LEUPHANA UNIVERSITY: DIGITAL SCHOOL
PROJECT: Hamburg Smart City
From left-to-right naming the images:
1. Poster of the project
2. Sensory perception and emotional response: what can you feel walking through Plugged-In Hamburg (word map)
3. Plugged-in Hamburg map of intervention program
4. Visualisation of situated space and location of Plug-Ins (or interventions)
5. Visualisation of wild vegetation area
6. Visualisation of vertical squares and public space’s network
7. Flexible interactive spaces / smart solutions
8. Public space: hybrid space
9. Interventions: smart education ->smart technologies ->smart life -> smart perception ->smart integration ->smart (integrated) people (Plug-Ins+genuine)
WALKING THROUGH PLUGGED-IN HAMBURG
We are walking along a stripe of land located close to the waterfront of Hamburg. Our journey starts from St. Pauli’s waterfront and continues through Hafencity, until we find ourselves in Veddel. While inside Plugged-In Hamburg you notice that now almost everything happens outdoors, people live in public spaces and smart technologies constitute a principal point of reference throughout their lives. Immigrants are now of crucial importance to the development of the city. Their integration and education are a necessary prerequisite for enjoying a well developed/safe city. The Plug-In creates a network of public spaces. Their variety is related to the context and perceived differently by different groups. Space is flexible (in physical and functional terms) and holds annually scheduled events (fairs/expositions/ community related festivities etc.). The hitherto existing waterfront line is an arena of various activities and redefinitions. Taken together, the temporary, interactive, vertical, green public spaces located there form a whole passage of happenings. As a strategy for a better quality of life, new smart housing, for instance in the form of portable module, is superseding old solutions and becoming a new mobility strategy in its own right.
In St. Pauli public space is closely related to its previous function. Here we have fish markets, walkways along the waterfront, recreation areas, spots for urban life events and an urban beach as a place for relaxation. But what makes a truly huge impact on this area is a network of public spaces created in vertical rather than horizontal arrangements. We call them vertical public spaces. The long path is composed by bridges, different levels of the ground, a floating railway, hidden plazas, closed corners, centers and shapeless empty fields. IN short, we are dealing here with a vertical network of events.
Jumping from St. Pauli to Hafencity we change the typology of public spaces. Since Hafencity is a newly developed district, it offers the possibility of creating an ideal situation using a “soft touch” approach. The minor changes would include the creation of a network of temporary public spaces and interactive spaces. Going further south, a new revitalization strategy is needed to redevelop and improve the quality of the land surrounding this part of Hafencity. Here we propose an area of wild vegetation and forestry as well as smart housing ideas which would rely on biophilic design. Now public space turns out to be nature itself.
The last district in our itinerary is Veddel, the land of brownfields and immigrants. As encompassed by our Plug-In strategy, Veddel will be the newest developed neighborhood, where new community centers, new business centers and languages centers will be located in order to assist the core program for smart education. On the other side, public space is still in close relation to forestry, wild vegetation and green passages.
PLUGGED-IN POETRY- VIRTUAL LAYER
The emergence of mobile and ubiquitous computing has created the so-called hybrid space – a virtual layer of digital information and interactive opportunities,created by users who are constantly on the move, similarly to the citizens of our improved Hamburg. Augmented space is a physical space with dynamic variable information inscribed into it. When we move around the city and are staying ‘always on-line’, our experience of space is transformed in terms of social interaction and the information space (Rewers 633). This layer can be integrated not only by using personal devices owned by individuals, but also by integrating technology on a larger scale (e.g. projectors or smart walls in the city).
We believe that easy and free access to detailed information about the space surrounding us and directions to places we want to reach, together with a signage system, can provide a sense of safety, facilitate quick response to the changing city environment and take full advantage of the city’s cultural offer. It can also lead to additional interaction between inhabitants across cultures, ages, and districts.
Information technology and interactive spaces compose a strong layer of Plugged-In poetry. Inside Plugged-In Hamburg space communicates with people and becomes a magnet for more outdoor gatherings and activities. In this way space is connected with the dominant, positive emotions . Such spaces evoke pleasant feelings and happiness, admiration (exciting space) and hope (optimism), while at the same time they are capable of awakening our curiosity (Bonenberg 38).
PLUGGED-IN HAMBURG
While working on all of our assignments, we were trying to bear in mind that “urban change can not be made in isolation, but must be cognizant of how it interlocks with other patterns” (Talen 94). The necessity of taking into account this urban embeddedness was aptly summarised by Emily Talen:
Urbanism ideally rests on diversity (social, economic, physical), connectivity (appropriate integration of elements, as well as the concept of permeability), public space (opportunities for interaction), and equality (in terms of access to meaningful goods, services, facilities), and implies a variety of strategies necessary to make those principles work successfully. (Talen 38)
In more mundane terms, Phil Hubbard rightly observes that “we cannot conceive of a city without thinking about the way it is experienced and registered via the body” (116). Therefore, our visualization of the city as a whole has to rely on the sensory experiences: a walk in the city and place consists not just of eye-making contact with other people or advertising signs and buildings but also the sound of traffic noise and conversation, the touch of ticket machines and handrail, the smell of exhaust fumes and cooking food. (Thrift 103)
While reflecting on various film productions used to promote Hamburg, Sybille Bauriedl and Anke Strüver remind us that the city’s urban policy aims at increasing “the economic power of the city and the quality of life for its inhabitants. The waterfront of the inner city is the major urban space in this context for attracting new residents, service businesses and tourists” (176). The currently prevailing cityscape aesthetics makes this socio-spatial and socio-cultural conflation inevitable and highly desirable. Accordingly, just as was the case with our vision of the Ideal Plug-In City, the palpable Hamburg we have chosen to portray in our last assignment reflects “the ways in which culture, aesthetics and symbolic processes have interpenetrated with the political and economic” (Jayne 39).
In conclusion, we wish to emphasize that our Plug-Ins interventions in the urban structure are meant to create and stimulate positive emotional response (Bonenberg 38) as well as eliminate spaces that evoke negative feelings (fear, anger, disgust, aversion, depression, and enclosure). Additionally, since our Plug-In concept is based on applying numerous small steps, in practice we all gain the opportunity and the responsibility to start improving our cities and the quality of our city lives right now.
Bibliography
Print Sources
Bauriedl, Sybille and Anke Strüver. “Strategic Staging of Urbanity: Urban Images in Films and Film Images in Hamburg’s City Marketing.” Cities and Fascination. Beyond the Surplus of Meaning. Ed. Heiko Schmid, Wolf-Dietrich Sahr, and John Urry. Ashgate: Farnham, Surrey, 2011. 169-186.
Ďurovičová, Nataša. “Los Toquis, or Urban Babel.” Global Cities. Cinema, Architecture, and Urbanism in a Global Age. Ed Linda Krause and Patrice Petro. Rutgers UP: New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London, 2003.
Hubbard, Phil. City. Routledge: New York and London, 2006.
Jayne, Mark. “Cultural Geography, Consumption and the City.” Geography 91.1 (2006): 34–42.
Talen, Emily. New Urbanism and American Planning: The Conflict of Cultures. Routledge: New York and London, 2005.
Thrift, Nigel. “Space: the Fundamental Stuff of Human Geography.” Valentine, G., Clifford, N. and Rice, S. (eds) Key Concepts in Geography. Sage: London: 2003.
Rewers, Ewa Ed. Miasto w sztuce-sztuka miasta (City of Art- Art of the City). Universitas: Kraków, 2010.
Ďurovičová, Nataša. “Los Toquis, or Urban Babel.” Global Cities. Cinema, Architecture, and Urbanism in a Global Age. Ed Linda Krause and Patrice Petro. Rutgers UP: New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London, 2003.
Hubbard, Phil. City. Routledge: New York and London, 2006.
Jayne, Mark. “Cultural Geography, Consumption and the City.” Geography 91.1 (2006): 34–42.
Talen, Emily. New Urbanism and American Planning: The Conflict of Cultures. Routledge: New York and London, 2005.
Thrift, Nigel. “Space: the Fundamental Stuff of Human Geography.” Valentine, G., Clifford, N. and Rice, S. (eds) Key Concepts in Geography. Sage: London: 2003.
Rewers, Ewa Ed. Miasto w sztuce-sztuka miasta (City of Art- Art of the City). Universitas: Kraków, 2010.
Online Sources
Gunay, Baykan. Gestalt theory and city planning education. http://www.slideshare.net/leuphanadigital/baykan-gnay-2007-gestalt-theory-and-city-planning-education?ref=http://digital.leuphana.de/library?oembed_type=rich&phase_name=6-your-city
https://arkitekturolesjalami.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/diagonal-shift-sicilylab_-september-11/
https://arkitekturolesjalami.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/the-temporary-city_-mars-11/
Bonenberg, Wojciech. “Emotional maps as a method of public space diagnosis on the example of the city of Poznań.” Architektura 5.5 (2010): 33-39. Biblioteka Cyfrowa Politechniki Krakowskiej. http://suw.biblos.pk.edu.pl/resources/i2/i4/i4/i6/r2446/BonenbergW_MapyEmocjonalne.pdf
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2013/03/guide-guiding-people-around-subway/4883/
http://biomapping.net
http://emotionalcartography.net/EmotionalCartography.pdf
http://www.nox-art-architecture.com/NOX/Book%20Excerpts/MA.pdf
http://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_why_architects_need_to_use_their_ears.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/jared_ficklin_new_ways_to_see_music_with_color_and_fire.html
http://cities.media.mit.edu
http://www.stealth.ultd.net/stealth/
http://www.treehugger.com/modular-design/portable-housing-is-really-a-vertical-trailer-park.html
http://www.arcspace.com/features/nox/son-o-house
https://arkitekturolesjalami.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/diagonal-shift-sicilylab_-september-11/
https://arkitekturolesjalami.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/the-temporary-city_-mars-11/
Bonenberg, Wojciech. “Emotional maps as a method of public space diagnosis on the example of the city of Poznań.” Architektura 5.5 (2010): 33-39. Biblioteka Cyfrowa Politechniki Krakowskiej. http://suw.biblos.pk.edu.pl/resources/i2/i4/i4/i6/r2446/BonenbergW_MapyEmocjonalne.pdf
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2013/03/guide-guiding-people-around-subway/4883/
http://biomapping.net
http://emotionalcartography.net/EmotionalCartography.pdf
http://www.nox-art-architecture.com/NOX/Book%20Excerpts/MA.pdf
http://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_why_architects_need_to_use_their_ears.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/jared_ficklin_new_ways_to_see_music_with_color_and_fire.html
http://cities.media.mit.edu
http://www.stealth.ultd.net/stealth/
http://www.treehugger.com/modular-design/portable-housing-is-really-a-vertical-trailer-park.html
http://www.arcspace.com/features/nox/son-o-house
contributions
Eva Bucherer, Germany
Stefan Issmer, Germany
Anna Krawczyk-Łaskarzewska, Poland
Agnieszka Kubara, Poland
Olesja Lami, Albania
Stefan Issmer, Germany
Anna Krawczyk-Łaskarzewska, Poland
Agnieszka Kubara, Poland
Olesja Lami, Albania
