We are all mad here! - Project Report

“We are all mad here!�

Lewis Carroll

Formalities Institute of Architecture & Design, Aalborg University.

Semester subtheme: Designing for Urban Mobilities.

Project period: from 3rd of February to 26th of June 2014.

Submission date: 4th of June 2014.

Supervisors: Shelley Smith and Mette Olesen.

Project co-ordinator: Ole B. Jensen.

Project group: URB6.

Title: We are all mad here!

Number of copies: 3 Number of pages: 38

Preface This project’s report is written by group 6, in the 2nd semester of the master programme in Urban Design, at Aalborg University.

The theme of the project is Designing for Urban Mobilities. Before to go in depth with the design phase we attended three other modules: Theories of the Network City and its Technologies, Simulating and Modelling Urban Flows and Site Morphology and Landscape Techniques. They formed the analytical and theoretical foundation of the main project.

Abstract It is in the plans of the municipality of Aalborg and their vision to have a light rail in the city. Our project takes its point of departure in this vision and having chosen The Kennedy square as its subject this report gives an account of the process of transforming the vision into design. In the preliminary stages we simultaneously read theories and made quantitative analyses of the traffic, the number and flows of pedestrian, then looked into a qualitative perception of the square. Combining the theory and the analyses we finally proceeded to the design phase. Here we used some of the results from the analyses and found sources of inspiration in notions such as “atmosphere as aesthetic concept” and surrealism. The result is a manifesto and a design proposal that mirrors it’s essential ideas.

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(Simone Fracasso)

(Lekso Kakashvili)

(Carlos Patronilo)

(Yordan Vakarelov)

Index Theoretical Foundation

1. Atmosphere as an Aesthetic Concept 2. The Network City 3. The Surrealist Manifesto

Contextualize!

1. Regional and Urban Scale 2. The Network City as a Context

Mapping the Site

1. Entering Kennedy Pladz 2. Staging the Square 2.1 From Above 2.2 From Below 3. Communication and Colours 3.1 Geosemiotics 3.2 Materials 4. 3D Spatial Analysis 5. People and Traffic 5.1 Counting Stats 5.2 Map of Flows 6. Weather Analysis 6.1 Sun Exposure 6.2 Wind Speed 7. Interviews to the Square

Concept

1. Our Manifesto 2. Design Principles 2.1 Illusionary Landscape 2.2 SPC - Social Point of Contact 2.3 The Rabbit Hole

3 4 6 8 9 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 19 20

Design Development

21 21 22

Design Proposal

23 24 25 27 29 31 33 33 34 35 36 37 37 38

1. Our Manifesto 2. Design Principles 2.1 Illusionary Landscape 2.2 SPC - Social Point of Contact 2.3 The Rabbit Hole Overall plan - Scale 1:1000 Urban sections - Scale 1:500 Overall rendering Zoom-in plan - Scale 1:250 Rabbit Hole rendering

Reflections on...

1. Applied Method 2. Design Process

Bibliography Illustration List Appendixes

1. Design in process...

2. Interviews to the square

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Theoretical Foundation Atmospheres, flows and dreams.

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The theories listed below constitute the basis for the work on this project. Some parts were used in the analytical stages and some were used in the design stages of the project.

• Atmosphere as an Aesthetic Concept by Gernot Böhme (1997) • The Network City by Ole B.Jensen (2010) • The Surrealist Manifesto by Andre Breton (1924) The theory of the network city is a very useful tool in the preliminary phase of the analytical work, during which the site is scrutinized in different ways; resulting in mappings, registrations and a general understanding of the use of space at the site in question. The theory of atmospheres is helpful in understanding what space means in aesthetical sense and how spatial compositions generate and create certain moods or experiences in subjects, and how this relationship works between the subject and the object. The surrealist Manifesto serves as an inspirational tool in dealing with the task of designing and formulating a concept of design. Our sources of inspiration and information while working on the project have been many, relating to different challenges and tasks throughout the project work but the ones discussed and paraphrased here represent the main core of the theoretical foundation.

Gernot Böhme, in discussing the term atmosphere, describes six different aspects of aesthetics within this context: these aspects deal with atmosphere as a colloquial phenomenon, a between, spatiality and presence, performance and event, staging, construction and criticism.

1. Atmosphere as an Aesthetic Concept

Colloquial: This aspect pertains to the conversional usage of the word atmosphere, which is very pronounced. “We speak of the tense atmosphere of a meeting, the light hearted atmosphere of a day, the gloomy atmosphere of a vault. We refer to the atmosphere of a city, a restaurant, a landscape. The notion of atmosphere always concerns a spatial sense of ambience”. It can have a multitude of adjectives describing its ambient qualities.

Between: The “between” addresses atmospheres relational property. “As an aesthetic concept, atmosphere acquires definition through its relation to other concepts, and through constellations it creates in aesthetics…[…]…Atmosphere is something between the object and the subject: therefore an aesthetics of atmosphere must also mediate between the aesthetics of reception and the aesthetics of the product or of production”. Aesthetics in this sense is not what the artist has already made, but what is in the making when the subject meets the object. “An aesthetics of atmospheres pertains to artistic activity that consists in the production of particular receptions, or to the types of reception by viewers or consumers that play a role in the production of the work itself ”. However atmospheres aren’t absolutely subjective, they are rather quasi objective because we are still able to communicate them to others, yet their definition depends on the individual’s emotional perception, they are “subjective

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facts”. “They can be produced consciously through objective arrangements, light, and music…..[..]…but what they are, their character, must always be felt”.

Spatiality and Presence: The aesthetics of atmospheres are to a large extent a “how” phenomenon not a “what”. It is the theory of perception that is at its core. “In order to perceive something, that something must be there, it must be present; the subject too must be present, physically extant…..[...]…Only from the perspective of the subject is atmosphere perceived as the emotional response to the presence of something or someone.” The aesthetics manifest itself as the relationship between the ambient qualities and states of mind. Spatiality and presence are meant as aesthetical qualities found not in the form but in how that form alters space with its presence. Evening or night could be understood in terms of their spatiality.

Performance and event: This aspect deals with the fact that in visual arts and literature the tendency is to respectively represent nothing and be about nothing then atmosphere could be a significant factor in understanding these things. “Installation, performance, and happenings bring to light a dimension that always belonged to art, but was repressed in favor of form and meaning”.

Bohme here brings attention to the fact that some artists attempt to invest aura into their work of art by emphasizing the act of its creation or just the process itself.

Staging: “Today there is no area of life, no product, no installation or collection that is not the explicit object of design.” The aesthetics of atmospheres here has its focus not on the objects and their form but on things such as “scenes, life spaces, charisma. Here, atmosphere is the explicit object and the goal of aesthetic action….[..]….the object and goal of aesthetic work is literally nothing; i.e. that which lies “between-space.” An architect, a designer or an artist give objects form, but what matters is its “radiance, its impressions, the suggestions of motion.” In advertising for instance the information and representation are important “but much more so the staging of products and their presentation as ingredients of a lifestyle.”

Construction and Criticism: These terms refer to the circumstance that atmospheres affect people emotionally and whether it is experienced in connection with architecture or music it is also an act of exercising power. This means that aesthetics of atmospheres has a critical aspect as well concerning politics. “Today aesthetics is no longer by any account the beautification of life or the appearance of reconciliation; rather, with the aestheticization of politics (Benjamin) and the staging of everyday life (Durth), it has itself become a political power and an economic.”

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According to this theory Mobility is a cultural phenomenon. We carry flows and move across places: John Urry proclaims that “Societies are not static ‘things’ and ‘places’, but dynamic relations and networks!”. Moreover he argues that mobilities research should concern itself with five different kinds of mobilities: corporeal travel, movements of objects, imaginative travel, virtual travel and communicative travel. These key points express a view of mobility as a physical travel that involves embodied, sensed and performed practices, with all the psychological implications that occur before, during and after a travel. All the factors mentioned above contribute to the change of the view of our cities from mono‐centric to complex networks of multiplicities. Nowadays a ‘mobility turn’ is necessary to better understand the relationship between ‘problems’ and ‘potentials’ of the network city using an interdisciplinary approach that goes from sociology to urban design.

2. The Network City

The features of the theory: The main theoretical features of the network city are as follows: New technologies and Performative Urban Spaces, Staging Mobilities, Critical Points of Contact and Geosemiotics. The relationships between human beings were once a matter of face to face interactions, but today with the advent of new technologies they have become more abstract, they are invisible and mobile social networks, with a reduced necessity for physical contact. Technology in this respect can be seen as a way to enhance interactions and experiences in urban transit spaces: examples of these digital infrastructures are the WiFi, rain/wind detectors, air pollution sensors and so on. The implementation of these digital systems obviously needs to be regulated by a protocol, but there is certainly also a need for designers to take decisions.

Staging Mobilities: ‘Staging Mobilities’ is an understanding of the mobile situation. Mobilities do not ‘just happen’ or simply ‘take place’. Mobilities are carefully and meticulously designed, planned, and ‘staged’ (from above).

However, they are equally importantly acted out, performed and lived as people are ‘staging themselves’ (from below). Staging Mobilities is a dynamic process between ‘being staged’ (...) and the ‘mobile staging’ of interacting individuals. Different actors play different roles in this dramaturgical metaphor, depending on if they are staging from above or from below. Concerning the staging from above we can consider the following: Planning (documents, procedures, plans etc.), Design (design manuals, design codes, architecture etc.), Regulations (legal frameworks, laws etc.) and Institutions (policy arenas, economic interests and actors). In regards to the staging from below: Consociates in interaction (the meeting and passing by on the everyday street), Individual performances (the body and its movements) and The mobile self-presentation (social dynamics of interaction on the move). In the Staging Mobilities framework the two important elements are the metaphors of ‘the river’ and ‘the ballet’. The former is based on the bird’s eye view analysis of urban spaces, it sees the flow of people as water in a river. The latter regards bodily interactions and situational dynamics of situational mobilites and it’s based on gestures, gazes, and embodied negotiations and interactions that take place in urban spaces.

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Critical Points of Contact: In the cities of today the social issues and the multiple systems are overlaid and constantly convergent, in parallel and in conflict. What is Interesting in these layered networks of physical dynamics, people, advertisement posters, deliveries of goods to the shops and so on is to analyze how they are connected or not connected to one another. In this framework the Critical Points of Contact are defined as the clashes between these layers, they start to be critical when a determined system changes and aspects the other ones implied in the ‘meeting’. In addition to this the city can also be seen as a complexity of processes in which one finds our everyday practices, we are co-constituents in re-creating and re-shaping the city. We have a multiple perception of this ‘object’, depending on who we are (social hierarchy, mood, age etc.), but as we are also reshaping the city, it does the same to us with its physical materiality and the affection of its spaces on our urban behaviors. Said that we should be aware that a CPC could be everything, it doesn’t just concern the physical elements, but it could be composed of more abstract characters as anthropological or sociological factors (e.g. a determined place in a neighbourhood could be the meeting point of different cultures).

Geosemiotics: Sociological factors (e.g. a determined place in a neighborhood could be the meeting point of different cultures). Last but not least, the fourth feature of the network cities is Geosemiotics. The origin of this academic discipline has to be found in the Semiotics studies by the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839˜1914). He defined semiotics as the science of the meaning of signs. We can sum up the interpretations of this ‘meaning’ into three parts: the Icon which is based on the similarity of the sign with something conventional and well known, the Symbol, that represents habits and conventions of a specific local culture and lastly the Index in which the meaning is based on the physical placement of the sign within a determined context, from this last point geosemiotics develops its concepts. The deÿnition of geosemiotics in the Scollon & Scollon’s book ‘Discourses in Place: Language in the Material World’ is: the study of the social meaning of the material placement of signs and discourses and of our actions in the material world From this quote is clearly visible what’s the focus of geosemiotics, the strong importance of the placement of a sign and the dialogue of this with other more or less reflected messages within the same semiotic aggregate. In contemporary cities the understanding of the meaning of signs gains even more relevance when, for instance in the graffiti/murals case, that is an expression of urban subcultures, a voice that can no longer be ignored but and has to be heard and conscientiously used in the design of the city.

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The surrealist movement and in particular the manifesto as formulated by the author and poet Andre Breton caught our attention during the design phase with its powerful ideas and profoundly interesting reflections on the subject of dreams and reality: Its anarchistic and rebellious approach makes one forget that this phenomenon within the arts arose in the early 20thcentury, at a time when art hadn’t yet been commercialized and transformed into the commodity it is in most cases today. This was also the time when Sigmund Freud some years before raised to prominence with his psychoanalysis and interpretations of dreams. “Freud very rightly brought his critical faculties to bear upon the dream. It is, in fact, inadmissible that this considerable portion of psychic activity (since, at least from man's birth until his death, thought offers no solution of continuity, the sum of the moments of the dream, from the point of view of time, and taking into consideration only the time of pure dreaming, that is the dreams of sleep, is not inferior to the sum of the moments of reality, or, to be more precisely limiting, the moments of waking) has still today been so grossly neglected. I have always been amazed at the way an ordinary observer lends so much more credence and attaches so much more importance to waking events than to those occurring in dreams. It is because man, when he ceases to sleep, is above all the plaything of his memory, and in its normal state memory takes pleasure in weakly retracing for him the circumstances of the dream, in stripping it of any real importance, and in dismissing the only determinant from the point where he thinks he has left it a few hours before: this firm hope, this concern. He is under the impression of continuing something that is worthwhile. Thus the dream finds itself reduced to a mere parenthesis, as is the night. And, like the night, dreams generally contribute little to furthering our understanding.” (The Surrealist Manifesto, p. 8)

3. The Surrealist Manifesto

Andre points out, in other words, that what we are and feel is pretty much determined by our memory and in this realm of memories dreams have a short lifespan but none the less affect us in similar ways as do events outside of dreams in reality. In the manifest he theorizes and analyzes different literal works and puts emphasis on words such as marvelous and fantastic: “the marvelous is always beautiful, anything marvelous is beautiful, in fact only the marvelous is beautiful.” “What is admirable about the fantastic is that there is no longer anything fantastic: there is only the real” (The Surrealist Manifesto, p. 11-12) The overall philosophy that Breton is working toward in his Manifest can be summed up by his following statement: ”I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality.”

(The Surrealist Manifesto, p. 11) It is in this vision of a totality of the human experience that we see a useful tool in understanding the kind of atmosphere that the Kennedy square could have and provide the people of Aalborg, and visitors to the city in general, with an extraordinary spatial composition the can enjoy in different ways.

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Contextualize!

Denmark. Nordjylland. Aalborg.

1. Regional and Urban Scale Aalborg is positioned in the North-western Part of Denmark (North Jutland). Its Municipality is the most developed in a regional context, because of its historical importance as a harbour and its later development as an industrial centre. By the beginning of the 21 century the city started to be transformed to a vital educational and cultural centre, with the founding of Aalborg University in 1974 as the main catalyst for its transformation.

This context of cultural ferment is perfect for a knowledge contamination concerning the direction to follow in this process of transformation. Taking a look around the world, the trend is the affirmation of regional economic centralities aimed, at the same time, at creating new urban realities to attract new fluxes of people in the city. According to the Danish Ministry of Transport , Denmark reserved 27.5 billion DKK from a newly established fund based on taxes from oil activities in the North Sea. With this fund, the government has managed to reduce travel times of trains on routes that include the cities of Copenhagen, Odense, Aarhus and Aalborg down to one hour. At the same time, all main rail lines in Denmark are being electrified as soon as practicable.

In this framework the role of the city’s policies is fundamental. In fact knowing that the trend of the car congestion is going to increase there is a need to find new transport solutions that can effectively address the need to carry many people between housing, jobs and recreational experiences.

In North Jutland’s context the city of Aalborg works as an educational and cultural pole that attracts each year new students from all around the world and the country. Settlements are increasing and the business development, especially in corporate research and innovation carries this development of the city. In this perspective is really important to find effective solutions for this infrastructural node not only from a local point of view, but for the whole North Jutland. Talking more specifically the Aalborg municipality is expected to provide 5000 new houses and 3000 new jobs up to 2025, with a migration of approximately 2000-2500 people moving into the city. Moreover the establishment in the next years of the new University Hospital in Aalborg East and the continued development of Aalborg University joint efforts in the region to ensure the application of a mobility strategy called SMART – Social, Miljøvenlig, Attraktiv, Rentabel og Tilgængelig (Social, Friendly, Attractive, Profitable and Accessible).

So far the actors involved in this process of transformation of the urban mobility have been the Aalborg Municipality, the North Jutland Region and the North Jutland Transport company.

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2. The Network City as a Context Contemporary cities are no longer the same, having evolved and adapted to the modern definition of the urban context. The global economic crisis has brought together urban designers and engineers who try to find new strategies aimed at optimizing the planning and (the) design of public spaces. There is an increasing awareness about the cost of urban interventions. They have to be cost efficient not just in the construction phase, but also during their (whole operating cycle/lives) all lives. Maintenance costs are the main focus, that’s why all of the efforts of designers are aimed at implementing intelligent systems and new technologies, which optimize the consumption of energy, thus saving money in the long perspective. This idea has been adopted and implemented by both public institutions and private entrepreneur s, as a cornerstone in the modern complex networks of infrastructure within the transport industry.

Nowadays the technological developments are globally taking over and all concepts of communication and interaction among human beings are changing. Social networks as well as performative urban spaces have completely changed the way we view and experience our cities. The simple journey between your home and your work place is no longer just an A to B experience, it has new connotations. We are constantly bombarded by all kinds of information, advertisings, news and so on. Taking for example a plain bus journey in Aalborg, we can see how semiotics and communications are implemented as a coherent system. Starting from entering a NT bus, we immediately see newspaper located at the entrance, an entertaining trick to convey the travel as faster. Having sat down, screens capture the attention of travels as an interactive tool that communicates news and information about not only the travel but also about interesting events and places within the urban setting around us.

Travelling around the contemporary city is also an experience that goes beyond the physicality. In fact the physical infrastructures of the city are accompanied by a new invisible apparatus of social interactions. Probably today many of the human interactions seem to be missing, as we find ourselves more engaged/drawn to communicating with and within the invisible social networks around us. Thanks to these new interactive tools, there will be people talking each other through two different buses for instance, or maybe one while is crossing the street and the other one while is departing with the train. The distances of human interactions are no longer constrained by distance or proximity, giving us the possibility to communicate with each other from two different points around the world.

Examining the Kennedy Plads in Aalborg as the main case of this report, in the context of the Network City, we analyse all the different infrastructural layers involved within its complex physical and immaterial framework. There is the train station, the bus terminal behind Kennedy Arkaden, several bus stops disseminated all over the square, a huge amount of cars passing by the area, cycle paths and other big sub-layers composed by all the different kinds of users of this public space and many critical points of contact in-between them. The Kenney Square is a problematic, yet very interesting site with a potential of becoming Aalborg’s gateway to the world.

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Mapping the Site Kennedy Pladz

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1. Entering Kennedy Pladz Sketchy Analitical Sections 2.5m

1.5m

9.5m

2.0m

3.5m 1.5m

2.5m

n 4.

3.

pedestrians

bikes

cars

safe island

cars

pedestrians

bikes

1.

5.

7.5m

2.5m

2.

pedestrians

buses

pedestrians

11.5m

1.

2.

2.5m

13.5m

1.5m

1.5m

2.5m

cars

parking

pedestrians

2.5m

4.5m

4.

pedestrians

7.0m

2.5m

parking

4.5m

pedestrians

bikes

cars

bikes

pedestrians

3.

1. Jyllandsgade’s Entrance 2. AAL Busterminal’s Entrance 3. Prinsesgade’s Entrance 4. Boulevarden‘s Entrance 5. Steen Blichers’ Entrance

Reflections upon it.

11.5m

2.5m

pedestrians

cars

pedestrians

2.5m

Looking at the sections we note that is mainly used by the traffic (buses and cars).

How can we modify this trend aiming to a reduction of the traffic?

5.

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2. Staging the Square 2.1 From Above n

Looking from above the first thing that catches your attention is the green on the left side, Kildeparken, and the grey on the right, the urban fabric of the city, divided by the cuts of the rail tracks. The walking area of the square is affected by the road that goes through it, interrupting the flow.

From a mobility perspective the area is well served with a lot of buses, in fact there are six bus stops, mainly in the southern part, where the city’s bus terminal is located.

Zooming-in into the square, right in front of the bank and the hotel, we see an elliptical zone circumscribed by trees, and in the center we find a fountain and some flower beds. A unique bastion of greenery in a square that otherwise mostly consists of different tones of grey.

2.2 From Below Descending from what seems like a provisional concrete ramp leading from the bridge and down to the side of the “Kennedy Arkaden” that faces the train station, one’s view mostly consist of the backside of the mall in grey and red tones, the city of Aalborg buried behind this humongous building and gradually becoming visible from the left side, it feels like one is approaching a crowd of people that have gathered in a circle around a square and the tallest person with the widest shoulders and little taste in clothing being this Kennedy-arcade. The roughness of the concrete, the train tracks, the fence, and the asphalt ground with puddles and an uneven texture of the surface of the bus terminal, all these elements comprising the entrance to the city by bus from the bridge, have an industrial feel to them, as if something is unfinished, you’re passing through a scaffolding of an urban

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space. It feels like a none-place right until the bus reaches its destination and stops in front of a bus shed, outside the windows of the fitness world, occupying one corner of the ground floor.

Exiting the bus doesn’t change the limits or options of movement as one walks into an intrinsic space of ballets and narrow paths that one has to navigate (negotiate) through, first the pedestrians then the cars, busses, cyclists, all in a matter of seconds, until one is at the zebra crossing.

The sound accompanying this process is a mixture of traffic lights and cars, coming in as waves of traffic ambience, the steady noise from moving vehicles, and the minimalistic orchestrations of traffic lights. The square is almost invisible, it’s a zone of transit, an abandoned island that one moves through at a relatively fast pace.

3. Communication and Colours 3.1 Geosemiotics 3.2 Materials

Reflections upon it.

Looking at the materialboard we note that the predominant colours in the square are the grey and the brown, Is it possible to implement new colours in the square keeping the same urban atmosphere?

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4. Spatial Analysis

Volume 1: Current usage - Wide open space, transit zone | Atmosphere - Wide open space, well enlightned.

Volume 2: Current usage - Large commercial venue area, cafe/bar/restaurant.

Atmosphere - Vibrant transit and stay area, visited, enjoyable.

Material specifications - Concrete, brick, asphalt, wood.

Potential/planned development - Connecting part to/from the Kennedy Square area, meant for recreational/ commercial icommercial usage, waiting area.

Volume 3: Open air space.

532.1m2 5320.8m3

Height: 5m 286.5m2 1432.5m3

Area - 4635 m2 | Volume - 55 620 m3 Current usage - Vague transit area Atmosphere - Large space with a lot of not directed, chaotic traffic/motion/flow, obstructed by poor staging from above.

Material specifications - Cold, metal solid, concrete, asphalft, cubble stone feel.

Green, nature elements.

Potential/planned development Important traffic node, Central LRT stop, carefuly orchistrated design from above corrolating to the flow patterns staged from below, Central, important gateway to/from Aalborg.

Area - 225 m2 | Volume - 900 m3 Current usage - Bus stop, transition space, bike lane.

Atmosphere - Wide open space with a lot of traffic/motion/flow.

Material specifications - Cold, solid, concrete, asphalft, cubble stone feel.

Potential/planned development Important traffic node, bus stop, connected to the LRTstop and the train station.

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245.58m2 1228m3

5. People and Traffic 5.1 Counting Stats

242

511

199 99

112

83

92

548

The owners of the Kennedy Pladz are pedestrians. In fact, looking at the stats, cars and buses are approximately 3/5 of the people and bikes passing through the square. In front of the Kennedy Arkaden there is a huge point of contact between this two main categories and we CHRIST can also observe that oftenIApedestrians NSGAD cross the E main street without respecting the crosswalks.

Timelapse: 07:30 - 08:00 | 16:30 - 17:00

5.2 Map of Flows n

Bikes and Pedestrians Buses and Cars

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6. Weather Analysis Even though the big volume of the Kennedy Arkaden suggests problems with the shadows, from the sun analysis we can see that also in the worst conditions (autumn and winter) there are no problems of sunlight. Concerning the wind analysis we note that when the wind blows from west or south-west the main boundary is the train station, while when it blows from south it’s the Kennedy Arkaden. Generally there are no problems of high velocity for the wind.

Low

6.2 Wind Speed W

n

High

6.1 Sun Exposure n

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SW

n

S

n

7. Interviews to the Square

1

A cyclist

2

A pedestrian

3

Person in a wheelchair

4

Car driver

5

Pedestrians: two schoolboys

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A cyclist

Age: 27 Sex: Female Travel: Coming from another city, on her way home.

Kennedy: “I have no opinion about the Kennedy-arcade. I only use the pavement to park my bike”.

The square: “I don’t think anything of it.”

Age: 29 Sex: Male Travel: On his way home from the Kennedy-arcade where he works out three times a week, lives a couple of blocks away.

Kennedy: “I love the Kennedy arcade, I think it’s a great place.”

The square: “I never really spend time there, it’s just a place that I walk through. Once I sat there with a friend, we used our phones and the way we were holding them gave the drunks sitting across from us the impression that we were taking pictures of them, and so they got really mad! I never hang out or spend time there, especially when I have my son with me.”

Age: 42 Sex: Male Travel: Was on his way home from a visit to a physician at Kennedy. He meets with his physician two times a week, he buys his groceries there.

Kennedy: “I really like it,……If I should change something here? I don’t know what that could be, I think it is fine as it is, I am used to it. And I have no difficulties as a disabled person to go through this area.”

The square: “I never use it”.

Age: 55 Sex: Male Travel: He comes here once a week the car was parked in front of the train station. He wasn’t getting out, next to him on the passenger seat was his mother, he brought her there so that she could get on the train and leave for vacation. “I think the parking here is not good enough, the reason I didn’t turn my engine off is because I only can park here for thirty minutes, it’s free of charge, but in the kennedy arcade you have to pay 50 kroner to have your car parked there, but it’s inconvenient to drive all the way up there.”

Kennedy: “I come here sometimes to go and see a movie. I think at night there are some rascals hanging out here, they are truly annoying, very loud and don’t know how to behave, terrible kids.”

The square: “It’s fine I guess, I never use it.”

Age: 12, 11 Travel: Going home from school. They live in Aalborg.

Kennedy: “We only go to Kennedy when we have to buy candy, we don’t really hang out there.”

The square: “We never use it for anything; we just wait for our bus here.”

Age: 25 Sex: Male Travel: On his way home from work.

Kennedy: “I am here when I sometimes have to take the bus, or go to the cinema. I think that Kennedy is much better than what was here before. Yes, it is definitely better. I bike here every day, and this is the part of the route, the stretch of the bike lane, from traffic lights to traffic lights that really slows down my journey. I could be standing at this intersection (the train station) and when I get to the other, which a hundred meters away, the lights turn red. But I guess there is nothing one can do, it is an infrastructural knot.”

The square: “I never use it.”

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Concept “You would have to be half mad to dream me up.”

Lewis Carroll

1. Our Manifesto The concept takes its point of departure in several ideas, the theory of atmosphere by Böhme, who describes the role of the “between” the subject and the object, and the surrealist infatuation with the phenomenon of dreams.

The atmosphere we want to create is the atmosphere of a dream-like state, where space has multitude layers that intertwine into a single and ever-changing entity that captures the imagination of the users and visitors of the square.

In aesthetical and experiential sense “pure dreaming, that is the dreams of sleep, is not inferior to the sum of the moments of reality” (Breton) and the “aesthetics manifest itself as the relationship between the ambient qualities and states of mind” (Böhme).

The 3dimensional reality has its illusions as do dreams and by using this element of illusion we combine the two to create a place of surprise and wonder, a marvelous square, where lines and contours of objects interact and work their way through space in a playful fashion.

The method is to use flows of people to create patterns and position new points of contact, where experience is enhanced by connecting main elements situated in the middle of the square.

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2. Design Principles 2.1 Illusionary Landscape Behind this design parameter there is the idea to evoke a subjective experience using objective tools.

In fact the lines that structure the square are based on the flows of people mapped in the Kennedy Pladz.

The different zones composing the new designed square (the LRT stop, the tunnel and greenery) are located in the areas not touched by these flow lines.

2.2 SPC - Social Point of Contact Starting from the definititon of CPC (Critical Point of Contact) we defined our second design parameter going in depth with the sociological side of the issue.

Analyzing the different users of the square, including already the new LRT, we have identified in the middle of the pladz a place where all this different kind of people, using different transportation systems, meet each other. The perfect location for the LRT stop.

2.3 The Rabbit Hole The final principle revolves around the feeling of marvelous that, for instance, one has while he is passing through the tunnel that links kildeparken to kennedy pladz. Going from the greyness of the urban fabric to a very green environment. We want to get the same feeling of wonder also regarding to other ways to reach our site, from the opening of the LRT’s doors to the transition from a narrow street to the opening of the pladz.

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Design Development Reaching the Marvelous.

1. The Site

2. Flows of People

The site as it is now: the squares recreational zone doesn’t live up to its intentions, it is dysfunctional, mainly occupied by drunks.

The greenery cuts of the center from the rest: sircumscribing it into an isolated island flanked by transit zones.

The above represents a mapping of the paths that pedestrians take across and through the square. This creates a fascinating pattern of flows.

Atmosphere Pics

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3. The New LRT

4. Final Mash-up

Introducing the light rail at the kennedy square creates an opportunity to create a coherent zone of activity, recreation, waiting, and tranzit.

The Actual Tunnel

The Rabbit Hole

In our design proposal we incorporate the flow lines as a dominant feauture of the new square with the greenery, the shape of the station and the tunnel entrances all being determined by it.

Pulling the lines.

The idea to build up the LRT Stop is to use the same lines used to structure the Kennedy Pladz and pull them up, following in 3 dimensions the same surrealist concept that formed the other elements of the square.

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Design Proposal We are all mad here!

The plan presents the Kennedy Square and the site in its entirety as we envision it in its concrete form. Introducing the light rail means, according to our chain of reasoning, that the current road leading from the Boulevarden and crossing the square is removed, and the square - as a consequence - occupies more space than it does now. The flows through and around the square inspire the organic pattern of the surface, which further – combined with other ideas – serves as a basis for the design of the distinct parts of the site. The south eastern part of the square is comprised of groups of trees constituting an oasis of dense greenery with an artificial tree made of steel in the midst of it, providing calm in an otherwise hectic area. The artificial tree is an element pertaining to the overall theme inspired by surrealism in conflating to equally interesting entities: reality and dreams.

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n

Plan - scale 1:1000

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Section AA’ - scale 1:500

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Section BB’ - scale 1:500

The cross section cuts through the slope - leading down towards the tunnel entrance “the rabbit hole” - and the light rail station. This shows the accessibility and the transition from the train station to the left and the light rail tracks on the right. The roof structures above the platforms are of different heights, which is due to two factors: to maintain the nonsymmetrical shape as does the overall pattern of the square and to accentuate the importance of the center of the square.

The longitudinal section cuts through the tracks of the light rail and passes the Kennedy façade facing west. This shows the refined curvature of the roof structures that were designed this way to convey the idea of lifting the flows lines and elevating the winding pattern, keeping the organic shape not only on the surface but in all three dimensions of space. n B

A

A’

B’

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“How puzzling all these changes are! I'm never sure what I'm going to be, from one minute to another.�

Lewis Carroll - Alice Adventures in Wonderland

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The area around “the rabbit hole” has steps which are meant not only as a means of making the slope useable but also as a place of rest and urban recreation. The vivid bushes above the tunnel – alongside the winding pattern of the ground - and half circumscribing the rabbit hole square constitutes the element of wilderness.

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Zoom-in Plan - scale 1:250

n

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“Alice: How long is forever?

White Rabbit: Sometimes, just one second.�

Lewis Carroll - Alice Adventures in Wonderland

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Reflections on...

Applied Method Working with the theory of the network city and the notion of mobilities has helped us understand some of the factors at play in an urban environment. The subject matter of this report, namely the Kennedy square and its immediate surroundings, has been very interesting to work with. The analytical work mainly consisted in quantitative analyses, however a qualitative approach was applied as well, though less systematic.

In general it has been a mixture of the two that has served as the basis of the final stages of the project; it would in fact be more descriptive to refer to this process as hermeneutical. We switched between counting cyclists, pedestrians and cars and taking the time to experience the square and its characteristics relying on our senses and the perceptual capability alone.

In other words both a phenomenological and a positivist approach have influenced our understanding of the Kennedy Square and its peculiarities.

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Design Process The design process has been a lot of fun!

Before engaging fully with the main project we were occupied with several tasks in connection with the different courses that we had during the semester. These tasks in one way or another touched upon the theme of conceptual design. This influenced the design proposals that we were working on throughout the project. While working with mobilities and mapping the site for its flows and critical points of contact a concept was developed which could capture and convey these fascinating conditions, a concept that was called “the race track�.

However, later this concept was discarded due to an acknowledgment that it perhaps was a swift attempt at transforming the collected data into a finished concept. This lead us to a different approach. By looking at the data again and working with a conceptual design during the weeks of the course on Simulating and Modelling Urban Flows most staggering result -in our opinion- was the mapping of the pedestrian flows on the site. This fact together with what we - through different analyses - assessed to be a dysfunctional square and various sources of inspiration, some being rather unorthodox like surrealism, we eventually developed a coherent narrative that could incorporate the entire site and work as a basis for further development.

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Bibliography Atmosphere as an Aesthetic Concept

article by Gernot Böhme (1997)

https://www.moodle.aau.dk/pluginfile.php/173369/mod_folder/content/0/Atmosphere%20-%20Bohme.pdf ?forcedownload=1

Space of Flows, Space of Places: Materials for a Theory of Urbanism in the Information Age

Manuel Castells in ‘Comparative Planning Cultures’, Routledge (2005)

Mobilities

John Urry, Oxford (2007)

Staging Mobilities

Ole B. Jensen, Routledge (2013)

Discourses in Place: Language in the Material World Scollon & Scollon, Routledge (2003)

The Surrealist Manifesto

André Breton (1924)

http://exquisitecorpse.com/Manifesto_of_Surrealism.pdf

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll, Macmillan Publishers (1865)

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Illustration List Own illustration based on own photo cover Illustration based on a Thomas Barbey’s picture p.3

http://thomasbarbey.com/thomas-barbey-product.cfm?pid=146&type=1

Own illustrations Own illustration Own illustrations based on own photos Own illustration and own photo Own photos Own illustrations based on own photos Own illustrations Illustrations based on datas from Autodesk Vasari 3.0 Own illustrations Own illustrations Photo from the blog:Arkitektens Forlag

p.10 p.11 p.12 p.13 p.14 p.15 p.16 p.17 p.20 p.21 p.21

Illustration by Isabel Talsma

p.21

Photo by Marc Laroche

p.21

Photos offered by Mario Lopes, Photographer and Filmmaker

p.21

Own illustrations Own illustration Own illustrations Own illustration Own illustration Own illustration Own illustration Own illustration Own illustrations Own photos

p.22 p.24 p.25 p.27 p.29 p.31 p.33 p.34 p.37 p.38

http://arkfo.dk/da/blog/superkilen-byrummets-primadonna http://www.pinterest.com/pin/508695720382426862/ http://larochemarc.com/blog/

http://500px.com/MarioLopes

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Appendixes

Design in progress...

Here two sketches from the re-design pin-up. Almost all the main design parameters are already present in the sketches, from the lines composing the illusionary landscape to the concept of the rabbit hole used for the tunnel.

Overall View

Zoom-in on the Tunnel

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Interviews to the square Before the re-design pin-up we went to Kennedy Pladz with our sketches and asked to people what they thought about our design ideas. That’s what we got.

The Majority

" Interesting. Nice.”

Niels, 61

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" Who did that [Kennedy Arkaden] should be shot! Make something that moves the attention away from it.”

Panagiotis, 58

" We are not in Central Park! Be aware of the dimensions of the light structure, could be a visual obstacle. Be smarter with the Green.”

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