Soft City

Soft Urbanism stands for an interdisciplinary field that examines the “soft” aspects, the communication aspects, the city and deals with the dynamic interplay between urban development and the area of mass media and communication networks.

Soft Urbanism pursues “softer” planning approaches.

Soft City, as a holistic view of urbanity, is of significance to the city in both shrinking and growth regions.

Publication Soft Urbanism @ db Deutsche Bauzeitung, Germany, 1 August 2006

Routing
Routes

In the Dutch area Randstad, the Global Player Schiphol Airport is growing unrelated, even in conflict with its direct suburban environment. The localities around Schiphol airport bear the burden but do not profit from the “global condition” of their neighbors.

The “Rooting Routes” project: “Weaving Schiphol-airport within its local fabric by the means of transit tourism” exploits the potential of transit tourism to interlink the airport with its surroundings. For the transit passengers and business travelers, who are briefly arriving at a few meetings in the airport, a number of short routes are suggested in the area. These thematic routes, ranging from historical-didactic to nature routes to shopping safaris, as well as sporting activities, can also be covered by minibuses, water taxis or bicycles. The route programs can be communicated, guided and guided using mobile phones and other portable devices.

The “non-place” airport would thus gain an identity through the local qualities of its surroundings. The surrounding districts and green spaces would benefit from the airport’s economic appeal. This integration of the transit area, which is part of a global network of urbanity with its local environment, strengthens the function of the airport as an interface between global and local space.

Neighbours
Network
City

Neighbors Network City or NNC as the inversion of CNN The project “Neighbors Network City (NNC)” was proposed for the network city Ruhrgebiet as the cultural capital of Europe in 2010. The project NNC activates both the urban and the media public space. It develops scenarios for the interplay between urban space and mass media in order to strengthen the public space of the urban landscape of the Ruhr area, which is increasingly segregated. The NNC project (as an inversion of CNN) is intended to unfold the urban network as an “open total art work” from the plurality of local forces.

NNC as an open project is to develop in the course of interrelated and interwoven (partial) projects. The (sub-) project “we eat for the Ruhr area” takes up the logo of the “Kulturhauptstadt” (Essen for the Ruhr area) and proposes a meal-wide food for the Ruhr area.

We eat for the Ruhr area The longest day of the year is to be held in the districts by the residents and residents. Also every stranger, whether hiker, tourist, pusher, commuter or tourist, is welcome and eats.

The tables are laid on the unused surfaces and fallow. This reinterprets these boundaries of urban systems into communicative seams. The music and theatrical ensembles of the region go along the temporary route of the food culture this evening and attend the festivals for small intermezzi. At the same moment, the slogan “we eat for the Ruhr area!” Echoes throughout the region, expressed in various accents. ”

The project intervenes on the level of perception and the communication processes of urbanity; This wants to change and intensify it. Rooms should be converted; New contacts, new relationships are developed and new positive signs are set.

The second meal for the Ruhr area takes place on a long table on the A 40!

Sub
City

The game Like no other city landscape, the Ruhr is defined by its subsoil, its ‘sub-city’. The course of the seams was decisive in this region, which had only been inflated by the mining industry. Their course was followed by superhuman phenomena and correspondences, industrial settlements, and thus also urbanization.

Like no other urban landscape, the Ruhr area is aware of this “primeval area” as the foundation and motor of its development. Trauma and history (n) have become imprinted on the trenches; The ground water is still there. Thus this “city-ground” is often negatively associated in its ambiguity. This common urban substrate is to be reinterpreted and used together.

“SubCity,” a “big urban computer game” on the regional scale that we are proposing, is concerned with the “underground” of the Ruhr area and populates it with the dreams and desires from which the region draws. The players, the inhabitants and the visitors to the capital of culture simulate the “underground” of the city: they can develop subterranean city landscapes and play with their avatars and dreams.

Together with decentralized people, the subcity, the subsoil of the city, can be filled with dreams and fantasies by means of portable devices such as mobile phones. The “SubCity” space as an interactive spatial simulation for players and visitors is accessible on the landmark of the Ruhr area, on the world cultural heritage of the Zollverein colliery, the only open connection between the bustling city and its subsoil. The scope of the “SubCity” exhibition allows communication with the subsoil of the wishes and dreams from which the city continues to grow and grow.

“Idensity®” These projects described above address the level of communication. They strengthen the identities of the urban landscape and intensify the communication processes of urbanity, condense the urban networks. “Idensity®,” a conceptual tool for the development of the urban landscape, fuses these concepts of identity and density of connections. It integrates the concept of “density” (density of physical and media communication networks and infrastructure, density of connections, density of communication spaces) with the concept of identity (urban image campaigns, branding, etc.). As an operational tool, “Idensity®” can be used to control urban development processes.

This new concept is introduced to understand and direct the superposition and interaction of media and “real” urban space. “Idensity®” does not distinguish between information / communication networks and the urban built environment, and offers an integrated model for dealing with the “hybrid” (media and “real”) space in the information / communication age.

“Idensity®” is a conceptual tool for researching and developing space in the information / communication age.

Idensity®

These projects described above address the level of communication. They strengthen the identities of the urban landscape and intensify the communication processes of urbanity, condense the urban networks. “Idensity®”, a conceptual tool for urban landscape development, fuses these concepts of identity and density of connections. It integrates the concept of “density” (density of physical and media communication networks and infrastructure, density of connections, density of communication spaces) with the concept of identity (urban image campaigns, branding, etc.). As an operational tool, “Idensity®” can be used to control urban development processes.

This new concept is introduced to understand and direct the superposition and interaction of media and “real” urban space. “Idensity®” does not distinguish between information / communication networks and the urban built environment, and offers an integrated model for dealing with the “hybrid” (media and “real”) space in the information / communication age.

“Idensity®” is a conceptual tool for researching and developing the space in the information / communication age.

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