Urban Pores/Porosity
Anatolie Gordeev
Architect
Institutul de Arhitectura Srl
Chisinau
Moldova
e-mail:agordeew@yahoo.com
http://ag-anatoliegordeev.blogspot.com
http://aaam-08.blogspot.com
Content
Introduction. 1
Definition Urban Pores/Porosity. 2
Practical applications samples. 3
Possible use of the term Urban Pores/Porosity for Chisinau (Moldova). 4
Conclusions. 5
References. 5
Introduction.
HYBRID (from the Latin. Hibrida - hybrid) - the body that results from crossing genetically different parental forms (species, breeds, lines, etc.).
Hybridization in nature, as follows from the definition, can not occur without the interference of mating of the organism carrying out various forms of mating. Urban elements, as well as other natural elements, have the properties of continuous growth, development and death. Natural elements can be "wild" and "cultural", increasing the participation of "gardener". Urban elements are just as "wild" and "cultural". All stages of the emergence, growth, development and death depend on the intervention crossed organism ( "gardener"), in our case, urban planner.
The catalyst (fertilizers) is the work of a triumvirate of power-business-people, and the role of "gardener" performed by a team of professional urbanists. In other words, urban hybridization - a process of creating new urban elements and forms of urban planner's intervention.
In this case, as in the garden art, urban planning, there are two fundamentally different approaches to design. Parks, by and large, are divided into parks in the French and English style, in other words, parks with a regular layout, and parks with "organized chaos". The same can be observed in urban planning.
A striking example of this hybridization could serve as a planning structure of the central historical part of Chisinau, Moldova (see agordeew01.jpg).
Hybridization of urban planning can have both at the macro level (the scale of the global, regional) and at the secondary level (on a scale metropolitan agglomerations, districts) and at the micro level (on a scale complexes and individual buildings). The boundaries of the subjects of urban Hybridization all levels never coincide with administrative boundaries.
Definition Urban Pores/Porosity.
First you need to try to find the definition of the concept of Urban Pores / Porosity. So far, I could not find a clear definition. The concept is not new. Walter Benjamin and Asja Lacis in 1925 used the term. For early use of the concept of Urban Pores / Porosity I did not find.
Here's how to determine what Urban Pores / Porosity Sotirios D. Kotsopoulos:
Pore (from Greek) (1) means "a minute opening". Porosity or "the state of being porous" in the context of organic chemistry and the study of plants and animals indicates the existence of small openings. In biology and in medicine porosity is defined as: "the attribute of an organic body to have a large number of small openings and passages that allow matter to pass through". The forms, sizes and distribution of pores are arbitrary... Porosity was re-interpreted at Holl's studio, in order to be used in a new tectonic/urban context, to guide the production of a sponge-like building morphology .
As an illustration of this definition can result in the following Figure agordeew02 .jpg. (Steven Holl Architects. Complex LINKED HYBRID Beijing, China, 2003-2009).
It seems more faithful to the following definition of the term Urban Pores / Porosity. Using the terminology of architect's software "Mass = Solid + Void".
"Void" - is the Pores (emptiness, negative).
In this case the role of wild weeds belong to the material part, and the pores are "cultural" plants. Material part, as well as weeds in Nature, seek to fill the entire space. If you do not "cultivate" the pores, do not look after them constantly, not weed the weeds, they will completely disappear and be replaced by buildings.
A gap doesn't only exist in the character of void, but also it exists in physical state, but of absence quality. Gaps are not necessary to be of negative character, but could be of positive potential that would offer better opportunity for the future. It could offer different possible opportunities for sustainable urban development.
Urban pores, as was said, also have volume and are 3-dimensional, just as material objects, and are the part of any urban object. Very often, these pores represent more interest in regards of history, art and their overall role in completing the urban ambience, than material objects. It is especially typical for the central, historical parts of cities. Central part of Chisinau, Moldova, can serve as an example.
Practical applications samples.
In his work THE POROUS CITY Nadir Lahiji attached to the term Urban Pores / Porosity important symptom of urban life, which helped to survive the archaic and pre-capitalist social forms.
Porosity of Beirut is the symptom of an urban life in which the remnants of the pre-modern and pre-capitalist social forms that never succumbed to the modernist segregation of life between private and public spheres survive. In contemporary Beirut, the metaphor of porosity of undifferentiated space competes and survives side by side with 'modern' Beirut in a dialectical relation between interior and exterior which belongs to the modernist representational spaceÉ Walter Benjamin and Asja Lacis in the essay they wrote together in 1925, poignantly discussed the city of Naples evoking the central image of porosity. I want to suggest that what they wrote about Naples is equally illustrative of the city of Beirut, although topographically the two cities are entirely different.
(see agordeew 03.jpg)
Even greater meaning to the term Urban Pores / Porosity makes Walter Benjamin. He believes that the porosity is the inexhaustible law of the life of the city.
In Walter Benjamin's Reflections there is a description of the urban porosity of the city of Naples. He observed porous architecture in which "building and action interpenetrate in the courtyards, arcades and stairwaysÉto become a theater of new unforeseen constellationsÉPorosity is the inexhaustible law of the life of this city, reappearing everywhere."
As you can see, Walter Benjamin and Asja Lacis model of the term Urban Pores / Porosity believed Naples, and Nadir Lahiji said that all this can be attributed to Beirut. For its part, I can add to this list and Chisinau. I think this can be attributed to many cities in the world .
Stavros Stavrides said about the practical significance of preservation of porosity, which is the main part of the identification of cities.
Defending urban porosity might mean defending the right to the city as the right to overcome identification through localization. Instead of identity strongholds to be defended we need passages that may connect and separate, giving ground to encounters of mutual recognition.
It is easy to see that proper practical application of this term has not yet received.
Possible use of the term Urban Pores/Porosity for Chisinau (Moldova).
As a result of Soviet policies, material part of this entity was decaying that led to insurmountable at first glance, the situation. On the one hand, there is a justified desire to save the historical part of the Centre. Identified and guarded a huge number of existing buildings, which, in most cases, you cannot save technically. This causes confusion of value of these buildings among residents and creates insurmountable obstacles to development. The following figure is easy to see what the two small islands of the medieval city preserved today (see agordeew04.jpg).
The old center, but rather the core of the old center, consisting at the time of the Market Square and the Square at the Old Cathedral (see agordeew 05.jpg), disappeared completely.
Separated buildings, as a result, are surrounded of random neighbors, leading to the emergence of serious disharmony. Appear as the tall objects, seriously distorted image of the historic centre (see agordeew 06.jpg).
Private Quarters so-called upper part of the center, appeared in the mid-19 th century, still preserved in more or less unchanged (see agordeew 07.jpg).
At the bottom, the medieval part of town, but was destroyed in the mid 20 th century the core of the old center, had already disappeared or are endangered, many elements as part of the material, and porosity, as presented in the following photos park. Similar to this, squares of irregular shape, so-called "stars" are the nodal points, those symptoms of urban life, allowing to preserve the identity of the city. At the same time, they are one of the key points of the porosity of the lower part of the city (see agordeew 08.jpg).
Also under threat of extinction are important elements of porosity, as the internal courtyard space, as shown in the photo (see agordeew 09.jpg).
Right decision in this situation seen in protection of "emptiness" ("Void "), i.e. Urban Pores/Porosity, in this part of the city. In this case, the filling of the different entities of material part may be depending of the technical opportunities. In that case Urban Pores/Porosity, the most valuable parts of an existing environment, can be preserved.
In the process of developing Urban Pores/Porosity components, is possible the re-establishment of the lost items of the space (for example, the medieval Trade and Church Squares, destroyed in the post-war period), as well as additional elements elaboration that contribute to the advancement and development of the existing environment.
Of course, this is not a total demolition of existing buildings, as did our predecessors. It is important to define the purpose of rebuilding the historic center. To prevent further deterioration. For example, an existing building of a maternity home, standing in the place of the Market Square, can carry due to its unsuitability in sanitation.
How, with this site to prevent construction of new skyscrapers? What is the most realistic scenario, no doubt. This weeds, filling all space. Only by taking custody of the porosity of the old center, ie non-existent space, phantom, reconstruction can be achieved at a convenient time elements of the old center. The same can be said about the area of the Old Cathedral. In place of the Old Cathedral now stands the building of the former cinema, which currently occupies the theater. The theater is planning a significant, if not a complete overhaul of the building, as well as for technological reasons, it does not suit it. Those include the complete demolition and new construction. Why not reconstruct in the light of the idea of recreating elements of the porosity of the old center, in this case? Below published figure, which displays elements of the old center (see agordeew 10.jpg).
Correct would be to guard Urban Pores / Porosity old center, referring to the gradual rebuilding of destroyed items as often as possible. The same must be applied to other parts of the old city.
Conclusions.
Based on the above, want to make the following conclusions. Obviously, it's time to legitimize the concept of Urban Pores / Porosity, as one of the existing town planning concepts. It should be noted its special significance in preserving the identity of cities. Necessary for each city to develop and take custody of the State Urban Pores / Porosity, along with the commitments under the protection of material objects.
The new concepts of ecological compatibility, porosity, and right distance compel us to rethink the contemporary city, and imagine a city design where form follows biodiversity,
social diversity, social practices, and natural processes, rather than "Fiction, Fear, Finesse and Finance".
References.
1. Collegiate Dictionary.
2. Design concepts in architecture: the porosity paradigm
Sotirios D. Kotsopoulos
129 Franklin Street, # 203, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA;
e-mail: skots@alum.mit.edu
3. PLEA2006 - The 23rd Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Geneva, Switzerland, 6-8 September 2006 Ambiguous Porosity - Integrated Urban Gaps Identification and Experimenting Urban Connectivity
4. Chady S. Bteich Notre Dame University, Zouk Mosbeh, Lebanon
Fax: +961 9 218771 Tel: +961 9 218950 email: cbteich@ndu.edu.lb
5. Stavros Stavrides Urban porosity and the right to the city [Editorial note. This text is an abbreviated form of a paper originally delivered in Durban at the World Congress of the International Sociological Association, July 2006]
6. THE POROUS CITY By Nadir Lahiji http://www.worldviewcities.org/beirut/porous.html
7. Urbanisms: Working with Doubt ______: Steven Holl
8. Rethinking and Redesigning the Urban Landscape
Bernardo Secchi
Notes:
1, ______
2. Design concepts in architecture: the porosity paradigm
Sotirios D. Kotsopoulos
129 Franklin Street, # 203, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA;
e-mail: skots@alum.mit.edu
3. PLEA2006 - The 23rd Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Geneva, Switzerland, 6-8 September 2006 Ambiguous Porosity - Integrated Urban Gaps Identification and Experimenting Urban Connectivity
Chady S. Bteich Notre Dame University, Zouk Mosbeh, Lebanon
Fax: +961 9 218771 Tel: +961 9 218950 email: cbteich@ndu.edu.lb
4 THE POROUS CITY By Nadir Lahiji http://www.worldviewcities.org/beirut/porous.html
5. Urbanisms: Working with Doubt ______: Steven Holl
6. Stavros Stavrides Urban porosity and the right to the city [Editorial note. This text is an abbreviated form of a paper originally delivered in Durban at the World Congress of the International Sociological Association, July 2006]
7. Rethinking and Redesigning the Urban Landscape
Bernardo Secchi
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01 Map of Old Chisinau
02 Steven Holl Architects, Linked Hybrid
03 Beirut
04 Modern Central Part of Chisinau
05 Old Market Square view
06 Chisinau New development coming to the old town
07 Chisinau Fragment of the upper part of the city
08 Chisinau Star in the lower part of the city
09 Chisinau Pores patios
10 Chisinau Old Center Pores on the plan of existing buildings
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