Designing Change. Eric Firley. nai010 publishers 2019 © Cover

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Designing Change
Professional Mutations
in Urban Design 1980-2020

Eric Firley

Over the timespan of just one generation the planet’s pace of urbanization has dramatically increased. Through these dynamics and its resulting environmental threats, new challenges have emerged that deeply question the validity of the post-war planning paradigms. Dominant ideologies have been replaced by a problem-solving attitude, increased economic pressure and an urgent quest for evidence.
What impact does this have on the work of the urban designer and planner, and how can the profession prepare for the future?

Designing Change tries to answer these and many other questions through in-depth conversations with 12 leading practitioners in the field. Conceived as an unpartisan contribution to the discourse about the future of the built environment, Designing Change offers an unorthodox combination of case-study analysis and theoretical debate. It addresses the topic’s complexity through a rigorous focus on process, client relationship and development initiative.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword | 6
Introduction | 10

CHRISTOPHER CHOA (AECOM), London | 16
Reconciling Opposites
Al Shamal Masterplan, Qatar | 36
Riyadh Airport City | 40
Global Palestine – Connected Gaza 44

BRUNO FORTIER (Agence Bruno Fortier), Paris | 56
Nature and Artifice in the Production of French Urbanism
Ile Feydeau, Nantes | 68
Massena-Chevaleret, Paris | 72
Brest Capucins | 76

FINN GEIPEL (LIN), Berlin | 94
The Emergence of a New Type of Urbanity
Cite du Design, Saint Etienne | 114
Grand Paris Metropole Douce | 118
Urban densification and innovative living through serial timber construction, Bremen | 122

ADRIAAN GEUZE (West 8), Rotterdam | 132
Contemplating the Squatter Legacy as a Reminder of Urban Diversity
Borneo-Sporenburg, Amsterdam | 148
Strijp-S, Eindhoven | 152
Toronto Central Waterfront | 156

DJAMEL KLOUCHE (AUC), Paris | 168
Digital Acceleration and Environmental Restraint
Fives Cail, Lille | 180
Pleyel-Landy Sector, Saint-Denis | 184
Tangram, Paris | 188

WINY MAAS (MVRDV), Rotterdam | 208
Mission Impossible
Ypenburg-Waterwijk, The Hague | 226
ZAC Bastide Niel, Bordeaux | 230
Oosterwold Freeland, Almere | 234

DENNIS PIEPRZ (Sasaki Associates), Boston | 244
North-American Campus Work from the 1980s onwards
University of South Florida Master Plan, Tampa | 258
University of Pennsylvania Penn Connects, Philadelphia | 262
Tecnologico de Monterrey Urban Regeneration Plan | 266

ELIZABETH PLATER-ZYBERK (DPZ), Miami | 280
A Recent History of Zoning and Design Codes in the US
Charleston Place, Boca Raton | 292
Kentlands, Gaithersburgh | 296
Miami 21 | 300

ALBERT SPEER (AS+P) with MICHAEL DENKEL, Frankfurt | 316
The German Way of Keeping the Power Balance in City-Making
Europaviertel, Frankfurt | 338
Stadtebaulicher Masterplan Innenstadt Koln | 342
InnovationCity Ruhr - Modellstadt Bottrop | 346

PAOLA VIGANÒ (Studio Paola Viganò), Milan | 354
Concrete Descriptions of Future Situations
Plan for Prato | 372
De Hoge Rielen, Flanders | 376
The Horizontal Metropolis, Brussels | 380

LIU XIAODU (Urbanus) with WANG HUI, Shenzen | 394
China as a Place of Attainable Utopias
Tulou Collective Housing, Nanhai | 402
Shum Yip UpperHills Loft, Shenzen | 406
DenCity – a reachable Utopia | 410

ABOUT THE BOOK EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS
Eric Firley is a German-French architect and urban designer, whose multidisciplinary work experience includes project management and development services for the real-estate industry in Paris and London.
He is the initiator and co-author of the three books of Wiley’s Urban Handbook Series. Since 2011 he teaches at the University of Miami School of Architecture.

Christopher Choa (AECOM), Bruno Fortier (Agence Bruno Fortier), Finn Geipel (LIN) Adriaan Geuze (West 8), Djamel Klouche (AUC), Winy Maas (MVRDV) Dennis Pieprz (Sasaki Associates), Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk (DPZ), Albert Speer (AS+P) with Michael Denkel, Paola Viganò (Studio Paola Viganò), Liu Xiaodu (Urbanus) with Wang Hui, Wenyi Zhu (ZhuWenyi-Atelier)