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The design of allotment gardens is a part of "Urban forest" project in Brunnshög area, Lund. Allotments, arranged in circles, could be located along the paths leading from Lund city towards Kungsmarken nature reserve in the outskirts. Small "islands", scattered in the flat agricultural landscape, would allow to experience the contrast between openness and enclosed protected spaces. Allotments could be many different sizes and types, arranged around existing ponds, farms or trees.
Architecture is usually perceived as the opposite to nature; it portrays something regular, strict, sharp, hard, cold. Even though most of people desire to have nature’s qualities around their living space, our everyday environment has been built the opposite way. Only with a present trend of sustainability the situation is changing, and we try to implement new qualities to our car-orientated “modern” concrete cities. The qualities which we are constantly struggling to achieve in our built environments are usually present in most of natural places. We want it to look natural and organic, feel inviting and relaxing, also playful and stimulating.
I believe that spontaneous, intuitive, instinct-led act of birth rewarded Nimis with many extraordinary features: individuality, organic shape, playful and interactive character. So maybe those qualities can be achieved in built environments if we change our attitude towards designing process? Can we start looking at human nature as a part of nature, and involve users into a constant process of changing and creating our everyday spaces? In this paragraph I will discuss the issue of freedom of individual expression in urban space.
Nimis reminded me of a Finnish architect and Professor Marco Casagrande, who developed the concept of Urban Acupuncture. He writes:
“Urban acupuncture is ruining the industrial surface of the built human environment. Ruin is when man-made has become part of nature. 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.”
M.Casagrande encourages releasing the instincts and sees it as a way to turn city into a living natural thing, which he calls “compost”. He claims that “people are ruining their built human environment by being themselves”. He also says that you don’t really need to be strong (maybe he means - educated?) to do that: “As the city reflects control and strength, the urban acupuncture has to be weak in order to break the machine.”
M.Casagrande’s theory opens the door for uncontrolled creativity and freedom. Each citizen is enabled to join the creative process, feel free to use city space for any purpose and decorate his environment according to his taste. Then existing order of previously built industrial cities will be ruined by human nature and turned into a “compost”. And ruin is not a product or a final goal, - it is a continuous process.
Similar ideas were expressed in Sven-Ingvar Andersson’s text “Letters from my Henyard”. “All kinds of societies in all times have established ways for limiting individual development. <…> How then can we justify the aesthetic double standard which imprisons the user behind a nice façade and prevents him from the exuberant display and marking of the place that could be the true folklore of industrial society?”, - he writes. Who decides which user is allowed to shape the city and which should stay behind the façade? If the city has to work equally for everyone, why do we rely on few persons who decide how we want to live?
There are some people, like Lars Vilks, who don’t really want to take somebody’s rules. By building Nimis, he “ruined” the place that had already been listed as nature reserve, which means that visitors were not supposed to see any human traces there. Another great example of going against system is Graffiti movement. Graffiti artists sneak to some ordinary grey places in the city and turn them into highly personalized spots, often carrying important messages. Talents and capabilities of artists vary, and usually it’s not a very high level art. Therefore society tends to treat them as hooligans. However there are some exceptions, such as already worldwide known graffiti painter Banksy, constantly surprising
Banksy’s story also happened with Nimis. It was rejected in the beginning as an outlaw construction and “damage” in a beautiful natural landscape, until it became a visiting spot because of its positive qualities, and people started to appreciate it. However, government hasn’t legalized it yet, even though I believe it’s a matter of time. Eventually, society chooses. Not successful enough personal initiatives are being wiped from the surface, leaving room for the better ones.
When it comes to buildings, there is also a room to express yourself. Not everyone is made to live in somebody’s designed ordinary cells. There is also a great variety of vernacular architecture in the world, which is created by its direct users. It is originally based on local traditions and knowledge gained through generations. Vernacular architecture is usually built of local materials and influenced by local climate and culture. However, as the world is becoming global and information is much more accessible, nowadays much bigger variety of things can influence people, and respectively much bigger variety of pieces can be called vernacular architecture. The definition can vary, but I perceive it as instinct-led design, influenced by local conditions as well as a mixture of visions and ideas transmitted from a global world.
To continue previous thoughts, “vernacular city”, if it existed, would be an example of complete freedom and user-created world, or a perfect “compost”, as M.Casagrande would say. While our ordinary cities could be compared to suites, limiting people’s freedom by some society standards, most of vernacular architecture examples, contrarily, do not set strict rules for neatness and behavior. Therefore they create unrestrained ambience and welcome bigger variety of people. Also because of the same reason people feel unselfconscious there, and space inspires them for creative activities. But how would a “compost city” look like and do we really want it?
One could say, slums are examples of big vernacular neighborhoods. Even though it’s usual to refer to them as worst development examples ever, they hold a lot of good qualities as well. If you look closer, informal cities are in many ways more contemporary than old ones. For example, very interesting and unexpected portrait of Dharavi slum in
While a slum is an example of whole vernacular fabric, there are also some vernacular “diamonds” in ordinary environments. Nimis reminded me of a wooden house, built in
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All in all, I must conclude that even though there are some good qualities and inspiring examples of unrestricted processes, they also witness that complete freedom of creativity can lead to unorganized sprawl which neither beautifies the city neither improves life quality of the “creators”. One can argue that it’s a question of their mentality, but I believe that everywhere it would look the same if some order hadn’t been set. It’s obvious that some common rules must be established, and I perceive it as urban planner’s, architect’s or landscape designer’s task. At the same time, I believe that the room for individual expression is essential.
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With rapidly spreading cities, it becomes a challenge to preserve natural habitats inside them and make wild areas easily accessible for people. The project in Brunnshög,
Darbelis, darytas kartu su Martynu Radzevičium ir Gintaru Duoba Kauno S.Dariaus ir S.Girėno aerodromo atgaivinimo vorkšopo "Sparnai" metu 2010m. birželį. Teigėme, jog geriausias paveldo saugojimo būdas yra jį naudojant, nors tai ir sukelia šiek tiek triukšmo...
Pagerinamas susisiekimas: atkuriama geležinkelio atšaka į šiaurinę aerodromo dalį, projektuojami dviračių takai, susijungiantys su Aleksoto dviračių takų sistema. Pėstiesiems bei dviratininkams numatoma Transatlantinė alėja, jungianti funikulierių su aerodromu, patogiam atvykimui iš centro.
Tai sukurtų geresnes sąlygas klestėt vietiniams ir apžvalginiams skrydžiams, padidintų aerodromo patrauklumą aviaturistams. Jiems projektuojamas aviakempingas ir lėktuvų peronas gražiausioje bei ramiausioje aerodromo teritorijos vietoje - šiaurės vakarų dalyje. Manome, jog kempingas, esantis šalia upės ir miesto centro, iš kurio būtų galima stebėti skraidykles ir kylančius oro balionus, būtų patrauklus ne tik aviatoriams, bet ir kiekvienam drąsesniam turistui.
Sukuriamas aerodromo vizualinis kontaktas su miestu. Prie pagrindinio įvažiavimo į aerodromą projektuojamas aviacijos muziejus, kurio prieigas ženklina orlaivis, matomas nuo Veiverių gatvės. Aerodromo pakraščiuose naikinami menkaverčiai pastatai ir krūmynai, atveriamos perspektyvos iš pagrindinių gatvių.
Miestiečiams sudaroma galimybė ne tik švenčių metu, bet ir šiokiadieniais apsilankyti aerodrome. Prie pagrindinio patekimo į aerodromą suformuojami Aleksoto gyventojų bendruomenės namai su sporto ir kultūros centrais. Visiems atviras patekimas į Aviatorių atminimo parką, išsiskiriantį kinetinėmis skulptūromis, iš kurio galima stebėti kylančius lėktuvus.
Palei S.Dariaus ir S.Girėno gatvę atstatomi senieji angarai bei aerostotis.
Šiaurinė dalis atvira gyventojams bei turistams, norintiems pasižvalgyti po miestą iš dirižablio ar oro baliono ar leisti laiką stebint skraidykles, parasparnius, jėgos aitvarus. Čia veikia aviamodeliavimo klubas bei vaikų skraidymo mokykla.
Pratęsiamas ridenimo takas aplink aerodromą sudaro galimybę rengti įvairius sporto renginius. Skirtingas trasas galima pritaikyti paradams, motociklų, automobilių, o žiemos metu - slidininkų, žirgų, šunų kinkinių ir kt. lenktynėms. Naujai projektuojamos stebėjimo tribūnos, maitinimo įstaigos, salės bei kempingas taip pat didina aerodromo patrauklumą renginių organizatoriams.
Nenaudojamoje aerodromo dalyje įrengiam motokroso ir keturračių trasą, kuri būtų atvira motosporto entuziastams kiekvieną dieną. Nevykstant skrydžiams, siūlome į aerodromą įleisti šonaslydžo bei traukos lenktynių („drifto“ ir „drago“) mėgėjus ir motociklininkus, drumsčiančius miesto centro ramybę. Aerodromas taptų vieta, vienijančia skirtingas subkultūras, kurias jungia meilė motorams ir adrenalinui.
Paminėtų funkcijų įsileidimą į aerodromą mes pavadinome MOTORŲ TERAPIJA, nes tai:
Terapija ekstremalams, ieškantiems erdvės savo pomėgiams.
Terapija aerodromui, baigiančiam užmiršti motorų gausmą.
Terapija miestui, ieškančiam identiteto mažai išnaudojamai istorinei erdvei.
