- F5 Niddastrasse 49 on 12 Jan 12 @ 1700
Interview with minister, Loewe von Judah Gemeinde Lion of Judah Church - F6 Niddastrasse 54 on 12 Jan 12 @ 2100
Interview with barman, Kafe Luna Park
- F7 Stadplanungsamt - City Planning Department on 13 Jan 12 @1000 Desk based interview with Stadtplanungsamt Informationsstelle - City Planning Information Service
- F8 Niddastrasse 82 on 13 Jan 12
Field Sound Recording, Italian Restaurant Pizzeria 7 Bello
- F8 Niddastrasse on 13 Jan 12 @1200
end-to-end walking interview with two architects who work in Schleusenstrasse - F8 Niddastrasse 54 on 13 Jan 12 @1300
interview with (another) barman, Cafe Luna Park - F9 Moselstrasse 6a, on 13 Jan 12 @1400
Desk based interview with Stadtteilbuero Bahnhofsviertel - Train Station Quarter District Office - F12 Niddastrasse cnr Ottostrasse 13 on 14 Jan 12 @1700 interview with receptionist, Columbus Hotel
- F13 Niddastrasse 39-41 on 14 Jan 12 @2200
interview with receptionist, Chinese Conference Hotel - F14 Niddastrasse 58 on 15 Jan 12 @1945
interview with receptionist, 25h Hotel by Levis Hotel - F15 Niddastrasse 63 on 15 Jan 12 @2100
interview with tenant, designer at a Graphic Design and Communications Studio - F16 Niddastrasse 84 on 15 Jan 12 @2200
interview with shop assistant, street kiosk - F17 Stadplanungsamt - City Planning Department on 16 Jan 12 @1500
Desk based interview with Stadtplanungsamt Abt. Bahnhofsviertel Staderneuerung - City Planning Department for Bahnhofsviertel Train Station Quarter City Regeneration - F18 Niddastrasse 54 on 16 Jan 12 @1700
interview with an older lady, at Cafe Luna Park, who had held a birthday party in the street - Liebfrauenkirche Church Frankfurt on 16 Jan 12 @2100
Field Sound Recording of Church bells - F19 FH Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Frankfurt on 17 Jan 12 @1030 Desk based interview, Dean of Architecture and City Planning
- F20 Niddastrasse 52 on 17 Jan 12 @1200
interview with waiter, Mian Chinese Restaurant - F21 Niddastrasse 1-110 on 29 Feb 2012
Friday, 20 January 2012
Bahnhofsviertel Frankfurt January 2012 (Interviews and recordings)
Field recordings
Moselstrasse, Bahnhofsviertel
A man was walking along Taunusstrasse, one of the Boulevardes in the Station Quarter, on a Tuesday at about about nine in the evening. He had earlier joined a friend at an event at the Schauspielhaus, with the 93 year old feminist psychoanalyst Margarete Mitchalek in interview. A young architect friend had joined the two of them at the square there, near the Occupy Frankfurt camp, beneath the giant Euro sign. They had stopped for a snack at the MacDonalds in Tausstrasse, and while eating, he had noticed among the customers a woman pacing back and forth slightly too close. She seemed intoxicated, he thought, or using drugs, and he gathered from her dress, smell, appearance and behaviour, that she might one of the local sex workers.
He had visited Frankfurt a number of times for research in this extremely diverse inner city area, where he had studied the streets in detail. It was on the final day of an intensive field research visit in the area, looking at urban design and street design, and conducting many hours of detailed interviews about the area, and seeing junkies, red-light tourists, shopkeepers, business people and creatives in the street, building on his understanding of the area's diversity. His friends, a local guide working at a university and a young architect in a Frankfurt office, had agreed to accompany him to visit Pik Dame, a famous old cabaret club in Bahnhofsviertel, as part of his night life research. He remembered passing by the oft-photographed Pik Dame club on a few occasions before, but had not written down the exact address, thinking the place was either in Moselstrase or Elbestrasse, two smaller streets perpendicular to the main boulevardes. These smaller perpendicular streets were lined with clubs, cafes and the famous sex shops, brothels, hourly hotels and other ambigous red-light establishments.
He suggested briefly locating the club while his two friends were at a cash machine on the corner of Taunustrasse and Moselstrasse, and he walked northwards along the west side pavement of Moselstrasse. Soon, a spruiker standing in front of a club approached to recommend and welcome him into the club. Two ladies with the spruiker asked him to come in and enjoy the club, one a large lady dressed in black like a dominatrix. Declining to enter, he said thanks, he had an appointment. Asking the spruiker "Wo ist der klub, Pik Dame", came the jocular reply "Da sind Sie richtig, hier sind Sie".
The man crossed the street, passing a few other mostly male revellers alone and in groups and parked and double parked cars in the street to continue his search on the east side going south. Soon he asked another spruiker for directions and he was approached by an attractive young woman. Come inside for a drink, she said. He looked at her, as she kept him talking, and she seemed sober, clean, well-dressed and well groomed, with only a hint of an eastern European accent. Could she be a trafficked sex worker, he thought? Her long hair was carefully kept, and her eyes were decorated very subtly with contact lenses and/or glistening eyedrops, it seemed. Her makeup was almost unnoticably subtle, and she seemed no younger than twenty-five. "Please just have a look at our club out of interest" she said, politely leading him by the arm through the curtains. He looked around in trepidation at the interior, which was red and velvety, but more tasteful than expected. The video screen on the wall was playing MTV, not porn as he had feared. They were apparently alone. She guided him to a bar stool and said "Nimm platz, ich lade Dich auf ein bierchen ein. Spater gehen wir oben und..." He hesitated, and said he had an appointment to meet his friends. She reassured him, "Bitte, du bist eingeladen..."
He had visited Frankfurt a number of times for research in this extremely diverse inner city area, where he had studied the streets in detail. It was on the final day of an intensive field research visit in the area, looking at urban design and street design, and conducting many hours of detailed interviews about the area, and seeing junkies, red-light tourists, shopkeepers, business people and creatives in the street, building on his understanding of the area's diversity. His friends, a local guide working at a university and a young architect in a Frankfurt office, had agreed to accompany him to visit Pik Dame, a famous old cabaret club in Bahnhofsviertel, as part of his night life research. He remembered passing by the oft-photographed Pik Dame club on a few occasions before, but had not written down the exact address, thinking the place was either in Moselstrase or Elbestrasse, two smaller streets perpendicular to the main boulevardes. These smaller perpendicular streets were lined with clubs, cafes and the famous sex shops, brothels, hourly hotels and other ambigous red-light establishments.
He suggested briefly locating the club while his two friends were at a cash machine on the corner of Taunustrasse and Moselstrasse, and he walked northwards along the west side pavement of Moselstrasse. Soon, a spruiker standing in front of a club approached to recommend and welcome him into the club. Two ladies with the spruiker asked him to come in and enjoy the club, one a large lady dressed in black like a dominatrix. Declining to enter, he said thanks, he had an appointment. Asking the spruiker "Wo ist der klub, Pik Dame", came the jocular reply "Da sind Sie richtig, hier sind Sie".
The man crossed the street, passing a few other mostly male revellers alone and in groups and parked and double parked cars in the street to continue his search on the east side going south. Soon he asked another spruiker for directions and he was approached by an attractive young woman. Come inside for a drink, she said. He looked at her, as she kept him talking, and she seemed sober, clean, well-dressed and well groomed, with only a hint of an eastern European accent. Could she be a trafficked sex worker, he thought? Her long hair was carefully kept, and her eyes were decorated very subtly with contact lenses and/or glistening eyedrops, it seemed. Her makeup was almost unnoticably subtle, and she seemed no younger than twenty-five. "Please just have a look at our club out of interest" she said, politely leading him by the arm through the curtains. He looked around in trepidation at the interior, which was red and velvety, but more tasteful than expected. The video screen on the wall was playing MTV, not porn as he had feared. They were apparently alone. She guided him to a bar stool and said "Nimm platz, ich lade Dich auf ein bierchen ein. Spater gehen wir oben und..." He hesitated, and said he had an appointment to meet his friends. She reassured him, "Bitte, du bist eingeladen..."
Friday, 6 January 2012
King's Cross Square
The hard-won revised public realm scheme by Stanton Williams for one of London's most prominent squares is a great improvement on the previous proposals. However, it is completely segregated from the adjoining public realm on Pancras Way and Euston Road, two high streets with important public realm functions in this transport hub area, which will also be fundamental to the civic, architectural, public realm quality of King's Cross town centre.
On the BBC this week, presenter Angela Saini showed how a holistically considered civic street like Exhibition Road might make for a better, safer urban environment, and a 'happier' place. Her review of current thinking on street design in Europe reinforced the importance of interaction between street users and increasing their 'human sensibilities'. Interestingly, it echoed some of William Holly Whyte's 1975 work, The Street Life Project, which was shown at the Urban Design Group this week.
Euston Road, a 'TFL red route', is a public highway for pedestrians and vehicles, and is an urban street with important public realm functions - extending from the line of bollards at the bus stands, across footway, 'carriageway', barrier and more 'carriageway' to more footway, fronting buildings on the south side of Euston Road. This street realm is managed by the Mayor's TfL Transport for London Streets. This square is one of the Mayor's 'Great Spaces' of London, announced in his programme 'Better Streets' (2009) (pdf).
Network Rail's Press Release announces that planning gain of £750,000 is earmarked for Camden to "improve the pedestrian environment along York Way."
Thursday, 5 January 2012
Street Life Project W.H.Whyte c.1975
The film on "The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces" shown at the Urban Design Group this evening suggested, in ways similar to some points made in Wednesday's BBC Thinking Streets programme, that attractive urban spaces depend upon human interaction.
Whether walking or on wheels, preferably self-propelled, people bring urban spaces to life by interacting with places to sit, with street movement, with sunlight, with water, with trees, and with food. Genius.
The street is the river of life running through the city, he says - people come there not to escape, but to partake.
Whether walking or on wheels, preferably self-propelled, people bring urban spaces to life by interacting with places to sit, with street movement, with sunlight, with water, with trees, and with food. Genius.
The street is the river of life running through the city, he says - people come there not to escape, but to partake.
Tuesday, 3 January 2012
Thinking Streets - what about delight?
A 30 minute item on BBC Radio 4 tonight reviewed new science in 'thinking streets' - with the byline "the streets beneath our feet are getting smart". Contrasting with the ecological-political reference of the situationists' cry "beneath the pavement, the beach", the 'smart' street reference was a 'geeky' one. The UCL Pedestrian Accessibility and Movement Environment Laboratory was featured, where the presenter Angela Saini (author of Geek Nation) visited the "world's largest model street" and seemed fascinated with the iris tracking technology mounted to her headset.
Besides Nick Tyler and the UCL's PAMELA Lab, the programme featured the design of newly completed Exhibition Road, although the presenter did not explain the important difference between shared surface and shared space there. Cycling was discussed (LCC going Dutch), and the pioneering Dutch work of Hans Monderman, Hans De Jong, and of UK's Ben Hamilton Baillie on shared space. John Adams' work on risk compensation theory was incorporated as good background context, and Simon Christmas' work on moral models for 'road users' was introduced.
A distinction between roads and streets was not made, something I consider significant, given the programme title. Streets in urban areas have a major public realm function, while roads are often designed primarily for movement. This principle, spelled out in the Manual for Streets (2007 and 2010), and reinforced in the London Mayor's 'Better Streets' guide book of 2009, still seems to elude Transport for London in its press releases about its work in central London, on its 'Transport for London Road Network', on 'Mixed Priority Routes', on High Streets and on urban movement arteries. The public realm is overshadowed by 'road' engineering. Engineering design methods for motorised movement on roads still dominate, and the built legacy of postwar highway engineering remains widespread. The sensory architecture and ambiance of streets as public places remain at a disadvantage.
The issues the programme raises about shared space and risk compensation theory were thought provoking for the concept of sharing the public realm, in my view, unlike the science methods used in PAMELA Lab, however important their work on materials testing and accessibility prototyping of tactile surfaces and proprioception analysis certainly is. In the context of Simon Christmas' research on individual and collective moral models people use when occupying the street, a code of behaviour and humanity emerges in spaces, related to the whole environment. The spatial perception of the street is not only a physical and sensory one. Christmas suggests, with the currently topical example that some "some militant cyclists say they don't minding being hated in traffic, so long as they are safe", that safety alone, however, is not enough. Here I concur, that streets - solely by becoming less deadly - will not make for a better public realm, nor be a source of civic pride.
The streets laboratories and roads engineers have 'overlooked' one part of the Vitruvian triad of the conditions of (good) architecture, 'Firmitas, Utilitas, Venustas' (Firmness, Commodity and Delight). Smart streets should be intelligent in a humanistic, social way, by activating humane and social qualities in users, promoting civic consciousness and pride. Technological and engineering methods, however technically 'smart', will struggle to achieve this. As Christmas says, "happy streets" or "lovely streets" would be a more worthy aim - public places where people enjoy their lives being in the city.
Thinking Streets
The streets beneath our feet are getting smart. Pavements are melting into the roads and traffic lights are disappearing. Inspired by the work of scientists and engineers in Holland and Japan, this is a revolution in urban design. Part of it is a movement known as 'Shared Space', which promises to dramatically change the way cities look and how we experience them. In Thinking Streets, Angela Saini asks if all these ideas really fulfil the promise of making us all safer, happier and more efficient?
Two years ago, at the heart of London's shopping district, a strange thing happened. The big red buses, white vans and black taxis that usually skimmed pedestrians as they tried to beat the maddeningly slow grid of traffic lights at Oxford Circus, were stone still for thirty seconds. And suddenly every person standing at the junction scrambled into the middle of the road.
In one stroke, life changed for the 90 million people who step through Oxford Circus every year. Not only has it made life easier for those on foot by giving them 70% more space, it's also faster and looks neater. In 2010, the council even claimed that it contributed to a 7% rise in annual sales in the area's shops.
The Oxford Circus diagonal crossing was one of the first steps in a growing movement to change streets in Britain and all over the world. Today, engineers at Imperial College London are helping to overhaul South Kensington's museum district, with pavements being levelled down to the same height as the road and new criss-cross paving patterns designed to calm drivers (the scheme is nearly complete and the result is striking if rather disconcerting). In Portishead, near Bristol, a trial that removed traffic lights from a notoriously congested crossing was such a success there are plans to roll it out across the town. Other schemes already constructed include Brighton's New Road and another in Ashford, Kent. But Shared Space has been labelled 'speed-bump science' by its critics - Jeremy Clarkson among them. True, one of the guiding principles is reducing traffic speed, often with the use of raised brick-paved areas (very long speed-bumps!) but proponents insist Shared Space is a creative and radical solution aimed at improving the experience of all road users. And the benefits go beyond reduced accident rates to a host of socio-economic benefits for the cities, towns and villages choosing to adopt such schemes.
In practical terms, a shared space scheme will involve removing the distinction between streets and pavements. No barriers, few if any road markings, no pedestrian crossings, and little in the way of street signage. The result of this street minimalism is that you enter a shared space very much at your own risk. And this is the key to improving safety, traffic flow and quality of experience. The early roots of this innovative concept lies in the work of the late Dutch traffic engineer, Hans Monderman. A passionate advocate of shared space, Monderman and colleagues started small - more than twenty years ago, converted an intersection in the northern Dutch province of Friesland from a conventional signal-controlled intersection to a brick-paved street, giving equal priority to cars, people and cycles. The idea was that people would use their own minds in navigating the streets, building their own informal traffic rules. Research has shown that these kinds of shared spaces automatically reduced traffic speed to under 20 mph - the threshold at which the chances of being severely injured in a road accident plummets. This highly counterintuitive approach - increasing risk decreases accidents is finding favour (albeit slowly and not without opposition) all over the world.
Today, Monderman's vision can be experienced throughout his Dutch province of Friesland, no where more so than in Drachten, an unassuming town that until recently was famous only for being the home of the Dutch electronics giant Philips. As Angela discovers for herself, Drachten's shared space schemes (and those of its near neighbours) now attracts a regular pilgrimage of engineers and planners, from all parts of the world, eager to experience this new urban vision.
Two years ago, at the heart of London's shopping district, a strange thing happened. The big red buses, white vans and black taxis that usually skimmed pedestrians as they tried to beat the maddeningly slow grid of traffic lights at Oxford Circus, were stone still for thirty seconds. And suddenly every person standing at the junction scrambled into the middle of the road.
In one stroke, life changed for the 90 million people who step through Oxford Circus every year. Not only has it made life easier for those on foot by giving them 70% more space, it's also faster and looks neater. In 2010, the council even claimed that it contributed to a 7% rise in annual sales in the area's shops.
The Oxford Circus diagonal crossing was one of the first steps in a growing movement to change streets in Britain and all over the world. Today, engineers at Imperial College London are helping to overhaul South Kensington's museum district, with pavements being levelled down to the same height as the road and new criss-cross paving patterns designed to calm drivers (the scheme is nearly complete and the result is striking if rather disconcerting). In Portishead, near Bristol, a trial that removed traffic lights from a notoriously congested crossing was such a success there are plans to roll it out across the town. Other schemes already constructed include Brighton's New Road and another in Ashford, Kent. But Shared Space has been labelled 'speed-bump science' by its critics - Jeremy Clarkson among them. True, one of the guiding principles is reducing traffic speed, often with the use of raised brick-paved areas (very long speed-bumps!) but proponents insist Shared Space is a creative and radical solution aimed at improving the experience of all road users. And the benefits go beyond reduced accident rates to a host of socio-economic benefits for the cities, towns and villages choosing to adopt such schemes.
In practical terms, a shared space scheme will involve removing the distinction between streets and pavements. No barriers, few if any road markings, no pedestrian crossings, and little in the way of street signage. The result of this street minimalism is that you enter a shared space very much at your own risk. And this is the key to improving safety, traffic flow and quality of experience. The early roots of this innovative concept lies in the work of the late Dutch traffic engineer, Hans Monderman. A passionate advocate of shared space, Monderman and colleagues started small - more than twenty years ago, converted an intersection in the northern Dutch province of Friesland from a conventional signal-controlled intersection to a brick-paved street, giving equal priority to cars, people and cycles. The idea was that people would use their own minds in navigating the streets, building their own informal traffic rules. Research has shown that these kinds of shared spaces automatically reduced traffic speed to under 20 mph - the threshold at which the chances of being severely injured in a road accident plummets. This highly counterintuitive approach - increasing risk decreases accidents is finding favour (albeit slowly and not without opposition) all over the world.
Today, Monderman's vision can be experienced throughout his Dutch province of Friesland, no where more so than in Drachten, an unassuming town that until recently was famous only for being the home of the Dutch electronics giant Philips. As Angela discovers for herself, Drachten's shared space schemes (and those of its near neighbours) now attracts a regular pilgrimage of engineers and planners, from all parts of the world, eager to experience this new urban vision.
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Frankfurt Gestalten
 |
| Frankfurt Gestalten |
A search for Niddastrasse at the time of writing, for example, yielded thirteen results, ranging from parking issues to a mouse- and rat plague in the Ottostrasse, between Niddastrasse and Mainzer Landstrasse.
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
Monday, 28 November 2011
King's Cross Square
Proposed
Left: Stanton Williams Designs for King's Cross Square. Right: Gaylord Investments' recent proposal for the Euston Road side of King's Cross Square
Existing
The importance of King’s Cross as an international gateway has grown over the last decade, and since Terry Farrell's proposal for the Mayor’s Hundred Public Spaces Programme, which suggested a worthy terminus to Euston Road as one of the capital's grand boulevardes, and of course there has been a global financial crisis. Still, there was a doubling the capacity of the underground interchange, and international-calibre designs for the iconic stations. But despite Camden's 'place shaping' efforts, now the disconnected vision (or lack of vision) of this civic space has seen the calibre of civic design descending to the standards of Gaylord Investments and Transport for London.
A future award candidate? Better to return to the 'Great Spaces' plan.
Update 5 January 2012
Camden New Journal "Shattered Dream"
Developer Nigel Bennett (of Metropolis Planning and Design) was said to have had his dream shattered with the recent refusal of planning permission by Camden Council. Bennett cited 'anti-development' 'lobbyists' as interfering with the project which, despite CABE's report, Bennett personally considered to be an exciting contemporary design. He vowed to appeal over the eighteen grounds Camden gave for refusing planning approval.
Can King's Cross Square have good quality design, world standard architecture and positive civic development? Could it be a Great Space?
Friday, 21 October 2011
BesetzteStraße: Gemischte Strassenbenutzung zu jede Tageszeit, am Beispiel der Bahnhofsviertel Frankfurt und London
Zusammenfassung (English version here)
(aufgearbeitet mit hilfe M. Kuglitsch Oktober 2011)
Ziel
(aufgearbeitet mit hilfe M. Kuglitsch Oktober 2011)
Ziel
Straßen in Innenstädte könnten lebendiger sein, könnten auch eine nachhaltigerer Rolle im öffentlichem Raum spielen, wenn NutzerInnen von Straßenraum (BesetzerInnen der Straßen) und auch die Gestaltung für diversen Nutzungen der Straße zu jeder Tageszeit - besser verstanden waeren. Die Forschung Werden die Qualität von gemischten Straßen in inneren, dichten Stadtbezirken rund um die Uhr untersuchen. Im Vordergrund der Forschung stehen die Erfahrungen der BenützerInnen, Dies sowohl als auch die Vorgehensweise beim Entwurf der Strasse, da zweiteres für verbesserte Qualität in der staedischen Infrastruktur bestimmend ist.
Die Analyse von Praxis und Theorie in Europa - auch Weltweit - dient als Hintergrund für die Untersuchung zweier Beispielsfallen; jeweils an Verkehrsknotenpunkten in Bahnhofsviertel Frankfurt am Main und in Bahnhofsviertel King's Cross London, GB. Diese Beispiele veranschaulichen die dicht besetzten und auch bekämpften Strassenraume und werden als Probeexemplar herangezogen um die Grenzen der Idee eines gemeinsamen öffentlichen Raumes, eines sogenannten Zivilraumes zu erforschen.
Die Analyse von Praxis und Theorie in Europa - auch Weltweit - dient als Hintergrund für die Untersuchung zweier Beispielsfallen; jeweils an Verkehrsknotenpunkten in Bahnhofsviertel Frankfurt am Main und in Bahnhofsviertel King's Cross London, GB. Diese Beispiele veranschaulichen die dicht besetzten und auch bekämpften Strassenraume und werden als Probeexemplar herangezogen um die Grenzen der Idee eines gemeinsamen öffentlichen Raumes, eines sogenannten Zivilraumes zu erforschen.
Absichten
Beabsichtigt ist die Erhebung von Fallbeispielen, wo Stassenbenutzung und Strassengestaltung anhand betroffener AkteurInnen festgehalten werden. Durch die Analyse der Veränderungsprozesse sollen neue Informationen über Benutzerperspektiven und Qualität von Strassen dokumentiert werden. Weiters wären Entwurfsvorschläge zu machen, um die benutzergerechte Qualität zu stärken, beispielsweise Lebensqualität, Sicherheit, Attraktivität. Zuletzt werden Beispiele zur Umgestaltung und Modellierung entworfen, um zu Bewerten, inwiefern die beabsichtigten Verbesserungen (aus Sicht der BenutzerInnen) erreicht werden.
Occupying the Street
Mixed-Use Street Design for all Hours, London and Frankfurt Train Station Areas
October 2011
Aim of Research
For inner-urban streets to become more liveable, and to perform a more sustainable role in the public realm, requires a better understanding of users, and of the design of spaces for use at all hours of night and day. The research aims to investigate qualities of mixed-use streets in dense urban transport-hub-areas at various times, with respect to both the user experience and the effect of design processes for urban street environments in regeneration. Analysis of European and international practice and theory provides context for investigating case study streets in Frankfurt-Bahnhofsviertel and London-King's Cross. The two examples of densely occupied and contested hub-area streets will be used to test limitations to co-producing streets as shared public realms, and as civic spaces.
Draft Objectives of Research Project
The objectives begin with analysiing street user experience and street design for the case studies. Analysis of processes of change, via nine research method clusters, will inform an appraisal, incorporating user perceptions about street quality. A second objective is to make design proposals for improving desirable qualities identified by users, such as liveability, safety and attractiveness. A third objective is to model and test some limited examples of design interventions, to determine their likely effectiveness in achieving the intended improvements vis-à-vis perceptions of these users.
Reflections on the research at a milestone point. (Transfer Interview and Report)
Four suggestions which arose from the interview were:
1. Research questions (and interview questions) should consider the agency of design and management of streets, and the degree to which management reflects the diversity of street users.
2. Consider how the movement function is addressed as a user requirement in the study.
3. Consider the nature of the research output and its utility.
4. Assessment of ethical issues and personal safety involved in the field work (esp night time, marginalised people.
Eight other issues raised for further consideration during the interview and in the report were;
1. Should analysis be prioritised in order to best shape the ongoing research?
2. The movement function of streets and their role in the wider movement economy should be better addressed in the methodology. A 'rudimentary syntax analysis of urban grain' might be extended to analysing the differences between a highly-managed non-local movement system and the set of local needs.
3. Mainstream Street Design Practice is based largely on normative and technocratic understandings, and explicit investigation into the management regime and its interaction with the local population would be of interest.
4. A positivist design paradigm is implied in the project methodology; survey, analyse, predict and provide. If design is used as a research tool, design methodology and methods of design evaluation must be carefully considered. Also consideration should be given to how design criteria will be established and tested.
5. How will the findings complement existing practice, if not eg. by design outcomes? How would outputs inform future design and management?
6. Psycho-geographic aspects of methods cluster 2 need further explanation.
7. Ethical concerns for working with hard-to-access user groups, working at night in inner cities need to be considered, along with personal safety, and a risk assessment would formalise these.
8. Would practical outputs of the research study leasd to improved practice? If so, who is likely to benefit from or to undertake this type of practice, and will outputs of the study be presented in a form that can inform practice?
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Cyclist killed by HGV operator in King's Cross on Monday
Min Joo Lee, 24 year old fashion student at Central St Martins was killed in front of King's Cross Station on Monday morning. Her fashion design work was featured on the fashion website stile.it in March. The famous school where she studied at Central St Martins has just moved into the Granary Building behind the station.
Min Joo Lee was crushed and killed on her bicycle in a collision with a heavy goods vehicle at the road junction Euston Road / York Way / Gray's Inn Road / Pentonville Road, part of London's Inner Ring Road A501 and an integral part of the infamous King's Cross 'gyratory'. In 2007 in Camley Street, also very nearby the new CSM campus, artist Emma Foa (56) was killed by a turning lorry, crushing her against railings. The driver who killed Foa had been looking for some paperwork in his truck, and was fined £300 for his "inadvertence", but allowed to keep his driving licence.
I was appalled in April 2010 when the 25 year old artist, photographer, graphic designer and music-video director Jane Helliwell was crushed to death by the driver of the 390 bus on Oxford Street. In April 2009, Meryem Ozekman, 37, a fitness instructor and experienced cyclist, was crushed by a lorry driving on the Elephant and Castle roundabout. I was horrified the following day, when 29-year-old architect Rebecca Goosen was crushed to death as the driver of a 32-tonne cement mixer turned left into Goswell Road from Old Street, in Clerkenwell. A pattern of cyclist deaths caused by heavy goods vehicle drivers is clearly continuing.
Rhiannon Williams reported in the Islington Gazette that a spokesman for Transport for London had said of Monday's event: “We are extremely sorry to hear of the death of the woman following a collision with a HGV in Euston Road. More needs to be done to prevent serious harm befalling London’s cyclists, and TfL is working with other organisations across London to tackle this serious safety issue.” The TfL spokesman said that it was the 13th cycle death in London in 2011 compared to 10 last year. There is an ongoing debate (and hopefully increasing awareness) about cycles and heavy goods vehicles sharing the road, and personally, I am increasingly wary of approaching anywhere near these vehicles especially when moving near junctions.
The road should be safer for women and men of all ages and driving abilities, whether experienced or not. However the managers of the street and everyone who uses streets, whichever form of movement they use, need to be responsible for this safety, and this doesn't seem to be currently adequate to reassure us of safety in King's Cross.
Charlie Lloyd's 2010 bike blog article "Lorry drivers have no more excuses when it comes to cycling blind spots" covers many of the campaigns and issues about HGV-cycle conflict, including the need for drivers of heavy vehicles and cyclists to take greater care. Personally I try to be noticed by all other road users on my bicycle, but if inadvertently I go unnoticed, in the case of a heavy goods driver (like one checking for papers) the results could be deadly. How can we make the inner city streets like this one safer? Who else could be involved in the process? Transport for London? Cyclist and Driver communities? Pedestrian Organisations? Universities like Central St Martins? Local King's Cross Communities? Who should care about people being killed on roads where we live and work?
An Urban 75 discussion thread, 'Cyclist Killed at King's Cross Lighthouse', with a hundred comments at the time of writing, suggests this road death in King's Cross on Monday will raise many more questions yet.
Camden New Journal published this story on 27 October: Cyclist deaths - ‘Ghost bike’ at the deadly junction that killed fashion student Deep Lee .
Cyclists killed in collisions with lorries include:
Min Joo Lee (in King's Cross)
Emma Foa (in King's Cross)
Madelyn Wright (in King's Cross)
Cath Ward (in Stratford Upon Avon)
Jayne Helliwell (in Oxford Street)
Rebecca Goossen (in Clerkenwell)
Meryam Ozekman (in Elephant and Castle)
Daniel Cox (in Dalston)
Catriona Patel (in Oval)
Craig Newton (in Edinburgh)
Naoko (in Hammersmith)
Occupying Streets on fb
Work by Min Joo Lee from stile.it
Min Joo Lee was crushed and killed on her bicycle in a collision with a heavy goods vehicle at the road junction Euston Road / York Way / Gray's Inn Road / Pentonville Road, part of London's Inner Ring Road A501 and an integral part of the infamous King's Cross 'gyratory'. In 2007 in Camley Street, also very nearby the new CSM campus, artist Emma Foa (56) was killed by a turning lorry, crushing her against railings. The driver who killed Foa had been looking for some paperwork in his truck, and was fined £300 for his "inadvertence", but allowed to keep his driving licence.
I was appalled in April 2010 when the 25 year old artist, photographer, graphic designer and music-video director Jane Helliwell was crushed to death by the driver of the 390 bus on Oxford Street. In April 2009, Meryem Ozekman, 37, a fitness instructor and experienced cyclist, was crushed by a lorry driving on the Elephant and Castle roundabout. I was horrified the following day, when 29-year-old architect Rebecca Goosen was crushed to death as the driver of a 32-tonne cement mixer turned left into Goswell Road from Old Street, in Clerkenwell. A pattern of cyclist deaths caused by heavy goods vehicle drivers is clearly continuing.
Rhiannon Williams reported in the Islington Gazette that a spokesman for Transport for London had said of Monday's event: “We are extremely sorry to hear of the death of the woman following a collision with a HGV in Euston Road. More needs to be done to prevent serious harm befalling London’s cyclists, and TfL is working with other organisations across London to tackle this serious safety issue.” The TfL spokesman said that it was the 13th cycle death in London in 2011 compared to 10 last year. There is an ongoing debate (and hopefully increasing awareness) about cycles and heavy goods vehicles sharing the road, and personally, I am increasingly wary of approaching anywhere near these vehicles especially when moving near junctions.
The road should be safer for women and men of all ages and driving abilities, whether experienced or not. However the managers of the street and everyone who uses streets, whichever form of movement they use, need to be responsible for this safety, and this doesn't seem to be currently adequate to reassure us of safety in King's Cross.
TfL campaign
Charlie Lloyd's 2010 bike blog article "Lorry drivers have no more excuses when it comes to cycling blind spots" covers many of the campaigns and issues about HGV-cycle conflict, including the need for drivers of heavy vehicles and cyclists to take greater care. Personally I try to be noticed by all other road users on my bicycle, but if inadvertently I go unnoticed, in the case of a heavy goods driver (like one checking for papers) the results could be deadly. How can we make the inner city streets like this one safer? Who else could be involved in the process? Transport for London? Cyclist and Driver communities? Pedestrian Organisations? Universities like Central St Martins? Local King's Cross Communities? Who should care about people being killed on roads where we live and work?
An Urban 75 discussion thread, 'Cyclist Killed at King's Cross Lighthouse', with a hundred comments at the time of writing, suggests this road death in King's Cross on Monday will raise many more questions yet.
Camden New Journal published this story on 27 October: Cyclist deaths - ‘Ghost bike’ at the deadly junction that killed fashion student Deep Lee .
Cyclists killed in collisions with lorries include:
Min Joo Lee (in King's Cross)
Emma Foa (in King's Cross)
Madelyn Wright (in King's Cross)
Cath Ward (in Stratford Upon Avon)
Jayne Helliwell (in Oxford Street)
Rebecca Goossen (in Clerkenwell)
Meryam Ozekman (in Elephant and Castle)
Daniel Cox (in Dalston)
Catriona Patel (in Oval)
Craig Newton (in Edinburgh)
Naoko (in Hammersmith)
Occupying Streets on fb
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Retrofit Caledonian Road - Green Sky Thinking
The workshop for Open City's Sustainability Workshop began with assessing Walkability, Liveability and Sustainability in lower Caledonian Road, King's Cross. An initial brief walking audit took in the livelier one-way-traffic section which is part of an overloaded heavy transport gyratory (A5203) feeding a ring road. Workshop participants broadly appraised some of the commercial and residential uses (interviewing a shopkeeper at Vx) before investigating the street impact of the Vaultex fort at All Saint's Street and a new garden classroom at Thornhill Bridge on Regents' Canal.
Detailed demographic analysis can be based on detailed building information and drawn from mapping tools like London Profiler to help build a detailed 'pathology' of this 'high street'. The junction of Killick Street was identified as a key breaking point in the street form and activity, and one participant showed with case studies in Tottenham and Ashford that there were transferable principles for sustainably retroffitting the urban landscape here, to make liveable walkable places.
Thursday, 8 September 2011
On the High Street
Discussion at the Urban Design Group event in Cowcross Street tonight suggested that the High Street, which many have seen as a core public urban space in traditional town and city centres, is currently undergoing fundamental change.
Joanne Cave pointed to differences between high streets and shopping malls as public gathering places, but concluded that mixed use was also key to rich colourful and vibrant high streets. The New Economics Foundation's Clone Town 2010 report was referred in the second presentaton by Elizabeth Cox, suggesting that declining diversity and distinctiveness, but also a declining proportion of independent local shops to non-local businesses on high streets with global supply chains, meant that profits were being drained away from local communities.
The role of transport was barely touched upon, yet, clearly not only building use and footway use are critical to the spatial balance of the high street, but also the carriageway occupation, from vehicle size speed and weight to the role of parking and carriageway-related signs and equipment in the other two zones, and how readily the latter are traverseable.
Never has the traditional high street been under so much threat. Internet retail is capturing an ever increasing portion of consumer spend, out of town shopping centres continue to expand and locally owned stores are being progressively replaced by nationally owned chains to the extent that one high street is virtually indistinguishable from the next. More recently high streets have been the focus of rioters and a ‘roller shutter mentality’ that could see them turn from places of delight into areas of desolation and danger.
Yet high streets have always been and still are the focal point of our communities. If the high street declines, then we lose far more than retail choice: it is the identity of urban living that is at stake. So what can be done to ensure high streets thrive in the 21st century?
Joanne Cave - Partner, David Lock Associates.
Joanne will be discussing the function and identity of high streets, the impact that regeneration initiatives have had over the last 10-15 years, and how retail habits have changed along with the approach of developers to high street redevelopment. She will also look at allied issues of security, maintenance and democracy.
Elizabeth Cox - Head of Connected Economies, New Economics Foundation
The New Economics Foundation (NEF) has been at the forefront of analysing the economic and social problems of the High Street and developing solutions. Recent reports include Clone Town Britain, and Ghost Town Britain II – Death on the High Street. The NEF has also developed community based programmes that aim to address the issues including Plugging the Leaks, aiming for economic regeneration through catalyzing the inventiveness and enterprise of local people; and the Reimagine Your High Street programme which looks at co-ordination, design, promotion and economic development
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Zukunft der Innenstadt - Future of Inner Cities
Gezeigt am Schirm hier im Vortragssaal des Perth Convention Centre bevor dem Eroeffnungsvortag des Prof Freestone war ein 'Fly Through der zukunft' der City of Perth. Ein Flug durch glaenzende Hochhaueser, eine 'Vision' wo man auf der Lage der Stadt am Ufer der Swan Fluss 'kapitalisieren' sollen. Nyungar Elder Robin Collard hatte das internationales Publikum nach ihrer Willkommenssage jedoch vielmehr beraten dem 'Sense of Place' hier in Perth am Djerbal Yerrigan (Swan Fluss) gut zu ueberlegen.
Nach Freestone (hier 'Tomorrowland') jedoch sollten Stadtplaner in Australien der fehler der bisherigen Planung zu ausbessern versuchen, und vor der 'Schwarzen Schwan' ereignisse der Gegenwart und nahen Zukunft, auf mehreren Themen - endogamous development / lokalisierung einbeschlossen - vorbereiten um Zukunftsplanungsbereit zu sein. Boomtown 2050 beinhaltet mehr dazu.
Live Blogged from Perth Convention Centre tweeted via @BesetzteStrasse
Robert Freestone (UNSW) WPSC Keynote Mon 4 Jul 2011 02.30 GMT
Nach Freestone (hier 'Tomorrowland') jedoch sollten Stadtplaner in Australien der fehler der bisherigen Planung zu ausbessern versuchen, und vor der 'Schwarzen Schwan' ereignisse der Gegenwart und nahen Zukunft, auf mehreren Themen - endogamous development / lokalisierung einbeschlossen - vorbereiten um Zukunftsplanungsbereit zu sein. Boomtown 2050 beinhaltet mehr dazu.
Live Blogged from Perth Convention Centre tweeted via @BesetzteStrasse
Robert Freestone (UNSW) WPSC Keynote Mon 4 Jul 2011 02.30 GMT
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
BesetzteStrasse - Occupied Street
BesetzteStraße: Entwerfen Mischstraßen zu allen Tageszeiten, Beispiele Frankfurt und London Bahnhofsvierteln
Occupying the Street: Mixed-Use Street Design for all Hours, London and Frankfurt Train Station Areas
Zusammenfassung / Abstract (21 June 2011)
Ziel
Straßen in der Innenstadt könnten besser belebt sein, könnten auch eine nachhaltigerer Rolle im öffentlichem Raum spielen, wenn StraßenraumbenutzerInnen / oder StraßenbesetzerInnen - und die Gestaltung für diversen Nutzungen der Straße zu allen Tageszeiten - besser verstanden waeren. Die Forschung werde Qualitaten von Mischstrassen in dichtere, innere Stadtbezirke untersuchen, zu allen Tageszeiten, bezüglich sowohl Erfahrungen der BenutzerInnen als auch Entwurfsvorgehensweisen, nachdem zweiteres für verbesserte Qualitaet in staedtische Strassenumwelt für die Stadterneuerung bestimmend ist. Die Analyse von Praxis und Theorie in Europa - auch Weltweit - dient als Hintergrund für die Untersuchung zweier Beispielsfallen; jeweils bei Verkehrsknotenbezirken im Frankfurt aM und im London England. Beide Beispiele, die dicht Besetzte und auch bekaempfte Strassenraueme veranschaulichen, werden als Probeexemplare benutzt, um den Grenzen einer Idee der gemeinsame öffentlichen Raum, einer Zivilraum, zu erforschen.
Aim
Inner-urban streets can become more liveable, by performing a more sustainable role in the public realm, through a better understanding of users and design for occupation at all hours of night and day. This research aims to investigate qualities of mixed-use streets in dense urban areas at all hours, with respect to both the user experience and the effect of design processes aimed at making quality urban street environments in regeneration. An analysis of European and international practice and theory provides the context for this investigation of two case study streets, in transport hub districts of Frankfurt and London. These two case examples of densely occupied and contested streets will be used to test the limitations of the idea of the street as a shared public realm, a civic space.
Absichten
Erstmal beabsichtigt ist eine Analyse der Erfahrungen den StrassenbenutzerInnen mit Strassengestaltung (Street Design), mittels Fallbeispieluntersuchungen. Analyse der Änderungsprozessen werden eine Zusammenfassung informieren von Benutzerperspektiven über Qualitäten von Straßen. Zweitens werden Entwurfsvorschläge zu machen, um benützerInnen-gewünschte Qualitäten zu stärken, z.B. Lebensqualität, Sicherheit, Attraktivität. Drittens, es werden begrenzte Beispiele der Umgestaltung modelliert und Probiert, um zu Bewerten, inwiefern diesen die beabsichtigten Verbesserungen (von sicht der BenutzerInnen) dürfen erreicht werden.
Objectives
The objectives of the research begin firstly with an analysis of street user experience and street design via case studies. Analysis of processes of change will inform an appraisal which incorporates user perceptions about street quality. A second objective is to make design proposals for improving desirable qualities identified by users, such as liveability, safety and attractiveness. A third objective is to model and test some limited examples of design interventions, to determine their likely effectiveness in achieving the intended improvements vis-à-vis perceptions of these users.
Occupying the Street: Mixed-Use Street Design for all Hours, London and Frankfurt Train Station Areas
Zusammenfassung / Abstract (21 June 2011)
Ziel
Straßen in der Innenstadt könnten besser belebt sein, könnten auch eine nachhaltigerer Rolle im öffentlichem Raum spielen, wenn StraßenraumbenutzerInnen / oder StraßenbesetzerInnen - und die Gestaltung für diversen Nutzungen der Straße zu allen Tageszeiten - besser verstanden waeren. Die Forschung werde Qualitaten von Mischstrassen in dichtere, innere Stadtbezirke untersuchen, zu allen Tageszeiten, bezüglich sowohl Erfahrungen der BenutzerInnen als auch Entwurfsvorgehensweisen, nachdem zweiteres für verbesserte Qualitaet in staedtische Strassenumwelt für die Stadterneuerung bestimmend ist. Die Analyse von Praxis und Theorie in Europa - auch Weltweit - dient als Hintergrund für die Untersuchung zweier Beispielsfallen; jeweils bei Verkehrsknotenbezirken im Frankfurt aM und im London England. Beide Beispiele, die dicht Besetzte und auch bekaempfte Strassenraueme veranschaulichen, werden als Probeexemplare benutzt, um den Grenzen einer Idee der gemeinsame öffentlichen Raum, einer Zivilraum, zu erforschen.
Aim
Inner-urban streets can become more liveable, by performing a more sustainable role in the public realm, through a better understanding of users and design for occupation at all hours of night and day. This research aims to investigate qualities of mixed-use streets in dense urban areas at all hours, with respect to both the user experience and the effect of design processes aimed at making quality urban street environments in regeneration. An analysis of European and international practice and theory provides the context for this investigation of two case study streets, in transport hub districts of Frankfurt and London. These two case examples of densely occupied and contested streets will be used to test the limitations of the idea of the street as a shared public realm, a civic space.
Absichten
Erstmal beabsichtigt ist eine Analyse der Erfahrungen den StrassenbenutzerInnen mit Strassengestaltung (Street Design), mittels Fallbeispieluntersuchungen. Analyse der Änderungsprozessen werden eine Zusammenfassung informieren von Benutzerperspektiven über Qualitäten von Straßen. Zweitens werden Entwurfsvorschläge zu machen, um benützerInnen-gewünschte Qualitäten zu stärken, z.B. Lebensqualität, Sicherheit, Attraktivität. Drittens, es werden begrenzte Beispiele der Umgestaltung modelliert und Probiert, um zu Bewerten, inwiefern diesen die beabsichtigten Verbesserungen (von sicht der BenutzerInnen) dürfen erreicht werden.
Objectives
The objectives of the research begin firstly with an analysis of street user experience and street design via case studies. Analysis of processes of change will inform an appraisal which incorporates user perceptions about street quality. A second objective is to make design proposals for improving desirable qualities identified by users, such as liveability, safety and attractiveness. A third objective is to model and test some limited examples of design interventions, to determine their likely effectiveness in achieving the intended improvements vis-à-vis perceptions of these users.
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