The Masterplan of the intervention shows how is integrated the new proposition comparing the existing situation with the final proposal when the three different phase have taken place. It is a process in time starting with the construction of student housing, following with the construction of the communalgreen core in the inner courtyard, and finishing with the addition of a new layer of housing making it self-sufficient in terms of food. At the same time, this intervention will go beyond and will be extended through the street. The relations between neighbours also take place not only in the interior of the urban blocks but also in the street and shops. This intervention try to make a pleasant street as extension of the new Productive Urban Blocks to make a big network that will be woven by this new street.
utopia. thomas moore
the site. daamport and sint amandsberg We are in the area of Daamport, working in part east just next to the rail tracks.
examples around the world
Existing situation. Section A
productive urban blocks
Existing situation. Section B
squemes of the concept
This neighbourhood has a huge variety of people from different cultures, but mostly Belgian families live together with Turkish and Magreb. But there is a problem, the lack of social interaction between people from different countries. Dendermondsesteenweg street show perfectly how we can find here a Turkish community full of turkish shops of any kind. Social communication processes are considered vital for social integration. The attitude of the host society also plays an important role in forming the social ADDING A NEW communication experiences of Turkish LAYER IN THE inmigrant community and Flemish host EXISTING CITY TRYING TO SOLVE society.
THE STRESS POINTS
Low speed street Multifunctional urban furniture New layer of self-sufficient housing Green roof tops New layer of student housing
Green roof tops
Green roof tops Communal-green core New layer of student housing New layer of student housing Green roof tops
New layer of student housing
Prototype Productive Urban Blocks. Situation plan
Talks with the locals
Where are we situated? Urban acupuncture
stress points
Workshops Energy LAB Workshops Energy LAB Workshops with the Blue Green Machine Workshops with DAMP Meetings with the city hall Outsiders interviews / New urban blocks interested Workshops with the No Waste Market Workshops with D-Hub New network of Productive Urban Blocks Workshops related to the development of a new street Starting the construction!
degraded and noisy street degraded access
community social integration
black flat roofs degraded wild and green belt
identity
keeping the exinting city
lack of nature greenery outside spaces communal spaces
Why do we have to start from scratch instead of working with what is already there? 1st phase. A new layer for student housing and greenery
- PRODUCTIVE URBAN BLOCKS GANTOPIA BLACKTHE PROCESS
Communal green space
AUTHOR 1st phase
Wheat production
Marina Carlota Álvarez García ACADEMIC PROMOTERS
Mushroom production
SECTION PHASE 1 / STUDENT HOUSING
Luc Eeckhout & Sandy De Bruycker.
.
2nd phase. Communal green core
2nd phase
14,00
10,80
Communal green space
7,90
3,60
SECTION PHASE 2 / PRODUCTIVE-COMMUNITY CORE
Student housing
.
3rd phase. Growth in density. Self-sufficient housing 25,00
19,30
16,80
3rd phase
13,80
10,80
7,90
3,60
SECTION PHASE 3 / SELF-SUFFICIENT HOUSING
.
“In 2040 we wont have any extra space anymore” Recycling cities and reconverting them into the cities of the future. GANTOPIA Revitalitation of the street
Existing housing
Greenhouse/community place Climate façade Growing density Existing housing
A prototype of Productive Urban Blocks is created in the area of Dampoort. The aim of the project is to make a sustainable urban block with social interactions of the neighbours. The intervention should be respectful with the existing environment and people who is already living there. Three phases will be designed: 1. Generation of a inner economy within the urban block with the construction of housing for students. 2. Generation of a green core for the community to make new relations and food production working as a community. 3. Growing the density of the existing housing of the urban blocks and making them self-sufficient in terms of food making new relations with the closest neighbours.
Urban furniture Current street
Greenery
- PRODUCTIVE URBAN BLOCKS GANTOPIA BLACK THE PROCESS
Marina Carlota Álvarez García
Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
@ All rights reserved under International Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-copying, recording or by any information storage retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher or specific copyright owners. Work and publication made during the course of a personal master dissertation project, within the project of “Black-The process” proposed by Luc Eeckhout and Sandy De Bruycker.
AUTHOR Marina Carlota Álvarez García ACADEMIC PROMOTERS Luc Eeckhout & Sandy De Bruycker. “Black-The process” Master Dissertation Thesis. 2016-2017. Finished and printed on June 2017. “International Master of Science in Architecture. Resilient and Sustainable Strategies” KULeuven, Faculty of Architecture, Campus Sint Lucas Gent
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 6 8 16 18 22 55
1. Foreword 2. Introduction. Black the process 3. Group work. Building Gantopia 4. Research Research question. How to make a sustainable neighbourhood from what is already there? -From existing urban blocks -Productive Urban Blocks
68 69 72 74 118
5. Proposal Idea Timeline Prototype of the Productive Urban Block Expansion of the prototype 2030
120
Bibliography
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
1. FOREWORD
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
UTOPIA. Thomas moore “(...) Agriculture is that which is so universally understood among them that no person, either man or woman, is ignorant of it; they are instructed in it from their childhood, partly by what they learn at school, and partly by practice, they being led out often into the fields about the town, where they not only see others at work but are likewise exercised in it themselves.(...)” “(...) It is certain that all things appear incredible to us in proportion as they differ from known customs; but one who can judge aright will not wonder to find that, since their constitution differs so much from ours, their value of gold and silver should be measured by a very different standard; for since they have no use for money among themselves, but keep it as a provision against events which seldom happen, and between which there are generally long intervening intervals, they value it no farther than it deserves that is, in proportion to its use. So that it is plain they must prefer iron either to gold or silver, for men can no more live without iron than without fire or water; but Nature has marked out no use for the other metals so essential as not easily to be dispensed with. The folly of men has enhanced the value of gold and silver because of their scarcity; whereas, on the contrary, it is their opinion that Nature, as an indulgent parent, has freely given us all the best things in great abundance, such as water and earth, but has laid up and hid from us the things that are vain and useless(...)” “(...)And thus, since they are all employed in some useful labour, and since they content themselves with fewer things, it falls out that there is a great abundance of all things among them(...)”
UTOPIA. Thomas Moore
Utopia, a city with its own economy based on what the produced. Analisys after reading UTOPIA
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
2. INTRODUCTION
BLACK-THE PROCESS The color black represents the process in which our world has been involved from immemorial ages. Black was one of the first pigments used by Paleolithic Mas. These black drawings represented one of the most important changes of our evolution. The color black has been used in different cultures and has become the representation of the culture of a place as we can see in the Chinese ink drawings or the Chinese calligraphy. The color black represents the Industrial Revolution in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. Black as part of the history of many countries, as poor living conditions, exploitation and child labour. Black as bad working conditions. Black is industry, dust and smoke, but at the same time is production and economy. Color black means pollution, but at the same time means energy, the new gold of our era. Oil fossil that has become the most hated but also the most wanted. Black is waste, garbage mountains that will take years to disappear Black as a color of the nature that helps some spaces to camouflage or mimetize with the environment that surrounds them. Black maps with the most polluted areas in our cities and countries. Nowadays, black means polluted environments and no money, abandoned buildings because of the crisis. Corruption of our politicians and anger of the citizens. Black is a process, black is history, black is culture, black is economy but...
Can black become white? 6
Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
3. GROUP WORK. BUILDING GANTOPIA Productive urban blocks
DAMP - Circular Brewery
Open Campus of Crafts Ghent Tool Library
D-Hub
The Blue-Green Machine
Gantopia is a new neighbourhood in Gent, an UTOPIA of what Gent could be in the future. We find Gantopia in an area that include Daamport station, the big extension of parkingplots, the rail tracks and a piece of Sint/Amandsberg neighbourhood.
Keto Bakery
The Frame
E-Lab WasteLab DAMCO(ffice)
8
It is a self-sufficient and susteinable neighbourhood. This neighbourhood generates its own economy and it is based on a circular change in terms of materials, food, waste... Services and dwellings will be combined, but what is needed in a new neighbourhood like this one?
Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Community / Food - diagram
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Mobility - diagram
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Energy / Materials
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Nature / Water - diagram
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
4. RESEARCH
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
RESEARCH QUESTION A. HOW TO MAKE A SUSTAINABLE NEIGHBOURHOOD FROM WHAT IS ALREADY THERE? -A.1 FROM URBAN EXISTING BLOCKS urban Analysis WHO IS LIVING THERE? EXISTING PROGRAMME OF THE SITE HISTORY OF THE PLACE EXISTING SITE -A.2 TO PRODUCTIVE URBAN BLOCKS URBAN ACUPUNCTURE CROWDFUNDING
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
A.
HOW TO MAKE A SUSTAINABLE NEIGHBOURHOOD FROM WHAT IS ALREADY THERE?
We have citites. We have infrastructures. We have economy. We have housing.
Why do we have to start from scratch? The reality of a place, their way of living, their culture... they are very important factors that we should always take into account. Nowadays, cities are not working adequately in terms of mobility, pollution, coexistence with nature... People are surrounded by concrete, bricks and asphalt. Pollution and noise surround us and the greenhouse effect is raising temperatures destroying our ecosystem. But the reality is that we need ways of transports, flows in the cities, water, light, heating... We have cities, we have infrastructures, we have an existing economy, we have housing... And we are going to need more and more due to the fact that 371.120 people born each day, against the 213.120 people who die per day.
So... How to start from scracht what is already there?
We have to change our ways of living by improving what already surround us. It is about recycling cities and reconverting them into the cities of the future. The cities that talks about what they were without forgetting that we have to be realistic and efficient. It can only be possible by reusing and manipulating the existing reality and make it sustainable in terms of mobility, nature and water, energy and materials and community, four topics that could summarize our guidelines to improve the existing cities and the future ones. An example will be...
GANTOPIA 18
Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
“In 2025 we will half all the extra space until 3 hectares per day. In 2040 we wont have any extra space anymore” 19
Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN BELGIUM?
Urban morphological zones
Apartments for sale
Parcels for sale
Houses for sale
Belgium is very densely populated and characterized by many small towns and urban sprawls. The case of Belgium is an example of a sprawl country in terms of settlings, where the idyllic idea of building small housing within the cities is taking place , but there is a problem... Sprawled cities means too much built land for too many people. The total number of inhabitants in Belgium is approximately 11 million and the housing market is characterized by a large proportion of owners (>70 %). The housing dynamics show us the enormous flows of people in terms of housing.
Houses for rent
Apartments for rent
Mapping the current housing market dynamics. Isabelle Loris and Pascal De Decker
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Most of the people who live in Belgium doesn´t live in the same place where they work. That´s because of the small distances that separate the cities. This together with the greater dependence on the car generates great flows of peoples´ movements within the country, which also entails a great network of infrastructures related to the mobility. All these factores means that in a few years there will be no more space for new constructions.
Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
WHAT is HAPPENing IN GENT?
Mapping the current housing market dynamics. Isabelle Loris and Pascal De Decker
As the rest of the cities of the country, Gent is characterized by an sprawled model of growth. Due to the high number of students that live in this city the rents in the city center are very high. There is a tendency that shows that almost all students live in the city center or neighbourhoods in the surroundings. Apart from the growth of the prize of the rents, this fact is causing the movement of the families from the city center to other towns close to Gent or to the outside of the city center.
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
A.1 FROM EXISTING URBAN BLOCKS
WHAT IS HAPPENNING IN THE EXISTING URBAN BLOCKS?
GENT, A CITY FOR STUDENTS Gent is one of the most important cities in Belgium and one that houses more students. Due to the high amount of students, families are pushed to abandon the city center and the neighbourhoods arround because of the high rentals of the housing that are growing more and more. Most of the family housing are transformed in kots or small apartments for students and this rentals appear more beneficial for students than for families. What is happening in Gent is that ,what family with a medium salary is able to pay 1200 € per month. If they divide the same housing in 3 rooms and each student pay peer room 400 €, they have guaranteed the 1200 €, or even more, than the families are not able to pay. LACK OF NATURE There is a lack of nature in the cities, they are crowded of cars, acoustic contamination and pollution. People is moving out of the cities more and more looking for silent and green areas close to nature. Low density Like almost every city in Belgium, Gent follows the line of sprawled cities. Here we can find very low densities because the model of housing does not overcome the three levels in height. This is because city almost unchanged with the past of the time. People are still building with this model because they really want to live in this sprawled cities. But there is a problem...
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
URBAN ANALYSIS
Visual and physical borders
The presence of the rail tracks that divides both sides of our site, is a physical and visual border. It is not only about the limits between two neighbourhoods, it is also about connections and interactions between people. The urban blocks finish where the rail tracks starts, having a wild green belt that could be developed in the future.
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
On one hand, the rail tracks are a border, a limit, but at the same time are a visual advantage for the design. Because of the height, the urban blocks can be completely observed. Travellers can see what is happening inside the urban blocks and an interaction starts to be crated. When things start to change in the urban blocks people concern about them and curiosity starts to appear. On the other hand, Dendermondsesteenweg is a very noisy, aggressive, unpleasant and poorly planed. This streets has a big ammounto of flows in terms of cars and it is no pleasant to walk through it. The lack of any type of green is another important aspect to mention, making it even less attractive.
Visual conexions to the urban block
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Nature
A green belt crosses the site and goes next to the rail tracks entering and pollinating the site. The green is also present in the inner courtyards. This green areas are used for the neighbours as lively areas to meet and were kids can play. This is only possible in this inner spaces due to the crowded and dangerous main street in the front of the urban block (Dendermondsesteenweg) and the degradeted space in the back close to the rail tracks. The presence of green in the inside of the urban blocks leads with a necesity of common spaces for the neighbours. The urban blocks deep and narrow, that´s why it is possible to create this wonderful inner gardens apart from the noise and the dangers of the outside. They are small spaces full of peace and silence.
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Access to the urban block
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The access to the urban blocks is made by narrow and dark streets that in a first moment seems scaring or dangerous. The access is also possible using common entrances that we can find in different housing. At a first moment, it is no very easy to access to this inner spaces, a watchful give you an idea of where the entrances are. The fact that the access is made by private housing makes difficult that people realize about this areas.
Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
ground floor ground floor + 1 level ground floor + 2 levels
Heights of the buildings
The heights of the buildings vary depending on were they are placed. The ones that faced to the main street have a ground floor used for different kinds of shops and have normally two more levels for dwellings + roof. The buildings that are in the interior of the urban block have different heights. There are housings with that have only one height but others that rise till 2 floors + roof.
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
EXISTING URBAN BLOCKS. INTERVENTION SITE.
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Existing urban block
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
WHO IS LIVING THERE?
People from other countries Dampoort
Gent
44,4%
30,5%
0
0
100
100
There is a high percentage of foreign people or people who has Belgium nationality but their native country is not Belgium. There are a lot of Turkish and Maghreb living in this site of the city, they work mostly in the shops that are spread around the neighbourhood (supermarkets, clothing stores, fast food restaurants...).
2013 People from other countries Dampoort
10,2%
6,8%
23,7%
Gent 4,8% 0
2013
12,0% 10
8,9% 20
30
40
50
other country
EU15 nationality EU13 nationality Turkish and Magreb nationality
Non-belgium (nacionility) Dampoort
0
2015
Stad Gent data
30
19,5%
Gent
100
0
13,9%
100
A small percentage of people who is living in the neighbourhood are singles or families. Some years ago this percentage was higher due to the fact that nowadays students are pushing families to leave the city center and the surroundings because of the high demand of rooms and apartments, and the consequent increase of the rentals and the prices of the dwellings.
Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
As we saw previously, the amount of foreign people that live in this area is mostly Turkish and Maghreb. Many Turks in Belgium find space to communicate with each other in markets, small convenience shops, coffee shops, bakeries, and restaurants run by Turks. They act as a community within another community (Belgians). Turkish people living in Belgium see Turkish TV channels as a necessity to preserve their mother tongue and their ties to homeland. Moreover, the use of Internet plays an important role in the formation of ethnic conciousness and belonging to the hometown cultures which even survives in the second and third generations. In spite of being born in Belgium, they maintain the roots with their country considering themselves part of them, even without having lived on it.
Bart Meyvis Photography
Social communication processes are considered vital for social integration. It can be said that social communication practices of Turkish people in Belgium have not had any important impact on their system integration but possibly have negative effects on their social integration processes and relations with the Flemish society. This is because their social communication practices are mainly shaped by Turkish culture, language and media. However, this is not an outcome of Turkish community´s preferences in Belgium. The attitude of the host society and the Flemish people also play an important role in forming the social communication experiences of Turkish immigrant community and Flemish host society. In other words, the Turkish community and the Flemish society do produce the above mentioned communication processes jointly: thus the onus of integration is not only on the former.
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
EXISTING PROGRAMME OF THE SITE
1. Midas 2. Smoke shop 3. Taverne 4. Pita restaurant 5. Butcher shop 6. Bakery 7. Car boxes 8. Supermarket 9. Furniture store 10. Slaapcomfort 11. Multimedia shop 12. Balkan market 13. Pharmacy 14. Offices 15. Kitchen furniture store 16. Shoe shop 17. Chinesse restaurant 18. Textile store 19. Turkuaz clothing store 20. Turkuaz furniture store 21. Cafeteria 22. Modesa clothing store 23. To rent 24. To rent 25. Parlour 26. Mat Star clothing store 27. Pita restaurant 28. Krantenwinkel 29. Imparator market
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30. Kruidvat 31. Aldi 32. Blokker 33. Casa 34. LeenBaffer 35. Zeeman 36. Panos 37. Roksan (pellets) 38. Market 39. Bank 40. Hairdressing 41. Nachtwinkel 42. Car workshop 43. Optics 44. Cafeteria Dale 45. Chinesse restaurant 46. Cafe Sisi 47. Euro cash 48. Cash Express 49. To rent 50. Karaca textile store 51. Photographer 52. To rent 53. Kebab restaurant 54. Linda clothink shop 55. Malboro-prensa
Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
After going more deeply into what is happening on site, we see, mapping the commerce of the main street Dendermondsesteenweg, that almost all the shops, restaurants, supermarkets, etc. belongs to the Turkish community. All what they sell is related to their culture (food, clothes, language, etc.) Nevertheless, in this area live a big amount of Belgians that not interact with the Turkish community. A social interaction is needed to avoid social exclusion occur. Bart Meyvis Photography
How can this people interact when there is no space for this interaction to occur?
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
history of the place
THE SECONDARY SCHOOL SAINT-PETER In 1894 Frederik Belpaire, Maria Teichmann’s husband, chairman of the Cooppal and Cie board, decided to build a secondary school for the citizen children of Wetteren. To realize this, the firm Cooppal bought the large notary house with the park of Sir Leirens, which was situated at the “Dendermondse- steenweg”. The Construction started immediately. The Scheppers’ Friars were asked to take over the leading of this school as well. In the summer of 1895 the renovation works at the notary house were finished and in September the first lessons were thought. Friar Luciaan Wallemans, the first headmaster was also vice-principal of the SaintBarbara Institute . The secondary school Saint-Peter (now the college Saint-Franciscus) was a fact. ENLARGEMENT OF THE BUILDING COMPLEX In 1897 the management board of the firm Cooppal decided to expand the existing buildings, meaning a working place for the new division “wood workmanship”, a workhouse for the clothing and the shoemaking, a laundry and a dormitory for the pupils.
Old picture of the buildings within the urban block
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The headmaster of the division “wood” became Sir Joseph Debosscher, structural contractor from Heusden who had already worked earlier for the firm Cooppal,. Later on he stayed working independently and because of the many tasks from the firm Cooppal, there was a lot of diversity as well in lessons as in constructions. At that same moment Ivo Pasques was also appointed to be a teacher in wood construction.
Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
A MODEL FARM On the suggestion of the inspector of agriculture then, the engineer, Paul De Vuyst, the Friars’Congregation decided in 1899 to buy the grounds behind the chaplain’s house; a windmill that was constructed on these grounds was considered as a nice thing. On their own costs a few buildings were raised to house the farm. In the year 1900 the buildings were finished. It became a farm that would be seen as a model for a lot of firms in the Flemish country. From the annals of that time, we mention the destination that was given to those buildings: A pig’s stable: eight sties with a feeding corridor; a vaulted cow stable with 14 places to stay and a feeding place, a horse ’stable: two standing rooms with a feeding corridor; a dairy-farm, a cheese-making place; two cellars; a brewery: with machinery, a brace place and cooling place, an office and two fermentation cellars; a crusher place: cellar and ground floor, two stores and a corn ceiling with a production capacity of 40 sacks for baking meal and the necessary malt meal for the brewery; furthermore there were provision ceilings, storehouses, a stable for the ill and a chicken sty; a slaughterhouse; a bakery; a handcraft weaving place with three handcraft gears for winter work; a forge and a joinery for reparations. A NEW BUILDING FOR THE PRIMARY SCHOOL
Old picture of the buildings within the urban block
The primary school needed new and larger teaching rooms. Plans were designed and in 1911 they laid the first foundation stone of six classes and a feast hall ( the actual classes of the primary school on the ground floor and the feast hall- gymroom. It was Martha Liibbrecht, daughter of Henri Libbrecht, manager of the Cooppal factories who laid the first stone. They also paid the building that was constructed by the building contractor Alfred Braeckman.
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
THE URBAN BLOCK NOWADAYS In 2008-2009 the school complex was putted on sale. This attracted the attention of some 3 friendly couples with the same dream, “how could we do to live here together?” The company grew into a group of nine families who decided to proceed with the joint acquisition of the complex and converting it into a high-quality and affordable housing project in the city. Intensive group discussions and the commitment of each participant ensured that the project was a real success. The school complex consisting of several buildings built in different architectural periods and styles around a common courtyard play, this buildings were in between the busy Dendermondsesteenweg and the foothills of the platforms of the Dampoort station. From the beginning, a number of basic principles were drawn up, which would be their bet until the end of the approach to the housing project. Cars would not come within the area which would give the opportunity to use a beautiful spacious garden to grow and prosper. It could be sustainably cultivated, with a breakdown of the volumes to equivalent properties, not in the literal sense of the word, but indeed to various homes where everyone is equally happy at home. And above all, the project would be addressed together.
Picture of the inner courtyard
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The architectural development was done with full attention and respect for the genius loci of the site. The beautiful big tree on the play yard would stay. The existing buildings and the site would be respected as they were. No grand gestures were made, but all the buildings were painted in white Kalei, a new skin on all exterior walls provided an architectural bond between the heterogeneous volumes.
Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Picture of the inner courtyard
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
INTERVIEW WITH VEVA VAN SLOUN Veva had in her mind for a lot of time the idea of doing something with a friends. When she saw that this old school complex was putted on sale she new that it was her moment. The first problem was that she and her friend didn´t have enough money to manage with all the project that they had in mind. That´s why the looked for more pople who wanted to take part in their idea. Finally, nine families decided to enrrolled the project. Wim Depuydt, Architect from BUROII and Veva´s friend was the one chosen to do the design and also was one of the future neighbours. This project it was not only a co-housing project, it was a coffee, a shop and a B&B directed by Veva. They had something clear, they wanted to keep the existing buildings don´t changing too much their appearance. They made some decisions as keep the existing courtyard with the big tree and convert it into a common space for all the housing. She also mentioned other things as the production of their own compost or the use of geothermal energy to heat and cool all the buildings. Currently, this space is a nice and quite place for kids to play due to the fact that all are young families. She also emphasizes the idea of living in a place with a huge number of people from another countries. For Veva, one of the most important aspects of this place is the cultural exchange of the site.
Picture of Veva Van Sloun
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She is thinking to continue a project that for here is not already finished. They are planning to build a green rooftop to grow their own food and they are open to new ideas and suggestions.
Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
EXISTING SITE
he to t ards s s e y Acc court er inn
The existing urban blocks have a line of housing that continue the alignment of the block towards the street. This is a line of housing of approximately 3 floors with a ground floor where shops of different types (supermarkets, fast food restaurants, etc...) can be found. This urban blocks have in its interior lower constructions as additions of the existing housing. Other housing can be found in the interior of this urban blocks and inner courtyard appear as green areas to order the interior housing and give them light. Some of the housing have been extended because of the new needs. We can find some other uses in the interior of the block as parking boxes of one floor. It has to be mentioned that the back façade of the housing it very degradeted due to the fact that this is not the main façade of the housing and because of the high number of changes that has suffered with the pass of the time.
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Picture of Dendermondsesteenweg street
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Picture of the inner courtyard
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Picture of one of the access to the inner courtyard 42
Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
Picture of the shop/cafeteria/bed&breakfast Clouds in my coffee
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Picture of one of the access to the inner courtyard
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
Picture of the patio of the bed&breakfast Clouds in my coffee
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
Picture of one of the black roof tops
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Picture of the inner courtyard
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Picture of one of the access to the inner courtyard
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The access to this urban blocks is made sometimes with a narrow passage that hides an amazing inner space, full of oportunities to re-think and revitalize the existing constructions. We can find different uses in the interior of the blocks as a hostel or a nice caffeteria with a lively patio. Those are symbols and initiatives that mean the intention of the neighbours to revitalise this degradeted environments.
Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
Picture of the car boxes
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Picture of the inner courtyard
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Back side of the urban block, limit with the rail tracks
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
Existing situation. Section A
B
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Existing situation. Section B
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Existing situation. Ground floor plan
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
SO... WHAT IS NEXT
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
A2. TO PRODUCTIVE URBAN BLOCKS
Adding a new layer
The need to create a strategy that helps to eliminate the problems that we find in the existing urban blocks leads us to develop a new layer within the existing city. A new layer that will try to suture the broken space not only at an urban level, but also as a social, economic and ecological level. It is not only about the streets, infrastructures or dwellings. It is about people and their relationships, about new ways of living, about the identity of the place and the interculturality, about heritage...
Existing city
Self-sufficient housing
First sketches about the idea of Productive Urban Blocks
The city is built based on the relations of the inhabitants, their relations and connections have created a pattern that is the city. With the pass of the time new relations, new needs and new connections are created. The city evolves, how its citizens do it. But the fact that the city change, doesn´t have to generate the idea of starting from scratch. We only need some additions that will add new qualities and improvements to the existing city, to the city that people have created according to their relations, connections and needs. The proposal starts with the idea of creating a new layer above the existing one, the city. A new layer that will be linked with the existing constructions but also with the new needs of the people who is living there and the new global needs related to new sustainable ways of living.
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
KEYWORDS. WORK STRATEGIES
urban acupuncture As an interaction between a socio-environmental theory and traditional Chinese acupuncture, the aim of ‘urban acupuncture’ is to relieve stress in the built environment. This by doing small-scale but socially driven architectural interventions in the urban fabric. Marco Casagrande describes Urban acupuncture as (...) cross-over architectural manipulation of the collective sensuous intellect of a city. City is viewed as multi-dimensional sensitive energyorganism, a living environment. Urban acupuncture aims into a touch with this nature.(...) and Sensitivity to understand the energy flows of the collective chi beneath the visual city and reacting on the hot-spots of this chi. Architecture is in the position to produce the acupuncture needles for the urban chi.(...) and A weed will root into the smallest crack in the asphalt and eventually break the city. Urban acupuncture is the weed and the acupuncture point is the crack. The possibility of the impact is total, connecting human nature as part of nature. The theory of urban acupuncture opens the door for uncontrolled creativity and freedom. Each citizen is enabled to join the creative participatory planning process, feel free to use city space for any purpose and develop his environment according to his will. This “new” post-industrialized city Casagrande dubs the 3rd Generation City, characterized by its sensitive citizens who feel the calling of a sustainable co-operation with the rest of the nature, sensitive citizen who are aware of the destruction that the insensitive modem machine is causing to nature including human nature.(...) In a larger context a site of urban acupuncture can be viewed as communicating to the city outside like a natural sign of life in a city programmed to subsume it.(...)
Urban Acupuncture. Drawing by Hiroki Oya / Casagrande Laboratory, 2013.
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Urban acupuncture focuses on local resources rather than capitalintensive municipal programs and promotes the idea of citizens installing and caring for interventions. These small changes, proponents claim, will boost community morale and catalyze revitalization. (...) Boiled down to a simple statement, “urban acupuncture” means focusing on small, subtle, bottom-up interventions that harness and direct community energy in positive ways to heal urban blight and improve the cityscape. It is meant as an alternative to large, topdown, mega-interventions that typically require heavy investments of municipal funds (which many cities at the moment simply don’t have) and the navigation of yards of bureaucratic red tape.(...) The microscale interventions targeted by “urban acupuncture” appeal to both
Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Urban acupuncture on site
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
STRESS POINTS URBAN ACUPUNCTURE combines urban design with the traditional theory of acupuncture. This process uses small-scale interventions to transform the larger urban context. Sites are selected through an aggregate analysis of social, economic, and ecological factors. The identification of the stress points of the urban block and its direct connections will help to understand where are the hot-spots of the place. There, we can find the cracks in the network of the site and see in the future design what can be done in terms of architecture to fix this cracks, this black points. We can find four different stress points: 1. On one hand this is a degradeted street, full of cars at all hours what makes a very noisy environment. This street has a lack of green and nature, it is a grey street sourrounded by concrete and bricks. On the other hand, we can find a street full of life. There is commerce in the ground floor of the housing and you can feel the multiculturalism of the place with a marked identity made by the people who work and live there. 2. The main access to the interior of the urban block is degradeted and very dark. It is a long passage that finish in an area with car boxes not paved. 3. Presence of a high number of black and flat rooftops. 4. Green and wild belt between the urban blocks and the rail tracks, not easily accessible and full of trash. 5. No interaction between people of different cultures.
Collage analysis of the site
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This analysis can be applicable to the rest of the urban blocks due to the fact that all of them follow the same urban and constructive pattern.
Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
degraded and noisy street degraded access black flat roofs degraded wild and green belt Collage stress points on-site
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Turkish people in the streets / Sense of community
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Belgian people in the streets close to the site / Sense of community
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Degraded and noisy main street
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Need of nature onsite
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Need to extend the housing to the outside / Need of greenery
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Problems with the waste management
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people. This project is about how to engage people and improve the existing conditions of the urban blocks. Making a new idea of housing but also a new idea of living according to the new needs that are coming in the next decades. But, how to make this projects real?
campaign crowd
Funder
platform intermediary
fundraiser
Big quantities of money are needed to make real this new ways of living in community. The creation of a prototype of the PRODUCTIVE URBAN BLOCK is extremely important for people to see what can be done. Most of the time this ideas have no support from the government at the beginning, and only by private organization or external people who really want to engage a project, it can be possible. So what would happen if private companies like the WASTE LAB or the BREWERY (that are going to be part of the project) finance part of the expenses of the project. What would happen if people start to collaborate economically because they have the same beliefs as:
-Improving
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the existent city starting from what is already there.
-Creation of a inner economy within the urban blocks.
Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Social interaction
$
Inner economy
-Social interaction between different groups and communities
Sustainable strategies
-Implementation of new sustainable techniques to improve the existing and the new housing.
-Greenery within the urban block as part of the design making a self-sufficient urban blocks in terms of food by the work of the neighboors.
What would happen if it becomes real in a near future and the government see this prototype as a new way of facing the current and future problems of the city?
Nature on-site
Facing the problems from what we have already there (the city) and giving people the right to choose and keep the city and their housing as they are. Giving them the possibility to improve it by making sustainable decisions in the new designs that can be also applicable to the existing housing.
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5. PROPOSAL
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
IDEA
The first diagrams of the idea show the idea of creating a new layer above the existing city. Starting from scratch is not realistic. People is living in their housing and they do not want to be moved from them. In the different neighbourhoods we can see what is the identity of the place, the identity of the people who is living there. It can be possible just looking at the existing buildings, looking at each different window. A new layer is generated respecting the city as it is. Only few changes will be made to make it possible. Different interventions related to social interaction, the generation of a new economy within the urban block or the creation of a new layer of housing making it selfsufficient in terms of food are going to be the strategies that will be proposed in time.
First squemes of the idea Productive Urban Blocks
This new layer will be, at the same time, related to the existing one. It will be related with the existing urban blocks and with the new Gantopia.
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diagrAM of the generation of the IDEA
utopia. thomas moore
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examples around the world
pr
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roductive urban blocks
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TIMELINE
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Talks with the locals
Outsiders interviews / New urban blocks interested
Workshops Energy LAB
Workshops with the No Waste Market
Workshops Waste LAB
Workshops with D-Hub
Workshops with the Blue Green Machine
New network of Productive Urban Blocks
Workshops with DAMP
Workshops related to the development of a new street
Meetings with the city hall
Starting the construction!
Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
A timeline is created to show the evolution on time of the three different interventions:
1. The construction of new housing for students. 2. The construction of a communal-green core. 3. The construction of a new layer of housing making them self-sufficient in terms of food.
This interventions will be developed in different stages due to the fact that each intervention will be related to the previous one in economic and social terms. This timeline try to show that it is a process about time, but also about engaging people to work together as a community. This is also about a circular economy within the urban block. The new interventions will generate profits that at the same time will allow the following stages. The construction of the Productive Urban Block will be linked at the same time with different activities related to the other projects in Gantopia. A serie of activities that will try to change the ways of living and the ways of thinking into a more sustainable way. It will be about giving to people real examples about how it is possible and how they as citizens can help to this change.
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prototype of the productive urban
Low speed street Multifunctional urban furniture New layer of self-sufficient housing Green roof tops New layer of student housing
Green roof tops
Green roof tops Communal-green core New layer of student housing New layer of student housing Green roof tops
New layer of student housing
Prototype Productive Urban Blocks. Situation plan
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
The Masterplan of the intervention shows how is integrated the new proposition comparing the existing situation with the final proposal when the three different phase have taken place. As it was mentioned before, it is a process in time starting with the construction of student housing, following with the construction of the communalgreen core in the inner courtyard, and finishing with the addition of a new layer of housing making it selfsufficient in terms of food.
Existing situation. Ground floor plan
At the same time, this intervention will go beyond and will be extended through the street. The relations between neighbours also take place not only in the interior of the urban blocks but also in the street and shops. This intervention try to make a pleasant street as extension of the new Productive Urban Blocks to make a big network that will be woven by this new street.
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STUDENT HOUSING
1st phase. Student housing. Generation of a new economy in the existing urban block.
As it was mentioned before, Gent is one of the most important cities in Belgium and one that houses more students. Due to the high ammount of students, families are pushed to abandone the city center and the neighbourhoods arroud because of the high rentals of the housing that are growing more and more. Most of the family housing are transformed in kots or small apartments for students and this rentals appear more beneficial for students than for families. What is happening in Gent is that ,what family with a medium salary is able to pay 1200 € per month. If they divide the same housing in 3 rooms and each student pay peer room 400 €, they have guaranteed the 1200 €, or even more, than the families are not able to pay.
1st phase. A new layer for1 student SECTION PHASE / STUDENT housing HOUSING . and greenery
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The first phase will try to find a strategy that will try to make coexistence possible between students and families of any kind. It will be done by the construction of housing for students to generate a new inner economy within the urban block and to be able to continue with the next to phases.
Communal greenhouse
Student housing
This place will be also related with greenery and food production for the neighbours that could be used or sold to obtain a benefit from it. This new construction will be linked with a communal space were different activities can take place. A commun area for the students were they can meet and use it depending on their needs.
Zoom into the student housing
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1st phase. A new layer for student housing and greenery
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Respecting the existing building within the urban block, a new structure is created to allow the construction on top of it of housing for students, due to the high amount of demand that we can find in the city. This new housing will have affordable prices trying to stop with this non realistic bubble of high rentals that is growing year after year. This spaces will be designed depending on the needs of the students that will be there but always with the idea of flexibility and open spaces.
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2nd phase. Productive / Community core.
COMMUNITY GREEN CORE
Social relations between neighboors.
This neighbourhood has a huge variety of people from different cultures, but mostly Belgian families live together with Turkish and Maghreb. But there is a problem, the lack of social interaction between people from different countries. Social communication processes are considered vital for social integration. The attitude of the host society also plays an important role in forming the social communication experiences of Turkish immigrant community and Flemish host society.
SECTION PHASE 1 / STUDENT HOUSING
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2nd phase. Communal green core SECTION PHASE 2 / PRODUCTIVE-COMMUNITY
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CORE
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
The second phase will try to find a strategy that will try to make possible the idea of social interaction. To achieve this social integration people need to talk and interact to each other.
Communal green core
Wheat production
Mushroom production
That is way a communal and green core is generated in the commun inner courtyard of the urban block. This core will have four different layers: -1st layer: the core will be elevated to keep this green courtyard open in the level of the ground floor. -2nd layer: this layer will be allow the production of mycelium with the growth of mushrooms that will be sold to the Waste Lab to produce insulation. -3rd layer: production of wheat that will be sold to the brewery. -4th layer: communal and green core where different activities can take place to allow the social integration between neighbours.
Zoom into the communal green core
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2nd phase. Communal green core
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Communal green space
Polycarbonate envelopment
Chimney
Wheat production
Respecting the existing inner courtyard, a new structure is created as it was mentioned before.
Mushroom production
The growth of mushrooms needs a dark environment and temperatures around 10º. This will be allowed with an envelopment made of recycled bricks from the Waste Lab and with some openings to allow the air flow. The growth of wheat needs big amounts of light so only the envelopment with panels of polycarbonate will be needed.
Exploded communal green core
In the top we will find the communal space for the growth of food for the urban block. This space will act also as a commun space for the neighbours. Here different activities and workshops, as it was explained in the timeline, will take place. This will allow the interaction between people from different cultures as the maintenance of the growth of mushrooms and wheat that will generate an inner economy within the urban block.
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3rd phase. Self-sufficient housing.
EXISTING HOUSING
Density growth and sustainable strategies.
SECTION PHASE 1 / STUDENT HOUSING
Like almost every city in Belgium, Gent follows the line of sprawled cities. Here we can find very low densities because the model of housing does not overcome the three levels in height.
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This is because city almost unchanged with the past of the time. People are still building with this model because they really want to live in this sprawled cities. But there is a problem... In 2040 there will be no more land to build from scratch, so we have to find another solutions.
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3rd phase. SECTION Growth in density. Self-sufficient PHASE 3 / SELF-SUFFICIENT HOUSING . housing
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks 25,00
The third phase will try to find a strategy to grow the density of the existing city. The housing do not have more than three levels in the city center and its surroundings.
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Communal green core 16,80
It is about the addition of a new layer of housing above the existing one. This new addition will be culminated with a big chimney. Here we will find a place for food production to make it self-sufficient in terms of food. It will be also a communal space for people who live in this housing that could be used in several ways depending on the needs of the people who live there.
Housing 13,80
Housing 10,80
Zoom into the self-sufficient housing 7,90
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3rd phase. Growth in density. Self-sufficient housing
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To allow and achieve the needed connections between people from the neighbourhood, the communal chimney is proposed not only to make possible the idea of making a house self-sufficient, but also to engage people to participate in this common space as, for example, growing their own food. This is about changing the ways of living and raise awareness about what we, as normal citizens, can do to contribute to the needed change. A change that has to start from our daily life. Making cities more sustainable can only be possible if people are aware of the new needs for the coming decades. This will be also a plays where people can be educated to contribute to this change. A change that will start from Gantopia. From a neighbourhoods with good examples that will talk about new ways of livings and the awareness of how do we have to deal with nature, water, food, waste, energy...
Image of the communal chimney
In this chimney different workshops and activities will take place to make people participate of the change. The different promotors of the Energy Lab, the waste Lab, the No Waste Market, among others, will be invited to give talks about this new movements in which they as citizens have to be part of.
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Workshops with the neighbours
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Organization of commun activities
Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Possibility to use the space in different ways
Self-sufficient housing in terms of food / Food production
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HOW TO GROW IN DENSITY
This third phase will be developed more deeply due to the fact that this design will be the one that will be also applicable to the first and second phase.
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The addition of a new layer of housing will take place in the buildings where we can find several flats, apartments, studios or individual rooms (kots). After finding the housing that meet the first requirements needed, we will make a first study about where are the existing stairs that will be prolonged to the new layer of housing. The existing pipes will be also identified and it will be possible to renovate them in other to improve the existing situation of the existing building. After this, it will be checked if there is a chimney and if it is, it will be suggested to generate here the access of the new pipes related to the geothermal energy that will be proposed to heat and cool the housing.
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The existing ceiling will be removed in order to allow the construction of the new structure for the new housings on top of the existing ones. As it was mentioned before, stairs, pipes and a possible chimney will be indentified to be able to use it also as part of the new design.
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A study of the structure of the existing building will be made. Here it will be possible to see if the structure of the existing building can support the new weights of the new layer. If it is possible, the new structure will be supported by the existing housing, most of the time structural brick walls. As in most of the 90% of the cases, the existing structure will not able to support the new weights, the creation of a new structure independent from the existing one will be developed further. A new steel structure will be created with its own foundations. To allow the life in the existing housing during the works, a tend of recycled plastic will be placed to protect the part of the ceiling that has been removed previously.
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Geothermal energy will be used to cool and heat the new housing giving the existing housing the possibility to include it. The co-housing project that we find in the interior of the urban block already started with this passive method of cooling and heating the housings. The geothermal energy is extracted and centralized in the inner courtyard. The ClimaDeck system will be used as a combination of structure and heating and cooling system in the floor.
A new line of multifunctional urban furniture and greenery will be created through the street. This will be related to nature, waste management, free WIFI areas and furniture related at the same time with the different shops that we can find in the groundfloor.
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The culmination of the new structure will be made with a big chimney that will host a greenhouse for food production and social relations between the neighbours. this shape is linked with the skyline of Gent full of chimneys. Some fabrics will be placed in this part in the walls and the ceiling to allow a darker environment if ti is needed.
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It can be possible the addition to the main façade of a platform attached to the new structure that will act as an elevator.
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
Creation of a new structure to sustain the new bioclimatic façade of polycarbonate.
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Placement of the movable polycarbonate panels to allow the flow of air. The polycarbonate openings close and open mechanically allowing the entrance of the air flow or closing the outer skin to act as a greenhouse.
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The whole intervention will act as a greenhouse. In winter months the outer skin is heated creating the greenhouse effect and taking advantage of the warm effect to heat the interior of the housing. In summer months, the openings of the polycarbonate panels, allow the air flows to cool the interior of the housing. Another advantage is that their maintenance work is minimal. Self-cleaning with rainwater. The polycarbonate openings close and open mechanically allowing the entrance of the air flow or closing the outer skin to act as a greenhouse.
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The walls of the new housing will be made of recycled plastic bricks of the waste lab and the insulation made of mycelium from the mushrooms of the green cores. The envelope of the lateral façades will depend on the construction of a new structure or not and its orientation (north or south).
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In the back façade we can find extensions of the main buildings of one level. If the structure of this construction, normally structural brick walls, can support the new weights of the new structure it will be not necessary to cut the wall to allow the pilar to generate a new foundation. in the ground.
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Collage main street Productive Urban Block
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Prototype Productive Urban Blocks. Ground floor
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Section existing urban block
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Section Productive Urban Block / Self-sufficient housing
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SQUEMES OF THE DESIGN
BIOCLIMATIC FAÇADE In winter months the outer skin is heated creating the greenhouse effect and taking advantage of the warm effect to heat the interior of the housing. In summer months, the openings of the polycarbonate panels, allow the air flows to cool the interior of the housing. Another advantage is that their maintenance work is minimal. Self-cleaning with rainwater. The polycarbonate openings close and open mechanically allowing the entrance of the air flow or closing the outer skin to act as a greenhouse.
East
TROMBE WALL
West
Vented walls allow the user to actively or passively circulate room air past the heated side of the wall for more immediate heating. Vented Trombe walls may use passively or actively controllable flaps to prevent convection in the undesired direction, as when the wall cools at night in winter or heats during the day in summer.
WINTER
Diagram bioclimatic façade
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SUMMER
Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
POSSIBILITY TO USE GEOTHERMAL ENERGY The co-housign project on-site was designed using geothermal energy trough the terrein, having the installation in the inner courtyard. The same principle can be applicable in the new design.
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d un o gr m er o fr t at win e h g ng urin i ain d
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Very low temperature geothermal energy: it is considered when the fluids are heated to temperatures below 60ºC. This is the system of geothermal sensors in applications with geothermal heat pump. What is the principle of operation of very low temperature geothermal energy? The use of geothermal energy bases its principle on the constant temperature of the subsoil throughout the year, independently of the external conditions. Due to the difference in temperature between the environment and the terrain (in winter the subsoil is hotter than the outside environment, and in summer the subsoil is cooler than the outside environment), and with the help of a Geothermal Heat Pump, we can acclimatize a building with greater efficiency than the systems that are currently being used. The ex-changers (geothermal probes) consist of a plastic pipe through which a liquid circulates (water solution with antifreeze) in a closed circuit. This transports the heat of the terrain to the house in winter through the geothermal heat pump and, in summer, the heat of the dwelling to the land of almost free form. It is exchanged the captured temperature of the land through the geothermal probes with the water of the radiant floor circuit offering a pleasant refreshment during the summer, function which incorporate the heat pumps, so that the house has a unique installation for its complete HEAT-COOL and hot water sanitary air conditioning.
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ELEVATION
Existing housing There is a line of housing of 2 or 3 heights with a commercial ground floor with Turkish shops. Most of this housing have being divided in small apartments or housing for students. There are some of them that are still big housing for families. Others have been removed and new building have been created.
Elevation existing urban blocks Dendermondsesteenweg (main street)
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Existing housing with the new intervention
The new intervention propose the creation of a new layer above the existing city, the existing housing. How old and new coexist in a balance. A project that try to keep the identity of the place and respecting what was already there. Working with the existing by adding a new sustainable intervention.
Elevation Productive Urban Blocks Dendermondsesteenweg (main street)
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BEFORE - Axonometric Urban Block
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AFTER - Axonometric Productive Urban Block
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The design is extended through the main street, where the social iNteraction was already taking place but only between people of the same communties. A multifunctional urban furniture will be created to try to connect people on-site. People who share a talk while drinking a coffee.
Multifunctional urban furniture
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At the same time, it will be related to nature, waste management, free WIFI areas and furniture related at the same time with the different shops that we can find in the groundfloor.
Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
Materiality of the façade
The new façade talks about how old and new coexist in a balance. A project that try to keep the identity of the place and respecting what was already there. Working with the existing by adding a new sustainable intervention.
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Materiality of the façade
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Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
Steel trussed
ClimaDeck System (structural+ pipes geothermal energy)
Steel IPN beam 200 20 cm insulation made of mycelium (Waste LAB) Tramex
Recycled plastic bricks
Steel IPN pilar 300
Secondary vertical steel structure
Secondary horizontal steel structure
Insulation made of mycelium (Waste LAB) False ceiling Movable polycarbonate panels
Exterior façade and interior walls of the housing
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Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
RECYCLED Materials Materials produced in the Waste LAB
Recycled plastic cricks
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Insulation made of mycelium (Mushrooms growth in the communal green core)
Recycled plastic cladding
Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa. Productive Urban Blocks
Insulation made of mycelium (Waste LAB) Plastic cladding, interior wallboard
Ceramic floor
False ceiling Plastic cladding
Insulation made of mycelium (Waste LAB) Plastic cladding, interior wallboard
Interior walls for the housing
The interior of the housing will be designed and constructed by the new tenants. Each owner has different needs and each needs have to be satisfied in different ways. The fact that Belgians are so interested on building their own housing and taking part on the process of the design, it makes possible that this last part of the process will be given to them. Some guidelines will be proposed, as how the interior partitions have to be done, but having completely flexibility to make everything possible. They will be the ones that will decide how their house will be depending on their needs. Needs that maybe will
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expansion of the prototype
2030
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Time goes and we are in 2030... The concept of Gantopia has been spread around the rest of the city. Gent has been pollinated and it will work as a big network of productive urban blocks starting from the first prototype. Now new ways of living are real. People are living in the city that was one day, but also in the city of the future. A city that is conscious about the problems and the city that is ready to give solutions. New ways of thinking in a future that is only 13 years far from now...
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BIBLIOGRAPHY FOREWORD Thomas Moore. UTOPIA. REFERENCE BOOKS Thomas Moore. UTOPIA.
ARCHIGRAM, Archigram Monographie.
MARCO CASAGRANDE. Casagrande Laboratory, 2013.
MARCO CASAGRANDE. Taipei Organic Acupuncture
DIRK SIJMONS. Urban by Nature
CATALOGUES AND PRESENTATIONS
LEON KAYE. Could cities’ problems be solved by urban acupuncture? The Guardian
MIRU KIM – TED Talks 2/2009
SOLA MORALES. “The strategy of urban acupuncture.” Structure Fabric and Topography Conference, Nanjing University. 2004. KELSEY CAMPBELL. Illegal Architecture in Taipei. Dollaghan Architizer 3/2011 WEBSITES GENT: zoveel stad. Dashboard Gent OTHER DOCUMENTS
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KULeuven. Spaces for Economy in the City, International Master of Architecture, Gent.
Marina Carlota Álvarez García. Productive Urban Blocks
CONCLUSIONS
New needs are changing with the pass of the time. But... Why do we have to start from scratch instead working with what already surround us? Having into account the reality of the city and the new needs that the future is showing us, we have to change our ways of living, our ways of thinking. But there is a reality, the reality of the existing cities where people live. That’s what the project is about. This is about the reality of the existing urban blocks and the problems that we find on site.
Low densities, lack of nature, people of different cultures with a lack of interaction with the rest of the society, degraded urban spaces...
Working as urban acupuncture, with several strategies, it will be tried to work with the existing city by adding a new layer that will try to solve or give alternative solutions to the problems that are identified, to the reality of the place. This will be possible by making 3 different sustainable strategies that will be part of the old city, transforming it into the city of the future. A city that will never lose its identity because it is not about what it will be, it is also about what it was. It is about people, communities, cultures, relationships, interactions... The creation of a stronger sense of community that will contribute to the needed change of the city.
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THANK YOU... I would like to thank my parents for their unconditional help. Thanks mum for being ALWAYS my support. Thanks Nacho for the unconditional support. Thank you for transmitting me that endless energy and for guiding me even when things do not look so clear. As you mentioned last year, I’m looking forward to start more and more adventures together. Thanks for being always so comprising. Thanks to my grandmother who even without being, she is still guiding and helping me to live a wonderful life and to achieve everything I want. All my accomplishments are going to be always dedicated to her. Thanks Dani and Irene for living together with me another wonderful year in our city, Gent. Thanks to Raquel to support me even if she is 1500 km far from me. You are always here. Thanks Luc and Sandy for conveying us your enthusiasm and for motivating and guiding us in all this process.
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- PRODUCTIVE URBAN BLOCKS GANTOPIA BLACKTHE PROCESS
Marina Carlota Ă lvarez GarcĂa
A prototype of Productive Urban Blocks is created in the area of Dampoort. The aim of the project is to make a sustainable urban block with social interactions of the neighbours. The intervention should be respectful with the existing environment and people who is already living there. Three phases will be designed: 1. Generation of a inner economy within the urban block with the construction of housing for students. 2. Generation of a green core for the community to make new relations and food production working as a community. 3. Growing the density of the existing housing of the urban blocks and making them self-sufficient in terms of food making new relations with the closest neighbours.