Jane Jacobs 100. Delft, May 2016

Thanks so much Roberto Rocco for hosting a very significant conference on the work of Jane Jacobs and its influence on recent urban theory and practice. I was delighted to lead the track on Streets as Public Spaces. The papers presented in our sessions were:

Jane Jacobs and the Theory of Placemaking in Heritage Context, by Azadeh Arjomand Kermani

Mémoire en route: Jerusalem’s Route No. 1 ­a study in motion, by Maier Yagod

Hussien Al-Mimar Street, The tale of a restricted space, by  Bedour Hemeid, Ph.D.

Shared Space: Traffic engineers finally entering the Post-Modern era, by Dick van Veen M.Sc. Eng, M.Sc. Arch.

Exploration into the role and relevance of public spaces within the modern city fabric, by Ailish Killilea

(Un)Natural Proprietors in San Francisco’s Alleyways, by Antje Steinmuller

Hidden Monuments of Everyday Life. Conquering street life in São Paulo,  Sarah Hartmann

Thanks to the presenters for great evocative, challenging and striking papers and also thanks to guests for the lively discussions. I hope we can continue this discussion further.

all the best

Agustina

Looking forward to the exhibition on Rosemary Street tomorrow for Culture night. Join us from 5pm to draw some maps and hear about our project!

Cars vs people. Finally Jacobs is being considered by the mainstream

For more than half a century now the car has reigned over the streets of cities, not allowing them to be public spaces. Slowly some examples appear of the demolition of motorways to replace them with pedestrian areas. This one in Seoul is one of them.
http://m.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2014/04/tearing-down-urban-highway-can-give-rise-whole-new-city/8924/

Urbanising tha suburbs

Housing and park replace parking lot in suburban Seattle. I still wander wether the sidewalks are walkable. In any case it seems like a good example of densification and reduction of car use. Hoping to see more of such developments.

http://m.fastcoexist.com/3023360/how-a-giant-mall-parking-lot-turned-into-a-park-and-a-walkable-community?partner=rss

A matter of scale

How urban grids shape our everyday life. It is all about scale.
http://m.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2013/12/what-your-street-grid-reveals-about-your-city/7746/

Why streets should have trees

This is a very clear study on the basic function of urban trees
http://www.deeproot.com/blog/blog-entries/the-effect-of-trees-in-paving-on-stormwater-runoff

Street Design from Milano

It will be interesting to see this in detail. The Italian take on new street design should shed some light of the regional characteristics of the street, or maybe of models to understand and follow. New post about it when I get the book.

Street Design. Progetto di strade e disegno dello Spazio Pubblico | Street Design and Public Space
http://www.planum.net/journals-books/street-design

About suburbs and density.

This article attempts to defend suburbs from the accusations of bad urbanism in the 20th century. For a defensor of density like me, it is not really convincing. However, even if it applies mainly to North American cities, it has a point in questioning the easy accusation against the suburban typology.

It’s not the suburbs, it’s mid-late 20th century urban design, planning, engineering, and architecture http://www.minnpost.com/minnesota-blog-cabin/2013/09/it-s-not-suburbs-it-s-mid-late-20th-century-urban-design-planning-engin