mobility

Matthew Adams - Aesthetics of Mobility

2010-12-21T15:01:00.001Z

http://www.dezeen.com/2010/12/21/totem-de-dos-by-brut-deluxe-architecture-design/

Ceramic Speaker

2010-11-24T19:17:00.001Z

http://www.dezeen.com/2010/11/23/ceramic-speaker-by-nendo/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dezeen+%28Dezeenfeed%29

Matthew Adams

Time Banks

2010-11-13T21:58:00.001Z

http://timeinterchange.wordpress.com/

Virtually every piece of demographic statistics you will ever want to know about Stoke-on-Trent.

2010-10-06T16:51:00.001+01:00

Alex Dodd

This useful little link will take you to a neighbourhood zoning page, which contains every social / demographic and statistical piece of information you will ever want to know about the City of Stoke on Trent, broken up into the 54 zones used to map the city.

It is the smallest unit of demographic detail I have currently found.

http://www.stoke.gov.uk/ccm/content/LSP/neighbourhood-zone-profiles.en

Neighbourhood Zone Profiles
It has long been recognised that the city's wards*, with a population of approximately 12,000 people each, contain different areas in terms of their social and economic make-up.

The city of Stoke-on-Trent has a population of 239,000 people (Office of National Statistics mid-year 2007 estimate), currently divided into 20 electoral wards. In terms of population these wards are more than double the average size of wards across England.

The 54 areas have been adopted by the Stoke-on-Trent Local Strategic Partnership including Police, Health, Jobcentre Plus, and other public agencies, and form the basis of the Local Area Agreement, launched in March 2006, as well as the current Neighbourhood and Community Strategies in use across the city.

Following either clear physical barriers such as:

■roads;
■railways;
■canals;
■rivers and brooks; or
■clearly separate areas of housing;

the neighbourhood zones are more easily recognisable areas than wards.

These profiles have been updated for 2009 and can be downloaded by clicking the links below.

http://www.stoke.gov.uk/ccm/content/LSP/neighbourhood-zone-profiles.en

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Relationships Between Physical & Virtual Spaces

2010-09-29T15:04:00.001+01:00

Matthew Adams

"The notion that physical space can be 'replaced' by an on line environment suggests that traditional forms of social engagement have been superseded."

The virtual world of social networking and micro-blog sites such as Facebook and Twitter exist in a non physical space which rapidly expands everyday as users input data into the system and communicate with other users of the medium. Users are now invited to 'check-in' or 'location tag' themselves, their tweets, their photos, their events and activities, increasingly so with the use of GPS on smart phones. This one example begins to demonstrate the interesting link between the virtual world inside our computer systems and engagement with 'real' world spaces and events.

This interactive music video by Arcade Fire uses developing technologies such as HTML 5, and Google mapping services including Goodle Earth and Streetview. Images of real world spaces are utilised by the software to autonomously synthesise a dynamic music video experience based on location data entered by the viewer.

This video is really impressive and interestingly combines technology, location information, space and the idea of mobility within a part virtual, part real personalised experience for every user.

http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

(make sure that you have the latest version of your browser software installed, Safari seems to work best)

2010-09-29T12:42:00.001+01:00

Requiem for Detroit?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OpXhd7iau8

Julien Temple's new film is a vivid evocation of an apocalyptic vision: a slow-motion Katrina that has had many more victims. Detroit was once America's fourth largest city.

Built by the car for the car, with its groundbreaking suburbs, freeways and shopping centre's, it was the embodiment of the American dream.

Now it is truly a dystrophic post-industrial city, in which 40 per cent of the land in the centre is returning to prairie. Greenery grows up through abandoned office blocks, houses and collapsing car plants, and swallows up streetlights. (www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rkm3y)

Is this a model of what life is going to be for post-industrial cities?

The reliance on a few industries, the flight of the professional classes and the decline of the public sector are all examples that have occurred in Stoke on Trent. Even though there has been vast amount of public investment in the last 30 years these issues have failed to stop.

Russell Ingram

Antonios Papanastasiou Mobility task

2010-09-28T00:05:00.002+01:00

my response to the introductory task. As Stoke is characterised as a "polycentric linear city", i wanted to find out as much as i could about the origins of this type of planning. During my research i came across the two archetypes of the polycentric linear city: Ebenezer Howard's "Garden City" and Arturo Soria's "Ciudad Lineal". Then i looked at how the layout and past industrial character of the city are reflected on its current physical, sociological and economical state and continuing my research, i am looking at various proposals for the regeneration of the city, starting off with Cedric Price's conceptual "potteries thinkbelt" and the "vision lite" spatial vision system, a 2004-2014 community regeneration scheme.

References:

www.thepotteries.org

www.stoke.gov.uk

FISHMAN, Robert(1982): Urban Utopias in the Twentieth century

Shephali p. Mendon: Human settlements 2: A study on the planning principles of Ebenezer Howard and Arturo Soria y Mata

2010-09-27T21:40:00.001+01:00

01101101 01101111 01100010 01101001 01101100 01101001 01110100 01111001

M O B I L I T Y

The fact that i have just expressed the word 'Mobility' in its purest form (Binary code) in relation to the virtual, as a set of 0's and 1's, allows for the exploration of the largest defining factor in the increased mobility of the physical; the Internet.

It was believed to be the answer to the problems of the Industrial Revolution, replacing trips to the shops with online shopping, flights across the world for a conference, replaced by online video conferencing. No one was to know of the relentless injection that it was to give to the virtual, social and physical mobility's on a global scale.

The internet has claimed that it has no use for most of our organic systems, just our eyes and ears will suffice; touch, taste and smell are no longer required when having a conversation with your oldest friend.

Nature is too slow for the internet; the fastest a human can carry out an instruction is around 38 milliseconds, while a computer could have carried out 38,000,000 instructions in the same time. We are trying our very best as a species to catch up with the computer, but it is a race we cannot win.

Distance has become irrelevant for first time ever; speed has become the defining factor of the 21^st Century. Nature has developed a working cycle between species based on millions of years of integration, The internet has no cycle, it is a linear process where redundant data is constantly just forgotten, nature does not forget, it will reuse everything, it is healthy, would it be too far to compare the tipping point of Global Warming to the maximum data allowance of the internet and its following virtual, social and physical melting point?

Robert Shaw

Relationships Between Physical & Virtual Spaces

2010-09-27T14:04:00.001+01:00

"The notion that physical space can be 'replaced' by an on line environment suggests that traditional forms of social engagement have been superseded."

The virtual world of social networking and micro-blog sites such as Facebook and Twitter exist in a non physical space which rapidly expands everyday as users input data into the system and communicate with other users of the medium. Users are now invited to 'check-in' or 'location tag' themselves, their tweets, their photos, their events and activities, increasingly so with the use of GPS on smart phones. This one example begins to demonstrate the interesting link between the virtual world inside our computer systems and engagement with 'real' world spaces and events.

This interactive music video by Arcade Fire uses developing technologies such as HTML 5, and Google mapping services including Goodle Earth and Streetview. Images of real world spaces are utilised by the software to autonomously synthesise a dynamic music video experience based on location data entered by the viewer.

This video is really impressive and interestingly combines technology, location information, space and the idea of mobility within a part virtual, part real personalised experience for every user.

http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

(make sure that you have the latest version of your browser software installed, Safari seems to work best)

ArD6-1 - Jonathan Hood - Welcome Task

2010-09-26T18:19:00.001+01:00

2010-09-25T03:19:00.000+01:00

...Below is an interesting clip from a related programme I posted last year. The whole series is a great insight into Mobility+Infrastructure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nokQBjk1s_8

Rich Bramall

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Try IM ToolPack at www.imtoolpack.com

POTTERIES THINKBELT

2010-09-24T21:04:00.000+01:00

As mentioned earlier in the discussion, Cedric Price's Potteries Thinkbelt was an experimental scheme he devised for new higher education venues in and around Stoke-on-Trent. His concept is interesting as it used existing infrastructure such as the railways, and reused them as mobile educational hubs. Price realised that because our societies mobility snowballs very quickly (i.e. Moore's Law), the buildings within which we operate should also be mobile and most importantly, be either temporary or adaptable to cope with our constantly changing needs. This especially applied to Universities. For me what this points out most is how difficult it is for society to keep up with its own progress. Before one plan is complete, society's needs have changed and the plan needs remodelling. Price understood that for our infrastructures to have longevity, they must have adaptability.

Below is

I Pencil \\ Open-source working

2010-09-24T18:08:00.001+01:00

I know the deadline has passed but if this task is anything like the one we did last year the blog will continue to be useful throughout the whole project so I thought I'd post this anyway.

Who knows how to make a pencil?

In 1958 the Economist Leonard E Read wrote his essay "I, Pencil". In it he proposed that there was not a single person on the planet who knew how to, or had the skills to make a pencil. Initially it sounds like a ridiculous statement to make, but actually as you read further you begin to understand what he means.

As a society we have become so interdependent that we have surpassed the capacity of the human brain. As a result our cities have become interconnected by a dense network of various forms of infrastructure - roads, rail, cables, satellites - and we function on a just-in-time logistics model that is seemingly efficient, although in actual fact it is far from it.

Increasingly, this infrastructure is created for non-corporeal uses i.e. the Internet. As the internet becomes more and more integrated into our lives, so too does our ability to work together. We are becoming increasingly inter-reliant to the extent that a new form of non-capitalist economy is emerging in the form of open-source working. This provokes the question; is there a way of rooting this kind of online collaboration back into the physical realm? Also, can this be done in a way that is up to the fast pace of change, and that is socially and environmentally beneficial?

TASK

2010-09-24T15:51:00.001+01:00

This presentation contains content that your browser may not be able to show properly. This presentation was optimized for more recent versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer.

If you would like to proceed anyway, click here.

Dear Mike

Here I have attached my work for the welcome TASK. In this work, I have written down the words which I found related to the terms mentioned in the task and took some photos of thing which again I found related.

I underestand that the dead line is passed, but apparently the file was too large and was not delivered on the date of the dead line.

so I am resending it to you.

Thanks

Amir Soltanfar

Videos to post to blog

2010-09-24T13:20:00.000+01:00

Dear Mike,

Sorry this took a while – just found your instructions how to post ob blog!!

Please post the following...

1:"COMPUTER VISUALIZATION FOR DESIGN
3D visualization has become such a part of the architectural design process in many firms. Architects use virtual model-making for many reasons.

For instance, 3D computer visualizations help teams to make design decisions by testing different solutions as they create. Also, 3D visualizations help to communicate architectural design schemes to consultants and clients.

All in all, visualizations have made their way into not just helping to produce construction drawings, but also, as a way to communicate design ideas to an array of other involved parties.
VISUALIZATIONS AFTER A DESIGN IS BUILT?
A team of computer scientists at the University of Washington's Graphics and Imaging Laboratory have developed algorithms to be used with Microsoft's Photosynth. The big idea behind their work is to create a "collective" visualization where a 3D model is constructed from a repository of Flickr photos of an urban space. So far, they have reconstructed the small city of Dubrovnik and several famous Italian landmarks; see you tube video link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQegEro5Bfo

By using a puzzle-like approach to stitching together photos taken by random tourists, the resulting visualizations make me realize the significance to a "collective" approach to perception — especially with the increasing social and dynamic nature of the internet.

As social media becomes more popular and increasing amounts of data are collected, visualization techniques will really be able to place our architectural treasures (and non-treasures) within a dynamic and virtual "time-capsule".

I wonder what these sort of "collective-visualizations" will look and feel like in the future? Will they be somewhat true to the original or will they take on an architectural spirit of their own? Will architecture move on to a new sort of virtual after-life once it is demolished?

What will be the ultimate purpose of such collective visualizations? Will they exist as a truer collective memory of our real-world buildings, or could they augment present-day architecture that is still in use? Will we have a sort of architectural "Second Life"?"

2:Video about software designed to discover what the acoustic environment of proposed design will sound like...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyGb6uhVGmM

3: Interaction design is defined by Wikipedia as the "discipline of defining the behavior of products and systems that a user can interact with". In this video, Bill Verplank explains very clearly what an interaction designer must accomplish in a successful design:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3rxCLhzmXY

Essentially, an interaction designer must work to answer three leading questions:

How will a user cause an effect?
How will a user feel when getting feedback?
How will a user know what to do?

It is interesting to hear about how causing an effect is like pushing a button or pulling a handle. The distinction between either continuous or discreet control poses some interesting questions for architects.

Cool versus hot media is certainly a good way to characterize feedback. One distinction about whether or not feedback is changeable would really make for some great interactive architecture. Such architects can ask questions about how much feedback is necessary, what form should it take, and what level of further interaction would make a design successful.

So, as an architect, should you provide an overall map to your occupants about how the building, public space etc works (or behaves)? Maybe a step by step guided path would present your occupant with the necessary knowledge to engage your occupants within your design. Architects must always "speak" to their occupants through their projects, revealing what information is necessary for their occupants — at the right time and place.

(Texts are extracts from sensingarchitecture.com articles)

Thanks

Harri

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2010-09-24T12:30:00.001+01:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFct166UsHQ

Andrea Branzi- Weak Metropolis

Sheena Patel Mobility Task

2010-09-24T09:52:00.000+01:00

2010-09-24T09:23:00.000+01:00

by Amy Peckham

Likhung Tang Blog Submission

2010-09-22T12:02:00.001+01:00

The linear city is borne out of a gradual growth in economic and infrastructure specific to the geographical conditions of Stoke-on-Trent. 
In my opinion, the linear city of Stoke-on-Trent is like a horizontal layered city, very similar to the city of London, which also consists of overlapping boroughs. As the infrastructure  of roads, railways, canals, and now cycling paths progress and advance, the city becomes as described in the thesis statement, a fluid 'post-industrial' landscape. It is this overlapping effects the boroughs that is interesting to explore. The organic growth  of the boroughs and districts introduce new issues such as new developments and regeneration strategies, which might suggest the formation of a single city, perhaps a shrinkage effect from the notion of the six boroughs and district. 
On the different side of this change, I am very much interested in the idea of preservation in the context of the city. The notion of preservation comprises the effort of historic  conservation, and the initiative of a sustainable future. However, I think the preservation specific to the city's character as an industrial city is much more crucial because this character forms the context of the city; genius loci that marks these distinct places. It might be a physical heritage conservation (preservation of its living industrial district) or virtual reconstruction to preserve its history (museums and galleries)?  Perhaps preservation is just an act to crystallize and image? This notion contradicts the progression of mobility. 
Therefore my perception  of economy, infrastructure, preservation and shrinkage considers the specificity of Stoke-on-Trent as a linear city.

2010-09-22T10:25:00.003+01:00

Eco-Urbanism within a Linear City.

http://soa.princeton.edu/imgs/rumor01_02.pdf

Tokyo Bay Aqualine was opened in December 1997 connecting Kawasaki to Kisarazu via a man made island, ' Umihotaru' meaning sea firefly.
The artificial island took into consideration the full environmental, social, political, economical and aesthetic possibilities of which the architecture is capable. Along the aqualine there is restaurants and rest areas and amusements, providing leisure facilities and gaining economical benefits. 
With this project Tokyo has set standards for new ways of problem solving in cities.

Joe Brownhill Blog Submission

2010-09-22T00:42:00.003+01:00

'This is a brief discussion and comparison of transport methods in the 1890's and present day'

Joe Brownhill

Amy Knight-Archer Mobility Blog

2010-09-22T00:10:00.001+01:00

Please see attached my findings for the mobility blog.

I have decided to base my initial study on the integration of boundaries and how the canal systems became one of the first major forms of mobility in Stoke.

Amy Knight-Archer

Mobility Task

2010-09-22T00:04:00.002+01:00

Mobility Task Gagan Mohindru

I started looking at Preservation and how Stroke on-Trent is doing this now even after all the changes the city has gone through the past years.

Stoke-on-Trent is a complex city, with significant opportunities for economic and social development. The city does, however, have some of the most severe social and economic deprivation in the country due to a prolonged period of economic decline. This strategic review builds upon firm foundations in addressing need and securing regeneration. It is closely aligned to the ongoing housing market renewal programme and the comprehensive regeneration strategy developed by the North Staffordshire Regeneration Partnership. The city is now at the centre of one of the largest regeneration programmes in England, with up to £2 billion of public and private sector investment in economic, physical and social projects expected in the medium term.

Majority of housing in Stoke on-Trent is terraced and with still more than half of them still around with families still occupying them but just by looking after them it is still part of history which they are preserving for generations to come plus with new building and structures getting building around the city just shows that preservation is still undergoing to keep history in line with the city plus with the listed building which are getting restored.

Stoke-on-Trent

In summer 2007, Stoke City Council welcomed the Trust's involvement in historic building restoration projects that would complement the regeneration aspirations of Renew North Staffs and Urban Vision North Staffs. Heritage Works was invited to explore a number of projects identified as requiring buildings preservation trust attention, including former potteries, public buildings, churches and residential properties.

Burleigh Pottery

At the end of 2007, the Trust was commissioned by Renew North Staffordshire to undertake an options appraisal study for the Burgess Dorling & Leigh Pottery, known as Burleigh Pottery. Although still in use as a pottery, the Victorian Grade 2* listed buildings are falling into disrepair, and some of the space is underused. The priority is to ensure continued operation of the existing pottery and safeguard the future of Burleigh's extensive archive of moulds, commemorative and limited edition pieces and ledgers going back to the 1800s. Heritage Works has explored options for more efficient use of the buildings and possible funding sources for the repair and renovation and potential for making the collection publicly accessible. An options appraisal study was completed in October 2008, recommending steps for moving forward.

I'm still researching and will carry out more finding when I visit the city in person and with pictures showing differences.

Over summer I have been reading a book called 'Mobilities' by John Urry a professor of sociology at Lancaster University. Just reading through the book so far has helped me understand mobility itself as it is to do with everything surrounding it like society ect. I will have a better understanding as I keep reading on and this will help me understand how Stoke on-Trent works around mobility and what connects it all together.

--
Gagan Mohindru
BA(hons) Architecture

Exploration - James Goldsby -

2010-09-21T23:19:00.002+01:00

While exploring the terms in the brief I started to focus on "shrinkage" and how it could relate to this project. Urbanization started to dominate most of my research as the term shrinkage brought up connotations to the decreasing population of countryside's and the shrinking or complete eradication of villages worldwide. Through this I started to relate the other terms with this as the general theme and in turn started to use these terms in a more specific way in an attempt to raise questions and ideas that could form areas of debate on this topic in particular.

After watching a documentary called the "last train home" which is about the internal Migration of over 130million Chinese workers who each year travel by any means possible to return home for the New Year. The film documents both the enormity of this mass migration and a personal portrait of a single family who make the journey, describing the struggles of both the parents who work in the city and the children who live in the countryside with their grandmother and everything they must endure to be reunited. The film not only illustrates the economic and family pressures that the new economic prosperity has brought, but also illustrates the strong role of the government in all aspects of their citizens' lives, including the train ride back to the country that is a tremendous ordeal that would have most people amazed by the lack of civility and basic comforts. I started to realise the sheer scale of areas that were affected because of this mass urbanization/internal migration, something I discovered has been affecting and seen world over through many the years.

For Britain the industrial revolution brought about similar new economic possibilities. These new working conditions led to political changes as wealth moved away from the land and towards the new manufacturing classes and there were massive social changes brought about by internal migration, a rising population, and the growth of urban areas.

The world is steadily becoming more urban, as people move to cities and towns in search of employment, educational opportunities and higher standards of living. Some are driven away from land that, for whatever reason can no longer support them. Urbanization usually accompanies social and economic development, but rapid urban growth on today's scale strains the capacity of local and national governments to provide even the most basic of services such as water, electricity and sewerage especially to some of the more lesser developed countries of the world.

With this strain becoming more and more apparent the economy in steady decline and increasing social and cultural issues that plaque today's cities how are we to tackle this high density, corporation driven, world that we live in. Can better city planning be the key to tackling some of the issues that we face, creating a more functional way of living? Can an environment be created that works in an ecological way, an environment that's relationship between it and the organisms around it work "let air and men circulate" George Eugene Haussmann. In an economical way that distributes goods and services in a way that isn't as centralised to cities and instead more wide spread across a greater area which doesn't force the population to hoard in a single area to get to these necessities but instead brings them to the population, which also distributes wealth to the smaller business man rather than larger corporations. The idea of a linear city could achieve this need and maybe using the ideology on a much greater scale would help it come to effect.

A Linear City such as Magnitogorsk for instance with its rows of similar superblock neighbourhoods running parallel to the factory, with a greenbelt separating them. Where Planners had aligned living and production spheres so as to minimize necessary travel time; Workers would generally live in a sector of the residential band closest to the sector of the industrial band in which they worked. Basically demonstrating how better and more logically planning could create a more functional place to live in, not necessarily a way that we could live in today but as an idea the speed and efficiency of a city that is needed in modern day society doesn't have to rely so much on the varying means of travel rather a better distribution of the places rather than the people.

James Goldsby

2010-09-21T23:11:00.002+01:00

'Mobilities' - John Urry

Towards the end of the summer, I started reading the book 'Mobilities' by John Urry, a professor of sociology at Lancaster University. With little knowledge of what mobility really meant before I started reading  this book, I found the first chapter to be quite confusing as Urry constantly refers back and forth to his previous statements. He begins with explaining how important mobility is to our world, how we are almost addicted to it in a way that we can never look  back. The book tells of how the term 'mobility' is such a broad subject and it is not just about the idea of travelling or how one can move from one place to another yet it is more about people themselves, the systems we use and how we depend on them. Urry  expands upon the economic, social and political relationships of the world, showing that everyone has a different perception of what mobility really is. 

Moving onto later chapters, Urry talks about the 'Mobilities Paradigm' – 'The term paradigm was derived from Kuhn's exemplary analysis of normal science, scientific exemplars and what constitutes scientific revolution'. Within this he analyses the way that the idea of mobility has transformed  today's social sciences. Social solidarities determine human interaction – these intersect with immobile infrastructures such as pathways and radio. Urry refers to an author of social sciences named Georg Simmel a lot in which Simmel gave a 'Heidegger-ian'  interpretation of the significance of mobility infrastructures. Simmel identifies that humans are the only species that requires a bridge/something to take us from one side to the other side of the river. He elaborates on the human imagination of conception  – if our mind did not create the connection first, then the concept of separation would have no meaning. 

From what I have read so far, I have found that Urry's take on Simmel is very interesting – looking at not just mobility but psychology too. It has also given me an insight as to how it can relate to our study  of Stoke-on-Trent. What really needs to be understood is that mobilities is not just the art of travelling, a series of other factors must be considered too such as the systems that are created from 'mobility' itself and how this could/should affect our lives  within society. It is not just the technologies that must be looked upon but the physical elements of it too. 

If it is possible for anyone to get hold of this book, I would recommend you to read chapter 2 and 3 as a starter to the subject of 'mobility'.

Joanne Yu

Mobility

2010-09-21T22:45:00.002+01:00

My exploration of mobility has been primarily informed by the work of  

John Urry. I am currently reading through 'Mobilities' and specific  

extracts from 'Mobile Technologies of the City'. 

Both of these books focus initially on the more obvious interpretation  

of mobility – movement. Urry talks about how mobility has been  

integrated into the existing infrastructure to create a '...city in its  

very design to function like a healthy body, freely flowing...'. It  

suggests that this emphasis on mobility occurred after the cities were  

originally built and has gradually developed as our technology has  

advanced; Birmingham being quite a good example of this, with many  

areas that seem to have been segmented by the introduction of  

motorways, train lines, extension of public spaces etc. 

Further reading explores how current developments in technology have  

led to a shift in what mobility means. No longer does it refer to just  

physical movement but also the movement of ideas and information.  

Methods such as billboards, posters, leaflets etc have been around for  

a long time, but with the movement into the digital age it is easier  

than ever to distribute ideas. 

'...the new hybrid interchanges of mobility and flow, as ICT's fuse  

with, and reconfigure, the other mobility spaces and systems of urban  

life, become critical and strategic sites at which the very political  

organisation of space and society becomes continually remade.' 

Urry suggests that informational and communicational mobility that has  

emerged has led to changes in the patterns of movement through cities.  

The introduction of Wi-Fi hotspots has meant that transitional spaces  

(train stations, bus stations etc) are quickly turning into social hubs  

where people can catch up with each other digitally or personally. 

Through further studying of 'Mobilities' and 'Mobile Technologies of  

the City' I hope to gain a more extensive knowledge of mobility as a  

concept so I can apply this to the study of Stoke-on-Trent. 

Nick Joyce

Mobility Task, John Ball

2010-09-21T22:13:00.002+01:00

John Ball

Ideas for blog

2010-09-21T21:58:00.002+01:00

Hi mike,

I started looking at 'information mobility'.

Libraries have had to evolve with the revolution of the Internet. Storage is now more digital than ever before. Access to the 12 libraries in stoke on Trent is online. The libraries are evenly distributed along the linear city. The local library is more than a 'preservation of knowledge' but a hub for a range of community activities including sing a long creches for city parents.

The cost of technology for information access and storage is ever decreasing and affordability
increasing with examples such as the amazon kindle and apple iPad. Will the library shrink to a mere shelf offering access to digital tablets and will it sustain the community interest as the internet is becoming increasingly economically viable as a home convenience.

'Information mobility' is invisible or driven underground so overhead cables don't impair our landscape. The post industrial era allows work at home opportunities with online markets. Could this replace places like Hanley renowned for it's market history? Supermarkets are now distributing to individual households, reducing individual car journeys to stores effectively selling ecological benefits.

Sent from my iPad at home. Bedminster library 50m down the road has new CCTV signs as it recently suffered a robbery. I can pick up free wi fi from asda just over the road. I'll use the train to get to uni and stoke on trent.

Sui yuk Liu

Task

2010-09-21T20:51:00.001+01:00

 
“Consider, record and respond to existing ‘infrastructures’ within the ‘linear city’ of Stoke-on-Trent, as it shifts from a traditional urban model based on historic ‘civic’ cores to a fluid ‘post-industrial’ landscape”

During my research I came across stats on how our living on the earth was using up our own supplies for life. We use 120% of the capacity of the planet according to Mathis Wackernagel from Global Footprint along with some other deafening facts about how we our essentially using up our very own resources which allow us to live a normal life. Gilles Gauthier proposed a concept of a linear city to ‘improve the quality of life while minimizing the ecological impact.’ 
Taking some notes from his work, he believes that the ecological and sociological problems we have could be resolved by the creation of the linear city. 
 
‘This architectural research aimed at finding a solution that would blend the two lifestyles by making cities with a versatile public transportation more efficient than personal cars that are a source of noise and pollution.’ 
 
He considers all aspects of the situation and solution in terms of cost saving, pollution and more.
 
‘it is technologically feasible to reduce considerably the inhabited area, to improve the quality of life and to be ecologically correct. It would also reduce considerably the cost of living.’
 
From here on he discusses his opinion on how a solution could and would work if it was put into practise. These are just some short notes ,from his work, on how part of his suggestions link to the ‘infrastructures’ within the ‘linear city’.
 
http://www.linearcity.ca/ 
In relation to mobility I intend to read “Re-shaping the City”, edited by Michael Guggenheim, Ola Söderström, getting some further insight and suggestions as to if it may be possible to use a collective group of the given terms to use in effect on Stoke-on-Trent.
Rebecca Molloy

Mobility Research by Telveer Sandhu

2010-09-21T20:40:00.002+01:00

2010-09-21T20:30:00.003+01:00

2010-09-21T19:03:00.002+01:00

During my research I have discovered Cedric Price and his plan for the post-industrial potteries. His plan "The Potteries Thinkbelt" was a "Higher Education Facility" specifically for technologies and applied sciences which had been abandoned by the British University. Price detested the upper class snobbery involved in the University system and this is why The Thinkbelt is referred to as a "Higher Education System".Much like alot of his work this was simply a passion for Price rather being designed for the purpose of being built. Price developed the idea of "Calculated Uncertainty" which was key to the majority of his design. This was because he didn't know what will happen or what will be needed in the future. He builds for the now and makes this temporary and easily adaptable. I intend to purchase his book "RE:CP" as soon as it comes back into stock on Amazon.com and I have contacted Stanley Matthews about getting a copy of his doctoral dissertation titled "Cedric Price and the architecture of 'calculated uncertainty':The Fun Palace and Potteries Thinkbelt,".

Sources:
http://www.thepotteries.org/people/price_cedric.htm
http://people.hws.edu/mathews/potteries_thinkbelt.htm
http://www.opendemocracy.net/node/1464
http://designmuseum.org/design/cedric-price

I have also found this guide to Urban Design in Stoke-on-Trent which may be useful:
http://www.stoke.gov.uk/ccm/cms-service/stream/asset/?asset_id=2007965

I have also just began reading John Urrys' "Mobilities". In this Urry looks at the extent of current mobility and how much technology has advanced it to the extent that he questions the need for physical mobility when there is so much social mobility can be achieved.

Source:
"Mobilities"-John Urry (2007)

Sean Allan

Meta Haiku

2010-09-21T17:58:00.002+01:00

Civic.

given to receive

space offered as an ante

to blindly accept

Economy.

feed the family

with that which you can provide

then watch it grow old

Ecology.

snow forms paper sheet

through line and mark spaced between

trace paper shadow

Infrastructure.

all within is here

unseen to all whom belong

in infinite season

Linear City

slot falls into place

make each within one logic

structure all your needs

Mobility.

through that which is passed

when home is left dry and stale

drink from the next tap

Preservation.

followed to the end

still sun on the horizon

taken by fresh sky

Post Industrial.

live with earned reward

for wonders that man has made

son cares for father

Shrinkage.

taken from complete

reduced to the old form new

be born once again

Haaris Ramzan

2010-09-21T16:26:00.002+01:00

Different circulating entities shape buildings in different ways. The main forms of mobilities involved are the circulation of people, practices and ideas, the circulation of building types, the circulation of different types of media, such as images, words and texts, architectural models, the circulation of parts and materials, and finally the circulation of whole buildings. 

In preparation for the meta-theme this year I came across a very good book in my opinion the title of which is: Re-shaping Cities – How global mobility transforms architecture and urban form
As the quote above summarises the changes within cities are determined by five main factors, each linked to one or more of the circulating entities: market liberalisation (capital), international migration (people), cultural globalisation (ideas), urban entrepreneurialism (images), and changes within architecture and planning (the rise of global offices, 'starchitecture', intensified exchanges within the profession and new design technologies, journals, models, types).
Capital – The worldwide development of neo-liberal politics since the early  1980s has altered the role of the states: creating a good 'business climate' has become more important than improving the well-being of all citizens. Free mobility of capital as a means to favour capital accumulation has, in this context, become a major target of governments in most countries (with the help of international institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank). The implementation of policies aiming at such a target has implied the removal of a series of barriers to the free flow of investments and access to labour markets at national and local scale. As a consequence, access to formerly protected national  markets in the building and planning sector has been opened to foreign firms and practitioners and planning, and building regulations in cities have been more flexible. These structural developments are preconditions for the increase in the circulation of architects, planners and built forms we have witnessed in recent years. They have facilitated the rise of global architecture firms and its correlates such as the development of a global market of symbolic architectural capital. The rise of networked architectural and planning firms in the past two decades has provided an important material support for the mobility of built form.
People travel, and travelling exposes them to new ideas which they might bring back home. Travelling may occur with or without the specific purpose to learn about and import new conceptions of built form. … People migrate, and through migration they bring specific cultural practices to other places. The travelling of these practices leads to the creation or reconfiguration of places in other locations.
Ideas & Images – In visual disciplines such as architecture and urban planning, images are, of course, much more efficient than words. Visual media have historically been constitutive elements of these disciplines. A yet unwritten history of media of architecture would show the ever-increasing numbers and diversity of images used to 'circulate buildings'. The internet and all its derived technologies have in recent years added another layer of speed and global accessibility.

I have only chosen parts that relate to present day mobility in architecture. As I continue reading I will keep posting more quotes, maybe even related original thoughts. In my opinion this book gives a good basis for our meta-theme before taking off to more extreme heights and abstract understanding of it. 

Blanka

2010-09-21T15:57:00.002+01:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVsvwbCi9A4
From a personal experience mobility relates to transport and being able to move around easily while construction is taking place. The video posted shows that while there is construction, it does not affect transport around the area.

Aishah Afzal

The Polycentric Linear City and it's Economics _Dan Brown

2010-09-21T13:56:00.002+01:00

Stoke-On-Trent follows the basic principles of the polycentric linear city model.  The six historic civic centres form the nodes, each connected by various forms of hard infrastructure, as illustrated on the attached diagrammatic sketch.  The standard polycentric linear city model comprises of key nodes and specifically allocated nodes for sector type, eg retail nodes, office / business nodes, residential nodes and industrial nodes. Although I have not been to Stoke, from my research I would expect to see this distribution and cluster of sectors, following the archetypal model.

My research into linear city models has lead me to American Economist, Harold Hotelling and 'Hotelling's Law', first published in 1929. Also referred to as the 'Linear City Model', Hotelling's Law is an observation in economics that states that many competitors differentiate their goods, products and services as little as possible in order to maximise demand from the public. The law indicates why retail establishments and businesses of the same type tend to cluster together within a town or city, following the linear city model.

Mobility Task

2010-09-21T11:58:00.001+01:00

The main term I have explored is infrastructure and mobility. I have related to the terms through personal experience, travelling in and out of the city quite often on an infrastructure which is a neccessity for a city and society to develop and succeed.

Lauren Raybould

Mobility Task.

2010-09-21T00:20:00.001+01:00

Mike,

I am preparing for Year 3 by reading the ethics of Mobilities: Rethinking place, Exclusion, Freedom and Environment. By Sigurd Bergmann, Tore Sager.
It can be hard going at times as Bergmann is making you think about the way in which you see, feel, use etc... Mobility; Mobility doesn't always relate directly to Transportation which everyone first associates the word with.  Bergmann throughout the book is throwing up questions of rethinking and exploring a particular place by these other forms of Mobility such as Ethnics, Sociology, Religion, and Spatial Dimensions etc...
I'm currently only at chapter 2 in the book, but they are clearly structured chapters which are giving me food for thought, allowing me to understand the terms and thesis given in the Brief.

Sam Hamilton.

Mobility Blog Post

2010-09-20T23:25:00.002+01:00

In preparation for year 3 I decided to read Mobilities by John Urry. In this book Urry covers: types of mobilities, theories for mobility and what he calls his 'Mobility Paradigm'. The paradigm section of the book outlines key thoughts and issues surrounding mobility in society.

The paradigm covers many areas that I think we can relate to Stoke-on-Trent. Urry writes that it is not the mode of transport that is important, such as cars or mobile phones; but rather the networks they run on, such as roads or the wireless phone network.  These networks are often immobile, however by increasing these immobile hubs the overall mobility of a society improves.

So when we look at mobility in Stoke-on-Trent it isn't the modes of transport we must focus on it's the actual mobility systems that are in place there. More importantly we should ask ourselves: how well are they integrated into the overall infrastructure of the city? Do they serve the needs of the whole population of Stoke? Or does the availability of sufficient transport systems relate to poverty in specific areas? And if so how could this be changed?

Dan B

Post Industrial Ecology _ Linear Infrastructure - Kristian Lawrence

2010-09-20T23:03:00.002+01:00

Linear Condition

2010-09-20T16:38:00.002+01:00

I can't recall ever going to Stoke on Trent but as with a lot of post-industrial cities I'm expecting to see an abundance of neglected and underused spaces that are the by-product of the creation of various pieces of infrastructure designed to connect its polycentric model–roads, railway, and canals that cut off communities from one another.

"What if:" have carried out a number of interesting small scale projects to try and address this peri-urban condition.

In the meantime I've managed some further reading of Felix Guattari's work – its pretty hard going but in collaboration with Gilles Deleuze he proposes some useful theories about the linear condition and superlinearity [although more in the context of philiosophy and information than the built environment].  It poses the question how can linearity be broken apart to make it connective instead of unidirectional? I hope to post some more on this before Monday's deadline.

On a slightly different tangent you might find this Wired article interesting.  It's a photographic record of the journey of one Bit of data from Southport to LA.

Dave Holland

CP

2010-09-18T14:44:00.002+01:00

I think more important than any single piece of work Cedric Price did is his overriding idea of what architecture should be and the influence this has had.

CP thought architecture should address social, environmental, and economic issues rather than being about a finite product or aesthetic.  "Time is an absolute factor".

I've started to read Guattari's The Three Ecologies.  He also promoted this idea that we should consider and deal with real issues rather than obsess over the idea of building as "object".

Source:  Cedric Price - Activity and Change

Cedric Price_Potteries Thinkbelt

2010-09-17T00:20:00.002+01:00

Cedric Price's 1965 strategy for the disused 'loopline' which linked factories across the Potteries.It proposed a series of residential and educational facilities, with 'interchanges' between road rail and pedestrian infrastructure.

http://designmuseum.org/design/cedric-price

site information_boundary+transects

2010-09-16T23:59:00.004+01:00