An old atomic plant in Germany converted into an amusing park

A couple of weeks ago, I had the joy  of knowing Germay would be closing its nuclear plants. And now, I've read this great article at Spiegel, one old atomic plant converted into an amusing park.

From Spiegel on line, an excerpt and pictures:

In the early 1970s, construction began in Germany on what was supposed to be the world's most technologically advanced nuclear power plant. But public protests and nuclear disasters elsewhere kept the plant from ever going online -- and then a Dutch developer with a dream arrived on the scene.

As far as the Germans are concerned, only a Dutchman could buy a nuclear power plant and transform it into an amusement park.

The complex in Kalkar wasn't just any old nuclear power plant, but rather a multi-billion-deutsche mark national symbol-turned-boondoggle. After initially being touted as proof of the ingenuity of German engineers, it then went on to symbolize the power of youthful resistance and, finally, the absurdity of political decision-making. Indeed, after being built for 8 billion deutsche marks (€4.1 billion; $5.9 billion), the complex known locally as "der Brüter" ("the breeder") was destined never to go online. In the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, it stood idle for years because nobody wanted to have anything to do with the enormous mountain of concrete. The plant went into partial operation in 1985, but it never received nuclear materials.

Dreams from Abroad

Then everything changed. Karl-Heinz Rottman, 57, a former employee, recounts how he and his colleagues were just about to eat lunch together in 1995 when Dutch developer Hennie van der Most drove up. At the time, Rottman says, morale among the workers was low and they were full of disappointment. But then this white-haired man got out of his black Mercedes and said: "Hi, I'm Hennie. I'm gonna buy everything here." Rottman says his first thought was: "Sure, go for it."

And that's just what Hennie did. The son of a farmer and junk dealer from rural Holland borrowed a couple of million deutsche marks to buy the nuclear power plant that had been heralded as a source of infinite energy for the industrial age. Its uranium core was supposed to produce more plutonium than the reactor needed, meaning that it could forever produce energy that was as clean and safe as possible.

But instead of getting the reactor up and running, Hennie began to gut the place. Massive amounts of circuitry, pumps, turbine and other equipment landed on the trash heap. The engineers who had settled in the area could hardly bear to watch as their creation was destroyed. And the job was massive -- in order to be able to respond to worst-case scenarios involving multiple failures, nuclear power plants have three and sometimes even five sets of duplicate back-up systems. Even now, 15 years later, only a third of the reactor has been converted into amusement park.

Read the article by Jorg Diehl:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,766424,00.html

Dollar bills lining walls inside the Guggenheim Museum, New York

German artist Hans-Peter Feldmann lined with 100,000 dollar bills the walls of the Guggenheim Museum in New York as part of an exhibition dedicated to the institution to have won the last edition of the Hugo Boss Prize.

The award recognizes achievements in contemporary art and is endowed with $ 100,000, exactly the amount the artist decided to change dollar bills and put them inside one of the rooms of the museum.

The installation can be seen till November 2nd.

Picture from:

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1381866-el-guggenheim-se-cubrio-de-dolares?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=titulares&utm_campaign=NLCult

San Francisco approves Treasure Island urban plan

The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a massive new neighborhood proposed for Treasure Island.

In the 11-0 vote the board rejected claims by groups such as the Sierra Club that the project would harm the environment and exacerbate traffic problems.

Instead, members of the board said the $1.5 billion project would breathe new life into the old Navy base in the middle of San Francisco Bay.

The plan, almost 15 years in the making, calls for 19,000 new residents to live in a new neighborhood wrapped in open space and dotted with high-rises, one as tall as 450 feet. Residential units would be within walking distance of shops, a grocery store, a school and new ferry terminal.(...)

Over the next 20 to 30 years, they intend to morph the island from an aging former Navy base into a state-of-the-art neighborhood with a mix of affordable and market-rate homes, all designed to save water and energy.

Massive weight will compact the soil, keeping the island stable during earthquakes. A seawall will guard against sea level rise and possible tsunamis. Plans call for the ramps to and from the Bay Bridge to be redesigned and dedicated bus lines to run from the island to downtown San Francisco.

Excerpt and pictures from:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/08/MNN71JQVU3.DTL

Terremotos simulados en San Diego para mejorar las construcciones

Mapeo de terremotos al día de hoy en California. Para ver los mapas actualizados, clickear en http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqscanv/

Este tema me interesa personalmente por vivir en California y haber sentido algunos de sus terremotos. De La Nación, sección Ciencia y Salud:

¨SAN DIEGO, Estados Unidos.- En un campo abierto, próximo a un cruce de autopistas y donde unos carteles amarillos alertan sobre la posibilidad de cruzarse con alguna víbora, una superficie de acero y cemento de 7,6 por 12 metros soporta al simulador de terremotos al aire libre más grande del mundo.

Aquí, un equipo de ingenieros de la Universidad de California en San Diego (UCSD) levanta durante meses -y derriba en instantes- edificios de varios pisos que cuestan millones de dólares construir. Lo hacen para conocer cómo se comportan y se pueden hacer más seguras las estructuras, los materiales y los sistemas de monitoreo cuando las entrañas del planeta liberan energía.

En enero del año que viene, sobre esta plataforma de pruebas del Centro de Ingeniería Estructural Englekirk de la Facultad de Ingeniería de la UCSD, se realizará el ensayo más ambicioso que se conoce hasta ahora. Para eso, la semana pasada, los ingenieros comenzaron la construcción de un edificio de cinco pisos, en los que funcionarán desde un hospital hasta oficinas comerciales, una escuela y un banco. Todos temblarán como si el suelo se sacudiera con la fuerza de 100.000 bombas atómicas, como ocurrió en Chile el año pasado.

El costo: nada más ni nada menos que casi 4 millones de dólares, financiados por la Fundación Nacional de Ciencias de los Estados Unidos (NSF, por sus siglas en inglés), el estado de California y la industria privada. "Es la primera vez que se realizará una prueba de este tipo con un edificio totalmente equipado. Creemos que vamos a poder pasar un sismo de gran intensidad sin daños", dijo el ingeniero José Restrepo, que codirige este proyecto monumental y que aportará datos a otros países para mejorar la seguridad en escuelas, centros comerciales, comisarías y hospitales, entre otros lugares claves.

Esta plataforma, que pertenece a una red de la NSF de 15 universidades, sirve para probar estructuras de hasta 2200 toneladas y más de 30 metros de altura. Su sistema de acción hidráulico y mecánico puede replicar con altísima precisión temblores de más de 8 grados en la escala de Richter para recrear, como en una película, los terremotos más devastadores registrados hasta ahora.

"Terremotos tenemos todos los días, pero no afectan zonas urbanas", comentó Restrepo durante una recorrida de las instalaciones del simulador organizada por el Instituto de las Américas-UCSD. De hecho, señaló, en los últimos 40 años hubo 6000 sismos de entre 6 y 6,9 grados de magnitud, pero muy pocos ocurrieron en áreas urbanas. "Y hubo unos 20 muy fuertes, de entre 8 y 8,9 en la escala de Richter. Algunos de ellos, en zonas urbanas", explicó.¨

Continúe leyendo la nota de Fabiola Czubaj:

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1381092-simulan-terremotos-para-mejorar-las-construcciones?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=titulares&utm_campaign=NLCien

ICOMOS counseling against Le Corbusier´s buildings

The National Museum of Western Art. Photo: yisris.

When he was a young architect, my husband had a fellowship in UNESCO to research for ICOMOS. Of course, many years ago. He was astonished to learn about the news of Le Corbusier´s buildings´ being rejected, and, as always, we began a discussion on it. He had the opportunity to visit some of Le Corbusier´s buildings, I hadn´t. So, I´m not saying anything, just partially reproducing the news from http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110528002670.htm:

¨An advisory body to UNESCO has counseled against registering 19 buildings designed by French architect Le Corbusier, including the National Museum of Western Art in Taito Ward, Tokyo, as world cultural heritage sites, it has been learned.

The recommendation was made by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), a cultural conservation organization, the central government's Cultural Affairs Agency said Saturday.

Ville Savoye, in Paris. Photo by valueyou, at Wikipedia.org

Notre Dam, Ronchamp. From alovelyworld.com

It is the first time ICOMOS has given such advice about a World Heritage-nominated site in Japan. As for why the 19 buildings should not be registered, ICOMOS claimed they do not clearly "demonstrate remarkable universal significance of the modern architectural movement" and that "Le Corbusier was not the only architect who promoted the modern architectural movement, in which many architects participated."

ICOMOS suggested, however, that three of the buildings--Villa Savoye in Paris, a Unite d'Habitation housing development in Marseille, France, and the Notre Dame du Haut chapel in Ronchamp, France--be nominated individually as examples of masterful architecture.

The National Museum of Western Art could potentially be added to the World Heritage register, according to ICOMOS, as a building that "shows the exchange of values that greatly influenced the development of architecture."

Read the full article:

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110528002670.htm

La historia del edificio oculto de Bodegas Trapiche, Mendoza, Argentina

Reproduzco esta historia de Sabrina Cuculiansky para La Nación Revista, porque me pareció interesante. He visitado Mendoza, hermosa provincia argentina, pero no he tenido oportunidad de visitar las bodegas, y por supuesto lo tengo pendiente.

Las dos primeras fotos pertenecen a La Nación Revista y el resto son de la página web de Trapiche.

¨En el año 2006, el director y enólogo de la bodega Trapiche, Daniel Pi, divisó a los lejos, desde la ruta, una formación que se diferenciaba del verde matorral de olivares que cubría un gran terreno sobre la calle Nueva Mayorga de Coquimbito, Maipú.

Cual aventurero, se abrió paso entre la mata y, 300 metros adentro del verde, descubrió una antigua construcción. Resultó ser una vieja bodega de 1912, construida por un italiano inmigrante, que hace más de medio siglo había quedado abandonada bajo el verde. Al despejar la zona y abrir las puertas se encontraron con un edificio intacto, munido de mobiliario y hasta de maquinarias sin uso. Tan importante había sido la casa, que contaba con una bifurcación de las vías del tren para que pasara por una estación propia y así se pudiese trasladar la uva con mayor brevedad.

Luego, tras varios años de puesta en valor, se convirtió en la nueva casa de Trapiche, donde la firma elabora sus vinos de alta gama. La obra que realizaron los arquitectos logró mantener la estructura original inspirada en el Renacimiento Italiano. La importante obra de ingeniería y creatividad funcional que puso en marcha aquel italiano, hoy puede verse resignificada en distintos puntos del edificio.

Dos grandes parcelas de viñedos acompañan la entrada del visitante y uno de ellos, de uva Malbec, sigue los lineamientos de la vitivinicultura biodinámica. Es por eso que, allí nomás, se divisan el lago y algunos gansos que deambulan por la gran finca.

Para el visitante resulta un imponente programa que ofrece remontarse al inicio de la actividad en el país, entender cuál es la realidad del vino argentino y dejarse llevar por las tendencias futuras a través de cada nueva propuesta en botella que lleva la marca de este clásico local.¨

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1379028-la-bodega-bajo-el-matorral?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=suples&utm_campaign=NLRevis

Design ideas for schoolyard transformation

Story  written by Shanti Menon.

In her new book Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation, Berkeley-based environmental planner Sharon Danks explores the ways in which landscape design, architecture, child development, and nutrition converge in the schoolyard. OnEarth sat down with Danks, whose firm, Bay Tree Designs, Inc, is helping redevelop some 29 San Francisco schoolyards, to talk about how communities are transforming the asphalt playgrounds of the past into green spaces conducive to better learning, eating, and playing.

Q. How have playgrounds changed since we were kids?

A. Playgrounds these days are influenced largely by liability concerns. Swings are disappearing, bars are getting lower, structures are becoming less challenging. My 4-year-old recently broke her arm on a play structure meant for 2 to 5-year-olds because she found it so boring. She was walking on the outside of the bridge and sliding down the handrail and fell off. These structures are so unchallenging that kids are making up their own activities, which are often 10 times more dangerous.

Q. What's your vision of a better playground?

A. We want to give kids something more than play structures and ball games. We call them "ecological schoolyards," environments that combine diverse ecosystems with varied play environments and hands-on learning experiences. Richard Louv, the author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, says that playgrounds based on ballgames and athleticism are home to more bullying. In more natural environments, it's less about who's the strongest and the fastest and more about using the imagination. It changes the dynamic of who's in charge. And there's less conflict because the kids aren't as bored.

Q. How can kids learn from playgrounds?

A. You can embed a curriculum into the landscape by allowing students to see natural systems as they function. So instead of studying a watershed in a book, for example, they can see rainwater falling off their roof into a pond. Most students would shrug if you asked them when it last rained, but here they can run to the window and see how dry the pond looks.

Pictures from

http://www.schoolyards.org/gallery.BeforeAndAfterPhotos.php

Keep on reading:

http://www.grist.org/article/2011-05-20-buildin

Interview with landscape architect Laurie Olin

Simon and Helen Director Park in Portland, OR. PHOTO: ZGF

Arch. Laurie Olin

Excerpts from the interview with landscape arch. Laurie Olin, author: Johanna Hoffman. For Planetizen.

Social issues play a big role in your work. What kind of process do you go through to spacialize social factors in a new project?

There's no specific process, really. The process of design is really all about asking yourself, "Where am I?" "What's the nature of the this place?" And the answer's always different.

A large part of designing is becoming a student of people. To design well you have to be interested in and learn about how people behave. For instance, humans really are the most devious and gregarious of the four great apes – the chimp, the gorilla and so on. We love to be together and watch other humans eat. So the work is in large part about designing nice places for those kinds of things to occur. Our designs are how we show what we've learned.

What are your most important goals in pursuing landscape architecture?

Well the first, to borrow a medical term, is 'do no harm.' No matter how you approach a project, you have to do what’s appropriate to the particular place and time.

And if we start to talk about social issues, we usually in this day and age start talking about sustainability. When we talk about sustainability we end up talking about ecology. So for me, landscape architecture, social issues, and the environment are all inseparable.(...)

One thing I've noticed about your designs is the way many of them feel as if they’ve been in place a long time, even if they're recent works. How do you think history influences your work?

History’s really a remarkable thing if you’re not afraid of it. If you don’t know your history you are an empty vessel. But if you do, you’re pretty well equipped for most things. Each phase of history lays down it’s view of the world in its respective layer; each generation has to be able to do so.

But in order to do your layer well, you better know the other layers. There’s no such thing as a blank slate. To do it well, knowing the history of the medium is essential.

How do you envision landscape architecture progressing in the future?

No one knows the answer to that question. The future is usually a certain extension of the present; in that way, a lot about the future is already here.

What’s certain is that we have a global environmental crisis, about water, air quality, loss of habitat. And it’s happening everywhere, especially in less wealthy nations. Population growth is exacerbating the issue.

These things lead to inevitable conflict, within and between societies, that are happening already. They also lead to extreme, unsustainable types of growth in cities. Right now, in China alone, there are over a dozen cities each larger than New York. People in those kinds of situation are now living in environments that don’t resemble traditional cities at all, that don’t provide for the functions that humans have required for generations.

The question of the present and future is what kind of people will those growing up in such environments be like? I think landscape architecture is a discipline that is and will continue to address those questions.

U.S. Embassy: studio amd

Read it in full

http://www.planetizen.com/node/49639