Máj 2018
TINA SAABY:
Today, cities have adopted various "green" strategies for rainwater retention, reducing the energy intensity of buildings, creating smart quarters, and so on. Pressing down on the carbon footprint of cities. We know that Copenhagen has long been one of the top cities for life. Is it also thanks to its ecological thinking? How do you manage to promote sustainability in public debate?
TS: In June 2011 Copenhagen had a historic cloudburst that affected many Copenhageners everyday life with water in basements and flooded streets. This created an awareness of the problem and resulted in a political demand and focus on finding a solution. In 2012 the City of Copenhagen presented a new Cloudburst Management Plan that states "The City of Copenhagen is working towards achieving carbon neutrality for the city while also preparing for the extreme weather expected in the future. Copenhagen must be a safe and pleasant place to live in and to visit – now and for future generations". My role as a City Architect is to ensure, that while adapting the city for future weather changes, we add value to the city by creating new recreational opportunities and insuring more and better urban nature. A good example of this is Taasinge Plads which is the first climate change-adapted urban space to be completed in the neighborhood and in Copenhagen.
Your work reflects your sincere effort to understand people's behavior. Copenhagen's development strategies are conducive to creating an environment that promotes mutual eye contact of users and bringing together people of different age and social groups. You place great effort on creating soft border lines between buildings and the public space. You put life ahead of buildings in the foreground, which confirms the global trend - to build cities around places. When do you think you're in a good place? What are the most important quality of public spaces for you?
TS: In Copenhagen, we think of urban life before designing urban spaces and of urban space before designing buildings. We do this because it is urban life that makes the city. There is no city without the people who use it; who live, work and move around in its buildings and streets. Understanding people is a fundamental requirement for creating a good city. Architecture is created by and for people, and provides the physical setting for our collective and individual lives. The project, Krøyers Square is a good example of that. It is in one way an intimate close urban space, but at the same time there is a view of the water and the sky and with access to city nature. A good place has both the small and the large scale represented – a place to sit and enjoy the sun while watching city life around you.
The development of the city is dependent on the active cooperation between the public and the private sector. Communication of the city and private investors tends to be challenging, in particular, because of finances and different values. Developers often don´t want to invest their money to the public space. What position do you have in this dialogue as a city architect, and what are your tools for promoting city interests?
TS: The City of Copenhagen is a part of the dialog with the developers from the beginning. This helps create a shared understanding of the specific place and the overall strategy for the neighbourhood. By doing this, we ensure that each project becomes a part of a larger plan and creates a connection to the surrounding city. It is my role as the Chief City Architect, to facilitate this dialog and at the same time voice my opinion, if the developers don't take part in the dialog and the project does not promote the cities interests. In the end the decision making is up to the politicians. Another tool I use is to talk about architecture as something we all understand and feel. It is something that affects all of us, but it is not only about how is looks.
In Slovakia, participatory processes involving the public in the development of the area are still quite new. In Copenhagen, you have a Neighbourhood improvement program that is all based on deep civic participation. Participation not only in the development of the material part of the city, but also in the economic and social spheres, which also brings some form of taking over the civil responsibility for the public space. Please try to better describe this program and express what you see the greatest benefits of public involvement in city development?
TS: Integrated Urban Renewal consists of three different phases. The first phase is the start-up phase, where the first citizen involvement is created by setting up working groups that in cooperation with city creates a new plan for the neighborhood. This plan becomes the foundation for the future work in the area within the project period. Lastly, the plan is approved in the political system. The most important part of the neighbourhood improvement program is that the City physically moves into the local neighbourhood, and thereby become a part of the everyday life in the area. The decisions are made together with the citizens and local stakeholders. The physical changes are the life between the buildings and the communities that are created.
As time changes, cities, societies change the demands and tasks of individual professions. Today, architects are not only designers, they are also helping to create economic, environmental, or social studies. They often use them to support their design. Often they are architects who facilitate participatory meetings. What do you think, why is this movement in the world and where can it lead?
TS: The architect and philosopher Vitruvius described more than 2000 years ago the role of an architect's as a generalist who collects all the knowledge of the experts and organizes into physical form – that is, the built environment. He states "The Architect should be equipped with knowledge of many branches og study and varied kinds of learning, for it is by his judgement that all work done by the other arts is put to test. This knowledge is the child of practice and theory. Practice is the continuous and regular exercise of employment where manual work is done with any necessary material according to the design of a drawing. Theory, on the other hand, is the ability to demonstrate and explain the productions of dexterity on the principles of proportion" The role as a facilitator is not new to the profession. There has been a period of time, where the role of the architect was more an expert that as a generalist, but I believe that this is changing again and the architects role is back to being the facilitator and the one with the overall understanding of the projects.