a perilous city

i once wrote about how you could still feel the evidence of new york's past as a perilous city when you go down under its subway system. i stumbled upon these images on the internet and they really fascinate me. it reminds me somehow of the commuter train i used to take to go to campus back in my university day. it was in a real horrendous condition and i had so so many terrible experience riding it. but those trains no longer exist nowadays replaced by all full air-conditioned train that are suitable to transport human being. there are of course still many flaws but it was a very significant improvement from what i used to experience. i keep saying that i do have hope on this city no matter how much conflicts i have with it.

urban terrace

i am not at all an architectural geek. as someone with too much interests, i must admit i'm not as deeply knowledgable as most of my fellow countrymen, who studied architecture, who i encountered when i lived in milan. although i will always carry it as my basic way of thinking and i'm still deeply rooted in it on daily basis (also when i go travel), i've long lost my appetite on contemporary architecture in the sense that i don't really care which starchitects do which new projects or who are the new emerging star in architecture. mostly because i'm no longer interested in flashy new buildings which are more often meaningless and out of context. they're just boring. aside from interior design which i've been doing for more than five years now, i paid attention more to urban issues, the city as container of activities. which was actually the subject i studied on my grad school.

one thing about grad school was that i started to learn again, and in the process of learning by doing, i somehow managed to narrow down and reshaped what actually really interest me, how my approach of design is, what my style is like, and those kind of things. it's like putting in structure who i really am architectural-wise and what my philosophy in this realm is. so when i first saw this building here i was immediately drawn to it. the simplicity, the materials, the color scheme, the grid, the transparency. i like how subtle it is, how it doesn't try to shout too much of itself like most new buildings are. and the more i read about it the more meaningful it is, how it's made for low maintenance and to last long.

and also, it's actually an open public building in the complex of paris saclay, which i believe i visited during this workshop, but i'm not sure since it was my first day and i arrived late and we were going from st.-germain-en-laye to versailles. whether i was in paris saclay or there was the director of paris saclay in the conference i can't remember hehe. and also, while the comue of paris saclay is south to paris, my thesis project was the comue of paris seine which is north west to paris. and it somehow reminds me that period of time. oh the good old time.

cergy-pontoise, îl-de-france.

with a decision that was rather impulsive i stayed for almost a month in this town to join an urban planning workshop. there were lots of stories about the workshop where i got to meet lots of different people from all over the world: france, of course, italy, china, lebanon, russia, finland, india, south africa, and many others. but i'm gonna write here mostly about the town itself. cergy-pontoise is one of the five new cities built around paris from scratch on the 70s to depopulate the metropolitan. the evidents of the 70s architecture can be seen on the brutalistic buildings on the grand centre in cergy prefecture, the supposedly main city center.

there were two things that impressed me the most. first, i have to admit that i adore the delicacy of the french aesthetic. the newer part of the towns were built in a similar style with the old existing ancient cities (both cergy and pontoise). and even when they're not that similar, there was this delicacy on the details of the buildings which although simple are pleasing to the eyes. our journey back home from the place of workshop in cergy to our residence in pontoise took an almost 30 minutes walk but the pain was lessen by the pretty architecture. second, it amazed me how the people here are rooted for their city, at least some people i met. they're proud of being born there and want to see improvement on it. maybe because it was built in a good way and it is still a functional city it wasn't hard to be rooted to this place as your hometown. it's just amazing considering that it's a very young city and it was in the suburb of a big city, one of the major big cities in the world that is.

soft urban art

i've always been interested in urban space and how people interact with the city. and now that i'm studying urban space, in europe in particular, it has been a very inspiring study and eye opening of many spaces around the world and also so many aspects around the realm, not just the physical space, but also the historical aspect, social aspect, technological aspect, etc.

i've seen many types of cool urban art, which has recently getting more and more developed with advance technology. this one completely surprised me because it's made of "soft" material. sometimes photos could be deceitful so at first i couldn't believe that they are actually urban art hanging there in the middle of the city. but watching the video of the artist talk, janet echelman, it's just fascinating how she developed something that was "accidental" into something beyond imagination. i wish she would keep leaving traces of her art to many more cities around the world.

ps. now i definitely have to visit porto!

urbanized: the language of a city

"Do not look at how many people are walking in the city, but look at how many people have stopped walking to stay and enjoy what is there" - Jan Gehl

Urbanized was very much entertaining and surprisingly turn out to be my favorite among Hustwit's documentary trilogy, Helvetica and Objectified. It might received some heavy critics from urban planners but I think it served its purpose for the non professionals and infuses new spirit and knowledge for those who's already familiar with architecture and urban design.

The film exposed cities from different kind of angles with cases from the slums in Mumbai, the TransMilenio in Bogota, the bike lane in Copenhagen, the public protest of Stuttgart 21 project, the High Line in New York City, the population decline of Detroit, the urban sprawl in Phoenix, and a lot others. The least attractive part of architecture / urban design in comparison to other design disciplines has always been the politics related to the government and bureaucracy and all that and to me it shows also in the film, how the politicians look pretentious and always seems like having an agenda.

Despite a lot of mockery over how this documentary trilogy was so hipsterish-ly packaged, I think Hustwit had pushed through another level of documentary films while at the same time raised more public awareness to the design industry.

back in the day

My heart literally pounded when I saw these. Eep! Now if only it also featured some night shots when all the lights are on, it would be super amazing!

infrastructure: a comparison

We all know that Bangkok is famous for its traffic but, tell you what, if you've experienced Jakarta, Bangkok isn't that bad at all.

But I've read that one of the reason is that because they've been enhancing the city's infrastructure with mass transportation system, the BTS and MRT, although so far it still cut only a relatively small percent of those who travel by cars.

We arrived late at night at the city and with the least energy we had, we rushed to a 24 hours McDonald (I know!). From the hotel we walked pass through the a BTS station, and my first impression of the city was that somehow it reminded me vaguely of Peter Cook's Archigram. It was somehow futuristic with all of the gigantic concrete beams span across the city (My pictures don't really explain this well, oh well..). I wonder how the society reacted when they first decided to build with all these structures that definitely change the face of the city. I mean, they don't really look that bad right now, but it must have been a drastic change, from a softer environment to a much massive solid one.

Other than cars, BTS and MRT, they have the famous tuk-tuk, which are allowed to speed in toll ways, hehe. Then they have bus, of course, which, unlike the ones at Jakarta, have clear numbers which make them easily recognized, and they only stop at the bus shelters. And it seems less scary to travel in their bus, at least there are no annoying street musicians or beggars or people selling things within the bus.

And then they have the boats.

I didn't really expect anything traveling to Bangkok, but being in the same region and timezone, GMT +7 (yeah like it matters :P), honestly I didn't think it would be this much of a difference between Bangkok and Jakarta, but fact is, they are way more advance than Jakarta.

the danish utopia

Found this article at a friend's blog and can't help myself not to post. The (rather old) article points Denmark as the happiest place on earth.

Danes in general had very little to complain about. Danes do have one potential complaint: high taxes. The happiest people in the world pay some of the highest taxes in the world -- between 50 percent and 70 percent of their incomes. In exchange, the government covers all health care and education, and spends more on children and the elderly than any country in the world per capita.

Those high taxes have another effect. Since a banker can end up taking home as much money as an artist, people don't chose careers based on income or status. "They have this thing called 'Jante-lov,' which essentially says, 'You're no better then anybody else,'" said Buettner. "A garbage man can live in a middle-class neighborhood and hold his head high."

Denmark is what is called a "post consumerist" society. People have nice things, but shopping and consuming is not a top priority.

And perhaps the bicycle is the best symbol of Danish happiness. Danes can all afford cars, but they choose bikes--simple, economical, nonpolluting machines that show no status and help keep people fit.

Having been "dealing" with some danish people these past few months doesn't make me believe they are as happy as it says*, but, damn, living in a city with thousands of things to complain every single day reading it is like reading about a utopia that can never happen. In fact, Denmark with the total area of 43,098.31 km2 has only 5.5 million population while Jakarta of 740.28 km2 has 9.5 million. Just imagine.

*maybe it's because this article was written in 2007 before the global economic crisis which also hit Denmark.