studies in temporal urbanism

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Studies in Temporal Urbanism


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Fabian NeuhausEditor

Studies in TemporalUrbanism

The urbanTick Experiment

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ISBN 978-94-007-0936-2 e-ISBN 978-94-007-0937-9DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-0937-9Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011932790

Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or byany means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written

permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purposeof being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.

Printed on acid-free paper

Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

Editor

Fabian NeuhausCentre for Advanced Spatial AnalysisUniversity College LondonLondonUnited [email protected] www.urbantick.blogspot.com

Every effort has been made to contact the copyright holders of the figures and tables whichhave been reproduced from other sources. Anyone who has not been properly credited isrequested to contact the publishers, so that due acknowledgment may be made in subsequenteditions.


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Acknowledgments

There were a lot of people involved in the past year in the creation of the contentof urbanTick. Foremost I would like to thank Andy Hudson-Smith who actually

persuaded me to write this blog, but also supported me throughout the year andstill does. Thanks go to the supporting CASA team, especially Mike Batty as oneof my supervisors, also to Andrew Crooks and Duncan Smith for continuous in-

put and encouragement, Richard Milton for great technical advice and information.Thanks for graphic and layout advice go to Urs Stampfli of Pinc. I am also grate-ful to my fellow PhD researchers Ateen Patel, Sung-Hyun Jang, Taneha Bacchin,Joel Dearden, James Cheshire and Daniel Lewis. Also a big thanks goes to all the

participants of the UrbanDiary project who have been or still are carrying the GPStracking device to collect data. I also want to thank Sandra and Malik for supportand their tolerance of late nights and sleepy mornings.


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Contents

Part I urbanMachine

Cycle Study as the Basis of Adaptive Urbanism ........................................... 3Jeff Kon-Chung Ho

urbanMachine .................................................................................................. 7Fabian Neuhaus

Part II timeSpace

Memory: Collective vs. Individual Narratives .............................................. 23Zahra Azizi

timeSpace .......................................................................................................... 27Fabian Neuhaus

Part III bodySpace

Body, Space and Maps ..................................................................................... 59Sandra Abegglen

bodySpace ......................................................................................................... 65Fabian Neuhaus

Part IV urbanNarrative

Urban Narratives of Time Images or the Drift of Alienation ....................... 101Ana McMillin

urbanNarrative ................................................................................................ 105Fabian Neuhaus


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Part V LocationInformation

Mental Maps: The Expression of Memories and Meanings ........................ 141Matthew Dance

LocationInformation ........................................................................................ 145Fabian Neuhaus

Part VI UrbanDiary

From urbanTick to UrbanDiary ..................................................................... 175Fabian Neuhaus

UrbanDiary ....................................................................................................... 179Fabian Neuhaus

Part VII Review

Footprints, a Regeneration Process ................................................................ 211Luis Surez

Review ............................................................................................................... 215

Fabian Neuhaus

Bibliography .................................................................................................... 273

Index .................................................................................................................. 279

Contents


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About the Authors

Sandra Abegglen is a PhD researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London. Herresearch is concerned with the use of photographs as a research tool, especially incombination with semi-structured interviews. Before her postdoctoral study, shedid a master degree in social research at the University of Plymouth (UK). Hermasters thesis was entitled The woman in my wallet An investigation of photog-raphy in everyday life. Her bachelor degree was in social work at the Universityof Applied Science Basel HPSABB (Switzerland). Sandra has worked as a researchassistant at the University of Basel (Switzerland) and the University of Freiburg(Germany) where she was involved in different projects concerned with migrationand the care of elderly people. She is also doing fieldwork for the Connected Com-munities Project of the Royal Society of Art (RSA) and the University of the Arts.www.everydayclick.blogspot.com.

Zahra Azizi has recently finished an MArch degree in Urban design at the BartlettSchool of Architecture with a distinction award on the topic of Memory & Move-ment, following a BSc Architecture degree (RIBA Part one) at the Bartlett. Hermain interests, both on the architectural and urban scale, stem from curiosity abouthuman behaviour and perception in the built environment and the psychology ofspace. She is currently working in Iran on architecture and urban design projects.

Matthew Dance is completing a Masters of Arts at the University of Alberta, inEdmonton, Alberta, Canada. His thesis is focused on how people understand loca-tion and express that understanding with new web-based Geographic Informa-tion Systems tools. As part of his research, he is building an application (www.WiserIsThePath.org) that combines mapping, social network and collaboration ele-ments that will enable the citizens of Edmonton to collaboration on the how theyuse Ed-montons River Valley Network. Prior to starting graduate school he worked

as an independent consultant primarily for Alberta Environment helping with thedevelopment of environmental policy. He filled project management, facilitation,research and strategic advice roles on several policy projects. In addition, he workedas a Senior Project Manager for the Clean Air Strategic Alliance on Air Quality

policy projects such as the development of a regulatory framework for the ther-

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mal electricity sector and an Ambient Air Monitoring Strategy for Alberta. Twitter@mattdance, www.wiserpath.blogspot.com.

Jeff Kon-Chung Ho is an urban planner and urban designer chartered in the UKand Hong Kong with international working experience in the UK, Italy, Hong Kong,Mainland China and Vietnam. He is currently leading a masterplanning team inHong Kong responsible for a few Hong Kong new town projects, Mainland Chinaand Southeast Asia masterplanning projects. He has been involved in a wide rangeof planning studies, urban design, masterplanning, railway planning and GIS analy-sis. Jeffs interests range from adaptive urbanism and urban regeneration to spatial

politics. In his spare time, Jeff has been involved in writing commentaries on HongKong urban design issues and organizing events of urban issues. He was invited to

be one of the event organizers in London Festival of Architecture 2008 to organizean event called Feeling High, which explored the sustainability and humanityof high rise development in London. Jeff received a Masters in urban planningfrom the University of Hong Kong and a Masters in urban design from the BartlettSchool of Architecture, UCL. After a few years working in Mainland China and theUK, he returned to Hong Kong.

Ana McMillin She has worked on several masterplanning projects in China, Polandand the UK, and regeneration studies in Manchester and Dover. Her experience inurban design started in Lisbon where she worked for RBD.APP with the head of theArchitecture Faculty, Professor Rui Barreiros Duarte, on the urban regeneration andconservation of the Alfama Historic Centre of Lisbon. Her interest in revitalizationof urban areas continued in London with the work on the urban design and integra-tion of the Gazprom Tower in the historic fabric of St Petersburg, a UNESCO listedsite. Ana received a Licentiate Degree in Architecture from the Technical Universityof Lisbon. She also holds a Masters of Science in Urban Design from the BartlettSchool of Architecture where she received an award for her Design Thesis in Cin-ematic Urbanism. Recently, she has returned to the Bartlett as a guest critic for midand final-year reviews. Ana McMillin lives and works in London.

Fabian Neuhaus (editor) is currently a PhD researcher at CASA, the Centrefor Advanced Spatial Analysis at UCL. His main research interests are temporalaspects of the urban environment in general and cyclical, repetitive temporal pat-terns specifically. He has been teaching at the University of Plymouth as well asthe Bartlett School of Architecture. For his Masters of Science in urban design atthe Bartlett School of Architecture, he developed a concept for a floating city in theThames estuary (available at www.jafud.com) and for his Master thesis on cycles inurban environments (available on www.cyclesinurbanenvironments.blogspot.com)he was awarded a distinction. Fabian also received a Masters of Architecture fromFHNW Basel for the design project Ambassador and his thesis am Ring investi-gating elements of urban patterns in Basel, Switzerland. He has worked with archi-tecture and urban design practices in the UK and Switzer-land on projects ranging

About the Authors


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from policy planning, consultancy and construction to master planning. He alsoworked on research projects at universities in Switzerland, Germany and the UK.www.urbantick.blogspot.com.

Luis Suarez was born, in Bogot, Colombia and graduated from The Universityof Florida in design, construction and planning in 2005. He received a master inscience of urban design from The Bartlett School of Architecture, University Col-lege London. He is currently pursuing a Masters in Bioclimatic Architecture fromthe Isthmus School of Architecture for Latin America and the Caribbean. He isdesigning and building multiple projects in South and Central America with hisestablished firm, Estudio ArQ.

About the Authors


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Contributors

Sandra Abegglen Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK e-mail: [email protected]

Zahra Azizi Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London,London, UK e-mail: [email protected]

Matthew Dance WEB Mapping Consultant, Edmonton, CAe-mail: [email protected]

Jeff Kon-Chung Ho JLF Urban Research, Hong-Kong, Chinae-mail: [email protected]

Ana McMillin ACGRM, London, UK e-mail: [email protected]

Fabian Neuhaus Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University CollegeLondon, London, UK e-mail: [email protected]

Luis Surez Estudio ARQ, Bogot, CO

e-mail: [email protected]


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Introduction

This book is very much about what the name urbanTick literally says, about theticking of the urban, the urban as we experience it every day on the bus, in the parkor between buildings. It is about the big orchestrated mass migration of commut-ers, the seasonal blossoms of the trees along the walkway and the frequency of thestamping rubbish-eater-trucks. It is also, not to forget, about climate, infrastructure,opening hours, term times, parking meters, timetables, growing shadows and moonlight. But most of all it is about how all this is experienced by citizens on a daily

basis and how they navigate within this complex structure of patterns.The content of this book is based on the content of the urbanTick blog between

20082010. One year of blogging about this topic brought together a large col-lection of different aspects and thoughts. It is not at all a conclusive view: to thecontrary, it is a work in progress, trying to capture as many facets of the topic as

possible.For this publication the written content has been structured under seven topics

that appear here as chapters and the text has been reproduced as continuous content.Therefore individual blog posts are only indicated and additional information hasto be found in the footnotes. However, information is given to find the cross links

between the chapters, as there are a series of other topics, besides the chosen seven, buried in the content.

Each chapter is led in by an essay, each written by an academic or professionalwith a specific interest and expertise in the particular topic. It will set the scene forthe topic and beyond.

urbanMachine investigates the impact of modernist ideas on city planning andthe perception of function as a defining activity. Examples are drawn from a rangeof sources to create a picture of how todays city came to be understood as a ma-chine. The machine here largely stands for an abstract model of repetition in thesense of clockwork. The machine is examined as part of planning, under the aspectof its function or usage, but also in terms of experience and models of power.

timeSpace will investigate the conceptions of time and space as a result of thesocial configuration of the city as well as critically reviewing the founding conceptsin time-geography. The first part discusses the different units of the calendar typetime organisation as modelled on natural repetitive phenomena. This will establish


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the rhythms in a larger context, but ultimately in relation to the city as the place.Together with time the concept of place and space also have to be integrated in aholistic view. The second part discusses approaches in time geography to deal withthe time phenomena. A special focus will lie on the discussion of the Hagerstrand

model and the attached visualisation.The bodySpace chapter defines the rhythmic structure as a function of the hu-

man body as well as investigating the body city relationship. The body functionsare discussed as the ultimate point of reference to actually measure any repetitive

pattern. Very much in the sense of Lefebvres Rhythmanalysis, this establishes thehuman capacity to perceive cycles and relate to them. The second part of the chapterdiscusses the connection and cycles external to the body and focuses especially onthe relationship between the body and the city. It examines the relationship overallas a model, but also specifically related to individual or sets of cycles.

urbanNarrative outlines concepts of structure as a sequence of events constitut-ing a overall story. The narrative is here discussed as an element of structure todescribe and capture the nature of ongoing processes. It is used to provide a frame-work that can actually integrate the numerous different aspects examined as part ofthe everyday experience.

The chapter locationInforamation draws together a number of applications basedon location information as well as discussing aspects of city sensing in regard to ev-eryday life in an urban context. These examples range from software-based mobilegadget apps to physical interventions to raise location awareness. It closely ties in

with the other topics and expands on planning, social and identity topics. To do soit draws from personal, technical and machine based sources.UrbanDiary is the chapter that summarises the writings around the research proj-

ect of the same name. It can be read as a live coverage of the project development,as update reports, but at the same time as the place to develop guiding thought. Inthis sense it is the central element of the project. Together with the facebook group,this is where the magic happens.

The last part of the book brings together the reviews. A great variety of media,topics and concepts have been reviewed and this now forms a dense tapestry of

critical thoughts on contemporary activity as well as examples from the past. It cov-ers a selection of books, software applications, events and more.Comments, discussion and feedback are welcome and can be posted directly to

the blog on www.urbantick.blogspot.com.Dont worry about typing all the links listed in the footnotes into your browser

to get to the content. Simply go to urbantick.blogspot as above and click on the book link. There you find all the links listed by chapter and with the correspondingnumber.

Introduction

studies in temporal urbanism

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