Inspiration from Travels

In attempt to find solutions to Taipei River Urbanism, we will look into existing river urbanisms all around the world to find out how other cities are coping with varying water issues. As a starting point I began thinking of the places I have recently visited: Amsterdam (NL) and Berlin (GER).

Both cities have different problems regarding water. Somewhat ¼ of the Netherlands is below sea level, but still they have succesfully managed to build metropolis such as Amsterdam on soaking land. The Dutch know-how of construction methods and controlling the ocean and danger of flooding astonishes me. I heard that water pumps are active 24 hours a day to keep the ocean away and drain the land.

In Berlin, the problems with the river are more or less political. The public are fighting in opposition against Mediaspree, a large German property investor and one of the largest urban renewal projects in Germany. Mediaspree is a developement project that would demolish most of the old industrial riverside (ex-GDR heritage) of Eastern Berlin to make space for new corporate offices, hotels and high-profile housing. According to critics, the project would inevitably cause an increase in costs for long-term residents, a cultural change and loss of cultural diversity.

I think there is a great lesson to be learned from both case studies. Despite their problems, both Amsterdam and Berlin value their water nature and use it for a wide range of recreational activities. One of the most interesting uses was that of the river Spree in Berlin. ”Arena Badeschiff” is a floating swimming pool created from a recycled river cargo container that floats on the river. It is covered with tarpaulin during winter and used all around the year as a public bath. Similar interesting recreational activities could be introduced to the people of Taipei in our visionary plan.

by Emmi

Table Three

At table three the different roles within each group was awarded a corresponding ammount of chips. Each group had the same ammount, however the different roles had different ammounts. In front of the participants was drawn 8 arrows, each with a word (Nature, Health etc) and they were to place their chips on the values they thought were important. And more chips = more important.
The different groups acted differently. One group was very coherent and talked to each other and pretty much agreed on everything. One group was quite quiet and placed their chips before saying why and one group was a mixture between the two, where some of the roles talked to each other and some didn't. We did get some valuable input from this but the real test is to do it with actual people rather than people who has to try and act according to a role. All in all it was a good exercise and we got some good input during the critique afterwards.

Table Two

"How should the city be built?" - a question asked to each group at the beginning of this second activity.The participants were using blocks and composing the town around the river by giving their different arguments of the choices they made.
On the three groups, one had been working as a team where everybody was in accordance with each-other. For the others, there was some discussions between business-man/politician and old-granny/fisherman.
Globally, the city was built around the river with business buildings in the center and fishermen's area near the sea along the river. The other participants were locating their houses near commercial centers and hobbies. All the groups took in consideration the "green parks" in the city center.

Table One

This are the conclusions of the person facilitating the first table.

The different groups behaved differently, but all of them where very active. People were mostly agreeing on what should be built and where. The politician in each group took a role as a facilitator engaging others and listening to their opinions. Some people where anyhow confused with the situation and had a little input. This is not what we are going to expect in the real situation since people from different classes will have different background and understanding of the situation, and above all they will have a personal stake in it. It will be interesting to compare the test workshop to the real one.

Workshop done!

So, we held our workshop last monday and got great results. We noticed some small details that could be changed but overall everyone involved seemed to enjoy it. The mentors and teachers gave great response and seemed to be pleased with our work.
The workshop started off with a small introduction of Taipei, our groups goals and the task at hand. After that they each took part of small tasks at three different tables after which we had some time for comments and discussion.
We gave the participants roles which they were to play and choose their actions according to (we aim to use this workshop, as a whole or in part, in Taipei and then we will have "real people" to ask so the roles will perhaps not be necessary then).
More on what happened at each table to come soon.

Finalizing the Workshop

Today we did some final planning of the workshop we are about to do on monday. Originally we were supposed to do it one week later but the schedule got changed. It was a good thing we had planned a lot already so that we could actually get it done by this monday.
This will be a dress rehersal for our work in Taipei. We have already learnt to think on our feet and how to deal with changed timetable.

Finding the Funding

The quest to find funding for the project and especially the trip to Taipei is well on the way. Some applications have been sent and we are positive about getting some funding! Still some applications to send and then calling around to companies and so forth...

Meeting with Ulla

Today we had a meeting with Ulla who helped us with comments on our project proposal and plan for the workshop we are going to do four our fellow students. However we do intend to use the same workshop, in part or as a whole and perhaps somewhat modified, while in Taipei to gather information from the locals. This do of course depend on the outcome of our workshop, we might learn that some method use is not ideal or that there is a flaw that needs to be addressed. Or it might be that everything runs smoothly and we get great results and therefore choose to use it as is in Taipei.
Ulla pointed out a few things and gave good advice on what else we need to think about and take into consideration. All in all, she thought that it had no serious flaws or foreseeable problems and gave us the "go ahead".

Group Lunch

Today we had a lunch-meeting with the group and planned the details concerning the workshop we are about to host for our fellow coursemates. Not to go into any details, as we want it to be a surprise, but we managed to get the rough layout of what's going to happen. This allowed us to think of materiels and time needed. Now all that is needed is to get our idea approved and to make this rough outline into a detailed plan of action.

Let the blogging begin

Okay, so the blog-site is basically done, absent a few tweaks here and there. Therefore, the blogging will commence now. The blog itself will mostly be about our work, so for background information about us, our university and our project, we have added links at the top of the page. We hope that you all will enjoy following our progress in our blog.