surface2air - Edition 2012

surface2air

2012 Edition

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02: House of Families, Fantastic Norway / Håkon & Haffner, image courtesy Fantastic Norway / Håkon & Haffner, hakonoghaffner.no

Nuuk Survey: Arctic Urbanism in Greenland

Eric Gould, surface2air.posterous.com, 6 January 2012

From the air a visitor flying over Nuuk could not miss the long residential structures composed in orderly rows looking much like oversized army barracks. Blok P is the largest one stretching east-to-west in a 209-meter span and rising just 5 stories high. Containing 135 apartments and 50 residential dwellings, this is how residents have lived for 40 years. According to Wikipedia, Blok P houses 1% of Greenland's total population.

Blok P's factory-like profile leaves an impression that the Danish designers and developers who organized Nuuk's urban planning and housing had nothing little more than contempt for Greenlanders in favor of expediency and economic efficiency. The building and similar smaller building structures were initially part of a social housing program designed to provide apartments for residents working in the

local commercial fishing industry in a centralized setting while as many as 100 smaller coastal Greenlander villages were shut down to populate Nuuk. (Greenlandic Architecture, rudyfoto.com)

The building looms across the skyline like a vast horizontal wall to protect its inhabitants from the brisk Arctic wind and snow. And while it is home to many residents, Blok P and the other alphabetic blocks have become something of eyesore. These buildings have collectively branded Nuuk's urban identity for many years. It's been part of Nuuk's inherited Danish effort for urban planning to develop the town as a strategic sea port and military outpost. Fortunately for local dwellers that is about to change as contemporary Greenlander, Norwegian and international architects in collaboration with Nuuk's city planners and residents envision a new urban transformation. One larger revitalization effort for the city center calls for the removal of Blok P and offering as the newer alternative a series of residential dwellings inspired by Greenland's landscape and earlier Danish colonial designs.

An example includes architect firm Fantastic Norway's Houses for

Families residential design. The architectural concept smartly avoids any institutional style in favor of a small village cluster model that is redolent of Greenland's Danish colonial phase of residential construction. Fantastic Norway updates that approach with wood finishes and new sustainable and technological standards including solar panels and water heating. The House for Families project is designed for disadvantaged women and children and provides them with both independence and community.

This project is part of a large-scale phase of urban development and renewal for Nuuk's city center and planned demolition of Blok P and Blok A - L in Tuujuk. "Their days are numbered, their time is over," writes the architects in the comprehensive master plan proposal Nunarsuup qeqqani - Nuup qeqqani // In the middle of the world - in the middle of Nuuk awarded Best Nordic urban plan at last year's Norwegian architecture festival – Arkitekturmässan, in Gothenburg. The project cohesively looks forward towards Nuuk's future urban planning and sustainable development as the city’s population increases.

Architects Dahl & Uhre who submitted this project proposal in April 2011 focuses on Nuuk's urban center where Blok P and adjacent residential housing blocks currently stand. The project envisions new contemporary housing more fitting with a human-scaled approach to architecture and urban development in place of the existing model. The project also involves associate architect teams including the London-based 42 / architects, Fantastic Norway / Håkon & Haffner, and TNT Nuuk to model new housing and residential buildings addressing needs for the community such as social and park spaces, landscaping, retail and a sustainable design.

Dahl & Uhre's documentation outlines the structure towards project development and how restructuring Nuuk's urban core with the removal of Blok P and other existing housing stock will not only impact residents who have lived there and have fostered a strong community but to imagine what's next. In practice their plan seeks to elicit comment from those living in Blok P and the Tuujuk residential community to determine the needs to forge a newer Arctic urban model. Its scope raises some interesting questions regarding who is the city for and what functions does

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3a city serve. Nuuk's post-war contemporary development is now at a new stage to evolve its urban plan with a strategic, cohesive approach that also involves its inhabitants. It also doesn’t hurt to retire a dated building design – one that burdens Nuuk’s civic image and social space – in favor of an aesthetic design tailored towards the values of the people living there.

Their urban plan does not merely address the problem of Blok P and Tuujuk’s Blok A-L which contains 156 apartments. These structures will be demolished over a period of years. Resettlement is needed for the residents who live here in existing housing in suburban areas and parts of downtown while construction begins for the new building projects as part of the greater urban plan. In the process, an emerging surge in economic activity and job creation is expected from the new construction.

Dahl & Uhre's grand urban vision for Nuuk's future and, by extension, its pivotal position in a globalized Arctic context is buoyed by significant existing and newly planned civic projects. Katuaq, the Nuuk Cutlural Center has emerged as one of the more enduring recent architectural icons for the city. Inspired by

the northern lights, icebergs and the play of light and snow, this gentle wave-sided building in Nuuk's business and retail core clearly departs from the warehouse rigidity of the Blok P's profile with a distinctive organic contour. Designed by architects Schmidt Hammer & Lassen of Århus, Denmark, Katuaq opened in February 1997 as Greenland's central cultural venue. Katuaq's web site describes the meaning of Katuaq as "a musical instrument that can begin to play at any moment. During the day it’s full of dreams – at night it acts like a magnetic field, drawing people into the light."

Schmidt Hammer & Lassen Architects have also designed a proposal for a school in Qinngorput in Nuuk for the Greenland Home Rule Government. Although the design is less fluid in profile, the architects draw inspiration from the location's angular mountain ridge setting overlooking the sea. The school's concept also contains an open plaza, and in the evening the building functions as an arts and community center.

Art and culture is also the primary focus for a new venue planned for contemporary art and Greenland's vibrant art history. The Greenland National Gallery for Art takes the

shape of a concrete circle straddling Nuuk's rocky coastline integrating land and sea. It's a bold design as a spherical white oval appearing beached like an iceberg on the shore against a backdrop of one of the older apartment block structures facing the sea. The award-winning design, recognized in a competition last year, is by the Danish firm BIG, Bjarke Ingels Group, in partnership with TNT Nuuk, Ramboll Nuuk and Arkitekti. As part of the social poltical dialogue about Greenlandic identity, BIG sees the Greenland National Gallery for Art as "a symbolic tool in the continuous contribution for political independency" and to "become a symbol of the current independent Greenlandic artistic and architectural expresssion."

With a plan and several projects under way, Nuuk's recent past looks to be a springboard for brighter things ahead. Stay tuned.

Image credits: 01: Katuaq, the Nuuk Cultural Center, Photo: Adam Mørk, courtesy The Arctic Council, ac.npolar.no; 02: House of Families, Fantastic Norway / Håkon & Haffner, image courtesy Fantastic Norway / Håkon & Haffner, hakonoghaffner. no; 03: Mixed Use Development - street view sky darker, Apartments,

retail and community spaces as part of sustainable masterplan, Collaboration with regional Associates. 42 / Architects, image courtesy 42architects.com; 04: Greenland National Gallery of Art, image courtesy BIG, Bjarke Ingels Group, big.dk; 05: Karen Thastum, Tura Ya Moya, Julia Pars and USK students, Nipi & Qaamasoq saga, Block 6, as part of the NIPI & QAAMASOQ Saga/MY SAGA light installation at Katuaq Nuuk Cultural Center and Blocks 6 and 7, Photo Kim Christensen, November 2011. Image courtesy sermitsiaq.ag; 06: Architectural concept for a school in Qinngorput, Schmidt Hammer & Lassen Architects, image courtesy shl.dk; 07: Cover art from Nunarsuup qeqqani - Nuup qeqqani // In the middle of the world - in the middle of Nuuk, a comprehensive Master Plan proposal for parts of the City Centre of the Capital Nuuk, Dahl & Uhre Architects, image courtesy Dahl & Uhre Architects, Dialogue Architecture Landscape Urbanism, dahluhre.blogspot.com.

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04: Greenland National Gallery of Art, image courtesy BIG, Bjarke Ingels Group, big.dk

06: Architectural concept for a school in Qinngorput, Schmidt Hammer & Lassen Architects, image courtesy shl.dk;

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03: Mixed Use Development - street view sky darker, Apartments, retail and community spaces as part of sustainable masterplan, Collaboration with regional Associates

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Davos Brief: Social Media Engagement at the World Economic Forum Summit

Eric Gould, surface2air.posterous.com, 27 January 2012

A year ago, January 25, 2011 was for most people an ordinary date on the calendar. The previous year's holidays had finally ebbed into a new year, and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, was holding its annual conference.

In Cairo, pro-democracy demonstrators convened in the city's central Tahir Square calling for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down and an end to his repressive military regime. Their demonstration was organized through a network of connections that leveraged Facebook and Twitter. Social media, largely ignored or dismissed as a superficial past-time, had been an instrumental communication tool

Davos/Klosters, Switzerland, 3 Jan 2012, aerial view of the mountain resort, Copyright by World Economic Forum, swiss-image.ch / Photo by Andy Mettler.

and platform for students, activists, "citizen journalists," and others participating and bearing witness to social change as it was happening in Egypt. It was a powerful one as the world watched a collective sharing of information and people organized to pursue an unprecedented pro-democracy movement. Egypt's January 25 revolution -- on the heels of Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution in December 2010 -- was broadly branded as the "Arab Spring" with subsequent social struggles unfolding in neighboring states across North Africa and the Gulf in Bahrain, Libya, Morocco, Syria, and Yemen in the weeks that followed.

Egyptian youth had successfully and collectively shared social and mobile platforms that had been sometimes derisively called the "Twitter Revolution" in that country, but that trivializes what happened behind the headlines. Clearly, social media and networks which have been largely adopted by a younger generation can mobilize action and quickly demonstrate effective communication. And social change and unrest did not go unnoticed; TIME Magazine acknowledged The Protester as the Person of the Year. The events culminating in the Arab Spring and late summer's emergent Occupy Wall Street movement reveals the abundance of social engagement and proving a significant importance across the world.

This year's World Economic Forum held each year in Davos in January recognizes the value of social media and social engagement and has broadened its reach of openness and communication through social media channels and mobile applications. Despite the exclusivity and elitist nature of the WEF conference -- participating attendees representing a cross-section of political, economic and business leaders are there by inivitation-only formality -- the five-day event can be followed and accessed via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare, and several reports are available on Scribd. Online and via the free World Economic Forum iPhone app, live streaming and archived video broadcast feeds are available through its Livestream channel at livestream.com/worldeconomicforum. Interviews in the Social Media Corner archive are with Mashable Founder and CEO Pete Cashmore, Ariana Huffington, President of the Huffington Post Media Group, Robert Scoble from Rackspace, and others.

While this transperancy may be good and levels accessibility to the

conference exist beyond the alpine slopes hovering near Davos- Klosters, one of the main themes at this year's summit addresses Global Risk for 2012. At the center of this issue is economic income disparity in the world, which also happens to be one of the focal points of the global Occupy movement. Some members from its ranks have set up an Occupy WEF igloo and yurt encampment near conference venues and hotels in Davos. It goes without saying that the 99% has a stake in the ongoing dialogue regarding globalization and economic challenges facing the world.

In meeting between Reuters Social Media Editor Anthony De Rosa and Mashable Founder Pete Cashmore at the Documented at Davos Studio (Reuters TV, 26 January 2012), Cashmore explains, "We're here at Davos where world leaders come to meet and decide the future of the world. Well, what happens when everyone is empowered to participate in that future? That turns things on its head."

Image credits: Twilight in Davos, Switzerland, photo: Scott Eells/ Bloomberg; World Economic Forum logo; Reuters Social Media Editor Anthony De Rosa and Mashable Founder Pete Cashmore at the Documented at Davos Studio (Reuters TV, Jan 26, 2012); Occupy WEF protesters prepare a yurt in the town of Davos, Switzerland, on January 21, photo: Scott Eells/Bloomberg; Davos/Klosters, Switzerland, 3 Jan 2012, aerial view of the mountain resort, Copyright by World Economic Forum, swiss-image.ch / Photo by Andy Mettler.

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Occupy WEF protesters prepare a yurt in the town of Davos, Switzerland, on January 21, photo: Scott Eells/Bloomberg

Twilight in Davos, Switzerland, photo: Scott Eells/Bloomberg