Urban Regeneration

In mining regions across the world, new topography is being built daily, layer by layer. Symbolic of the primacy of industry and economics in the past 150 years, this material is a message for future generations, recounting the history of its makers and reminding us of hundreds of thousands of workers who spent their time digging massive holes in pursuit of essential resources. The new topography is often absurdist. There are no artists, designers or community advocates involved in creating alternate shared visions. It is important to reflect on what this means for the future of these innumerable sites and, more broadly, the state of the land in a postmining future. Currently, rehabilitation of postmined land focusses on restoring the site to its original ecological (but not aesthetic) state prior to the mining intervention. With a growing disconnect between satisfying ecological needs and envisioning an appropriate response to the landscape, there is a critical need for creative intervention.
This paper investigates perceptions of mining and postmining landscapes, questioning the aesthetically driven emphasis on the “natural.” It proposes instead an opportunity to reframe the way we look at overburden and landscape impacts from mining, exploring the possibility of imagined postmine landscapes unburdened by traditional aesthetic expectations. Concepts from Land Art, and Earthworks in particular, are presented as models that merit serious consideration for reimagined space and novel place making. These mine works landscapes, conceived by regional stakeholder round tables, have the capacity to be built by regional mining consortia as a foundation for sustainable postmining economies. Postmine regeneration offers both the motivation and the basic materials to create an altogether new environment from a blank slate. Few circumstances allow the opportunity to truly explore a reenvisioning of the land on the monumental scale available in these postmined landscapes.

O plano apresenta uma leitura urbanística sobre a região que compreende os núcleos históricos de Recife e Olinda e suas áreas de entorno e ligação. São propostas diretrizes e indicativos de intervenção urbanística para favorecer uma ação integrada entre as administrações municipais de Recife e Olinda, bem como a administração estadual, no sentido de estimular a dinamização econômica da região a partir da perspectiva de afirmação de seu acervo e valores culturais, respeitando padrões de conservação do seu patrimônio histórico e ambiental.

The historical urban sites are commonly significant subjects of city planners, architects, conservators, historians, political powers and locals live in the area due to their cultural values for the society and specialists. According to the third generation human rights, every human being in the world has an impact on historical urban sites since the formation of urban site could be affected by their culture. Therefore, humans have the right to share the cultural values all over the world and any positive or negative intervention on cultural values is related with them. Urban regeneration projects are the most popular projects of İstanbul especially after the expectations that showed up during the European Capital of Culture 2010 Event. Most of the areas which are defined as squatter settlements by the municipality in Historical Peninsula have been decided to be included in an urban regeneration project. Sulukule had a special lifestyle because of the daily routines and activities of locals in Historical Peninsula. The locals of Sulukule have been able to settle a different culture in Istanbul for many years thanks to their routines: Romani culture. They created a living environment including their houses, jobs and social activities. However, Sulukule has been taken as squatter area to the records and Sulukule Urban Regeneration Project was prepared in 2005 by Fatih Municipality. A new design which is completely different from the structure of the area, aims creating a ‘better environment’ for visitors without concerning about the locals and their needs by changing the physical and social structure of the area. After the declaration of the project, the process of losing a culture and the right to live in locality has begun. This paper is about the Sulukule Urban Regeneration Project’s life span and evaluates the lost culture in terms of third generation human rights.

Por onde os africanos chegaram * Parte do trabalho que levou a esta publicação recebeu fi nanciamento do People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) da European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) sob o acordo de fi nanciamento REA nº PIOF-GA-2012-327465. A pesquisa que viabilizou o artigo também recebeu fi nanciamento da Faperj, edital Apoio às Humanidades. Resumo: Este artigo tem por objeto o processo de institucionalização e patrimonialização da memória da diáspora africana na região portuária do Rio de Janeiro, através de uma refl exão sobre as ações e representações em torno do sítio arqueológico Cais do Valongo, antigo cais de desembarque de cativos africanos. Procuramos compreender como, num determinado contexto, alguns grupos de atores chegam a consensos que favorecem a institucionalização da memória da diáspora africana na região. Acreditamos que a patrimonialização do Cais do Valongo ocorre na interseção de dois fenômenos entrelaçados: a) o reconhecimento do multiculturalismo e da diversidade étnico-racial no Brasil; b) os grandes projetos de revitalização urbana assumidos pelas municipalidades. Concentramos a observação em três grupos de atores: lideranças do movimento negro, pesquisadores acadêmicos e representantes do poder público municipal. Procuramos compreender como, juntos, eles produzem a localidade do Cais do Valongo como principal referência da chegada de africanos escravizados no país. Palavras-chave: diáspora africana, multiculturalismo, patrimonialização, revitalização urbana. Abstract: This article aims to discuss the institutionalization of the heritage of the African diaspora in the port region of Rio de Janeiro, by refl ecting on the actions and meanings developed around the archaeological fi ndings of a slave trade pier, the Valongo Pier. We show how, in a given historic and sociopolitical context, relationships enacted by some institutionalized groups of actors end up converging, recognizing the importance of the institutionalization of this memory. We believe that this process occurs in the intersection of two phenomena: a) the recognition of the multiculturalism and the ethnic-racial diversity in Brazil; b) the urban processes of revitalization lead by the city council. We concentrate our analyses in three main groups of actors: black movement activists, academic searchers and municipality's representatives. We try to show how these actors produce the site of Valongo Pier as the main material reference of the slave trade diaspora in the country.

En av samtidens största utmaningar är att ordna boende åt alla Sveriges invånare. Landet ska få hundratusentals nya bostäder under den närmaste tioårsperioden. Debatten om hur det ska gå till blir alltmer laddad. Det planerade bostadsbyggandet är värt enorma summor och föga förvånande kan varje påstående ha en dold agenda.

Myter är berättelser som skapas av grupper i syfte att definiera sin identitet, genom gemensamma föreställningar och värderingar. Berättelserna ger ett ramverk för att förstå och rättfärdiga våra handlingar och världen vi lever i. Tillvaron blir uthärdlig och naturlig. Myten tränger undan andra berättelser och får dem att framstå som irrelevanta, felaktiga eller rent av dumma.
De som tjänar på bostadsmarknaden: politiker, mäklare, banker, arkitekter, byggföretag och hyresvärdar framställer således sin beskrivning om bostadsmarknaden som självklar:
Det anses oundvikligt att marknaden bestämmer; marknadspriser är ett neutralt fenomen; statliga regleringar stör den fria och goda marknaden; olika typer av regleringar kan till och med orsaka bostadsbristen eftersom marknaden annars skulle löst den; kraftig hyreshöjning efter renoveringar är oundviklig; individuellt ägande av bostäder är en god investering och smartare än att hyra; bostadssubventioner är något som tillhör det förgångna; migranter föredrar att bo i segregerade bostadsområden. Listan kan göras lång på sådana myter som egentligen handlar om något helt annat – särintressen. Myterna fyller dubbla roller, dels upprätthåller de status quo – allt är bra som det är när marknaden styr – dels uppmanar de till handling – fler avregleringar behövs.
I 13 myter om bostadsfrågan dissekerar den internationella forskargruppen CRUSH, The Critical Urban Sustainability Hub särintressenas myter om den pågående bostadskrisen. Boken etablerar en forskningsstödd diskurs som belyser bostadskrisen ur ett medborgarperspektiv. Essäerna bidrar med intellektuell eld och argument i diskussioner och debatter. Boken kan också läsas som ett rent nöje, eftersom den bygger ett nytt samtal om vårt boende.

The city, ancient or modern, has shapes and tracings that limit, condition and require relevant design decisions. The architect, very often, during the design process of the building, operates within "batches" of land that require specific solutions by limiting and forcing the project within precise patterns. In the case of historical contexts (centers), this limitation becomes increasingly present and conditioning. Today, as in the past, the architect is called to complete parts of urban lots, trying to optimize the relationship / comparison / integration between new and existing buildings. In the 15th Century, Florence had a great economic prosperity, deriving from the activities in manufacturing and trade. This welfare manifests itself in an intense building production; while it does not lead to a planning or a renewal of the urban fabric, it only encouraged the building of a number of private palaces by the families affected by the general economic development. The fifteenth-century Florence thus, is not affected by extensive and programmatic interventions at "urban scale", but it is only the subject of various re-development projects in certain areas of the city; often in areas adjoining or adjacent to those which are affected by the construction of noble buildings. The important families that give life to this renewal are those of the rich bourgeoisie, which is thriving thanks to the commercial or banking businesses: Medici, Strozzi, Gondi, Rucellai, Peruzzi, Albizi, Alberti that give names to the most important buildings of the Florentine Renaissance. One of the most evident problems arises due to the well-defined urban margins determined by the city walls which creates the complication of finding free land and affordable plots for setting the new buildings on. The rich families, thus, tend to acquire small portions of land or existing buildings adjacent to their homes, mostly the traditional and medieval tower houses (case-torri), to proceed to a substantial renovation of the new spaces and volumes. These constraints were taken in account carefully by the architect in charge who is called to execute the projects. In fact, in the fifteenth-century Florence, there are very few examples of isolated buildings with four open fronts: Palazzo Pitti constitutes the only example which is drawn up by Filippo Brunelleschi. Only a few cases of palaces open on three sides: one for the Medici Family (later Riccardi) by Michelozzo and Palazzo Strozzi by brothers From Majano on a project by Giuliano da Sangallo. The most conspicuous examples of corner palaces: that of the Pazzi Family attributed to Brunelleschi, the Palace Corsi-Horne or that Guadagni-Dei attributed to Baccio d'Agnolo or Cronaca to name a few. The most common typology is constituted by single fronted palaces: one of them is the palace of Rucellai Family by Leon Battista Alberti and Rossellino or the palace of Gondi Family by Giuliano da Sangallo which will be deepened in this paper with its history and evolution of the construction. This research investigates the relationship between the limited urban form and its influences on the design decisions of single buildings. Further, this research aims to identify different building typologies through observing and analyzing the most important interventions of 15th Century in Florence including Gondi Palace.

This is the final manuscript version of the essay published as:
Gold, J.R. and Gold, M.M. (2017) ‘Olympic futures and urban imaginings: from Albertopolis to Olympicopolis’, in J. Hannigan and G. Richards, eds., The Handbook of New Urban Studies, London: Sage, 514-34.

Urban policies in Western Europe have increasingly taken a territorial focus in addressing social problems through area-based initiatives (ABI’s). Policy discourses emphasise the role of the residential environment in the social economic deprivation. However, a territorial focus which tackles both place-based issues and people-based problems would only make sense either when a ‘critical representation’ of the target population resides in several areas in an already divided city, or when neighbourhood effects take place. In the European context, the existence of either scenario is not a matter of fact. Our overview of four urban policies reveals that even though the rhetoric makes multiple allusions to the existence of the two scenarios, there is no convincing evidence. Moreover, in some cases the evidence refutes policy assumptions. This means that the policies are merely tackling unrelated problems: people-based social economic deprivation and place-based liveability and housing issues. In addition, urban policies stand against a backdrop of social and cultural integration debates. It is unknown what the territorial focus will do for integration, but it is unlikely that ABI’s will be successful in effectively tackling social economic deprivation in European societies.