Collective Culture: presentation at Columbia University 29.09.11

How do people collectively express their culture? How do they color their surroundings?

In order to find answers, we approached this matter through four types of public spaces –the community space, representative place, streetscape and the virtual realm- inwhich people demonstrate their collectiveness. We considered them as being equally important.

COMMUNITY SPACE

Community gardens require an engagement to be part of the collective culture, which distinguishes it from the general public space. It makes this community space by nature often exclusive. This exclusiveness could also be taken literally because of the fences around the gardens.
What is your influence as a designer? Can you allow the exclusiveness in terms of boundaries but design them differently so that they can be something more inviting?
Could you interfere in something which exists only of an informal group of people and doesn’t want a high end design? Or could you only be a gardener in the community space?

REPRESENTATIVE PLACE

We noticed a shift in representational space in terms of the big classical ideas to the contemporary.

Obviously, nowadays we don’t have institutions with that kind of power anymore and the representation of new public spaces has changed to the local and the temporal. Things that can be built up quickly and go away again. So what can a designer do to create new public spaces? Is it limited to small scale design such as painted public spaces and temporal installations as a container bar?

STREETSCAPE

There is a diverse and active urban culture in the streets of Brooklyn. Whether it is about expressing discontent with institutions, like a mural, or a form of poetry on a large facade, the built environment can serve as an art board for inhabitants. One could say that the streetscape has the capacity to generate urban activity and invite people to interact with their environment.

Could this capability be more profound if a designer was asked to redesign Brooklyn’s streetscape?

Or do sidewalks and streets need to be designed like the great parkways that cross Brooklyn’s grid?

VIRTUAL REALM

The virtual realm is a relatively new public space which supports collective culture in general. People can join online communities, which reflects a feeling of belonging. The Internet is an easy way to reach out ideas to a large group of people and bring them together for a common goal or interest. There are a lot of blogs in andabout the different neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

Sources: 
http://www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com
http://crowhillcommunity.org/index.shtml
http://maps.google.be/
http://www.brooklyn.com/maps.html 
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml
http://www.openwifispots.com/citylist_free_wifi_wireless_hotspotBrooklyn_NY.aspx
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/landusefacts/landusefactsmaps.shtml
http://www.nycgovparks.org/facilities/
http://nycwireless.net/
http://www.prospectpark.org/about/history/historic_places/h_gap
http://www.socialexplorer.com/pub/maps/map3.aspx?g=0&mapi=2000+Census+Tract&themei=1
http://www.pps.org/civic-centers/brooklyn_essay/
http://tourdebrooklynplaygrounds.blogspot.com;

"Red Hook Be Damned", Benjamin Cadena

About two years ago a design team led by Benjamin Cadena submitted a proposal for a new master plan for the neighborhood of Red Hook when the Forum for Urban Design of New York set about seeking a way to spur sustainable economic development. What's interesting about this proposal is the way Cadena tries to unify sustainability with leisure.

"As sea levels rise and storm patterns become more severe, the low-lying Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook is at risk of severe flooding and imminent destruction. Looking past this bleak prognosis, an opportunity presents itself for Red Hook to redefine its future. Combining its infrastructure, leisure and transportation needs, Red Hook can transform itself into a sustainable neighborhood with a unique and truly progressive character.  This proposal is a provocation. Attempting to couple both active and passive infrastructures, it asserts that there should be no separation between the impending pragmatics of our urban infrastructural needs and how our entire urban experience is effectively shaped. By making infrastructure readily visible in the urban environment, hybridizing its uses, and engaging multiple scales, a distinct, local and possibly more enriching city will emerge."

Red Hook waterfront: a new dam brings with it new activities

"A dam rises to surround Red Hook and provide protection from future flooding while creating, as a by-product, a new bicycle and pedestrian path. Circumscribed within this ring, a secondary inner loop completes the transformation of Red Hook into a bicycle and pedestrian safe zone; an island in a sea of cars. Stitching the two loops together, a network of bicycle stations not only provide adequate storage and bicycle services for commuters, residents and visitors alike, but are coupled with programs that introduce new uses and economic opportunities to this historic waterfront neighborhood."

"The marriage of infrastructure + leisure facilitates the realization of a vision, revealing new funding opportunities when resources are scarce and galvanizing political will where there is none. This proposal seeks to avoid superfluousness, waste, and ultimately irrelevance, and hopes to instigate the need to consider a truly integrated and holistic approach as we envision the future of any neighborhood and the city as a whole."

If you like to learn more about this conceptual proposal, there's a video right here 

You can also visit the Forum for Urban Design for New York here

Sources:
All images courtesy of Benjamin Cadena
http://www.studiocadena.com/
http://vimeo.com/7896841
http://www.plannyc.org/taxonomy/term/669
http://www.architizer.com/en_us/projects/view/red-hook-be-dammed/25644/
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2008/06/the_red_hook_re.php
http://www.brooklynrail.org/2011/02/local/spirits-of-red-hook

"Battle For Brooklyn"

"Battle for Brooklyn is an intimate look at the very public and passionate fight waged by residents and business owners of Brooklyn’s historic Prospect Heights neighborhood facing condemnation of their property to make way for the polarizing Atlantic Yards project, a massive plan to build 16 skyscrapers and a basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets. " (Battle for Brooklyn: about)

"The film focuses on graphic designer Daniel Goldstein whose apartment sits at what would be center court of the new arena.  A reluctant activist, Daniel is dragged into the fight because he can’t accept that the government should use the power of Eminent Domain to take his new apartment and hand it off to a private developer, Forest City Ratner.  The effort to stop the project pits him and his neighbors against Ratner and an entourage of lawyers and public relations emissaries, the government, as well as other residents who want the construction jobs, the basketball team, and the additional housing that the project might produce. " (Battle for Brooklyn: about)

On November 24, 2009, after approximately a six-year battle, New York’s high court, the Court of Appeals, ruled for Ratner and against Goldstein and other property owners and tenants. On March 11, 2010, Ratner held a groundbreaking ceremony at the project site.

Rendering of new Barclays Center Arena (atlanticyards.com)

Construction Progress on May 26, 2001

For more information on the project, go check the official site: Atlantic Yards
For more information on the documentary: Battle For Brooklyn

Sources:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rumur/battle-of-brooklyn
http://battleforbrooklyn.com/trailer
http://battleforbrooklyn.com/about
http://rumur.com/
http://www.atlanticyards.com/
http://www.shoparc.com/#/projects/featured
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/09/06/the-battle-for-brooklyn/
http://www.dddb.net/php/latestnews_ArchiveDate.php
http://www.barclayscenter.com/
http://art-bridge.org/
Images courtesy of Atlantic Yards website