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"Urban Lovers"
NEWS-LETTER
by
A Vision of Europe
in collaboration with
CIVICARCH - University of Ferrara
URBAN LOVERS
subscription
 
2010 / IV
 
Dedicated to all those who live and love the Traditional City.
The Traditional City of the Past, the Traditional City of the Present, and, expecially, the Traditional City of the Future.
Dedicated to all those who love strolling through the network of streets and plazas that make the Traditional City a unique place to experience.
Dedicated to all those who love having a drink or a cappuccino in a café within an urban context. To all those who love going to the theatre or to the cinema by walk, and then having dinner with friends in a nearby restaurant.
Dedicated to all those who prefer living in a townhouse or in an urban condominium, both enjoying the richness of the public street and the calm of the inner courtyard.
Dedicated to all those who prefer taking their kids to school at a walking distance. To all those who choose urban shops, markets or supermarkets.
Dedicated to all those who prefer to work at a walking distance from home, and to all those who would like to do so!


URBANLOVERS NEWSLETTER is intended to offer information about events, projects, competitions, books, and exhibition regarding the urban world.

URBANLOVERS NEWSLETTER will help spreading the urban culture by enlightning the positive experiences that reinforce the status of the Traditional City as the most attractive and efficient form of settlement.

URBANLOVERS NEWSLETTER will try to involve citizens, developers, public officials and administrators, as well as architects, townplanners, engineers, and all the actors in the urban set in a new effort to share information and succesful experiences that contribute to the construction of a better urban environment.
 
 
THE PROJECT OF THE MONTH
St Anne's Square, Belfast
Designed by WDR & RT Taggart, Saint Anne's Square is located in the heart of Belfast's historic Cathedral Quarter area, a designated Conservation Area, and is a mixed-use development comprising of a new public piazza surrounded at ground floor level by cafes, restaurants and a hotel. The new buildings defining this space also include, on the upper floors, offices and apartments. A new multi-storey car park also forms part of the overall project
The project, including the new arts centre facility (currently under construction) which is part of the site master plan, has been designed for use by: the local community (providing residential units within an area lacking in living accommodation), the arts community (piazza and arts centre events), students attending the nearby arts college (piazza, bars/cafes/restaurants and residential units), tourists visiting Belfast's historic core (new hotel and conference facilities, as well as piazza events), the citizens of Belfast (piazza and arts centre events, and bars/cafes/restaurants).
Background/ History
The traditional urban fabric of Belfast's city centre underwent extensive erosion for a period of circa 30 years due in large part to civil conflict which saw one of the largest population shifts in Western Europe since the Second World War - from the inner urban core to the suburbs and surrounding satellite settlements. The recent onset of political stability has highlighted a considerable regeneration need and the site in question was earmarked, by Laganside Corporation (the then Government department tasked with urban renewal) as central to the future of the City's historic core, especially in terms of its community, tourist and arts offer.
By the mid-2000's, the Cathedral Quarter had enjoyed a steady stream of individual modest developments in the form of new bars. restaurants, a theatre and new community/arts workspace. The site in question was the last and most significant piece in the regeneration jig-saw and in 2005 Laganside Corporation appointed Turnus Limited as the preferred developer for the delivery of a much-needed heart for the Quarter in the form of a mixed-use scheme which would define a new civic space.
The Saint Anne's Square development, completed in late 2009, comprises the first formally laid out public square in Belfast since the Victorian era

Site Masterplan
The Architect was tasked firstly with developing a masterplan for the site as a whole to accommodate two complimentary uses: a mixed-use scheme which is the subject of this awards submission and which covers most of the site, and an arts centre which will be delivered by DCAL, the Government department responsible for the developments of the arts. The whole masterplan was designed around the idea of the new public space aligning symmetrically with the major axis of the adjacent Saint Anne's Cathedral, the main set-piece building in the area.

Design Concept & Approach
Saint Anne's Square is an urban infill scheme, designed to respect the existing urban grain of alleyways and traditional streets, built on a site that was until 2008 a surface car park. In the centre of the scheme, a new piazza has been created to echo the history of the development site: a three-sided urban space once existed here prior to the demolition of many of the existing terrace houses and warehouses, and the construction of Dunbar Link in the latter part of the last century.
This piazza has been designed to align with the major axis of St. Anne's Cathedral, the set-piece building for the whole of the Quarter, and the entrance to the piazza will also be aligned on the Cathedral's axis to frame the view of the Cathedral's new Spire of Hope.

Grant Goldie's Photos of Festival of Fools 2010

Grant Goldie's Photos of Festival of Fools 2010
 
THE POSTCARD OF THE MONTH
Greetings from Murano
Venice, Italy
by Cristiana Bartolomei
 
THE URBAN STADIUM
OF THE MONTH
Fenway Park (Boston, Massachusetts)
Capacity: 38805 | Tenants: Boston Red Sox
Learn more about Eco-Compact Stadiums
WWW.ECOCOMPACTCITY.ORG
 
THE MONSTER OF THE MONTH
the True and the False

photo by Michele - mik
Volgograd (Stalingrado)
Bologna (Via Stalingrado)
WHEN YOU NAME A STREET AFTER STALINGRAD
YOU SHOULD BE CONSISTENT WITH THE ORIGINAL !
 
THE VIRUS OF THE MONTH

Space Invaders (Type A)

Space Invaders (Type B)
Readers are invited to vote and suggest ideas. Many are the possibilities.
The editing committee is confident that an interesting set of candidatures will emerge.
Sweden Typologies
HARD VERSION (Göteborg)
SOFT VERSION ( Uppsala)
NEW URBANISM CHECK-LIST:
Walkability: 0 | Connectivity: 0 | Mixed-Use & Diversity: 0 | Mixed Housing: 0
Quality Architecture & Urban Design: 0 | Neighborhood Structure: 0 | Density: 0
Smart Transportation: 0 | Sustainability: 0 | Quality of Life: 0
 
SURPRISE UNDERWEAR
OF THE MONTH
what you would never want to discover
under a city's beautiful appearance
Marseille, Rue de La Republique
Marseille, Rue de La Republique
DON'T LOOK THAT WAY !
WHAT AN IDIOT,
MOM TOLD YOU
THAT THE WORLD IS ALL GOOD ?
 
THE DEMOLITION OF THE MONTH
Atlanta 2006, September 30
615 Peachtree Wachovia Building
 
THE BOOK OF THE MONTH

La Ciudad de los Prodigios


by Eduardo Mendoza
Spanish-language Edition

Pub. Date: May 2003
Publisher: Planeta Publishing Corporation
Format: Paperback, 543 pp
ISBN-13: 9788432231513
ISBN: 8432231517


Eduardo Mendoza's La ciudad de la prodigios tells the story of how Onofre Bouvila arrives in Barcelona as a child, shortly before the 1888 Universal Exhibition and makes his way upwards to the top, at least partly through a life of crime and, eventually, dies at Barcelona's second, 1929 Exhibition.

You want to understand Barcelona, you need to read this novel…

 
THE CONFERENCE OF THE MONTH
Confesercenti, CGIL-CISL-UIL, Sindacato Architetti e Ingegneri di Arezzo
presentano
IL COMMERCIO URBANO
COME MOTORE DI UNO SVILUPPO ECO-COMPATIBILE
LA FINE DELL'ERA DEGLI IPERMERCATI

Gabriele Tagliaventi

East Gate Town Center - Chattanooga, Tennessee - DOVER, KOHL & PARTNERS
MALL RETROFITTING
CASI DI STUDIO

DI TRASFORMAZIONE D'IPERMERCATI IN QUARTIERI URBANI INTEGRATI
Alessandro Bucci
27 settembre 2010, Hotel Minerva, Via Fiorentina 4 - 52100 Arezzo
ore 15
 
THE ADVERTISING OF THE MONTH
New Yamaha bike rides virtual COMPACT city !
 
THE MOVIE OF THE MONTH
2 DAYS IN PARIS
director, writer: Julie Delpy (2007)
Watch the Trailer !
 
THE CLIP OF THE MONTH
ZAZ | je veux | Watch & Listen
 
MASTERPIECES
OF 20th CENTURY ARCHITECTURE

Volgograd Station, photo by S.Fedorov


Central Railway Station Volgograd
(Stalingrad)

1954

Volgograd Station, photo by Sergey SJ

Volgograd Station, photo by Firenzi

Volgograd Station, photo by Ivan Lisitsyn
 
MASTERPIECES
OF 20th CENTURY URBANISM
Munich, Germany
How to beautifully take profit of a grid
 
SUGGESTED ARTICLES & WEBSITES

La fine dell'era degli ipermercati e la guerra Coop-Esselunga | www.ariannaeditrice.it

Les hypermarchés n'ont plus la cote | www.lefigaro.fr

Reis: Mall Vacancy Rate rises in Q2 | www.calculatedriskblog.com

Developers Rethink The Mall For The 21st Century | http://retailtrafficmag.com
Architectural wonders can be a burden for businesses | http://gulfnews.com

Death of the 'McMansion': Era of Huge Homes Is Over | www.cnbc.com

Housing Double Dip Is Not Just Tax Credit Hangover | www.cnbc.com

Visit http://newurbannetwork.com !

Tearing down an expressway to restore a community:
A guest column by Clifton James and John Norquist | www.nola.com

What does 'net zero' mean? Sprawl by another name? | http://switchboard.nrdc.org

Architects ask Germans to learn to love 'ugly' architecture. 2010 is the new 1984 | www.spiegel.de

Looh at this website ! www.biourbanism.org

Existing Home Sales Hit 15-Year Low; Housing Market Weakens | www.cnbc.com

Dopo il Corviale tocca a Tor Bella Monaca ? | http://magazine.quotidiano.net

Mentre a Roma si discute a San Lazzaro si demolisce | http://magazine.quotidiano.net

NY Times: To Catch Cairo Overflow, 2 Megacities Rise in Sand | www.aucegypt.edu

Economy Caught in Depression, Not Recession: Rosenberg | www.cnbc.com

US New Home Sales Sink to Lowest Pace on Record | www.cnbc.com

Palm Beach County wants new building rules for ugly strip; property owners upset | www.palmbeachpost.com

Il Ministro Ha Ragione Sulle Periferie Ma Ci Vuole Una Biennale Della Bellezza | http://magazine.quotidiano.net

Something to Love Among the Ruins | www.city-journal.org

Family-size apartments in urban areas could help smart-growth communities | www.washingtonpost.com

French new urbanism with eco-focus | www.lemoniteur.fr

Interview with Architect Albert Speer
"Calamity of Postwar Construction Came from Rejecting History" | www.spiegel.de

Back to the future with Victorian-style model towns | www.guardian.co.uk

Retrofitting suburbia - San Jose style
San Jose planners have a choice: to let the city grow out, or up | www.spur.org

Berlin newspaper vote: 49 % prefer historical reconstruction of the old city centre | www.welt.de

The meaning of the city is short distances | http://naboskap.blogspot.com

Gateshead car park: in praise of Brutalism | www.guardian.co.uk

New ULI Book on Conservation Communities | http://netforum.uli.org

Brave New Codes | www.architectmagazine.com

Les petits commerces sont de plus en plus nombreux | www.lefigaro.fr

Look at this website against skyscraper: www.nongrattiamoilcielo.org

Great collection of VIRUS! http://www.fastcodesign.com

CITY VISIONS 1910 | 2010
Berlin Paris London Chicago, 100 years General Urban Design Exhibition in Berlin | http://pro-urbe.net

Visit http://grupposalingaros.net and subscribe its newsletter !

Convegno ´Dallo stretto una sfida energetica verso il ponte della Bioarchitettura
Messina 11 settembre 2010 | Leggi il programma
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