Neglected bigness reader final by Centar arhitekture

BELGRADE.SCAPES:LAB_2014 NEGLECTED BIGNESS_ WORKSHOP_ READING MATERIAL

0. Introduction Position and map of Kaluđerica. Intro. Detailed regulation plan of residential settlement of Kaluđerica (1987) Detailed regulation plan of residential settlement of Kaluđerica (1996) Formal framework (de iure) : Illegality Legalization and Other Manoeuvres, ETH Studio Basel Dubravka Sekulić, Glotzt Nicht so Romantisch! On Extralegal Space in Belgrade Periodizacija stambene gradnje u Kaluđerici, group of authors, University of Belgrade Kaluđerica from Šklj to Abc, STEALTH.unlimited and Nebojša Milikić

1. Informal Settlements Urban interventions reader, UTT: Situations (edited by Claire Doherty) Henri Lefebvre, The Right to the City (Writings on Cities)

Critical mapping, Brillembourg&Klumpner, UTT Sarajevo informatlity: Transformability of space +Workshop VHP, Vesna Hercegovac-Pasic 2. (Neglected) Bigness Spanish real estate bubble: Españistan, video by Alex Saló A selection of urbanicides, Nación Rotonda

Notes on suburbs: Henri Lefebvre, Town and country (Writings on Cities) Milos Bobic, Subscapes (Urbanity Impossible)

3. Trans-Suburban territories Levittown map+data Denise Scott Brown, Invention and tradition 4. Participation Erik Swingedouw, Designing the Post-Political City and the Insurgent Polis Chris Cornelissen / Adam Poinsett, Subversive urbanism Participatory mapping: Kibera Map 5. Kaluđerica specificities / Urban stories Snežana Timotijević, Demystification of turbo constructions Call for participation

0. Introduction Position and map of Kaluđerica. Intro. Detailed regulation plan of residential settlement of Kaluđerica (1987) Detailed regulation plan of residential settlement of Kaluđerica (1996) Formal framework (de iure) : Illegality Legalization and Other Manoeuvres, ETH Studio Basel Dubravka Sekulić, Glotzt Nicht so Romantisch! On Extralegal Space in Belgrade Periodizacija stambene gradnje u Kaluđerici Kaluđerica from Šklj to Abc, STEALTH.unlimited and Nebojša Milikić

Typology

Kalujerica is the biggest informal settlement in Europe. It has aproxemately 70 000 Houses. Over the years it got city infrastructure, a school and a kind of highstreet with shops and a super market. Belgrades experience the hybride of a village and a subburb usually only from a distance as a flood of houses lying stranded on the hills in east of belgrade just outside the city boarders.

The people in Kaluderica are reusing names as well. Each street in the centre finds its rural conterpart. The Name sign on the settlements entry was once replaced by the name of an croatian city where the latest group of refugees was coming from.

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[1]

For many years government did not designate new building land for individual construction. Moreover, in large areas construction was impossible because lodges application corresponding to state-projects lacking enough money to be realized were effectively blocking the issuance of any building permit. Therefore, wild builders avoid the time consuming, uncertain and complex official application process, which can still take up to two years and was often longer in at the time of war and chaos.

ILLEGAL

LEGAL PROVE LEGALITY

LAND LAND-USE

LEGALIZATION LEGALIZATION

+CHANGE OF PLANNING

STRUCTURE USAGE

against private interests

against public interests

not registered

CORRUPTION

+CHANGE OF PLANNING

with all official documents

This diagram shows different terms that might be the reasons for illegality and the process that are able to shift them towards legality.

Nine basic types of wild buildings have been identified and are presented in a typology with their specific stories, actors, the impacts to their environments, localization and strategies. The timeline of illegal expansions shows that variation of these types evolved along with the speed of changes in their environment. It reaches its peak in the nineties were everything was â&#x20AC;&#x153;upside downâ&#x20AC;?, wild became the order and illegal building was often the only way to build.

[1]

TYPOLOGY

1. VILLAGE TREANSFER

2. PATCH WORK HOUSES

3. SMALL PARADISES

4. SECOND LEVEL ESTATES

5. CITY DWELLING HEAPS

6. SUPER STAND CLUSTERS

7. VOID SHOPS

8. PERMANENT TEMPRORALITY

9. BLOWN UP REGULATIONS

Typology

1 VILLAGE TRANSFER

In times of socialism people coming to the city without an employment had no access to the officially provided flats. They settled illegally close to the city borders. During the break up of Yugoslavia and the dispersion of Serbs, Croats and Muslims, the population of entire villages in East Croatia migrated to Serbian urban areas following the migrants of earlier times. In these years houses grew like â&#x20AC;&#x153;mushroomsâ&#x20AC;? on the agricultural land around Belgrade, all looking alike.

no security

missing data no registration

no tax income informal infrastucture

1960

Actors Usage

1970

: Migrants from the countryside, refugees : Housing

no integration

1980

1990

Fuel

2000

2005

: Refugees, bureaucracy, socialist housing policy Strategies : Number, necessity,

[2]

Institutions such as the government of the State and administration of the City define laws on the basis of which is decided what type and features of buildings are legal or illegal. However the aims and regulations of governments and administrations can also shape and encourage the environment for wild building construction. During the last years Belgrade as a post-socialist city has been facing multiple transformations, and complex structural changes: going from its specific totalitarian form of governing towards a democratic society, from planned economy to market economy, from an industrial to a post-industrial society. Next to that the city had to deal with many problems such as the wars, hyperinflation and the change of government and power. All of these transformation and impulses influenced wild building as well as shaped institutionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attitudes towards informally erected objects. The shifting attitudes and changing policies towards these objects are connected to the government in place and its willingness and ability to enforce them.

In Belgrade three periods of such institutional attitudes can be identified. The first one corresponds to the socialist era, when the state claimed to be able to provide housing for every citizen. The second one in the 90â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in times of chaos and the break up of Yugoslavia, when wild building was accepted as informal social policy. The third one, after Milosevicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fall in 2000, when the country begun its way to become a democratic society and a functioning market economy and, therefore, was trying to integrate wild buildings as well. The attitudes overlap, resulting in different layers of action and sometimes in different layers of legality.

Attitude

SOCIALISM: “NO TOLERANCE”

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia wanted to provide flats for everyone; it was the time in which the State monopolized housing construction and developed collective housing blocks in urban areas. Nevertheless, the facts showed the limits of this policy as receiving a flat in Belgrade implied having a working place in this city. The state ignored these problems for ideological reasons. The individual housing production was not supported or recognized by the government at this time. Already in the 60’s illegal constructions appeared in all major socialist cities of Yugoslavia. The phenomenon intensified in the middle of the 80’s in the peripheries of urban areas, when farmers began to sell their rights to use the agricultural land as a building land. These illegal transactions required the splitting of agricultural plots. Such transactions and further constructions were not permitted by the law and the city reacted by imposing penalties: demolitions, refusing utilities and impossibility of registration. Nevertheless there was a common practice to backdate permits.

“In the 80`s more and more Serbs came to Belgrade migrating from the Kosovo. The government did not react on such shifts of popultaion. The problem of different ethnic groups in this area should not be made public as it did not fit in the Idea of a united Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The refugees solved the problems themselves building houses at places like Kaludjerica.”

Attitude

NINETIES: “MAXIMUM PROFIT”

The 90`s began with a new wave of Yugoslav nationalism and the break up of the country after a decade of weak government. By 1995 the balance of the situation was three wars and shifts of over half a million people. The economy was down, hyperinflation made any savings useless and the state funds for housing and pensions had been raided years before. The city faced proliferation of wild building activities, waves of refugees and growing acceptance of a “do it yourself” mentality. Former criminals became police-force members and war-lords officially respected idols for parts of a whole generation. The authorities reacted widely with a sellout of agricultural fields, public spaces, open plots and temporary permits to build on them. Wild building was accepted as informal social welfare and authorities tried to get their share from it.

In the nineties, Belgrade was known as the “Kiosk City”, because of all the kiosks and sellers populating the streets. Still today you can find traces of demolished kiosks in central locations like the Boulevard of King Alexander in the city centre.

Attitude

SINCE 2000: â&#x20AC;&#x153;ORDER THE CHAOSâ&#x20AC;?

Already in the late 90`s the institutions realized that ignoring or demolishing all wild buildings was not possible any more. It was said that demolishing all wild buildings would cost 2, 5 billion â&#x201A;Ź , much more than their outright Legalization. With the help of aerial photographs the city tried to record the state of facts. The areas where the problem was most urgent were defined and the city started to develop regulatory plans, propose basic infrastructure and utilities to integrate the informal settlements and their inhabitants into the city fabric. For the first time it was officially recognized that wild building could not simply be regarded as criminal action but was a product of its time, caused by specific circumstances. A high-level government committee was established, headed by the Prime Minister in 2002 and focused on land registration, real property markets, privatization, and property rights. Together with the new 2003 master plan the institutions attempted to set up a deadline for starting a new era of planning and construction and stop all illegal activities. At the same time they tried to legalize as much as possible of the existing buildings, giving their owners the opportunity of being fully represented in the city, getting mortgages and entering the rapidly expanding legal real estate market.

G lotzt N ichtso R o– m antisch! O n Extra– legalSpace in Belgrade An early play ofBrecht’sfeatured the banner“G lotzt N icht so R om antisch!” (“D on’tStare so R om antically”: instead,the audience had to assum e a criticalengagem ent. H atherley,2008:101)

‘Gardens, without precisely balanced poles of activity like front and back, appear as neutral grass carpets on which the houses are simply and somewhat haphazardly placed.’ – A view of Kaluđerica settlement from the adjacent hill.

Belgrade, being the capital of Yugoslavia, and burdened by the representational and symbolic weight of that role, was more than other cities prone to the flourishing of the ‘wild’, not only because it faced the largest migration pressure, but also due to the fact that the planning left little space for individual residential building, as the capital had to showcase the effectiveness of the “right to housing” system. “There is a bewildering quality to the informal periphery of Belgrade: it is strikingly similar to a Western-style single-family suburb. Nothing about it is precarious, everything peaceful, normal, well-off. Still the sensation is puzzling; the similarity is alienating, uncanny. At second glance, differences begin to reveal themselves and the picture starts to look like a carefully orchestrated subversion. Houses are large, expressing affluence. They appear unfinished, even though the setting is calm and looks long-since settled. Building volumes give an impression of homogeneity, sameness, but even a careful search does not yield any precise repetition of details, elements or geometric forms.” (Topalović, 2012: 88)

Kaluđerica became a safe heaven for all those who had been waiting for years to get an apartment of their own, and others who knew that they could never get an apartment. In 1986 the sociologist Branislava Saveljić did a survey of Kaluđerica, which at the time had around 40,000 inhabitants. It was later published as a book with the title ‘Belgrade Favela — the formation and development of Kaluđerica as a result of an illegal housing construction in Belgrade’. The survey, the first of its kind, attempted to understand the social structure and motivation of people who built and settled in Kaluđerica, despite its bad infrastructure and the permanent threat of demolition. It also aimed to get insight into the sources

A self-built duplex for two brothers and their families in Kaluđerica; both floors in various stages of completeness. Due to the lack of proper public space, the front garden became a playground for the local community.

of financing the constructions. Saveljić’s survey changed the then prevailing perspective that the illegal (self)builders were primarily people with a low income and limited education, and showed that Kaluđerica was much more diversified than expected, consisting equally of highly educated people and skilled workers, and those who had had just a few years of elementary school education. It also showed that a number of people were politically motivated migrants who wanted to relocate to Belgrade in anticipation of the unrest and wars of the 1990s, either from Kosovo, or Croatia. This was an often overlooked aspect of the internal migration in the 1980s, that was usually attributed just to economic reasons. Most of the internal migrants from Croatia stated that the reason of their relocation was the Croatian spring of 1972, the nationalist outburst, the first of that kind in Yugoslavia. 44% of those who moved to Kaluđerica from Croatia were from Knin, a town that, in the 1990s, would become a capital of the short-lived autonomous Serbian province in Croatia during the war. (source Saveljić, 1988: 75-table 26)



Following the housing privatization, new owners started making small modifications to their industrially produced apartments in order to suit their needs. The most common modifications were the expansion of living space to the balcony area, and the addition of visible, external air conditioning units, as seen here.

Ironically, the most common profession among the self-builders of Kaluđerica was construction-industry related. These workers would spend some months working on construction sites, operated by Yugoslav companies abroad, often in some African or Middle-Eastern country, and then come back and continue to build their homes with the money they brought home. The remittances from Gästarbeiters was another important source of financing in Kaluđerica, and other wild suburbs, as well as personal savings, or proceeds from the selling of land or houses in the builders’ villages of origin.

However, the survey discovered that the wild builders were often able to get bank loans for their constructions. The circumstances under which those bank loans were granted were not always transparent and seemed to point at possible corruption. In 1975, the city of Belgrade passed a “Programme of Measurements and Actions to Diminish Illegal Construction” (Službeni List grada Beograda, 18/75). In the period between the 1950s up to the end of 1986 30,873 illegally built constructions were registered, as well as an additional 23,584 illegal adaptations and extensions. However, this number is cumulative, as it combines also the period before 1976, when the much stricter policy against wild constructions applied. If one just considers the period between January 1976 and December 1986, the number of illegal housing objects is 19,029. 3,056 of these houses were demolished; 16,661 illegal extensions were built, 4,351 of which were demolished, so 26.4% of the buildings were demolished. The ones built before 1975 were mainly constructed before WWII and were erected in the areas in which organized housing was planned. (source: Saveljić, 1988: 28) The programme was the first sign that the City was getting ready to deal with the issue of wild construction. Until then, the problem had been largely ignored, although all the laws regarding urban planning or construction prescribed heavy penalties if such construction took place. Once the programme was introduced, targeted demolition became a common practice in the campaign to deter potential wild builders. Yet, the number of illegal units grew steadily each year.

“The surface of the terrain, a former field, is clearly visible and stretches continuously beneath the buildings, unaltered. Gardens, without precisely balanced poles of activity like front and back, appear as neutral grass carpets on which the houses are simply and somewhat haphazardly placed. No design, urban or architectural, situates the neighbourhood and its residents within a specific cultural or aesthetic milieu. The wild suburb does not reproduce or evoke any known urban or suburban models: it is not a garden city or cul-de-sac, nor even a village, but replicates nothing but itself.” (Topalović, 2012: 88)

The prevailing impression is that someone simply shook a sack of houses on a field and left them strewn about with no particular order. Eventually, a road was trodden between the houses. Urbanists largely turned away from the problem and failed to propose proactive strategies as to how the future spreading of the wild suburbs would be regulated rather than contained. Their plans basically came down to attempts to ‘normalize’ the conditions and make them resemble nominal urbanism as much as possible. Ironically, none of the official plans marked the wild suburbs – until the amended version of the General Plan of 2003 was drawn up. Wild suburbs were usually coloured verdant – indicating them as green, unconstructed areas. Unlike urbanists, who turned a blind eye, the rest of society, especially towards the end of 1980s, was discussing the issues of wild construction and the theme was even present in popular culture, as it was often the peripheral story of many television films and series. The take of Television Belgrade on the genre of the coming-of-age series, “Zaboravljeni” [The Forgotten], popular in the late 1980s, among the main protagonists, mostly well-off high-school students,

includes the character Danko, who lives in a permanently semi-finished house in Kaluđerica. In one of the scenes, when his richer friends ask whether he could use his telephone, he bitterly replies: “Phone, man! This place has no running water, or sewage, no streets, this place doesn’t even exist on a map! All of this is illegal!” This sums up well the de facto situation.

But how illegal was Kaluđerica in fact? The first illegal constructions in Kaluđerica were completely outside of the law. Arable land close to existing buildings would be bought and houses would start to be built, sometimes almost overnight, and at other times in a long, painstakingly slow process, since the self-builders could afford just a small amount of money for construction works, often moving into the house long before it would be really habitable. There were absolutely no plans for building any infrastructure, and dozens of houses would often rely on just one public pipe for water supply. Despite its

difficult start, Kaluđerica started to grow, and with it the leverage its inhabitants had on the officials and the city. Little by little, sometimes with some corruption thrown in, and sometimes with the power that numbers can wield, electricity, water and other kinds of infrastructure became available. Roads were widened and asphalted, even if that meant that some of the people had to sacrifice part of their front gardens. The more infrastructure came to Kaluđerica, the less precarious its position was, at least for existing buildings. At the end of the 1980s, the Constitutional Court made an official ruling that it was allowed to connect illegal buildings to communal infrastructure. (This ruling basically condoned corruption necessary to plug into the grid in the first place.) This measure introduced another level of protection for the illegal buildings, at least as long as all the bills were paid. It can be said that Kaluđerica, and other wild suburbs developed before the 1990s, were the training fields for negotiation of the grey, extralegal space that came to exist between legal, illegal and future legal, and that became the crucial survival strategy in the 1990s. Additionally, as most of the property in the wild suburbs was privately owned, they were one step towards the condition desired in 1990, as the concept of social ownership was being slowly abandoned and liberalization of ownership was well underway. In order to motivate people to invest personal funds in housing construction, from the mid 1960s onwards another form of ownership came into being: co-ownership. The right to co-ownership was not open to everyone in the country, only to those who had higher incomes, i.e. the red bourgeoisie. It was a covert push towards the re-emergence of the classes, and capitalism in traces. Next to co-

“If we try to determine illegal construction by function, that is a form of the individual residential construction without the proper prescribed documents (building permit) and on an unauthorized site planned for other use. But that unauthorized site, as a rule, was the only possible space where the worker - a migrant, until recently a peasant, could build a house for himself and his family. The selection of a certain location, is above all all the result of the economic possibility, rather, impossibility of the migrant to solve the basic existential question - an apartment. Land and locations allocated by the city for individual residential use, and for which is possible to get a building permit (if there is at all an adequate land policy and urban plans) is for many new migrants too expensive. Therefore, many violate the regulations: build without a permit, on an unauthorized sites, often purchased for less from private owners.” (Saveljić, 1988: 14)

ownership, in 1984, after pressure from Belgrade, the special Law on the Extension of Buildings and the Conversion of Common Spaces into Apartments passed, which would allow the construction of roof extensions and the conversion of common space in the societally owned buildings into residential space. It was important to create a special legislature for this necessary process of densification, common especially in the central parts of Belgrade, as this practice was regarded as a restriction of some of the rights (availability to all, especially when the spaces in question were roof terraces on flat roofs, or commonly owned spaces). As this was a delicate issue, in particular for those who had to give up part of their rights, the legislature was precise in prescribing both the procedure for the extension and the procedure for acquiring the rights to one. In order to obtain a permit, it was important to prove that such action was of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;social interestâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. In 1987, conversions into office space or ateliers became also possible. Together with the concept of co-ownership, the conversion of socially owned spaces could be seen as preparation for the changes that Yugoslavia would undergo in 1989 and 1990, when the market won over socialism and private ownership started to be reinstated in the country. The attitude towards providing housing changed fast. Already in 1990, finding housing became a personal responsibility and ceased to be the task of society as a whole.

Law on Housing Relations, Official Gazette of the Socialist Republic of Serbia 12/1990 Article 2 Working people and citizens will meet their personal and family housing needs with their own resources with regard to the construction, purchase and lease of their apartments.

See Article 2

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CRITICAL MAPPING

Prof. Brillembourg + Prof. Klumpner Chair of Architecture and Urban Design ETH Zurich | DARCH Lindsey Sherman Michael Contento

Constant_New Babylon

On site there exists a series of overlapping and multilayered systems - morphological, social, political, economic, ecological, historical, cultural, and temporal.

MAPPINGS have the power to shape our perception of place depending representation.

MORPHOLOGICAL distortion through STATISTICAL DATA

Wealth 1500

World Population

HIV

Wealth 2002

Military Spending

War Deaths

http://www.worldmapper.org

Buckminster Fuller_Dymaxion Project

CRITICAL MAPPING is a process that builds knowledge in order to create a deeper understanding of place.

new GEOGRAPHIES mapped through SOCIAL PHENOMENA and DEMOGRAPHICS

San Francisco Photos

San Francisco Segregation

Eric Fischer

new GEOGRAPHIES mapped through SOCIAL PHENOMENA and DEMOGRAPHICS

Detroit Photos

Detroit Segregation

Eric Fischer

Asger Jorn_Fin de Copenhague

Archigram_Living City

Critical Mapping is not a product. It is an ACTION.

INFI_ Model Town

Niemann_ New York City

%XCERPT FROM A DATABASE OF .EW 9ORK #ITY PRISONERS WITH HOME ADDRESS ;$ATA HAS BEEN SCRAMBLED =

0RISON ADMISSIONS BY HOME ADDRESS "ROOKLYN .9

#RIME DENSITY MAP "ROOKLYN .9

0RISON ADMISSIONS DENSITY MAP "ROOKLYN .9

0RISON ADMISSIONS BY CENSUS TRACT "ROOKLYN .9

0OPULATION LIVING IN POVERTY BY CENSUS TRACT "ROOKLYN .9

0RISONER MIGRATION PATTERNS "ROOKLYN TO .EW 9ORK 3TATE

0RISONER MIGRATION PATTERNS "ROOKLYN .9

Spatial Information Design Lab, Columbia University_Architecture and Justice

a-u-r-a_Reintroducing the City of Havana

Urban-Think Tank_Grotao

San Agustin Barrios Ubicaciรณn vivienda/ Housing settlement

San Agustin Plano de Conjunto/ Site plan

13 Urban-Think Tank_MetroCable

Análisis Topográfico/ Topographical Analysis

[1] Diagrama de pendientes Configuración de los asentamientos circulación del agua de lluvia. Slopes diagram Settlements configurations rain water circulation.

zonas en pendiente/slope areas

[1] [2] Lectura de la topografía, donde el punto más alto es 975.00-980.00 m de altura y el punto más bajo es 875.00 m Understanding the topography, where the highest point is bet. 975-980.00 m and the lowest point is 875.00 m

punto más alto de la colina/highest point in the hill punto más bajo de la colina/lowest point in the hill

[2] 12

Urban-Think Tank_MetroCable

23 Urban-Think Tank_MetroCable

Urban-Think Tank_Kohima

Urban-Think Tank_ETH Student Work_Gruner + Waser

Urban-Think Tank_ETH Student Work_Jeannet

Urban-Think Tank_Columbia Student Work_Sherman

Urban-Think Tank_Columbia Student Work_Johnson

Urban-Think Tank_Columbia Student Work_Aders

DEPARTMENT OF URBAN DESIGN AND TOWN PLANNING author: Prof. Vesna Hercegovac-Pasic TRANSFORMABILITY OF URBAN SPACE THE FORCE OF THE CITY THAT INSPIRES...Can we believe that Sarajevo is this kind of city, and if it's not, or if it lost this force, can it 'reach it again', or to put it differently is it possible to REANIMATE it, in WHICH WAY and to WHICH LEVEL? Process of transformation with the objective of forming new identity â&#x20AC;&#x201C; new urbanity, facilitates the possibility of positioning Sarajevo along with other 'world metropolises' with the characteristics of 'global society', which means that new urbanity is the directive and the expected result. Results of changes are applied- 'written down' inside the town structure and this new urbanity. In the Sarajevo example, they are to be reflected inevitably inside the complex series of steps. This activity inside the urban space, as an extremely complex process, inside the frame of this complex spatial structure - the City, will move inside the range of minimal, cautious 'touches' of the existing tissue marked by heritage and detail, until the radicalization of the process, shown by the method and scale of intervention. This will be reflected especially in the new parts of the City, zones of clear urban discontinuity, spatial inconsequence and lack of elements, formed as the consequence of the activities of the generations of architects and urbanists, educated on the functionalist bases , but also the rigidness of the socialist model of 'controlling space'. In the new parts of the City tissue new qualities of Modern style will be recognized, representing the principle of the so-called 'reading of the historical layers', where these European urban formulas represent traditional values reflected, above all, in the formulas of the modern ways of living, because the culture of the inhabitants of the New Town is, in the first place, urban, with an affirmative attitude towards their living environment. For this reason, the projection of the urbanity of Sarajevo as a modern European city, with new typological and functional directives, developed infrastructure, inside Sarajevo-metropolitan space has to express the meaning /sense/ inside these very parts of the urban context of the New Town. This, above all, means that the optics, by which these parts of the City are viewed, will change. Here, there's no space for the post-modern taboo, when there's an issue of transforming whole parts of the City, because there prevails the consciousness of the unique chance of passing from the destruction to the new constitution. So, abandoning of the utopist ideas of forming of the city based on the principles of CIAM, introduces us to the process of multilayered changes, new programmatic frames and redefinitions of the bases of the plans of higher level, in one word new urbanism is born. FORMULA: New development elements and Hypothesis> New standards > Redefinition of long term directive development etc. = New Urbanity > New Ambiences > New enriched consistent frame > New Communicative and infrastructure layers /as a result of the greater density of the program and restructuring of the space of 'mega-blocks' â&#x20AC;&#x201C; recognizing the potential of the available spaces.

DETECTION OF THE PROBLEM: 1. PROCESS OF DISSOLUTION OF URBAN TISSUE- bad condition of the physical /reasons and consequences/ structure /diapason of time/, war destruction, demographic transformation, socioeconomical ambience. 2. 'INCOMPLETE' URBAN STRUCTURE -mistakes in planning, inconsistency of strategic decisions, no planning at all. 3. SPATIAL AND FUNCTIONAL DIS-BALANCE - urban discontinuity, spatial potentials , controlled consumption of space /sustainable development principle/ LOOKING FOR SOLUTIONS: 1. RE-DEFINITION OF DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES= ROAD TO TOMORROW 2.

PERSERVATION OF IDENTITY

NEW BEGINING BASED ON THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE PAST

- sustainable development, joining the globalization process, - establishing of the system of value on the relation GLOBAL – LOCAL - returning to history, reading of the context with the objective of creating new

ADVICES AND DIRECTIVES: 1. FILTRATING through three basic segments of social reality: -economical -social -ecological 2. REDEFINITION of the attitude towards heritage 3. CREATION of different scenarios for the development of the parts of the City 4. ARTICULATION OF NEW URBAN RULES, different scales and qualities which will create conditions for NEW CONCEPTS, with characteristics of FLEXIBILITY and DINAMICITY, as tools of THE NEW URBANIST PRACTICE. EXPECTED RESULTS will differ according to stage and quantity of changes, which is in close connection with the spatial position of the 'sonde', as a cut-out of the contents of the city tissue, in which the depth of the 'sondage' is less important than the contents of the 'sample' taken and it's meaning as the element that is a part of the whole, which is – THE CITY.

WORKSHOP 2010

Sarajevo Urban Structure and Urban Tendencies ‐a Short Review ‐

Prof. Vesna Hercegovac‐Pašić

2. – Urban structure today

geomorphology

2. – Urban structure today

urban morphology

DETECTION OF THE PROBLEM: 1. PROCESS OF DISSOLUTION OF URBAN TISSUE‐ ‐ bad condition of the physical/reasons and consequences/ structure /diapason of time/,war destruction, demographic transformation, socioeconomical ambience. 2. 'INCOMPLETE' URBAN STRUCTURE ‐mistakes in planning, inconsistency of strategic decisions, no planning at all. 3. SPATIAL AND FUNCTIONAL DIS‐BALANCE ‐ urban discontinuity, spatial potentials , controlled consumption of space /sustainable development principle

3. – Urban tendencies today / MUTATIONS

Urban sprawl

3. – Urban tendencies today / MUTATIONS

2. (Neglected) Bigness Spanish real estate bubble: Espa帽istan, video by Alex Sal贸 A selection of urbanicides, Naci贸n Rotonda Notes on suburbs: Henri Lefebvre, Town and country (Writings on Cities) Milos Bobic, Subscapes (Urbanity Impossible)

ESPANI STAN:FROM SPANI SHREALESTATEBUBBLETO THECRI SI S ( ht t ps: / / www. yout ube. com/ wat ch?v=xWr bAmt ZuGc)

NATI ONROUNDABOUT:ASELECTI ONOFURBANI CI DES

Vi suali nvent or yofSpani shur banpl anni ngdi sast erdur i ngt hel ast 15year s( ht t ps: / / www. yout ube. com/ wat ch?v=0pt vR13hXj 4)

Milos Bobic: Urbanity Impossible (Subscapes) (Entire essay available here)

Subscapes One of the myths of suburbia is the myth of privacy. That myth is brought to the common notion of the contemporary dwelling. Privacy of the family and the individual is considered as the basic pattern that characterises new developments and that has a dominant influence on the spatial organisation, form and character of the contemporary townscape. Besides the ideology of suburban structures that becomes an ideal of most developers and determines a city building strategy, the design of open space also follows the same course. Contemporary suburban as well as urban areas are conquered by a common ideology of quasi land-art approach. Compartmentalisation of ownership and domains define the limits of design. The design of a house has nothing to do with the design of a street and vice versa. In the end, through the division and subdivision of spatial elements, functions, domains and design tasks, purity of the structure prevails in place of complexity. Its meaning is well readable with the main messages 'Keep clear!' and 'Keep off!' As a consequence, besides destruction of the meaning of public space in the traditional sense, there is a certain shift towards segregation, social as well as spatial. As M. Davis declares, it culminates in militarisation of the city under the code of 'neighbourhood fortresses'. Security by design is one of the main tasks for architects and urban planners. It has a double role: to secure dwellers and to assure officials that no violent behaviour or public disturbance will take place. Overall in contemporary developments, instead of spatially consistent and socially domesticated townscapes, a 'subscape' notion prevails. It is strongly articulated, without any complex overlapping, visual depth or signs of outdoor life. The character of new developments is based on consistent functional and juridical fragmentation and compartmentalisation. The results are simplistic jagged spaces devoid of complexity and character. After the isolated location of the suburb itself, this has been considered as the next step towards secured privacy of the inhabitants. Division between owners and especially between private and public domains are of great concern of urban

bureaucracy, developers and consumers. Any sign of unresolved spatial claims or possible conflict between different owners, behavioural patterns and domains is considered as a weakness of the design. Such a notion would stand in opposition to the very nature of new mass-culture. A small, from one to three meters deep front garden has no other function than to distance the house from the pavement. In a row, these gardens become expositions of naive gardening art, reflecting the desires and culture of the residents. Still, these mostly naive spatial arrangements bring a glimpse of humanity into the sterile public room. Also, regarding the house, the privacy myth is consequently applied. In current dwelling culture, the house must be strictly oriented inwards. The private core lies on the block's interior. The back yard is a secure family domain where no stranger can interrupt or take a look. From this fixed common rule the whole plan of the house is designed. Living room and private spaces on the ground level are directly related to the back garden, the services are oriented towards the street. Only rooms on the upper floors, if necessary, are oriented to the street. Through this pattern of the house plan the life in the front of the house, which once had been the landmark of the traditional villages and small towns, is disregarded. In a study about the morphology of the Alamo Square district in San Francisco, Built for change, A.V. Moudon presents an opposed approach. The traditional as well as modern architecture follows the same basic organisational and spatial pattern of the house. A majority of house plans are organised upon the principle of having a living room, with a bay window, on the street side, with all service spaces and private rooms on the backside of the house. Several types of double-decker houses are built upon a setback or encroachment zone between public territory and the house. Based on these common principles, a variety of ordinary architecture and details, between street level, and the main first floor in particular, occurs and it 'increases proportionally to the number of people who participate directly in the design and building decisions'. Inner structure in all types of houses is strongly related to the street. Bay-window on the main facade as well as staircases between street level and main upper floor, are elements which take control over public space, connecting two domains and giving additional perpendicular depth to the street. Therefore, social and spatial ambiguity of the house/street relationship surfaces as a main quality of the whole environment, becoming a keystone in the continuing development of the townscape. In an attempt to re-establish the social and psychological importance of public space, according to G.C. de Carlo, it is necessary to give special attention to its geometry, equipment and greenery. However, De Carlo does not mention the private/public relationship alone, but puts forward the importance of 'something beyond the visible' from the street as well. For sure, under the suggestion of "signing of invisible" private domain must be also considered as a theme in the relation to the public domain. By creating the chance for a visual and psychological glimpse beyond the boundary between the two domains, purity of functional division can be broken. Inhabitants may get an idea that life exist out the family cluster and beyond property boundary. In that case the road may become more than just a functional connection between territorial parts. At best, it may become signed as an outdoor space that interconnects houses and places where people live. In such a way and under these circumstances the street may appear as an extension of the house, part of the domus.

On the contrary, street facades in contemporary developments are considered as shields which protect private spaces that have nothing to do with public domain. Form and function are driven apart. Living spaces are orientated to the back garden and the streetscape is left without signs of occupancy. Only parked cars in the front of the houses give an idea that the neighbourhood is not really deserted. According to Schumacher, physical planning factors which influence public space use the most are: user density, land-use mix, pedestrian/vehicular interrelation, and configuration of the street and context. In the contemporary developments only the last two pedestrian/vehicular interrelation and configuration of street and context - are considered. But, those are just criteria to evaluate quality of accessibility and level of separation between different user types: drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. The street should make a balance between automobile and human needs possible. In suburbia, the street is designed entirely for the car and with great concern for pedestrians' safety. It is functional, but not a social element of the neigbourhood. No one meets others there. Just the cars passing each other by. Indeed, in the suburbs, roads are designed for cars and not people. Their profiles, dimensions, and proportions contribute nothing to codify urban character. In suburbia, there are no streets, just roads. Although they are functioning, other roles of public space cannot emerge because there are no physical conditions that may provide the cues of social contact and urbanity. The whole suburban spatial structure is based upon clear division or even segregation between property, functions, domains and people. Although clear property boundaries are defined, no limit of growth is on the horizon. Protection of ownership and privacy are ideals that disrupt any possibility of urbanity at all. It is cleansed from reality. In the view of residents, it is a Paradise where no conflict might emerge and where demonstrations cannot take place, as Michael Sorkin finds. Under these circumstances, the majority of lots are about one hundred and twenty square meters, with a lot width of five and a half meters and a depth of twenty-two meters. If the average depth of the house is about eleven meters, another eleven meters remains to be distributed as yard space. This length should be divided in two parts - front- and back garden, although in the new developments, the front garden has no purpose, as we already argued. Life is oriented inwards, towards the backyard. But, under the norm that regulates paved openspace, a general intention to organise parking places on private ground occurs. It is no big deal to organise a drive for the houses of higher classes. They are placed on spacious lots of 300 square meters or more. But, for the prevailing smaller house classes, the front yard should be deepened at least to five meters and, consequently, the back yard and the distance from the adjacent property must be reduced. A six-meter deep backyard seems more like a terrace then a garden and with a back-to-back distance of less than 12 meters between houses, the housing quality becomes endangered. Therefore, most of the resident's cars must be parked on public space. Because of the narrow lots, mainly perpendicular rather than parallel parking is possible along the streets. Without on-site parking, both sides of the street, as well as off-site parking lots must be used. As a direct consequence of the parking demands on both sides of the street, the street needs to be widened by at least ten meters. In a neighbourhood of two-story houses separated by about thirty meters between front facades, the sense of the street room is about to

vanish. In the end, the joint forces of development, planning and architectural design deliver the meaningless and increasingly pervasive subscape.

Private Paradise in the contemporary suburban backyard and the social reality along the street frontage

According to Rappoport, people can be located in social space through spatial means neighbourhood, address, association and perception of the area; the street, house, garden, and other elements all communicate and locate people in social space. But, the spatial clues for the meaning of place and socialisation of the community must be established. But which of the public road, parking lot or a private back yard establishes a suitable meaning? The answer must be none of these. Whenever elements of the built environment are sharply divided physically, visually and mentally - complex relationships among spaces, activities and people on the scale of community cannot occur. Although home address and location are still defined on the common scale of geography, people's emotional world is shrinking to the scale of their own house. They consider their direct surroundings as necessity, something that should be avoided as much as possible. People are much more eager to communicate with distant worlds and virtual addresses than with their neighbours. Their social space is not local anymore. It has been defined much more in virtual cyberspace, where they find everything easily and in private, without crossing others, than through their own social environment. Not to forget, on the street unpredictable encounters and conflict can occur. Therefore, under all these circumstances prospects of urbanity seem as an illusory notion.

3.Trans-Suburban territories Levittown map+data Denise Scott Brown, Invention and tradition

Invention and Tradition

Essay by Denise Scott Brown, architect, planner, urban designer: principal of Venturi Scott Brown and Associates, and theorist, writer and educator

Some paradoxes of colonial cultural landscapes I once overhead the following conversation on a bus: First woman: “I can tell from your accent that you’re from Home.” Second: “Yes, I left Home 30 years ago.” Third: “I’ve never been Home but one day I hope to go.”

Facing America through Learning from Las Vegas We selected Las Vegas and Levittown for study because they were archetypes of the landscape of suburban sprawl that surrounds all American cities. Analysis of the extreme forms would be easier than analysis of more typical ones, which were usually overlaid on earlier patterns. However, the intention was to throw light on the everyday. We aimed to document the characteristics of American place that were alluded to by the writers of the 1960s and also to teach ourselves, as artists, to be receptive to the mandates of our time.

Rowhouse. House styles from “Signs of Life” exhibition, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian, Washington, D.C., 1976. © Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates

So we faced the desert Strip of Las Vegas, the winding roads and curving greens of Levittown and, later, the traditional nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century American city. The forms we chose for analysis were new and undeniably American. Although scorned by architects as vulgar distortions and malformations of urbanism, they were the quotidian of the landscape; we sensed that they contained important lessons for architecture in the latter part of the twentieth century. We tried to carefully define the components of strip and sprawl and to consider the factors that caused them to be as they were â&#x20AC;&#x201C; primarily the automobile, the geometry induced by its motion and the ability of the human brain to react to communication from the environment while the body is travelling at approximately 35 miles per hour. We described the nature of the communication conveyed and the methods used for conveying it. We compared the constituents of American suburban architecture with those of traditional European urban architecture, matching the vast space of the A&P parking lot with the expanses of Versailles and the pace of movement on the medieval market street with that on the Las Vegas Strip. We evolved a taxonomy of the forms of the everyday landscape and endeavoured to set these within a broader taxonomy of the traditional elements of architecture and urbanism.

What did you learn? In sum, our aim in studying suburban sprawl had been to push the growing body of thought on American urbanism in directions interesting and useful to us as practising architects and theoreticians. We sought a new openmindedness that would enable us to act sensitively and receptively on social questions in architecture and lead us to a new aesthetic: a formal language or languages less restrictive than that of late modern architecture and tuned to the social and creative needs of our time. When asked, ‘What did you learn from Las Vegas?’ we were at first at a loss for an answer. An early reply was, ‘What did you learn from the Parthenon?’ By this we meant that aesthetic ideas that engage the minds of architects are not always, or in their most important aspects, definable in words. Later we suggested that what we learned would show in our subsequent work, and indubitably it has. However, more than ten years away from these studies, it is perhaps possible to discern some areas of learning more clearly than we could at the time. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The forgotten symbolism of architectural form The primary lessons that we learned as architects from Las Vegas and Levittown were about symbolism. We started our study with investigations of the character of the symbols that could best communicate over the vast space of the American strip; we continued with analyses of the buildings behind the signs and what they could communicate symbolically at different scales. Finally, we turned to symbolism at the traditional scale of architecture for pedestrians. Here, ornament and decoration become a major interest. In the succession from strip to buildings our methods of analysis completed a full circle. In 1968 we suggested that ‘we look backward at history and tradition to go forward’. In 1975 we recommended that ‘we architects who went to Las Vegas and Levittown to reacquaint ourselves with historical symbolism should now return to Rome; it is time for a new interpretation of our architectural legacy, and particularly for a reassessment of the uses of ornament and symbolism in architecture’. [13] Our initial analyses comparing strip phenomena with historic European architecture – the A&P parking lot with Versailles – we defined as going ‘from Rome to Las Vegas’. We said we went ‘from Las Vegas back again to Rome’, when we applied categories learned from the Strip to the study of conventional and traditional buildings – seeing the front of Chartres Cathedral, for example, as a type of billboard. The journey from Las Vegas back to Rome allowed us to learn again from historical architecture through a reappraisal of its symbolism and decoration. Although these had been there in the first place, we had ignored or forgotten them. Under the influence of modern architecture, we had interpreted them as texture and pattern alone, not as symbolic communication.

Las Vegas therefore helped us to reinterpret traditional architecture and by redirecting us to Rome set us to mending the rupture modern architecture had made with its tradition. In so doing we were able, as well, to incorporate portions of the American suburban landscape into the fold of architecture, where they had not been included before.

4. Participation Erik Swingedouw, Designing the Post-Political City and the Insurgent Polis Chris Cornelissen / Adam Poinsett, Subversive urbanism Participatory mapping: Kibera Map

Happy Crisis and Merry Fear —Athenian Slogan, December 2008

The politics of consensual urban design in its post-political guise, therefore, colonises the political and contributes to a further hollowing out of what, for Rancière and others, constitutes the very horizon of the political as radically heterogeneous and conflicting. In contrast, proper ‘[p]olitics exists wherever the count of parts and parties of society is disturbed by the inscription of a part of those who have no part’ (Rancière, 1998: 123), and dissensus is the proper name of egalitarian politics: The notion of dissensus thus means the following: politics is comprised of a surplus of subjects that introduce, within the saturated order of the police, a surplus of objects. These subjects do not have the consistency of coherent social groups united by a common property or a common birth, etc. They exist entirely within the act, and

their actions are manifestations of a dissensus; that is, the making contentious of the givens of a particular situation. The subjects of politics make visible that which is not perceivable, that which, under the optics of a given perceptive field, did not possess a raison d’être, that which did not have a name … [This] constitutes the ground for political action: certain subjects that do not count create a common polemical scene where they put into contention the objective status of what is ‘given’ and impose an examination and discussion of those things that were not ‘visible’, that were not accounted for previously (Rancière, 2000: 124–125). And this of course stands in contrast to the consensual elite-socialist policies that define, organise and suture the present debate and practice:

[C]onsensus is thus not another manner of exercising democracy … [It] is the negation of the democratic basis for politics: it desires to have well-identifiable groups with specific interests, aspirations, values and ‘culture’ … Consensualist centrism flourishes with the multiplication of differences and identities. It nourishes itself with the complexification of the elements that need to be accounted for in a community, with the permanent process of autorepresentation, with all the elements and all their differences: the larger the number of groups and identities that need to be taken into account in society, the greater the need for arbitration. The ‘one’ of consensus nourishes itself with the multiple (Rancière, 2000: 125). Something similar is at work in the micropolitics of local urban struggles, dispersed resistances and alternative

practices that suture the field of urban social movements today. These are the spheres where an urban activism dwells as some form for ‘placebo’-politicalness (Marchart, 2007: 47). This anti-political impulse works through the colonisation of the political by the social through sublimation. It elevates ruptures, disagreements, contestations and fractures that inevitably erupt out of the incomplete saturation of the social world by the police order. For example, the variegated, dispersed and often highly effective (on their own terms) forms of urban activism that emerge within concrete socio-spatial interventions, such as, among others, land-use protests, local pollution problems, road proposals, urban development schemes, airport noise or expansions, the felling of trees or forests, the construction of incinerators, industrial works, etc. … elevates localised communities, particular groups

and/or organisations (like NGOs), etc. … to the level of the political. They become imbued with political significance. The space of the political is thereby ‘reduced to the seeming politicisation of these groups or entities … Here the political is not truly political because of the restricted nature of the constituency’. (Marchart, 2007: 47). In sum, particular urban conflict is elevated to the status of the political. Rather than politicising, such social colonisation of the political in fact erodes and outflanks the proper political dimension of egalibertarian universalisation. The latter cannot be substituted by a proliferation of identitarian, multiple and ultimately fragmented communities. Moreover, such expressions of protest, which are framed fully within the existing practices and police order (in fact, these protests, as well as their mode of expression, are exactly called into being through

EVENTS In order to successfully pull together the different characters within and around Yau Ma Tei, the activists present in Stage 2 need to remain active in Stage 3. Stage 3 requires a more analytical approach towards activism: organising people across different socio-economic and cultural strata so that common goals and objectives can be formed. An area within Yau Ma Tei to host these events would need to be established. Without official approval from the government, the area under the West Kowloon Corridor would prove ideal due to its current use as a temporary way-station for pallets of fruit being unloaded from lorries and carted to different fruit market stalls every night. As these pallets occupy the area under the highway as well as other abandoned lots, kerbs, and surrounding streets around the fruit market, the temporary use of an area within this mix of trucks, lorries, carts and pallets would easily be overlooked by city regulators. As long as events remained temporary, city officials would be remiss to act on a public gathering. In addition, the area under the highway, unlike other public spaces within the city, is not controlled by a private corporation, enjoying permission for temporary activities to happen in the space due to its strategic location and use as auxiliary support for the fruit market. Setting up an open-source website for community members to learn about new events and to find ways of contributing or participating would create a network where event organisers, financial contributers and patrons would become linked together. Emphasis would be put on variety, allowing each event to merely be ephemeral, lasting a night or a few nights. Community members would access the portal and sign up to different activities, sponsor them, or create their own ideas for activities to take place under the highway. It would be crucial for each group within the neighbourhood work with people they’re already connected with, such as senior citizens coordinating with other senior citizens, but also to make events visible to wider groups within and around Yau Ma Tei. By advertising events for people to participate in or contribute to allows people to help organise events where people would be able to decide to help coordinate or participate. Also important in Stage 3 is the ability to stage events with relative ease. Over the past 10 years, the concept of pop-up shops has been employed throughout the world and increasingly within Hong Kong, to build consumer interest in things without having to invest large sums of money in long-term leases. Pop-up shops can last anywhere from one night to a few weeks and can host events as well as shops. While the events wouldn’t need to be political in nature, they would establish autonomous local groups that work towards goals that are distinct from those of Hong Kong’s power triangle (Moyer, 1987). Activities would build on the strengths existing within the community (educational, cultural, industrial, etc) that aren’t generally supported by the government. Events would be varied and play off the strengths of the cast of characters within and around Yau Ma Tei.

3.7 Event website

3.8 Event app

3.9 CINEMA

With Hong Kong’s long and rich history of filmmaking, experimenting with new ways of showing film could draw many fans of film to the area. Although the neighbourhood has a small cinema, Hong Konger’s interest in cinema suggests there would be ample interest in a new type of cinema within Yau Ma Tei, the Secret Cinema. The Secret Cinema would be modeled off Folly for a Flyover, an installation in Hackney Wick, London in 2011. Like Folly for a Flyover, the Secret Cinema would be a pop-up cinema located in the unused underbelly of

3.10 FOLLY FOR A FLYOVER, HACKNEY 70

the highway. It would be set up by university students who normally only pass through the area on their way to or from classes. The cinema’s program would include films that would appeal to the existing cast of characters in and around Yau Ma Tei, specifically targeting Fruit Market Employees, International Tourists, School Children, and Shop Owners due to the relative ease with which they could be drawn in to movie nights.

3.11 ART GALLERY

Hong Kong is currently readying itself for the development of the M+ Cultural Centre, to be housed in the Sir Normal Foster-designed West Kowloon Cultural District development. Since Hong Kong has never housed a world-class art museum, the executive director of the future M+, Lars Nittve, is currently searching for ways to promote arts appreciation within Hong Kong. Without a proper home from which to exhibit artworks Nittve is looking for places where the growing collection can be exhibited to allow fundraisers and citizens to become more aware of the collection. From 15 May 2012 until 10 June 2012, M+ held a series of pop-up arts exhibi-

tions on Portland and Shanghai Streets, within the heart of Yau Ma Tei. Continuing the initiatives already started, businessmen backing current M+ pop-up exhibitions would be able to finance a pop-up art gallery under the highway. University students and Fruit Market employees would be able to help with the construction of the art gallery and the set-up of artworks. Artwork would be chosen based on targeted audiences such as wealthy Chinese tourists, international tourists, shop owners, and senior citizens.

3.12 MOBILE M+ 71

3.13 FASHION SHOW

Hong Kong has recently seen a resurgence of start-up fashion houses in the Kwun Tong area of Hong Kong. A formerly run-down area of abandoned manufacturing plants cut off from the rest of Hong Kong by the former Kai Tak Airport, fashion designers were able to create a community of start-ups in an overlooked section of the city. Many fashion designers throughout the world have specialised in showcasing their designs in temporary spaces, such as the Party Dress, designed by Karhaus of Brooklyn, in which a dress worn by 5 women expands to form a tent-like structure under which parties can be held in a temporary enclosure. One of the paths of study at the Hong Kong Community College, adjacent to the highway site in Yau Ma Tei, is

3.14 PARTY DRESS 72

fashion design. Coupling the approach employed by young fashion start-ups in Kwun Tong with the new talent from the Hong Kong Community College, fashion shows could be staged under the highway to showcase the emerging talent from the community college. Shows could be geared towards school assignments or for other members of the area in and around Yau Ma Tei, such as for international tourists, wealthy Chinese tourists, or businessmen as potential investors.

3.15 FOOD STALL MARKET

Once very common throughout Hong Kong, Dai Pai Dongs were open-air food stalls, quickly and easily mounted and later demounted. They were individually owned and operated, and served rice or noodle-based regional cuisines. While traditional Dai Pai Dongs have diminished in recent decades, new forms of food carts have emerged to work around city regulations prohibiting permanently-based informal food stalls with designs that make them truly temporary compared with traditional Dai Pai Dongs, such as incorporating wheels and shutters to allow them to be moved in and out of sites on a daily basis. In San Francisco, Off The Grid is a consortium of food truck owners that join together to offer food truck markets at varying locations in and around San Francisco. Depending on the day, the food trucks gather together

at varying locations to let residents of those areas enjoy the varied cuisine for that day. Following the trend of informal food stalls moving from Dai Pai Dongs to more ephemeral food carts as well as the Off The Grid food truck movement, shop owners from Yau Ma Tei could set up a food cart night under the highway. This would compliment many of the nighttime vending carts that are set up along touristy Temple Street, a mere three blocks away. The food carts set up under the highway could cater to a wide spectrum of people in Yau Ma Tei, from the international tourist frequenting the Temple Street Night Markets to the fruit market employees on their break during the night as well as university students and senior citizens looking for a cheap meal.

3.16 OFF THE GRID FOOD TRUCK NIGHT MARKET 73

3.17 STRIP CLUB

Enjoying legal status within Hong Kong, prostitution has developed a unique culture within the city. While prostitution is legal, brothels and solicitation remain illegal. As a result, prostitutes tend to operate on an individual basis, running their business out of one-room flats. Many have started to advertise their services (which run from massages to sex) on sex141.com, which serves as an open-source platform from which prostitutes can set up their own profile and freely advertise. Portland Street, two blocks away from the highway, is home to majority of the prostitutes of Yau Ma Tei. Catering to the Fruit Market employees as well as busi-

3.18 HONG KONG STRIP CLUB 74

nessmen, the prostitutes of Portland Street could work together to set up a strip club night to contribute to their advertising on sex141.com. Since advertising for sex is completely legal in Hong Kong, advertising for the event could be done through the sex141.com website as well as all other forms of mass self-communication.

3.19 MAHJONG TOURNAMENT

One of Hong Kongerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s favourite pasttimes is playing mahjong. Whenever a group of people have some free time, be it day or night, they will group together to start a game of mahjong. These games can occur anywhere that four people can get together with tiles, chairs and a table. As a result, it can be just as likely to find a game of mahjong happening in a living room, alleyway, garage, or kerb as in a plaza or park.

platform to organise a nighttime tournament. Much as standard mahjong games always draw a crowd, a tournament would draw many of the other groups within Yau Ma Tei, such as shop owners, international tourists, and university students.

Mahjong tournaments are common and can attract much larger crowds than daily mahjong games. Some of the biggest groups to play mahjong, Fruit Market employees and senior citizens, could use the digital

3.20 MAHJONG IN THE STREETS 75

Map Kibera http://mapkibera.org/

Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya, was a blank spot on the map until November 2009, when young Kiberans created the first free and open digital map of their own community. Map Kibera has now grown into a complete interactive community information project. Map Kibera is a community information project that includes ongoing digital mapping, the Voice of Kibera community news website, and the Kibera News Network video journalism project. The digital map of Kibera is now available to everyone through OpenStreetMap. It forms the base of the Voice of Kibera website, where residents can post stories and information via SMS and web form, and they are then geo-located on the map. Community involvement includes drawing paper maps, public participatory GIS sessions, and work with local organizations on key community issues). The creation of the maps has helped the community to solve and combat many issues. Citizens and NGOs have been able to use the data to lobby for resources and negotiate with the police to improve security in certain areas. By assessing and gathering evidence about their neighbourhood themselves, residents could hold the government, businesses, and anti-poverty projects accountable for the work they were supposed to be doing.

5. Kaluđerica specificities Snežana Timotijević, Demystification of turbo constructions Call for participation

Demystification of turbo constructions This research was a quest for my personal identity. I was born in Kaluđerica, in Belgrade. Since then I have been living in transit, between two geographical and psychological spaces – Kaluđerica suburb and Belgrade city centre, in continuous search for my individual identity in the city. I have never learned to identify myself with Kaluđerica, to appreciate it and feel it as my own home and personal determination. In Belgrade, I have never truly felt at home. When in 1990s I became aware of all the layers of the “turbo” lifestyle embedded in Kaluđerica’s environment this feeling became even stronger. Perception of me as a person coming from the suburb branded as “wild”, neglected, unplanned, culturally undeveloped, and criminal area of Belgrade, resulted in deep emotional and intellectual insecurity. By seeing and accepting only the stereotypes about the place and people I mystified my personal relation to the place, completely losing touch with ordinary life. This research was an attempt to deals with the suburb of Kaluđerica ‐ its inhabitants, objects and events without prejudice. It approaches the space and the people, analyses its aesthetics and values and leaves opportunities for any potential conclusions and outcomes. It demystifies personal connections to the place, trying to find whether there is anything I can relate to. The reason is to be able to create the vision of how my everyday experience in this suburb can be recreated and improved; to be able to get the sense of belonging to this community.

1. Public space: Identities, Images and Values

In the study Art contribution to cities’ transformation (2011), Silvia S. Mazzucotelli says: “As the city grows, public planners and city administrators are no longer able to keep up with the pace of change since they rely on outdated models of governance. For cities to thrive, to be communicative and alive, and to function as catalysts of public life it is necessary to stimulate civic participation and community involvement. …it is not sufficient to create a place or to enhance a given inhabited situation. As a consequence, effective urban planning actions or projects should deal with citizens and, more precisely, have to involve inhabitants in the decision‐making process. This is because the perfect aesthetic of the physical appearance of a city or of a suburb itself does not guarantee successful regeneration actions.” It is, therefore, obvious that policymakers, as far as they do not wish to build a fallacious sense of place, need to rely on participation and urban governance. In that respect we believe that planning needs to mean focusing on identities, values, and images as real actors able to engender behaviours and, thus, to shape places. In such a respect, a plan would better work if conceived as a process, whereby the inhabitant could recognize its identity, and identify the necessary factors for a path of growth also corresponding to an evolution of meaning. In other words, a planning project and intervention should not simply correspond to the realization of an artifact: urban planning depends on the quality of the interaction between local administrators and the involved inhabitants. It is our belief that structuring the relational exchange since the very beginning will assure a deeper motivation and, thus, a higher level of sustainability. As community participation has become a constant expectation in urban regeneration, so too has public art been celebrated as a way to deliver it. Because of its dynamics and because of the collaborative process that undergoes its realization, public art, since its very beginning, engenders the development of a relational layer, either within residents and between residents and other social actors which is certainly a structural condition for a sustainable planning process. Public art procedure involves the inhabitants through the whole process, starting with an analyzing phase, developed with a few representatives, and continuing with a dialogue addressed to the entire community involved. In this way the artifact is built on the basis of shared values and perspectives of commitment, engendering motivation. Moreover, the emotional factor accompanying the shaping of the relational text imprints the sense of involvement even with higher effectiveness. The value of the social impact of public art appears as a useful tool for the development of social capital and civic identity. Moreover, the incorporation of historical

elements in the art work itself reinforces a common sense of territorial belonging, as well as it helps to develop a sense of community.“…the participation of urban populations to specific artistic projects widens the social interest of people and drives their attention to other projects. In other words, public art seems to lead actors to participating in broader forms of urban life and governance.” (Salice, 2011) The preceding considerations are stemming from the sphere of urban development. However, it is difficult to believe that in the near future urban planners (on national, city or local levels) will come up with the solutions for urban problems in Kaluđerica, nor to expect hat inhabitants of Kaluđerica will be included or involved in the decision‐ making process. Therefore, we find that the only way to enhance the existing situation is by providing the civic participation and community involvement through the public art projects. We can compensate this lack through the public art which would be focusing on identities, values, and images as real actors able to engender behaviours and, thus, to shape places. In the book of K. Lynch The Image of the city (1997), it is argued that the effect of creating images has a number of factors: physical structure of the city, light, shadow, texture, scale, silhouette and history, social meaning. All human senses are involved in this process, so the image is the result of all impressions and observations. The identity of the city, therefore, builds physical and social component which then creates subjective experience. Thus, its inhabitants are identified with the city and it becomes one of the important reasons to be interested, engaged and committed to participate in projects for its development and improvement. In the book Site planning (1984), by Kevin Lynch and Gary Hack, when defining the sense of place from the point of the user, it is claimed that: A place must not only fit the structure of our bodies. It must fit the way in which our minds work: how we perceive an image and feel. This may be called the sense of a place, and while sense varies with culture and with personal temperament and experience, there are regularities in these perceptions due to the structure of our senses and our brains. We are all engaged in identifying the features that surround us, organizing them into images, and connecting those images to the other meanings we carry in our heads. These authors were also considering that: Places should have a clear perceptual identity: be recognizable, memorable, vivid, engaging of our attention. It should be possible for the observer to relate the identifiable features one to another, making an understandable pattern of them in time and space. These sensuous characteristics, so often dismissed as mere esthetics, are fundamental for executing practical tasks. They are a source of emotional security and can reinforce the sense of self. Psychological and environmental identities are linked phenomena, and so a key function of a place may be its support of our inner feelings of coherence and continuity. Places play a part in the intellectual and emotional development of the individual, particularly in childhood but also in later years.

Visible clues must work for the anxious visitor, the old inhabitant intent on some task, and the casual stroller. They confer aesthetic pleasure and are a means for extending one’s knowledge of the world. Many devices for enhancing this sense of place are part of the intuitive, experiential lore of site design. Moreover, the place must be seen as meaningful, related to other aspects of life: to function, social structure, economic and political patterns, human values. Congruence between the spatial and the social world facilitates action and makes both comprehensible. Spatial identity can be an outward expression of personal or group identity. But we understand less about this symbolic role of landscape, and meanings and values differ widely among various groups. Spatial legibility is at least a common base around which groups can cohere and on which they can erect their own meanings. Temporal legibility is equally important. A setting orients its inhabitants to the past, to present rhythms, and to the future, with is hopes and dangers. (Lynch & Hack, 1984) Previously mentioned topics of identity, images and values might be used for potential articulation and use of the public space in Kaluđerica. Improving the quality of life of ordinary people through the re‐creation or re‐examination of the sense of place, and identification of characteristic local phenomena, could be seen as potential toponyms and identity advocates. 2. Kaluđerica‐specific definitions The few coined terms adapted to the local context which might be helpful in the research on the spot borderline space If we will consider the spatial determinant in terms of ownership and accessibility of the space, the notion of borderline space indicates the blurry line between the public and private ones, representing the relational space between the two. Under this notion we can consider the exterior of privately owned buildings or property, visible or accessible from sidewalks, and public thoroughfares which may affect the public view, e.g. the use of facades, fences, décor, outdoor advertising, etc. public event By the notion of public event we can consider small‐scale and intimate events weather they are individual/collective/group actions, or products of people’s actions as indispensable part of their everyday life through which they express their socio‐cultural values.

Having in mind the lack of organized public events, we can consider that every spontaneous public appearance of a people, space, or objects, is in the same extent based on the idea and planning, so the coined term might be used without the mentioned constrains. scene as event The word scene, at the same time, means a few different concepts: a venue, real or imagined act, the situation treated as an object of observation, graphic or photographic representation of the observed, the context or environment in which something is placed. (Dadić‐ Dinulović, 2010) In this sense, the definition of event can also be determined by the perception of the scenic elements such as: movement paths, stop points, order of the objects and people in certain spaces, roles and positions they take, shapes, sizes or materials used in exteriors or outdoor spaces, relations between neighbours and their houses in the same street, in‐between relations and the possible statements beyond the given scenic elements. In our consideration it is important to experience the scenic element or setting and perceive it as an event. real + virtual Every real occasion is constructed by personal psychological additions, imagination or reminiscence, as virtual categories of space and time, which are making something of someone being real for the observer. These overlapping categories are important to consider when we perceive and evaluate certain actions and expressions of the local people, as well as when we are indicating on their potential. 2. Relevance for the local context

Kaluđerica is the westernmost settlement in the municipality of Grocka. It is located 8 kilometers east of central Belgrade, and stretches in two fork‐like urban formations between the road of Smederevski put to the north and the Belgrade‐Niš highway to the south. The settlement is built in the micro valley of the stream Kaluđerički potok. Kaluđerica is the fastest growing settlement in Serbia due to the migration flow on the relation village‐city, influx of the refugees from ex Yugoslavian countries and from Kosovo. According to the Census from 2011 there were 26.904 people living in Kaluđerica, but the number of inhabitants is probably much higher because of an influx of refugees and unregistered tenants. As other similar suburban environments, Kaluđerica is not only neglected by Belgrade city authorities, but also by local authorities – building regulations, plans for infrastructure and public zones,

and many other formal and administrative directions are almost nonexistent, similarly to institutional plans and support to socio‐ cultural activities and programs. Therefore, any initiative in the process of identifying local potentials is a great challenge. 2.1. Self‐managed modernization and urbanization of Kaluđerica

The local context of Kaluđerica is predominantly determined by the issue of unplanned constructions and the self‐managed modernization and urbanization. Here we will point out some of the main causes of this trend. Giddens A. points out that the expansion of cities is resulting from the increase of population, with the simultaneous migration from villages and small towns. So many urban areas in developing countries like Serbia are becoming overcrowded and faced with a shortage of funds for a decent life. This problem is that, as he writes: The rural population migrated to the cities (which is now a mass phenomenon in developing countries), because the employment opportunities in rural areas were small, and because of the obvious advantages and attractiveness of cities where the streets are were "paved with gold." Furthermore, cities have become centers in which financial and industrial power is concentrated, and entrepreneurs sometimes create new urban areas almost out of nothing. (Gidens, 2001) The characteristic of the area of Belgrade in the second half of the 20th century was that there were significant spatial and demographic changes caused by a primary process of urbanization, i.e. intense migration flows on relation village‐city. Strong population pressure, as a result of influx of residents from the provinces and villages, caused an aggressive growth of the city that threatened the surrounding areas. The pressure of population in cities has been very strong, especially in the demands for housing construction and provision of adequate housing supply (Petovar, 2003). Because of that the areas surrounding urban centers are becoming demographic expansion zones in the mainly small spatial coverage and the very poor economic status of the population. When talks about the causes of unplanned settlements, Petovar states that sociological research on unplanned expansion of the town, made in the seventies of the 20th century, suggests that the informal builders are mostly family men with children, workers employed in the industry, with the working service of more than ten years in urban areas where they built their houses. And even then it was clearly identified that the main causes of unplanned construction are: (1) inadequate housing of a large number of families in urban areas, (2) lack of housing market, poor offer of housing for rent, high rent prices and unregulated legal status of the tenants, and (3) poor offer of parcels for individual housing construction with sewerage system, their high costs and complicated, expensive, slow and lengthy procedure of obtaining the many approvals required for obtaining a building permit. (Petovar, 2003)

During the enthusiastic phases of modernization of Belgrade, Serbia and SFRY (1960 ‐ 1980), not everybody was sharing the benefits and advantages of the state housing policy. Many construction workers were employed in Belgrade on a precarious or seasonal basis and thus stayed out of the reach of the urban and financial planning of the state and city authorities. This was also the case of Kaluđerica which was growing as an illegal settlement, rapidly and randomly built in last 30 years as an unplanned construction. Nevertheless, the job opportunities, as well as the chances for education and professional upgrade ‐ which even in distant suburbs of Belgrade were far better than in the provinces from which most of inhabitants of Kaluđerica originate (southern and southeastern regions of Serbia) ‐ and also other conveniences of living and working in Belgrade, made many of them decide to try to settle somewhere in or near the city. As the modernization of the city grew the mass of skilled and semi‐skilled workers grew simultaneously, accompanied by a lack of means, knowledge and even a basic awareness about the criticality and complexity of possible consequences of such an unforeseen co‐growth. The gap appeared in the overall relation between institutional and practical thinking, between planning and deciding, between the desired and possible, the imaginable and the real. And tens of thousands of people practically lived in such an existential gap for decades. Kaluđerica, known as the "largest wild settlement" in the Balkans has been thoroughly widening and reflecting the nature of this gap. No public institution so far found the right way to engage into a comprehensive urbanization and modernization of this settlement. The notions of illegality, wildness, non‐hygienic etc. got attached already early on to the entire suburbs and outskirt areas were today hundreds of thousands of people live and work. It is in the unwritten history of the place that the diagnosis of this mismanagement and misunderstandings lie. The years of confrontations and standoff with the state and the city authorities, somehow is transferred in the cultural and political profile of the settlement. The ways of parceling land, organizing building lots and projecting houses, the ways of establishing and maintaining streets and improvised infrastructure trace the history of a negotiation between a rapidly modernizing society and its shadowed, even hidden back yard. (Dzokic, Neelen, & Milikic) What aroused our interest is that in such a situation of unplanned and unsystematically regulated urban environment the great diversity of small embryonic spaces for cultural intervention are appearing. In some extent, these spaces are already recognized as spaces for creative expressions, or are having the potential to be the spaces for new artistic interventions based on participation of local inhabitants. In these gaps we find the source of inspirations and ideas of how can these diverse and small spaces be used for cultural activities.

2.2. Cultural activities in Kaluđerica

The general situation in Serbian cultural system, specifically marked by the twenty years of cultural centralization, combined with the previously mentioned problems of unplanned urbanization, strongly determine specific situation in Belgrade’s suburbs, and therefore in Kaluđerica. Main characteristics can be presented through the following observations: ₋ ₋ ₋ ₋ ₋ ₋ ₋

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Predominant cultural identity and social values are based upon what is available through popular and mass culture. The civic sector is nearly non‐existent, and therefore the local citizen’s initiatives in culture, also. The mobility towards Belgrade’s center and participation in cultural programs and activities is also poor, due to many factors such as transport issues and generally underdeveloped cultural habits. The rear cultural projects are organized by the primary schools, but the target group is limited on children under the age of 15 and their parents. The youth is the target group of private betting houses, night clubs, video playgrounds, cafés and sports clubs. There is no middle, nor high, educational institutions, and there are no cultural centers, nor programs for non‐formal education, or cultural activities. For elderly people there is only one pensioner’s club, for which it can be said that it was political initiative, as it was opened as a part of the pre‐election campaign, without further organizational improvement made after. The existing private and public institutions/organizations/companies, such as the church, sports club, political parties and shopping mall are organizing public events promoting their particular ideologies with an interest in for profit, without dealing with the socio‐cultural values and needs of the local community. Nevertheless, there were certain improvements in the elementary school programme, implementing the developmental plans and the evaluation of development plan for extracurricular activities, which included numerous creative sections, such as: journalism, creative writing, photography, computers, and provision of the technically equipped mediateque through the grant from the Ministry of Education and Sport in 2005 could’ve been the start for sustainable creative engagement of the local children and youth. However, no new grant applications were made, and mediateque is out of use. in last 5 years few cultural projects were initiated by Serbian and international artists, but without the support from local authorities or institutions. In such chaotic conditions where basic cultural rights are not provided, neither through the strategy for cultural development, strategy for youth, or any other formal strategy, what might be identified as the potential uniqueness of the spaces and people is left to decay in the same manner as the whole settlement.

3. Micro narratives fences vs. kids In the beginning of the 90’s kids in Kaludjerica were playing and browsing around without spatial barriers of fenced yards. I remember it as an adventurous (e.g. saving the cats from being pets, stealing cabbage and playing football with it), free (e.g. going from Novo naselje to Klenak to play rugby on an empty field or basketball on someone else’s dead‐end street), childishly evil and interesting (e.g. throwing rotten eggs to the neighbours’ house for Easter or inventing offensive songs but yet all of us playing together). I grew up in ambiance of strong social inclusion and cohesion, presumably because we due to the shared embargo problems as all the new neighbours needed mutual help with construction, electrical power and water etc. They were all skilful workers. Neighbours were visiting each other for slava, everyday coffee, weddings, and funerals. As soon as many of the new inhabitants built their homes followed with the extreme fencing of yards, so the children games and free mobility were downsized. At the beginning to fencing period, they still had the small doors to the surrounding neighbours’ yards soon locked or removed. Then some man started stabbing our playing balls and kicking them out from his yard. For us kids, it was a funny challenge. We would patch the ball over and over again. It somehow led to following trend for us; becoming youth hanging out on the street corners and abandoned or unfinished houses. Being hidden from the parents and neighbours eye led to some sort of ghetto style exclusion between the hoods.

yard vs. street The man who was stabbing our playing balls was among the first who placed the fence by expanding his yard to the street space. To make it more performative he started growing the corn. That way we got the two dead‐end streets in one. For fifteen years, the neighbour living across the street (the man on the photo) was fighting for “the liberation of imprisoned Ivana Milutinovića Street”. He was teaching the children from the street to repeat answering his questions – He: What do we fight for? Kids: For the wide street! He: And why? Kids: So every child grows up easily!; To help passers‐by, he made a small path through his yard, placing the sign “Canyon: path with dangerous elements”. local (mis)memory vs. adaptation of… The man who was fighting for “the liberation of imprisoned Ivana Milutinovića Street’’ was trying to change the street name to be called by the name of Dušan Mihajlović, the theatre director who lived in this street for one part of his life. He remembers the ongoing sound of a typewriter hearable through the open window. Once when Mihajlović fainted the neighbour saved his life. He also remembers the theatre play “Tesla or adaptation of Angels’’ directed by Mihajlović , which he used to perform for the neighbours in his never‐ finished house. The year was 1994. Enough for the street name, right?

Extracts from, and behind, the Timotijević, Snežana, (2012) MA Thesis, Public event as a generator of social value changes, Case study: Kaluđerica; UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Management, joint programme ‐ UNIVERSITY OF ARTS IN BELGRADE, Center for Interdisciplinary studies and UNIVERSITE LUMIERE LYON 2, Faculté d'Anthropologie et de Sociologie, Belgrade