What is a “Charter City”?

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Image from http://scrapetv.com/

Charter City is a concept, an idea created by the economist Paul Romer. Though, it looks like a dream, it is quite possible. Romer is pointing out places in the world with vacant lands to create a city framework with other jurisdictions different than the country where the vacant lot is selected. Interesting idea….

The new “ city” (it could be a conceptual city, it doesn’t need to be as big as a typical city) would be run remotely, using the Hong Kong model and the citizens would be invited from all the poor areas of the world to come there and work (Tim Halbur). In Romer’s opinion, this would be a possibility for poor people to get away from slums, to begin a new life.

“ Charter cities let people move to a place with rules that provide security, economic opportunity, and improved quality of life. Charter cities also give leaders more options for improving governance and investors more opportunities to finance socially beneficial infrastructure projects.

All it takes to grow a charter city is an unoccupied piece of land and a charter. The human, material, and financial resources needed to build a new city will follow, attracted by the chance to work together under the good rules that the charter specifies. Action by one or more existing governments can provide the essentials. One government provides land and one or more governments grant the charter and stand ready to enforce it.” (Tim Halbur, for Planetizen)

Paul Romer provides three cases, as follows:

Case 1: Canada helps a Hong Kong blossom in Cuba

For decades, the Unites States and Cuba have been parties to a treaty that gives the United States administrative control over a portion of Cuban territory straddling Guantanamo Bay. In a new treaty signed by the United States, Cuba, and Canada, the United States could give up its treaty rights, and Canada could take over local administration for a defined period of time.

An administrator appointed by the Canadian prime minister would be responsible for setting up and enforcing the rules that apply in this special territory. The legal protection and institutional stability that the Canadians provide would attract foreign investors and foreign citizens to the city. As the city grows, the Cuban government would gradually allow freer movement of people and goods between the land it governs and the charter city. At the same time, supporting cities and suburbs would grow up on the Cuban side of the city’s boundaries. The charter city itself would eventually return to Cuban control.

In this case, a treaty creating a special administrative arrangement already exists and Hong Kong provides a model for how a city might be governed. An interesting variant would be one in which several countries (e.g. Canada, Spain, Norway, Mexico, and Brazil) stand in place of Canada alone.

Case 2: Australia and Indonesia create a new regional manufacturing hub

In a treaty that Australia could sign with Indonesia, Australia would set aside an uninhabited city-sized piece of its own territory. An official appointed by the Australian prime minister would apply Australian law and administer Australian institutions, with some modifications agreed to in consultation with the government of Indonesia. People from Indonesia, many of them lower-skilled workers, could come live as temporary or permanent residents in this zone, but would remain citizens of Indonesia. A portion of their labor income could be taxed and return to the government in Indonesia. Levels of free public services and welfare support would be comparable to those in Indonesia. As citizens of Indonesia, the Indonesian inhabitants of the city would have no claim on residency or citizenship in Australia proper. They would be subject to the same immigration controls whether entering Australia from this zone or from Indonesia.

Highly skilled workers from all over the world would be welcomed as well, but would be subject to the same immigration controls they would face from their home countries. Australian citizens and firms would be able to pass freely between Australia proper and the new charter city. As part of the treaty, the Indonesian government could agree to award the chance to move to the new city preferentially to residents from a small number of rural areas where people practice environmentally harmful forms of subsistence agriculture and forestry. The government could designate part of the land to be freed up in this way as a nature preserve, setting aside a much smaller portion of the now uninhabited land for a charter city of its own.

Case 3: India opens a competition for charter cities: The central government in India would pass legislation specifying the charter that would apply in any city developed in a new type of centrally administered special zone. It would let different states compete to create such a zone. To be eligible, states would assemble city-sized tracts of uninhabited land and pass legislation removing all local control of the special zone. The state government would then collect a portion of the fiscal surplus generated by the new city.

http://www.chartercities.org/

http://www.chartercities.org/concept

Handicap Issues and Buildings

Image from http://www.mysurgerywebsite.co.uk/

My father spent his last years in a wheelchair, living in his own house, that was not upgraded to his severe condition. He usually complained he couldn´t enter the bathroom without hurting his knuckles, as there is a pocket door in the bathroom in first floor, and it cannot be completely embedded inside the wall. And one day, he went too fast to the small ramp from the patio to the garden, and he fell down. Of course, the house was not under ADA code. A person that had a heart attack is a common problem in a house. When the affected person cannot go to the bedroom in 2^nd floor, a bedroom had to be improvised on first floor. So, I usually suggested in a new house design, to have an extra room –if possible- like a family room or studio, and if something happened, there was an extra accessible bedroom.

Sometimes, a building can be upgraded completely for handicap, sometimes not.

The main complications I´ve seen, when the handicap requirements became an obligation in Argentina, long years ago, were in commercial buildings. The new ramps were so long, that would never fit in some places. You don´t make them work, you couldn´t approve fire department. So, I spent long hours discussing with the fire fighters how to remodel buildings accesses, some suggestions were ridiculous, and they never took into account that sometimes there is no money to cover the remodels.

Anyway, handicap improvements are really important, accessibility has to be provided for everybody. But, the Codes fail in considering there are different degrees of disability. For example, I was a consultant for schools construction conditions in Buenos Aires, and I remember one school for blind people was accessible –let´s say for wheelchairs- they have the Braille signs, obviously, but colors were plain and there were no textures on the walls, no special sound to guide those who are not completely blind. I asked the principal about it, and she answered ¨It never occurred to us.¨ It is that the architect never told them about some minor helpful tips.

An obese person is a handicap. An Argentine obese actor, told once in an interview that he could not pass through the subways controls, they were too narrow. Seats, are another example. A pregnant woman is a short time handicap, and so on.

So many issues, I think buildings cannot cover all level of disabilities, and this is not enough reason for plan checkers to say some designs show ¨discrimination¨. But, what is not specifically written in the Codes, should be analyzed by the architects. It is our obligation to provide all the elements needed to make the handicap´s life easier, without becoming silly in our effort.

Let´s see a case a contractor showed me today: in a commercial building in California, of approximately 4000 sq ft, two stories, you can add an elevator or, if not, make the second story absolutely accessible, like the first story. My question, if the handicap is on a wheelchair (and that´s the bathrooms requirements, the use of a wheelchair), how could a handicap access to the bathrooms in second story without an elevator? In other words, what´s the purpose of two stories with ADA design if there is no way to go to the 2^nd floor, unless somebody carries the handicap in arms? I had an identical case, but even worst, in the City of Hemet. The plan checker said to me, that I was discriminating with such an argument. He said directly, or you do what I´m telling you or you´ll never approve the plans. And I asked him, if we have sewer machines in first floor and second floor, how could he expect that somebody in a wheelchair, or blind could use a type of sewer machine that needs of all our limbs? It means that, for some type of jobs, a handicap would never be hired, and this is not discrimination, this is that there is no way to resolve these problems, at least for now, with the technology we have available right now, like the example of sewers machines that have a foot pedal below.

Björk, a shot from Dancer in the Dark. From http://unit.bjork.com/

Another example, the movie ¨Dancer in the Dark¨, with Björk. How can a person, almost blind, work with a very dangerous machine? Do we need handicap bathrooms in the building of the movie? No, only in the administration area. So please, plan checkers, do not be blind yourselves in the interpretation of the Building Code.

El problema urbano; el oro y el barro. Artículo de Nora Bär

Magic City. By Colin Blundell

Por primera vez en la historia, más de la mitad de la humanidad, una cifra que supera los tres mil millones de personas, vive en áreas urbanas. De allí que el Día Mundial de la Salud, que acaba de conmemorarse, se dedicó este año al urbanismo y a la salud.

En 2030, según calcula el Instituto Worldwatch, los pueblos y ciudades del mundo en desarrollo albergarán al 80% de los seres humanos. "Esa concentración, que permite una oferta de bienes culturales y servicios sanitarios sin precedente, se combina en muchos casos con un crecimiento desordenado y problemas sociales que pintan un escenario amenazante", afirman.

En las actividades culturales, los parques y el ocio estimulante, las ciudades concentran el pináculo de la civilización. Pero más allá de "las luces del centro" está el "paredón y después", donde se multiplican las chozas, la falta de servicios sanitarios y agua potable, o de recolección de residuos, millones de personas sobreviven en un medio ambiente que se cuenta entre los más sucios y menos seguros.

Y generalmente es allí donde se revelan las iniquidades. Entre los ejemplos de lo que asedia a los más vulnerables, los investigadores de Worldwatch citan precisamente a nuestras villas de emergencia, y se refieren a quienes en Buenos Aires "habitan en las orillas contaminadas del río Matanza y huelen sus aromas nauseabundos rodeados de ratas, mosquitos, moscas y otros insectos".

Estos ambientes no sólo multiplican los problemas de salud, sino que concentran los peligros: sus habitantes son las primeras víctimas de los terremotos, de las epidemias, de las crecidas inesperadas y de las inundaciones cuando los pluviómetros se desbordan. También suelen aspirar las emanaciones tóxicas de industrias que no respetan las regulaciones.

Según un informe del Fondo de Población de las Naciones Unidas, carecer de una vivienda adecuada llega a duplicar los índices de mortalidad en chicos de menos de cinco años.

Por eso, a pesar de que los nacidos en las ciudades están más cerca de clínicas y hospitales, y que sus padres están mejor informados, si están mal nutridos y viven en medios superpoblados que ofrecen un caldo de cultivo ideal para las enfermedades respiratorias e intestinales, todavía mueren en números comparables con los que nacen en el medio rural.

Como la telenovela, las ciudades conjugan el oro y el barro... que, no nos engañemos, a todos nos salpica...

Publicado en La Nación, Sección Ciencia y Salud. jueves 29 de abril de 2010.

EXPO 2010 Shangai, China

China Pavillion

These are some of the amazing pavillions for Expo 2010 in Shangai, China.

This is the web page were you can find more details.

http://en.expo2010.cn/participation/pop/moren.htm

These pictures have been downloaded from Dezeen Design Magazine

http://www.dezeen.com/2010/04/28/shanghai-expo-2010-pavilions/

UAE Pavillion

Swiss Pavillion

Interior of Swiss Pavillion

Chinese Pavillion

Japanese Pavillion

South Korea Pavillion

Norwegian Pavillion

UK Pavillion

UK Pavillion

UK Pavillion

Spanish Pavillion

Spanish Pavillion

Luxembourg Pavillion

Serbian Pavillion

Swedish Pavillion

The book ¨Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn¨

A few days ago, I posted ¨Weeds in the Front Yard: aesthetic issues and depressing effect on local property values¨, it is the story of Robert Wright´s front yard, published at the New York Times. He is defending his right to let the dandelions grow, he is against herbicides and after all, dandelion is edible.

http://myriammahiques.blogspot.com/2010/04/weeds-in-front-yard-aesthetic-issues.html

And it was by chance, that today I found this book, now I know that there is a current movement towards edible gardens in the American front yards, a practice developed also by Michelle Obama. Maybe this practice is Robert Wright´s solution.....

¨Since the first edition of Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn was published in 2008, interest in edible gardening has exploded across the United States and abroad. Even First Lady Michelle Obama is doing it! This greatly expanded second edition of the book documents the eight Edible Estates regional prototype gardens that author Fritz Haeg has planted in California, Kansas, Texas, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and England, and includes personal accounts from the homeowner-gardeners about the pleasures and challenges of publicly growing food where they live. Ten “Reports from Coast to Coast” tell the stories of others who have planted their own edible front yards in towns and cities across the country. In addition to essays by renowned landscape architect and scholar Diana Balmori, edible-landscaping pioneer Rosalind Creasy, bestselling author and sustainable-food advocate Michael Pollan and artist and writer Lesley Stern, this edition features updated text by Haeg (including his observations on the Obama White House vegetable garden); a contribution from Mannahatta author Eric W. Sanderson; and Growing Power founder, MacArthur Fellow and urban farmer Will Allen’s never-before-published Declaration of the Good Food Revolution. 

This is not a comprehensive how-to book, nor a showcase of impossibly perfect gardens. The stories presented here are intended to reveal something about how we are living today and to inspire readers to plant their own versions of an Edible Estate. If we see that our neighbor’s typical grassy lawn instead can be a beautiful food garden, perhaps we will begin to look at the city around us with new eyes. Our private land can be a public model for the world in which we would like to live.¨

http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20080303/edible-estates-attack-on-the-front-lawn-i

A visit to the Getty Center in Los Angeles

Hi, this is me at the Getty Center Museum in Los Angeles, I went to see DaVinci´s great drawings for sculptures´ studies. I´m happy I had this opportunity. It´s my second time I go to the Getty Center, and though many architects say Meier made the Museum like his houses, I really enjoy the wonderful views of the city, the landscape and mountains. 

Of course I was not allowed to take pictures of Da Vinci´s exhibition but, for the first time in my life, I had permission to take pictures of other exhibitions, without flash, of course. I had the nice surprise to see Urban Panoramas, from which I recommend the work of Soo Kim and the exhibition Building the Medieval World: Architecture in Illuminated Manuscripts. There is also an exhibition of French Arts and Crafts, from 1500-1700. As you can see, any architect would enjoy this season at the Getty Center.

For more info

http://www.getty.edu/

I´m the author of the following pictures, please ask for permission if you want to reproduce any of them.

The beautiful cactus garden.

What is the art of Illumination?
http://theclubofcompulsivereaders.blogspot.com/2010/03/what-is-art-of-illumination.html

Acqua Tower. By Studio Gang Archs., Chicago

In this excerpt from a film by the Checkerboard Film Foundation (www.checkerboardfilms.org), Jeanne Gang, FAIA, and developer and architect James Lowenberg show us Gang's new Chicago residential high rise. 

Entrevista a Santiago Calatrava. Para revista Eñe. 27 de mayo 2008.

Imagen de http://elartedelaimaginacion.files.wordpress.com/

Autor de la entrevista: Guido Carelli Lynch

 −¿Santiago Calatrava es un mejor arquitecto, ingeniero o artista plástico? 

−(Riéndose, con un poco de vergüenza) Eso que lo digan los demás. Pero cuando yo encaro una obra, la arquitectura lo absorbe todo. Es un arte plástica y al mismo tiempo usa la escultura y a la ingeniería para nutrirse de ellas. Sin embargo, lo que prima al final es la arquitectura. 

−¿Cómo serán las ciudades del futuro? 

−Creo que si el siglo XX nos trajo una cantidad enorme de personas a las ciudades, que crecieron sobre todo aquí en Europa de decenas de habitantes a ciudades millonarias prácticamente en dos generaciones, en menos de 30, 50 años, ese ritmo ahora se calmará. Ya no habrá posibilidad de ver pasar a una ciudad de 2 mil habitantes a una de 2 millones como hemos visto, yo no creo que esa proporción de multiplicar por diez el número de habitantes, que esaconurbanización, vuelva a ocurrir. El siglo XXI será un tiempo de reconciliación con la ciudad, en el que a fuerza de mejorar los transportes urbanos y la infraestructura, las ciudades volverán a renacer como sitios en los que será agradable vivir. 

−¿Qué variaciones imagina? 

−Creo que las preocupaciones referidas al medioambiente van a tener un papel enormemente relevante, sobre todo respecto a la energía, y en ese sentido sí creo que tenemos que estar preparados para innovaciones importantes, pero por lo demás pienso que va a ser un siglo estupendo... 

Palacio de las Artes. De http://www.imagina-e.com/

Puente en Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires. De http://www.puertomaderorentals.com/

Puente en Calgary, Canadá. De veoverde.com

Hacedor de puentes 

Este premio Príncipe de Asturias a las Artes en 1999 y flamante Premio Nacional de Arquitectura 2007, que acumula una docena de doctorados Honoris Causa en algunas de las universidades más prestigiosas del globo, es un eximio hacedor de puentes. Aunque algunos sus detractores señalan que son siempre iguales, excesivamente caros y poco funcionales, este eterno admirador del Golden Gate, de San Francisco, logró convertir su nombre en una estética única y reconocible en todo el mundo. 

−Algunos críticos sostienen que sus puentes tienen una forma antropomórfica, ¿es tan así? 

Es bueno que las cosas tengan un enigma y no es bueno entonces contar demasiado sobre las obras. Pero sí es cierto que tienen un aspecto antropomórfico y le explico por qué. Cómo los usuarios son hombres, es lógico que las personas además de estar virtualmente en el centro de la obra, sean el elemento de inspiración de la obra en sí misma. Como en la antigüedad clásica, utilizar el hombre como medida en la arquitectura y como medida de todo es una doctrina común y de gran clasicismo.... 

Buenos Aires también tiene un puente y se lo debe a Calatrava. "Creo que cada sitio requiere un puente. Si usted piensa nuestro puente de Buenos Aires es un sitio que podría haber sido una cosa completamente sin pena ni gloria, y en cambio el hecho de comprometerse y darle un poco de significación a ese punto, al eje de la avenida Corrientes y todas esas cosas, hace que se convierta en una cosa especial. Entonces no importa el tamaño de la obra o si el puente de Buenos Aires es una obra modesta, porque adquiere una significación especial por la escala, por el lugar, al lado de la Casa Rosada, por el extraordinario Puerto Madero y por esa ciudad extraordinaria que es Buenos Aires. 

−¿Sabía que actualmente hay conflictos por el mantenimiento del puente y nadie se está haciendo cargo? 

No, pero pienso que el mantenimiento es fundamental, más en una obra que es móvil. Es igual que el mantenimiento de un automóvil, si usted está continuamente usando el automóvil y no hace nada por su mantenimiento pues naturalmente se echará a perder. Ese tipo de obra requiere un mantenimiento. En el Golden Gate de San Francisco, por ejemplo, hay un equipo de personas que no hacen otra cosa que estar continuamente manteniendo el puente y repintándolo. Cuando acaban en un lado empiezan en el otro y así sucesivamente. Son obras que requieren mantenimiento para la calidad y durabilidad de la obra, no se pueden hacer obras sin mantenimiento alguno, ni siquiera en piedra... 

Calatrava, lejos de las definiciones técnicas propias de la jerga arquitectónica, apela al sentido común, a veces escaso en estas cuestiones por estas latitudes. "Es como la propia casa, uno no puede tener una propia casa y no limpiarla nunca ni mantenerla, comprende, yo lo veo como una cuestión de urbanidad y de buen uso, el que tiene una casa ya lo comprende, reflexiona culminando en una carcajada sobre su ahora problemático Puente de la mujer. 

−Por último, Calatrava, le han ofrecido construir nuevamente en América latina? 

No, pero me resulta un lugar tan familiar que me encantaría que eso pasara, tendría que dedicarle un poquito más de tiempo, eso sí. Pero estaría encantando de trabajar allí me es un sitio muy querido, muy familiar. 

http://www.revistaenie.clarin.com/notas/2008/05/27/01678680.html