Thesis programme - 'boxed logic' - A 21st Century Ruralism

Page 1

BOXED LOGIC



Thesis Programme Jack Minchella Tutor// Dominic Balmforth Unit Directors// Deane Simpson + Charles Bessard Unit// Urbanism & Societal Change Spring 2014 Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture København


BOXED LOGIC A PROTOTYPE FOR DANISH RURALISM



CONTENTS 06

SOCIETAL CHANGE

08

DESIGN TASK

10

FRONT OF HOUSE / BACK OF HOUSE

12

INDUSTRY BLACK BOXING

13

DOMESTIC DANISH TOURISM

18

DESIGN LAYERS

22

SCOPE + SUBMISSION

24

RØDBYHAVN

34

APPENDICES 36

THEMES

38

FOOD & URBANISM

40

NATION vs. CITY

41

FARMING + ØRGANIC FOOD IN DENMARK

42

INFRASTRUCTURE SPACE

44

DATA

50

C.V.

51

REFERENCES & BIBLIOGRAPHY

SPRING 2015

5


01

6

BOXED LOGIC

Supermarket distribution warehouse 01


SOCIETAL CHANGE OVERVIEW Heralded as the incubator of innovation and charged with the fate of solving the on going battle with climate change1 - the city is enjoying a renaissance. A rising urban population is consolidating itself as a defining twenty first century trend, and in turn is testing the notion of what we consider ‘rural’. Many European nations are reaching almost ninety percent urbanity and what’s left behind is a rural landscape lacking purpose outside the realms of agriculture, seasonal tourism or retirement. In the Danish context this trend, coupled with the ever increasing responsibility of local government2, places a heavy burden of consistent welfare provision on rural municipalities. The 2007 municipal reform aimed to increase competition3 between scaled up local governments wielding increased power and autonomy - in effect turning them into pseudo statehoods in close rivalry for a solid taxable population. These trends make for an interesting concoction. A leaning towards market driven municipal development and an empowered city create regional relations that are less and less defined by nationhood but more by mutual benefit. Lolland municipality currently receives almost half of its annual budget [for social services, education, unemployment benefits] via state redistribution while Copenhagen is responsible for 55% of Denmark’s GDP4. Lolland is one of a handful of declining rural regions that rely on the growth of the main cities for indirect support.

Something has to give. The issues that face outlying rural areas are of a similar complexion across much of Europe yet it is the Danish governmental model, and its resultant relationship between appendix municipalities, that pose the biggest threat 03 to national cohesion. This investigation seeks to define the 21st century role and potential of the countryside with the backdrop of seemingly immovable global trends. FOOD PRODUCTION An increasing urban population brings with it necessary demands; more food, more water, more energy - at a larger scale in a more concentrated area than ever. The 20th century saw production of our resources grow to an immense scale and spread across the globe in search of increased yield and efficiency. We rely heavily on an industrialised rural landscape and a appendix vast global network of logistics to support 04 ourselves. Worldwide Denmark is seen as one of the front runners in agricultural efficiency and innovation. In turn it forms a huge portion of its economy; almost two thirds of the food produced goes straight to the export market5. This market forms the commercial identity of many of the struggling municipalities and is not an issue to address lightly. Therefore the approach of this thesis will be to shape an argument that steers clear of a sentimentality for an outdated resources supply system but one that looks for a reflection of how its contemporary form can be reconciled.

SPRING 2015

7


01

8

BOXED LOGIC

Maeklong Railway Market, Thailand 01


DESIGN TASK The architectural inquiry will use a postindustrial rural setting in Denmark to discuss the unfolding agrarian European condition and more specifically suggest a design prototype for Udkantsdanmarka. The design will propose a potential future scenario of the coastal town of Rødbyhavn with a focus on its ferry harbour, on the south coast of Lolland municipality, Southern Sjælland.

civic space - and its ability to create a narrative as a way of relating to place. The design will be manifested with strategic intent and presented as an architectural prototype. This way the project will seek to engage in a larger cross disciplinary debate about the future of provincial Denmark and the inherent related issues such as the changing role of rural municipality governance.

Concurrently the project will seek to broaden the scope of ‘design’ from the context within which it is currently set. It will examine the reach of systemic influences on building development and use a strategic approach to address the outlined themes and functions in a contemporary rural area. Rødbyhavn is a typical scenario of Denmark’s many outer coastal towns, suffering from a heavy decline in commercial activity as well as rural to urban migration of a young and mobile work force. However the road/rail link currently being constructed (The Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link) offers a renewed opportunity to assess our physical and cultural links with global logistics. Most importantly it provides a chance to judge the potential of the town’s future provincial heritage. Functionally the design will focus on the appendix architecture and urbanism of two things: 01, 04 & 05 Firstly that of international and domestic food distribution logistics and the range of enterprise associated with it; storage, sorting, production facilities, processing, transportation, distribution etc., and secondly that of coastal tourism and leisure activities; sommerhus dwellings, sports facilities, community buildings, outdoor

a. ‘Udkantsdanmark’ - A proverbial phrase referring to the outer coastal regions of Denmark typified by an aging demographic and a declining economy.

LEFT: This shifting market moulds to the infrastructure logic that created the space and has a direct impact on the civic use of the market - creating not only a functioning area for commerce but a popular tourist attraction.

SPRING 2015

9


01

02

10

BOXED LOGIC

‘Hovis’ bread advertisement 01 ‘Hovis’ bread production line, U.K. 02


FRONT OF HOUSE / BACK OF HOUSE

The new rail link between Denmark and Germany (unsurprisingly Denmark’s biggest trading partner6) will place Rødbyhavn in a strategic position to capitalise on a more efficient commercial route. However there are currently no concrete plans for the new link to provide a station stop in Lolland7, therefore bypassing any future potential for regeneration. Using Rødbyhavn as an active site within the setting of Udkantsdanmark will allow the project to opportunistically speculate the strategic actions available to the municipality of Lolland. Furthermore it will consider how a large area of fertile land can unlock its potential for a more diverse harvest using tourism as a catalyst This unusual duality will not only reflect the main economic drivers of the area but attempt to address what will later be outlined as inherent idiosyncrasies within them.

of the large-scale industry that dominates the spatial reality of contemporary rural areas. Similarly the tourist industry plays a key role in defining not only a stable part of the rural economy, but a conscious rendering of its novelty to an ever increasing urban populous. Moreover it relies on a constantly changing, habitual and temporary occupation. The nature of which will play an increasing part in how we define rurality. With that said the project shall intentionally provoke a new option for rural settlement that isn’t driven by segregation of function to the point of alienation but one that is formed through the contemporary rural drivers of the 21st century; the need for large scale commercial investment, tourism and leisure and an identity beyond that of continuous decline.

Following this logic the project will be used as a chance to experiment with what is seen and what is unseen in architecture; the ‘front-of-house/backof-house’ - and how the manipulation of which becomes an intrinsic tool in shaping architecture and urbanism. The derivation of programme then becomes a key driver of this agenda and it is important to state that the combination of logistics and food processing is a reflection

SPRING 2015

11


INDUSTRY BLACK BOXING As stated from the outset it is important that the project engages with shifts in societal change. While it will focus on the future development of Rødbyhavn, and its associated industries, it will also seek to appendix address the notion of ‘infrastructure space’8 05 and its ability to alienate end product from process. The scale and logistic complexity of global consumer trade is no more apparent than in that of the food industry. A sophisticated chain of strategical centres, distribution appendix hubs and retail outlets connect the products 01+06 we buy each day to an extensive array of farmers and producers across the globe. More often than not the design of these spaces is dominated by the rationale of efficiency and economic benefit. Even highly bespoke local products must conform to this logic if they are to find a way onto the market. The resultant archetypes - the warehouse, sorting offices, distribution centres, docking site, unloading bay, haulage truck, have a long (however relatively unacknowledged) history of ‘infrastructure space’, stemming from the introduction of rail transport in 18409 which allowed food to be brought into the city having been proceeded and packaged elsewhere. Since then increased mobility of goods and resource has been on a quest for efficiency - banishing it to the outskirts of the city and cutting ties with any relation to context or community. The organisational power they embody reflects a wider trend; the removal of process and production from the cities which the majority of us now live in. Our consumption of food and other commodities consequently has little weight on our conscience yet our world is shaped to best suite its agenda.

12

BOXED LOGIC

However instead of relying on nostalgia of a more simple link between us and our food the project will attempt to see how these contemporary processes can inform a revised urbanism. The ambition of the design is consequently to critique the act of ambivalence played out by the architecture of processing and distribution via the combination with holiday properties; an industry constructed around our connection to place and experience. Letting one inform the other will hopefully reveal how space is formed through organisation and narrative.


DOMESTIC DANISH TOURISM

01

THE SOMMERHUS The archetype of domestic tourism in Scandinavia is the ‘sommerhus’. A small, stand alone structure typically constructed from wood and used for summer vacations, weekend breaks or family events. The growth of which stems from the newly regulated Danish labour markets in 193410 which activated a large demographic of lower to middle income workers to purchase and construct summerhouses along the coastline beyond the city limits. Since then the natural evolution of the archetype has generated a wide range of structures from fully functional bespoke singular homes that act as luxury retreats, to organised and homogeneous holiday camps that dominate large areas of the coast. This project will focus on the latter and more specifically on the self-contained holiday resort, drawing influence from the vacation complex of Lalandia. A site that combines a range of summerhouse dwellings and communal leisure activities aimed at

02 Lalandia Holiday Resort, Billund - Denmark Photography - Roberto Boccaccino

holidays for families with young children. Clearly the target market for the resort is aimed at a specific demographic of European holiday goers and represents a very distinct use of the ‘sommerhus’ archetype in the formation of a domestic Danish holiday. Thus the construction of place through a appendix staged narrative, and the inherent novelty 01 this creates, plays a key role in the resorts success and allows for a keen lens from which to view our relationship to place through experience. The dwelling becomes the locus of the family holiday while communal activities are played out through leisure, sport and relaxation. The project will work with the potential expansion of Lalandia to cater for the increased volume of tourism encouraged by the new link to Germany. The resultant summerhouses will operate as a subsidiary element to the project and act as a mould to organise dwellings and communal space. Summerhouse areas are typically low density (the footprint of each house must be below 15% of the property area11) in order to be classified as a ‘small house’ and in turn allow specific regulation exemptions for construction. The resulting layout is both regimented and homogeneous and requires large areas of flat open land. This nature of repetition and sprawl leaves little connection to the environment within which it sits and primarily attempts to give access to the precious natural landscape of Denmark; the coast line.

SPRING 2015

13


14

BOXED LOGIC

Netto Distribution Centre, Køge, Denmark 01


01

SPRING 2015

15


16

BOXED LOGIC

Lalandia Holiday Resort, Billund - Denmark 01 Photography - Roberto Boccaccino


01 SPRING 2015

17


18

BOXED LOGIC


THE DESIGN LAYERS The ‘design layers’ (overleaf) will act as the programmatic backdrop, each with their inherited cultural and typological references. The project will seek to mediate between these, where appropriate, within the context of the site to form a suggestion of the future opportunities facing both the township of Rødbyhavn and the municipality of Lolland. Although this combination of functions may at first seem incompatible the chosen site of Rødbyhavn offers a chance for them to be assessed simultaneously. Each layer represents both a distinct architectural and temporal scale, which manifest in the town with noticeable segregation (see pg 27). These scales not only represent the line of investigation the project will pursue but also dictate its upper and lower limit of scope.

The layout of associated infrastructure that is connected to food distribution facilities requires inquiry into not just a singular building entity, but an acknowledgement of the entire process. Naturally each product supply chain has discrepancies from one to the next; with various levels and combinations of production, processing, storage, packing and distribution to fit into an viable economic model, and so the remit of design will narrow the focus to storage and distribution. This will demand a strategic overview to characterise the relationship between the new facilities and the existing town at an urban planning level. However closer scrutiny will be needed to compose a spatial narrative derived from the specific functions of the holiday resort; from the domestic scale of the single villa to the large scale civic activities of sports and leisure facilities or communal dining.

SPRING 2015

19


DESIGN GLOBAL MARKET The Fehmarn Belt link places Rødbyhavn at a junction of international trade. This trade has informed the logics of supermarket food supply and in turn ousted the small market street. The resultant scale creates little connection to context or place. Consequently the project will attempt to define a revised rationale behind this international connection.

01

SOMMERHUS The tradition of the domestic vacation is often based around an insular narrative of privacy and family bonding. It also offers a connection to the limited natural landscape along the Danish coastline. This element of the project offers a contrasting scale with which to address the domestic economy of the rural Danish municipality.

04 BOXED LOGIC

01 04

Rødbyhavn Fehmarn Belt ferry crossing Lalandia Holiday Resort, Rødbyhavn

LAYERS

20


LAYERS INDUSTRIAL BLACK BOX An archetype that has shrugged its architect. Warehouses like this one are a result of industrial scale production, the scale of factories like these provide an exciting incentive to assess how this system of precise organisation and time scheduling can inform a relationship with its surroundings that reveals its inherent civic nature of supporting our cities.

02

MARKET STREET The towns structure and layout is derived from a system of locally sourced and plentiful resource supply. Although not extinct, this system has been largely superseded by the global food market and the availability of cheap and varied produce reducing much of its commercial activity. The preservation of which is both costly and unrewarding. The project will therefore speculate on its future relevance. 03 Netto’s main distribution centre, Køge Rødby high street, Rødby, Lolland

02 03

SPRING 2015

21

DESIGN


STARTING POINT The design will begin with the assumption that the ferry route between Rødbyhavn (Denmark) and Puttgarden (Germany) will be decommissioned on the completion of the proposed fixed link via road and rail between the two towns. From this basis it will assess several strategical decisions; firstly the potential new landing site of the tunnel on the Danish side to best suite the programme and function of the project. Secondly the re-use or demolition of associated harbour buildings that are either currently redundant, or soon to be, as a result of the link. This will allow speculation on the integration (or ignorance) of the existing settlement of Rødbyhavn and create a dialogue between what is existing and what will be proposed. These initial steps clearly hold a range of design scales and for this reason the project will begin with the ‘proposed site area’ (see pg 27) as a way of thematically entering the site. The ‘research area’ (pg 27) is then a wider scope that allows the design to speculate on a strategy for the town. This diagram attempts to place the themes on the site; a focused food processing hub and distribution centre of approximately 5060,000m2 stemming from a revised tunnel link that makes use of the existing harbour space, an area earmarked for holiday residences and activities which is orientated towards the harbour for water access and finally an extension of the main street as the junction between the two. This drawing is purely speculative and aims to outline the spatial and programmatic layout from which latter studies will build upon.

22

BOXED LOGIC

LOCAL HIGH STREET EXTENSION

REVISED TUNNEL LANDING AND DISTRIBUTION HUB

HOLIDAY RESORT EXTENSION WITH CONNECTION ALONG THE COASTLINE


SPRING 2015

23


WORKING METHOD The overall aim of the thesis will be to create a strategic overview for the potential future of Rødbyhavn while experimenting with the various themes and identified typologies. The working method will aim to follow a sequential process that leads from diagrammatic representation of the scheme and test ideas through to speculative form making based on this, and eventually giving possibilities to test the strategic principles through design. This is a mode of contemporary architectural discourse that allows one to see how the elemental is effected by the systemic.

03

04 03 & 04 Parc De La Villette, OMA

A range of appropriate representational methods will be used to demonstrate various aspects of the design. Initially plan drawings will be used to set a principle layout of the relationship between the existing and the proposed, and moving forward isometric and axonometric studies will be preferential to allow the ability of representing large amounts of information at a range of scales in a single unified drawing. The project will also seek to engage with the aesthetic of advertising media and its influence on spatial perception and understanding of place and experience. It is not the intention of the design process to generate a fully resolved architectural scheme with a high level of complexity. As, when being propositional, this can act as a burden not only to oneself but to the reader as it can become singular and simplistic thus narrowing the field of questioning with which the project is concerned. The desire is to reach a sophisticated level of synthesis between critique and proposal through recognisable architectural elements that remain open to interpretation and multiple readings. SPRING 2015

25


L O L L A N D F A L S

RØDBYHAVN

RØDBYHAVN Situated on the south coast of Lolland municipality Rødbyhavn is an outlying addition to the small medieval settlement of Rødby. Population grew when the town was opened as a port in 1912 but its main commercial activity arrived in 1963 with a ferry link to Germany opening a new trade route from Sjælland to mainland Europe. The scale of the resulting port matches that of the small town, with a heavy infrastructural landscape servicing the ferry every 30 minutes. In 2018 the completion of a new rail/road link via tunnel will, without a train stop, by-pass the town making the ferry and its connected infrastructure redundant. The site therefore becomes a typical scenario of a post-industrial coastal agrarian community lacking much of the 26

BOXED LOGIC

links to it original settlement context. One that has shifted from being based on local trade and agriculture in the late 1800’s, to an international trade route during the end of the 19th century and eventually to a locality that will become almost entirely reliant on seasonal tourism. The focus of the design will therefore be on the redundant ferry docking area and its associated infrastructure (see page 28-29). It will target the new connection to Europe as a trade route and may potentially suggest an alternative landing site of the Ferman Belt link. In doing so it will attempt to define an altered legacy for the town other than that of decay and shrinkage.


A secondary influence on the project will stem from its close proximity to several popular sommerhus locations as well as the family resort ‘Lalandia’ - one of Denmark’s most visited tourist attractions12. Lalandia Rødby is one of two Danish holiday resorts comprising of hundreds of summer rental cottages, sporting facilities and a large water park.

KØ BE N AV 0 0 NH 0’

0’

0’

13

19 0’ 28 0’ 35 0’ 45

RØ DB N AV 0 0 YH 1’

01 Proposed high speed train link and times - København to Hamburg

01

SPRING 2015

27


RØDBY

LALANDIA

RESEARCH AREA

RØDBYHAVN

PROPOSED SITE AREA

LOCATION PLAN

28

BOXED LOGIC

1 : 50 000


N

SPRING 2015

29


N

PROPOSED

RAIL/ROAD

CURRENT FERRY ROUTE PROPOSED

SITE

LALANDIA REDUNDANT HARBOUR BUILDINGS

SITE PLAN

30

BOXED LOGIC

1 : 10 000


SPRING 2015

31


32

BOXED LOGIC


01

01 Rødbyhavn: Car entrance to ferry terminal

SPRING 2015

33


01

02

34

BOXED LOGIC

Rødbyhavn: Derelict harbour front 01 Rødbyhavn: Ferry terminal car park 02


03 03 Rødbyhavn square - retail outlet and petrol station

SPRING 2015

35


APPENDICES

36

BOXED LOGIC


01 THEMES

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

NATION VS CITY

INFRASTRUCTURE SPACE

C.V.

FOOD & URBANISM

FARMING + ØRGANIC FOOD IN DENMARK

DATA

BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES

SPRING 2015

37


01

THEMES

Distribution Centers Wal-Mart

M

Mc Lane

LOGISTICS Logistics - ‘the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation’. This definition is inherently temporal suggesting not only everything must work, its must work at a precise moment. This underlying theme holds true in both the precise nature of global food harvesting and distribution as well as the seasonal patterns and rituals of tourism. The image above is an organisational map of distribution centres for Wal-Mart™ stores across America. This spatial planning is based on the optimisation of food delivery and the spatial needs of the haulage truck. In global trade it is global standards that lead to greater efficiency and therefore 38

BOXED LOGIC

Under construction

200 Mile Radius 01

greater profit. However unlike previous agricultural networks it not only fails to contributes to civic or cultural life but actively detracts from them. This is a condition we must challenge in order to highlight architectures of logistics and systems as active agents for social and political power - ‘the left must challenge the assumption of impartiality in free-market economies..and expose it as a highly contrived political project’13. The logistics of the vacation are somewhat less potent, however they offer a contrasting backdrop with which to assess this theme. The underlying spatial and temporal organisation that make a successful holiday resort often manifest in regimented and Distribution centre coverage mapping, Wal-Mart™ , USA 01


homogeneous building types that fit to the efficiency of generating a repeatable yet valuable experience for each guest. This experience in a self contained holiday resort often revolves around the daily ritual of leisure, eating, relaxation, drinking and eating again - manifested in plan through an orchestrated landscape with an affixed value that corresponds to the access of these various activities.

NARRATIVE

&

PLACE-

type of the assorted dwellings. The typical informative pamphlet seen below depicts a self contained community with contrasting spatial consequences of regimentation and the curation of a vacation. One could argue that the narrative is written in organisational layout and it is this composition that connects experience and place. Besides the beach however this ‘place’ is removed from the context of Rødbyhavn or even Lolland at the cost of this narrative and is reinforced by its conscious branding.

This orchestration recreates the small village typology; a communal facility at its heart surrounded by a collection of ‘neighbourhoods’ defined by form and

02

02 Resort map, Lalandia Rødby

SPRING 2015

39


02

FOOD & URBANISM

SOCIETY & AGRICULTURE Throughout history the way we live has been inextricably linked with how we feed ourselves. Division of property rights and labour have shaped our settlement patterns and formulated common laws about land usage, rental systems and the notion of what we define as rural. The typology of agricultural landscape is bound to how law and planning organise themselves within our society, reflecting the political and economic climate of the present. THE OPEN-FIELD SYSTEM The open-field system endured for almost a millennia and dominated much of the logic that drove European rural settlement. Most commonly it would consist of the cultivation and crop rotation of individual peasant land holdings on gentry owned land. The holdings would be scattered among a series of shared plots and arranged in rows with many workers repeating the same work side by side in a given field. This resulted in a common seasonal calendar based around crop rotation and harvesting. The entire area of land would classify a parish and the settlement would be focused around its church, often close to the manor of the estate (see figure 01 - right). This relationship between the processes of cultivation and the land ownership distribution dictated the cultural life of the village. How they obtained their food and the urbanism

40

BOXED LOGIC

that it constructed was not only visible but impacted the social fabric of the of the population living there. Ultimately the open field system would prove inefficient and incapable of catering to new farming techniques and would eventually gave way to what is known as ‘enclosure’. ENCLOSURE Enclosure was the ascertaining of land rights to gain exclusive rights to a single plot, thus increasing its land value. This was done either through private acquisition or governmental legislation and unfolded throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th century. Common rights, that were the basis of the ‘open-field’ system, were reduced to park land or rough pasture which, firstly in the U.K., created a huge population of landless peasantry that flocked to the cities in search of work, a social shift that laid one of the foundation blocks of the industrial revolution. In Denmark this had similar effects yet the reduced workforce in rural areas were now dispersed into singular homesteads in the middle of large tracks of land. THE DANISH COOPERATIVE During the late 1800’s an emerging international grain market became available from Russia and Poland, forcing a huge price drop for many Danish farmers. Driven out of business, many farmers had to rely more on pork and dairy farming, in turn creating a new set of requirements - slaughterhouses and dairies. Initial investments were high and couldn’t be


realised by a farmer alone. So by forming a cooperative between large numbers of farmers they were able to build the necessary infrastructure and gave them the chance to capitalise on cheap imported grain for livestock feed. This change of agricultural economy and land use stimulated a social change that would become a key cultural and political trait of Denmark INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE + GLOBALISATION The success of this industry transformed much of rural Denmark; today almost sixty percent of its land mass is used to make corn for animal feed and still more is imported.

Exports in dairy products to Germany alone have risen by 30% in the last 8 years while demand for meat has risen by almost 50%14. Moreover imports of all food stuffs has risen by more than 20% since 200715. It is fair to say that agriculture and global trade in food is the power house of the Danish economy and so the project must react to these constraints. Instead of a reversion to a nostalgic small scale farming system it will attempt to shape a scenario that deals with a rural towns relationship to a globalised food system.

01

01 A represenation of an ‘open field’ agriculture estate

SPRING 2015

41


03

NATION VS CITY

In 2005 Ken livingstone, the Mayor of London convened the 18 leaders of the worlds largest and most influential cities to address a fight towards climate change and the reduction of green house gases. This meeting now occurs annually and has 40 participating leaders16. This movement is emblematic of a wider trend that is seeing cities no longer relying on the, perhaps cumbersome, nature of state relations and opting for an ‘on-the-ground’ approach afforded an ability to adapt faster to the needs of its dense urban population.

Lolland Is On a Danish scale if we couple these trends with rural to Out urban migration and Standing the disproportionately large GDP output Lolland Is per area of its capital what transpires is an increased leverage over national agendas. Standing Out If this wasn’t enough the 2007 municipal The struggling municipalities are facing an increase in the 60+ demographic while the population of all other age groups are falling The struggling municipalities are facing an increase 60+ demoreform had,in the and will continue to have, graphic while the population of all widespread consequences on the role of other age groups are falling

International Migration [2013]

local governance in Denmark. Cutting out the Amt eradicated regional fiscal redistribution and heralded municipal competition as its alternative. Although this helped increase efficiency and manpower for the smaller rural municipalities, it also liberated the city to act in its own interest. The current method for the sharing out of this success is state redistribution of tax revenue, yet this promotes the logic that the more the rural municipalities struggle, the more the growing ones have to support them. Immediately this brings to light questions of national cohesion when the city is the only area of growth. It also points at the future position of rural municipal governance and its potential to compete at a national level if their tax revenue continues to fall short of the annual budget. Domestic Migration [2013]

TOTAL MIGRATION

% PEOPLE +60

- 500 to -300 - 300 to -150

35+

52,000001 - 55,000000

01

02

55,000001 - 60,000000 60,000001 - 70,000000 70,000001 - 80,000000 80,000001 - 90,000000

% of Budget Raised by Tax

03

30,01 - 35,00

- 150 to 0 0 to 200 200 to 800

25,01 - 30,00 20,01 - 25,00 15,01 - 20,00

International Migration

% of Population Over 60yrs 14,35 - 15,00

90,000001 - 95,000000 95 - 100

800 to 1500 1500 +

TOTAL MIGRATION

% PEOPLE +60

02

55,000001 - 60,000000 60,000001 - 70,000000 70,000001 - 80,000000 80,000001 - 90,000000

% of Budget <Raised 55% by Tax 95 - 100

01

> 35% o N PEOPLE TOTAL

100% 0

03

< -447 MIGRATION 0

> 1500

04 01

<< -447 55%

- 500 to -300 0 - 300 to -150

>100% 1500

02

42

> 35%

03

< -447

04

< -447

03

- 150 to 0 0 to 200 200 to 800

BOXED LOGIC

0

0 > 1500 International 0 > 1500 Migration 800 to 1500 1500 +

03

30,01 - 35,00

- 150 to 0 0 to 200 200 to 800

25,01 - 30,00 20,01 - 25,00 15,01 - 20,00

International Migration

% of Population Over 60yrs 14,35 - 15,00

90,000001 - 95,000000

02

- 500 to -300 - 300 to -150

35+

52,000001 - 55,000000

01

800 to 1500 1500 +

DOMESTIC MIGRATION - 600 to -300 - 300 to -150

04

- 150 to 0 0 to 200 200 to 800

Domestic Migration

800 to 1500 1500 +

DOMESTIC MIGRATION - 600 to -300 - 300 to -150

04

- 150 to 0 0 to 200 200 to 800

Domestic Migration

800 to 1500 1500 + DOMESTIC MIGRATION

- 600 to -300 - 300 to -150

04

- 150 to 0 0 to 200 200 to 800

Domestic Migration

800 to 1500 1500 +


FARMING + ØRGANIC FOOD IN DENMARK FARMING IN DENMARK The agricultural sector is heavily geared towards export and produces enough foodstuffs to feed roughly 15 million people, 3 times Denmarks population. This focus on maximisation of crop yield and agricultural industrialisation reduces employment, variety of food and leaves rural settlements isolated from natural landscape. Having said this the organic food in Denmark accounts for 7% of the market share in food production - the highest in world for a country. Moreover the food association, Landbrug & Fødevarer, have set the goal of increasing that to 15% by 202017. Danish organic products are unique in the fact that they are the only country to have an all encompassing retail logo of standards for organic products.

01

This branding is cited as one of the main contributing factors of a rise in organic sales due to it being easily recognisable and a trusted symbol of quality assurance. This trust is afforded by the relationship that the Danish government has with the populous. FARMING IN LOLLAND Lolland has some of the most fertile soil in northern Europe with the main crop production being that of sugar beet providing raw products primarily for the company ‘Nordic sugar’. The beet is grown in a three season crop rotation most commonly with wheat and barley, which are used mainly for animal feed. 01 State approval logo for organic produce

04

DANISH RETAIL INDUSTRY With a large percentage of land used to grow animal feed it leaves little room for diversity in the landscape. Much of the fruit and vegetables sold in supermarkets are grown and imported from some of Denmark’s appendix closest neighbours; Holland and Germany, 06 yet Denmark has hugely fertile soil. The national focus for improving the economic output of rural municipalities can not solely be concentrated on consolidating dominant farming industries that detract from the national goals of carbon emission reduction (due to a huge amount of imported pig fodder Denmark’s carbon footprint is ranked fourth in the world - behind U.A.E, Qatar and Bahrain)18. Yet at the same time a reversion back to locally sourced food and a reliance on entirely domestic food produce is unrealistic and vastly complex. Initiatives by supermarkets, such as the organic food price reduction in Super Brugsen stores in the late nighties, can open up a future consumer market through incentivised purchases that are backed up by the infrastructure to support them; namely large scale food production and processing. These economic goals must be allowed to align with nationally represented agendas to have a positive impact on the food industry in Denmark today.

SPRING 2015

43


05

INFRASTRUCTURE SPACE

‘Infrastructure space has become the medium of information. The information resides in invisible, powerful activities that determine how objects and content are organised and circulated...Infrastructure space, with the power and currency of software, is an operating system for shaping the city’19. This poignant opening to Keller Easterlings ‘Extrastatecraft’ pinpoints the key description of infrastructure space: invisible. The removal of a distinct connection to the processes’ that support our complex inhabitation are no longer visibly integrated monuments representing a collective achievement but rather hidden and foreign means of control. The book also highlights a growing concern among architects and researchers that our preconceptions of infrastructure; the neutral supporting substructure of the city, is not what we imagined. But rather an active form that reflects the cultural and political agendas of our age. In this sense architecture and infrastructure are not two separate entities but are both a medium for conveying social effects and embedding them over time. The telephone wire mast (figure 01) was built in Stockholm in the late 19th century and quite clearly embodies an elaborate grandeur manifest in both its scale and ornament. It defines space but also collective

44

BOXED LOGIC

achievement and progress in a visible way. Conversely the palm tree telephone mast (figure 02), obviously a necessary piece of communication infrastructure, attempts to conceal its true purpose through an ‘ornamentation of invisibility’ - a dress up act that speaks less of our need to mask the vast framework of logistics, but more of our ambivalence towards it.

‘Buildings are no longer singularly crafted enclosures... but a repeatable phenomena engineered around logistics and the bottom line they constitute (is) an infrastructural technology with elaborate routines and schedules for organising consumption.’20


01

02 1 Telephone cable tower, Stockholm (1887 - 1913) 2 Telephone mast disguised as a palm tree, Bali

SPRING 2015

45


06

46

BOXED LOGIC


DATA

SPRING 2015

47


DANISH WORLD FOOD IMPORT SOURCES

Food imports above national average Food imports above national median All other food imports

48

BOXED LOGIC

source//statisticsbanken.dk


SPRING 2015

49


50

BOXED LOGIC ED I EN TAL Y

SW

LL

HO Y WORLD FOOD EXPORT AND IMPORT FROM DENMARK

%

18

16

14

12

10

8

6

4

2 2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

ALDI

LIDL

KIWI

SPAR

DAGL’BRUGSEN

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

DANISH SUPERMARKET ORGANIC MARKET SHARE

BILKA

AN

RM

GE

BILLION DKK

2009

D

AN

DANISH WORLD FOOD IMPORT vs. EXPORTS

SUPER BEST

IRMA

REMA 1000

FØTEX

FAKTA

KVICKLY

SUPER BRUGSEN

NETTO

N

SP AI ST AN

CH KA IN FR A IU AN ZA M CE KH

LG

BE

PROPORTION OF DANISH ORGANIC FRUIT AND VEGETABLE IMPORTS

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

source//statisticsbanken.dk


SEAFOOD MEAT FRUIT & VEG exports

import import

CEREAL DIARY MISC. EDIBLE PRODUCTS SUGAR

DANISH FOOD IMPORT BY PRODUCT TYPE. 2013

DANISH FOOD EXPORT BY PRODUCT TYPE. 2013

BILLION DKK

BILLION DKK

220

200

180

160

140

120

80

100

60

40

20 2003

DANISH EXTERNAL TRADE OF ORGANIC FRUIT + VEGETABLES exports MILLION DKK exports

2004 FRESH/FROZEN FRUIT + VEGETABLES IMPORTS

2008

PREPARED OR PACKAGED FRUIT + VEGETABLES IMPORTS

2007

FRESH/FROZEN FRUIT + VEGETABLES EXPORTS

2006

PREPARED OR PACKAGED FRUIT + VEGETABLES EXPORTS

2005

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

SPRING 2015

51


07

C.V.

EDUCATION 2014/15

KADK Urbanism & Societal Change

2013/14

KADK Afd. 2 - EK 1 Kandidate

2007/11

UNIVERSITY OF BATH, U.K. BSc (Hons) Architecture

WORK EXPERIENCE

52

2012/13

GRIMSHAW ARCHITECTS, LONDON Part 1 Architectural Assistant London Bridge Station Redevelopment

2010

KCAP, ZURICH Part 1 Architectural Assistant

2009

RAMSDEN & PARTNERS, LEEDS Part 1 Architectural Assistant

BOXED LOGIC


08

REFERENCES & BIBLIOGRAPHY

REFERENCES 1. C40 Cities. Why Cities? Ending Climate Change Begins in the City . Sourced from: http://www.c40. org/,Jan 2012. (accessed on Jan 15th 2015) 2. Kjaer, U. Hjelmar, U. Olsen, A, L. (2009) Municipal Amalgamations and the Democratic Functioning of Local Councils: The Case of The Danish 2007 Structural Reform. Vol.36, No. 4, pg.571. Taylor & Francis Group. Copenhagen 3. Local Government Denmark (LGDK). The Danish Local Government. Sourced from: http://www.kl.dk/, May 2009. (accessed on Dec 20th 2014) 4. Michael, C. Mead, N. The age of the city-state: which cities most dominate their countries. Sourced from: http://www.guardian. com/,May 2014. (accessed on Nov 7th 2014) 5. Landbrug + Fødevarer. The Danish Agricultural Industry. Sourced From: http://www. agricultureandfood.co.uk/, (accessed on Jan 16th 2015)

6. Udenrigsøkonomi. International Trade. Sourced From: http://www.dst.dk/, (accessed on Jan 18th 2015) 7. Knudsen, T. Personal interview. 19 Oct. 2014 8. Easterling, K (2014) Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space. Verso. London 9. Steel, C. How Food Shapes Our Cities. Sourced from: http://www.ted.com/. 1 July 2009 (accessed on 29 Jan 2015) 10. Dehn-Nielsen, H. Ferie. Sourced from: http://www. denstoredanske.dk/. 21 Jan 2014 (accessed on 4 Jan 2015) 11. Energi Styrelsen. Bygningsreglement for småhuse. http:// bygningsreglementet.dk/. 01 Jan 2007 (accessed on 4 Jan 2015) 12. Nygaard, J. Badelande til tops blandt seværdigheder, TvS. 11 July 2013 (accessed on 4 Jan 2015)

SPRING 2015

53


13. Fukuyama, F. (1992) The End of History and the Last Man. The Free Press. New York 14,15. Udenrigsøkonomi. International Trade. Sourced From: http://www.dst.dk/, (accessed on Jan 18th 2015) 16. C40 Cities. History of C40. Sourced from: http://www. c40.org/history/. Jan 2012. (accessed on Jan 15th 2015) 17. Landbrug + Fødevarer. Organic Farming. Sourced From: http://www. agricultureandfood.co.uk/. Jan 2010 (accessed on Jan 16th 2015) 18. WWF International. Ecological Footprint. Sourced From: http://www. wwf.panda.org/. May 2007 (accessed on Feb 04th 2015) 19. Easterling, K (2014) Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space. Verso. London. p13 20. Easterling, K (2014) Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space. Verso. London. p11-12

54

BOXED LOGIC

BIBLIOGRAPHY Books and Articles -

Steel, C (2009) Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives. Vintage. London

-

Easterling, K (2014) Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space. Verso. London

-

Zukin, S (1991) Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World. University of California Press. Los Angeles

-

Various. Edited by Dorrian, M. Rose. G (2003) Landscapes and Politics. Black Dog Publishing Ltd. London

-

Various. Edited by Oswalt, P (2006) Shrinking Cities, Vol. 2, Interventions. Hatje Cantz Verlag. Stuttgart

Internet Sources -

Steel, C. How Food Shapes Our Cities. Sourced from: http:// www.ted.com/. 1 July 2009 (accessed on 29 Jan 2015)

-

Self, J. Anarchy, State and Utopia: The Power of Infrastructure Space. Sourced from: http://www.architecturalreview.com/. 29 Dec 2014 (accessed on 4 Jan 2015)

-

SUSCOD ICZM. Coast of Opportunities - Development Scenarios for Southern Lolland. Sourced from: http:// en.klimatilpasning.dk/. 1 Mar 2012 (accessed on12 Jan 2015)


JACK MINCHELLA SPRING 2015


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.