EMU TU Delft Spring 2016

RETHINKING

HAVANA CONSTRUCTING SUSTAINABLE URBAN LANDSCAPES

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COLOPHON

European Post-Master in Urbanism strategies and design for cities and territories

Design Studio EMU spring semester 2016 TUDelft Constructing the Sustainable Delta City European Higher Education Consortium in Urbanism Faculty of Architecture, Department of Urbanism Delft University of Technology Julianalaan 134 00 WEST250 The Netherlands Tel. +31 1 52 78 44 30

Studio participants Antoine Canazzi Chen Yun-Shih Fecianti Huang Yu-Han Iulia Sirbu

Lin Wei-Yun Magdalini Papadam Rebeca Rabello Sanjana Ahmed Vincent Babes

Studio Instructors Prof. dr. ir. V.J. Han Meyer (V.J.Meyer@tudelft.nl) Birgit Hausleitner (b.hausleitner@tudelft.nl) Nico Tillie (N.M.J.D.Tillie@tudelft.nl) The studio is part of the European Post-Master in Urbanism program. The design studio is complemented by compulsory courses in Methodology (Dr. Steffen Nijhuis), Technology (Drs. F.L. Fransje Hooimeijer) and Theory (Prof. dr. ir. V.J. Han Meyer) concerned with Urban Networks and their societal and economic implications. http://www.emurbanism.eu

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0. Preface

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About Us and the Studio The EMU Spring 2016 group continued the tradition of the previous semester: diverse set of students and professionals, with distinct backgrounds within and outside the architecture and urbanism frame. This time, with semnificative more knowledge of urbanism, the group of ten had a blend of seven different cultures, traditions and perspectives, ranging from Europe, to Asia, and Oceania.

This heterogeneous environment lead to an intense semester of knowledge exchange influx of new understandings on landscape and urban dynamics.

The 2016 EMU group was challenged to propose the re-design of the harbour basin of Havana in order to offer the possibility to create a new way of dealing with the specific characteristics of the natural environment of the bay, combining the quality of the natural system as an important part of the spatial identity of the city with the quality of the natural system as an important elements in a sustainable and resilient flood risk strategy. Together, we shared our experiences on urban studies accumulated in the previous semester in finding solutions for the spatial and technical construction of the urban landscape in the special case of Havana.

This semester we emerged ourselves in studying and understanding the mutual relationships between landscape dynamics and urban dynamics, and developing skills to change, influence and transform these relationships by design. All these came together in the research and analysis on the transformation of the urban port areas. Looking at 10 different European port cities, we understood that the transformation of the port areas function as an important key factor in the adaptation to new urban and economic developments, as well as to the local landscape conditions, the repair of environmental qualities and the posibility to deal with climate change.

Regarding the fact that Havana Harbour is undergoing a new chapter in its developement, the transformation principles of the ten studied ports became supporting elements for the further interventions in the harbour area of Havana. Different questions arose in our 4

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attempts to re-design the Havana Harbour: can we propose new framework for action which can be all environmentally, socially and spatially responsive?

In parallel, we emerged ourselves in researching and experiencing the Cuban design and planning culture, economy and culture sector.

The EMU 2015/16 group could be described as a combination of professionals with various backgrounds, but a common passion and confidence that the practice of urban research, design and planning, when addressed alongside social concerns, in addition to customary economically driven approaches, can lead to fruitful and resilient environments, full of potentials and opportunities.

With this spirit, the EMU group addressed the challenge of the re-design of the harbour basin of Havana in order to construct a sustainable urban landscape.

The semester focused on the layer analysis as a first step in order to get a grip on the mutual relationship between landscape and urban dynamics. This method combined with the reference analysis of the European ports helped us to have an overview of the meaning of the port transformation for the evolution of the urban landscape in a spatial, environmental, technical, and programmatic way. We learnt their weak and strong points, and we used the knowledge to developing a design strategy for the bay of Havana.

Moreover, the field trip to Havana contributed to the validation of out desk analysis and strenghtening of our intentions regarding the development of urban design projects, framework plan and metropolitan policies. Gided visits, lectures and workshops which took place in collaboration with Cuban students and proffessors from CUHAJE University helped us getting valuable insights and perspectives on the current situation and possible changes in Havana.

The theoretical framework, site-layer and reference analysis, scenarios, strategies and urban design punctual intervention will be presented and further detailed throughout this booklet.

EMU Group spring 2016

EXCURSION TIME

STUDIO TIME

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CONTENTS

Source: WikimediaCommons

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0. Preface: introduction of EMU spring studio

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I. Introduction: Havana in the changing context

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II. Analysis: the 3x3x3 layers of Havana

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II.01 Landscape layer

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II.02 Infrastructure layer

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II.03 Urban occupation layer

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III. Challenges and potentials

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IV. Case studies of 10 European ports

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V. Scenario exploration

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VI. Fieldwork investigation

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VII. Concept: the bay as an amphitheater of spatial qualities

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VIII. Individual Projects

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VIII.01 Rediscovering Havana by Rebeca Robello

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VIII.02 Reanimating the Waterfront by Sanjana Ahmed

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VIII.03 Heritage Park by Iulia Sirbu

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VIII.04 Atares Intervention by Fecianti

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VIII.05 Frame, Breach & Balcony by Antoine Canazzi

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VIII.06 Landscape Rehabilitation by Huang Yu-han

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VIII.07 Re(gl)activaciรณn by Lin Wei-yun

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VIII.08 Urban Energy Park by Vincent Babes

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VIII.09 Sinuous Horizon by Chen Yun-shih

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VIII.10 Experiencing the Edge by Magdalini Papadam

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IX. Conclusion: Structure Map

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X. Appendix: Analyses of 10 European Ports

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I. Introduction

Introduction: Havana in the Changing Context We have seen it in every news paper around the world, at the tv, in the internet or on the radio : The Rollingstone were in Havana for a free concert. The cultural event is probably one of the most important since the 90’s for Cuba. After all, it is more than a party, but a symbol of the deep change in the cuban society.

Indeed, since 1959, date of the cuban socialist revolution, Cuba has evolved in parallel of the Western world. Until the fall of the Berlin’s wall and the soviet block, the globalization had two face, two blocks. The end of the cold war has resulted for Cuba to an isolation and a serious economical crisis. The “special time”, as they call it, has last till today and forced the country, step by step to compromise and opening.

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As the story continues, the US embargo, imposed in the 1960, is about to be raised and new relationship between Cuba and its old fellow of north America are evolving out of the stranglehold of the cold war.

The commercial opportunities for both side seems importante and could completely change the geo politic of the region.

Already Cuba has developed strong bond with the latine American countries. Those still see Cuba as a symbol. Although its independancy from US influence, Cuba has succeed to create a society able to challenge developed countries in term of education or health. Its strategic position in the Carabbean region could make Havana one of the key capital of latine America.

Thus, Havana is in a middle of an overhelm political environment that has specific impact on the cuban capital.

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Firstly, the tourism growth seems to be about to become one of the major industry of the city. The opportunities are abundant, from the restoration of the heritage to the development of new touristic areas source of powerful economy and interest for the cuban.

But tourism could also be a threat. First of all, Havana will face the same challenge as Venice or other touristic cities around the world. The tourism can damaged as much as bringing money. The potential location of a new cruise terminal is symbolical of this threat. But

the specificity of the cuban society are also in danger.

The willing of an equal, educated society is directly challenged by the low skills, well paid job proposed by the tourism industry.

Secondly, the bay of Havana is the place of the port of Havana. Reason of the first settlement of Havana, the bay has provided an asset for the city development till today. The industrial revolution and the development of the port has shaped the bay and the city, as two territory strongly linked and in the same time isolated from each other. But the crisis has also affected the industrial activities and the bay, compete by other large harbor, seems to be too small. Thus, the authority bet on a crucial shift of the port activities toward the bay of Mariel. The new port would provide 10 times the capacity of Havana’bay and be unavoidable in the Carabbean region. But, with the port leave an important ressource for Havana. A lot of Cuban still depend on it. The territory and populations let behind will have to face an important economical change.

Already the sector of the creative industries, growing all around the world, tend to appear, but not enough to balance the weight of the traditional industries. The development of the internet is still marginal, but meet a strong interest. Looking around the world and the horizontal economy the internet tend to develop, the so called “uberization” could have an important impact on the Havana.

Finally, some endemic threat tend to be increased by the climate change. If in one hand, the natural environment of Cuba has to be protected from the tourism growth, the bay of Havana suffer more from its depravation. The consequence are direct on flooding issues, polluted ground unusable, lack of fresh water,... Those will probably be driver of changes in the futur, starting from the energy production, soil cleaning to improve the green covering of the city, water management infrastructure,...

Cuba and Havana are facing incredible challenge, they will change, we hope for the best and we hope we contribute a bit to the reflection.

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1. http://activeplanettravels.com 2. http://www.cuba-junky.com 3. http://www.usinenouvelle.com 4. http://media1.s-nbcnews.com 5. https://photos.prnewswire.com 5

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Image of Havana today: Havana Vieja

El Capitolio

Photo by Antoine Canazzi

Gran Teatro de La Habana (Teatro Tacón) 10

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El Capitolio and Paseo de Martí

Photo by Yunshih Chen

Photo by Antoine Canazzi

Paseo de Martí

Photo by Antoine Canazzi

Paseo del Prado and the statue of José Martí

Photo by Antoine Canazzi

Paseo del Prado

Malecón seawall at bay entrance

Malecón seawall at night

Photo by Antoine Canazzi

Photo by Antoine Canazzi

Photo by Yunshih Chen

Malecón Seawall

Photo by Antoine Canazzi

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Havana Vieja Bird eye view from Terminal Sierra Maestra

Photo by Antoine Canazzi

Street in Havana Vieja

Avenida de Bélgica 12

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Photo by Antoine Canazzi

Avenida de Bélgica

Photo by Yunshih Chen

Southern Havana Vieja

Photo by Yunshih Chen

Photo by Yunshih Chen

Centro Havana

Photos by Antoine Canazzi

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Atarès

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Photos by Antoine Canazzi

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Atarès

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Photos by Antoine Canazzi

Regla

Photos by Antoine Canazzi

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Regla

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Photos by Antoine Canazzi

Casablanca

Photo by Antoine Canazzi

Photo by Antoine Canazzi

Photo by Magdalini Papadam

Photo by Magdalini Papadam Photo by Magdalini Papadam

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Casablanca

Photo by Magdalini Papadam

Photo by Magdalini Papadam

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Photo by Antoine Canazzi

Photo by Yunshih Chen

Casablanca

Photos by Antoine Canazzi

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II. Analysis

Methodology: the ‘3x3x3’ layer analysis In order to understand the complex relationships between city and landscape, the evolution of urbanisaton, and the role of the harbour in the larger metropolitan area, we employed the TU Delft method of ‘3x3x3’ layer analysis: a vertical integration of the physical layers - landscape, infrastructure and built environment - with the temporal scale - three key moments in history - and the spatial scale metropolitan, harbour and project site.

The physical layers in question are distinguished by both function and time scale. While the natural landscape plays the role of setting for urbanisation, the infrastructure directs the urban development into certain ways, and the urban occupation defines. through the built but also the unbuilt - streets, squares, parks, porticos, gardens, quays - the way everyday life unfolds in the city. The temporal differentiation between the three is even more evident: from the landscape setting which is formed in millions of years, to the infrastructure which, under one form or the other, defines the city over centuries, to the built

environment, which with few exceptional cases, lasts a century on average, and finally coming to the use, which may change repeatedly over the lifetime of a building or public space.

In Havana, the three main periods of study are the late colonial period in the 19th century characterised by urban growth and a relatively early industrialisation, the independent period during the first half of the 20th century which defined the main public spaces and buildings, and finally the current situation characterised by an urbanity frozen in time from 1959, but with a very different, collective and quickly changing use of the city and harbour.

The main advantages of analysing the port development by this method was to observe otherwise difficult to see relations such as: the reciprocal influences of urbanisation and landscape, the inertia on public space use imposed by infrastructure development and the obvious incompatibility of occupation and environmental hazards like floods.

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1. Urban occupation analysis 2. Infrastructure analysis 3. Landscape analysis 4. Overlayed problems and opportunities

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II. 01

Landscape Layer The position of Havana as a harbour is not at all a simple occurence. It is situated in one of the very few naturally protected bays on te northern side of the island of Cuba. The positioning is sheltered from frequent cyclones and is on a favourable route for vessels coming from Europe, North America and West Africa.

The formation of the bay plays a very important role up to the way the city and port function today. The rocky formations made out of fossilised coral protect the bay from sea storms and offer space for fertile alluvial plains behind them. The resulting ridge parallel to the shore has played a role of both center and barrier for urbanisation. Numerous river valleys end in this ridge from the south and cut through it in narrow gorges to make their way into the sea. This leads to a very restricted communication between the upper and lower streams of the rivers, especially when there is a combination of heavy rainfall and a sea storm, resulting nowadays in the flooding of the Malecon coastal road and the neighbourhood of Centro. The first settlers preffered the solid heights as they were protected from flooding and provided

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good construction material and foundation for the old city. The lower parts of the city were used as port and housing for the slave population. During the 19th and 20th centuries however, industrial growth demanded space and occupied the marshlands and prodeltas around the harbour bay and this led to an almost total anthropisation of the water edge. Many rivers and streams were covered or integrated into the urban sewage system, cutting off ecosystems and room for water.

Through urbanisation not only the communication of waters was damaged, but also the quality of it. Most household waste is disposed into the rivers and thus into the bay, leading to a toxic habitat for fish and birds. This situation is improving however in the last years as deindustrialisation goes forward. Soil and air are also polluted by the oil refinery based in the eastern side of the bay and by the old cars and outdated technologies used by industry.

Nevertheless, the bay has a natural potential of an amphitheater, with views connecting it across and with the surrounding hills.

1. Havana Bay, c.1639, by Johannes Source: en.wikipedia.org

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Havana Main historical trade routes High cyclone frequency Ocean surface temperature (-2 ... 35 C)

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Undercutting process Hydraulic action

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2 1. Hydraulic undercutting process 2. Cuban coastal landscapes.

Source: Canet G & Reisz E, 1949, Atlas de Cuba 3. Cuba in the Carribean context and cyclone formation.

Data source: Japan Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS

coral protected bay

4. Cuban landscapes.

Data source: Canet G & Reisz E, 1949, Atlas de Cuba

HAVANA

sierra maestra

caves

alluvial plains

terraces

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Image sources: www.nationalgeographic.com; www. meriam-webster.com; www.inthetropics.net; www. unseencuba.com 5. Soil conditions Data source: Ammerl T, 2005, Aktuelle stadt- und landschaftokologische Probleme in Havana 6. Hydrological dynamics and territorial sections along river valleys Data source: Google Earth 3D data

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coral abrasion in different stages

delta marshland

alluvial plains

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urbanisation

dense green

low rise green (grass, pastureland, post-industrial)

watershed

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2 urbanisation

watershed

pollution source

waste disposal

water treatment

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SEDIMENTARY ENVIRONMENT Luyano drain Pre-delta environment Dredged area Transition bay-sea Tunnel Coastal environment SEDIMENTARY DYNAMICS Drain discharge Fluvial discharge Surface brackish water Marine water input Mixing sedimentation 3

River Drained stream

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1. Regional green-blue networks.

Data source: Data source: Ammerl T, 2005, Aktuelle stadt- und landschaftokologische Probleme in Havana; Google Earth 3D data.

2. Urbanisation and pollution.

Data sources: Ammerl T, 2005, Aktuelle stadt- und landschaftokologische Probleme in Havana; Perez et al 2009; Google Earth 3D data.

3. Sedimentary formation.

Data source: Perez et al 2009.

4. Sedimentary formation.

Data source: Perez et al 2009.

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5. Rainfall graphs for Havana.

Data source: www.climate-data.org 6-8. Urbanisation and its effects on the water shore.

Data sources: Historical maps 1740, 1899, Google Earth imagery.

9. Urbanisation and landscape.

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Water depth Green area low/high density Low water retention / steep gradient Low water retention / mild gradient Street alignment section Drained stream

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Watershed Soil pollution Land/water reclamation Railway River Pollution source

1. Flooding in the bay area 2. Pollution in the bay area 3. Natural amphitheater potential

Enclosed water flow

4. Water retention strategies vegetation

Household waste water pollution

5. Water retention strategy -section

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Water depth Green area River Drained stream Soil pollution Extra water retainment Flood proof upgrades Water cleaning Wave protection Viewpoints

1. Landscape layer: problems and opportunities in the bay area.

2. Fresh water retention strategy concept.

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II. 02

Infrastructure Layer The current condition of infrastructure in Havana exhibits the nostalgia and sarcasm which on one hand reveals the flourishing history of the old harbour city. While on the other hand, it also reveals the serious problems regarding infrastructure and basic facilities that the city of Havana is facing today.

short period of British colonization oriented the country’s connection focus towards North America through the fortification and harbour development of Havana. The historical trading road between the two main cities since then gradually formed the backbone of the transportation system of Cuba.

Infrastructure and urban development at national scale At national scale, began with Spanish colonization at Santiago de Cuba, the southeastern end of Cuba Island, trading connection were more focused towards the South American Areas. Havana was also an important trading harbour at the time, with the landscape character of the bay providing favorable criteria for ship repairing works such as “careening”, and military or trading supplies. A very

In the mid-19th Century, railways were constructed mainly for shipping products such as sugar to Havana harbor for exporting. The railway network was built mainly along the historical trading route.

The motorways, built in the 20th Century, formed a double network in the western part of the country, concentrating at Havana metropolitan area. While at the eastern part, the motorway were mainly transformed from historical road that connects to Santiago de Cuba.

18th Century

Trading route

19th Century

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Railway

20th Century

1. La Patera by Armando Mariño Source: http://www.psartcompany.com/ 2. Scheme of transportation infrastructure of Cuba at national scale.

3. Painting showing the careening work at Caribbean Sea. Source: http://www.golden-age-of-piracy.com/

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Motorway

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Motorway Roads Railways Industrial area Station Old station 1st crown, historical centre 2nd crown, 19th century 3rd crown, 20th century

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Infrastructure and urban development in regional scale Zooming in to the regional scale of Havana metropolitan area, the traffic structure forms the framework for urban development through different time period. Both railway and motorway connect the ports at the east and south sides of the bay, and radiate towards other cities. The motorway, especially, forms a double ring, with flows concentrating at the tunnel at the entrance of Havana bay.

Among the series of infrastructures constructed, the first train station was built in 1837 to connect Bejucal, an area rich of sugar crop ( 1 in figure 3). Situated outside the city wall, the station had triggered the city’s development westward, and the fall of the city wall in 1863. In the urban areas as a result developed in the 19th Century, several central places were assigned with fortifications or memorial public spaces, such as cemetery and ministries, surrounded by parks ( 2 in figure 3).

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Later on, in 1910, due to the increase of traffic, the choice was made to move the station to where the original Arsenal located aside the old harbour ( 3 in figure 3). The original train station, the first one, became the place for the new capital building. The new station and railway lines focused more around the bay, supported the linking of ports with national and international economical entities, boosted the development and scaling-up of the ports at the south-eastern sides of Havana bay ( 4 in figure 3).

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Infrastructure framework of Havana in different time-periods in city scale At city scale, in the 1850s, as mentioned before, the first railway was built to connect sugar production. The initial tramways were also built along the most activated cultural and commercial venues in the historical city, and connecting the new developed urban area.

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In the 1900s, we saw the peak of harbour and port development, by which the city also prospered with a dense network of tramway and railway development. The main station was moved to the interface of old trading harbors and the exponentially increasing industrial ports.

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In the later half of 20th century, the whole tramway system disappeared partially due to operating problems and the following economic downgrading. Though the motorways were constructed and formed a seemingly complete ring system, there are however serious problems of congestion, dangerous traffic, lack of public transportation system, and the the deterioration of railway condition.

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1. East exit to the tunnel crossing the entrance channel of Havana bay.

Source: Emilio Portuondo 2. Scheme of transportation infrastructure of Havana metropolitan at regional scale.

3. Scheme of infrastructure triggered development of the city of Havana.

Tramway Motorways Railways Ferry route Old coastline 0

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Ferry stops Stations

4. Infrastructure framework of Havana city in different time periods.

5. Photo of prosperous old harbour of Havana.

Source: Cuba Review, New York. [Available at: http://www.tramz.com/cu/hb/hb.html]

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The changing patterns of the relationship between land & water

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1780s

Studying the sections of the waterfront area of the historical centre, many traces were found to tell the shifting patterns of the contact of land and water.

Alameda de Paula, today’s Avenue del Puerto near San Pedro, saw the first opera theatre at the coast in the 18th Century, when the waterfront was mainly used as cultural venues and elite gathering plazas.

1900s

In the 19th Century, the waterfront was gradually occupied by trading and small manufacturing harbours. At Muella Paula, the same location as today’s Avenue del Puerto, “La machina”(derrick) and the busy works in the 19th Century portrait the golden age of the old harbour industry.

Today, the hustle and bustle of the harbour activities disappeared, partially restored again as plazas but barely seen users visiting, while a large part of the area were abandoned with unused quays or empty warehouses.

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At Plaza de San Francisco - Muelle de Caballeria, a similar pattern was seen.

Market spaces and plazas gathered nearby in the 18th Century, as well as infrastructure and facilities were constructed in high density to support intense harbour industry of the 19th Centyry.

The land area were extended towards water because of harbour or port development, however, gradually decreased both the use of space and the accessibility to water.

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1780s

1900s

2000s 3

1. Section at Muelle Paula of different times.

Image sources: Mercedes Montalvo; Derubin Jacome; http://www.vintag.es/; Ediciรณn Jordi; Google street view 2. More detailed section showing the harbour activities during 1900s at Muelle Paula.

3. Section at Muelle de Caballeria of different historical time periods.

Image sources: Dominic Serres; Diana Battaglia; Cuba Review, New York. [Available at: http://www.tramz.com/cu/hb/hb.html]; fernandez83; 4. More detailed section showing the harbour activities during 1900s at Muelle de Caballeria.

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C

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Malacon seawall act not only as wave protection infrastructure, but also important social spaces in daily lives for people living in Havana.

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Flooding caused by wave influx

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Oldest part of Malacon Seawall Flooding-prone area due to rain water accumulating and inner-bay wave concentration.

Wind flow direction 6 5 2

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Infrastructure issues and problems: flooding

Wave height (meters)

Regarding the current infrastructure conditions, there are some issues and problems related to the urban structure and development potentials.

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One of the most urgent problem is flood protection issues. Flood caused by hurricane and rain has been causing severe deterioration to the living environment of Havana. The former is most serious and often seen along the Malacon seawall, whose construction was started in 1900 by American authorities to protect the city area from wave attacks. As the seawall has been in lack of maintenance or ill-designed at some sections, it fails to protect the blocks at waterfront from waves today. However, Malacon also acts as an important public spaces with vibrant social activities in daily lives for people of Havana. Therefore, it requires a more delicate design to regain Malacon’s function of protection, as well as maintain if not enhance the current vitality there.

The sections here shows that during hurricane, the waves goes over the seawall and flooded the waterfront blocks. Even though the street of San Lazaro, an important main street with busy traffics, is elevated and act as small dike in a certain degree, water influx with big waves still flows along flatter streets such as Paseo del Prado.

Another flooding problem is mainly caused by the accumulation of intense rainfall, which is a common phenomenon in Havana and has been worsened due to climate change. At the areas mostly reclaimed from previous marshlands, the altitude was quite low, as well as the current of the inner bay caused the wave to concentrate at the same area during hurricane or strong winds. Currently a small seawall is planned to be built to better the situation.

The elevated street of San Lazaro acts as small dike to restist wave influx during hurricanes.

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Due to deterioration, Malacon seawall today is insufficient to resist wave.

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Infrastructure issues and problems: intense traffic & possible congestion The second problem we identified is possible future congestion or segregation caused by the current traffic infrastructure and facilities.

For example, around the current main station, different kinds of transportation concentrate here, some even with double layers and heavy structure, and is currently already a dangerous traffic node

for both pedestrians and vehicles. A better public transportation system is urgently needed to be developed, as well as a strategic framework to avoid the growth of traffic flow causing more danger and segregation.

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7 Possible segregation & congestion

Possible future traffic growth

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1. Map showing flood problems.

2. Painting of Malacon seawall Source: Nigase, Siglo XX

Eustachian Central de Ferrocarriles, with many tracks and cargos decaying, is now in a bad condition.

Around the station, busy traffic of different kinds, with a lack of public transportation system, convey a threat of future congestion.

3. Map of flooding areas and water flows 4. A bird’s eye view of the celebrated promenade Source: wanderello [available at: http://www. wanderello.it/] 5. Photos showing the deteriorating condition of Malacon seawall.

Sources: L.C. la Gasse et al.

6. Section analyses of Malacon seawall and streets related to flooding issues.

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7. Map of congestion and segregation problems 8. Section analyses at areas near train station.

9. Photos of traffic near main station Sources: Joaquin Rodriguez Portal; Raul Gallardo Alvarado

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1 Possible segregation & congestion

At Atarès area, the traffics cause serious segregation and congestion problems, severely downgrading the urban environment in the vicinity.

Possible future traffic growth

Also looking at the sections at the southwestern corner of the bay, many kinds of different traffics pass through parallel, forming not a huge barrier for crossing between waterfront and living neighborhoods, but also results in a very bad strolling experience with air pollution and truck noises.

At Atarès area especially, the traffic had seriously downgrade the urban environment in the vicinity.

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Infrastructure issues and problems: capacity of the entrance channel The third issue is the condition of the entrancing channel of the bay. Neither the width nor the depth of the channel are enough to accommodate both industrial and touristic transportation. A tunnel that crosses the channel further limit the depth of the

accessible ships. Therefore, the future development orientation of the bay must choose or balance between tourism, industrial, military, and other uses.

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Tunnel crossing the entrance channel Future capacity problem areas

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1. Map of congestion and segregation problems 2. Photo of double layered traffic at Atarès.

Source: Alexito.de 3. Section analyses of Atarès areas.

4. Map showing entrance capacity problem.

5. Section analysis of Havana bay entrance.

6. Paintain showing the narrowness of the entrance channel of Havana bay.

Source: Luis Alberto Faraco 0

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Flooding caused by wave influx Oldest part of Malacon Seawall Flooding-prone area due to rain water accumulating and inner-bay wave concentration.

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Wave height (meters)

Possible segregation & congestion Possible future traffic growth Tunnel crossing the entrance channel Future capacity problem areas

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Overlapped infrastructure problems Considering all together the infrastructure-related issues and problems, there are potentials in the infrastructure transformation to deal with flooding

protection, transportation system, and making use of the necessity of infrastructure improvement in cooperation with more sustainable approaches.

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Opportunities and potentials Based on the overlapped issues and study of the historical infrastructure patterns, some potentials and opportunities can be derived. The development of the old harbour infrastructure; the need of water facility can be dealt with through rain retention intervention for public spaces. Velocity and wave flows at the bay’s entrance channel can also be

used for more sustainable energy infrastructure investments. To conclude, the infrastructure layer analyses show urgent needs of renewal, rethinking, and restructuring through more sustainable strategic plans for the future development of Havana urban environment.

1. Map of overlapped infrastructure problems 2. Map of potentials and opportunities.

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II. 03

Urban Occupation Layer Havana has a rich history of economic, social and political transformations that have directly influenced the urban development of the city.

The dynamics between these multiple spheres have determined the urban form of the city, the appropriation of specific urban spaces in disregard of others, as well as the social life and character of the city.

In order to understand Havana’s evolution an analysis of the urban occupation throughout the city’s history was done. In addition to the study of urban plots and streets typologies, the main private and public spaces were taken into consideration, the mindset and customs of each time and along with economic and political frameworks. As a final product the main vitality nodes of social and economic activities were identified in important periods of Havana’s transformation. The analysis

also indicated that despite the city’s expansion and shift on socio-economic structures, import vitality nodes have withstood changes maintain their importance in the city’s context and being readapted to new characters.

This subchapter will present the conclusions of the urban occupation analysis throughout four main periods of Havana’s history. Comparisons between important vitality nodes of the city and how transformed through time will also be presented.

The urban evolution of Havana can be divided in four main periods, the last one as an open ongoing process due to the political and economic opening of Cuba. The first period encompasses the city’s settlement in 1519 and the city’s expansion as a Spanish colony. The second period starts with the country’s independence in 1989 and follows a long period of North American influence. The third period

starts with the turning point of the 1959 Cuban Revolution and the establishment of a communist regime, constitutionally termed as a democratic centralist system. The fourth and ongoing period starts in 2011, when Fidel Castro officially retires from the country’s presidency and his brother Raul Castro takes over. Raul Castro started then a series of reforms that appears to lead the country towards a mixed-market economy . However, what will be the full extent of these political and economic reforms and their impacts on the country and its urban spaces is still unknown. Nonetheless, by understanding the city’s past, its qualities and challenges guideline proposals for the city’s further development can be made taking into consideration cultural heritage, social inclusiveness, sustainable development and economic resilience.

3rdExpansion Stage 3rdExpansion Stage 3rdExpansion Stage 4th Expansion Stage Railway Station Railway lines

1st Period - The Walled City

1st Period - The City Beyond the Walls

1. Havana Bay, c.1639, by Johannes Source: en.wikipedia.org 2nd Period - City, Rail & Port

3rd Period - New Simbolic Centrality

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2. Havana’s Urban Evolution

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CIty History and Urban Evolution The analysis of urban form and occupation considered four main development periods considering Havana’s history.

The first period is characterized by the city’s initial settlement, close to the bay and protected to the west by the ascending topography.

During the Spanish occupation the city grew along with its port and related trading and commercial activities. As a result, the city expanded, walls were built to enhance its protection, a vast amount of port related businesses flourished and social life acquired a different pace and character.

The sixteen and seventeen century city had a typical grid from settlements of European colonies. Urban life and activities were centered on the main churches, market squares and port areas.

As economic activities expanded and consolidated, new social structures and dynamics solidified and the Spanish interest on Havana intensified. Therefore, the city expanded beyond the initial walls. Plot sizes and street grid followed the main axes of the initial settlement.

As the city expanded east and southwards, the morphology of the landscpe had a decisive impact

on the urban form grid size and direction. Nineteen century expansions reflected economic prosperity, the rise of the bourgeoisie and new urban ideas derived from the ensanches of Spanish cities, especially Barcelona.

The independency from Spain, as well as political and economic ties with the United States outlined yet another urban development mode. Pragmatism was evidenced by the shift of the old train station to the south-east extreme of the city. Modern technologies determined the dimension and hierarchy of the transportation grid and the concepts of the city beautiful movement were visible on parks, squares and gardens spread throughout the city.

After the Revolution in 1959 many vital axis of commercial activities in the city disappeared. The city entered a phase of urban stagnation, with few expansions and intense deterioration of buildings.

New developments were all public lead and focused on social housing or services. Revitalization of important historic buildings began at the end of the twentieth century. As a result, main vitality axes of the old city center were restored.

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Vitality Îœaps Historical & Cultural Buildings Important Public Buildings

VitalitySpace of public space Public Vitality low

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Vitality Map - 1st Development Period - 1691

Main church square Harbour Market square

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4.The first Railway Station & Alameda de Paula Sources: http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.nl/

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Vitality Map - 1st Development Period - 1853

3. Havana’s 1519 settlement Sources: https://es.wikipedia.org http://www.pinterest.com

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Fortification wall University | Government | Cathedral | Fish market Gate to the city | Tacon market Church | Market Harbour Railway station | Tacon theatre | Campo de Marte (Plaza) Orhpanage

5. Plaza de Armas & Catedral de Virgen Maria Sources: http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.nl/ https://wikipedia.org 6. Malecon & Commercial activities Prado Street Sources: http://www.stumptownblogger.com/ http://www.pinterest.com/

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Fortresses University Hospital Cumstoms | Post office | Naval office Cemetery | Hospital Campsite | Fortress Warehouses Munition dump Cemetery | Church

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Historical & Cultural Buildings Important Public Buildings

VitalitySpace of public space Public Vitality low

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University Capitol Hospital Harbour | Post office Train station Market Prison Asylum Health care Hospital

Historical & Cultural Buildings Important Public Buildings

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Vitality Map - Current state of the Development Period 1.

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Malecon Church | Hospital | Park Obispo [pedestrian] street Great theatre University Market Reserved green | Port terminal Ministries | Plaza de la Revolucion

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Historical & Cultural Buildings Important Public Buildings

VitalitySpace of public space Public Vitality low

high

Urban Occupation Layer The study of vitality nodes made evident not only important public spaces, but also main development axes and the relationship between city and bay throughout the Havana’s history As shown on the evolution diagrams below, the initial settlement, as well as the first urban expansions, had a strong connection to the bay. This relationship resulted from the intense intermingle between city and port.

However, the relationship between city and port loosened as port activities expanded eastward due to increased scale and industrial activities. As a result, the city’s axes focused on inward development and the bay acquired a different scale and character.

However, some key public spaces remained important nodes during the whole city expansion and played a crucial role at maintaining a link between the urban city life and the bay. The Catedral

de la Virgen Maria de la ConcepciĂłn Inmaculada de la Habana represents one of these key points and its evolution is also presented below.

Initiatives to revitalize the Old City Centre and the bay area started on the last decades of the 20th century have had an important impact on relinking port and city. The current shift of the port activities to Mariel presents potential for further strengthening the role of the bay for the city.

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Photos by authors

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III. Analysis Conclusion

Challenges and Opportunities The three layer analysis which mainly encompasses the issues of landscape, infrastructure and urban occupation in Havana frames the challenges and opportunities to be addressed in the individually designed locations of the bay. The challenges and opportunities, though perilous in their own complexity, inform each other in a rather definitive manner. The challenges of landscape layer inform the challenges identified in the infrastructure and unban occupation layer or the spatial structure of the city as a whole.

Landscape layer: The major challenges identified in the landscape layer mainly related to soil pollution which basically is caused by waste disposal as well as the issue of flooding due to lack of water drainage and retention system directly causes challenges to the infrastructure and the urban occupation layer particularly in the bay and also in the surrounding areas. The lack of water retention and drainages system with additional pressure of surface run-off from the rainfall creates threat to vulnerable location of the city both in infrastructure and urbanized areas.

On the other hand, the opportunities of the landscape offered as a base for future development are also voluminous. The variations of landscape along the bay give us opportunity to further develop the bay as an array of different morphological expansion respecting the qualities offered by the natural landscape.

1

Infrastructure layer: The infrastructure of Havana which in the analysis mainly focuses on the transportation network identifies challenges and opportunities framing the development done in this sector in different time period. The overabundance of underutilized roads mainly constructed during the American occupation period with insufficient amount of public transportation system causes challenge to the future development of the city. On the contrary, the opportunities of the capacity of the existing infrastructure system allow us developing a multi-dimensional infrastructure system with a combination of land and water transportation system to work as an efficient system.

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Urban occupation layer: The morphological development of the city is most representative of the expansions and structure of the existing urban fabric constructed in different time period. The challenges are rather related to the expansion of the city towards south-west as well as the conditions of the existing buildings in the old part of the city. The opportunities in this case is grater in retrospective since the vital areas identified in different parts of the city spontaneously appropriated by people as well as formally designed ones trigger the further development of the bay area as an emerging starting point to be infiltrated later in the newly developed areas and take full advantage of them.

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1. Challenge s & opportunities landscape 2. Challenges of infrastructure 3. Opportunities of infrastructure 4. Challenges of urban occupation 5

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III. Case Study

Case studies of 10 European Ports When the emergence of the container shipping industry accelerated the abandonment of old ports all over the world. The old ports were too crowded, and their piers had too little dockside land area for the flow of containers. As the result, deep-sea shipping had moved out of the city center and left the opportunity to redevelop the old city center.

Copenhagen, Dublin, Genova, Hamburg, Lisbon, Marseille and Thessaloniki. We zoom in the analysis the port cities in different layers: landscape, infrastructure, urban occupation and intervention strategies, and also in different scales: metropolitan scale, harbor scale, and project scale. (which enclosed in chapter 10)

In the recent decades, plenty of urban projects in European port city emphasized on urban transformations in the run-down port area and had successful revitalizations of the abandoned port area. Therefore, we can learn lessons from experience before we go to Havana.

We discovered four main problems of Havana harbor area: 1. Flooding 2. Soil and water pollution 3. Segregation of city and port 4. Traffic congestion As follows pages we studied how the European port cities deal with the related issues.

In the semester we focused on ten selected port cities, which were Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona,

* The further port-cities analyses could be found in chapter 10.

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Dealing with flood: Hamburg and Copenhagen The flooding is an important and urgent problem to confront. According to the report, during 30 April 2015, a storm dumped over 188mm of rain on Havana, leaving dead and causing several buildings to collapse.

Flood water was over 50cm deep in some areas, causing problems for drivers and pedestrians. More heavy rain is expected in the future extreme climate change scenario, there will be more serious damage if the situation does not change.

The flooding issue in Havana could be traced to various factors, such as huge waves came to Malecon, intense

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rains even in drought season, lower altitude areas toward the water, obsolete drainage and sewage system, and so on. There is no simple solution. It needs a systematic strategy to deal with the flood.

In the European port cities analysis, there is two great example with two different methods to confront flooding: 1. Create new building type in the hafencity in Hamburg.

2. Use green-blue system in St. Kjeld neighborhood in Copenhagen.

Hamburg: building base dyke Hamburg is a river city. Built on the estuary of the River Elbe intersect towards the Alster river which located 110 kilometers inland from Germany’s North Sea shore, its residents have battled to keep the river and tidal flooding out of their streets and cellars since the ninth century. In the decade, they changed the strategy of dealing with flooding - welcome the flood water. The HafenCity project was redeveloping a low-lying harbor area which prerequisite for urban use were, therefore, new internal and external connections and crosslinks as well as flood protection. The solution was to

let flooding inland and build waterproofed structures which poked out above the anticipated flood elevations.

New buildings and streets are built on a new level of 8-9m above mean sea level, protecting the development from floods, which the raising base functioned as the parking area. In contrast, promenades and certain squares remain at the area’s previous elevation of about 4.5 to 5.5m above sea level, which attractively preserves their close links to the water and allows the creation of useful public spaces of high quality.

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1. Building base as dyke, creating different platform of public activities and community activities.

Source: http://www.architectural-photographer.eu/ EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016

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Copenhagen: The topography and the location did not cause flooding problem to Copenhagen, but the cloudbursts which cope with climate change did. Due to the flatten landscape and outdated drainage system, the heavy rain water exhausted slowly and flooding happened.

As the first climate-change adapted neighborhood in Copenhagen, where the St. Kjeld lied in the lowrise area, installed numbers of innovative green infrastructure and drainage projects.

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The City of Copenhagen originally examined sewer system upgrades but decided to incorporate green and blue elements instead, a more cost-effective option that would also renew the urban environment. In addition to creating rainwater harvesting systems and urban green spaces to soak up stormwater runoff, rooftops, and other features will divert rainwater onto specific streets that will act as channels, leading rainwater to the harbor and becoming temporary canals during floods. Pedestrian walkways and basement entrances will be raised above the street level.

1. the park become as pond in cloudburst.

Source: www.ramboll.com 2. new green-blue drainage system combined urban lifes.

Source: www.ramboll.com 60

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Soil and water cleaning: Amsterdam and Copenhagen As a harbor almost completely surrounded by shipping and industrial activities, the waters of the bay suffer from environmental stress. Water entering the bay as river flows or effluent from industrial processes has a residence in the harbor of 8 days, on average. It receives approximately 48,000 m3 of wastewater per day, which carries about 4,800 kg of nitrogen and 1,200 kg of phosphorus, which results in elevated concentrations of nutrients. Havana Bay is strongly affected by sewage dumping, and it also receives suspended solids, hydrocarbons, heavy metals and pollutants from agriculture, industry and port activities. The leading

1. data reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Havana_Harbor

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sources of pollution in the bay have been identified as the Luyano River which contains organic material, nutrients, sewage, solid waste, the Regla oil refinery, fish hatcheries, and port activities.[1] The water and waterfront became inaccessible and unattractive. As predictable urban transformation, cleaning up the soil and water pollution is a fundamental task.

Amsterdam: The challenge of the post-industrial site where previously served as a shipyard in Amsterdam North is the heavily polluted environment. The project De Ceuvel is a demonstration ground for “closed loop” and regenerative urban development; using clean technologies for managing water, energy, sanitation, and food production, as well as cleaning the polluted soil using plants. A specially selected combination of plants is used to stabilize, break down and take up pollutants while producing low-impact biomass.

The regeneration of the site was built step by step: Step 1: forbidden garden is being built on the polluted ground. The garden ensures for the purification of the ground during the next 10 years.

Step 2: surplus from Amsterdam houseboats to be refurbished and placed in the ‘green lake’.

Step 3: events will be organized, pollution-reducing plants are converted into biogas, enormous activity, and liveliness.

Finally, after 10 years the pontoons move as full boats to a new place. The soil is clean returned to the city of Amsterdam.

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1. Raised wooden path ensures that there is no direct contact with the polluted soil.

Source: http://www.spaceandmatter.nl/de-ceuvel/ 2. Sustainable system Source: http://www.metabolic.nl/projects/de-ceuvel/ 2

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Copenhagen: As recently as 1995, wastewater was piped into the harbor area. The water was heavily polluted with sewage, algae, industrial waste and oil spills from commercial harbor transport. But nowadays the polluted water area was transferred to a vitalized waterfront with the quality for harbor bath by systematic infrastructure developments.

Municipal investments in the modernization of the sewage system, including building rainwater reservoirs and reservoir conduits which can store waste water until there is space again in the sewage system. Also

the expansion of the wastewater treatment plants serving the city to remove nutrient salts and minimize the discharge of heavy metals. Furthermore, a sophisticated alarm system predicts when and where an overflow will occur based on rain forecasts, existing water levels, and tides. It alerts city employees via mobile phone so they can shut down swimming areas immediately if needed—a rarity, but essential for public safety and peace of mind. The cleaning strategies not only improve the infrastructure of the city but also create the new type of public activities in the urban space.

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1. Waste water treatment plants.

Source: www.ramboll.com 2. Copenhagen harbour bath by JDS. Source: http://www.archdaily.com/ 64

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Overcoming segregation: Marseille & Genova The moved out shipping activities of old port gave the great opportunity to reveal the waterfront of where the city began. However, the previous industrial facilities left the urban segregation issue to be overcome. The abandoned piers and warehouses were surrounded by industrial properties which were also abandoned by maritime-related business, and the waterfront provided space where the construction of railroads and highways found the path of least resistance, cutting off the center of the city permanently from the water.

As the result, whole port areas are shunned by public and private users and developers of other types of real estate.

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In the European port cities waterfront revitalization, there are good cases which confront the segregation from city center to post-industrial waterfront, taking two of them as examples: 1. In Marseille, the new train station as a trigger of urban transformation, and reconnect the train station and the city center to the multi-functional waterfront.

2. In Genova, established the cultural facilities in the old port, and linked with the public spaces to the city.

Marseille In order to blur the barrier between the port and the city, it took various strategies and phases of redevelopment in Marseille. For one thing, the new train station combined with TGV role as the trigger point of the urban transformation, bringing people from far to Marseille. Then, the revitalization of the port and the waterfront to be a mixed-use district, including

museums, conference hall, offices, commercial facilities, and so on, in order to bring citizen activities back to the waterfront. Between the train station and the waterfront, there are several routes for pedestrian to access, so as to overcome the segregation between the city and the port area.

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1. Urban transformation key projects.

Source: GPMM -Grand Port Maritimes de Marseille 2. New port and mixed use building development.

Source: GPMM -Grand Port Maritimes de Marseille 3. Waterfront public space.

Source: GPMM -Grand Port Maritimes de Marseille 4. Sections of waterfront.

Source: GPMM -Grand Port Maritimes de Marseille 4

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Genova: Regards to the topography of Genova, there was only few hinterland along the waterfront, which affected the port and serviced infrastructure were constructed in the linear structure along the coastline. The linear space bordered the port and the city.

When the port service moved out to the new port, what remained in the old port area was the warehouses

and the service infrastructure, no public activities, no attractions. In order to revitalize the abandoned old port, the master plan aims to contribute a new pattern of development in the city and give a new cultural image of the old port district. With the establishment of museums, aquarium, zoo, and open public spaces, the old port became the new hub of public activities, attracting people from the city center.

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1. interventions of the old port Source: www.rpbw.com 2. waterfront dynamism Source: www.rpbw.com 68

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Smart infrastructure: Barcelona Along with the shipping operation, main serviced infrastructure for goods developed surrounding the bay area, including railways, motorways and also docks.

As the abandoned ports need to be transformed, the old streets and utilities along the waterfront are likely obsolete or inadequate, and the bulkhead or seawall along the water’s edge probably needs to be rebuilt or rethought the relationship between water and land.

Because of the overall image of abandonment and obsolescence, an old port is liable to be perceived as

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a community’s back door, which tends to discourage any new users and investors from tackling the difficult and costly job of development or redevelopment of port properties. Therefore, the integrity of infrastructure network should be reconsidered. In order to restructure the back side of the city, and reverse it as the new centrality with great accessibility to the waterfront.

And here we take Barcelona as the example, the way it created the mutual benefit from motor mobilities and pedestrian activities by changing landscape.

Barcelona: In historical development, Barcelona expanded inland, never taking advantage of its waterfront potential. The port began expanded westwards and the construction of the railway along the coast in the nineteenth century attracted industry, cutting the city off from the water.

In order to overcome the heavy traffic and the divided gap, several interventions linked together as part of the ambitious overall vision of recovering the city’s access to the sea.

The fundamental issues of the rehabilitation were the combination of traffic control and the enhancement of prime public space. The pedestrian accessed to the old timber wharf and gave the space a two level section, confining through and underground car-parking to the lower level, and allowing pedestrian access from the historic city to the port. The new layer of landscape sewed the cutting gap and the continuity of the journey made the public activities toward the waterfront.

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1. The Coastal Ring Road 1950-1960.

Source: http://www.passioperbarcelona.blogspot. com/ 2. Layers of infrastructure. source: Milan Sijakovic (master thesis)“Between the city and sea: urban waterfront regeneration”.

3. The new system of access was based on the construction of the Coastal Ring Road, drawn with the integrated section of urban traffic and public space. source: Milan Sijakovic (master thesis)“Between the city and sea: urban waterfront regeneration”.

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V. Scenario

Scenario exploration In continuation of the '3x3x3' layering method, our project explored scenarios of urban development, in order to try to appropriate and understand the external conditions that would define the future of the city and harbour and to internalise these into our design vision.

We started by inventoring the potential driving forces for change in the city and harbour area and we selected by a points system four main factors:

1

1. THE SHIFTING PORT. Moving all large commercial port operations to Mariel 40 km west of Havana is a major disruption in the functioning of the bay. It brings advantages - lower pollution, more available space and opportunity for exciting new functions and uses of the water; as well as disadvantages like the move and loss of jobs, a lack of identity to all communities depending currently on the port activites and a large amount of brownfields.

2. CLIMATE CHANGE. Rising sea levels and increase in rainfall will worsen the conditions of building and living next to the water. Extra pressure will be put on existing riverbeds and streams and the lack of natural retention areas will be felt by more frequent floods in urbanised areas.

3. OPENING TO THE WORLD. An open Cuba can mean opportunity, foreign investment, tourism, dialogue, free exchange of goods and ideas. However, it can also create a strain on the natural system, on public services and roads, closure of industries and opening of new ones, inequality, population displacement and informal urbanisation.

4. NEW GOVERNANCE MODELS. The opening of Cuba has already and will continue to open the interest of locals for more involvement in public decisions and more cooperation on local and global scale.

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1. Globalisation scenario study 2. Housing in the bay scenario study 3. Re-balancing environment and moblity scenario study 4. Urban development: radial scenario 5. Urban development: compact scenario

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We studied two alternative scenario systems: one defined by the function of the bay area; and later one defined by two main external forces: socio-economic condition and climate change. The first allowed us to learn that the bay could and should not be the place of a single function - be that globalised tourism and business, housing, or green public space, but rather a mix of these and other activities and land occupation types.

We also interogated how would these scenarios integrate in the tendencies at the metropolitan scale:

Will they encourage a more compact or sprawled urbanisation? Is densification around the bay desirable when we take congestion and environmental hazards into account? How would the coastline and the hinterland be affected? Is there a chance to shift urban development of Havana from the west to the bay and the east? What will be the meaning of public and private space? And finally, what would be the urban structure strong enough to repair the errors in the city's development and in the same time flexible enough to allow for future uncertainties?

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6. Driving forces: shifting port 7. Driving forces: climate change 8. Driving forces: global opening 9. Driving forces: new governance model

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Scenario 1: collective socio-economical conditions and extreme climate change

Scenario 3: collective socio-economical conditions and mild climate change

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Scenario 2: liberal socio-economical conditions and extreme climate change

Scenario 4: liberal socio-economical conditions and mild climate change

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Structure map developed through scenario exploration The development of the four study scenarios was based on two main conditional axes: the socio-sconomic ranging from the current collectivist approach to a more liberal, individual society; and the climate axis ranging from the regular present hazards to extreme climate change with sea level rise, heavy rainfalls alternated with long draughts.

SCENARIO 1. How will the collective answer to extreme climate change? It will probablt entail: large scale flood protection, strictly regulated investment, public infrastructure, regulation of existing housing use, and heritage preservation.

SCENARIO 2. How would the liberal society answer to the same issues? The waterfront and coastline will probably be in more private or community

management, with small scale local flood protection.

Economic investment will probably reorient to industry in the higher and safer parts of the city which are close to the airport, existing highways and Mariel port.

SCENARIO 3. In mild climate change, the collective response will probably be focused around public transportation, more regulated private investment, social housing and smaller scale, informal tourism.

SCENARIO 4. In low climate change and liberalism, the cityscape will be dominated by booming tourism on the waterfront. Industry and housing will expand the city boundaries considerably. Gentrification and migration from rural areas will dislocate large sections of population from the city center, with potential informal settlements around the city.

1. Scenario 1: collective socio-economical conditions and extreme climate change 2. Scenario 2: liberal socio-economical conditions and extreme climate change 3. Scenario 3: collective socio-economical conditions and mild climate change 4. Scenario 4: liberal socio-economical conditions and mild climate change 5. Urban structure map

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VI. Fieldwork

Fieldwork investigation of the real Havana The investigation in Havana was done within range of three to four days to explore as much as possible the current condition of Havana.

The fieldwork task was divided into four groups consist of three to five persons. Each group composed by EMU students and students from CUJAE. Four main areas were proposed: MaleconHavana Vieja, Atares bay, Regla and Casablanca. Each observer mapped the route and made sketch of spatial quality within the area they explored. Havana fieldwork atlas were provided as a tool to help this exploration.

This atlas consists of map of Havana with smaller scale for each area and important spot or point need to be observed during the fieldwork.

CASABLANCA HAVANA VIEJA

REGLA ATARES

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VI. Fieldwork

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The extensive 10 days fieldwork period was structured mainly in four parts. The lecture series, site visits, design workshops and finally the presentation. The whole fieldwork was structured to understand and verify the desk analysis done before to comprehend the spatial qualities of different locations as well as the urban morphological character, landscape qualities and the infrastructure connections of Havana. The desk analysis leads to identify the crucial locations to be visited and understood to formulate the proposals of the different layers.

and orientation that later were used as reference of the design process. To understand the cultural and economic trend in the changing context of Havana, the lectures were structured to address the critical issues to be addressed later on in the design process.

The regional scale analysis aided with the understanding of the overall connection of Havana in a greater scale which was further narrowed down later during the field work to see the nuances and the qualities of different locations of Havana.

Finally the presentation summed up the findings and the whole analysis and provided us with a base structure to further chose the individual site locations and carry on the design process.

The design workshop done in collaboration with the local students was mainly based on the analysis done during the field study that helped adding a local perspective especially by the participation of the local students.

1. Havana fieldwork atlas 2. Sample page of Havana field atlas, showing fieldwork visiting plans.

3. Overview map 4. Malecon 5. Atares

The lecture series provided additional information conducted by specialists from different expertise

6. Regla 7. Casablanca 8. Fieldwork photos

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Site Investigation: Malacon + old harbour area The Malecon being one of the major public spaces for the local people of Havana not only works as a successful public space appropriated by the people but also creates the image of the city. The condition observed during the fieldwork or the first hand experience was rather interesting and surprising at the same time because it unfolds an interesting story of the trend of economic development going on in current Havana. The Malecon close to the Vieja area gets the treatment of regeneration with active spaces like the bier fabric or the art market whereas the Malecon close to the centro area is somewhat neglected in comparison with the Vieja area as it only works as the protection from the sea when continuing towards the west. The picture at night however is interesting since the image of the malecon changes as sun goes out and the whole city gather around the malecon with vibrant activities turning the seawall into the center of night life.

1. Present condition of Malecon 2. Site analysis sections during fieldwork 3. Regenaration of specific locations on the Malecon

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Site Investigation: Atares area Atares harbour is located in the south part of Havana Vieja. This area is formerly well known as ship and vessel repairing harbour. Besides, this area also become a place where Castillo de Atares is located and becomes the highest point of Atares where people can have beautiful panoramic view toward Atares harbour.

in this area), Tallapiedra power plant and Christina Train station which in the progress of transformation into museum. These important building have an iconic architecture design that add more identity and value for this area.

Several former important building in this area still showing its existence even though not in good condition such as Cuatro Caminos Market (the biggest market 1

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However, this area is mainly constructed by industrial building and heavy traffic that cause segregation between the neighborhood and waterfront area.

Moreover, industrial activity gives negative impact to environment: air, water and land pollution.

During the fieldwork, the contrast between this area and Havana Vieja was obviously shown. The activity in Havana Vieja was more vibrant compared to Atares. Public spaces were left vacant, there was not enough shading along the road that gave bad experience for pedestrian, minimum amount of green spaces and industrial activity that contribute to the higher urban heat effect, elevated railway and double level of traffic line gave extra challenges for this area.

Based on this experience, it is clearly shown that all of the problems in this area lead to the issue of segregation both in regional scale and local scale.

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Another challenges in this area is the lack of maintenance of existing metropolitan green area such as the greenery around Castillo de Atares and along Luyano river. In fact, these areas have strong potential to be developed as water retention area.

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Nevertheless, some greeneries in this area has a benefit as productive green space. One of the example is urban agriculture that serve local needs of herbs, fruits, vegetable, etc. In current condition, there is a strong demand of urban agriculture product in this area compared to the production itself, means that in the future this can be seen as potential to be enhanced.

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1. View of Atares Bay 2. Christina Train Station 3. Castillo de Atares 4. Elevated Railway 5. Tallapiedra Powerplant 6. Tallapiedra Powerplant 7. Informality around Castillo de Atares 8. Industrial Barrier 9. Polluted Water 10. Vacant Public Space 11. Urban Agriculture 12

12. Green Area along Luyano River

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Site Investigation: Regla

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The municipality of Regla was officially founded in 1687. The development of the town is deeply influenced by the African culture, therefore the AfroChristan Church (Photo 1) has become the symbol of the area, with thousands of people coming in the annual celebration. Except for the church, during the fieldwork we discovered several landmarks in the area, including the abandoned powerplant (Photo 2), the old ferry landing stage, the central park, the cementary and the big warehouses in the industrial areas. Street Marti that connects several of the landmarks has become the most active axis in town, with restaurants, cafes and theatres all located aligned. However, we

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also discovered that there is only one access point to waterfront (Photo 6), and people use the access to go fishing, while the rest of the waterfront areas are all fenced in the industrial zones. Heavy industries started to be installed near the waterfront of Regla in the 20th century, including oil company, wheat mill, maritime facilities, etc. These industries have formed a strong spatial barrier around the edge of Regla. Nevertheless, the industrial development has written an important page in the history of the town, and the facilities such as warehouses, cranes and old railways have become part of the local identity and image of the town.

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No doubt the industries have also created huge environmental impact in Regla. Water pollution, air pollution and soil pollution have drastically degraded the local living quality. On one hand, the household waste has been dumped into the river, the bay, or accummulated in some abandoned green areas. (Photo 7) On the other hand, the Nico Lopez oil refinery has made Regla the area with the most polluted air (Photo 8), which formed high chances of getting respiratory diseases for the local residents. Therefore the environmental pollution is an issue which is necessary to be tackled in the future. Another environmental issue relates to the climate. Some neighbourhoods suffer from flooding during the rain season, especially the slum near the river. Therefore staircases were built up to elavate the living space.

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In general, the neighbourhoods in Regla are composed of different types of architecture depending on the time of construction, however most are lack of maintenance.

The famous “microbrigades“ (the collective housing) were also implemented here next to the powerplant, but the area is unavailable to visit. On the street near the microbrigades, some housing area were found with an extra entrance or tiny access, sometimes with a metal gate, which has the potential to be developed as new access to waterfront in the future. In addition, some informal settlement were found in several places, including near the monument Colina Lenin and on the hills near the cementary.

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1. Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de Regla 2. Old railway track on the street 3. Old electricity power plant 4. Entrance to housing area 5. Parque Guaicanamar 6. The waterfront 7. Barrier and abandoned green area 8

8. The view from hill in Regla

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Site Investigation: Casablanca Casablanca is a suburb of Havana, located at the east of the entrance canal and opposite of Ηavana Vieja, just across the bay. It is part of the municipality of Regla but it has its own character and role on the bay. There is historical evidence that Casablanca existed already since 1762 and within a century it had more than 1,000 inhabitants living mainly out of fishing, navigating and sailing and ship repairing in the numerous carpenter workshops.

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The informal way of the settlement’s formation is reflected on its current structure and the buildings and infrastructure’s condition. The waterfront is blocked by industrial and military facilities (1,2) while the public space

is not only limited and downgraded but quite frequently self-organized by the residents. One representative example is the botanic garden or else La Finca el Rincon del Cristo (6,7) is a 10 years project carried out by one man and a couple of workers.

During our fieldwork, we walked from el Morro fortress and through the natural green strip to Casablanca train station (3)and into the neighborhood (4, 8). From the one side, a breathtaking scenery with panoramic views all around the bay and at the other, a lively village despite the obvious social disparities, the poor living conditions and the spatial segregation.

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1. Industrial facilities,often unused or underused, block the access to the waterfront.

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2. Military facilities occupy the biggest part of Casabanca waterfront.

Nevertheless, the visual barrier is sort of overpassed from the higher points of the neighborhood.

3. The train station of Casablanca, recently renovated by the artistic intervention of Daniel Buren in the context of the 12th Havana Biennalle. In combination with the ferry stop next to it (not visible in the photo) comprise an important transportation centrality.

4. The street and the space between the households often become the communal space, the place for collective activities due to the overall lack of public spaces, 5. Public space on the main axis. Its configuration follows the gradient.

6. The man responsible for the botanic garden was more than happy to guide us around and exlpain his project and vision. A perfect representative of Cuban spirit!

7. Resting area in the botanic garden; tha facilities are basic but still enough to host a small group of people and more than impressive given the circumstances.

8. View of a street in Cacablanca. The series of houses is lost into the horizon; long urban blocks are characteristic of the place.

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9. View of the hill of Casablanca from the ferry. Only the beginning of the settlement is visible but the fortresses stand out as indisputable landmarks.

This is also the only part of the bay where the natural green reaches the coastline.

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Workshop analyses: Landscape 4

1. The contour of Havana bay 2. Typologies of green 3. Green connection and view points 4. Section of Casablanca 5. The structure of landscape in Havana 6. Photo while working 7. Photo while working

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Upon completion of a week of fieldwork and visits around Havana bay, we gathered the material along with our personal impressions from the various sites and we reconstructed them under the perspective of the three methodological layers. In the landscape we recognized three main typologies of green which follow the character of urbanization: planned green spaces, unplanned (natural/wild) green and urban agriculture. Starting from the historical centre and moving counterclockwise, we first find green pockets and specifically defined urban parks as precious green pockets in the dense urban fabric. Then, as the urban tissue becomes more rural and disperse, the green fills in the gaps between urban and industrial areas.

Arriving at the oil refinery, natural green finds passage

to the shore through the marshland, Casablanca and the edge of the bay. At the same time, green areas are structured as collective or individual spaces for urban agriculture.

In spite of the diverse characters and the compartmentalization of green spaces, there is potential to connect them and form a system based on the existing configurations. In that way, the various green spaces can function as a network of metropolitan scale addressing multiple issues such as the quality of living, the region’s microclimate, the flooding and water management as well as the enhancement of spatial qualities like the view corridors and the experience of the landscape.

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Workshop analyses: Infrastructure The fieldwork experience has clarified many facts about the status of infrastructure in Havana. First, the different characters of the three sides of the bay are influenced by the types of road and rail networks present. The dense urban grid of the city center rhytmically cut through by a set of larger directing boulevards defines the public and semi-public life of the inner neighbourhoods and creates the potential for vibrant activity. The large infrastructures south of the bay, reminiscent of the industrial mayhem of the early 20th century, divide inhabited areas, ecosystems, industrial brownfields and delimitate the waterfront swiftly from the rest of the city. On the eastern side on the other hand, the large roads curving along the landscape contours through lush greenery, designed

1. Malecon Source: by authors

during the 1950s for a typical North American style of suburban living, are now underused and sometimes even creatively refunctionalised by local communities into markets, playgrounds etc.

The three areas of the city as defined by infrastructure ask for specific solutions tailored to their needs: the Malecon and city center could use wave protection and more greenery and shades; the disused railways and roads could be refunctionalised to empower local creativity and entrepreneurship; and the east could be upgraded by using the existing roads and railways in innovative ways, enabling better mobility and safety.

2. Atares elevated railroad Source: by authors 3. Casablanca infrastructure Source: by authors 4. Infrastructure concept plan 5. Water-land contact typologies and Atares pedestrian bridge study 6. Malecon intervention proposal 7. Atares intervention proposal 8. Casablanca intervention proposal 9. Diagramatic sketch of infrastructural landscapes structure

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Landscapedominant types Casablanca 5

Malecón

Havana Vieja Centro Habana

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Touching of water

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Industrial area-residing neighborhoods scale differentiation

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Industrial area-neighborhood differentiation

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Low-rise neighborhoods & small manufactures

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Landscape dominant housings and use of space

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Identifying border elements and propose interventions that can transform borders into interfaces, enhance integration as well as maintain diversity of morphologies. An example site can be found in Atarès area.

refinery

Regla

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Guanabacoa

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Continuous urban fabric

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Suburban typologies (villages, industrials..)

Workshop analyses: Urban morphology The urban morphology of the metropolitan area of Havana can be roughly categorized into three types: 1) the continuous urban fabrics at the historical centre and the 19th to 20th Century expanded areas including Centro Habana and Vedado; 2) the suburban typologies such as village-type houses, fragmented land-use caused by industries, or unconnected neighborhoods segregated by infrastructures at Atarès, Regla, and Guanabacoa areas; 3) the landscape-dominant types such as informal houses built along contour lines mainly seen in Casablanca area.

Urban elements accumulated through historical patterns set the borders between different morphological patches. The most significant is the transportation infrastructures such as railway and motorway that caused serious inaccessibility from the inner city to waterfront. Landform or interface between different land-uses also act as differentiation elements between different morphologies. The wide verity of urban morphologies in Havana metropolitan, on the other hand, provide diversity for different areas of the city, which is something worth maintaining and emphasizing, in order to enhance the vitality of the urban environment. The landmarks at different areas further strengthen the diversity, and help building stronger place identities for different sites.

Through sketches, notes, and mappings, we were able to identify the “border elements” between different morphological patches, and indicate the landmarks as well as space characteristics for different sites. Our goal here is to maintain the diversity of urban morphology, but decrease segregation which might lead to isolation 88

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of certain groups of people. To conclude, we suggest to propose intervention projects which can transform the borders into interfaces, such as a partial remaining of port industries instead of a complete moving away and installing of new functions, so as to achieve a better balance between diversity and cohesion.

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VII. Concept

City and water: the bay as an amphitheater of spatial qualities Havana is divided, the bay separate its pieces. While driving in the city, we had to use name, to locate ourself in the city. That’s how we’ve realized that we were unable to name the territory after the actual station, and that the few existing names were not really well known by the Cuban. If, exept the capitolio, the station, the hotel nacional or the monument Josè Marti at the plaza de la revolucion are importante landmark for the city, the skyline of it is quite chaotic. Many element challenge each other and disappear in that ensemble.

A lot of names are accumulated in the historical city, Havana centro or Vedado, the south seems awefully empty. Maybe an aspect of the urban reality of Havana.

However, the industrial port has built, with its activities, a specific landscape, in a way much clearer than the skyline of the old city. The landmark, vertical or

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horizontal, rhythm our view and help us to identify the neighborhood they are related too. The cheminey of the refinery or the crane of Atarès or Regla are as strong as the Christo in the bay. Their scale mark and you enjoy taking time counting the crane, contemplating the ballet of the container boat as if they were sculpture in the middle of the bay.

The bay This division the industrial landscape has produced is not only a question of landmark. We can observe it in many different layers.

First, the road infrastructure of the old city seems to me a quite clear isotropic grid of large avenue. It emphasized the continuity of the urban fabric beyond the topography of the land. But around the bay, it is another story. The network is much more hierarchical.

Via Bianca, one of the few roads connecting the bay and the east to the center is a major axis that distribute the neighborhood and industrial platform.

Everything connect to it. Arriving in Atarès, the south articulation with the city center marked by a green hill, the accumulation of infrastruture tend to become problematic and has produce one of the most dangerous crossing road of Havana.

Second, the industry are mostly installed in the lowest part of the bay. Often, they reclaimed land and destroyed marshland. They have produce an hardification of the edge with the water, made with quays and piers. The remaining green patch are fragmented and often polluted. The access to the water is limited to just few spot where the waterbus have access.

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The amphitheaters So we’ve proposed a lecture for the bay as a natural amphitheater. More specificly, a sequence of amphitheater organizing different relationship between the edge of the bay.

First, the entrance of the bay is marked by the hard continuous wall of the malecon, emphasized by the old castle, in one side, and the hard cliff, the lighthouse and the forteress in Casablanca’s side. This entrance confront two hard edge in a really dynamic and symbolical way.

Second, the central amphitheater is the core of the bay. The continous homogeneous hard edge of the old city in one side, Casablanca dominated by the Christo seems to be as the garden of the city, Atarès’s industrial quay and crane and Regla’s village in-between industries face each other. The whole diversity of the bay is represented and look at each other, not without curiosity.

The thirds, the cove or inner bay develop those identity of amphitheater. Atarès and the old city face each other. Their two hard edge emphasized their really dynamic confrontation, questioning the idea of heritage. The cove of guanabacao, between Atarès and Regla has in one side a piece of the industrial harbor, with out of scale silo, and in the other, big crane in a small reclaimed platform, but especially a large green area, old dump site. The confrontation between soft edge and hard edge is much calmer and emphasized its role of buffer. The last cove, connecting Casablanca, Regla and the refinery is specific for its alternance of hard and soft, a diversity related to the diversity of its landscape made with cliff, hill, low areas of industries or marshland,... Like a replica of the core amphitheater.

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The intent This lecture lead us directly to the intent of our design.

First of all, it is about connecting. Connecting the green space, cleaning them and developing them. To do so we’ve imagine how the old rail brownfield, which was connecting the whole bassin could play the role of bond, like a green strip circulating, sometime close the water, producing soft edge, or farther, in-between two neighborhood, reconnecting the industrial areas to its inner land. It cross, cut, reconnect, restore, soften, reuse and produce meaning for the bay identity. It also propose acess to the water and increase the access of the waterbus, which become a central integrated public transportation system.

Second, a larger work in the city, in the main axis of the city, would improve the green cover and connection between green patch and green corridor.

Finally, the proposed shift of the station toward the south, along via Bianca is an occasion to release the front of the fortress of Atarès from infrastructure and restore a direct relationship with the water. A new connection between Atarès and the old city center, in continuity of the historical fortification wall street, strenghten the dynamism of the two hard edge site, and propose a new development of the city toward the south-east.

What we proposed is to make the rhythm of hard and soft edge, the leader aspect of the development of the bay, connecting and emphasizing its diversity, sometime in a dynamic way, sometime is a more calm way. It describes also features of the future neighborhood.

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VIII. Individual Projects

01 Rediscovering Havana - A water sensitive city through a multi-functional Green-Blue Grid

by Rebeca Rabello

02 Reanimating the waterfront - A return to the past

by Sanjana Ahmed

03 Heritage Park - The revitalization of the adventurous landscape of Atares creek

by Iulia Sirbu

04 Atares intervention - Enhancing connection between inner city and waterfront are of Atares

by Fecianti

05 Frame, Breach & Balcony - Between industrial identity and new centrality

by Antoine Canazzi

06 Landscape Rehabilitation - The Transition of the post-industrial and landfill area, from

by Huang, Yu-han

brownfield to greenfield; from forbidden to accessible

07 Re(gl)activaciรณn - Regeneration of brownfield in Regla

by Lin, Wei-yun

08 Urban Energy Park - Shifting energy. Reconnecting the city

by Vincent Babes

09 Sinuous Horizon - A framework of informality and vitality

by Chen, Yun-shih

10 Experiencing the edge - An alternative route to the history and landscape of Havana

by Magdalini Papadam

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Rediscovering Havana A water sensitive city through a multi-functional Green-Blue Grid Cuba is currently facing a unique scenario that impacts the country as a whole. The reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the US, as well as the possible dissolution of the 1960's embargo may result in deep changes regarding the geo-politics of the Caribbean - South America region and the role of Cuba (and Havana) on the global context.

Due to Havana’s leading role - as the capital and main city of the country - many transformations and impacts of this economic opening are already seen in the city. Havana is coping with growing pressure on its existing infrastructure as demands on tourism, new businesses and housing stock increase. Additionally, a substantial amount of vacant land around the bay area will make itself available as the old port shifts its activities westward to the municipality of Mariel.

1. Intervention area 2. The city of Havana Source: Jovaisa, M. (2015) Unseen Cuba. La Habana.com - Cuba’s digital destination, 8-19 Available from:http://www.lahabana.com/ [Accessed July 2016]

3. Western Havana - The natural landscape 4. Waterfront character & potential 5. Street life in Havana Source: Author’s personal archive

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Despite the city’s richness in diversity, natural landscape, architecture, culture and social life; Havana faces serious challenges on urban, ecological and social spheres. In the context of climate change, economic opening, intense influx of foreign investment, as well as booming demographic and touristic rates, Havana will soon be confronted with an intensification of its current challenges and the emergence of new socio-environmental threats. Issues such as gentrification, privatization of public goods and decreasing quality of social services are possible hazards on Havana’s future.

The current scenario, however, also presents an outlook for the city to re-establish its relationship to the waterfront, reframe the role of the bay in the city and promote inclusiveness and opportunities for the city’s eastern and southern municipalities.

Within this context, a comprehensive strategy plan for Havana must be developed, in order to guide its further development.

The present design proposes, through a GreenBlue Infrastructure approach, optimum urban interventions tackling Havana’s challenges and possible future threats, while enhancing the city’s numerous qualities. Based on the understanding a n d r e - r e a d i n g o f t h e c i t y ’s l a n d s c a p e , infrastructure and social realms, an integrated proposal was put forward, englobing water management, public transportation systems and a new network of public spaces.

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Urban Context - Qualities & Challenges The natural landscape of Havana provides the city with a rich diversity of ambiences and water configurations. It also has a determinant role in framing different urban patterns around the bay, ranging from the densely urbanized landscape of Old Havana, Centro Havana and Cerro, to the village like character of Regla and the natural park configuration of Casa Blanca.

The city as whole becomes, then, an experience narrated by its different landscapes and the interplay between them.

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The geological formation of the landscape delimitates two important ridges on the western part of the city. One ridge ranges from Old Havana to El Vedado, with an east-west direction, while the second ridge ranges from El Vedado to Cerro, with a north-south orientation. The terrain from upstream to downstream vary from rolling to hilly grounds and these variations are reflected directly on the sinuous skyline of the city, enabling an enticing and instigating urban experience.

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The combination of natural resources, singular scapes and an affluent historical background confer Havana an intense cultural wealth. The city is a melting pot for creative innovation.

This character is expressed in and fostered by Havana’s urban form and social appropriation of the city by its locals. One remarkable trace of this appropriation is the role of the mobility network in the everyday life of the habaneros. There is an entrenched ‘street culture’ in Havana, in which the streets are perceived as “outdoor lounges” for social encounter and leisure. This unique trace is as important as the city’s architectonic monuments and natural landscapes.

However, as the city expanded, the ridges became virtual separation axes between the north and south parts of the city. The north, also known as the blue strip, contains a high concentration of monuments, touristic attractions, businesses and job opportunities. The south, on the other hand, is densely urbanized, with few public spaces and a lack of incentives towards tourism and other entrepreneurial activities.

Also derived from and complementary to the landscape richness is the different character of the waterfront. The Malecon's inlet provides a potential place for contemplation, as the estuary of the bay presents the possibility of city life extension, water sports and leisure activities.

6 Fortress & Natural Park

7 Casa Blanca

8 Industrial Zone

9 Regla

10 Western Havana

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Urban Context - Qualities & Challenges Despite its many attractions and qualities, Havana’s faces significant challenges for current and future urban developments. The city currently faces urban, environmental a n d s o c i a l c h a l le n g e s s u c h a s : u r b a n fragmentation and deterioration, flooding, drought, heat island effects and concentration of leisure spaces and job opportunities on the north-west municipalities.

The prospects of tourism increase and real estate boom puts in question Havana’s

mobility infrastructure capacity to host major car fleets and the ability of its existing public transportation network to absorb additional demands.

The current state of both public mobility services and infrastructure indicates a future scenario of intense traffic jams, pollution and infrastructural barriers.

Public transportation services are poor in the city.

Despite the apparent broad coverage of the system, the bad conditions and low frequency of buses make the system inefficient. Additionally, the connections between Havana’s west and east municipalities prioritize private cars, resulting in a fragmentation of the urban tissue and the isolation of many neighborhoods. A considerable part of the public mobility system is complemented by the existing ‘máquinas’, in a system of car sharing that resembles ‘Uber’, however, without the use of internet. Public

transportation represents a key sector for the city’s further development in terms of the quality of the urban space, city & waterfront relation, east & west integration and support to increased tourism and commercial activities.

Additionally to the transportation issue, recurrent flooding episodes and the lack of green and public spaces inside the city reduce the quality of life in the urban environment, threaten the security of Havana’s inhabitants and damage the already sensitive structures of the built fabric.

The lack of greenery and permeable ground, excessive emission of C02 by private cars and industrial facilities result in an intense heat island effect through the whole urban fabric.

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Contamination of the city’s main water bodies puts in jeopardy the supply of potable water and the maintenance of business and industrial activities.

Water management represents, therefore, another key sector to be considered for the city’s further development.

12 | 13| 14 6. Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro Source: Post, Y. (2015) !Impressionante!Fotos aéreas jamás antes vistas de Cuba. Yusnaby Post [Online] Available from:http://yusnaby.com/[Accessed July 2016]

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7. Casa Blanca Source: Moya, M. (2011) Casa Blanca, Instituto de Metereología y el Cristo de Habana [Online] Available from: http://www.panoramio.com/[Accessed July 2016]

8. Industrial zone around the bay Source: Pönniö, S. (2016) Havana oil refinery [Online] Available from: https:// www.flickr.com/[Accessed July 2016]

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9. Regla

Sea flooding

Source: Talavan (2014) Cuba Iglesia de N.S. de Regla, La Habana [Online] Available from: http://www.panoramio.com/[Accessed July 2016]

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Potential Sea flooding Rainfall flooding

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Potential Rainfall flooding

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Urban fragmentation and social segregation can also be identified spatially in the city. Existing public spaces are often concentrated on the north-west parts of city. The south and south-east neighborhoods lack public spaces and attractions, reducing the opportunities for new business and economic activities to flourish. South and southeast neighborhoods, in majority, host less fortunate families. The city’s current public space system aggravates the state of these neighborhoods and the socio-spatial segregation of a marginalized part of Havana’s society. Urban and social cohesion in terms of fair distribution of public spaces and environmental services also represent a key sector for the city’s further development.

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Despite the challenges, Havana’s urban form presents an opportunity to tackle the above mentioned hazards. The city grid respects the landscape contour lines and facilitates the water cycle. Additionally, the scale of the main mobility axes are monumental, allowing space to incorporate solution related to public transportation, flooding, drainage and micro climate betterment.

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Most of the pollution in the bay it is caused by the discharge of domestic waste, untreated sewage and unprocessed industrial waste directly into the bay or in secondary water streams. In addition, the dynamics of external and internal wave movements in the bay, combined to its narrow mouth, lead to a high concentration of pollution inside the estuary.

Landscape elevation

Urban grid

10. Western Havana Source: Jovaisa, M. (2015) Unseen Cuba. La Habana.com - Cuba’s digital destination, 8-19 Available from:http://www.lahabana.com/ [Accessed July 2016]

Monuments Public spaces

Landscape elevation 75

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11. The bay as an amphitheater 12. The streets of Havana Source: IV2K (2014) Streets of Havana - Cuba [Online]Available from: https:// www.flickr.com/ [Accessed July 2016]

Landscape ridge

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13. Existing public transportation

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Source: Vressen, M. (2011) Transportation in Havana goes Backwards. Inván’s File Cabinet [Online] Available from: https://desdelahabanaivan.wordpress. com/[Accessed July 2016]

14. Future threat of traffic boom & congestion Source: UIPI (2016) São Paulo registra record de congestionamento.

Uipi!Notícias Online] Available from: http://uipi.com.br/[Accessed July 2016]

15. Havana’s urban landscape Source: Jovaisa, M. (2015) Unseen Cuba. La Habana.com - Cuba’s digital destination, 8-19 Available from:http://www.lahabana.com/ [Accessed July 2016]

16. Heat island effect Source: Wandl, A. (2016) Department of Urbanism. Delft University of Technology

17. Public spaces- lack of greenery & permeability Source: Author’s personal archive 18. Sea flooding

Furthermore, a great majority of the existing public spaces lack maintenance, greenery and shaded areas. Existing large scale squares are also fragmented from the surrounding urban fabric. These squares are cut through by big infrastructures, making their accessibility more difficult.

Source: Woods,L. (2010) On the Malecón.Lebbeus Woods [Online] Available from: https://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/[Accessed May2016]

19. Flooding Areas 20. Rainfall flooding Source: Jovaisa, M. (2013) Lluvias fuertes e inundaciones en La Habana.

Havana times [Online] Available from:http://www.havanatimes.org/ [Accessed March 2016]

21. Water pollution in the bay Source: Author’s personal archive 22. Urban fragmentation 23. Public space fragmentation Source: Getty images (no date) Fly over ocean and Malecon to Nacional Hotel Havana Cuba over Havana roofs to Malecon. Getty Images [Online] Available from:http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/[Accessed March 2016]

24. Existing urban grid

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Theoratical Framework - The Green-Blue infrastructure approach Due to the design’s broad scope and the a i m fo r m u l t i p le s o c i o - e n v i ro n m e n ta l benefits, the present proposal used as theoretical and planning framework the Green-Blue infrastructure (GI) approach.

GI’s transdisciplinary, multifunctional and inter-scale character makes it an adequate approach for a design in Havana.

Green Infrastructure and Water Sensitive designs emerge as socio-environmental responses to increased climate pressure on urban landscapes coupled with the inability of traditional urban storm-water management systems to cope with these pressures.

Consequently, alternative water management solutions working in synergy with other urban systems and environmental potential services are being looked upon favourably.

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T h e s e s o l u t i o n s a d d re ss sto r m - w a te r management through the perspective of landscape ecology. Therefore, storm-water management is conceived as an above-surface multifunctional integrated infrastructure

that is able to provide multiple services and benefits to urban realms. The understanding of infrastructure in future city developments is, then, redefined and a new paradigm of ‘nature as infrastructure’ is put forward over artificial technology driven solutions.

25

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Green Infrastructure and Water Sensitive Urban design approaches stand as appropriate design frameworks for the development of contemporary cities, for they tackle some of the main challenges faced by urban economies, such as: urban swell, demographic growth, intense land and resource demand, as well as extreme climate dynamics of increased rainfall, flooding and drought. (Bacchin et al., 2014) Green Infrastructure (GI) planning adopts a systems approach to urban green patches.

As a result, an infrastructure of green spaces connected within themselves and integrated to other urban systems is created. The five main design principles of Green Infrastructure planning and design are (see image 25): integration, multifunctionality, connectivity, multi-scale approach and multi-object approach (Hansen & Pauleit, 2014) In order to operationalize GI planning, strengthen its theoretical framework and facilitate the transposition from theory to practice, Hansen & Pauleit (2014) advance

a synthesis of the Green Infrastructure (GI) and Ecosystem Services (ES) theories. The proposed synthesis especially focusses on multifunctionality, performance analysis and socio-ecological interrelations.

A first step in GI and ES planning is to u n d e r s t a n d t h e d i f f e re n c e s b e t w e e n ecosystem functions and services. Ecosystem functions are directly derived from environmental biophysical structures and processes. These functions might present opportunities for human use. When that is the case, these functions give a basis for ecosystem services, which will result in benefits for human life. The human willingness to invest in the services is the direct outcome of a valuation process, which most often includes cost and socio-economicenvironmental analysis. (Ibid.) Image 27 shows the ES cascade model of Haines-Young and Potschin (2010) and the relation between the ecosystems and biodiversity context and the socio-cultural context.

According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) and the Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity studies (2010), ecosystem services can be further classified into four categories.

Green Infrastructure Design & Valuation Multifunctionality and connectivity represent the core elements of GI planning and design.

Multifunctionality in GI means to consider ecological, social and economic functions actively during the planning process, rather than as possible products of design. Multifunctionality, thus, optimizes land use and services provision, by making more efficient use of “limited space”.

(Hansen & Pauleit, (2014).

Multifunctionality has proved to be extremely beneficial, especially in ‘developing’ countries and highly urbanized cities “where the pace of urbanization vastly reduces the availability of natural green areas.” (Bacchin et al., 2014:3) Complementarily, connectivity (physical and functional) ensures multifunctional green patches work as a system. Connectivity is also the means by which ecosystem services and their benefits can be fairly distributed throughout the urban landscape.

The spatial dimension of GI has a direct parallel to the one of ES. GI spatial dimension can be mapped by the region’s ability to provide services and receive benefits. (Hansen & Pauleit, 2014) ES areas are referred to as “service providing”, service benefiting” and “service connecting areas” (Syrbe & Walz, 2012). GI and ES not only correlate to potential sources of ecosystem services in the city, but also to the extent of their impacts on surrounding benefited areas. Based on these pieces of information, GI may indicate how to better interconnect isolated areas to other urban infrastructures and services.

The diagram below presents Hansen & Pauleit (2014) framework for assessing GI multifunctionality. This design considered the following framework as also a possible GI design method, in which the competence of ecosystems are analysed in combination with demand for 28

services and the coverage of benefits. The data is then valuated by considering synergies, trade-offs and stakeholders preferences, among other factors.

As a result, priorities for actions are delineated, giving guidance and focus to the subsequent Green Infrastructure design.

T h e i n te g ra t i o n o f a l l t h e s e fa c to rs i n t h e design process enables GI designs to work as comprehensive infrastructures, with multiple functions and benefits for the urban and natural realms. The holistic socio-environmental approach of GI also allows for multi-scale approaches and effects, as GI is perceived as an integrated system of interlinked individual elements, functioning as a whole. Moreover, the GI approach also highlights social inclusion and transdisciplinarity as basis for design.

The Green-Blue Infrastructure is, therefore, an adequate approach for any urban landscape pressured by climate dynamics, increased demands for resources and land, population growth and social-economic processes characterized by spatial injustice.

Due to the limited space of this paper, the main principals, methods for the system evaluation and applicability for GI and ES were only briefly described. For more information please refer to Rabello, R. The Green-Blue Infrastructure approach to Urban Design: Rediscovering Havana through a multifunctional water sensitive and social inclusive design. The paper was developed for the course Theories on Urban Design as complementary theoratical foundation for the here presented design.

25.Green Infrastructure Principles Source: J Hansen, R., & Pauleit, S. (2014). From multifunctionality to multiple ecosystem services? A conceptual framework for multifunctionality in green infrastructure planning for urban areas. Ambio, 43(4), 517

26. Ecosystem Service classification proposed by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Source: VALMER project (no date). Marine Ecosystem Services. [Online] Available from: http://www.valmer.eu/ecosystem-services/ [Accessed July 2016]

27. Cascade model - Ecosystems and human well-being Source: Hansen, R., & Pauleit, S. (2014). From multifunctionality to multiple ecosystem services? A conceptual framework for multifunctionality in green infrastructure planning for urban areas. Ambio, 43(4), 519

28. Framework for a GI planning methodology and for GI multifunctionality assessment Source: Ibid.

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Design Objectives | Requirements & Principals Considering Havana’s current and possible future economic, political and environmental scenarios, the present design aims to propose alternative strategies that can help the city develop in a flexible and resilience manner, in account of external driving forces that may conduct the country’s further development. Moreover, the design aims to maintain and foster Havana’s singularity in terms of architecture, as well as natural and cultural wealth.

Given the city’s challenges and threats related to water management, social inclusiveness,

urban and life quality and climate change, a multifunctional Green-Blue infrastructure approach framework was adopted as base for the design.

The design focused on the western metropolitan area of Havana, for this is the most densely urbanized area of the city, hosting most of the challenges of flooding, fragmentation and heat island effect.

The design enhances the multi-scale character of urban interventions. On a metropolitan scale, a macro green-blue transportation grid is proposed to one of the city’s catchment area. On a midscale, the design speculates possible configurations of public, water sensitive spaces in one of the subcatchment areas west of the bay. On a micro scale,

the project details focal multifunctional greenblue spaces, referencing to their impact on the use and experience of the urban space on the midi and macro scales.

Based on the presented GI and ES framework for planning, desk analyses on Havana’s natural, urban and social dynamics and in loco fieldwork, a set of design requirements and objectives were set. The design’s main objectives are shown on image 30.

The requirements were divided into ecological, urban and social categories and refer to the main design objectives mentioned above. From the diagram above, it is evident the potential of optimizing design interventions by an integrative approach to the requirements.

29 Macro-scale design area Mid-scale design area

Landscape elevation 75

0

50

Urban fabric Metropolitan green areas Catchment areas Subcatchment areas

31

Design Concept The main concept of the design was to understand the natural landscape of the city; along with it ridges, valleys and natural water flows. In combination, existing public spaces, green areas and highly integrated mobility axes were mapped and overlayed. Along with the analysis of the city presented previously, the main struggling areas of the city were identified; as well as, possible mitigation actions.

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30

The design proposes a Green-blue network, based upon the existing mobility grid, connecting existing and new public spaces. For the proposal of new

public areas, a parameter of 400 meters coverage area was proposed. The main objective is that inhabitants have possible leisure and gathering places through the city within a reachable walking distance. Public spaces should not only host functions needed by local inhabitants in each neighborhood, but also work synergistically with water infiltration and detention.

Based on the profile of the landscape and each street, a system of primary and secondary greenblue axes was proposed.

Primary axes consist of the main private and public transportation routes, along with ridge areas on the upstream. Due to its character, areas located within the primary axes should function as essential infiltration and evaporation fields, reducing the amount of water flowing downstream. Upstream areas function, therefore, as big ‘sponges’ in the city.

Secondary axes consist of auxiliary mobility routes, combined with pedestrian and cycling paths. These axes run parallel to the natural landscape slopes, conveying water runoff downstream. In order to

Macro-scale design area Mid-scale design area

relieve the water pressure on low grounds, the secondary axes combine multifunctional green spaces, infiltrating, reducing and slowing the water runoff. Midstream areas function, therefore, as big ‘barricades’ holding water in the city.

The remaining runoff is then directed downstream, where significant detention and storage areas are located. The proposed network reduces the pressure on the existing grey drainage system in Havana. At same time, it promotes a system of public and green spaces, reducing flood threats and heat island effects. Additionally, it enhances

life quality in the city, the accessibility between urbanized areas and the waterfront and the connectivity between the various neighborhoods located north, west, east and south of Havana.

The main design principles engaged in transforming and uplifting the city’s public spaces and services are shown below. These principles were applied though different scales, on a metropolitan greenblue network and on local street interventions.

32

Landscape elevation 75

0

Primary axes Secondary axes Development axis

Design Principles

INTEGRATE FRAGMENTED PUBLIC SPACES

TRANSFORM EXISTING MOBILITY GRID [PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION & GREEN-BLUE]

UTILIZE VACANT LAND AS COMMUNITY & GREEN-BLUE SPACES

REVITALIZE EXISTING PUBLIC SPACES

ENHANCE GROUND PERMEABILITY IN THE CITY

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The Design - MacroScale In order to understand the flooding issues in the city and propose adequate solutions, a series of studies and calculations were carried out. The first step consisted of understanding the urban landscape, the ridges and valleys, upstream and downstream areas and main catchment areas.

Based on a study of the city's occupation, ground floor materials, existing green patches, rainfall

intensity and main recurrence periods, the peak flow was calculated for each sub catchment area, as well as the surplus water to be dealt with. Data of rainfall intensity and return period were gathered from national hydrology reports.

were done using the Rational Method. The existing drainage system in the city was not considered in the surplus water calculations due the lack of updated information and to the poor maintenance of the drainage system.

For the calculation of peak flow and surplus water, a 209.3mm rainfall in 10 minutes, with a return period of 10 years was considered. The calculations

low

SLOPE >25% 20 - 25%

high

15 - 20% 5 - 10% <5%

SLOPE - RUNOFF RELATION

Parks & Cemetery Side slopes Turf Woodland & Forests

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Industrial Areas, Heavy

34

Paviment & Roofs Rivers Underground rivers Water flow Catchment areas

36

35 29. Intervention Area 30. Design Objectives 31. Design Requirements 32. Design Concept 33. Ground Permeability [Rational Method classification] 34. Terrain Slope [Rational Method classification] 35.Sixty Minute Rainfall Slider for 10 year Return Period Source: Instituto de MeteorologĂ­a. Proyecto 0801.Las grandes precipitaciones y las Precipitacions intensas en cuba:Causas y caracterĂ­sticas

35. Runoff & water surplus calculation [Rational Method]

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Landscape elevation

02

05

04

01

03

06

08

200m Coverage Area 400m Coverage Area Public Spaces & Monuments Parking lot 09

Vacant land

10

Ruins Sections

08

Roads

39

37

Section 01

Section 02

Section 03

Section 04

Section 05

40

Section 06

Section 07

Section 08

Section 09

38 Section 10

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As described previously on the Design's concept, the proposal of a metropolitan green-blue grid derived from the mapping of existing public and green spaces, vacant or poorly used urban areas and suitable mobility infractructure.

Havana's existing public spaces area shown on image 36. A coverage area of 400m was considered for mid and big scale public areas, for their capacity to serve the population. Small or very fragmented public spaces were considered to have a limited coverage area of 200m. This distinction was made in order to avoid mistaken interpretations of how well served by community spaces each neigbourhood of the city is. The map evidenciates the concentration of public spaces and touristic attractions on the

northern part of the city, as well as the urgent demand for leisure spaces and permeable gournds on the the south.

In order to minimize investments and demolishions, a mapping of ruins, vacant lands and underused parking lots was conducted. These areas were prioritazed for the proposal of new public areas.

The significant lack of vacant land towards the south is a reflection of the densely urbanized fabric of this region and the lack of detailed information available.

It is important to highlight that the mapped areas, if not used as public spaces, can be adapted to increase the permeability of the ground and help

decrease issues of flooding and heat island effect.

Image 38 shows the main existing mobility infrastructure axes chosen to host the adaptations for public transportation, green-blue grid, as well as for pedestrian and cyclist paths. These axes were chosen due to their integration within the city transportation network, symbolic character and their dimensional characteristics.

Images 39 and 40 show the profile of the landscape and main mobility axes. The images also show the potential for infiltration or detention of each area.

These characteristics oriented the delimitation of suitable functions for existing and new public space and greenery within the city.

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37. Landscape Sections 38. Landscape Sections 39. Public Spaces

Water

40. Vacant land

Infiltration

41. Mobility Axes

Infiltration & Evaporation

42. MacroScale Design Isometric

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Detention Storage

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MidScale Structure Plan

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Micro-scale Interventions The design is translated in the micro-scale through focal interventions on the existing mobility grid.

Bioswales are proposed to infiltrate and retain water during peak rainfall and to better the quality of the surrounding urban spaces. Cycle and pedestrian lanes are designed along the secondary axes, allowing for a free north-south, east-west commuting. Pedestrian and Cycle core lanes are proposed parallel to the main public transportation routes, as shown on the MidScale Structural Plan.

Along the primary and secondary axes new public spaces were added and existing ones were upgraded, as to allow healthy and pleasant urban experiences.

Important streets with historical and symbolic characters were given special attention in order to maintain their role in the city and highlight their significance.

Prado Avenue The Prado Avenue is an important street of Havana. Its current location primarily hosted the walls of the medieval city. However, as the city expanded westward, the walls were demolished and an important axis connecting the Arsenal to the north waterfront was constructed. Since its construction during the 18th century, the avenue functions not only as a mobility axis, but also as a leisure and meeting point in the city.

In order to reinforce the streetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s character and to solve current flooding issues, bioswales were

43

proposed along the central plot. Additionally, a central water square, with permanent fountains, was proposed.

During peak rainfall, the water square can retain the exceeding water and slowly infiltrate it to the ground. At the same time, the square plays a role in uplifting the existing public space. It provides a cooler micro-climate in the area and enables sensorial leisure experiences in the city.

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45

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Infanta | Padre Varela & Galeano Streets The design proposes linear bioswales on secondary streets, such as Infanta, Padre Varela and Galeano.

The bioswales while function as conveyance and infiltration elements, slowing down and reducing the amount of runoff dorwnstream.

Adjacent to the bioswales, on specific locations, multifunctional public spaces will work as detention spaces. Trees and bushes planted throughout the bioswale will provide shade, as well as, enhance the micro climate and the visual perception of the neighbourhood.

Continuous cycle lanes will enable north-south circulation through the city. Permeable materials on the ground will help infiltrate water and prevent the accumulation of water on the street.

Waterfront access Streets Greenroofs [Infiltration + Evaporation + Water reuse] Bioswale [Infiltration + Evaporation + Conveyance + Shade] Public parks [Leisure + Infiltration + Detention + Evaporation] Exclusive bus lane [Permeable floor + Infiltration] Pedestrian & cycle lanes [Permeable floor + Infiltration]

46

Commerce & services

The Malecon The Malecon is Havana’s main leisure space for local inhabitants. Whether during the day or night, the avenue hosts all types of activities. The infrastructure was built during the 19th century to protect the city from intense sea surges. However, the beautiful views and the lack of waterfront access in the bay, transformed the Malecon in the ‘Outdoor lounge’ of Havana.

Despite its intense use during the night, the Malecon is not intensely used during the day due to the lack of vegetation and shade. Additionally, most of the sidewalks lack maintenance. The current

state of the sidewalks reduces the accessibility of elderly and people with special needs.

The street’s dimension also poses as an obstacle for its leisure potential. In order to access the sidewalks, six car lanes need to be crossed.

However, throughout its whole extension, there are only 3 crossing lanes connecting the city and the waterfront.

Important monuments and squares are positioned parallel to the sidewalks, on the central plots of the avenue. This location configures highly fragmented

public spaces, not accessible and appealing.

I n o rd e r to m a ke t h e m o st o f t h e ex i st i n g infrastructure, the design proposes that the car traffic on the street be downgraded. Large bioswales function as linear parks, providing shade and pleasant areas. On specific locations, traffic reroutes allow previously fragmented squares to be incorporated to the Malecon sidewalk for a continuous experience.

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Micro-scale Interventions

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References

Syngonium angustatum

B Pachystachys lutea

Typha domingensis

A C

Eichhornia

Salvinia auriculata

E

Terminalia catappa

G 49

D

Delonix regia

Tabebuia alba

F Tabebuia roseo-alba

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Conclusions Havana is currently facing a unique scenario of political and economic opening that started in 2011 when Fidel Castro stepped down of the country’s presidency and Raul Castro took over, implementing a set of reforms with socioeconomic outcomes. Due to this opening, new opportunities and challenges are presented to the country and the city of Havana.

The city is coping with growing pressure on its existing infrastructure as demands on tourism and housing stock increase. In 2015, tourism had a boom of 17% and the country received 3.5 million tourists, most of them in Havana .

In addition, a substantial amount of vacant land will make itself available as the old port shifts its activities westward to the new Port of Mariel.

The new vacant land of the Havana Bay, together with speculations on how the social, political and economic opening of the country will affect spatially the city poses the questions of: i) How the development of the city should be managed? ii)

Which sectors should be given priorities? iii) How local identity and urban quality can be maintain in a scenario of touristic boom, foreign investment and land speculation? iv) How can the right of Cubans to the city be preserved and enhanced as pressures of privatization arise? v) How can local identity and culture be preserved and fostered through policies and urban spatial strategies? vi) How can natural wealth and resources be preserved as the country moves towards intensified economic activities, including the productive sector?

Those questions highlight the complexity of any future urban development in the city and the extent of their impacts on social and environmental realms. They also emphasize the need of an interdisciplinary approach for the formulation of a masterplan design with guiding principles and policies that will regulate and characterize the evolution of the city. The importance of such masterplan lies on shielding the needs of the local

population from the interests of foreign speculation and protecting Havana’s rich social and cultural traces from the possible development of generic urban landscapes.

The presented proposal based itself on a new paradigm of ‘nature as infrastructure’ over artificial technology driven solutions. In the specific case of Havana, the Green-Blue Infrastructure approach was used as a means to propose further city developments based on the existing landscape understanding and the re-reading of the Havana’s infrastructures. GI planning enabled the combination of different agendas, including social, urban and ecological requirements in a comprehensive and multifunctional design.

A s re s u l t , a n i n te g ra te d p ro p o s a l w a s p u t forward, englobing water management, public transportation systems and a new network of public spaces.

43. Prado Avenue in the 18th Century Source: Garcia, A. [no date] Alina Garcia-La puerta [Online] Available: http://www. alinagarcialapuerta.com/who-was-la-belle-creole/

44. Prado Avenue Today Source: Author’s archive

45. Prado Avenue Section - Proposal 46. Infanta|Padre Varela & Galeano Street Section - Proposal 47. Malecon - Social Appropriation & Fragmented Publis Spaces Source: Author’s archive

48. Traditional Malecon Section - Proposal 49. Design References A. Bioswales Source: Haussman, B. [2015] Walkable west palm beach [Online] Available from: https://walkablewpb.com/tag/bioswale/

B. Gutters Source: Vadelazos.com [Online] Available from: https://nl.pinterest.com/ pin/505177283179809932/

C. Urban Parks Source: Beczynski, B. [2013] Ecosalon [Online] Available from: http://ecosalon. com/5-beautiful-urban-parks-in-unlikely-places/

D. Urban Parks Source: Slow Ottawa [2015] Twitter [Online] Available from: https://twitter.com/ slowottawa/status/579397449384513536

E. Urban Fountains Source: Trip Advisor [no date] Pinterest [Online] Available from: https:// nl.pinterest.com/pin/558798266236869922/

F. Green Roofs Source: Express-O [2012] NYC Ridden Gem [Online] Available from: http:// diana212m.blogspot.it/2012/04/nyc-hidden-gem.html

G. Permeable Paving Source: Domenech, L. [no date] Landezine [Online] Available from: http://www. landezine.com/index.php/2012/07/passeig-de-st-joan-boulevard-by-loladomenech/

50.Malecon & Integrated Public Spaces Section - Proposal 51. Havana Source: Jovaisa, M. (2015) Unseen Cuba. La Habana.com - Cuba’s digital destination, 8-19 Available from:http://www.lahabana.com/ [Accessed July 2016] .lahabana.com/ [Accessed July 2016]

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Reanimating the waterfront A return to the past

-Sanjana Ahmed

Theoretical Framework THE NEXT MAIN SQUARE The history of the process of urbanization in Havana being a Spanish colonized port city from the early 16th century unleashes a different story of the typo-morphological development of the city. The early 16th century Havana being one of the major port cities of the Caribbean, had a specific character of the city with a clear distinction between the public and the private domain with hierarchical series of public spaces demarking the main collective public squares articulated by major public and private buildings.

The collective daily-life activity would revolve around these squares based on their relationship with the city and the surrounding functionality of the structures, be it a church, public building or port related buildings. Later, in the late 19th century, the first development plan of the whole urban area followed a different modernist approach that reflected mostly the principle of the modern city development methods where buildings are isolated elements in the urban landscape. In the case of Havana, this urban landscape is

mainly composed of intense infrastructural development and residue public spaces. The shift of the direction of urban development necessarily means the disappearance of clearly defined hierarchical public spaces articulated by buildings.

As a result of such urbanization, the collective public space of this time period of the city is the “malecon” or the sea wall itself which was not designed as a public space rather was appropriated by the people of the city as to be their major collective public space. The aim of this paper is to scrutinize the spatial and functional qualities of the existing major public spaces of Havana in light of the key issues or principles of public spaces described in the seminal piece

by Han Mayer, “The composition of the urban ground plan” and discuss about the potential of the site of the main train station to be regenerated as a major collective public space that can work as a contemporary main square that sits right in the transition of the old and the relatively new part of the city.

INTRODUCTION In the context of the changing socio-political scenario of Havana, it is important than ever before to apprehend the qualities of the existing public spaces of the city and determine the trajectory of the character of the public spaces that are to be developed in a post-industrial city. The structure of the city though very much guided by the geomorphological formation of its land in different parts also got its influence from the political agenda of particular rulers. The public spaces or squares built during the colonial period till today trace back their flavor from the typical colonial style of interplay between proportion of built and void where the public spaces are intelligently engineered keeping people in the center, be it a scale of more humane or grand. The transition between the void and the solid or in other words the street facades were also designed keeping the same principle in mind by the use of elements like colonnades, archways etc. Later, the industrialization period brought us humongous expansion of infrastructure which changed this character of public spaces being defined my proportionately designed buildings to monumental scale public spaces defined or surrounded by disproportionately designed highways and railways. The scale in this case does not keep people in the center rather it puts more value to the cars. Havana, being a perfect example of both typologies, having its old industrial area in the port 116 EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016

leaving a huge gap behind, needs to follow cautious approach to determine how the character of the future public spaces are going to be designed. In the words of Edmund N. Bacon in his seminal piece “Design of Cities” (1974), “The basic ingredient of architectural design consists of two elements, mass and space. The essence of design is the interrelation between these two. In our culture the preponderant preoccupation is with mass, and to such an extent that many designers are ‘space blind’.”

If applying this principle to the character of the public spaces that are defined by huge infrastructures, the mass is absent only the space in a disproportionate scale exists to engulf whole attention of people overwhelmingly. Bacon also argues,

“Movement through space creates a continuity of experiences derived from the nature and form of the spaces through which the movement occurs. This gives the key to the concept of a movement system as a dominant organizing force in architectural design.”

Keeping all these forces and factors in mind, it is crucial to determine the future development course that will shape the social life of generations to come.

THE CHARACTER OF THE MAJOR COLLECTIVE PUBLIC SPACES FROM DIFFERENT TIME PERIOD To analyze the character of the existing structure of the public spaces in Havana, it is pertinent to understand what it refer as public domain before and after 19th century. As mentioned in the piece “Composition of the urban groundplan”,

“The significance of churches as centers of public life had already been emphasized in the 16th century in Rome by Pope Sixtus V. He had ordered the construction of a system of straight and wide main streets connecting the most important places of worship with each other. In this way, the flows of pilgrims and tourists, which were already massive, were led through the city in an orderly fashion.”

This clearly emphasizes the structure of the public spaces of that time period revolving around a specific public domain which was predominantly influenced by religious and later trading or governing purposes. Later in the 19th century, with the expansion process of the cities as well as the structuring of the new nation-states, the entire meaning of public domain changed. In the paper, it is also argued that, “Urban design plan served first and foremost to regulate the title to land in areas the maps by Nolli, these town plans are not intended to indicate space that is accessible to the public but rather to show the space that is formally public in a legal sense.”

This shift of the paradigm of ideological changes caused direct spatial changes in the structure of the public spaces in the later period.

In this chapter, the intention is to bring into fore the most vital public spaces of Havana and analyze them according to the principles discussed above in terms of their relationship with the surrounding as well as the relationship of the public and private domain of the these very public spaces, the proportion and typology of the basic components, the relationship between the basic components and the main structure, and the relationship between diversity and coherence which were also the factors emphasized in the paper Composition of the urban ground plan.

PLAZA DE ARMAS The origin of the name came from the word military even though today this is one of the major touristic attractions. Since the late 16th century, major ceremonial events and military activities used to take place in Plaza de armas.

Planemetrically it holds great significance by just the geographical location being situated in the Vieja area which itself is the main driver of economy because of the great influx of tourist concentrated in the surrounding areas. The morphology of the plaza itself is well defined on four sides by government building, museums and historical palaces. The relationship between the public and private domain is rather well defined by having publicly owned privately occupied buildings with restricted access to public defining and surrounding the site leaving the plaza to be used as public space solely. The functional diversity therefore concentrates along the periphery of the plaza having spontaneous activities by vendors and musicians. As Carr, Francis, Rivlin and Stone (1993) claim,

“In a well-designed and well-managed public space, the armor of daily life can be partially removed, allowing us to see others as whole people. Seeing people different from oneself responding to the same setting in similar ways creates a temporary bond”.

In a nutshell, having the dominance of public actors which is led by the government determining the functionality till the very recent days, Plaza de armas till today could retail its character with all its vibrancy in a regulated manner.

PLAZA DE REVOLUTION Plaza de revolution is notable in the history of Cuba because of housing numerous political events and rallies including congregations of more than a million people and leaders like Fidel Castro which adds to the meaning of the plaza. The planemetric structure is very different from that of the ones which are located in the old part of the city. The seat of the Cuban government and communist party, the palace of the revolution, the national library, a lot of ministries and other public buildings are located in and around the plaza making it as an open landscape housing volumes of mass in an arbitrary manner totally different from the ones in the Vieja area which are articulated by buildings. The 109m tall Jose Marti Memorial symbolically representing the pride and glory is also a landmark itself which is very much in line with the scale of the plaza itself. Since completed in the mid-20th century, naturally the plaza has all the elements of industrial exuberance like huge infrastructures meandering in and out of the plaza. The proportional relationship of public and private domain if measured in a singular manner is very much overwhelming whereas this plaza marks its significance in a national level and houses mass of public for a collective voice. As mentioned by Ash Amin in the piece Collective culture and urban public space (2006),

“The history of modernist planning has been an experiment of precisely this sort, with intentions for iconic buildings, monumental art, and massive squares and boulevards, never far from the desire to foster a sense of awe, gratitude, fear or modesty among the people in the face of big urban provisioning. This is a stark example of the use of public space for emblematic compliance. Similarly, mass political, religious and cultural gatherings - fed by the spectacle of numbers, moving speeches, music, imposing architecture - actively rely on the symbolism of the event to generate intense feelings of social solidarity and union. Many a regime has been toppled or propped up by the clamorous solidarities of mass congregation in public space, frequently in ways least expected by the architects of public assembly.”

MALECON The sea wall Malecon essentially built for the protection from sea surge was built during the early 20th century during the temporary rule of the US military. Even though built for a different purpose, the wall is popular among locals mainly of lower economic group with limited access to other leisure activities as a place for night time activities and also among the local fisherman. The morphological qualities of the space revolve around the relationship between the wall and the main artery “Malecon” which is one of the major connector stretching from west to east. Even though defined on one side by the sea and on the other the huge infrastructure, the place as a dominant sculptural piece attracts hundreds of locals and tourists every day. Mainly appropriated by the people, the sea wall is also a major landmark defining the image of the city of Havana.

THE STATION AND THE FORCES OF THE SITE Location: All the analysis of the structure of the public spaces of Havana led to the design of a city scale public space in the location of the station and the terminal of Havana. The challenge of the site lies on the fact that it is located in the intersection point of a very important area which is the Havana Vieja, the most EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016 117

jovial part of the city and the comparatively mundane area of the south where economic development is relatively low. Even though in the American occupation period used mainly as freight and human transportation hub, the station and the terminal these days are not used to its full potential because of the trend of shifting industries in the adjacent port areas.

Geo-morphological importance of the site: The site itself is a point of great importance the early 19th century it used to be the arsenal of the city and later regenerated as the main station of the city. Another imperative aspect is the connectors leading towards the site from the north which is the important boulevard Prado with all its monumentality and mixed uses which in the present condition does not continue till the location but as a huge potential to be infiltrated till the site. The South-eastern part of the site is already under the regeneration process by the government with the emerging concentration of art market and cultural activities. Overall, being located in the Vieja area, the location demands a space that goes in line with the public spaces in the old part of the city fashioned in a contemporary manner.

Proportion: The proportion of the existing site allows it to be regenerated in the context of the post-industrial character of Havana as a city scale public space as an extension of the spontaneous activities in the Malecon as well as upgrade the living conditions of the people living in the surrounding neighborhoods.

THE STRATEGIES FOLLOWED IN THE DESIGN PROCESS The design strategies followed in the regeneration process where mainly focused on creating conditions to connect and relink the missing links of vitalities and allowing the already existing public activities which are there on site to flourish in a greater scale benefitting not only the locals but also creating international interest. Therefore, first strategy, the relocation of the station to the post industrial site allowed developing a new breathing space in the city whereas the new location of the station allowed boosting up the development of the new structure in the post-industrial site. Creating conditions to link the programmatic connections of the Prado until the site allowed the flow of mixed used activities towards the new public space. The concentration of the art market from the east worked as the cultural force in the regeneration process as a normative indicator of the programs to be housed in the old station building which is co-working space for creative local entrepreneurs and contemporary Cuban art museum to attract foreign art buyers. The plaza to be articulated by regulated high-rises was mainly a vision for the future development strategy which is, if investors are interested to build high-rises, this area could be the appropriate location since it does not block the view corridors towards any important monumental landmark buildings of Havana. Most importantly, the de cluttering of the water front allows locals to get the visual and physical connection with the water like old times.

CONCLUSION The regeneration process as suggested to be implementing in phases could add to the socio economic development and play an important role in the overall post-industrial regeneration sites of the bay of Havana. The character of the next public space of Havana is thus projected in line with the character of the public spaces in the Havana Vieja area which are defined public and private domain, space defined by mass. On the other hand, it keeps room for qualities of future development in a contemporary fashion allowing Cuban culture to flourish and combat inward acculturation to a certain level in the far future to retain the authenticity of the urban character.

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REFERENCE Bacon, Edmund N. Design of cities. London: Thames and Hudson, 1974.

Aerts, Ferry. Architectural design and composition. Eds. Clemens Steenbergen, Henk Mihl, and Wouter Reh. Thoth, 2002.

Klaasen, Ina T. “Focussing on the Use Value-The Relevance of Urban and Regional Design for Society.” Nordes 1 (2009).

Stephen, Carr, et al. “Public Space.” (1993).

Amin, Ash. “Collective culture and urban public space.” City 12.1 (2008): 5-24.

Heurkens, E. W. T. M. “Changing public and private roles in urban area development in the Netherlands.” The NEW Urban Question: Urbanism Beyond Neo-Liberalism (2009): 345-355.

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by Sanjana Ahmed

Reanimating the waterfront A return to the past The current train station being geographically located in a very important area of Havana Vieja traces back its history from the early 19th century from being the arsenal of the colonized city to the mid-20th century reconstruction of infrastructure hub. The area witnessed a somewhat isolated development regardless of the agenda of different time periods. In the context of the shifting character of the industrial port, the freight rail connections previously used are getting obsolete each passing day. The location though houses rich array of colonial buildings as well as the trace of the old fortification itself. The major important building, the station, the structure provided by the tracks, the emerging centrality of the art market right in the eastern part of the site is the drivers of the project to further think of this site as a combination of different qualitative spaces that would attract foreign investors as well as encourage the local entrepreneurs to function in the same place. As a whole, the

area offers the potential to be regenerated as a collective space of city scale that would address the imbalanced development of the northern and southern part of the city since it is located somewhat in a junction point of these two.

The spatial character of the collective public space of the 21st century as visualized in a post-industrial context would be complementing the character of the adjacent public plazas from the colonized period by providing uninterrupted spaces for activities, free from motorized vehicular to circulate in the periphery, pedestrian and non-motorized vehicle friendly, defined by proportionately regulated high-rise development with mixed used development and a direct physical and visual connection to the water to bring back the old character of the city.

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1. Location of the project: Train station Havana 2. Map of site with the connections 3. The existing elements surrounding the site 4. Painting showing the narrative quality of the landscape of Casablanca 5. Existing structure of public space 6. Proposed relocation of the station & adding new public space to the structure 7. The existing view of the site 8. Site area as arsenal 9. Sketches of the qualities surrounding the site

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The existing active boulevard, Prado with all its monumental buildings and varied uses starting from the north of the city leading towards the location of the station reveals the potential to infiltrate this character towards the site location and the

relocation of the station to the former industrial site as shown in fig:5 sets the condition of the side being in a junction point of two emerging vital areas one already existing and the other one proposed.

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8 Legend

Most active public spaces Moderately active public spaces

Gradient showing vitality of Public spaces from high to low

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Diagram 9 shows the existing challenges and opportunities of the site to be addressed in the design process.

The opportunity of the vital corridor Prado, the location being at the prime area of the Vieja area are the opportunities.

On the other hand the challenges of having a visually and physically blocked water front by old industrial buildings as well as the under usage of the location itself creates barrier for the overall condition of the site.

Diagram 10 shows the considerations taking into account the challenges and opportunities of the site surroundings, the conditions are created in a way to connect the vital corridor Prado with its programmatic continuation as well as infiltration of the spatial quality towards the site of the former station and the former industrial buildings blocking the waterfront is managed in a way to de clutter the area providing direct access to water. The connection to the new train station allows a whole new dimension to the site.

Legend

Monumental scale mixed used programs

Residential uses

Existing green space

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Fig 11 shows the circulation of the car traffic to allow car free area around the site. The road along the waterfront is structured underground allowing uninterrupted connection to the water.

The public transportation network connecting the location of the new station allows the public bus/tram to run through the site connecting Prado to the 122 EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016

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southern part which is illustrated in fig 12 along with the stoppages.

The pedestrian route connects all the vital nodes of the Vieja area with the new public space allowing pedestrian and bike routes to form a network of public spaces.

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The proposed city scale public space as a combination of local and international interest houses programs to encourage local innovative entrepreneurs as well as creates a niche for international investors to develop in a regulated framework. The urban street blocks around the location is set for developing high rise buildings that would house mixed used programs to complement the activities of Prado. The structure of the old rail tracks form the base for the park and the pedestrian route allowing view corridors as well as water channels perpendicular to the tracks as well as working as the continuation of the secondary streets leading towards the water. The waterfront structures the cars in the underground level clearing the surface level for public programs as an extension of the plaza. The connecting pedestrian, bike and public

transportation bridge connects the former industrial zone of the southern part to the site adding new qualities to the location. The emerging vitality node around the existing art market works as an initiating point to infiltrate the art and culture related activities to flow along the proposed new plaza.

Fig 14 shows the detail of the structure of landscape, infrastructure and urban occupation as a complex system complementing each other along with the additional qualities added to the site. The existing elements marking different time of the history is connected to the proposed spaces in a way to highlight those areas as focal point of the location.

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15. Aerial view of the site showing first phase of development, making the park 16. Aerial view of the site showing second phase of the site development 17. Collage showing view from the bridge looking towards the site

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The collage illustrates the spatial qualities of the proposed public space with the existing important structures and the proposed elements to compliment them. The pavilions in the landscape as sculptural elements almost mimickng the layout of the old arsenal allows street markets and different activities to take place in them as needed.

The old rail tracks going in and out the structures flow the pedestrian to different areas leading them to different point of focus such as the regenerated building of the station, the location of the old fortification, water front etc.

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The former station building is regenerated in a way to keep its aesthatic quality intact while allowing international scale art exhibition and activities to take place.

The location of the old fortification having a great potential to act as a focus point is connected to the whole structure of the area leading the flow of people both from the western and eastern side of the site.

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The collage shows the spatial quality around the elevated part of the park focusing on te connection of the former train tracks to the regenerated former industrial building.

The elevated tracks provide the structure of the walkway allowing trees on top and poviding shading on the surface level for pedestrian network.

The path connects to the location of the main plaza leading flux of people from the western part of the neighborhoods around the site.

The former industrial building is regenerated in a manner to work as a repair workshop of the vintage cars very popular in Havana and allowing locals to have new economic activities as well as attracting visitors to walk around as a living exhibition space for the cars.

Overall, the area provides opportunities for different activities both in terms of economic and social to take place in the same spot which actually compliments the activities or emerging vitalities already generating on the site surrounding.

The idea is to connect the site with the existing vital corridors and nodes already existing around the site and relink the missing links to function in an efficient manner.

As a whole, this is an attemp to link back in a spatial manner by allowing contemporay programs to function in a way to encourage both locals and the tourist based economic activities of Havana today.

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by Iulia Sirbu

Heritage Park Fig. 1

The revitalization of the adventurous landscape of Atares creek The Castle of Atares, located on a higher ground in a former marshland of two streams creeks, is now an obsolete industrial area. A step edge, deeply entrenched waterways and relics of ancient fortifications constitute an adventurous landscape. It is brutally dissected by heavy and diverse infrastructure. Behind the hill, informal settlement arose, and various and chaotic displayed industries took over the place.

The component elements of the area transform it into a complex environment well connected to different

levels of the urban landscape. The scale of the area involved is not big but its area of influence expands much more. All these, according to Lynch favour sets of images, which are overlapped, interrelated and arranged in different series of levels. Considering the fact that the hill constitutes an incredible viewpoint over city, bay and distant natural landscape, it requires thus, the observer moving as necessary from its image at street level to levels of a neighbourhood, city, or metropolitan region.

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

1. Location of the project 2. Occupation layer 3. Mobility network layer 4. Green blue structure layer

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Fig. 5

Local spatial qualities and challenges

6. Arhitectural heritage. Defense castles.

7. Open space pattern. Industrial heritage.

8. Landscape heritage

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City-Landscape

Metropolitan scale

Fig. 11

The landscape helped the city to remain in its position and contributed to its current image giving to its occupation a unique character. A landscape frame that encloses both water and land can especially play an important role in the development process of the city. The survival of city of Havana depended on the operation of the royal fleet for almost two centuries. Due to the fact that Havana was designated as the Key to the New World by the Spanish Crown the security of the land around the bay was of great importance. A formidable defence system was created by building a series of fortifications that gave Havana a monumental urban scale (Birkenmaier & Whitfield, 2011). Fortresses became the interface of the city with the water or the threatening hinterland, and also iconic elements for the citizens which safety depended on.

The city started growing behind or between them as a multicentre city facing the Bay of Havana, its main resource of commercial activity. Nowadays this fact has changed; the bay lost its role as a resource in the city. In order to correct this change, the redevelopment of the bay should be reconsidered. The future transformations should, on one hand, recognize Havanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s monumental urban scale. On the other hand, considering the role fortress played in the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history, the traditional importance of its bay together with its formal elements needs to be reorganized.

Fig. 12

City- Bay At the bay scale, the fortresses lay between water and land. By looking at their position along the bay, it is interesting to observe that they were constructed in relation to both water and land of both sides of the bay. They can be seen as elements that close the loop- settlement, water, land. They help the city to have an overview image on both close and far, less controllable landscape forming simultaneously the image of a settlement. Therefore, a clear image of the landscape, either natural or urban, implies a certain level of control or order that can take over landscape and people, physically and mentally.

11. Low level of heat island effect in the intervention area.

12. Lack of green areas in the continuous urban fabric 13. Main avenues feeding the continuous urban fabric connecting the intervention area

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Looking at the Castle of Atares from the perspective of an element that gives an image upon both landscape and city, it can be considered a structuring element of the urban landscape of Havana bay.

Considering its primary character as the city-landscape mediator, it can support the process of redirecting the development of the Havana bay. And in order to continue its initial mission, the relics of the castle need to regain its image in the citizenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s memory; it has to become part of their experience in the urban environment. According to Kevin

Fig. 13

Fig. 15

Fig. 14

Lynch, this can be possible if the castle becomes part of the mental map of the people if it influences in any way their movement and behavior in the city. Further, a question arises: how can this area be reorganized in order it to be an example for the creation of a sustainable environment that recognizes the historic values and provides for the needs and aspirations of a free modern society(Birkenmaier & Whitfield, 2011)?

A relation between levels of image can help the Castle of Atares to hold a strategic place in the organization of the space in its proximity but also the relationship of the city with the bay. The relics of the castle even though situated at high level impose a burden of organization on the observer. This effect is the consequence, according to Kevin Lynch, of a little relation between levels; the form of the castle is perceivable in the bay-wide panorama yet unrecognizable from its base. This situation opens the challenge of transforming spatially the area so that it pins together the images at two different levels of organization (Lynch, 1960).

Image quality Kevin Lynch argues that images can be further distinguished according to their structural quality: the way in which their parts were arranged and interrelated.

Therefore, in order to understand the relation between the elements that compose the area of Atares, I considered the field trip experience. In the absence of an extensive objective and empirical on-field research, I used my own subjective experience on the site as a research strategy for developing an intervention framework. By considering the elements that create the physical forms which city image is consisted of paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks, I came to understand the qualities and limitations of the space.

The intervention site encompasses various elements such as relics, service infrastructure, informal settlements, warehouses, and abandoned infrastructure which have a fragile structure. The rational movement was almost impossible here without outside help.

Although similar elements were having a positional structure, they were still disconnected. Historical landmarks or industrial heritage were roughly related in terms of distance from each other but no definite or coherent connections between them could be defined.

Considering the flexibility of the structure, Lynch talks about the easy motion between focal points that such a structure generates â&#x20AC;&#x153;since it proceeded along known paths, through known sequencesâ&#x20AC;?. In the case of Atares area, flexibility could be recognized at the mobility level or its connection with the metropolitan scale yet totally lacking for local movement. The pedestrian movement from the focal point of the neigh

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14. Concentration of vulnerable social sectors around the waterfront, plus Atares area 15. Images of shantytown in Atares neighborhood. Source: http://www.ucl. ac.uk/dpu-projects/Global_Report/pdfs/ Havana.pdf 16. Conentration of shantytowns in Havana. Source: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ dpu-projects/Global_Report/pdfs/ Havana.pdf 17. Barcelona reference. Revitalization of vulnerable central neighborhood

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Re-structuring urban landscape

http://www.archdaily.com/775213/interpretation-andwelcome-center-for-visitors-in-la-antigua-ventura-plusllimona

http://www.archdaily.com/256991/fort-werk-aan-t-spoelraaaf-plus-atelier-de-lyon

www.WordPress.com

http://www.thehighline.org/

18. General plan . Re-structuring urban landscape.

On the next page: 19. Spatial challenges in different locations on the intervention site. http://www.westergasfabriek.nl/en/westergasfabriek-en/ park

20. Opening and limitations analysis.

Design development principles.

Fig. 18

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Fig. 19

Fig. 20

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The image of the urban landscape

21. Impression of the site experience 22. Impression image of the landscape restructured key point 23. Impression image of the touching the water type of urban landscape Fig. 21

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bourhood behind the hill of Atares to the other point of interest- the bay remained rigid and complicated. Therefore, this region possesses rigid internal structure but it is connected with other regions in different nodes conferring thus, flexibility at the metropolitan scale.

Through such analysis of the site, I came to understand objectively the way space is shaped and the contradictions which can interfere between scales. Superimposing the structural patterns Lynch enumerates in Atares applied at different scales, key points which need future interventions emerge.

Their urge for transformation can also be differently approached as long as the beneficiaries and their demands are outspoken.

Fig. 22

Once the analysis of the area has been done, principles of urban design can be suggested and tested according to both the demands of the individuals that inhabit the space but also the future threats or opportunities. In Havana, and especially in the harbour area, the spatial interventions need to respond to different questions. What can happen next in a scenario of old industries being pulled away, new business coming in, climate change and unstable political future? How can the area of Atares respond to the dynamics of possible new opportunities for living and landscape?

How can the upcoming unpredictable changes smoothly be led?

By engaging in attempts to organize the space, to structure and identify its components, the Scenic relics can be included in a new continuous park area, the waterfront Park, directly adjacent to the inner city, and the new road plan and the green structure together can form a three-dimensional design. By enhancing the qualities of the space and find solutions to structural interrelation problems, the resulted form should facilitate these organizing efforts rather than frustrating them (Lynch, 1960). In this way, an imaginable landscape takes shape; space will be reshaped into â&#x20AC;&#x153;forms which entrance the eye, which organize themselves from level to level in time and space, which can stand as symbols of urban lifeâ&#x20AC;? (Lynch, 1960).

A new scale Therefore, saving the unique image of the city cannot be a seen as a stratified, ordered process. It is a complicated pattern and part of the whole is the old harbor area. A clear and comprehensive image of the harbor can let it speak of the historical tradition, of the

Fig. 23

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Phase 3. Global connections

Gradual transformation

International Cultural events Visitors Center Workshops and exhibition halls Leisure opportunities Attractive waterfront

Phase 2. Transparency, platform for interaction, local investments Leisure areas Atares castle - panoramic point Pedestrian access in the park route Re-purposing post-industrial legacy Re-planning the area for new developments Demolition and densification New functions

HAVANA TUNNEL

Fig. 25 HAVANA VIEJA

REGLA, CASABLANCA

Phase 1. Awareness Re-structuring landscape and infrastructure Bike paths- leisure Boat terminal

SOUTH HAVANA TRAIN STATION

E-W HAVANA TRANSIT AVENUE

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natural setting; it understands the importance of the landscape in city formation and goes further to understanding complicated functions and movements of the city in relation to the water. Considering the clarity of structure and vividness of identity as main design objectives of the Atares area, the project can provide the first steps to the development of strong symbols and thus “a ground for clustering and organization of these meanings and associations” (Lynch, 1960, p.119). Identity and structure of the small complex system of the intervention area directed towards future synthesis of city form integrates it in the whole pattern of the bay. Havana harbor could thus, be imagined as a unified pattern with different parts flowing from each other which diversity allows individuals to connect more intensely to some parts. The bay area by becoming an organized, continuous and “mentally traversable in any order” (p.115), it actually becomes a whole with the rest of the city.

Plus, by approaching the image of the city new design problems arise. Designing will not have as final objective the physical shape itself but the quality of the image formed in individuals’ minds. Thus, as Lynch affirms “it will be equally useful to improve this image by training the observer, by teaching him to look at the city, to observe its manifold forms and how they mesh with one another.” Education and physical re-shape are component parts of the same process and Havana needs to approach them both in its process of development.

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24. Impression image of the transformation of industrial warehouses with community help 25. Dynamic character of water edge Source: https://www.asla. org/2013studentawards/128.html

Fig. 25

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ATARES-INTERVENTION Enhancing Connection Between Inner City and Waterfront Area of Atares

-Fecianti

Theoretical Framework STREET AND URBAN BLOCK AS COMPONENTS OF URBAN TRANSFORMATION During the past decades, urban transformation has become the issue that influences the development of a city.

Many developing countries are in the phase of fast urban transformation nowadays, resulting different condition that somehow gives positive or negative impact to urban life both for environment and human life. Moreover, urban transformation somehow can be misunderstood. It is showed through current practice of city development which are more focus to urban renewal rather than urban transformation which lead to many urban problems. Related to this, the understanding of urban transformation is needed in order to decrease the negative impact of urban transformation.

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I n t h e co m i n g d e ca d e , H a va n a i s fo rce d to fa ce a transformation that highly possible lead to urban renewal due to the opening of the embargo. Climate change on the other hand, becomes another adding force that contributes to the need of urban transformation.

According to Havanaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s condition, the design intervention has to be derived carefully to avoid bigger problem related to urban transformation. Urban transformation in this case will be seen as an opportunity to increase infrastructure effectiveness, create affordable housing, promote environmental sustainability, enhance local identity, social integration, and offer more economic opportunities and better services to low-income residents.

In this case, the understanding of urban transformation needs to be accommodated. This theoretical framework for Havana intervention will be focused on urban blocks and street as main elements in urban transformation. The information regarding urban transformation will also be related to adaptive and sustainable aspect. This information then will be further elaborated into a theoretical base for Havana design intervention.

INTRODUCTION- ATARES Atares is one of harbour located in the south part of Havana Vieja. This area is well- known as a former ship and vessel repairing harbour and has a strong heritage value where Castillo de Atares, formerly used to house slaves, is located. However, in this area there are several problems caused mainly by industrial activity and infrastructure network.

These two points resulting a huge segregation between neighbourhood and waterfront area (Figure 4)and also create a space for informality (Figure 1) that worsen the condition of this area.

common space for workshop are identified in this area. The former mercado (market) had become a strong point to gather people and along the street toward this market, street is used for selling and negotiating, resulting a very vibrant place for neighbourhood located in this area (Figure 2). However, the market was closed lately and buildings around became vacant even though some of them are still in good condition. The vitality of this area significantly decreased in past ten years (Figure 3).

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On the other hand, the area of Atares has strong value in social and economic aspect. A lot of

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1. Castillo de Atares Source: www.studenthandouts.com 2. Informality Around Castillo de Atares 3. Condition of Arcade of Mercado years before (left) and today (right).

Source:www.havanatimes.org 4. Industrial Barrier 5. Street Culture, Havana Vieja 6. Street Market 7. Empty Public Space, Atares 8. Innercourt, Atares Neighborhood Source: Coyula and Hamburg, Urban Slums Report, 2003

In terms of public space, Havana has a unique characteristic where streets are used not only for mobility and connectivity purposes but also used as a space for culture, social and economic activity (Figure 5&6). However, in Atares neighbourhood, this potential seems not very well developed since most of the streets in this area are not in good condition caused by heavy traffic. The only public space found in the form of inner-court scattered inside neighbourhood (Figure 8) and vacant park on the street (Figure 7).

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transformed to increase the liveability and integrate this area to Havana as the whole. In this case, sooner or later this area will encounter urban transformation and related to this, there are some roles or guidance need to be prepared for this area. Based on this issue, there are two approaches focused to encounter this urban transformation. First is the development of street to address the issue of segregation, second is the development of urban blocks to enhance the potential of economic sector in this area.

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URBAN TRANSFORMATION APPROACH Street as Component of Urban Transformation Streets are fundamental elements in human settlements. They play significant role in determining urban form more than any other element of cities. The street is a channel of movement, a communication space, a public space, a place of social and commercial encounter and exchange, a place to do business, a political space, and also a symbolic ad ceremonial space in the city.

Street currently is known as a physical entity used for mostly mobility and accessibility, utility (water and sewage pipes, drainage system, power lines, etc.). As a matter of fact, street has another social and cultural value. Street can be also used as common public place and public domain where social, cultural and economic activities are articulated, reinforced, and facilitated (UN-Habitat, 2014). Upgrading the existing street network not only provide a better connection and public space but also give an opportunity for society to enhance their community and the chance for participatory or bottom-up development.

Support economic growth Inclusive economic growth is a key issue that need to be considered towards the increasing of skewed and informal economic development.

This form of urbanization if not directed with a considered guidance might threaten the ability of cities to generate wealth, prosperity, economic and human development. There is a manifestation of inventive entrepreneurship, shops, workshops, small-scale home based enterprises and an informal economy providing business opportunities and income for large people living in informal settlement or segregated area. Promoting these business initiatives through strengthening shopping streets, consolidating existing clusters and foster gradual formalization through street will strengthen the local business and benefit the city itself.

The strategic opening of streets and enhancing the connections with city networks lead to improvement of economic opportunities and easier access in city level. Streets are the potential settings for commerce such as shops, retails and vending as well as for economic activities like small manufacturing and repairs. Opening streets also enhances property values, which in turn can be captured to generate local government income.

Investment on basic infrastructure takes place along the streets and major access roads as well as public open spaces is believed as trigger action to increase economic value and local economic development processes.

In summary, the development of street can be said as an instrument to stimulates local business and creating jobs and income (UNHabitat-2014).

existing urbanized area contributed as a key task for city planning. A mix of approaches such as a trace of new streets adapting the existing street layout, the connection of local uses and traffic management are proposed to meet the mobility needs of cities. A citywide scale approach is fundamental in urban transformation thus reconnecting areas previously secluded from the rest of the city by uncontinuous streets network, access roads and transportation. The strategy of street development maintains the mobility towards social integration and physical connectivity with the rest of the city through the creation of street pattern and public spaces intertwined simultaneously. This strategy enables physical and spatial integration and creating a continuous urban fabric and also allows capillarity and accessibility within the city.

Strengthen local identity and sense of place The enhancement of local culture and identity helps in not only locality improvement but also benefit the development of the whole city. The sense of belonging from the people to their living place will also strengthen their community and increase the liveability index of the city.

In many developing countries, streets not only act as infrastructure. It has a meaning as a place where spontaneous activity appears, engaging participation of local community. In this sense, the development of street should also consider this value in order to integrate more living environment to the whole city not only physically but also culturally. This then lead to the opening of participatory system and bottom up development approach.

Improve urban mobility and connectivity

Fostering saver city

Mobility and connectivity are critical aspects for cities to grow and prosper. The primary role of streets in human settlements is to allow mobility of people and connect places.

The establishment of coherent network of roads and streets in new developed area and

Urban violence, safety and security in cities are becoming a concerns worldwide, a phenomenon that has been often associated with informal settlements leading to further social, economic and cultural segregation.

This situation must be addressed by upgrading

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street network and condition. The introduction of street paving, public lighting and mixed use along a street is likely to bring more usage and social interactions amongst residents that create more social control of public spaces with positive impacts on the sense of public safety. Opening streets allows greater state presence for policing, water collection etc. enhancing safety and security of public space. Streets trigger economic activity, attracting shops, services and increased residentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; identity with their place of residence, bringing an enhanced sense of security and orderly development.

1

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Urban Blocks as Component of Urban Transformation Peter Bosselmann, in his writing â&#x20AC;&#x153;Urban Transformationâ&#x20AC;? describe clearly about the strategy of urban transformation in the case of Oakland. This paper argues mainly the distinguishes between urban transformation and urban renewal.

In the case of Oakland, urban renewal model was used to make potential development on vacant parcels more efficient which caused a lack of integration and produce more vacant space within building blocks. Urban renewal in this case is done by enlarging the parcel size, giving more space for developer to develop one full city block. Several streets were closed to increase the size of developed land over several blocks. In one hand, this model of development seems efficient because it gives control over decision making. However, there is an evident that this plan resulting large structures with a formal character, city districts that are not walk-able, unsafe, and monotonous. The problem of financing and the lack of maintenance further caused the entire city blocks remain empty and many blocks have been emptied for a long time.

The model of urban transformation believed as one of the strategy to protect existing properties from condemnation and consolidation. The key principle in urban transformation is protecting the existing parcel structure, allowing smaller scale development taken place as fine grain in the city, providing greater value and reduce the institutional quality of space. In this case, smaller parcels are associated with frequent entrances, architectural diversity and variety laying down in existing urban fabric. Moreover, smaller parcels can offer a richer and more diverse pedestrian experience along sidewalks. Pedestrian in this case, become the important element to increase the attractiveness and well function sidewalks in the inner city.

4

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The research of Dutch urban blocks indicates that urban transformation is not only related to socio-cultural and economic context but also private space of dwelling and public domain of the city. It is related to the fact that today global economical is changing and the issue of worldwide migration. React to this, there is a need a space for well functioning public domain. A space that can be used for the development of creative industries, small business and for immigrants to create a start-up business. The study of Dutch urban blocks transformation shows that urban block transformation should also consider the relation between private space and public domain. Urban block in this case acts as mediator in this relation, it links everyday life of inhabitants to public domain of the city (Komossa, 2010).

1. Adaptive Streets Source: issuu.com 2. Urban Street Source:www.nationalgeographic.com 3. Alternative Development Plan of Ratto Block Source: Bosselmann, P. (2012) 4. The Morphology of Oaklandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Blocks Source: Bosselmann, P. (2012) 5. Drawing of Ratto Block Source: Bosselmann, P. (2012)

3

Related to urban transformation issue, it is clearly seen that urban blocks play important issue. The strategy of managing building block will effect both economical and social aspect. It can create more integrated city or even more segregated city.

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by Fecianti

ATARES-INTERVENTION Enhancing Connection Between Inner City and Waterfront Area of Atares 1

Occupation

ANALYSIS AND DESIGN The aim of this project is to re-connect the innert part of Atares and waterfront area in order to solve the problem of segregation. There are two main proposals: first, related to enhancement of inner neighborhood; second, related to the regeneration of waterfront post industrial area.

The project started by seeing the area as a part of Havana Bay, and to see how the development of this area related to Havana Bay and metropolitan area. The project then proceed into smaller scale project, focus on local intervention to enhance spatial quality in the neighborhood. The zoom in proposal related to the enhancement of existing public

Mobility network

space, re-use of historical building, and re-construction of infrastructure elements to be integrated with landscape system.

Both scale proposal aims not only the better living environment of Atares particularly, but also enhancing identity of place and connection of Atares to the whole area of metropolitan Havana.

Green-blue structure

19th century

20th century

Current situation 3

2 1. Location of the project 2. Project in 3 layers of structure in regional scale 3. Regional Scale Analysis 4. Potential Analysis 5. Challenges Analysis

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The analysis started by seeing Havana Vieja as a whole and how the pattern of movement changed over time. Based on this analysis, it is shown that in current situation there is a strong tendency of creating continuous space for public along the waterfront. This then brings the opportunity for Atares to be more integrated to Havana Vieja and the whole Havana Bay through the creation of continuous waterfront promenade.

Zoom in into project scale, the analysis proceeded by seeing the spatial quality in the area. There are several positive qualities that can be enhanced and further elaborated in this proposal: the continuous line constructed by configuration of building mass and its arcade building typology, green space as a foundation of building mass, and grid pattern that allows movement and permeability.

4

5

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Urban Fabric

Infrastructure

Landscape

1

The analysis of three layers indicated that the dominant issue in this area is the segregation caused by infrastructure and industrial activity which lead to another challenges: vacant public space, pollution, urban heat island, the lack of urban green space, informality and flooding.

However, there are some potentials can be enhanced such as the existing arcade building typology, iconic buildings as landmark and post industrial site that can be developed as public space.

Based on spatial quality consist of challenges and potentials, there are three concepts proposed in order to re-construct the barrier.

Problem of segregation

1. The enhancement of existing grid pattern in industrial area, connected to existing neighbourhood.

T h e c o n t r a s t b e t w e e n s t ro n g e r g r i d p a t t e r n i n t h e neighbourhood and industrial area will be soften by continuing and strengthen the existing street pattern inside industrial area. This strategy proposed to create a better connection between those two area and allows permeability inside this new development area

Connection Pole

2. Downgrading of main axis of Mexico Christina and more space for pedestrian and public transportation.

This strategy considering the potential of social and culture value in this area where street culture become a strong elements creating by people lived in Havana. People usually uses street a place for celebration, spontaneous market, dancing performance, children play field etc. Mexico Christina is one of the street that formerly used for those kind of activity and will be enhanced in this proposal.

1. Three layers Analysis of Local Scale 2. Diagrammatic Concept

Lateral Axis 146 EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016

Green Blue Belt

3. Diagrammatic Proposal 2

4. Aerial View

DESIGN

SPATIAL QUALITY

DESIGN

SPATIAL QUALITY

Commercial Strip

Enhancing Continuity

Mixed Use development

Enhancing Existing Axis

Local Park, Urban Agriculture

Larger and Diverse Green Pocket

Green Corridor

Infrastructure as Part of Landscape

Railway Park

Reuse of Iconic Building+ Green Public Space

3

Green Blue Belt

Commercial Strip Urban Expansion

Soft Edge Waterfront

3. Development of mixed use area.

The development of mixed use area aims to trigger the attractiveness in the street and building blocks while in the same time avoiding monotonous type of building and function. The commercial activity will be focused in the horizontal axis going from existing neighbourhood toward the waterfront area while vertical axis will be mainly dominated by residential to have more relaxed and private atmosphere.

4. Diversified green open space scattered inside new blocks development.

The existing inner-court in the neighbourhood area seems too small and monotonous to be used as public space. However, this courtyard was used as common space only for people who live inside one building block. In order to enhance this common space and to avoid the monotonous kind of public space that lead to the chance for vacant space, the inner-court will be in the form of green space and can be used as sport field, urban agriculture, parks, etc.

4

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PHASE 1: RAILWAY PARK + MUSEUM

PHASE 2: UPGRADING EXISTING NEIGHBORHOOD

2

PHASE 3: LATERAL AXIS + URBAN EXPANSION

PHASE 4: GREEN BLUE BELT + WATERFRONT PUBLIC SPACE

DEVELOPMENT PHASE Considering the complexity of this area, the project proposed in several phases. First phase is the creation of green pocket taking place in existing site of Christina Museum, to be developed as Railway Park to serve as both public space and water retention area. The next development can be done is the reconsolidation of existing neighborhood, to take opportunity of its building typology and former commercial activity. The next step can be developed after the cleaning of industrial site in the inner part, gives a space for urban expansion and the opportunity to create lateral axis towards the waterfront. The last phase is the creation of waterfront public space and green blue belt as connector.

1. Development Phases 2. Section Plans 3. Railway Park 4. Commercial Street

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1

1. RAILWAY PARK

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2. COMMERCIAL STREET

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3. GREEN CORRIDOR

1

4. WATERFRONT PUBLIC SPACE

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2

DIVERSITY OF LANDSCAPE

3

4

References 1. Bosselmann, P. (2012). Urban Transformation: Understanding City Form and Design. Island Press.

2. Komossa, S. (2010). The Dutch urban block and the public realm: models, rules, ideals. Vantilt.

3. UN-Habitat. (2014). Streets as Tools for Urban Transformation in Slums. UN-Habitat.

1. Green Corridor 2. Waterfront Public Space 3. Diversity of Landscape 4. Aerial View of Intervention

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Frame, Breach & Balcony Between industrial identity and new centrality

-Antoine Canazzi

Theoretical Framework THE DESIGN OF THE GROUNDPLAN IN AN UNCERTAIN CONTEXT (CASE STUDY OF HAVANA, CUBA) In 1965, Christopher Alexander wrote an article called A city is not a tree. This article made him one of the most important thinker of the post-modernity and of the theory of complexity. In this article, Alexander demonstrated, through a mathematical deduction, that the way of thinking the city by the modern movement was a dead end. Indeed, he describes the approach that the modern had of the city using the metaphor of the tree: one element is connected by one branch to the rest of the network, following a hierarchical organization. This idea suppose the effectiveness of a causal relationship between the element of the network, following the hierarchical logic: what is below impact what is above. Sure of their logic the modern developed theories about the city, how to cure or solve the city’s problem.

The complexity of the city’s palimpsest, this overlapping of time and structure made them believe that the old city was doomed and that they needed to rebuild a new society based on clearer organization. An utopia able to reconcile the contradiction inherent of the urban condition. Above all, they were thinking that such design, based on the truth of rationality, would solve the social conflict and poor health conditions that the city of the beginning of the 20s century was suffering from. As indicated, this rationality gave them a legitimacy, a belief that it was the truth and that this “great generation”, as Bernardo Secchi call them, would be able to build a concrete utopia. Their main way of thinking, a form of prognoses, tends to affirm an almost scientific deduction and anticipation of the future. After the Second World War, they applied their ideas all around the world and failed for several reasons.

First, we could say that the modern theory is the result of a patient accumulation of experimentation and knowledge from the end of the 19th century until the middle of the XXs. But their scientific approach of experimentation/ observation/conclusion that had the willing to build a body of knowledge, missed the fact that this knowledge is always situated, in time and space. Indeed, ignoring this aspect, the modern were not able to catch the deep change of the society after the second world war: the birth of the cold war and so the opposition of two model of society, the transformation from the old regime to the society of consumption emphasizing a large individualized middle class instead of the traditional opposition of social group, the decolonization, the liberalization...all those phenomenon had participated in their way to the failure of the modern theory. This confrontation has probably produced one of the most interesting debate of the 20s century, according to 152 EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016

Bernardo Secchi. In fact, they couldn’t anticipate this change of paradigm because it couldn’t be predicted; it is not about a truth.

This lead us to a second reason, which is the one emphasized by Christopher Alexander, you cannot predict the city’s transformation because the city is not a tree, but a semi lettuce organization. Later, in 1980, Gilles Deleuze in its book Mille plateaux, would pursue this idea with the concept of rhizomatic system. Bernardo Secchi (2005) sum it up with the idea of over determination of the urban phenomenon.

In another way, no cause is linked by one branch to one consequence and the hierarchical chain of impact doesn’t work completely because the element are interdependent in the same network. If we can observe a consequence, several causes are probably linked to it. Since we’ve understood that the causal theory, in urbanism, is limited and the urban phenomenon are unpredictable. This uncertainty of the future is the starting point of what will be called the theory of complexity. It is also the advent of the social science that will try to understand the social component of this unpredictability.

As urban planner, we’ve inherited of a long tradition of tools and methods that haven’t all completely integrate the new paradigm. One of the most important is the groundplan. Its ability to define and so control the space has made it one of the favorite tool of the modern movement, even though they went farther developing the masterplan . As a tool, the masterplan is still present in the architect practice but has lost its relevance according to what explained previously.

Every idea of control is weakened by the lack of causal theory, which means as much the not obvious link between a cause and a consequence, but also the non-proportionality between cause and effect. In a long term planning, it result that we cannot think anymore in term of control, but more in term of strategy to influence a development. The modern were planning an object complete and immobile while today the focus is on how to deal with a dynamic environment. In that sense, what would be the role of a permanent document like a groundplan? Which question the groundplan should address to keep a meaning on a long time and guide the future urban development? Those questions find their relevance while planning in developing country living strong political and economical transformation like Cuba.

First, I will make a quick theoretical overview about the tool of the groundplan. Second, I will talk about Havana and the site of Atarès to highlight the concern, intent and questions

the groundplan should address. Third, I will talk about how the design of the groundplan answers the problematic at stake and its role in such uncertain environment.

THEORETICAL OVERVIEW OF THE GROUNDPLAN To start, I will make an overview of the definition and evolution of the groundplan through history to explain its society related character.

Han Meyer, in an article named The composition of the urban groundplan, recall that the groundplan has always be the strongest document guiding an urban design. Indeed, many cities around the world are perfect example of the permanence of such document. Manhattan for instance with its grid structure and central park remain one the most famous. More important, the author gives a definition of the groundplan, broaching it as “a map depicting the territorial layout of an area”. The groundplan describes an ensemble of relationship between basic essential layers of the city. Those would be, from the lowest to the highest, the transformation of the physical space, the network of public space within this physical space, the urban block defining the limit of the public space, the parcel organizing the future actors relationship and the spatial functional organization.

Above this groundplan, Han Meyer describes the necessity to add other documents to elaborate the design such as a cut section defining a more volumetric relationship between built and open space, but also street profiles showing as much atmospheric aspect than different mobility distribution within the width of the street and underground technical organization of pipes, cables, trees trays,...

Today it can goes with atmospheric representation like perspective, bird eye view, models in a way... Those elements, if they are important to describe an urban design, they are supposed “soft”, meaning able to evolve, change in time or in space, if working at a large scale. They are subject to interpretation. Thus the groundplan fix the essential relationship and define a score where architect and other actors, in time, will interpret and play their own music.

If we look at the past, the groundplan has a long history of processing and improvement that tells an history of the Western society. Han Meyer comment the plan of Rome made by Nolli, in the 17th century. This plan, in black and white, shows in the same level of white the streets, churches, forums... Nolli describes more than a simple public/private relationship. It is more about a large understanding of public, overlapping accessible to public building. The focus put on the churches, especially in Rome at this time, is revealing of a particular conception of the public domain and the place of the Church in the society.

The 19th century is about the fall of the walls that will question the architect until the 20th century. The movement of the garden city in England will carry this question till the beginning of the modern. Indeed, for the plan of Hamstead, in 1909, Raymond Unwin defines as an essential rules of composition the notion of limit played by a wall used to draw the shape of the city and limit of the park (Panerai&Castex;1997). It reflects a larger research through the 19th of a new “wall”, literally in the case of Unwin, but in general more metaphorically. The establishment of new legislation to regulate the city like the cadaster, developed in every municipalities, will be a way to rebuild a “wall” for the city and so control its shape and process. The question is essential especially in a transition period about landscape and city relationship. Indeed, the Middle age city had a clearly finished shape and reflected an image of completion. One of the challenge of the 19th century city was to pursue and re-complete the city. The landscape around in the middle age was perceived as uncivilized place, potentially dangerous, justifying the wall. In the 19th century, in contrary, the landscape is dominated.

Those two concerns of a dominated landscape and a research of completion will produce the city of the 19th century, integrating large park in the city. The

hygienist movement will also support the reflection. The drawing of the “axis” of the city will be an essential tool to connect the parks, the city’s streets, the places, and propose a network of public space within the complete city. To sum it up, the 19th century groundplan reflect the necessity of defining more in a legal way the public and private relationship and the network of public space including a park network in the city.

The 20th century will follow a series of experimentation questioning the contribution of the 19th century. It is also a period of shift from the old regime to the young democratic republican regime, and so it is necessary to produce a space that is not the space of the bourgeoisie of the 19th century (Panerai&Castex;1997), but another space lead by the research of the individual welfare. As Bernardo Secchi explained in his book the city of the 20th century, published in 2005, the architect of the “great generation” will try to compose with happening urban phenomenon like discontinuity and specialization, to propose a new organization of the society adapted to a growing middle class. It results, in the groundplan, on a vocabulary of large scale object, in an undefined public space, more or less park.

The disappearance of the notion of limit, parcel or street has result in a blurred relationship between private and public. An unclear collective space, without legal status, which is still a central problem to make those tissue evolving. At this time, the groundplan is masterplan, which suppose a higher control on the production. The masterplan define complete shape of built in a close process, while the 19th century groundplan planned complete shape of public space in an open process. To conclude about the 20th century relationship to the city evolution I would like to quote Bernardo Secchi : “Like many other old European cities, Siena ask us a really important question : it was formed from individual and continuous interpretation of a common structure of collective space ; the modern city in contrary was formed trying to give a collective interpretation to individual requirement.” This shift Bernardo Secchi describes, goes also with the progressive establishment of the welfare state.

So the drawing of the groundplan is directly related to a more societal and political approach of the city. As I’ve explained, historically the way the groundplan was drawn is a patient process of improvement or reinterpretation to produce the city in a specific society. According to that, the project of urban design in Cuba has a particular sense and will propose a new image of the city. It has to address the questions the groundplan was answering before and propose another layer to reach the idea of the city of the 21st century.

CONCERN RELATED TO HAVANA AND ATARÈS REDEVELOPMENT In this part, I will talk about Havana and the site of Atarès I approached to propose a transformation of its industrial tissue.

In an economic point of view Havana is living an important change. Indeed, the shift of the industrial Harbor from the bay, and so probably of most of the industries related to it let an empty hole. First, in one hand an important territory built by the industrial activities is let without purpose anymore. In the other hand, a precious economical resource for the community around move, letting them in a precarious condition. Those community are usually economically dependent from the industrial activity, until their settlement and the reason they are in such way, far from the center but close the industries. The shift let them isolated and without important resources.

Second, the growths of the tourism industry, that will probably become a major economical sector for the city, disrupt deeply the fragile equilibrium of the Cuban society. The tourism industry today produce localized development, focused on Havana Vieja, Centro and Vedado, so toward the west, forming what is called a “blue strip”. Most of the investment and facilities are concentrated there at the cost of neglected southern and eastern part of the city. It could result on EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016 153

an increasing flow toward the blue strip, overcrowding the main axis of the city. The lack of the public transportation let appearing bottom up way to move using sharing car or individual taxi (macchina). In a way, it looks like an uberization of the mobility system, not driven by Internet. However, it doesn’t occult the risk of an increasing amount of car going in parallel with the improvement of the living standard.

Above all, the tourism industry proposes a low skill, well paid kind of job. The salaries in the tourism industry are by far not comparable to the average income of a Cuban. Cuba is so observing a competition between a well-educated society, supposed equal, and a low needed education market, well paid and so creating the condition of an inequality. Already, the Cuban diaspora sending money from abroad had destabilized the supposed equality of the system, but the tourism increase the phenomenon and the spatial segregation. Finally, skilled people prefer to work as taxi or waiter than using their competences for the society. Education loses attractiveness and it threatens the future of the country.

For those reasons, the project-based intent is to balance the localized tourism development by the support to other sector in another location of the city. In that sense, the bay territory, let partially empty by the industrial activities, could be an opportunity. Looking for an important attractor, we’ve understood that today’s train station was problematic. Although an old history, it was previously the place of the arsenal and the first harbor of the city, it shows difficulties just as an underused capacity and a complex urban integration.

Indeed, today it represents the barrier separating the historical center and the south neighborhood. It acts the passage from the city to industrial area. A new station is an important attractor for investor and can produce a major impact on the city development.

The conceptual figures

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The site of south Atarès has been chosen because of the land availability, on the crossing point of existing rail track journey, connecting the south and the east rail network, and along Via Bianca, an important road going along the industrial area and connecting the whole south-east hinterland to the west and city center.

That’s why the project of shifting the station toward south Atarès has seemed to be an opportunity for the redevelopment of the bay industrial tissue, but also to reorient the city’s development toward the south-east neighborhood and the bay.

Some sides concerns go with the project of redevelopment. The risk of another form of segregation with a district made only with big investor and largescale project is real, even though the pressure has to be taken into account. Thus, there is a necessity of organizing a co-living between big, usually foreign, investor and smaller local investor. If one result on a top down process, the other one is more about bottom

up process. Those two logics have to be articulated.

The increasing living standard will probably form a larger middle and upper middle class. The offer for such people, close the center is limited. A new hot spot like the new station can probably deal with this question and try to propose a diverse offer.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t concern only housing. In one hand, the development of different sector than industry will suppose to propose office development.

In the other hand, a valorization of industry and labor related identity could also be a concern for a large part of the community. The creative industry is a growing sector, all around the world but also in Cuba. Creative craft work, co-working, Fablab, small industry or even incubator are part of an economy that doesn’t fit with traditional office development. It could be an asset to transform and reuse the existing element of the industrial tissue, but also the skill and involvement of the local community.

Finally, because of the industrial activity, many problematic of the territory have been neglected. The accumulation of infrastructure blocking pedestrian mobility, the lack of access to the bay caused by large enclosed property, the flooding issues concentrated on the back of the hill of Atarès or the lack of greenery making it one of the hottest point of the city are crucial concern to answer. To sum it up, Havana is living important change and the project proposes an answer to a large amount of risk but also opportunities. The groundplan will have to deal with in one side big attractor influencing the whole city with the temptation of developing a privileged fragment of “within one’s kin”, and in another side smaller local process related to the community development and to the identity of the place. I will now explain how the drawing of the groundplan has answered this complex situation.

ATARÈS GROUNDPLAN In this part I will talk about the design of the groundplan and how it is supposed to answer to the concern and problematic previously highlighted.

I will talk first about the materials that compose the site. First material, the site is surrounded by two hills.

North west, the hill of Atarès with on top of it the fort of Atarès, and at the East an hill formed from an old dump site and separated from the site by a river (Rio Luyano). The site is going down from East to West along Via Bianca and from South to North toward the bay. The lowest axis is identifiable as a street coming from the angle of the cove of Atarès to the crossing road of Via Bianca and the avenue 10 de Octubre. It is the beginning of a low plane surrounding the hill of Atarès and subject to important flooding issues.

Second material, the site is crossed by a network of rail track brownfield whose only the central connection to the actual railway station in still in use. In one side of

the still used part, the tracks are reaching Cristina station, an old station behind Atarès’s hill that is turning into a museum of the Cuban railway history. In the other side, the tracks go till the bay, a peak reclaimed for container arrival. It was the place of the commercial activity of the industrial port. Most of it is already gone.

Third material, the road infrastructure is composed mainly by two important axis, Via Bianca in the south and Fabrica street passing in-between Atarès’s hill and the bay, and connecting the city center to Via Bianca. In a larger scale, it appears that this last one has been made to connect the industrial area, but turned into a by pass of the Avenue Mexico Cristina, in the other side of the hill, causing in one side an accumulation of infrastructure in a narrow space in-between the hill and the bay, and in the other side an underused avenue relegated to a minor connection. An other road is passing in the front of the hill, Ntra Sra de la Caridad Street. This road parallel to Via Bianca goes along the bay and distributes the industries. It connect Regla at the East.

The passage in the front of the hill is known as a complex and dangerous crossing point and accumulates a record of accident despite the traffic that is not as intense as what we could expect with the development of the city. The last point is about a part of via Bianca, in the south, that gets elevated and turn into a bridge to pass the river. Because of this elevation, you can actually get a view on the whole industrial area.

Fourth material, the parcel and built element reveal three interesting points. At the west side of the central rail brownfield, the parcel are smaller, so the buildings, and organized by a grid of streets, defining relatively large urban bloc divided in several property. The size of the bloc is twice the size of the blocs we can observe in the south neighborhood around, but doesn’t clash with the large bloc we could find in Vedado. However, at the East side of the rail brownfield, the parcels are big, shaped by the rail track and the only road crossing North/South the tissue.

The buildings are not organize by any the street. They are enclosed property with their own organization, but dominated, in term of spatial component, by a biogas silo. This one is visible from far and can be understood as a landmark. The last point is about the parcel along the bay, enclosed and big also, but made with long and low warehouse. Their volume makes them also an interesting element, able to be reuse for multiple purposes. We could also find along the quay, beyond the warehouse but clearly visible because of their size, some harbor cranes. Those are also interesting landmark of the site.

Using those materials, I’ve defined 3 conceptual figures that led the drawing of the groundplan : Frame, Balcony and Breach. Each of them refer to an existing spatial quality. The figure of the frame refers as much to a clearly defined open space than its opposite, out of the frame, characterized by a limitless large opening.

Even in the second one, the frame still is a reference proposing an inside and an outside and defining visual relationship between the elements of the composition.

The figure of the balcony refer to a relationship of spatial domination from a specific point to the rest, produced as much by the topography, height of the built or other morphological characteristic. It highlights a progressive sequence from the low to the high, from the bay to Via Bianca. The figure of the breach refers to line of rupture between two different homogeneous components. The breach separates as much as it connect and drain. It is a figure of interface and dynamic relationship within element.

All together those figures have designed the proposal. The location of the station according to the network of public space is the strongest element. The new station is located on the highest point of the site. It try to catch the view on the whole urban fabric. The silo, much taller and visible, highlights it. The silo is used as a spatial component, like a bell tower, articulating the square in the front of the station to a long public space connecting visually and physically the new station and the historical city. It connects the historical city at the old station and seems to continue the peripheral avenue (Avenida de Bélgica), inherited from the old

wall of the city and playing a major role just as symbolical than technical, of the city. This connection propose another path that could allow us to take out the infrastructure passing in-between the bay and Atarès’s hill. The tissue goes down toward the bay where the low warehouse and cranes are maintained and let to be reused as specified previously.

Then the reuse of the existing and the different step of development can be developed. The useless rail track brownfield, due to the shift of the station, could turn into public space. A promenade connecting the old site of the station to the new one. Thus, the tracks define three pocket of urbanization that will follow different pattern. The west side of the central rail brownfield will be divided into small blocks made with small parcel. According to the experiment of urban regeneration that happened in Oakland during the 80’s (Rebuilding the structure of the Inner city, Peter Bosselmann), we could expect that such subdivision would open bottom up process. Sometimes private individual destroying old warehouse to build their house or small housing with commerce in the first floor, sometimes maintaining and restoring the warehouse to other community related purpose.

The necessity of re-composition of larger parcel to be able to build bigger buildings limits the current top down or large investment process. The appropriation of this tissue and the relationship it will creates with existing neighborhood is supposed to be a preamble for the rest. The warehouse along the bay are supposed to be restored to implement co-working, creative craft work, start-up business... An improvement of the connection between the old station and the warehouse, at the beginning by ferry and later physical connection, is an important input to start the development of the area. Indeed, the old station will probably be a future cultural hotspot for the city. Connecting those two public space would trigger the development of both.

Finally, the tissue in-between the station and the bay, made with large parcel, works as a connector producing two larges public space, the long one that goes down from the station to the bay and a secondary one on the peak. The urbanization will take place with large bloc, producing large parcel. That kind of tissue can attract big investor, can host office and housing. Two types in this category of development are identified. On the peak, framing the internal public space is an important aspect, while the other side can open to the landscape in a less line up composition. The whole bloc could be one property oriented toward middle and upper middle class housing mainly. Not directly on the major axis, it would be a more residential part. Closer to the station, the speculation expected will be higher and the pressure also. The buildings can be progressively allowed to be taller. Along the central public space, it is important to keep a subdivision of the bloc in several parcel to allow more actor to be visible. Each parcel could allow a commercial activity in the 1st floor. Thus, more parcel, even if larger than a residential bottom up tissue, might produce more dynamic and attractive public space. The flow from the historical city to the new station will be a driver of development for the commercial activity.

Finally, another layer can be added, combined to the design explained. This layer shows the green and blue organization, so how the water will behave and how the public space will manage it. As we said the problem of flooding happened essentially in the low plains behind Atarès’s hill. However, the site at stake is higher and so the run off water is a question that has to be integrated. The question here is more about drainage system toward large retention area, like the bay, the river or some parks and sport field around.

First, the rain water running down from the south hill can be collected by a green strip along via Bianca. This trip is as much a park than used for sport field. Such program can also improve the relationship between new and old tissue creating a buffer public zone.

Second, the rail track brownfield, turned into promenade, are characterized by a profile like a basin. They could be used to collect and drain the water toward the bay. The design of the public space will be directly related to this function.

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some water before letting it going to the bay. Third, the long central public space is going down directly to the bay. It could develop in the design of the ground way to slow down the flow. Reusing the surface of the removed buildings as small retention areas would work that way and in the same time recall the existence of those buildings and so the past of the site. In a different perspective, it could be a permanent fountain letting the water filling those surface. It would animate the public space and provide fresh air around.

The groundplan composed fix guidelines. It is not a complete design, but a design that shows potential and tries to influence future development. It highlights existing quality of the site. It try to take into consideration the necessity of protecting the identity of a place and future speculative process that will probably happened. It organizes the conditions of specific atmosphere and step to reach the desired project. The main layer it uses is the network of strong public space and the parcel division. It directly influences the future urban morphology. In that sense it re-interpret the 19th century groundplan, but to the traditional layer it add the dimension water management as a structural element of the design. What probably also change is the necessity to anticipate potential speculative influence and actors much bigger than in the 19th century. This aspect is something more inherited from the 20th century. Finally, the groundplan is a document to refer to. It should be open enough to keep its relevance in a changing context, and be strong enough to guide and influence.

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CONCLUSION As weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve seen, the groundplan has always be able to be adapted to the context and ambition of a society. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capacity to integrate the unknown, the unpredictable, and in the same time to fix direction has made it the most important tool of the urban designer. It is to the designer to fix the point between control, through legal way for example, and freedom. The groundplan reflect those choices, made according to small or large scale reason.

Cuba is facing deep change and the uncertainty about its future is high. Planning something in long term in such context require to be clear about choice and ambitions. The choice of re-orienting the development of the city toward the bay reflects a big ambition. Thus, the groundplan of crucial spots have to reflect this ambition, while other can let more liberty to the process.

Finally, the role of the groundplan is to fix guidelines that will last in time. In a way I still wondering how process like the uberization by influencing the structure of the mobility or the new technology with the shared document online, interactive, in 3 dimensions, can influence our way to design the groundplan and how the groundplan will one day integrate this new layer.

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by Antoine Canazzi

Frame, Breach & Balcony Between industrial identity and new centrality Occupation

Mobility network

The bay of Atarès is a place of crucial importance for the futur of Havana. Indeed the industrial port has always limited the development toward the south. It result an area accumulating the poblem just as social, ecological or morphological. Those issues was admited because of the economical importance of the port for the city and the community around. The shift of the port will probably go with the shift of most of the industries.

Anyway, the landscape they've built will remain as the primary identity of the site. Rail brownfield, out of scale silo, large horizontal warehouse or cranes are elements that should be kept in the futur urban atmospher.

In the same time, the issues the site suffer from are serious.

The flooding issue, the non access the the bay caused by the large enclosed property and the accumulation of infrastructure limitating the pedestrian movement are priority.

Green-blue structure

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The project of the shift of the station toward the south Atarès is an opportunity to redevelop the cove. The speculation that goes with a new station could be seen as attractor for big investor and justify the important change. Nevertheless, the bottomup process still have its place to prepare and manage different scale and use of the public space.

Above all, the shift of the station is an opportunity to re-oriente the development of the city toward the south and bring facilities and accessibility to more remote neighborhood today, because of the industries.

Finally it is a new centrality which is projected, re-unifying the bay, the city center and the south neighborhood.

Concern

Opportunity

Building

Rail brownfield

Road structure

Interesting landmark

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Frame.

Step one : preparing the avenue

Step two : shift of the station, transformation brownfield Ferry stop Ferry network Public transportation

Road network Industrial building rehabilitated Rail track area Space Frame for the public space

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Breach.

Step three : A second pocket developed in relation to the ferry connection with the city center

Step four : Connection the two pocket and the city center Flooding area Higher axis Water

behaviour

Industrial building rehabilitated Private green Public green Green&Blue Breach

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Possible dam connection

Possible bridge connection

Highlight the horizontality of the landscape

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Dam as possible flood solution

Balcony.

A'

20-30m 15-20m

A

10-15m 0-10m

Height buildings

A

A'

Section from the new station to the bay

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Breach.

Detail on green&blue type

Tramway Private green Natural parc surface green

Volume green

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The breach EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016 165

The peak 166 EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016

The place

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Bird eye view

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Landscape Rehabilitation The Transition Of The Post-Industrial And Landfill Area, From Brownfield To Greenfield; From Forbidden To Accessible

-Huang Yu-Han

Theoretical Framework THE URBAN TRANSFORMATION OF THE POST-INDUSTRIAL AREA IN SOUTHERN HAVANA Global dynamics such as economic transformations and reorganizations of production led to the crisis of many former industrial cities in Europe and the U.S in the last decades of the 20th century. Most of them have suffered or are still suffering from urban decay and shrinkage. The severity and persistence of some of these processes have called into question both the future of these cities and the ability of urban planning to deal with decline.

In recent years, Cuba was undeniably undergoing a dramatic transformation, and it could be expected the changing will become fast due to different aspects, such as the openness of economic market and investment policy, the changing of political conditions, the increase of tourist and migrants, and so on. It could say that Havana is now the big cake for the world.

Havana will always be associated with its bay, but it will be a new bay for a new city, where the public realm — streets, plazas, parks, and promenades— will be linked to the productive sector — tourism, boating, and commerce— and the domestic sphere — communities and housing for the people of Havana, who are just as extroverted, hospitable

and boisterous as ever. The new port under construction in the west of Havana is a trigger point to switch on the transformation of Havana harbor area, the function of the old bay will turn from industrial based terminal to touristoriented. The industrial area around waterfront has the opportunity to move out to the new port area, then the urban transformation happened. The bay is symbolic, is what give birth to the city and is what trigger the future development.

And now is the time yo redefine it.

The design project located in the south part of the Havana bay, with the main focus on landscape, urban fabric, and mobility network transformation. A city is a living organism reflecting the socio-economic changes, which constantly in transformation with the changing times. Some cities take the initiative to seek change and re-energize; while others are forced to change and faced difficulty, as Detroit as once the "automobile capital of the world,” now almost became a ghost town. Therefore, how to comprehend and intervene with the changes and the remains of the urban morphology in the transformation became the crucial issue.

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URBAN TRANSFORMATION IN DIFFERENT URBAN CONDITIONS

The urban transformation involved in various typologies and conditions happened frequently in the post-industrial era, especially in the harbor area cause the development of the cities are inseparable with the ports. Also due to the efficiency and economic consideration the industrial district often surrounding the bay area and formed the infrastructural network to transfer goods. The original landscape edge was frequently reclaimed, then waterfront segregated with the urban fabric. From the harbor to the inner city, there were layers of stripes with different functions, like quays, terminals, warehouses, factories, residences, and so on. With the expansion and relocation of the port, the industrial zone moved out of the port area. It comes to the new challenge of urban restructure with different spatial issues in different layers: I. Inner city neighborhood regeneration Urban morphology is a constantly changing pattern of historic movements and trigger events.

The intervention should start at the vacant spaces in the urban fabric. And it starts with different steps and priority. For the declined inner city, it should not install a brand new urban pattern but start with reading the clues go the morphology.

Finding the spots which impact the neighborhood, but not consume the collective activities and memories. Adding new attraction to the habitants, but not destroy the spatial character.

II. Industrial area restructure Cities in the post-industrial era are facing the task to redefine the character of the brownfield.

While in some instances underlying geomorphology is the determining factor, transitional edges and uncrossable spaces are more likely to be created by infrastructure or behavioral impositions.

For example, the freeway serviced industrial activities but created dead ends for those nearby neighborhoods, or the repellent effect of socio-economic hostilities. These ruptures may be either highly visible but actually superficial in an urban sense or may hide major disjunctions which are not readily registered through conventional Cartesian mapping.

Without a clear identity, such situations are frequently characterized by the ambiguity of terrain vague.

In the former industrial transformation, there are several strategies to deal with. First, the re-use of warehouses and factories which became a cultural landmark with former industrial symbol and a triggered point to revitalize the whole district. For example, the Ruhr district regeneration brought economic tissue back to the recession region. It reshaped heavy industry to the tourism industry. The whole decayed district transformed to an industrial-heritage landscape.

Second, the industrial pattern turned into the new residential area, like Hafencity in Hamburg harbor area. When the warehouses moved out, the periphery of the port became the experiments field of modern architecture. However, it also carried negative impacts, like the death of and the ground floor activities. The gentrification might not happen in Hafencity due to no old inhabitants crowding out. But it should upgrade the quality of social and recreational infrastructure for city-center residents surrounding Hafencity. Third, the stripe of the industrial area gave a chance for the public activities and became a linear park.

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III. Nature restoration Many infrastructures surrounding bay which supported industrial and is being torn down and waterfront reclaimed. Edges are often the most dynamic places in the ecosystem, where is the zone of maximum activities, exchange, hybridization, and instability. The continuity of the green-blue structure could create more edges and bring the diversities into the inner city.

For example, a mega-project on the riverside of Manzanares River at Madrid is a formerly neglected area which atop a complex mobile network: the ring road constructed along both sides of the river, ripped a crippling gash through the city.

Neighborhoods on both sides of it declined. The intervention project “Madrid Río” turned the infrastructure dominant area to the green pubic spaces. It moved a stretch of highway underground, renovated historic bridges and brought various riverside greeneries and activities back, such as playgrounds, ball fields, and biking path. It also constructed an of dozens of new metro and tram stations that link far-flung, disconnected and often poor districts on Madrid’s outskirts to downtown.

Take another example of freshkills park in New York, which formerly was the largest landfill area in the world and now transformed to a public park. Its construction began in October 2008 and is slated to continue in phases for at least 30 years. The landfill opened in 1947 in what was then a salt marsh in a rural agricultural area. The land still contains large amounts of wildlife within the boundaries of the landfill. There were tidal wetlands, forests, and freshwater wetlands.

Goals emerging from the outreach efforts and integrated into the park design include: roads to ease traffic congestion surrounding the freshkills site; active recreational uses such as kayaking, horseback riding, and sports fields; and projects generating and using renewable sources of energy. Develops as a Natural Coastal Buffer and Parkland for Staten Island.

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1. bay view to the site 2. site plan of the Hafencity transformation project. source:Devrim Işıkkaya, A. 3. site plan of the Madrid Rio transformation project source: www.west8.nl

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FROM THE THEORY TO DESIGN PROJECT The selection of the area The reason why I chose the site [Ensenada de Guanabacoa, Havana] is due to the transitional position of the city and village, neighborhood, industrial zone and waterfront, contaminated field and diversity greeneries. The transitional landscapes are spaces between city and countryside commonly experienced on the move; although highly present in the commuting life of metropolitan areas, they are perceived as obsolete by the people who mostly use them – the everyday passengers. This interim location was divided by parallel infrastructures, such as Anillo del Puerto (the ring road of the port) and via Blanca (connects to others cities), or railways link to eastern and western country diverged and cut the area, creating edges of the urban patterns.

Another reason is that the moving out industrial area which gave a chance to restructure the whole surrounding urban fabric and reorganized the pasta-like mobile network. Also, it is a large green space close to city center, but it had been neglected, unaware and out of life. It was an urban periphery normally experienced through moving vehicles. Above of all, it shows the challenges of the places and potential improvement.

The context of the area Guanabacoa cove is an undeveloped cove compared to the whole bay area, with the gradient topography growth from bay to neighborhood and two main rivers from mountain side watershed From the historic pattern, the strong mobility connected rural to city gave the characters of the movable neighborhood.

The walking experience of the post-industrial area to the Atares area is like a lost passer in a desert without shadows to hide and signs to direct, just forced forward in a mess of dust and sound made by traffic and industries. Nowhere to stand, no excuse to stay. The neighborhood nearby the via Blanca was also suffering the highway’s fumes and noise, not awarding that there is a huge green space behind the mobility and industrial occupation, where has a great opportunity to be a new lung for the surroundings.

With the mobile system mainly divide the urban pattern in an east-west direction, the natural river networks mainly separate in a north-south direction. There were a lot of fragments holding different types of edges: soft or hard, accessible or not.

The transformation of the area “A boundary is not that at which something stops, but … that from which something begins its essential unfolding.”

(Martin Heidegger 1951) The main goal of the transition industrial area and landfill area is from brownfield to greenfield, from forbidden to public accessible. And at different conditions, I proposed different strategies to adapt the urban context.

At the inner city neighborhood part, it was the first and the slight step of the transformation. Regarding the urban morphology of the site, the neighborhood could be traced to different fabrics in time periods. With the position of the convenient transportation system and the bulk of industry expansion, the whole densified by low-income workers and immigrants. There were fewer voids places left and not to mention the public spaces inside the urban fabric. To transform the urban pattern and community activities, the intervention started with analysis the historic main route of the neighborhood and extended them into new public plaza crossing riverside with the green-blue system. The new link as green corridors connects the neighborhood to new public sectors, such as a playground, sports centers, riverside pedestrian to eco-park, and so on.

At the industrial district, it was the second phase transformation of the area. According to the gradient urban pattern from neighborhood to the waterfront, there were different scales and types of industries in between. About the small scale factories near the riverside, it would be demolished to create the resilient spaces for flooding and riverside residences.

About the warehouse and large scale industries, it would be kept and reused as new innovated industries and start-up offices, also reserved the areas for the future high rise investment. This new transformation integrates with the new train station in Atares, became the economic and public extended finger of the new center.

At the previous natural area, marshland and riverside greenery are consumed by the reclamation and landfill. As we know the riverside, estuary and marshland could never restore the original condition. However, the rehabilitation of the Luyanó river and Guanabacoa cove could bring back the biodiversity and become a new mark sustainable city.

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THE ROLE OF THE PROJECT TO THE TRANSFORMING HAVANA I. A hub of dynamic landscape The new central park as a hub of sustainable the green stripe surrounding Havana bay.

Urban parks are integral to the formal and spatial organization of cities, to their functioning and programming, to their social and cultural identity and to their ecological value.

The socio-spatial potential of parks for urban renewal developed, park as a catalyst for urban renewal in the area.

The new eco-park plays several roles to the city. First, it is the creation of complex, providing the diversity of activities. Second, it is the gradient of greenery, supplying various characters of greeneries. Third, it is the weave of the urban fabric, combining with the new train station becomes the new center of suburbs and reduces segregation between city and waterfront.

On a local view, the park accommodated facilities and activities linked to local life. On a district level, the park was seen as a new centrality in a proposed institutional development of the Eastern and Western suburbs which can increase the attractiveness of neighborhoods and in promoting and profiling cities. On a larger scale, the park was also envisaged as an important impulse for the whole bay and the Havana city, with the establishment of the new train station and the new district of office and commercial facilities.

II. A symbol of cleaning/recycling landscape The combination with the new water treatment which is under construction, the eco-park reclaiming from the landfill hill which produces methane and the waterpark as a natural filter which purifies the blue system, giving an image of recycling landscape.

III. A resilient approach deal with climate change The definition of the limited constructing area by setting up the predicted flooding area, with the rise of sea level and intense precipitation. Giving the room of waters from the Guanabacoa waterfront and the riverside by recovered marshland and created a riverside resilient area.

IV. A reconnection between neighborhood and waterfront The targets of the intervention which were the revitalization of the forbidden area and the blur of the edges. New green corridors linked from existing green spaces in the inner city urban fabric toward riverside green public spaces and pedestrian system, connecting neighborhood citizen lifestyle and new community activities, such as sports center, playground. Besides, extending the historic main road to the new public plaza in order to reconnect neighborhood and eco-park, waterfront and public transportation.

CONCLUSION The development pattern, center structure, transportation system, and green structures combine to make up the physical structure of cities. These structures are changing gradually as a result of different development projects of varying size. In European harbor transformation cases, there were diverse strategies to build up a starting point to trigger the whole area redevelopment and in different development phases. Some cities focused on housing shortage problems and turned the transitional area to mainly residential development. And some started by mixed-use buildings as the first phase, and residential part later. It is hard to say which strategy is better or could be a successful paradigm for the harbor transformation in nowadays’ timeline. However, it could say that an urban transformation should be developed in progressive steps with a planned time line and combined with new striking public facilities to attract flows. A new urban society would develop in a new city, starting with interventions and improvements in the city’s public space.

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4. the movements of neighborhood 5. reconnect inner city to the new plaza

REFERENCE - Bosselmann, P. (2012). Urban Transformation: Understanding City Form and Design. Island Press.

- Kullmann, K. (2011). Thin parks/thick edges: towards a linear park typology for (post) infrastructural sites. Journal of Landscape Architecture, 6(2), 70-81.

- van der Velde, R. Tracing the development of contemporary park-‐city relationships: Parc de La Villette and Parc André Citroën.

- Devrim Işıkkaya, A. (2014). Re-mapping the morphology of the hanseatic city hamburg: the “hafen / harbour-city” urban transformation project.

- http://www.hafencity.com/ - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshkills_Park EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016 179

Landscape Rehabilitation The Transition Of The Post-Industrial And Landfill Area, From Brownfield To Greenfield; From Forbidden To Accessible Occupation

Mobility network

Guanabacao, the comparable undeveloped gulf around the whole bay. As the whole bay as an amphitheater with diversity stages and landmarks, the character of the site Guanabacao gulf is "landscape as a landmark." From the image below, you can see various greenery types extend to the inner gulf, from wetland to hill. In the regional scale, there are several green stripe concentric from the bay with different features.

However, with the industrial and infrastructure built to support the port activities, the inner space was cutting to the fragments and the borders stood as the strong characters to hinder step over. Then the neighborhood could not aware that there was a lot of natural resources besides the infrastructure barriers.

The project aimed to activate the diverse underused green spaces and blur the former infrastructural borders, reconnecting the neighborhood toward waterfront with greenblue network and public activities. To access the abandoned green space, the quality condition of it was in need to be considered. So clean up the contaminated soil and water which

Green-blue structure

1. Location of the project 2. Project in 3 layers of structure of regional scale 3. The landscape characteristic and the role of Casablanca for the city of Havana.

4. Painting showing the narrative quality of the landscape of Casablanca

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was polluted by landfill and upstream industries is one of the crucial issues.

Another main issue was to deal with the former industrial district which would probably move out to the new port. Some of the buildings would be removed due to the future flooding possibility and saving the room for water retention. The remain warehouses were reused as the new creative industries and the start-up's workshops. In between, the new plaza and public spaces linked to the riverside greenery and waterfront marshland sculpture park. The other side, from neighborhood toward riverside, the fragments of green spaces reconnected by green corridors and added the sports facilities to be the community park.

Finally, the new direction leading neighborhood toward natural soft edge waterfront was created, providing the opportunities for public activities to the high-density residences. Combined with the new public transportation system: tramway and train station, it became the new central park of the Havana city.

1

3 2

4

5 6

Spatial character _various features in green stripes Guanabacao, located at the southern Havana has lower topography and higher relationship with water landscape.

Spatial quality _diverse characteristic of greenery 1. linear public green space with bus stop 2. hill with sport ground 3. riverside hill was occupied by landfill 4. baseball field 5. hill as landmark from bay view 6. productive greenery

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spatial issue Challenge

1 A

A'

B'

Via blanca

- fragment spaces divided by parallel infrastructure - unawareness of nature from neighborhood - green spaces were occupied by land reclamation, landfill, riverside industries

Port ringroad B

Railway 2 3

5

4

spatial fragments: 1. land reclamation 2. landfill occupation 3. linear industrail area 4. riverside industrial area 5. riverside underused greenery and small scale industrial area

15 10 5 0

A'

A

B'

B

15 10 5 0

section_fragmental land occupation

neighborhood S

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industrial area M

landfill hill L

land reclamation

Landscape

spatial context Mobility

Urban occupation

In landscape transformation

In mobility transformation

In urban fabric transformation

19th _marshland, sandbank sedimentation

19th _neighborhood oriented mobility network

current situation _land reclamation, landfill and industrial occupation

current situation _industrial oriented mobility network, as borders.

19th _settlement followed main road connecting to south and west

attempt _restore to its original natural dynamic condition

attempt _reconnect neighborhood toward waterfront

current situation _movable neighborhood had several migrant periods attempt _add public spaces and activities to stable and improve the living quality EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016 183

intervention Mob

Landscape Floodable area _sea level rise + intense rainfall

sea level rise floodable area developed limitation riverside water retention/ floodable area transition between wetland_ riverside water retention

water flow

remain warehouses, factories

underuse green space

remove warehouses, factories

riverside linear greenery

new train station

landfill occupation

new urban pattern near site

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current situation

railway tramway via blanca permeable road connect historic neighborhood main road

pedestrian step1

tram stop

pedestrian step2

train station

pedestrian step3

bus stop

existing building

20mins walking

n strategies bility

g distance

Urban occupation current situation

reorganized mobile network _connect neighborhood to public _transfer port ring road to permeable cycling road _pedestrian road links riverside to wetland _tramway links village to greenery

warehouse factory, office under use green area workshop neighborhood

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6

5

4

3 2

1

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The new green-blue route from neighborhood to waterfront: 1. community park 2. riverside sports field 3. riverside greenery and agriculture 4. new plaza 5. landfill reclamation 6. marshland sculpture park

1 5

1. leachate collection and containment system 2. wastewater treatment 3. phytodepuration system 4. bubbling aeration water square 5. marshland water park

2 4

3

Hydric system

1. landfill recycling eco-park 2.riverside greenery and sports fields 3. community riverside park 4. productive vegetation 5. trees square 1

5 2 4 3

Vegetation system

1

1. waterfront accessibility and activities revitalization 2. new plaza at the transition position between nature and urbanised area, connecting to tram stop.

3 . co m m u n i t y a c t i v i t i e s , linking to neighborhood and riverside sports fields.

2

3

0

100m

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# marshland restoration field Regard to the historic maps, the formation of the Guanabacao bay was from the Luyano river sedimentation and tidal movement stranding.

However, nowadays part of it was reclaimed by hard edge terminal, losing the movement of natural landscape dynamics.

The purpose is to restore the marshland and keep the room for water to confront the future extreme climate change. Also rehabilitates the soft edge and natural ecosystem of the waterfront, role as the less development but high bio-diversity character of the whole bay.

remove reclamation

In phase 1, remove the terminal reclamation and restore the marshland, providing spaces for waterfront lesure activities, like walking path, sculpture park, skatepark, wild observation spots, and so on. At the low-tide line build up the sand fences to accumulate sand, becoming the pedestrian route and tidal watershed in phase 2.

1-1

sand fence

source: http://www.except.nl/

1-2

2

3

high tide line

low tide line

sand fence setting

current situation

1

warehouse reuse 2

waterfront sculpture park sand accumulation

phase 1

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low tide

3

pedestrian and biking when low tide

# landfill remediation field The large green space besides the railway and port ring road was occupied by dump for more than 100 years, and was deposited around the 80% of the solid waste (industrial, domestic, etc.) of the city. The soil was contaminated by metals and then bioaccumulate in plants and animals, eventually making their way to humans by way of the food chain or contamination of waters.

pha

pha

se 2

The purpose is to clean up the contaminated condition and re-open the green space to public.

The paths are designed to reveal and mark the phased remediation process through a series of topographic concrete paths that multiply, evolve, and break down from one edge of the landfill to the other. These path berms emphasize the artifice of the site by exaggeration and creation of a two-faced condition: a remediated side and a contaminated side. These topographic path berms separate and guide "clean" water that falls on the remediated site, seperating it from the contaminated groundwater.

se 3

pha

se 1

concete path evolve and break down

purify plants

1 year

3 years

cultivate purify plants

5 years 1

2

phase 1

phase 2

phase 3

phase 3

phase 2

phase 1

watershed

watershed

watershed

watershed

watershed

watershed

1 2 add topsoil

marshland path

purify plants trees

path

purify plants trees

purify plants path

grass steps

grassland

purify plants path

purify plants path

purify plants path

path

tramway

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plaza

# riverside retention field The situation along the riverside was occupoed by the industrial facility and remain few underuse greenery. The greenblue natural source was not awareable and not intangible by citizen. Even worsely, the contamination flowed into river, made the symbol of natural border stronger.

The purpose is to reconnect the riverside activities to citizen life, and create a resilient buffer zone to avoid future climate change also possible to appreciate water purification.

From the slopes of the topography, a room for water retention is installed and collects intense rain water. With the planted vegetation, people can enjoy the waterfornt here. On the another side of the river, which the industrial water could purify with the phytodepuration system or downstream water treatment. The water is cleaning itself along the way as a filtration system which saves energy, reduces the stress on municipal water systems, and enhances biodiversity. At the same time, it also irrigates the farmland with different types of vegetation. Then the cleaned water flows into the new plaza water square, which as the transition between river sweet water and marshland salt water. It not only acts as the retention water squarem, but also provides public activities in the new creative industrial zone.

The connector system from neighborhood park to riverside greenery to plaza and waterfront, giving users a diverse, both visual and sensory landscape. The different experiences and activities create a playful journey.

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river bank

phytodepuration system productive vegetation

aeration water square

marshland

waterfront activities

pedestrian path/ biking route from neighborhood to waterfront reuse warehouses for creative and social enterprises

riverside sports field

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Re(gl)activación Regeneration of brownfield in Regla

-Lin Wei Yun

Theoretical Framework A LANDSCAPE URBANISM APPROACH TO THE DESIGN OF BROWNFIELD REGENERATION IN REGLA

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The literature “Drawing the ground-landscape urbanism today” by Frits Palmboom is set as the theoretical framework to develop the design of brownfield regeneration in municipality of Regla in Havana. In the project, part of the waterfront area in the town of Regla in Havana was chosen to be the site of intervention due to its unique village atmosphere in the bay area, the richness of culture, and the need of regeneration in the brownfield. Before going on site, the function of land, the mobility and the general situation of Regla can be analysed base on some document and satellite image, however information is very limited in terms of the local perspective and the quality of space. While during the fieldtrip, the height difference of land was experienced, the concentration of activity was seen, and the reality that once covered by blurry satellite view was finally revealed. In the town of Regla, how natural landscape and urban occupation have interacted throughout the history of development can be quite easily observed. Therefore it triggered the intention

of selecting the landscape urbanism theory written by Palmboom as a base for the individual project to develop.

Besides that, two other literatures also facilitate the process.

The theory of minimal intervention by Lassus contributes to the use of existing resources, and the theory of graphic visual studies by Dee help to visualize the analysis and proposal in a meaningful way.

Starting from the longue durée landscape to the urban structures that built upon to the fast architectural construction, the design explores how these layers that hold different qualities can be taken into consideration at the same time through the preparation of the ground by drawings, in order to propose a through-scale minimal intervention that lead the place to a flexible and desirable future, which respects natural and urban landscape as well as economic and social development in both regional and local scales.

LITERATURE REVIEW Drawing the ground, layering time (Palmboom, F. 2010) In the field of landscape architecture, urbanism and architecture, drawing has always been one of the most common, important and professional tools to achieve the understanding of subjects and the formation of design. In the paper author argued that the three principles should not be considered as completely independent, but rather connected and interact through drawing the ground preparation in the urban plan. What landscape, urbanism and architecture content are different in terms of quality, time, scale and focal point. Landscape forms the foundation of all in a long duration of time. It is engraved to the place in a tangible and dynamic way that enable cultural and spatial development.

Urbanism changes the landscape in a faster pace. From the ancient stoneage adaptation to the modern society evolution, the function and role of urban environment have altered the landscape on its own in a smaller scale. In the urban life, ground certainly plays an important role regarding public space and plotting for different functions and the construction of buildings, which finally leads to the profession of architecture. Architecture has the shortest duration in the three disciplines. It takes place in a designed programme and usually within a boundary. From months to years, the facades and height can completely change the appearance of landscape.

“Form allows function.” Quoting the author. Ground should be the primary level of intervention, and the preparation of the ground will naturally lead to the emergence of vertical function and programme. It involves the interplay of pragmatism, aesthetic, natural forces and cultural forces. In the complex of layers, dimensions, forces and uncertainties, how ground plan can satisfy both practical demands and aesthetic desire by leveraging the instruments, in order to cultivate the growth of flexible programme on top became a priority issue, and it is where all three disciplines are drew together. Drawing the ground preparation is not merely a representation of ideas but more likely to be a tool of exploration.

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horizon”. Through layers, diagrams, perspectives and such, time and uncertainty are visualized, as well as how spatial condition can be created to guide the reality to a desirable result. Finally, to reflect the theory on the individual project of Regla, it guided the exploration of the transition of landscape and the local urban life through drawings, which in the end contribute to the proposal of ground preparation.

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Critical visual studies in landscape architecture (Dee, C. 2004) The paper aimed to draw the connection between theory and practice with visual representation. By introducing 5 types of critical visual study, including fine-art practices and discourses, dialogic drawing, hypothetical design, mapping and visual narratives, the meaning and usage of image creating is discussed. According to the author, working visually has the advantage to engage with specific and distinctive subject matter, especially the third dimension. In the process of image making, discovery and decision making were involved, which also correspond to the concept of “design as an exploration”. It stimulates spatiality in thinking, and creates potential to form inspiration for further investigation and studies. In the project of Regla, the arguments facilitate the creation of meaningful drawings to explore the feasible intervention options and to make the subconscious drawing motives come to light.

The obligation of intervention (Lassus, B. 1998) Beginning with how landscape can be read, the paper discussed the complex relationship between landscape entity, individual experience and intervention. The author argued that “Landscape cannot be approached only as a visual problem” with only fraction experience in plural. In a certain place, there is a value of identity that makes the place unique and indivisible. In other words, the existing natural and cultural elements that enable the human sensory experience in the space have a role to play in the conscious and subconscious perception of the place. On the other hand, human intervention, no matter small or large, changes that identity towards either a more natural or FROM EXPERIENCE TO EXCLUSIVENESS The town of Regla is located at the bottom part of Havana bay, in a peninsula facing directly to the entry of the bay.

It connects east to the village of Casablanca and west to Atarés, one of the main Havana harbour, farther to the old city centre Havana Vieja. Figure 1 shows the illustration of Havana Bay in 1693, when the town of Regla hasn’t been founded yet. With the Morro Castle in Casablanca and the fortification in Havana Vieja on both sides, Regla remains as part of the natural landscape background.

The landform of Regla is composed of small hills up to 35 meters that situated in the inland, which gradually descend towards the water and formed the sandbank that extended to the direction of Havana Vieja. Before the human settlement, the land kept an organic shape on the edge that was influenced by the tidal force. (Fig. 4) However as the urban development started to take place in 19th century, the edge has since then been reshaped. Began from the peak of the peninsula, the connection between the land and sandbank was cut sharply by the man-made concrete

artificial classification in mind. Therefore before intervening a place, the necessity should be questioned at first, followed by the degree of intervention. The idea of “minimal intervention” was hence proposed. When new elements are introduced to the space, the symbolic and cultural meaning of the place should not be disturbed and fragmentized, and the landscape should still be able to read as an entity. As the author wrote, “The minimal intervention is to bring other tangible dimensions to the already there.” In the individual project of Regla, minimal intervention was considered as a design principle in order to identify and use the local resources efficiently, and to guide the landscape of area to develop as a whole.

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boarder around the industrial area, hence nowadays the sandbank no longer exists, and the relationship between water and the land of Regla became stiff and separated.

Since the settlement of traditional centre of Regla, the area has gradually been developed as an industrial and residential-based area. However the heavy industries had generated various negative effect, including water pollution in the river and Havana bay, soil pollution in the inland, and the physical barrier that blocks the access to waterfront.

Nowadays Regla is facing the challenge of the shift of Havana port, together with the shift of most of the industries, which will leave a large amount of brownfield in the waterfront area. It can be seen as an opportunity for the place to be regenerated and to be integrated with the traditional centre in order to develop as a whole in the future. The development of landscape, urban fabric and building need to be guided, therefore the initiative of the plan should be taken regarding the preparation of the ground.

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1. Framework defining urban structure and public space Source: Lelylaan/A 10 Amsterdam, 2000

3. Painting of Havana bay in 1693 by Johannes Vingboons Source: https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4924h.lh000348/

2. Configurations of the ground, Preparation for building, and Three-dimensional printplate.

Source: A. and P. Smithson, Ordinariness and Light, 1970.

Sloterplas, Amsterdam West, 1948.

Haveneiland, IJburg, Amsterdam, 2004.

4. Regla in landscape transition

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5. The view of historical centre of Regla from hill 6. Street view of Regla

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GROUND PREPARATION IN BROWNFIELD REGENERATION The aim of the brownfield regeneration in Regla is to tackle the current issue and future challenges by leverage the existing resources, and to promote circular economy, the condition of good living quality and the respect of nature. The ground preparation in the project plays a role in forming flexible spaces to deal with uncertainties in the future. It includes three parts, each according to the main discipline and time duration involved can be introduced in the order of landscape, urbanism and architecture: Landscape- Treatment of the edge One of the features of brownfield in Regla is the hard man-made, concrete edge at the waterfront. It completely changed the relationship of land and water, and blocked the access for people to enjoy the natural landscape. Therefore a soft transition is proposed in order to reshape the edge and to reopen the access.

Four types of edge are proposed, including the existing reef rock formation that located on both sides of the peak, the piers on the east that represent the industrial identity of the place, the extension on part of manmade edge that can be used as new public spaces, and the restored natural sand slopes and river mouth that returns most of the edge in Regla to its natural appearance. The transition of edge can be seen as a landscape-oriented intervention that requires a long duration. Hence the process will take place in the first phase in the overall project. The new edge not only represents the interaction between nature and human activity, but also forms diverse public spaces that bring people to the water, at the same time depollute the brownfield by involving phyto-regeneration. The section below shows an example of the implementation of the new edge in Regla. The concrete boarder was used as a starting point of the extended platform, which reaches the sand slope on one side and brownfield on the other, on both sides certain vegetation is planted to clean the soil and water, and the spaces are transformed into beach and boulevard. To ensure the safety of the public, wave-breaker made of recycled concrete walls from the boarder of industrial area is constructed along the shore.

Urbanism- Re-organisation of open space Urbanism is formed on top of natural landscape. It is a dynamic process which continually transforms the urban environment and landscape itself. In Regla, the

urban life is slower and village-like comparing to the rather busy Havana Vieja, but the influence of heavy industry had given the place another image that is quite a contrast. Large amount of open spaces in different sizes were already formed together with the installed buildings and facilities. Even though the industries are moving away, the industrial elements and spatial arrangement are mostly kept and reconfigured in the design to maintain the local identity from the history of development, and to bridge the residential neighbourhood with the waterfront open space. The re-organisation of open space in the site is mainly done by transforming the existing space into green patches and green corridors that connect the whole waterfront, with several squares with permeable pavement in between. The necklace-like structure and the existing spatial quality of open space is kept, but the change on surface and vegetation provides shades and conditions for different activities. Big patches of green are located on both sides of the edge, functioning as a green buffer zone in the regional scale, while in the local perspective work as urban agriculture field, urban parks and ecological protection area of the river.

Architecture- Plotting for potential settlement The construction of building has the shortest time duration among the three disciplines, but its influence on the environment is powerful, most visible and significant. The future of Regla is facing the challenge of the probable new investment and the requirement of more housing. To prepare in advance, instruments such as new programs, building codes and new plotting arrangement were taken to ensure the quality of natural environment and living environment, and to tackle multiple issues in one measure. Buildings are prohibited in a certain range around the river to protect the river nature, and an eco-neighbourhood with a scattered develop pattern were planned to assume the responsibility of maintaining the hygiene of river. In the opposite direction, the grid pattern of neighbourhood were extended to accommodate more population, but the original morphology was transformed to form a courtyard in the middle with thorough access to the outside, which is suitable for urban agriculture or other public use. In addition, the whole old centre of Regla and the waterfront has the building height limit of 5 stories to keep the visual corridors to the bay undisturbed.

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CONCLUSION

REFERENCE

The literatures had given the project a base on the disciplines of landscape architecture, urbanism and architecture.

Through understanding the content and focal point of each professional, the space in Regla was able to be spatially configured in a through-scale, time-considered and minimalintervened proposal. The preparation of ground aim to lead the town of Regla towards a future which landscape is protected, public life is ensured, living environment is clean and programmes are flexible and active. The proposal took the feasibility into consideration as much as possible to make sure the design is able to be implemented to some extent in the future. Therefore during the process, drawing was used as method to understand the current condition, to analyse, and to experiment the possible ways to intervene the site.

Dee, C. (2004). ‘The imaginary texture of the real… critical visual studies in landscape architecture: contexts, foundations and approaches.’ Landscape Research 29 (1); 13-30 Lassus, B. (1998). ‘The obligation of invention’ and ‘The Tuileries.’ In: idem. The Landscape Approach. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp 67-77 and 143-149 Palmboom, F. (2010). Drawing the ground, landscape urbanism today. Basel: Birkhäuser.

1. The transition in the edge of Regla 2. The green structure as the configuration of urban space 3. The instrument for building 4. Aerial view of the edge of Regla

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by Wei-Yun Lin

Re(gl)activaciรณn 1

Regeneration of brownfield in Regla The traditional centre of Regla was settled in 19th century with the deep influence of African culture. Since then the municipality has gradually developed as an industrial and residential-based area. However due to the shift of the port, the heavy industries that used to be the economic pole of the area is also shifting away, leaving a large amount of brownfield on the edge of waterfront. Therefore the spatial condition needs to be reorganized in advanced to tackle with the possible issue in the future.

Occupation

The study of Regla began with the form of landscape. Before the settlement, Regla has the topography of small hills situated in the inland and gradually descending to the bay, forming sandbank that reached towards Havana Vieja. As the settlement began, the once soft and organic shape of the edge started to turn hard. Until the beginning of 20th century, most of the edge had already become man-made with industrial use.

Mobility network

The small hills (now occupied by informal settlement and the monument of Colina Lenin) provide the panoramic view of the bay, with the centre of Regla also included. The centre is divided into two parts, the residential neighbourhood and the fenced industrial area. Starting from the Church of Regla all the way to cementary. the street Marti functions as the main axis of the centre, with most of the activities concentrated. The street also connects to the residential areas in the west through tiny alleys, forming an unique eye-level experience.

In the industrial area, several iconic buildings can be easily recognized, such as the old powerplant or the big warehouses. The area itself is connected by an old railway in the West-East direction, also by the open spaces that are already formed inside. In general Regla has the diversity regarding types of open spaces and architecture developed from its rich history as the main spatial quality.

Green-blue structure

2 1. Location of the project 2. Project in 3 layers of structure in regional scale 3. Bird-eye view showing spqtial quality and visual corridors 4. Sketches showing landmarks and diversity of space 5. Map of potential and resources 6. Regla in landscape transition

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Landscape and spatial quality

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Main connection Man-made edge Green area Main open area View point Iconic building

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Issue and strategy The heavy industries had generated various negative effect, including water pollution in the river and Havana bay, soil pollution in the inland, and the spatial barrier that blocks the access to waterfront. Nowadays Regla is facing the challenge of the shift of Havana port, together with the shift of most of the industries, which will leave a large amount of browfields in the area. Therefore a design was proposed for the revitalization of the brownfield in the future. The design took landscape, urban occupation and mobility into consideration, and drew three strategies that promote circular economy, good living quality and respect of nature.

River Physical barrier Access to water Brownfield Abandoned green Flooding area Problematic settlement Waste accummulation Air pollution Water pollution

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Overall strategy 1. Map of issue 2. Diagrams of strategies 3. Implementation of green structure 4. Implementation of building reuse

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Green edgeA new relatioship of city and waterfront was established. New public spaces are provided along the waterfront, with phyto-regeneration in certain locations.

Cultural hotspotsThe existing cultural elements were highlighted by transforming the symbolic indsutrial facilities into spaces for local hip-hop music, co-working, recycling centre, etc.

Activity stretchConnection between the green edge and hotspots were built to form a structure that enhance spatial quality, and to attract the acitivites that used to concentrate in certain axis to the waterfront.

Instruments Instruments were developed to configure the spatial condition of the site. A green structure that composed of patches and corridors is proposed to reach the purpose of creating a continual public space with depolluting or agricultural function.

Along the public space sits major programs leading by the transformation of iconic industrial buildings, which brings new function but also preserves the local identity. As for the residential area, different types of neighbourhood were also developed according to the function and surroundings.

Green patches and corridors

Wild green

Pocket green (parks)

Productive green (agriculture)

green corridor 3 greencorridor + public transportation

Phytoregeneration

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Reuse industrial facilities Iconic building reuse (Major program)

Other building reuse (Minor program)

Transform morphology Original

Urban agriculture

Eco-neighborhood

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1. The tip – Recreational activity 2. Power plant – Music centre 3. Recycling centre 4. Agricultural neighbourhood 5. Eco neighbourhood – Depolluting + Waste management

6. Creativity base – Co-working + Innovation

Master Plan of proposal

PHASE I Restoration of river nature Phyto-Regeneration

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PHASE II Connection of public space Hotspots programs

PHASE III New plots for development Building codes

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Edge Natural rocky edge Natural edge + vegetation Man-made edge Man-made + extended platform

Surface Grass Permeable pavement Soil Asphalt/ Concrete River

Building fundtion Residential use New residential neighbourhood Relocated Demolished Recreational use Government facility Transportation stop Educational use Cultural use Office / Co-working space Industrial use Cultural + Industrial use Comparison of before and after situation

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Program in detail - Recycling centre The program includes the old warehouse and its surroundings, and is composed of three parts: 1. The soft edge - Phytoregeneration takes place in the first phase. By creating a shallow area and planting certain species of vegetation, water is gradually depolluted. On the edge of waterfront a new public space is created by reusing the barrier of industrial area (concrete wall) as a extened platform to the sandbank and water. The barrier is also transformed into a wavebreaker to protect the edge. On the other side of waterfront, cranes and old railway are preserved and used as cultural elements that represent local identity. With the plantation of trees that depollute the soil, the waterfront forms a new green corridor.

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2. The recycling centre - The old warehouse (1.15 Ha) is transformed into a recycling centre that collects paper, cardboard and plastic from Regla, refinery area and Atares, recycles and reproduces the waste into new materal or products. The recycling centre also serves educative purposes, it demonstrates the process and raises the awareness of circular economy.

In addition to the economic benefits, feedback is given to the envrionment by planting certain amount of trees according to the recycling mass. In the first phase, waste is collected by reusing the old railway, while in the second phase railway is transformed into tram line, therefore the material is transported by trucks.

3. Urban agriculture In this site the urban agriculture has already taken place in a big patch of space. The agricultural field can be formed as a green transition zone between neighbourhood and the woodland in front of the recycling centre.

For other proposed urban agricultural places in Regla, when a big patch is unavailable to be provided, forming small courtyard in the neighbourhood can create condition to grow vegetables or fruits. The morphology is also suitable for providing resting spaces and local restaurants.

The section of waterfront - recycling centre - urban agrilculture

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Regla to the bay In the regional scale, Regla maintains its original village-type atmosphere by creating a soft green buffer zone, which in the local scale is permeable, open to public, and contribute to the restoration of natural environment. New programmes are injected to regenerate the brownfield and reactivate the waterfront. Moreover, the connection between the centre of Regla and the surrounding neighbourhoods is improved by reusing the railway as a public transportation .

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1. Regla in Havana bay 2. The village atmosphere in Regla

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Havana Vieja The historical centre of Havana.

Casa Blanca The metropolitan park of Havana.

Regla 2

The green village of Havana.

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Urban Energy Park Shifting energy. Reconnecting the city

-Vincent Babes

Theoretical Framework LIMINAL LANDSCAPES AS STRUCTURING ELEMENT IN ENERGY-PORT CITIES A limit (Latin etymology: limes) can be defined as ‘the terminal point or boundary of an area or movement’ (Oxford Dictionaries). In urban environments, limits have usually been used to define the boundary of jurisdictions, built from unbuilt, or functions which were enclosed due to security, sanitation or a different judicial and economic regime, such as forts, industrial areas or free trade zones in ports. Limits can also bear other functions such as connectivity (railways, highways), environmental protection (dikes, flood plains) or political (the Berlin Wall) and spiritual symbol (the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem). Over time, cities grew around these enclosures and embedded them into their urban fabrics. When the former or existing limit is present in the built environment or through a spatial quality, the space defined by it can be called liminal landscape.

One of the most common examples of urban liminal landscapes are industrial and logistic areas in portcities. These have usually developed outside the original city precincts as porto franco (area with special customs regime) but were later absorbed by urban growth and usually separated from the rest of the city by large infrastructures that serve the industries within the port.

The result is in most cases that, while economically vital, this industrial ‘strip’ of land segregates the city from the waterfront and has a number of externalities on the city – pollution, congestion and low quality public space.

One such case is the oil refinery in Havana harbour. With an area of approx. 230 ha, it occupies a large part of the

city harbour and blocks the waterfront access of more neighbourhoods of the city, while it emits toxic smoke due to the outdated technologies it uses. In the perspective of concentrating on other oil refineries and shifting to clean energy sources, the refinery will gradually close.

The problem statement is how to clean and integrate the site into the urban fabric in a gradual manner while the refinery will still partially function. This is the point where liminal landscapes come to use. By reimagining the limits of the refinery as a showcase of clean energy and slowly transferring the remediated land to the city, the project aims to work with mobile boundaries in creating a new, sustainable urban structure.

The structure of this paper is divided into five parts. After the introduction and the problem statement, I will extract a number of key working concepts related to limits and the urban plan from a selected literature review. Next, I will bring a short insight on the context of Havana as a city and the oil refinery site in particular, with the specific problematic encountered in the redevelopment project.

These will be followed by a description of the project proposal using four working scenarios of the urbanindustrial limit – enclosed, perimetral, cut-through, archipelago; and an analysis of the limit conditions in each case by the selected working concepts. In the conclusion, I will reflect on how working with liminal landscapes can influence the quality of the future urban structure and how appropriate it is for the Havana project.

LITERATURE REVIEW The literature available on the subject of limits in urban environments is far ranging, thus a selection of writings should be made, exploring specific concepts which may be useful to the redevelopment project in Havana. In Richard Sennett’s ‘The Open City’, a typology of urban limit conditions can be found; further the design can employ a set of spatial and sensorial characteristics of landscape described by Frits Palmboom in ‘Drawing the Ground’.

Finally, Silvano Tagliagambe presents landscape as a complex relation between human inhabiting and natural setting, where innovation can lead to the regeneration of a fragmented territory.

Sennett gives an argumentation for the ‘Open City’, lively, spontaneous and explorative, in opposition to the ‘Brittle 206 EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016

City’, which is closed, predictable and strictly regulated.

He exemplifies Naples, Cairo or New York’s Lower East Side as ‘Open Cities’, because despite their lack of economic resources they work, housing united and caring communities. This in particular is an important reason to choose his model as a base for the project, since Havana, just like the cities mentioned above, lacks a highly developed global type of economy, but is rich in human resources, creativity and dynamism of everyday life. Further on, the author continues by defining a number of spatial elements that in his view are enablers of building long-term, spontaneous and creative urban communities: passage territories, incomplete form, narratives of development and democratic space.

Passage territories. These fall under two categories: walls and borders. Walls, Sennett notes, have historically been not only defence measures of cities but also places which attracted social and economic informality, away from the surveillance of the centre.

They also benefit from their double nature of resistance and porousness, which creates ambiguity over the status of inside and outside, and, if the materiality is used imaginatively by the designer, can attract a concentration of human activity. Sennett affirms that this principle can be extended from the architectural object (the façade) to the city scale (urban limits).

Borders, on the other hand, are a term borrowed from biology. They stand in contrast to boundaries as edge conditions, in the sense that the latter signifies a clear enclosure, whereas the former allows communication and porosity between the adjacent cells or tissues. Both edge conditions – the wall and the border – have the power to visibly concentrate the differences between two realms, but also to foster dialogue.

Incomplete form is a concept derived from the idea of borders. It describes the elements or buildings that form an identity together with their context, which they either create or are created by. Discontinuous alignments or outstanding isolated buildings can become incomplete forms that allow urbanity to evolve within or around them. They are the spatial expression of limited knowledge in planning, a ‘sculpture purposely left unfinished’, a room for unpredictable changes brought about by the liveliness of the city and its users.

Narratives of development. In a parallel with literature, Sennett argues that urbanism is an art of the narrative, where the actual outcome is discovered gradually through time by each user/reader. Just like Darwin’s theory of evolution, planning should allow for dissonance and conflicts to emerge in order to explore the possibilities of an urban area. This concept is very useful in the redevelopment of Havana as economic and political changes intersect with a very creative local community.

Democratic space is in this context linked with physical space and less to legal systems or formal governance.

Ranging from the Athenian agora to the axis defined

by Millennium Bridge in London, it allows strangers to interact in world cities. This is, in the author’s opinion, opposed to the small scale, community based, face-

to-face interaction driven by laws and customs, as envisaged by “Anglo-Saxon” democratic tradition. We could argue against the validity and utility of the former concept in the case of Cuba. The Habaneros, with their long Catholic tradition, heritage of the African slave community and, more recently, the collective effort to survive poverty under the communist regime, have deep social ties that are very well spatially expressed: the church, the market, the schoolyard, the community grocery gardens (organoponicos) and especially the simple street, play roles of democratic space where the community members live and celebrate together.

Any effort to formalise these processes would be futile, as locals would still use the space in their very own informal way, or even counterproductive, as it would cause them to feel disconnected from public space and discouraged to use it.

A different set of concepts on urbanised landscapes is given by Frits Palmboom. He argues that landscape architecture and urbanism are becoming ever more juxtaposed in current practice and describes six qualities of the landscape that are relevant to understanding the contemporary city: amplitude, ambiguity, dynamic, materiality, specificity and partial design. Amplitude, in his view, is about the geographic extensiveness of the landscape as a succession of frames rather than an individual tableau, and the key is to grasp this succession or ‘the whole film’.

Ambiguity, the second quality, is formed in landscape by the numerous contrasts and by the mix of natural and cultural influences; the duality of landscape as commonplace and sublime. Landscape is also dynamic as a result of the constant changes which can be read on its surface like a multi-dimensional narrative.

The fourth quality of landscape is materiality which is tangible, but very ‘stubborn’ to alterations. Fifth, all landscapes are specific in the sense that they are always influenced by the local conditions which gives them uniqueness, even if they can be classified and described. The sixth and final quality in Palmboom’s view is the partial design of landscape: irrespective of the degree of human intervention, natural forces are always present and cannot be ‘forever tamed’. Even when the landscape seems to be the complete creation of anthropic design, natural processes are the main factors accounted and embedded into the act of design, and they also have the power to alter its appearance over time.

LIMIT CONDITIONS BETWEEN URBAN AND ENERGY PRODUCTION

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1. Wind turbines in the port of Rotterdam. www.portforotterdam.com 2. Solar panel field in Cuba. www.cubasolar.cu 3. Community shared solar panels. www.seia.org 4. AAIMM, Renewable Energy Park. www.aaimm.es 5. Freshkills Park, New York. www.archdaily.com

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Silvano Tagliagambe describes landscape from a human perspective, as formed not only by natural powers but also by man’s imagination.

Further, he argues that landscapes can foster participation and innovation, and have a regenerative power in fragmented territories.

He starts from the Latin root of the word landscape, pagus, which is part of the same semantic field as the verbs “plant”, “embed”, “connect”, “build”, “make something soft or liquid solid and compact”, or metaphorically “to fortify” and “to validate”. Landscape is not just a given by nature, it is an artefact in itself, the expression of inhabiting and of the emotional need of identity. How can the idea of cultural identity of a community in a landscape be helpful in the context of post-industrial Havana bay? The answer develops through Tagliagambe’s argumentation that the landscape is housing a local network of distributed knowledge among the community members and, in proper conditions of communication it can develop into a more complex form, the innovating milieu. This entails however a strong sense of common participation in the acts of local governance, in a complex web of relations between individual and community, between civic society and public institutions, between education and entrepreneurs, and in general between a territory and the community. This participation has its origin in Heidegger’s understanding of landscape as a root of human life, as an object “to look after” and “to care about”. The relations above delineate their own boundaries, which reflect into a spatial structure of the milieu: communication networks, limits between public and private, spaces for shared activity and knowledge etc. These structures create a path dependence of the development of any given community in a particular place. In the author’s view, this path dependence, if understood, can act as a regenerative tool for the fragmented territory. The methods to create this is through innovation, participation, orchestration and training.

Out of this literature review we can extract a number of working concepts for the project in Havana: borders, extent of design, narratives of development, amplitude, dynamic, materiality and governance. The proposed urban limit options will be described and selected using the concepts above by the following criteria (strong, average and light): a.

Borders can be totally enclosed (walls), pervaded (controlled access) or porous (openly accessible by outsiders). b.

The extent of the design can be detailed (for the most technical issues), indicative (for the public space development) or flexible (on private ground). c.

Narratives of development/governance are categorized as collective (public space, landscape), cooperative (industries, sports, education) or individual (housing, small business). d.

Amplitude can be at the scale of the landscape (the whole bay), the urban form (streets) or the private space (garden, courtyard). e.

Materiality/fabric can be urban (housing, production), energy-related (solar panel fields, wind turbines, research centre) or green-blue (marshlands, canals, soil remediation plants). f.

Finally, the dynamic of the urban space can be incisive (cut through the post-industrial fabric), embedded (insular or archipelago type) or envelop (embracing the site).

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APPLICATION OF THE LIMIT CONCEPTS IN THE CONTEXT OF POSTINDUSTRIAL HAVANA Havana is a typical post-colonial city with a succession of urban grids representing its main historical periods: the original Spanish colonial city (Havana Vieja); the dense merchant city first developed outside the city walls (Centro); the prosperous development at the beginning of the 20th century (Vedado); the former fishing villages gradually encompassed by industry (Casablanca and Regla); a number of incipient developments from the 1950s frozen by the start of the Revolution (East of the Bay and Panamericano); and a few socialist new towns comprising of multi-unit housing (Alamar).

It is interesting to see how the central developments – Havana Vieja, Centro and Vedado – continue on a common principle of an orthogonal grid development moulded on the landscape, while the others either rely on a vernacular formation or on a grid that tries to emulate the contour lines of the ground. It is also worthwhile to note that the city and landscape have influenced each other over time. First, the city developed on higher ground, directed by visibility over the bay, safety from flooding and the solid rock substratum to build on and use as construction material. Only the port activities, fisher communities and the slave community were situated on the lower grounds of the bay. However, in the 19th century industry has propelled the city’s development around the bay and into lower marshlands, which were dried, strengthened to support railway construction, and the edges of the bay were regulated by dikes and transformed into shipping piers.

This has resulted in a higher flooding risk of urban and industrial areas, first because these activities stretched into floodable land, and secondly because the natural retention capacity of the marshlands and many small rivers was severely reduced. In the horizon of the opening of Cuba to the global circuits of economic activity, especially tourism and energy, a variety of embedded tensions within a fractured (post-)communist society are bound to surface and this will have consequences in spatial terms.

The focus area of the intervention is the site of the Nico Lopez refinery on the eastern side of the bay, opposite of the city centre. The aim is to redevelop the area as a new centrality to cement the rapidly changing area, through a landscape and urban design project. Each scenario was informed by the dominance of an agent or factor: in the case of a strong energy based economy, the enclosed precinct would allow an independent and efficient functioning of the refinery together with new sustainable energy sources. The perimetral opening would empower greatly the local communities: they would be able to expand the housing stock, commercial activity as well as job opportunities, and improve the current neighbourhoods. A half opening would be the outcome of a weak energy sector along with a strong manufacturing industry and strong ecological infrastructure claiming the land. In the case of the tourism industry and housing developers being stronger, an archipelago functioning would be the intermediate phase before closing the refinery altogether.

The preferred option would be the perimetral opening, as it would empower the local communities, while enabling the energy industry to gradually shift to sustainable sources and other industries to develop and concentrate in other parts of the city which are more attractive to them.

CONCLUSIONS Limits in urban landscapes have a variety of characteristics that can transform their identity from boundaries to unifying borders. One such example is the redevelopment of the refinery site in Havana harbour, which incorporates two themes of limits: infrastructure and industry in port cities, and green energy production in an urban environment.

By working with different scenarios of urban development and physical qualities of liminal space, the project embeds technical complexity, socio-economic uncertainty, governance types, time factor, community participation and a new urban narrative.

REFERENCES Cluster, D & Hernandez, R 2006, The History of Havana, Palgrave Essential Histories series, Palgrave, Basingstoke.

Oxford Dictionaries 2016, Oxford Dictionaries Web Page, 4 July 2016, Oxford University Press. Available from: http:// www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/limit [4 July 2016].

Palmboom, F 2010, ‘Drawing the ground, layering time’, in Palmboom, F (eds) Drawing the Ground – Landscape Urbanism Today. The Work of Palmbout Urban Landscapes. Birkhäuser, Basel.

Sennett, R 2006, ‘The Open City’, LSE Cities, November 2006, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Available from: https://lsecities.net/media/objects/articles/the-open-city/en-gb/ [4 July 2016].

Tagliagambe, S 2008, ‘Landscape as a Regenerative Structure of a Fragmented Territory’ in Maciocco, G (eds) Urban Landscape Perspectives, Volume 2, pp. 61-78. Springer, Berlin.

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by Vincent Babes

Urban Energy Park Shifting energy. Reconnecting the city Redeveloping the refinery site is a long term project that requires very slow procceses such as energy change, soil remediation and governance shift.

The site is located between vibrant but poorly connected neighbourhoods and

OCCUPATION LAYER

MOBILITY LAYER

GREEN-BLUE STRUCTURE 210 EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016

multilayered contexts. viewed holistically, all of the regulations appearing â&#x20AC;Ś are embedded in an incomprehensibly intricate network of relationships, then they nonetheless posses a persuasive operational advangate that makes them practically viable within such multilayered contexts.

Energy shift Cubaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s energy need will increase together with the economy and the proportion of clean sources. The phasing of the project is linked to the gradual closure of the oil refinery.

Soil remediation

The main types of soil and groundwater pollution found in the Havana bay are: nonpoint source pollution, especially organic contamination (household waste discharged directly into rivers and streams), industrial pollution (mainly chemicals and metals) and petroleum contamination.

Treatments of the groundwater layer could be done with injection wells, filters, and most importantly by closing off the pollution source: that means building a proper sewage system, and separating the sewage from rainwater drainage where still combined. A main factor in this direction is education of the local communities. Cleaning of the drinking

water sources can be done by acting against industries and tourist resorts upstream from discharging untreated waste, by cleaning the water reservoirs of phytoplancton, and by relocating some solid waste disposal spots.

Remediation of petroleum contaminated soil is necessary on large parts of the refinery site. This can be done by fast methods where urgent (removing the polluted stratum) or by slower processes such as bioremediation or phytoremediation, which are more cost effective on the long term. These use Hydrocarbon Degrading Bacteria in combination with corn or sunflower, which can be later used for biomass energy production.

New narrative The refinery site has the spatial potential to reconnect the surrounding communities to the water and natural heritage, and create new opportunities of housing, education, commerce, production and leisure. It could be the local hub for sustainable energy, and attract smart foreign investment through research facilities.

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Masterplan

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Spatial qualities

enclosed

perimetral opening

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separation

archipelago

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Sinuous Horizon A framework of informality and vitality

-Chen, Yun-shih

Theoretical Framework ACHIEVING A BALANCE BETWEEN DIVERSITY AND COHERENCE FOR SPACE VITALITY THROUGH A BETTER INTERPLAY BETWEEN LANDSCAPE AND SPACE COMPOSITION

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Cities cannot exist without landscape; and activities cannot take place without space. As is defined by European Landscape Convention (ELC), the term "landscape" not only refers to the natural beings as an opposition to the artifact, but also refers to the the human-modified world, which "has an important public interest role in the cultural, ecological, environmental and social fields, and constitutes a resource favourable to economic activity...; contributes to the formation of local cultures". According to ELC, landscape, or the living environment, is "an important part of the quality of life for people everywhere: in urban areas and in the countryside, in degraded areas as well as in areas of high quality, in areas recognised as being of outstanding beauty as well as everyday areas".

Every living environment, as the way it is, exhibits the accumulated, dynamic, and through-history patterns of the uses of space, forming the unique ambiance and logic of the place. What seems to be ordinary habitual activities, has indeed strong relation to the condition of landscape.

Therefore, for the works of planning and design, which inevitably intervene into the running of public life at a specific time and spaces, it is essential to take into account the existing socio-spatial patterns, and how they interact with the context of landscape.

The vitality of a living environment relies not on holding occasional events that consume a plethora of resources or requires people to devote a lot of their time and energy

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In other words, it is about how people live their daily lives.

How do people traverse between public and private spaces?

How have inhabitants developed their habits in running errands? How do the residents relate themselves to the environment? What intrigues people to walk out of their houses and interact with others? Why some neighborhood parks and streets make people feel cozy and comfortable to roam about while others not? Does the setting provide conditions for various activities to happen? To give positive answers to these questions obliges a good interplay between landscape and the use of space, which will accumulatively form a strong connection between people and the environment in which they live their daily lives.

This paper contends that a favorable interplay between landscape and space composition plays an essential role in achieving balance between diversity and coherence, and thus better vitality are more likely to be attained, providing better socio-spatial functioning for the living environment.

THE ACADEMIC CONTOURS OF SOCIO-SPATIAL STUDIES Many urban researches have identified the importance of preserving if not enhancing vitality in cities' public spaces.

The rise of socio-spatial studies since 1960s can be regarded preliminary to this idea. Some scholars indicate that diversity is one of the most significant factors in obtaining vitality and for which they develop principals and methodologies to make useful analyses, while others point out that socialspatial studies have the potential to preserve or encourage place identity and provide better interaction with particular time and space.

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in. Nor can it be achieved by placing beautifully furbished multifunction lounges or nicely gardened parks and plazas, and expect people to social and interact naturally, as well as vitality to turn up as anticipated and further lift up the quality of living. The vitality of any residing settlements is usually displayed in the mix of outdoor activities occur on ordinary days and streets. It exhibits in how necessary, optional, and social activities transpire in a finely interwoven pattern (Gehl, 1971).

II-1. Prelude: the rise of socio-spatial studies.

Casting back to the trends of industrialization and modernism that resulted in rational buildings, straight lines, symmetrical cities and large open green spaces became the dominant ideology of the mid-20th Century [fig.03 & 04]. Despite the manifesto for a healthier, more humane, and safer life, life between buildings had disappeared. The vibrant streets full of people and activities, which were once the ordinary life's fabrics, had been replaced with empty green lawns or car-dominant avenues. No one was charged

with responsibility for life between buildings, and traditional know-how about the interaction of life and landscape were lost during this rapid transition. (Gehl & Svarre, 2013). This aroused the awareness that city and landscapes began to lose their identity, as well as public spaces such as streets or neighborhood parks were gradually seen less users.

Jacobs then drew inferences from observation and then specified four urban design principals for the creation and preservation of vibrant, diverse cities, which are (1) mixtures of primary uses; (2) small and pedestrian-friendly blocks and streetscapes; (3) the retention of old buildings mixed in with new; and (4) high densities of population and activities.

From around 1960s, critics such as Jane Jacobs, William H. Whyte, and Jan Gehl, began to stress the importance of creating space for people rather than focusing merely on aesthetic forms and technical solutions. More importantly, they and many other scholars began to develop theories and tools for studying public life, and methods and strategies to maintain and encourage vitality in public spaces.

II-3. Tools for observational studies

II-2. Maintaining socio-economical diversity to flourish vitality.

Jane Jacobs in her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961)[fig.05], criticizes the way of city planning and rebuilding at that time for being too much focused on theories to reach perfection in aesthetics orders and unrealistic ideologies, neglecting the hidden jewels of mundanity which contains the real, valuable, and proven-tobe-workable wisdoms of ordinary life in metropolitan public spaces. She starts her argument from the observation of the street life in Greenwich Village, where she lived, and other neighborhoods in several American cities. She contends that planners and designers should observe the ordinary and real life by going out on the streets and "learn from the way existing cities operate." As she writes, There is no logic that can be superimposed on the city; people make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans."

In other words, she awaked the importance of studying the interaction of public space and buildings with public life.

Jacobs further argues that maintaining socio-economical diversity is the key to flourish the vitality in a city, which can be strangled or supported by the layout of physical spaces such as streets, parks, and buildings. Diversity provides the freedom of a variety of economic and social activities, land use, and cultural lifestyles. More importantly, this freedom enables a natural, continuous, and evolving power for a society within a free and easy atmosphere which ensures a good balance between private and public world in a city.

Other scholars developed tools for observational studies of people's social activities and interaction with public space.

William H. Whyte, in his book The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (1980) [figure 06], identified everything that composed activities in the cities, such as ideal sitting places, movements of people's steps, the interplay of sun, wind, and trees, and attractive elements in public spaces such as sculptures, musicians and entertainers. He and his research team observed and recorded all of them, and obtained conclusions into "manuals" which provide urban planners principals of designing physical spaces to facilitate vibrant social life.

1. The lack of vitality at the public spaces of Hafencity in Hamburg, Germany.

Source: photograph by the author.

Jan Gehl, similar to Jane Jacobs and William H. Whyte, also started his studies from using familiar scenes from daily urban life to observe how space is used, examining what works and what doesn’t. Furthermore, in his book Life Between Buildings (1971) [figure 07], he not only identifies the importance of public life studies and provides examples of how people use spaces, but also extends the discussion to the incorporation of the research into urban planning and strategic thinking about cities. Regarding larger scale city and site planning, Gehl explores the principles for assemble or disperse activities and people, defining when to use and what are the effects of actions such as to integrate or segregate, to invite or repel, and to open up or close in.

2. The public spaces with abundant vitality of the Aker Brygge waterfront in Oslo, Norway.

Source: photograph by the author.

3. Langhuset, Værløse, Denmark, built in the 1960s. Then Denmark’s longest building, influenced by the principles of modernism.

Source: Gehl, J. & Svarre, B. (2013) How to Study Public Life. Island Press.

4. La Ville Radieuse plan proposed by Le Corbusier in 1930s, as an representative project of Modernism.

Source: Luca Onniboni, blog post “ Modernism in Urban Planning – Mechanization or humanity?”, [online] available at: http://archiobjects.org/ mechanisaton-humanity/ Modernism in Urban Planning – Mechanization or humanity?

In the book which Gehl composed together with Birgitte Svarre, How to Study Public Life (2013) [figure 08], Gehl and Svarre proposed question asking as a way to study public life more systematically. They outlined five basic questions: how many, who, where, what, and how long, to serve as basis to be combined, to be derived from, and to lead to other related questions. Through combining and categorizing questions systematically, the observers are more able to, according to them, "get specific and useful knowledge about the complex interaction of life and form in public space."

5. The cover of the book The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs Source: www.amazon.com [Accessed 19 June 2016] 6. The cover of the book The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces by William H. Whyte.

Source: www.amazon.com [Accessed 06 July 2016] 7. The cover of the book Life Between Buildings by Jan Gehl.

Source: www.amazon.com [Accessed 19 June 2016] 8. Fig 08. The cover of the book How to Study Public Life by Jan Gehl & Birgitte Svarre.

Source: www.amazon.com [Accessed 21 June 2016]

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II-4. Social urban functioning and social-spatial functioning The idea of social urban functioning is proposed by the French architects Michel Bonetti and Jean-Didier Laforgue.

According to them, the term refers to "the result of interactions between different social processes deployed in an urban space and in relation to this space." They specified that individuals, groups, and environment have mutual feedback effects on one another. Moreover, the environment gives imaginary and symbolic significance to inhabitants, therefore it can be assumed that the identity of a place are generally due to a "historical process contributes to nourishing the individual and collective identities of their inhabitants".

The idea of social urban functioning emphasis the understanding of the impact of spatial configurations on social practices. This reduces the simplification of identifying neighborhood relationships through merely analyzing working contacts, and meanwhile avoid arbitrary theories which suggest that urban and architecture forms determine absolute social relations and practices. It is emphasizes and insists on the fact that social practices are always related to a particular space-time context. Their very existence depends partly on this context, which is never merely a “decor.” (Giddens, 1987)

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Here the author makes a small modification of the term into "social-spatial functioning", to describe how suitable a space can performs as a space for optional and social activities (Gehl, 1971) to happen. Here it is specified that the idea of vitality does not only mean gathering a lot of people at the same time and space, but more about a good interaction between behavior and activity and the space. Vitality means the way people are free, relaxed and comfortable to perform optional and social activities, and that the existence of one with the setting has a positive influence to the happening of another.

ESSENCE OF VITALITY: BALANCE BETWEEN DIFFERENTIATION AND COHESION. The pursuit for diversity in achieving vitality can be regarded as an reaction to the over-simplification or ideologically rationalization focused by Modernism and Functionalism.

Nevertheless, it does not mean that there is always a positive correlation between diversity and vitality. In fact, unlimited maximization of differentiation or individuality may very likely lead to chaos or conflicts and threaten the living quality.

activity, institutions, household types, cultural lifestyles, social relations, and so forth". Meyer further identifies that to achieve both goals of differentiation and coherence, these two approaches will be differently emphasized at different scales. It is essential that "the designer is aware of and explicitly identifies the level at which coherence is sought and how it is being pursued", thus to achieve spatial cohesion and meanwhile leave room for changes, and potentials for innovative use of space.

He uses the example of the design for IJburg to explain the combinations created for different levels of urban design [figure.09]. The project seeks to achieve the cohesive archipelago form at the IJmeer scale. At the scale of archipelago itself, a high degree of variety was sought in the shape of islands and morphology of buildings. Within each islands, on the other hand, a hierarchy of different forms of public spaces again provide a coherent network, organizing the largely differentiated building blocks. The essence is to manipulate the basic components, streets and blocks, to give spatial quality and even cultural meaning in the course of time.

The notion that the increase of complexity and diversity also require a certain degree of systematic structures or rules necessitate the maintenance of balance between differentiation and coherence. The combination of both at different design and planning scales compose the paradigm of enhancing space vitality from an urban morphology point of view.

THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN ACTIVITIES AND SPACES. To ensure a good socio-spatial functioning also requires a good interplay between use of space and landscape. The case of water management in Bogotá, Columbia exhibits the paradigm shift in a context of increasing demand for housing, faced with climate change and conflict between social and environmental needs.

Bogotá, as many other Latin-American cities, housing deficit plays as one of the main problem among the city's urbanism issues. (Rojas, De Meulder, & Shannon, 2015) Bogotá River's watershed represents only 0.5% of Columbia's territory, yet hosts 19% of the country's population. Especially in the

In the article The composition of urban ground-plan in the book Architectural Design and Composition (2002), Han Meyer points out that "the more complex and differentiated the city is, the more people will experience it as 'urbane', yet the more need will arise for spatial structuring". The urbanity of a city is largely determined by the balance between spatial differentiation and coherence, that it "provides organization and system while at the same time offer conditions for wide differentiation in land use, economic 218 EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016 10

the El Tintal river watershed, one of the main branches of Bogotรก river, where most of the western part of the city is situated, the pressure of urbanizing flood-prone area for low-cost housings is increasing daily. A research done by Rojas, De Meulder & Shannon with interpretative mapping reveals the shifting relations between settlement patterns, water infrastructure and landscape. The research analyzed the changing settlement patterns that translated the watershed into physical form, and identified different periods in which productive systems have different relations with landscape.

Looking through historical patterns of the area's water management, the early land use follows the condition of the indigenous landscape. For example, the ridge fields in the pre-colonial period were found at strategic locations that adapts to soil conditions and natural cycles of flooding, and the wetlands regulated the river's dynamics [figure 10].

However, with the increasing of population, the expansion of urbanization, as well as the advance of technology and engineering, the tenure of land began to isolate from the original landscape. Accumulate through history, the current situation presents challenges in spatial layout such as the elongated blocks, undefined interface between public and private spaces (Tarchรณpulos & Ceballs, 2005), and infrastructures. All to them together cause barriers between neighborhoods, flooding, congestion, and deterioration of physical facilities. The space composition basically shown indifference towards the primitive water system and lack of integration between landscape and urban's spatial morphology.

Recently, different tools have been proposed to readjust the Bogotรก's urbanization pattern since the planning institutions have gradually began to recognize that it is necessary to once again embed the city in its landscape structure. On a larger scale, land management plans were developed to balance the restoration of the natural system with productive landscape uses (Rojas, De Meulder, & Shannon, 2015, citing CAR, 2006) Nevertheless, all of the above-mentioned cannot be realized without designing at more intermediate scales.

It requires more in-depth analysis to discover what is exactly the patterns of uses of space -- the social, cultural, and economic dynamics -- and how environmental needs can be tied to them and thus spatially translated, and therefore to maintain a coherent interplay with the natural environment, restore landscape sustainability while exploring better potentials for strategic interventions.

can work in concordance with the original landscape quality and identity. At neighborhood scale, different parts of the area, due to their different formation in relation with the landscape, as well as the different aim of development (for military use, industrial use, etc.), display a large variety of building forms, scales, street pattern, and public space compositions.

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Zooming in to the scale of basic components, the streets and blocks, there is an intense competition between diversity and coherence [figure 12]: the informal houses share a common language in their dialogue with the topography and panoramic views of the historical city of Havana on the other side of the Bay; looking into individual households, their spatial compositions exhibit a type of informality, creating a special logic with frequent encounter of small platforms at different height, connected by various kinds of stairs, passages, with a lot of turning and looking back in the movements in and out of private spaces. The intervention at the smaller scale address public spaces to attract diversity, intensify the location's ability to absorb changes and new inputs. The logic of the intervention can be replicated but the forms and specific functions may differ. The intention is to allow the neighborhood to evolve and adapt gradually through time.

9. IJburg urban plan.

Source: dRO Amsterdam

IMPLEMENTATION IN DESIGN INTERVENTION FOR THE AREA OF CASABLANCA IN HAVANA, CUBA

10. Ridged fields were strategies of adaptation to specific soil conditions and natural cycles of flooding.

Source: Rojas, De Meulder, & Shannon, 2015

The intervention proposal by the author for the Casablanca area in Havana [figure 11], also exhibits a combination of different levels of coherence and diversity. At a large scale, the diverse landscape itself provide conditions for differentiation. Within this diversified settings, the project intends to define a framework for future development, structuring the different systems such as building morphology, green-blue network, and mobility system that

11. Photo of the Casablanca area in Havana, Cuba.

Source: Anadis Gonzalez Marquez 12. The interplay of use of space and the hilly landscape of Casablanca.

Source: made by the author 12

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The intervention project, starting with analyses at a more detailed scale of the neighborhood blocks and streets, the houses basically erect on elongated blocks with low density. From the ground-plan [figure 13] we can see that there are a lot of vacant spaces which, however, instead of offering qualified public spaces, are mostly undefined and occupied with abandoned objects and vegetation. The existed vitality of the area, on the other hands, are usually seen at intersections of streets or buildings with semi-public functions (stores, medical consulting places, bakeries, etc.).

Another vitality attractors is the residing buildings with arcade spaces in between private indoors and public streets.

The shadowed and half-open quality of the space form offers the users an casual, secure, and free-from-sun-burn ambience, thus encourages residents to stay and therefore attracts neighbors or friends also to hang around.

private/ inaccessible spaces public/ semi-public spaces semi-open spaces elements that blocks accessibility railway wall/ fence street vitality low --------- high

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Finally, considering the balance between differentiation and coherence, the design proposal applying the same logic to identify possible "pockets" from the vacant lands to be defined public spaces. A rainwater harvesting network can be integrated so as to collect at where the landform provides suitable location, and to distribute from spaces at higher parts to the ones at lower altitude [figure 14]. In terms of coherence, these small "pockets" all serves as places to provide vertical connections and more better-quality public spaces, with the common image of functioning with rainwater mechanisms (in ways of urban/ landscape design) [figure 15].

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The design proposal, verifying the doctrine of Jane Jacobs, William H. Whyte, Jan Gehl & Birgitte Svarre with the author's observation and mappings in Casablanca, that it is "precisely the presence of other people, activities, events, inspiration, and stimulation comprise one of the most important qualities of public spaces altogether (Gehl, 1971)". And the settings of a space provide conditions of the availability for these movements and gatherings of uses to take place and accumulate. The first step of the proposal is to identify the existed vitality attractors with the intention to signify or enhance them. This also fit in with the concept specified by Michel Bonetti and Jean-Didier Laforgue that the historical and living process contributes to nourishing the collective identity for people to relate themselves to the place. In other words, the proposal is based on the existed socio-spatial functioning and to build upon it, rather then imposing an imaginary ideology of the designer.

Current condition

The second step is to suggest the break of the long blocks into smaller ones [figure 14], according to the principals proposed by Jane Jacobs to encourage diversity. The fact that the neighborhoods situated on a slope also shows that the shortening of blocks will encourage more vertical movements, which further strengthen the characteristic of the place. Considering the other problems and challenges of the area, including deterioration of public spaces and facilities and lack of water supply, both have strong potential to be combined with the shortening of long blocks at locations of attractors. Integrating all these aspects, the project proposed to construct a system of rainwater collection and distribution, which at the same time serves as betterment for upgrading public spaces and vertical corridors.

In terms of differentiation, on the other hand, the different forms of urban and landscape design of the rainwater network, the different topography, slope, and view of the locations, and the combination with different elements (different semi-functions), and according to the capacity of small-scale landscapes the various scales, gives the overall network an abundant quantity of variety. The differentiation of these "pockets" [figure 16] contribute greatly to encouraging vitality, while the related and cooperative system ensures a coherent socio-spatial functioning, conveying a stronger identity of the place.

Open spaces to be created (integrated with green-blue network and public spaces)

Public buildings - preserved

Maintained existed open spaces

Buildings to be taken out

Gov-owned green spaces

Non-residential functions Neighborhood blocks

Enhance vertical connection

Public spaces + rainwater harvesting network

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CONCLUSION

Vacant land

The paper explores the possibilities of achieving vitality in urban space. A scanning through the academic fields gives an idea of the basic principals for providing conditions to attract people and activities, as well as the essential practices to avoid losing balance between differentiation and coherent structure.

Vitality attractors

Implementing the principals for the project in Casablanca in Havana, Cuba, the theories of achieving balance between diversity and coherence in order to enhance vitality can be applied to different scales of urban planning and design, with different emphasis for each scale.

Rainwater harvesting

The designers not only should look carefully into the patterns of the existed context, respecting the "staying power" of the elements of the landscape that has been around for a while (Meyer, 2002), but also should develop the insight to adapt the implicit logic of the space with the delicate differentiations for a specific space and time. All in all, it can be concluded that achieving a good interplay between landscape and space composition not only balances diversity and coherence, attaining a better socio-spatial functioning, but also helps places to build a stronger identity for the place itself, for the more urgent problem-solving as well as the future framework constructing.

Vertical connection

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REFERENCES •

Bonetti, M. & Laforgue, J.-D. (2014) Involving Residents in the Design of Urban Renewal Projects Based upon a Generative Analysis of Social Processes. In Fritz, J.M. & Rhéaume, J. (ed.) Community Intervention. New York, Springer, pp. 181-200

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ELC (2005) Preamble of the European Landscape Convention [Online] Available from: http://www.coe.int/ [Accessed 12th June 2016]

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Gehl, J. (1971) Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space.

Trans. Koch, J. Island Press.

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Gehl, J. & Svarre, B. (2013) How to Study Public Life.

Island Press.

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Jacobs, J. (1961) The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York, Random House

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Lisa J. L., Scott L. F., Nicholas P. D., David L. L., & Vernon L. S. (2014) Water and Landscape: Ancient Maya Settlement Decisions. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 24, 30-42

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Meyer H., 2002, The Composition of the urban groundplan. In: C.M. Steenbergen (ed), Architectural Design and Composition, Bussum Thoth Meyer H., 2002, Plananalysis.

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Popova, M. (2013) The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces “The way people use a place mirrors expectations.” [Online] Available from: https://www.brainpickings.org [Accessed 18th June 2016]

•

Zeisel, J. (1981) Observing Physical Traces & Observing Environmental Behavior In Inquiry by Design: Tools for Environment-Behavior Research. Cambridge, CUP Archive, pp.89-136

•

Claudia R., Bruno de M., & Kelly Saon (2015) Water urbanism in Bogotá. Exploring the potentials of an interplay between settlement patterns and water management.

Habitat International, 48, 177-187.

13. Ground-plan of the current neighborhood blocks in Casablanca in Havana, Cuba.

Source: made by the Author.

14. The proposed design intervention steps.

Source: made by the Author.

15. Diagram of the logic of intervention.

Source: made by the Author.

16. Defined public spaces with common logic but diverse forms and features.

Source: made by the Author.

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by Yun-shih Chen

Sinuous Horizon 1

Occupation

A framework of informality and vitality Casablanca, situated at the northeastern side of Havana bay, the landscape exhibits powerful identity with the lime stone ridge falling into the bay, and settlements inhabiting on the steepest steepest part of the slope. The two projects in Casablanca intend to consolidate the role of the area being the metropolitan park for the city of Havana.

This project will approach from the neighborhood perspective to provide at higher scale a development scheme for the area, and then zoom in to the smaller scales with spatial interventions to upgrade the public spaces, integrated with green-blue and mobility networks. Both scales aim at achieving a sustainable framework that not only provide betterment to the living environment, but also preserve the area's vitality and spatial quality, further helping the place to build a stronger identity and in the meanwhile, a coherent connection to Havana metropolitan as a whole.

Mobility network

3

At Casablanca, the ridge falls into the bay at where the green reaches water. The potential role of the area is to be the metropolitan park for the city of Havana.

ti

Spa

lity

ua al q

at

er larg

le sca

Green-blue structure

Cristo de La Habana Hillside informal houses 1953 since 18th Century

2

Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro 16th Century

Observatory tower 1900s

Castillo de San Carlos 18th Century Fisher village since 16th Century

Military barracks, warships since 1780s

Cabotage and carpenter Workshops since 1740s

1. Location of the project 2. Project in 3 layers of structure of regional scale 3. The landscape characteristic and the role of Casablanca for the city of Havana.

4. Painting showing the narrative quality of the landscape of Casablanca

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4

Spatial quality at larger scale

Spatial quality at smaller scale

Entering the area through the main transportation - the ferry boat station - from Havana Vieja, the viewing sequence displays the diverse landscapes with landmarks, and various building morphologies from fortifying castles and fisher villages with more than 400 years' history; small manufacturing factories began with ship careening business; military barracks and warships since the 18th Century, and the largerscale container facilities erected from the port industry began in early 20th Century.

Traversing through the neighborhoods of Casablanca, on the other hand, the use of space has an intimate interplay between landscape and settlements, displaying a vibrant atmosphere with unique logic in the space composition. In terms of function, the area possesses port-related tech-engineering knowledges and manufacturing clusters.

rial

Spa

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lit qua

sm

r alle

The spatial arrangement of households exhibit a type of informality, creating a special logic with mamy small platforms at different height, connected by various kinds of stairs, passages, with a lot of turning and looking back (at the bay and Havana Vieja) in the movements in and out of private spaces.

le sca

Narrow ascending passages in between houses, with turnings along the landform to enter private spaces.

Container Industries since 1960s Marsh wetlands

Small platforms in between contour lines where the terrain provides condition for staying or other activities.

6

Self-initiated constructions using local materials with the intention to promote hidden qualities of the place.

5. Spatial composition shown in figure-groupd maps of differnet scales, and the degree of vitality on streets 6. The interplay of use of space and the hilly landscape of Casablanca

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Spatial Issue 1. Disconnection between green and blue

1

The spatial configuration in the neighborhood mostly consist of informal housings along the slopes, with long and linear blocks parallel to the contour lines. This linear blocks basically guide people to move horizontally.

Moreover, with the gated institutions on the ridge top and industrial areas along waterfront, the connection of different heights to allow vertical movement is few.

3. Deterioration of public spaces and physical facilities Many public spaces, especially at waterfront, are lack of maintenance and exhibit a declined condition. There are several vacant spaces in between houses, but usually occupied by ruins, abandoned objects, or vegetations (which are not able to walk through).

2 3

2 1

waterfront green area long blocks along contour lines industrial area 8

3

2. Lack of natural and artificial water supply The map of natural and artificial water supply covered area shows Casablanca has no river or streams providing natural water supply. Nor has there aqueduct constructed for guiding water to the neighborhoods. Currently people uses pumps to get water from underground, or collect rain water with barrels on roof top.

4 natural water supply

water supply-covered area

artificial water supply

project area

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6

1. Photo showing the water front blocked by fences of the manufacturing factories. Source: author

4. Map of natural & artificial water supply. Source: EMU

2. Photo of military area at waterfront and is inaccessible to publics. Source: Magdalini Papadam

8-9. photos showing the deterioration of public space and physical facility.

3. The technology and engineering institutions on the ridge gate green spaces inside the fences. Source: Peter Bocsak

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5-7. photos showing the way people use water. Source: author

10. Morphological study. Source: author 11. Intervention concept diagram. Source: author

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9

7 9

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6 8

Space Potentials Upgrading public spaces by organizing current vacant spaces, integrate existed vitality & attractors.

hilltop: port-related technology institutes residing neighborhoods manufacturing/ military area

0

informal residing housings along the slope private/ inaccessible spaces public/ semi-public spaces semi-open spaces elements that blocks accessibility

low density with scattered vacant spaces

40

120M

0 10

30M

local logics for vitality

railway wall/ fence street vitality low --------- high

Vacant land

Intervention Concept

Vitality attractors

Rainwater network Vertical inaccessibility

Enhance vertical connection

Public spaces + water network

Vertical connection

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10

Analyses of space potentials 1

2

3

4

2

1. Mappint of Vacant lands Vacant spaces with green vegetation

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Vacant spaces with hard pavement

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2. Mappint of vitality and semi-public functions 5

Buildings

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Semi-public functions Vibrant streets

Potential locations for public space intervention 4

3. Mappint of public owned green spaces public-owned green spaces

Potential of rainwater harvesting 4. Mappint of Vacant lands Direction of water flow Lower parts on the ridge / flatter parts on steep slopes

1-2. photos of vacant spaces. Source: author 3,5. photos of vitality observed Source: Magdalini Papadam 4. public-owned green spaces. Source: author

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Rules of public spaces Open spaces to be created (integrated with green-blue network and public spaces) Maintained existed open spaces Gov-owned green spaces Public buildings - preserved Non-residential functions Buildings to be taken out Neighborhood blocks

0

40

120M

1.

Exemplary intervention design

2.

1

3.

2

3

4.

4

0

20

60M

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Development framework

Space quality of design •

Institutional functions integrated with public accessible landscape design for rain-water network

•

Semi-public functions serve as the attractor of people to come to the inserted green-blue corridors

•

Soften the atmosphere of streetscape with water and vegetation, providing more shadows and better atmospheres

Strategy plan 228 EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016

Landmark

Industrial Area

Water Treatment Plant

Concerned buildings

Green Spaces

Neighborhood Blocks

Protected Wetland

Defined Public Spaces (integrated with green-blue network)

Military area

Water Distribution System

Moved-away Areas

0

100

300M

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Residential neighborhoods Military area Industrial areas

City Envelope City envelope for preserving and building stronger landscape identity: â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘

control visual quality from important public spaces keep visibility of landmark & ridge from the bay and historical centre to ensure tourism potentials and the symbol of metropolitan park.

Phase 1

shorten street blocks

densifying by in-filling

maintain living spaces visual quality Phase 2

cleaning industrial land; reuse military buildings

Phase 3 5-6F 4-5F

hight limit for new neighborhood blocks

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3-4F < 2F

Mobility system

Phase 1 declined railway suggested to be replaced by bus line existed bus line new bus line train (to be cancelled)

Phase 2 change bus into tram; keep the original main roads in industrial and military tramway

Aerial view landmark / preserved buildings kept and re-used buildings green areas concerned waterscape interventions protected wetland

Phase 3 downgrading several roads in the neighborhoods into pedestrian ways

Green-blue network

Phase 1 1st implementation of public spaces integrated with rain-water harvesting existed green spaces green spaces in institutional territories; improve public accessibility protected Wetland water distribution system defined public spaces

Phase 2 gradually build-up the whole rain-water structure within neighborhoods enlarge ecology park to clean out industrial pollutions Phase 3 raise public transportation and walkability of streets in neighborhoods

existed ferry new ferry lines

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Experiencing the edge An alternative route to the history and landscape of Havana

-Magdalini Papadam

Theoretical Framework THE CASE OF HAVANA, CUBA, AS A COMPLEX SYSTEM IN TRANSITION In the context of theory class of the EMU spring semester 2016 and in association with our design studio work, this paper is a reflection on the transformation of the port of Havana in Cuba and my intervention proposal in the area of Casablanca under the perspective of complexity theories of cities (CTC).

Through the paper, I refer to complexity theories of cities and the characteristics of complex systems before discussing the case of Havana in Cuba as one. The latter is undergoing major socioeconomic, political, environmental and urban changes that will drive the city through this transition phase.

In the end I discuss how a design intervention can contribute in the adaptation of Havana in certain scenarios.

INTRODUCTION Our cities of 21st century face various challenges due to vast changes taking place at a global scale. Unprecedented pace and volume of urbanization, globalization of economic and other activities but at the same time localization of specific services and a new role of the civic society, the dominance of privatization at the expense of the national welfarestate (PORTUGALI 2011), the prevalence of technology in everyday life (PSYLLIDIS & BILORIA 2013), the emergence of revolutionary technologies and climate change could be named as leading actors of contemporary cities’ transformations.

What is crucial to point out is that the above mentioned issues are not new to human or city history; people have experienced urbanization as well as striking socioeconomic and political changes before. The difference now is that the scale of the cities and its alterations is such that their repercussions bear a certain level of complexity which is beyond the so far experienced. As a consequence, they cannot be confronted with planning solutions derived from assumptions and simplifications about their inexistent linearity and tree hierarchy (HELIEU 2010).

Unfortunately, the technological advancements of the 20th century had fed the illusion that man is able to solve any problem by -more- engineering and that nature and its forces can be tamed and controlled. It has taken a lot of natural disasters and a series of engineering works’ failures for even a group of people to realize that fighting nature is not an option. On the contrary, we need to work with it, try to understand the nature of the natural processes and embrace the factors of uncertainty and unpredictability that will anyhow characterize urban development.

For that matter, complexity theories have gained a lot of ground the past decades by stating and proving that the notions of uncertainty and inability of predicting the future outcome in complex systems do not consist a problem but rather a default attribute we need to deal with. In the case of cities, this turn signified an era of design approach deliberated from the unwritten obligation of the planner to be omniscient and infallible, to know everything and be solely accountable for the success of the design intervention.

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Over the years, complexity theories have set the fundamental concerns about the cities along with the main principles of complex systems which are introduced as the structural entities of the natural and anthropogenic environment. Their popularity is also credited to the fact that CTC think of adaptability as an intrinsic attribute of the complex systems but at the same time as a desideratum of contemporary city planning. Of course the elaboration of the CTC haven’t been without any implications or missteps nor is it complete. It offers though a sound theoretical base to examine the port and bay of Havana in the current phase of transition and furthermore assess our design decisions from the point of view of the uncertain future where multiple options stand possible.

So, the main problem being that cities have become too complex to manage with “traditional” methods, my intention is to show how the design intervention I have proposed in Havana can address and respond to the fundamental issues set by the complexity theories of cities, such as adaptability and (un)predictability.

To do so, I have divided the paper in two main parts. In the first part, I briefly refer to the CTC, the issues that they have brought to surface and the characteristics of complex systems. In the second part, I introduce the city of Havana as a complex adaptive system and the ways that the changing conditions might affect its subsystems. Then, I attempt to show how the design of a route through the natural and historical landscape of Casablanca can be an alternative development, able to react effectively to different scenarios shaped by the changing conditions in Havana.

My research approach includes the use of literature examined during the semester complemented with some references related to complexity theories and the specificities of tourism in the Caribbean. Tourism, as it will be mentioned later, is one of the most influencing factors for the development of Havana and thus one of the most important. At the same time though, it involves a large number of people, resources and decisions which could qualify tourism as a complex subsystem itself. In addition, part of the methodology followed comprises the research and design analysis conducted during the studio as well as the experience of the fieldtrip.

COMPLEXITY THEORIES OF CITIES & COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS The complexity theories grew out of systems theory in the 1960s, also influenced by biological sciences, to suggest that “systems exist in all areas of the natural and human environment and that they can be controlled through regulating the communication between the various constituent parts” (DAMMERS et al. 2014: p.159). They were initially developed in the field of natural sciences with the aim to better understand the seemingly random natural patterns and phenomena characterized by uncertainty and nonlinearity. They differ however in that complexity theories accept the systems’ intrinsic complexity, their unpredictability and the impossibility of complete control, whether through topdown or bottomup processes.

The Complexity Theories of Cities (CTC) were then elaborate as a criticism towards the mainstream urbanism and planning methods of the 1960s. As BATTY & MARSHALL (2011: p.23) state “it would take a revolution in physics to move the world from a perspective on systems that conceived of a world which was centralised and top down to the decentralized bottomup perspectives that are now dominant in the sciences”. Under the perspective of CTC, cities are seen and analyzed as complex systems characterized by nonlinear processes, adaptability and dynamism.

Complex systems were introduced via the complexity theories and have been since analyzed in different disciplines. Hence, they have various characteristics and their analysis can become quite complex itself. Based on different pieces of literature, they comprise several subsystems and their function is nonlinear, adaptive, autonomous but interconnected and interrelated both to the other subsystems and their environment. In addition, they are open to interaction and external influence factors and able to provoke the emergence of new properties.

According to DAMMERS et al. (2014, p.159), “when a complex system, by human action or otherwise, is able to adapt to its environment and itself, it is called a CAS” [Complex Adaptive System]. Adaptability is such a significant aspect of complex systems that is almost taken for granted in the general discourse. This is why I chose to use the term CAS and briefly elaborate on the rest of the complex systems’ features.

The various subsystems of a CAS can be further broken down in several elements characterized by different qualities and functions. Further on, the subsystems are interconnected through multiple relations, which solidifies their dynamic nature. These subsystems can also be “divided into three categories”, namely the base layer or substratum , the network or physical infrastructure layer and the [land] occupation layer (DAMMERS et al. 2014). That implies further relations

between the layers and some sort of hierarchy within each subsystem; yet, these relations are not necessarily linear and the assumed hierarchy is internal and pertains to the organization of the various elements of the subsystem.

CAS are autonomous and interrelated at the same time. According to DAMMERS et al. (2014), CAS can work as governing or governed subsystems with the latter being intentionally influenced. At the same time, due to the complex systems’ ability of selforganization, the influencing process can also flow bottomup, from the governed to the governing. In that way, we observe that changes happening in one subsystem not only influence but can lead to mutual adjustment and coevolution of other subsystems. We could say that this characteristic is very close to what PORTUGALI (2011: p. 97) recognizes the phenomenon of emergence , the ability for “local interactions between urban agents often give rise to properties that exist only at the global scale of a city”. I personally think that this feature might actually allow cities to eventually get interconnected with their inhabitants in the way described by PSYLLIDIS & BILORIA (2013), that is through real time interfaces, a way that better suits the era of new technologies.

Last but not least, CAS are open systems, meaning they can interact with their environment and be influenced by its attributes. And this environment is every time defined in relation to the system and its elements. As a result, the environment can differ through time and from the point of view of different actors.

Apart from setting a common dialogue about the characteristics of complex systems, CTC have contributed significantly to the discourse of cities in the 21th century. The approach of cities as complex adaptive systems has made clear that urbanism and urbanism related research, design and planning need to realize and encompass the complexity of cities as the starting point rather than an additional “interesting but too chaotic” attribute.

According to PORTUGALI (2011), CTC have four core achievements. To begin with, CTC provided the scientific world with an integrated, unified and solid theoretical background explaining various urban phenomena and properties which were previously connected to different causes and sources. Land distribution, socioeconomic and cultural disparities, spatial segregation, the configuration of metropolitan regions and their networks and other topics have had distinct theoretical foundations which challenged in a negative way the holistic approach of future urban development.

1

1. The main subsystems as layers with the respective elements highlighted only at the area of intervention. From the top to the bottom: - occupation: the three historical landmarks - infrastructure: the highway and the ferry boat are the main conectors - ladscape: the natural green touches the water - base layer: the geomorphology could also be read as a second level subsystem in the landscape layer.

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CTC have opened new perspectives into comprehending the cities. As mentioned above, CTC established that complex systems, including our cities, are characterized by nonlinearity and the phenomenon of emergence. In other words, they made scientifically acceptable to think of cities almost as living organisms, entities that do not always follow linear, and thus causal, processes and that can interact in multiple levels, affecting different scales of social and spatial organization within the city. The only difference is that our cities are not natural organisms but man made. CTC have finally validated the fact that the cyclic nature of interactions in cities’ complex systems can frequently bring to surface new entities [complex systems] as well as that the states of equilibrium and disequilibrium might actually be in a closer relation than assumed.

Nevertheless, CTC haven’t covered their full potentials (PORTUGALI 2011).

Researchers and practitioners working on urban simulating models (USM) introduced by the CTC have repeatedly overlooked the data that cannot be quantified while students often use these USM to make predictions for the cities. It is obvious that by ignoring the qualitative data, we ignore the specificities of the cities resulting in partial application of the CTC, unilateral (and not really interesting or innovative) conclusions based only on quantitative data. At the same time, using the technological means as prediction devices opposes to the fundamental pillar of CTC: that complex systems, cities included, are not predictable.

Without discrediting the vast knowledge and understanding that CTC have offered so far in the body of knowledge of cities’ growth and evolution, there is still great potential to investigate the longterm aspects of CTC, balance the use of qualitative and quantitative data and formulate not only linkages between CTC and urban studies with social orientation but also new CTC oriented theories (PORTUGALI 2011).

HAVANA AS A COMPLEX SYSTEM For the second part it is crucial to showcase which are the challenges that the city of Havana faces as a complex adaptive system in order to explain how my individual design proposal can respond to these challenges ensuring the adaptability and resilience of the city in the forthcoming alterations.

Havana is the capital of Cuba and also the largest region with the major port and the fastest growing economy. Cuba is a special country in many respects. Throughout the Special Period, started in 1959 with the Cuban Revolution and the sovereignty of the Communist Party and lasting until today, Cuba has been struggling with economic instability and social decline, commercial embargo and deterioration of the built environment and the living quality. At the same time, Havana is a metropolitan area facing massive urbanization, economic shift due to the transfer of port and industry activities, imminent sociopolitical transformations and the consequences of the opening of its market to the world once again after decades.

As a CAS, the city of Havana comprises different subsystems divided in the three layers of substratum, networks and urban occupation but also interlinked. So, how are the issues of urbanization, globalization, privatization and open market, climate change and access to technology going to affect these subsystems and what these changing conditions might mean for the future development of Havana? Under the perspective of complex systems, Havana is subject to various scenarios and possibilities.

Urbanization and more accurately urban sprawl through the rural areas in the broader area of Havana will result in shortage of natural resources and possibly difficulties of providing basic services and access to infrastructure such as potable water and power. Massive and unplanned urbanization also means that agricultural land will convert to low density urbanized landscape, which in turn will have consequences on the microclimate of the area, the living conditions of the population and even the economic sector with more inhabitants competing for the same amount of jobs.

On the other hand, the shifting of the port and industry could be interpreted as an opportunity for more public space and urban development. Nonetheless, new economic activities should replace and actually enhance the current ones if we want Havana to retain a stable pace of economic growth which will secure its population and avoid the desertification of the city.

The opening of the local market to the globe along with the boost of private sector is one of the most powerful cards in Havana’s future because it is connected to tourism and the flow of international capital. And if a new cruiseship terminal is constructed to receive the large crowds of tourists anticipated, the bay of Havana and especially the historical center are in immediate need of a way to manage the crowds and relieve the pressure on the standard touristic destinations in Havana.

EXPERIENCING THE EDGE: A DESIGN RESPONSE TO THE EMERGING ISSUES In the framework of our design studio in the EMU Spring semester 2016, we analyzed the metropolitan area of Havana and we have proposed a series of interventions in distinct locations around the bay. These proposals were based on the particular spatial qualities and needs of the different areas around the bay.

My site is located at the edge of the bay, next to the settlement of Casablanca, at the west side of the entrance canal. The concept of the proposal is to create a route to connect the three historical monuments of the area and offer an alternative experience of tourism and leisure. The path begins from the fortress El Morro and extends along the coast following the terrain, it passes from the fortress of Cabana and continues until the ferry boat station of Casablanca and the statue of El Cristo de la Habana. The key interventions aim to use the spatial qualities and the existent elements and systems to solve the problems of accessibility, connectivity and lack of organized spaces.

2, 3. Informal housing and urban sprawl in Casablanca | Photo by V. Babes & M. Papadam 4. The new port of Mariel | Source: http://www.cpcml.ca/Tmlw2014/W44006.

HTM 5. Panoramic view of Havana and the site of intervention | Source: http://www.shutterstock.com/video/ clip-14536120- stock-footagebeautiful-pan- scanning-the- horizonof-the- bay-of- havana-starts- atcastilloe- morro-ending- on-havana. html 2

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The main question though is how can the design of such a route specifically benefit the adaptivity and resilience of the city of Havana. Starting from the issue of urbanisation and the problematics mentioned above, the contribution of my project to that is the triggering of actions to conceive the green areas around the region as a continuous metropolitan park connecting the green around the bay and designating the specificities of the different landscape characters, from the planned urban green to the rural/agricultural and natural. Starting by the minimal intervention of the route where most of the elements are existent at place can be the stepping stone to expand the experience of landscape to the green areas of the hinterland. Such a gesture can then help to protect currently unused green areas from unwanted and uncontrolled urban development while focusing the attention of the decisionmakers towards optimizing the use of urbanized land. In other words, it can help the city to adapt its urbanization needs with respect to the existing patterns of landscape, thus meeting the expectations in both housing provision and living standards maintenance.

Further on, the route can be seen as the start of a metropolitan park expanding towards the west of Havana region, physically and conceptually connected to the west suburbs of Alamar, Cojimar and so on. In that way, it will permit to a lot greater number of inhabitants the access to qualitative leisure space, entertainment options and cultural activities.

As a response to the shifting port, the route can work as an attractor of economic activities and employment opportunities for the inhabitants, thus activating a dynamic chain of economic activities all around the bay. For instance, assuming that some sport activities will take place along the coast, that means that there will be the need for specialized staff to take care of the facilities, equipment to be brought and why not manufactured around the bay area and so on. As a matter of fact, diversity of activities can be a quite successful means to counteract the influences of market forces in an open complex system such as the city of Havana.

As a third representative case, providing the proposed route will contribute a great deal in the tourist industry. Tourism in Havana consist one of the most predictable and unpredictable factors at the same time. On the one side, Havana is one of the Caribbean gems and it will remain as popular touristic destination.

At the other side, the flows of tourists can range to extremes due to the economic and political specificities of the country. Anyway, at this point I would like to elaborate a little upon the scenario of high increase in the number of foreign visitors. Especially in the case that a new cruiseship terminal will be constructed outside the Havana bay towards the west, then the path connecting the three historical monuments has a lot more to offer.

pressure on the historical city; visitors can be dispersed along the route, lowering their pace and preventing them from getting directly, simultaneously at the same place.

Thirdly, a pedagogic and entertaining route in direct contact with the Cuban nature and in constant visual contact with the city is not only an alternative way to experience the edges of the city. It is also a more sustainable way. It is true that new types of tourism emerge and one of the latest is the so called sustainable tourism which promotes the inclusion of local societies, minimal interventions and use of resources and focus on local economy (MOORE 2015).

CONCLUSIONS Complex theories of cities have unveiled the specific characteristics of complex systems. When it comes to the cities as complex systems, these characteristics are often overlooked as too uncertain and unquantifiable or they are forced to be confined in shortsighted hierarchical models of spatial planning and utopian urban design. Nevertheless, it is of paramount importance to realize that nonlinearity, unpredictability and adaptability are fundamental features of our 21 st cities. They need to adapt so that they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t become obsolete and their subsystems have to react and interact to remain sustainable.

The fact that cities are artificial phenomena, artefacts of human civilizations, whose outcome though we can never fully anticipate, has the following impact to our work: we, as designers and urban planners, need to always remember our role in constructing the urban agents that will constitute the complex adaptive systems to be called cities. We have to take into account that our decisions and interventions influence the function of the subsystems in a more or less direct or indirect way and possibly at a level beyond expected.

Hence, I believe that by recognizing the specificities of complex systems when planning to intervene in it, we can provide spatial conditions through our design that will permit to the complex system(s) under discussion to adapt and evolve effectively through time.

Firstly, it is an interesting alternative to get to know Havana from the other side; the unique panoramic views allow the visitors to observe the various characters of urbanization and landscape around the bay, characters that tell the story of the bay and the city. Secondly, following a path can benefit the city by relieving the

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(2003) Architectural Design and Composition. Bussum, Thoth, pp.116-129.

Meyer, H. (2005) From Plans via Projects to Perspectives: Urban Design at Delft University of Technology. In: Font, A., Corominas, M., Sabaté, J. (eds.) (2005) Los Territorios del urbanista: 10 años: 1994-2004 [The territories of the urbanist: 10 years: 1994-2004] . Barcelona, UPC, pp. 42-51. [Online] Available from: http://docserver. ingentaconnect.com.tudelft.idm.oclc.org/deliver/connect/alex/02637960/v40n2/s2.pdf?expires=1468087230&id=8 8043647&titleid=75007544&accname=Technische+Universiteit+Delft&checksum=EE85E0D35D5AA308A747F64EA B30F0BA [Accessed March 2016] Moore, A. (2015) Islands of Difference: Design, Urbanism, and Sustainable Tourism in the Anthropocene Caribbean. The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology , 20 (3), 513-532 [Online] Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.tudelft.idm.oclc.org/doi/10.1111/jlca.12170/epdf [Accessed June 2016] Palmboom, F. (2010) Drawing the ground, layering time. In: Palmboom, F. (2010) Drawing the ground, landscape urbanism today : the work of Palmbout Urban Landscapes. Basel, Birkhäuser. Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 95109.

Available from: http://link.springer.com.tudelft.idm.oclc.org/book/10.1007%2F9783642194511 [Accessed June 2016]4 Portugali, J. (2011) Complexity Theories of Cities Have Come of Age: Achievements, Criticism, and Potentials. In: Portugali, J. (2011) Complexity, Cognition and the City. [ebook]New York, SpringerVerlag Psyllidis, A. & Biloria, N.M. (2013) The adaptive city: A sociotechnical interaction-driven approach towards urban systems. In: Subtle rEvolutions. Proceedings of the 2nd International Hybrid City Conference, Athens, Greece, 23-25 May 2013. Athens, University Research Institute of Applied Communication (URIAC). pp. 371-378 [Online] Available from: http://repository.tudelft.nl/islandora/object/uuid:74eaec19f4c24315815a7680285b5a3e?collection =research [Accessed June 2016]

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by Magdalini Papadam

Experiencing the edge An alternative route to the history and landscape of Havana 1

The following project is on the edge of the bay; a strip of land on a natural cliff. It offers a quite big number of panoramic views towards the different parts of the bay and it is defined by three landmarks: the Castillo Castillo De Los Tres Reyes Del Morro, the Castillo de San Carlos de la Cabana and the statue of Cristo de La Habana. It is also unique in the way that it is the only place around the bay where te natural green touches the waterfront. However, in terms of accessibility, it can only be reached by boat or private car.

2

Hence, there is great potential to redefine this strip of land into a place and destination of metropolitan importance. A place to experience Habana in an alternative way.

The site as a whole has always been seen under certain perspectives:> It is part of a fragmented network of diverse

green public spaces around the city of Havana. > The main structures were initially built as a means of control and they are linked with wars and domination. This is where the British took over Havana but also where Che Guevara set up headquarters and prison after the 1959 revolution. > It is now consolidated as a historical site in the collective social memory; it is basically seen only as a series of monuments to be visited by tourists. > The area is used as informal gathering place for the locals -as traces of fire and food suggest. Possibly though it is unsafe and seamy due to lack of (inter)visibility and light, especially during night.

3

4

1. Location of the project 2. Fragmentation of green public places 3. The site as a symbol of power and necessity 4. The site only as part of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Battle_of_Havana_%281762%29 5. Aerial view of the bay of Havana | Source: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/unseencuba-first-aerial-photographs-revealislands-spectacular-beauty-1501542

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5

Understanding the site: Antithesis

GREY & GREEN

FLAT & STEEP

BUILT & OPEN SPACE | DOMINATION

Spatial qualities | Landscape > Green descending the c l i f f a n d to u c h i n g t h e water. > Different relationships between green and blue along the coast, but also between the observer and the coast.

Photo by M. Papadam

Photo by M. Papadam

> Natural green mingling with the urban form, the gardens and the public spaces.

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Spatial Qualities | View corridors around the bay

Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta towards the bay | Source: Googlemaps

Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta towards el Vedado | Source: Googlemaps

El Cubo (end of the Obispo street) | Photo by M. Papadam

Castillo de Santo Domingo de AtarĂŠs | Photo by I. Sirbu

Colina Lenin | Photo by M. Papadam 240 EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016

Ferry station of la Regla | Photo by M. Papadam

Park of monumental status Cristo de la Habana | Photo by M. Papadam

Park in Casablanca | Photo by M. Papadam

La CabaĂąa | Photo by M. Papadam

Bay formation between the two fortresses | Photo by M. Papadam

Castillo De Los Tres Reyes Del Morro | Photo by M. Papadam EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016 241

Spatial qualities | Landmarks

> The historical monuments as defining feautures of the site. > Their role changes in terms of perception changes in a through-scale approach. > Observation points that could also work as event spaces. > They attract but also limit.

Spatial qualities | Infrastructure In terms of views and visual corridors mentioned at the previous page, the configuration of the contour gives a series of unique panoramic views to the bay and the region of Havana.

In terms of infrastructure, transportation is mainly car dependent. Connectivity and accessibility are major challenges for the development of the site but there is the potetial for multimodal connections. > The site can be reached by private car or ferry boat. > The street network can quite easily lead to the west suburbs but the ferry connection is the main link with Havana. > There is one bus serving the area of Casablanca but minimum facilities.

Primary regional connectors Secondary regional connectors Primary district network N

0

1km

Secondary district network Ferry boat line

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Spatial qualities | Scenery VEGETATION TYPES

Photo by S. Ahmed

Photos by

M. Papadam

c

N

Sparse vegetation

0

200m

Dense vegetation

Photo by Sylvie Chen

Photo by Sylvie Chen

> Plain sites covered with grass and fewdispersed trees and dense, forest-like and unplaned green.

NATURAL & MANMADE LANDSCAPE

Photo by M. Papadam

N

Treated

Natural cliff

0

Man-made

200m

Photo by M. Papadam

Photo by Sylvie Chen

> The iterchange between different environments is not only an interesting interplay of different elements but also an opportunity to create places for different uses and various target groups.

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Spatial qualities | Perception MOVING & STOPPING SPACES

Photo by A. Canazzi

N

Moving

0

200m

Photo by Sylvie Chen

Photo by Sylvie Chen

Photo by Sylvie Chen

> The path follows the topography which along with the visibility factor and the [possibility of] activities determine and enhance moving or stopping.

Stopping | Resting | Observing

CHARACTER OF SPACES

Photo by M. Papadam

N

0

Wider areas that could work as a whole

Proposed path

Spaces for different activities

Orientation of space

Spaces proper for observing

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200m

Photo by Sylvie Chen

Photo by S. Ahmed

Photo by Sylvie Chen

> Various introvert and extrovert spaces is formed at both of the path's sides. > Observation spots are more extrovert while spaces for gathering and activities tend to be more introvert

Concept of intervention Today the historical monuments work autonomously and car is the prevailing connection medium.

The key interventions aim to enhance the accessibility and provide infrastructure to receive more visitors and users, connect the defining points, activate the waterfront and link the route with the surroundings.

Points of interest Main mobility connectors today Tunnel of the bay of Havana Ferry boat line N

0

Rerouting the car access

350m

Pedestrian Proposed Route

TODAY

PROPOSAL

Connection to the metropolitan green

Connectivity & Accessibility Transportation in Habana in highly dependent on private cars, whether personal or group.The road infrastructure already exists in a quite good condition but a radical redistribution of traffic is needed, giving priority to more collective ways of transportation.

The public transportation network will link the site and Casablanca to other areas around the bay through the "ring" highlighted on the map underneath (6) which shows the main local axes of each individual project aroung the bay.

The bike and pedestrian network will link the route to the neighborhoods.

Existing highway Tunnel of the bay of Havana Car priority [existing] Public transport & bike priority Bike and pedestrian priority Proposed route N

Ferry boat line

0

200m

6

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General Plan of proposal | Thinking and design process

1 | Tourist Attractions The first step was to define the tourist attractions, areas interesting for visitors. The latter set a pattern of what could and should be interconnected.

2 | Locally Vibrant Areas The second step was to define which areas are interesting for the locals to go. These are mainly public buildings and squares as well as some places around the fortress, the big platform which is not used by boats anymore and the impressive botanic garden created by the personal work of a resident.

3 | Defining the Path The route was designed based on the topography. The path follows the contours with a difference of 2m of height at the flatter areas. Where necessary, the path becomes steeper or stairs are used for access.

These places should also be interconnected but also linked to the main tourist areas and the surroundings.

4 | Entry and Access Points There are different ways to access the proposed route.

The main entry points are near the fortress El Morro and from the Casablanca train/ferry station. It is very interesting how someone can access the path through the areas of the historical monuments; and there is of course access possibility throuh the botanic garden.

5 | Connections to the Coast & Water Where does it make sense to provide access to the waterfront?

Existing paths are enhanced; the choice of a path or staircase is based on the topography.

6 | Activities along the Path What is it there to connect?

At the moment, people go fishing or gather wherever they can. There is also the botanic garden, ander the statue of Cristo.

The site is offered for different kind of activities along the coast and related to the water, which can of course be mixed and combined.

Picnic | Diving | Family activities [Water] Sports Gathering | Swimming | Events

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2

1 Main axis Public transportation Pedestrian

There are several key interventions as part of the overall proposal. The most important feature and the conmmon denominator is that the interventions address the opportunities and challenges of the site and that they are quite minimal. More specifically, I have focused on what are the conditions that need to be formed. The following visualizations show in different ways what should be done, why and how.

A

As mentioned, the proposal focuses on the two entry points and the connections of the points of interest. So beginning from the entry point of El Morro fortress, I propose a new bus terminal to serve both private tourist buses and public transportation.

1

A bus terminal at the indicated spot, right on the beggining of the route, addresses the issues of connectivity and accessibility in two ways: firstly, it creates new flows of people, whether locals or visitors. Secondly, it creates space to accomodate the anticipated number of visitors and works as a distribution point.

P

P rov i d i n g s h a d e a n d b a s i c le i s u re infrastructure comprise the fundamental conditions for people to use and get familiarized with the place. For that, vegetation is used to shape micro-spaces and small structures such as benches, kiosks and huts can be gathering points for picnics and mild activities.

2

T

The little bay, just a few hundred meters from El Morro fortress, is an ideal formation for various leisure activities.

3

The steep cliff that defines the bay provides already different opportunities for the surrounding flatter areas. Diving and swimming can be combined with picnic and fishing.

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4

A T 4

5

Αt the various resting areas, it is important to provide shade and ensure the view corridors so that they can work as observation spots. The scheme shows how the natural gradient facilitates the use of vegetation to guide the eye. Along the path, taller trees cut the view and form a “corridor” for people to walk. Where there are widenings, an “opening” is formed and the landscape of the area above the path takes a more park-like character.

The reclaiming of the natural coastline is a more complicated intervention, but still it doesn’t require any massive constructions. The first step is to remove the old quay, which is also in a bad condition and not used for industrial or maritime purposes.

The diagrams on the right show not only the reshaping of the edge at this point, but also its overall materiality and its openness and approachability. The visualization at the bottom of the page shows thw access to the waterfront and its transformation to a beach where different activities could take place.

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Current coastline New coastline Soft edge (natural materials) Hard edge Accessible waterfront Blocked waterfront

5

A

At the end of the city beach, the unused quay is shortened and transformed into a park on the edge. In that way, the urban character that starts from this point on is smoothly trasnfered to the waterfront; it is the link between the natural and urban ambience of the route as well as the area where tourists and visitors meet the local areas of public life and vice versa.

6

CURRENT SITUATION

R

Redifing the public square of Casablanca is one of the most important issues to address. The area is the second entry point of the route and major transportation node, even today. The fact that the main infrastructure already exists means that from the one side, it is place quite known and visited and from the other, that the transition can be designed and implemented in a smoother and less costly way.

7

PROPOSAL

The main challenge is to guide people towards the route and the points of interest, namely the statue of Cristo and the botanic garden and rethink the public space.

The sketch shows how by removing certain barriers, the space can be defined in a very different way. The intervention is simple and new limits emerge to circle the public space EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016 251

Casablanca | Phases of intervention 1 | Landscape

Old coastline

New coastline

Green areas to be densified

New green areas

2 | Street network and transportation CASABLANCA & GUANABACOA EL MORRO & TUNNEL OF HAVANA

In the second phase, the main axis remains as primary collector of transportation but oriented to public transportation. For that reason, a public bus stop is located on the central plaza of Casablanca.

The proposed route then comes as the spine of the pedestrian network.

HABANA VIEJA & REGLA Existing primary road

Pedestrian access

Railway access

Public transportation stops

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The first phase aims to integrate the green landscape with smoother transitions of vegetation and protect the vacant areas from urban sprawl.

This phase also includes the removal of the unused quay and the restoration of the natural coastline.

3 | Urban occupation

The key interventions in the third phase are the removal of unused or misused buildings. In order to compensate for the removed habitats and avoid urban sprawl, residential buildings are located for light densification. New landmarks like old train wagons on the waterfront can work as a conceptual link with other public areas around Havana, but also as guiding elements in the new green space.

Existing public buildings

Existing residential

Existing other buildings

New public building

New residential

New elements

Removed buildings

4 | Shape the public space and guide

CURRENT SITUATION Barriers Public buildings with artistic intervention Strong facades Widening of path New elements Trees

Today, fences and old buildings work as a visual and physical barrier, disconnecting the neighborhood from the waterfront. In general, the activity is concentrated around the train station and the ferry boat stop. A series of strong facades with artistic interventions lead directly to the main road of Casablanca.

The first action is to open the access to the waterfront.

Specific elements are added to the new green area and the warehouse is reused as a public facility. The artistic interventions differentiate and highlight the public buildings and vegetation is used as guiding pattern.

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Botanic garden

Axis to the neighborhood and botanic garden

Axis to the botanic garden

Botanic garden

Public buildings with strong facades

Branch of the route

Access to the waterfront

Overview The project is part of a broader vision for the city of Havana.

As such, it contributes in: > enabling people to experience the edge of the bay > complementing the leisure and green system of Havana > taking a step towards the west suburbs > offering an alternative tourist destination

Public areas of interest Natural landscape Monuments Proposed route connecting the public areas and monuments

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IX. Conclusion

Structure maps All of the individual projects contribute to constructing a new spatial structure of Havana bay regarding landscape, urban occupation, mobility and the new development pattern in a through-scale approach. Conditions were created to allow new development and programs to take place, but also focus on maintaining certain spatial quality and diversity of space, at the same time forming a flexible structure which is able to deal with uncertaity in the future. In this chapter at first different layers are presented separately, finally conclude with a combined structure map of Havana bay.

1. Structure of green-blue system 2. Structure of urban occupation 3. Structure of mobility 4. Structure of new development pattern 5. Combined structure map

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Green-blue system Park / Marshland / Forest

Potential green and blue system was proposed to complement the existing natural landscape, cultivate bio-diversity, reducing heat-island effect, depollute the environment, and enable Havana bay to have the capacity to deal with extreme climate change. In both city and neighbourhood scale, part of the system also functions as public space. The proposed structure of landscape is composed of different types of patches and corridors:

Existing green Green corridor River Underground river

- Urban pocket parks - Heritage park - Eco park - Productive green - Metropolitan park - Connecting parkways - Retention areas - Water parks

0

200

600M

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1

Urban occupation Forming on the landscape, spaces in certain locations were identified to be kept as public use in the future. The new public spaces are connected with the existing ones either through main street or the edge of Havana bay, at the same time create new relationship with landmarks. In the structure, big patches of public spaces are mainly located in Atares and Casablanca, while in the other areas spaces are more linear or pocket-size. Overall the following conditions are offered:

Existing public space New public space New hotspots Landmark Important building

- City scale public space - Neighbourhood scale public space - Connecting existing and new public spaces - New landmarks

0

200

600M

2

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Mobility To connect the bay area in a more efficient and more integrated way, 2 inner rings of transportation infrastructure were proposed in addition to the existing ring for vehicle (Via Blanca). One ring is formed by transforming the old railway system into public transportation use, the other ring is created by enhacing the boat connection in the bay.

Besides, pedestrian and bike routes are proposed around the edge of the bay to bring closer the relationship of people and waterfront. 4 major types of mobility structures are provided:

Existing vehicle route

Existing stations / stpos

Existing railway

Proposed stations / stops

Proposed vehicle route Proposed public transportation line Proposed pedestrian route

- Fast-moving route - Public transportation route - Increasing water transportation connections - Pedestrian / bike-friendly route

0

200

600M

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3

Development pattern Green-blue system, new public spaces and mobility structure have the potential to stimulate new development in the bay area. In order not to disturb the visual corridors towards important landmarks, certain locations for high-rise development with regulated heights were provided, mostly in the new neighborhood near refinery and new train station in Atares.

0

200

600M

1-3 Stories 4-6 Stories 7-9 Stories 10 â&#x2020;&#x2018; Stories

4

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Conclusion Landscape, urbanism and architecture have all met together to form the new structure of Havana bay. In the interwoven structure, on one hand the characteristics of the natural amphitheatre is emphasized, on the other hand environmental, cultural and economical benefits have been enhanced in a flexible way. Havana bay therefore becomes the new hotspot of the city, with the integration of hinterland and the bay itself.

5

0

200

600M

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X. Appendix: Analyses of 10 European Ports

Appendix: Analyses of 10 European Ports When the emergence of the container shipping industry accelerated the abandonment of old ports all over the world.

The old ports were too crowded, and their piers had too little dockside land area for the flow of containers. As the result, deep-sea shipping had moved out of the city center and left the opportunity to redevelop the old city center.

We categorized 9 main intervention strategies:

In the recent decades, plenty of urban projects in European port city emphasized on urban transformations in the run-down port area and had successful revitalizations of the abandoned port area. Therefore, we can learn lessons from experience before we go to Havana.

2. Reusing and renovating existing buildings

In the semester we focused on ten selected port cities, which were Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Dublin, Genova, Hamburg, Lisbon, Marseille and Thessaloniki.

We analyzed the port cities in different layers: landscape, infrastructure, urban occupation and intervention strategies, and also in different scales: metropolitan scale, harbor scale, and project scale. In order to understand how the urban morphologies transformed in various aspects and what are the impacts to the related urban fabrics.

1. Providing public space

3. Providing mixed use programs

4. Connecting through infrastructure

5. Deconstructing the barriers

6. Introducing different building types

7. Integrating elements through landscape

8. Promoting symbolism/ city landmark

9. Applying collaborative participation

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Amsterdam

Landscape layer

Infrastructure 264 EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016

Until 1800

1800 - 1900 1900 - 2010

City & port development

1. Embarkation of soldiers at the Montelbaanstoren, circa 1690.

Collection Maritime Museum Source: http://www.museumserver. nl/museumkrant/editie47/artikel. php3?pagina=8 [Accessed 22 November 2015]

Strategies

2, 3. Before and after the redevelopment of the East Docklands in Amsterdam, 1975 and 2004 respectively Source: DAALDER, R. (2005) The Amsterdam Harbour, 1275 - 2005. The Netherlands, Kunsthistorisch bureau Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ARTS

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Antwerp Port of Antwerp has been through several transformation regarding the increase of need for port activity. The port historically located in the heart of Antwerp historical center served formerly as naval base. The expansion of port activity toward northern part resulting a total transformation of old port located specifically in Eilandje which now well-known as dry docks.

The shifting of port activity from city center resulting different relationship between city and waterfront. This changing also contributed by infrastructure development that more focus in the outer ring of the city, creating a denser movement in the outer part rather than towards waterfront area. This then result empty spaces in the former port area.

Several strategies applied in the former port, Eilandje in order to regenerate this area into more vibrant environment such as mixed use development, iconic building project as symbolization of the port, museum, marina, and public spaces.

1

1. Landscape Layer Source: EMU Group 2. Infrastructure Layer Source: EMU Group 3. City and Port Development Source: EMU Group 4. Strategies Source: EMU Group 5. Eilandje Source: www.croonenburo5.nl 6. Waterfront Public Space, Antwerp Source: www.eilandje.be 7. Elevated Pedestrian, Antwerp Source: www.mapio.net 8. Aerial View of Eilandje Source: www.croonenburo5.nl

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2

5

6

3

providing public space

Reuse and renovating existing building Promoting symbolism/ city landmark

7

Providing mixed use program

Connecting through infrastructure

8

4

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Barcelona

1

4

2

3 268 EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016

5

1. Landscape condition which favorized the growth of urban fabric 2. Infrastructure development 1965 3. Fast Infrastructure development 2007 4. Historical center, dynamic of the port in relation to landscape 5. Initial settlement in relation to the landscape 6. Port activities expansion away from the city 7. Re-shaped landscape due to port development 8. Dynamic of the urban infrastructure and natural landscape 9. Spatial opening process. Urban fabric hosting International events in relation with the waterfront 10. Spatial opening process. Urban infrastructure as barrier between urban fabric and waterfront, restructured

8

11. Spatial re-structuring principles. Pictures of the design approach.

6

7

9

11 10 Source: http://fcomau.com/passeig-de-colom/

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Copenhagen 1. Landscape condition and port expansion.

2. Infrastructure and the service network.

3. In the metropolitan scale, the bridge conneted Copenhagen and Malmo as a whole region, giving Copenhagen the symbol of new centrality.

4. Copenhagen in the early 17th century.

Source: http://copenhagenbydesign.com/ 5. The development of port and city.

6. The city and the manmade port located in the strategical position, the narrow neck of the channel.

7. As the expansion of the urbanised area and the industrial area moved out, the land reclamation gave the opportunity to the development of the deep-sea shipping container port 8. Intervention strategies in the 1990s. The channel as the core of public spaces and the guideline of the sequence of land use, from north to south: Industry, office, culture, commercial, leisure, office, and residence.

Landscape layer

1

3

Infrastructure 270 EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016

4

2

6

City & port development

5

7

Strategies

8

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Dublin

Landscape layer

1 272 EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016

Infrastructure

1707-1791

2

1791-1997

3

City & port development

1997-now

1. Dublin harbour in 1877 Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ TheIrishStory 2. Grand Canal square Source: Google Map

Strategies

3. Old harbour building typology Source: Google Map

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Genova Genova is a Mediterranean port developed along the narrow stretch of buildable land between sea and mountains on the Ligurian coast. This narrowness of the landscape is translated into a very dense infrastructure and urban development, and a close relation between the city and port.

The city is similar to Havana through the natural bay that sheltered the first port and by the high density of roads and railways separating the waterfront and the city. The movement of port activities is moving further away along the coast, however it is limited by the landscape and the very different governance and administration.

The regeneration strategy of the port was based on a waterfront rehabilitation project

by Renzo Piano and a large international summit to trigger other events. The focus of the reactivation was the historical harbour bay.

The clear intent was to bring the city closer to the port and create a public space that reminds the community of their attachement to maritime activities and history.

Landscape layer

1

2

Infrastructure 274 EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016

Some critical problems remain unaddressed in Genova. After the covering of a main river in the early 20th century to create a new urban neighbourhood and a new train station, flooding is a recurrent issue in the eastern part of the city. The heavy infrastructure built in the 1970s to deserve the port but which now blocks the city from the waterfront.

3

City & port development

4

Strategies 5

6

7

1. Genova, 1481. Christoforo de Grassi. www.mas-applied-history.ch 2. Genova birdview, 2014. theportandthecity.wordpress.com 8

9

10

3. Flood risk buildings. www.gishosting.gter.it 4. View under the elevated highway.

Google Streetview 5-10. Genova port redevelopment, 1992, Renzo Piano Building Workshop. www.rpbw.com

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Hamburg

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Lisbon

Landscape layer 1

2

278 EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016

3

Infrastructure

City & port development

1. Lisbon during the early 18th century Source: http://www.naic.edu/~pfreire/ paulo/lisboa.html 2. Lisbon during mid 20th century Source: http://www.naic.edu/~pfreire/ paulo/lisboa.html

Strategies

3. Lisbon today Source: http://www.messagez.com/tag/ old-lisbon/

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Marseille Foundation: -600BC Founder: Greek merchant City centre Population: 855,393 inhabitants City centre area: 240.62 km2 City centre densify: 3,555 people/km2 Metropolitan population: 1,727,070 inhabs Metropolitan area: 3,173 km2 Metropolitan density: 580 people/km2 Sea: Mediterranean Sea Developed from antient Greek trading settlements, the city of Marseille prospered from the old trading harbour, todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Vieux Port, with intense economic to the Mediterranean cities. The landscape of the city exhibit mountains surrounding three directions of the city, which resulted Marseille being an independent city through history.

Landscape layer

0

1

3 KM

100

300M

The 19th Century industries has forced the port to extend northward due to the insufficient capacity of the old harbour. With the trigger of railway and industrial ports, the city has grown rapidly in the recent 200 years. Today, due to the need for bigger scale and area for petrol-chemical indutries and decentralization of economic clusters in combined with transportation systems, the industrial ports are to be gradually moved to Golfe de Fos. The EuromĂŠditerranĂŠe plan was proposed for the post-industrial ports of Marseille, with new cultural, leisure, economic, and residential functions installed. Today the previous industrial ports has become the new waterfront and centre for the city of Marseille, working cohesively with the old centre, the Vieux Port and the historical centre.

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0

1

600 B.C. to 1800s, the historical city of Marseille developed around the old harbour.

2 Main axis to be emphasized New tramways New buildings or reuse of old buildings

Main public spaces Project patches

19th to early 20th Century, the industrial port gradually grow northward, the urbanized area also expanded with the growth of the infrastructure framework.

The shifting of industrial ports and the strategies for redevelopment of postindustrial ports on going.

3

City & port development

4

1. Photo of old infrastructure showing the busy and prosperous harbour of Marseille in the 19th and 20th Century.

Source: Ferdinand Arnodin 2. Main projects in the 1st phase of Euroméditerranée plan 3. Photo of the integration of historical and new waterfront.

Source: Euroméditerranée.fr 4. Sections of enhance vertical mix-use and ground-floor through-access for public buildings at waterfront.

Source: GPMM

Strategies 0

0.5

1KM

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Thesaloniki

Landscape layer

Infrastructure 282 EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016

Hellenistic era - 1860

City & port development

1860 - 1960

1960 - Today

1. View of Thessaloniki behind the city walls, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Le Journal Illustreâ&#x20AC;?, 1876 Source: http://el.travelogues.gr/ item.php?view=52406 [Accessed 22 November 2015] 2. Thessaloniki | View of the quay, 1876 Source: YEROLYMPOS, A. (1996) Urban transformation in the Balkans (18201920): aspects of Balkan town planning and the remaking of Thessaloniki.

Thessaloniki, University studio press.

Strategies

3. View of Thessaloniki from the White Tower Source: photo by Magdalini Papadam

EMU TUDelft SPRING 2016 283

RETHINKING

HAVANA CONSTRUCTING SUSTAINABLE URBAN LANDSCAPE EMU SPRING 2016