Visible Invisible - Urban History in Catania

Visible Invisible is the latest conference of the Italian Association of Urban History. 400 participants, about 50 sessions in three days. Respect to the organisers for putting together such a massive event. Absolutely stunning location in the Benedictine monastery in Catania. Fantastic southern italian food.
It is very difficult to focus on anything specific in such an event. Very difficult to know which session or paper will be good, interesting, exciting, innovative. So you end up picking randomly and liking, as usual, one or two papers out of the whole conference. However, the strongest point is what you can build up in your own session, the possibilities of collaboration, especially international, even in an extremely local context. So I thank Giovanni, Michael and Miki for putting the session together and hope to continue working on the project.

For more information on the conference.

http://www.storiaurbana.org/index.php/en/congressi-uk/catania-2013-uk

Via Etnea, Catania. My first street in Sicily

Via Etnea is a good street.
It is 8pm. People walking by. All ages. Mostly locals and some tourists. Some stores open, some closed. 3 story buildings, very tall. Generous space for pedestrians. By the look of it all buildings are occupied over the shops. Some apartments, some hotels and some offices.

It was built in 1693 under the direction of Duca di Camastra, after an earthquake destroyed great part of the city. It is now one of the most populated streets in the city.

And I will now eat my bruschetta, while i study the program of tomorrow's conference.

Spatial planning and Governance. The case of Brazil by Roberto Rocco

On my way to a conference on urban history in Catania, I came across a very insightful article by my colleague from Delft, Roberto Rocco. Spatial planning is not enough. Research is not enough. It is in the interaction between governing bodies and research and design practices that the real problems of cities can be addressed. Thanks Roberto.

planninglatinamerica.wordpress.com/2013/09/11/emerging-new-roles-for-designers-and-planners-articulating-soft-and-hard-infrastructures-a-brazilian-experience/

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

OMA masterplan for Bogotá. Have we not learned?

For a couple of decades, Bogotá  succeeded in improving the quality of life of its population by very careful strategic moves. Now a speculative pseudomodernist urban planning seems to finally be taking over.
It is unfortunate to see this turn of events. The plan appears to erase any footprint of the past; zoning the area eliminates the posibility of any mixed use or flexibility in the future; and by the plans it becomes apparent that this is yet another top down geometric layout for a sizable and significant part of the city, with little regard for human scale or people's interaction.

Read on and see.

www.dezeen.com/2013/08/28/oma-to-masterplan-civic-centre-in-bogota/

Detroit new ideas

Is Detroit behaving like a new artist quarter? First urban farm, then young artists, then young entrepreneurs...potentially gentrified?
It is a great opportunity not to be overlooked, but it has to be handled with care. A city is not a quarter.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/03/us/dreams-but-little-consensus-for-a-new-detroit.html

Jane Jacobs

Back from the summer break and ready to connect my posts of different sources FB, Twitter, QUB, etc.

Let's start with a classic, interview to Jane Jacobs by James Howard Kunstler

On education, the city, demolitions, profit and social wellbeing.

http://www.kunstler.com/mags_jacobs1.htm

I particularly like the passage:

'One of the things that angered me so much in urban renewal was the West End of Boston. You know there was a phantom community to this day. They have a newspaper that comes out periodically, these displaced people and their children. That was before Ed Logue [head of the Boston Redevelopment Agency in the 1960s]ead of H. Well, I talked to two architects in ’58 who helped justify the destruction of the West End. And one of them told me that he had had to go on his hands and knees with a photographer through utility crawl spaces so that they could get pictures of sufficient dark and noisome spaces to justify that this was a slum -- how horrendous it was.'

enjoy.