adjacent land. The railroad connecting the university city with The Hague and Rotterdam was transferred from an old viaduct into a tunnel, thus vacating space for residential development, parks, and a water canal. The landmark of the territory is the glazed building of the new station which combines the underground platform and public hall into one generous space, topped with a vaulted ceiling, where the top four floors accommodate the Delft  municipal offices.

completed project

Shell. Cruise Terminal in Lisbon »

João Luís Carrilho Da Graça / Carrilho Da Graça Arquitectos

Right at the foot of the historical center of Lisbon, on the flats of a disused dock, a new cruise terminal was built. The single compact volume accommodates an extensive program: baggage processing and claims on the ground level; check-in, waiting lounges, and duty-free shops on the first floor. The solitary structure is wrapped in a folded concrete exoskeleton that also creates a rooftop terrace with views of the city and the river. The exceptional location notwithstanding, is it even possible for an utilitarian structure to fit in the area below the castle hill and become a city gate for the modern age?

completed project

Archipelago of Roofs. Redevelopment of Nørreport Station and Surrounding Urban Space in Copenhagen »

Gottlieb Paludan Architects, COBE

After restoration of the underground platforms and certain load-bearing structures, the redevelopment of the urban space around Nørreport Station in Copenhagen was the last stage of the central transport hub modernization. The busy square, catering to over 250,000 commuters every day, was completely redesigned and reorganized with rounded transparent pavilions and sunken bicycle parking. Cars are now allowed on one side of the square only, the pavement on other side connect smoothly to the pedestrian zone of the historical center. Does form really follow movement then, or does movement follow form here?

practice

City of Bikes. A City Friendly for Everyone »

Tomáš Cach

When you hear the name “Bike City”, what comes into your mind? The cities of Denmark or Netherlands, with tens or hundreds of bikes parked or being ridden in the streets? Cities that built bike lanes and bike paths, but still managed to keep the roads wide enough for other vehicles (except in historical centers, where cars have restricted access, and the urban space is shared)? Small towns built on islands, with streets full of bikes and pedestrians, because cars remain on the mainland? Or cities in North Korea where the high rate of bicycle traffic is a result of a truly repulsive dictatorship?

case

City of Transport Planning. Construction of a City Ring Road in Prague in Weak Democratic Conditions »

Martin Horák, Michaela Pixová

Prague's city ring road project has been the object of controversy since plans for its construction were first made during the communist regime. Despite persistent citizen protest against the project, the change of the political regime after 1989 has resulted only in a shift towards building the ring in tunnels. City politicians currently remain committed to completing this costly project with questionable functional value. This state is a result of the long-term dynamics of democratic development in Prague. Technocratic opposition to dialogue with the public, inherited from the previous regime, has under market conditions and in the context of a weak democracy, gradually created space for the interests of building companies, and for the opportunity to squander public funds on construction.

completed project

Superblock. The Poblenou Superblock Pilot Project in Barcelona »

Barcelona has started to implement an ambitious urban mobility plan based mainly on the reincarnation of the modernist superblock, a concept of a smaller part of the city with busy traffic concentrated on its perimeter and calmed streets inside. By small interventions, in the spirit of tactical urbanism, pilot projects in selected locations should gradually transform polluted and noisy streets into zones with pedestrian and cyclist priority, green spaces, and recreational areas. The Poblenou superblok has advanced furthest of all the test locations, and the results are good so far. In this data-urbanism age, when we can precisely quantify the benefits of each change, could we quantify the quality of public space, too?

practice

City of Smart Transport. Smart Cities Need Smart Citizens »

David Bárta

There are many different interpretations of the term Smart City. Some refer to new technologies, others to sustainability and the lifestyle of our civilization. The British, perhaps most advanced in this regard, claim that to have a smart city, you need to have smart people. People with the necessary skills and information about the environment they are living in, because these conditions will enable them to make informed decisions.

completed project

Supercharger. Charging Station for Electric Cars Near Humpolec »

Petr Pelčák / Pelčák a partner architekti

Limited mileage and the shortage of charging stations are the biggest concerns when buying an electric car. Therefore, it is in the interest of car manufacturers, energy suppliers and governments to support the development of this infrastructure. In 2016, the first supercharger in the Czech Republic was opened in Vystrkov near Humpolec. Confined inside a curve of the road connecting an existing gas station to the highway, the boomerang-shaped structure is meant to represent the eco-friendly, dynamic, and functionally “clean” nature of electric cars.

project

Public Square. How Could Cities Respond to Autonomous Vehicles? »

Jack Robbins, Brandon Massey, Ben Abelman / FXCollaborative, Sam Frommer / Sam Schwartz Engineers

The future of autonomous vehicles is coming. Whether their introduction to the cities will result in more cars on the streets or fewer is being fiercely debated. But in either scenario, there is no need for autonomous cars to park on the streets. The liberated parking space can be returned to the public. Public Square, developed in response to a design competition for New York City, offers cities a tool to respond to the adoption of driverless cars in an incremental and flexible way, to rethink streets and reclaim space for pedestrian.

project

Afloat. POP-UP Experimental Project »

Tredje Natur

POP-UP offers a solution for the seemingly unrelated problems of today’s metropolises: stormwater management, a lack of green spaces, and parking. The combination of an underground water reservoir and a floating parking garage with a green roof is also a part of the long-standing vision for the movement and adaptability of urban fabric. The project was developed for a specific location in New York, but it can be adjusted for dozens of metropolises from Mexico City to Singapore. Should we see this as an infeasible experiment, or as a breakthrough in the struggle to adapt to climate change in the confined conditions of the world’s cities?

completed project

Fortified Garage. Underground Parking Garage St. Jan in ’s-Hertogenbosch »

Leon Thier, Rigobert Nivillac / Studio Leon Thier

The restoration of a medieval fortification and a new parking space, two apparent contradictions, were combined together in the Dutch town of ’s-Hertogenbosch. The new underground parking structure became an unforeseen opportunity for the recovery of the urban fabric and the creation of new urban spaces. Invisibility, triggering the renewal of surrounding parks and water bodies, and the improvement of pedestrian access all plays to its maximum potential here. What are the limits of such tendencies in relation to historical city centers?

reportage

Roads to Nowhere: How Infrastructure Built on American Inequality »

Johnny Miller

Roads, bridges and walls are agents of change, with a direct impact on our lives. Who has control over where these are placed? Who says how many there will be? How big? As the US gears up for its biggest infrastructure revitalisation project in decades, it is only by asking these questions and acknowledging the power of city planning to impact lives that we can hope to prevent the injustices of the past and fix those of the present.

completed project

A Spider Above the City. Pedestrian Bridge Luchtsingel in Rotterdam »

ZUS

A pedestrian bridge nearly 400 meters long reconnected three locations in downtown Rotterdam. A yellow spider is spread over the area that is currently ruined and hostile for pedestrians. This and many other dreams of modernist architects have finally come true in Rotterdam, the city of strong ad hoc solutions. But this time it’s not a traffic-segregation measure coming from the top down, but the city center’s residents’ crowdsourced solution, as they clearly grew exasperated with the daily use of the usual underpasses. Is Luchtsingel a welcome part of the new layer of informal and unorthodox public spaces or is it rather a solution renouncing the possibility of a systemic improvement of traditional urban spaces?

idea

Non–Places »

Larissa Fassler

For more than 10 years I’ve been developing an artistic practice that explores public spaces and examines their impact on its inhabitants. While I use the media of architectural representation such as models and plans to reflect these places, my work differs fundamentally from methods used by architects and urban planners. I employ my own subjective systems to survey public spaces by walking their edges, counting my steps, recording my corporeal experience, and collecting details. There is knowledge that comes from ‘deep’ looking, where assumptions and preconceptions about a place and its inhabitants can be corrected by accurate, often minute, personal observations. My work begs the viewer to slow down, look around, and consider more deeply the spaces and structures that organise our cities, our lives, and our identities.

annex

Fenestration Types and Their Effect on the Building's Energy Balance

Marek Polášek

annex

BIM, Part Two: Design, Construction, Operation

Petr Vaněk

completed project

Industrial Jinonice. Office Buildings Mechanica and Walter in Prague »

Vladimír Krátký, Luis Marques / Atelier Krátký

In the last couple of years, the brownfield of the former aircraft engine factory Walter Motors in Prague Jinonice has been undergoing a major redevelopment. With the Aviatica and Dynamica offices and the Waltrovka housing district finished recently, this year saw the opening of two new office properties Mechanica I and II. At the same time, the restoration of an existing protected factory building Walter was completed, with distinctive features of the load bearing structure preserved despite the much changed programme. The three buildings facing the central public space of the Waltrovka district combine offices in upper floors with shops and restaurants in the ground floor.



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