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Adaptable Masterplan: Parametrization

Watch a video tutorial for my newest Blender Geometry Nodes tool BSG (Buldings & Streets Generator)

In the previous article I showed the preliminary analysis, which led me to a decision of creating this Blender Geometry Nodes parametric tool. In this article I will describe the logic behind the setup´s generative process and steps I undertook in order to develop Buildings & Streets Generator (BSG). At the end of the article you´ll find a user guide and documents for download.

Finding the right software

For people, who can´t write a single line of code but still need to create a script which outputs geometry, visual programming method is the best option. The most popular software that have implemented it are Rhino with its Grasshopper extension and Blender with its Geometry Nodes modifier. After considering pros and cons of both, the decision in favor of Blender was easy to make, even though I wasn´t experienced with this program yet. The fact that it´s a free open source software means that the script can be easily accessible for literally everyone interested in it. It reduces the barrier for potential users of starting to work with it. In addition, I discovered that Blender community is huge: open source enthusiasts from around the world together contribute to making this program better. They often share advice and tutorials, as well as different assets and pieces of their visual code on designated forums and online marketplaces, which makes it easier for beginners to get started with Blender.

Geometry nodes

With Blender Geometry Nodes, it is possible to “pre-record“ certain steps of modifying geometry and apply them to different contexts. It is a very powerful tool, the complexity of which is unlimited. It was designed for setting and controlling parameters of geometry without deleting its previous versions (parametric non-destructive design). The nodes are easy to replicate, share between the files and for a non-programmer they are way easier to understand than any programming language.

Dissecting urban space

In order to create a script that is capable of generating different plausible solutions for residential areas, one should be aware of how the single elements of built structure are related to each other. It´s like assembling a puzzle: to create a nice picture, you have to take a look at each element and consciously put every single piece in its place.

But in order to assemble a picture, i had to disassemble built structure into the most important elemets first and due to the time limitations, only focus on the most important ones. What are the most important features of the street or of the building? What is the relationship between them? What do I have as an input and which steps do I have to take to achieve a desired output? In which order do I have to take those steps? These are typical questions everyone askes themselves while working on a parametric model.

Much helpful theory has been written about the characteristics of good built structures. Authors such as Kevin Lynch, Christopher Alexander have devoted their work to the study of the relationship between them. Ernst Neufert, along with contemporary authors and professors Leonhard Schenk and Christa Reicher, have given much thought to the appropriate dimensions and spacing between these elements and have been a tremendous source of knowledge for me. This knowledge has been used as the basis for defining minimum and maximum values for the features that my script deals with, which are shown in Tables 1 and 2 for road elements and building elements respectively.

Defining inputs and outputs

Inputs

For the sake of simplicity in terms of usage, I tried to keep required inputs as simple as possible. Everything one needs to start working with BSG is:

1) simple lines for streets, joined by type. It is easy to download street networks for almost any existing place using QGIS software for querying OSM (Open Street Maps) data. It should already contain information about the road type. Join street geometry, so that every type is on a separate layer and use BlendGIS plugin for Blender to upload them in your project. This is exactly what I did for the site I am working on. If your project contains streets which are in planning, but not yet exist within OSM database, draw them in manually either in QGIS or directly in Blender. Important is only that they are all joined by type and that the lines all lay on the same plane (flat surface). The script will work best with tidy, continuous geometry, where there are no breaks between the line segments.

2) polygons for development areas, where buildings should be placed. The facades of generated buildings will align themselves along the perimeter of the polygon. Every polygon should be it´s own, separate geometry. Don´t join them.

3) don´t forget to write down an approximate expected average housing area per person into a corresponding input slot so that the model can calculate how many people the generated housing can provide accommodation for. If you don´t do this, a default value of 30m2 will be automatically chosen. You will still get the results, because this input is not mandatory, but it´s recommended to think about it.

And that´s it! Enjoy the process, as you experiment with different controls while your 3D model changes “on the fly“.

Outputs

What you should see after providing all the necessary inputs, is a responsive 3D model, adaptable in real time. In addition to geometry output, it calculates and outputs following values, which urbanists often use to compare and evaluate diferent housing solutions:

1) approximate number of people for each development area;
2) building coverage ratio (BCR) for each area;
3) floor area ratio (FAR) for each area.

Generative process

In this abstract I will explain the logic behind the algorithm of BSG that creates geometry throughout the whole journey from input to output.

Street generation

The street is the city’s most important element. (Pallson, 2020) Kevin Lynch also noted that paths were predominant elements in people´s image of space with other elements being arranged along them. (Reicher, 2016, pp 212-213)

The process of creating street geometry out of a line is very simple. The algorithm is set to extrude those lines symmetrically into both directions perpendicularly to the spline tangents on the XY plane (flat ground). Users can control the length of the extrusion vectors, which is equal to the road width. If you uploaded different road types as separate layers, you can control the width of each of them separately. Usually, roads of the higher hierarchy are also wider. After the extrusion, the overlapping geometry at the intersections is being deleted.

Same principle is being repeated for each additional street element (be it bike lanes or sidewalks). The width of every element is being added to the ones, that are closer to the initial line. Thus, the overall width of the street increases.

One can add more elements either by checking corresponding boxes in the node input or by setting the width of the element from 0 to a desired value. By checking boxes, the user is reseting boolean values and depending on this, different geometry is being parsed. Boolean geometry nodes always have two input sockets and one output socket. For example, by checking a box “Tree Alley”, instead of an empty geometry, a geometry is being called now, where the curve is resampled by length (equal to Tree Interval) and tree models are distributed on corresponding curve´s vertices.

Available street elements are listed in the table 1.0 (below). Separators are safety barriers between different road elements. In reality, they often come in a form of pillars, concrete bars, stripes of lawn or tree alleys.

Also in my model it is possible to put tree alleys at the separators. I differentiate between the middle separator (between car lanes) and the side separator (either between a car lane and a bike lane or between a bike lane and a sidewalk).

Table 1.0: Street Parameters
Table 2: Building Parameters

Configuration of the street is an important task in urban design, as it is able to influence the atmosphere of open space along this street. Just try to play with controls and see for yourself!

Secondary Streets:
Roads which are on top of the hierarchy (like primary and secondary, sometimes tertiary, dependent on country´s classification), often have more than just two car lanes. There is a possibility to add two more lanes to secondary roads.

Tertiary Streets:
Here are shown some of, but not all possible configurations of tertiary streets.

Residential Streets:
Here are some examples of how residential streets
could look like.

Secondary Street Section: Example 1
Tertiary Street Section: Example 1
Residential Street Section: Example 1
Secondary Street Section: Example 2
Tertiary Street Section: Example 2
Residential Street Section: Example 2
Secondary Street Section: Example 3
Tertiary Street Section: Example 3
Residential Street Section: Example 3

Moreover, roads which are on top of the hierarchy (like primary and secondary, sometimes tertiary, dependent on country´s classification), often have more than just two car lanes. There is a possibility to add two more lanes to secondary roads.

Building generation

Orientation along the boundary

Development area
Buildings aligning along the edge of development area

After the boundary of future development areas (a polygon) has been provided, the first thing that happens is that the buildings start emerging along its perimeter. After a while of long consideration, trial and error and reading lots of literature, I came to a conclusion, that starting from the edge is the best choice, for the following reasons.

Alignment along the street is a typical feature of urban fabric in European cities, especially if we are speaking about block typology. Block has been popular for thousands of years and is still not losing its popularity. (Reicher, 2016, p.54) In most of the cities which we perceive as the most beautiful, the facades have a clear orientation towards the street. Open spaces and the streets are “hewn out” of the solid city mass.

Leonhard Schenk, 2023, writes that all the authors – with the exception of those belonging to the Modernist movement – were in agreement that open urban space must be delimited by buildings. And if we consider the streets to be open space, they too, should be clearly defined by the buildings.

It doesn´t matter which typology the user chooses, even if it is a detached house or a row house, the orientation of an entrance towards the street is a reasonable choice, as it is easier to find addresses this way, the entrances are more visible, which creates liveliness and conveys the feeling of security even after dark (Palsson, 2020).

Christopher Alexander differentiates between “positive“ and “negative“ space. Positive are the ones partly enclosed, to the extent that their areas seem bounded. Negative spaces, on the contrary, are poorly defined, so that it is hard to tell where their boundaries are. He argues, that people feel comfortable in spaces which are “positive” and relatively uncomfortable in spaces which are “negative”. (Alexander, 1977, pp. 518–520)

Shape variation

Shape variation
Cutting off sharp angles

Even though the starting point of my script is to align buildings along the edges, we know that in reality the buildings are not always strictly following the street – sometimes the construction is being “cut off“ to create open space.

The data type of this variable is an integer, which equals the number of vertices for the resampling of the original boundary edges. The smaller the number, the more the new curve deviates from the original one, meaning that more open space is being created at the corners of the development area. The minimum and maximum values for this variable are 5 and 15. If the original geometry is complex or concave, you might want to set this number higher. By default, this option is set to false. But there is an option for a user to turn it on, in case one doesn´t want the buildings to strictly follow the street.

In addition, there is a possibility to cut of sharp angles from base geometry without resampling the curve. This is being done for practical and economic reasons. In reality, we can see a building with sharp angles only rarely.

When you input a development area with a sharp angle (less than 70 degrees) into a script, the polygon is being triangulated. The parts of geometry adjacent to a sharp angle is being deleted. There is a possibility to control the amount of deleted geometry based on its distance from the angle.

Placement depth and spacing

Offset
Spacing

Placement depth is a uniform offset of input geometry inwards and equals the distance between the building and the edge of the development area. The user might want to increase this variable in order to create a buffer between the street and the building, a zone, which can be used, for example, as front gardens, restaurant terraces, etc.

Spacing is only available for detached houses, as the buildings of other typologies are contiguous. It is equal to the distance between the houses.

Typology

Detached houses
Row houses
Block

The choice of typology is relatively narrow (detached houses, row houses and perimeter blocks) due to time limitations. I decided to focus on these three, because they are typical and widely used in European countries. Typologies like mat block or mat fabric might be more common for Arab cultures. In addition, high-rise solitary buildings and slab typology have been dismissed for the same reason I decided to align my start geometry along the streets – for the sake of creating “positive” space. Highrises tend to dissolve urban spaces, creating unsatisfactory, unsafe outdoor areas with a poor microclimate. (Palsson, 20, pp. 160–161) Thus, I wanted to limit the risk of this happening.

All the changes that happened to our original geometry during form variation, applying placement depth and spacing were on a 2D (XY) plane. As we have now a contour for built structure, it is time to make use of the third dimension. Creation of different typologies follows slightly different logic, although in all three cases the script is working with “instance” data type. Instances aren´t real geometry, just a “ghost“, a reference of a mesh objects (3D models) from a corresponding collection(s). The house shape itself isn´t being created by script, instead, the assets of my file include collections with manually created 3D models for each typology. Even though it is not the most parametric decision, this approach has advantages which I will explain at the end. The purpose of instancing, according to Blender developers, is to allow for much complexer geometries without increasing RAM utilization.

Detached houses: Each house is an instanced object from asset collections, being distributed on the points domain after applying spacing variable (resampling the curve by length). Through changing other variables, like building width, number of floors and roof shape, the user sends information to a boolean math node set-up, which in turn automatically chooses from the collections that fit these requirements.

Row houses: The logic is similar to that of detached houses with one exception. Elements are being distributed along the input curve not based on resampling the input curve by length (distance), but according to the dimensions of instances´ bounding boxes. It is made in order to place the houses right next to each other, at the same time avoiding their intersection even after it has been transformed (scaled) by a user.

Block: After resampling the input curve by length to achieve the desired building width (plot size), newly created edges are being inset inwards by a vector length equal to the input variable “building depth“ to create polygons for single plots. Unlike set-ups for detached or row houses, which instance the whole houses on point domain, this part of the script takes polygons as an input and instances elements from corresponding collections at their designated spots on these polygons. It instances pillars at the corners and wall modules between those corners along the edges. Then, according to the variable “floor number“, it stacks more similar modules on top.

Even though the choice is limited to only three main typologies, it is still possible to achieve a great variety of atmospheres and impressions. A user can start with a simple perimeter block, but by experimenting with different variables, especially placement depth, setback and omission, one can generate something resembling cluster typology or even solitary buildings (if the amount of omission is very high).

Building width

For block typology, the data type of this variable is float and it equals the width of the single building within the block. For detached and row houses it is possible to choose between smaller and bigger houses, but not to set the width directly. This is because the collections, where the script is instancing the objects from, are limited. More variety in terms of building width for these typologies can be achieved through scaling (transformation).

“The more monolithic a building is, and the less differentiated, the more it presents itself as an inhuman, mechanical factory.” (Alexander, 1977, pp. 469–470) I always suggest choosing a small plot size.

Transformation

Scale, rotation

Transformation operations include scaling and rotation, but only for detached and row houses. The scaling factors are limited to min. 0.9 and max. 1.1 of the original geometry. It is possible to scale the buildings both in a uniform way or randomly, where random factors are also between 0.9 and 1.1.

The rotation factor for row houses is limited to 0.4 radians and can only be uniform (otherwise, the houses would intersect). Detached houses can be rotated in a uniform or random way without limit.

There are no scaling or rotation options for block typology. If the user wants to change the size of buildings within the block, one can use variables “plot size“ and “floor height“ instead of scaling.

Setback

In detached houses
Within blocks

Setbacks of individual building within the urban fabric is an important feature which can drastically influence our perception of public space.

In order to combat the effect of streets driving pedestrians out and turn them into attractive places, where people want to stay, a greater sense of enclosure is needed. This can be accomplished if we make residential pedestrian streets subtly convex in plan with sitting possibilities (Alexander, 1977, p. 590)

My script isn´t made for visualizing sitting possibilities or any kind of urban furniture, but can provide various setback options for increased feeling of enclosure. I differentiate between abrupt setback (the buildings “jump“ back and forth) and fluid setback (buildings are being arranged into a smooth line), as well as periodic (repetitive) and non-periodic (random within a certain scope) setback.

Number of floors

Palsson, 2020, suggested that the building heights should be limited to five or six stories in the interest of incorporating sunlight in courtyards and streets. Christopher Alexander, 1977, even advises limiting the maximum number of floors to 4, in order to encourage better relationship between indoor and outdoor space, enable communication between parents who work inside and their children playing outside.

In spite of many renowned authors advocating for low building heights, I can only partially agree with these claims. Certainly, sunlight is important, but as summer temperatures hit new records every year, shady spaces can feel like a blessing. Secondly, when writing a script primarily for the use case of Irpin, I certainly wouldn´t set the limit for the floor number as low as just six storeys. Even though previously I mentioned European culture as some homogenous entity, the differences between countries regarding the preferences and experiences of citizens still exist. Physical patterns may have predictable effects in a single culture, with its stable structure of institutions and values. But it is not possible to construct a cross-cultural theory. It is even dangerous, since it will inevitably be used to impose the value of one culture on another. (Lynch, 1987, pp. 100–101) We must always reflect on the statements of others critically, even if they are icons, like Christopher Alexander. Remember that he lived during different time and in a different culture. In Ukraine, with the exception of historical city cores, high-rise blocks are very common, popular and they are not considered as something ugly or of inhumane scale. Irpin itself is a relatively new city without a low medieval city centre. It has numerous residential buildings, the height of which exceeds 10 floors. “Irpinski Lypky“, a damaged residential complex located on Hostomel highway, which is also a part of my chosen site, has been one of the most favourite and luxurious housing complexes in the city with its 10 floors and is currently being rebuilt exactly as it was before russian airstrikes. People appreciate high blocks for their ability to accommodate large closed or semi-closed courtyards, where trees (people of Irpin are very proud of their pines) can reach respectable age and height. Moreover, in a city, where the citizens value green spaces above everything, it is worth remembering that the more we build into the height, the more precious land can be saved for environmental and recreational purposes. And finally, regarding parent-child communication, believe me, Ukrainian mothers are very much capable of shouting to their kids even from the 10th. floor.

Thus, I limited the height of the block typology to 15 floors, which are not too many, in my opinion, as that buildings that already exist on site, have 10 floors. One can always go several floors higher or lower than the context, or at least having a possibility to choose so is valuable. When developing a tool for public participation, it would be a pity not to offer a broad choice of options for the stakeholders to decide from.

Detached houses can have min. one floor and max. three floors, row houses either two or three floors. Within one block it is possible to have a mix of houses with different number of floors.

Omission

Periodic omission of detached houses
Non-periodic omission of block plots

Omission is a useful variable for creating space for tiny squares and pocket parks. The simplest method (but not the only one) for creating a square is to exclude one or more building lots within a design. This works regardless of the types of urban building blocks used on the site. (Schenk, 2023, p. 191)

Thanks to this feature we can also reflect temporal dimension, if we want.

I differentiate between periodic and non-periodic omission. The user can also control the amount.

Using available resources

A significant part of the script, as well as assets (collections) for creating block typology has been created by Pavel Oliva. His geometry nodes library, called “buildify“ can be downloaded for free on gumroad.

A 3D expert and a blogger with the nickname Erindale teaches Blender on youtube and provides free geometry node groups for making the lives of CG artists a little bit easier. He does an outstanding job writing meaningful algorithms. In particular, I have been using his node groups “Collections on curves“ and some others across my work.

User Guide

There are two files you can download (at the end). One includes the model of the district around Hostomel highway and Bagirova street. With it, you can experiment within the context of the site. Another file is without any context. It only includes geometry node trees for streets and development areas with arbitrary input geometries, as well as folders with typologies´ assets. Download it in case you are not interested in Irpin, but want to use my setup for your own project. Simply append this file to your project file. Select desired node trees (“Development Area“ or “Streets GN“), then both the nodes and the collections will appear in your file. It is recommended to watch a video tutorial (at the top) before using.

Nodes for streets

Simple lines, which represent road paths can be used as inputs. The geometry must be tidy, continuous and lie in XY plane. The lines should be joined by road type, so that you can control the elements of each type separately. Joined lines of every type must be on a separate layer.

Create any other object and apply the geometry nodes modifier. Geometry nodes editor must be open. Select the node “Streets GN“. Delete the geometry input of a new object.

You will see slots with an eyedropper tool for the lines of each road type. Simply click on the eyedropper and then click on your corresponding layers. Now the street geometry should appear.

In addition, you will see sliders, which control different street elements.

Experiment and enjoy!

Nodes for buildings

Simple, one-faced, flat polygons, which lie on a XY plane can be used as inputs. They should represent your desired development area. On it, the buildings are going to be distributed. If you have multiple development areas within your project, they should all be on separate layers. If you want your areas to have the same construction style, apply geometry nodes modifier to all of them (don´t join them!) and select the node “Development Area“. If you want the buildings to look differently in each area, make multiple copies of this node to control your development areas separately.


On the first level of controls, you can select the desired typology for the corresponding development area, as well as specify the estimated average netto living area per person. This is needed to calculate an approximate number of potential residents, that can be accommodated in this area.

In geometry nodes editor, you will not miss a big orange box with the second level of controls. There are three further nodes, through which you can control variables of your desired typology (detached, row and block). Proceed to the node, which corresponds to the typology that you selected during the first step.

Adjusting the variables of the typology you haven´t selected won´t bring any effect. Experiment with the parameters and see how 3D geometry instantly changes.

Finally, the script calculates the following outputs: an approximate number of people, building coverage ratio (BCR) and floor area ratio (FAR). To view them, turn on the attribute viewer and plug in the output you wish to inspect into the viewer´s “Value“ socket. The number will appear in a “Viewer“ column in your spreadsheet editor. In the spreadsheet editor, the same domain should be selected, as is indicated on a viewer node. It is only possible to view one output attribute at a time.

Reflexion

Limitations

Typology

This geometry nodes can only generate building typologies, popular among European countries. For other contexts, it might not be suitable. It is neither capable of creating new innovative typologies, nor does it spawn sophisticated designs. Only the most simple building shapes, only the most basic typologies and their variations are possible. In the case of a country with degraded economy, it is good enough, as every deviation from the standard would inevitably lead to increased construction costs. However, if you expect a
tool, capable of creating something the world has never seen before, this script is a bad choice.

Land use

While the user can generate many plausible options for residential blocks, this model is not suitable for large-scale commercial or industrial areas. It doesn´t have any landscaping features either. It is not a smart AI, which could come up with a vision for the
whole neighbourhood and create a vibrant land-use mix. This geometry nodes set-up simply takes an input of a development area, that the user has to provide and locates
residential buildings within it, as well as spawns street geometry onto simple lines.

Variables

Built structure can be so versatile and diverse, that no tool can possibly generate all of the possible solutions. Mine is no exception. Its strength lies within the ability of creating various plausible options quickly, but by no means can it visualize all of them. The variables, that the user can control, are strictly limited to those, described above and listed in tables. Everything else is out of scope of this project. For example, shadow calculator would be another important variable, but it is not available in the current version.

Distinctiveness: reusability, adaptability, intelligibility, accessibility

Reusability

I showed you how I applied geometry nodes modifier to one district in Irpin. It would also work for other cities that face similar challenges. Needless to say, it is possible to use this script at any context, be it artificial or existing, as long as the user is aware of its limitations and provides required inputs.

Adaptability

House geometry for detached and row typology, as well as wall modules for block typology is not being created by the code, but is being referenced from asset collections. This way, it is easy to change the design, without having to rewrite the code. One can simply exchange existing 3D models for preferred ones or edit existing meshes via modelling tools.

Intelligibility

You don´t have to be a geometry nodes expert to be able to use the tool. All the input sockets are clearly labelled and all the control options for variables are collected at the starting panel. You don´t have to dig deep into the code and look for the corresponding node.

Accessibility

You can download the tool for free. All you need to run it is Blender software, at least version 4.0, which is also free and open source. Thanks to instancing feature, running the script doesn´t use a lot of computer RAM, thus, a powerful machine with fancy indicators is not required. Any average laptop would do the job.

I know, that the tool I developed is not perfect and a lot can be done to make it even better. But the good thing about open source community is that anyone who is interested can contribute to the further development of this script and expand its capabilities.

Downloads

Click here to download a Blender file with Geometry Nodes setup for BSG (without a specific context), as well as an adaptable masterplan for Irpin (with context – Hostomel highway district).

P.S. While using the script, you will probably encounter several bugs and things that don´t run smoothly. Please feel free to correct them if you know how and if you do, contact me please. I am eager to share my experience and knowledge, as well as learning from other open source enthusiasts!

Categories
Project

Adaptable Masterplan: Damage Assessment in Irpin, Ukraine

Motivation

24 February 2022 marks a day, which divided the lives of millions into “before” and “after” – russia has launched its full-scale war on Ukraine. Since then, brutal attacks from land and air onto our cities haven´t stopped for a day, dozens of thousands of people have perished and those who didn´t carry stories about russia´s war crimes against humanity, such as mass murder, torture and rape of civilians. Tens of cities have been razed to the ground and hundreds of others are severely damaged, which led ten million refugees to seek a new home elsewhere, either in the West of Ukraine or abroad.

As people try to adjust to this new reality, Ukrainians all over the world are looking for the best means to help our motherland within their capabilities. Especially students and practitioners of urbanism recognize that their knowledge and effort will be needed a lot
during the next decades. I am no exception. As a case study for my master thesis project (developing a prototype of a tool for stakeholder participation in restoration processes) I have chosen Irpin – a severely damaged town in Kyiv Oblast.

Ghost Cities

A city is called completely destroyed if the amount of destroyed buildings or buildings, which are damaged beyond repair exceeds 80%. There are ten such cities in Ukraine right now, most of which are temporarily located under russian illegal occupation. The rest of them are located on the frontline or close to it. These cities are Mariupol, Volnovakha, Vuhledar, Mariinka, Popasna, Soledar, Shchastya, Lyman, Sieverodonetsk and Rubizhne.
(Slovo i Dilo, 2023) Below, you can see them marked with orange dots (Fig.1). Inoficially, Ukrainians call them “ghost cities” or “cities, that no longer exist”.

Cities that suffered the greatest destruction of buildings and infrastructure.
(Occupied territories are coloured in blue, liberated ones – in yellow.)

Data Source: UNOSAT, estimates by Ukrainian authorities as of 03.02.2023

A city is called partially destroyed if the amount of destroyed buildings exceeds 30% and is less than 80%. The most evident examples are Bucha, Kupiansk (with approximately 30%), Kherson (30-40%), Lysychansk, Bakhmut, (60-70%), Izyum and Irpin (70-80%). (Slovo i Dilo, 2023)

The latter has been chosen to be my case study, because, unlike the ghost cities, it is neither under occupation, nor in the midst of the battlefield anymore. It has been liberated, so now the restoration processes in the most heavily destroyed community of Kyiv can begin.

Case Study: Irpin, Kyiv Oblast

Pre-war Irpin used to be an affordable commuter town on the outskirts of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. Its population amounted to 65 000 people in 2022 with a total area of 110 km2.

As of 2016, 26 industrial manufacturers are operating in the Irpin region. The city had close to one thousand enterprises of various forms of ownership, the most notable ones producing building materials and furniture. However, there is no consistent assessment of
whether or not they are still operating or if they were reestablished after the temporal occupation. There are reasons to assume that not all of them could have survived the blow from our war-mongering neighbours. A lot of businesses moved to the West of Ukraine, drastically changing the economic map of our country.

The agricultural sector of Irpin provides the capital with vegetables. In addition, the city is a popular health resort area, well known for its recreational facilities.

The Battle for Irpin

On February 27, russian ground troops broke through from Bucha towards Irpin. Tank fights broke out inside the city, and Ukrainian infantry fought with russian airborne troops. The mayor of Irpin, Oleksandr Markushyn, said that russians tried to break through the city, but were repelled by the Ukrainian Army, territorial defence troops and tank reinforcements from Bucha. Fierce fighting took place at the Zhyraf shopping centre between Bucha and Irpin. On March 2, 2022, two russian Su-25s conducted an air strike in Irpin, one of which was shot down. According to the National Police, starting from 5.03.2022, artillery shelling took place daily in the city. The Ukrainian Land Forces reported that russian troops began to lose the initiative in the offensive, suffering significant losses and stopping at “unfavourable lines.” Soldiers of the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade destroyed the occupiers who were trying to break through to Kyiv. As a result, the Ukrainian military pinned the invaders in a cauldron, continuing to push the enemy away from the Ukrainian capital. According to the local authorities, on March 28, Irpin and nearby towns were liberated from russian troops.

On March 24, 2022, by the Decree of the President of Ukraine to honour the heroism and resilience of citizens displayed during the repulsion of the armed aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine, Irpin was bestowed with the honorary award “Hero City of Ukraine”. Irpin paid a heavy price for not letting the enemy get to Kyiv, which preserved Ukrainian statehood. No other community in the Kyiv region has suffered such sorrow. Now Irpin has become a symbol of the destruction of Ukraine’s towns and cities.

After the liberation, evidence of numerous war crimes was in a nearby town Bucha, where russians committed unspeakable deeds to the civilian population, that didn´t manage to evacuate.

Damage assessment

As of 2 November 2023, UNESCO has verified damage to 327 sites since 24 February 2022 – 124 religious sites, 142 buildings of historical and/or artistic interest, 28 museums, 19 monuments, 13 libraries, and one Archive. (UNESCO, 2023) According to the Kyiv School of Economics, the Russian invasion has already caused at least $95.5bn in damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure as of the end of 2022. (Financial Times, 2022)

UNOSAT Damage Assessment Overview Map, 07.04.2022

Satellite Data: WorldView-3
Copyright: © 2022 Maxar
Source: US Department of State, Humanitarian Information Unit

UNOSAT overview map illustrates a satellite imagery-based Rapid Damage Building Assessment (RDBA) in Irpin. After the division of city map into 500m x 500m cells, each of them has been analyzed to determine whether there are damaged buildings inside. Based on images collected on 31 March 2022, analysts from UNITAR (United Nations Institute for
Training and Research) and UNOSAT (United Nations Sattelite Centre) found that 176 cells out of 246 sustained visible damage. This represents approximately 71% of the cells in the city.

The map above is an outcome of a comprehensive analysis of damaged and restored buildings in Irpin, combining data from different sources – previously mentioned UNOSAT in addition to the Bellingcat dataset and “Map of Recovery”, a project by “Anti-Corruption headquarters”.

Rebuilding efforts

After the liberation of the occupied territories, the authorities began the process of rebuilding the city, which involved the governments of ten countries, as well as architects, volunteers, businesses, and international organizations. (Nuzhnenko, 2023)

As visible on the map above, many buildings in the city centre have already been rebuilt, however, a lot more needs to be done to return the city to its former glow. Irpin City Council also won a €7.7 million grant from the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO). These funds will be used to reconstruct the city’s networks. The International Committee of the Red Cross is already helping to repair damaged heating, water supply and sewage networks.

The world-renowned American architectural firm Gensler is now developing a master plan for the Irpin community. In particular, Gensler specialists organized a large-scale survey of Irpin residents about their vision of the city’s development. On its basis, Gensler has already unveiled its understanding and vision of Irpin’s development as a “garden city with a smart heart.” This plan envisages that the environment and economic growth will be prioritized.

According to the founder of the Irpin Restoration Fund, restoration of living areas is possible thanks to the cooperation of the project “Irpin Reconstruction Summit“ and an Italian fund “Terre des Hommes Italy“, as well as IOM Ukraine and Platform UNITED 24 (initiative of the president). (Volodymyr Karpliuk, 2023)

Not only reconstruction itself, but the issue of dismantling destroyed buildings, proper environmental processing of construction waste and its further use in construction is extremely important during the reconstruction of the city. The UNDP, the Japanese government, and the Lithuanian Demolition Association are providing significant assistance in this regard. This is also a rather costly process.

Irpin´s most damaged residential areas

Hostomel highway and Bagirova street

As for the dismantling of private houses, the most active work is underway in the areas of Bagirova Street and Hostomel Highway. They are going to be rebuilt from scratch. This neighbourhood has suffered the most during the hostilities. (Fig. 5a) Further, I will focus on this neighbourhood.

The reconstruction started at the end of May 2023. (Baliukh, Rebuilding from 2023) It is being carried out under the program of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration and the Irpin City Council – reported the first deputy mayor of Irpin, Andriy Kravchuk (Afonina, 2023). This area will be rebuilt according to a single integrated project of the neighbourhood.

The Kyiv Regional Military Administration has allocated 60 million for this purpose.
Another UAH 140 million will be raised from the regional budget for the overhaul of the road on the Hostomel highway and the bridge. In addition, 15 million will be spent on design work and dismantling. The efforts of the state and regional budgets, as well as funds from Ukraine’s international partners, have been accumulated for these restoration processes. This is stated in the report of the Kyiv authorities with reference to the press service of the Kyiv Regional State Administration. In particular, at the request of the Kyiv City State Administration, the overhaul of apartment buildings No. 5-A, 7-A, 7-B, 22 and 24/1 on Hostomel Highway is currently underway. (3m2, 2023)

Neighborhood around Bagirova Street and Hostomel Highway before the war
Neighborhood after russian invasion

Challenges

Uncertainty

After the liberation of the northern Ukrainian territories in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv Oblast, the refugees started returning to their homes, in many cases, only to find them destroyed or damaged (UNHCR, 2022). In Irpin, 10 000 people have lost their homes. 85% of the original population already returned, which accounts for around 55 000 people. However, it is unclear, how many more will return and when. Or will they ever come back? Two years after the beginning of the full-scale invasion, people might have already centred their life around a new job in a different city or even country.

Moreover, as the fierce fighting continues along the whole frontline in the South and East of the country, there is a constant flow of new refugees, who are seeking shelter in more fortunate areas of Ukraine or again, abroad. Every unpredictable event or shift in the frontline can result in a new refugee wave like it was after the Kakhovka dam explosion. Often these events can not be foreseen or planned and the authorities have to deal with the new challenges as they appear, spontaneously. As of 06.02.2024, Irpin has become a shelter for 25000 refugees from the East – stated Ihor Klymenko, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine (Ukrinform, 2024)

People, who have lost their homes, often choose big cities like Kyiv, Lviv and Odesa as potential new homes. No wonder, as they can offer more job perspectives and better quality of life than remote rural areas. Irpin, which has always been “a town for commuters, who work in Kyiv” can be seen as an affordable and attractive destination. There is already an influx of people from the whole Kyiv region to Irpin. Several new housing estates are being built exclusively for them. (Baliukh, 2023)

Thus, not only there is a need to deal with the city´s own demografic fluctuations, but also to be ready for a sudden increase of refugees.

Collapsing economy

War drains Ukraine´s budget and destroys infrastructure. While the main priority – to ensure Ukraine´s survival as a state – still remains, no wonder that it is very difficult to find means for other goals. Approximately 100 billion$ are needed to repair the damage from russian strikes. According to the Ministry of Finance, Ukraine’s state budget deficit for 2023 reached 1.33 trillion UAH, which is 418.9 billion UAH more than in 2022. (Ukrainska Pravda, 2024)

Needs

Flexible and rapid restoration

Considering the challenges regarding demography, the need to be ready for different scenarios is apparent. Regarding restoration processes, time is a luxury, which Ukraine does not have. Decision-making and construction must happen quickly, but in a thoughtful way.

Participation

In a country that fights for its freedom, people develop a sharpened feeling for justice. They remember why the enemy started the war – to rob us of the freedom of choice, democracy and identity. Democracy and transparency in planning processes are lived through the concept of participation on different levels and throughout every development stage. There is an increased interest in participative approach within Ukrainian communities. (Lysenko, 2018, p113.) In addition, many renowned scholars agree, that citizen participation is an integral feature of sustainable development and despite all the efforts one has to invest, it has numerous advantages when compared to top-down planning.

I appreciate the decision of Gensler (an architecture firm, that is developing a new masterplan for Irpin) to include the citizens in the decision-making process. A vision of Irpin as “a garden city with a smart heart” was based on the questionaries´ results. One can only hope that the stakeholders keep the same mindset throughout the whole process.

Conflict

On the one hand, the need for rapid restoration is evident. There are not enough resources (time and money) for elaborate design by expensive architects or overcomplication of processes. Like after the Second World War, residential areas have to be (re)constructed quickly and en masse. In addition, we have to be ready for a sudden rise or a drop in the demand for housing and be able to change the plans quickly.

On the other hand, if we want more democratic and transparent planning processes, which also enhance social sustainability, to build back better in the long term, planners and authorities have to take the opinions of the citizens into consideration and include them in every step of the project. The citizen participation approach is known to be more time and effort-consuming than the top-down approach, requires more complicated logistics and thorough communication between the stakeholders.

These two requirements seem not to go hand in hand. A typical participation process consists of multiple meetings, brainstorming sessions, workshops and discussions. Planners would have to think of various solutions for the site, consult the citizens and face their criticism, revisit the designs multiple times and consult the citizens again. Sometimes it might feel like a never-ending process, which a country, torn by war and faced with uncertainty, simply can not afford. If only there was an instrument, that could accelerate at least a part of such a complicated process!

Typical vs innovative visualization instruments

Status quo

A toolkit of a participation process expert includes dozens of tools for every stage of the process. For example, at the beginning, tools like advertisements and newsletters help to spread information, questionaries and interviews are appropriate tools for collecting feedback, SWOT diagrams and mapping are helpful for decision making, while typical and most common informal instruments to exchange and visualize spatial ideas include 3D models, renderings, and animations. (Pasyuta et al., 2023)

Potential

During the process of rebuilding Irpin, everyone involved should understand that we are and will be coping with uncertainties and limited resources during and after the war. Keeping these objectives in mind, one quickly comes to an understanding that under current circumstances, typical 3D models and static masterplans are outdated and inappropriate tools for exchanging and visualizing ideas.

Thanks to technological progress, it is now possible to invent new tools, which can serve us, when time is scarce. Using dynamic models, which can change “on the fly“, compared to typical 3D models that have to be manually changed every time planners want to offer the citizens a different spatial solution, could save months of precious work.

Successful practices
A glimpse into KAISERSROT project:
The plots are positioned within the development site according to the buyer´s wishes
Fritz and Braach, Adaptive Architektur:
Development site comprises of individual plots withtheir unique settings
Digivo, Decoding Spaces:
A building block is being generated according to input parameters and contextual dependencies

Parametrization is gaining popularity in every branch of industry. Recently, there have been numerous attempts to transfer this methodology to architecture and urban planning. Famous are examples by Makoto Sei Watanabe, Procedural Inc./Esri with their CityEngine, and MVRDV, who developed the Regionmaker and the Functionmixer. Leonhard Schenk offers a nice overview of those tools in his book “Designing Cities“.

The CityEngine uses parameters to generate artificial cities, that resemble the real ones. For example, a building can be given the parameter for a specific style (classic or Jugendstil etc.). Its main focus is on aesthetics.

The research network KAISERSROT was founded in 2001 as part of the DFG research project Media-Experimental Design at the University of Kaiserslautern in cooperation with the Dutch office of Kees Christiaanse Architects and Planners (KCAP). This interactive tool visualizes housing developments with the help of AI. This is a perfect example of using innovative tools for participation purposes: The parameters of the planned lots reflect the desires of their prospective residents, like the expectations about the size and proportion, the location, and the landscaping of the given plots of land.

Generative Components from Bentley graphically presents both design components and the relationships between them. It is capable of making design intent explicit, instead of only generating an approximate geometry.

Similarly to KAISERSROT, Adaptive Aechitektur from Fritz and Braach allows to set the parameters of each lot individually, independently of the superordinate planning. The entire process takes only a few minutes, so the experts moderate solutions in meetings with involved stakeholders. (Schenk, 2023, pp. 311–315)

DiGiWo, Decoding Spaces is a Rhino-Grasshopper script for building volumes generation. It emerged as a result of research cooperation between the Bauhaus University Weimar, Decoding Spaces GbR and DIPLAN (today: REHUB digitale Planer) for the semi-automatic generation of residential multi-family buildings. A user can generate variations of either an urban block or a slab typology with only minimal required guidance.

A complex multitude of rules, dependencies and constraints is the foundation of all previously mentioned tools. Each of them has its unique focus and thus follows a slightly different logic. Some are algorithm-based, while others use trained AI models. Some visualize legal constraints on the real plots, while others regulate the imaginary site from an aesthetic point of view. It is impossible to tell, which one is the best. Their inputs and expected results depend on the specific purpose of utilization of such models.

Vision

Digital solutions already help researchers and planners from renowned establishments during planning processes. No wonder, digital innovations are such a hot topic and for a good reason – they are often less time-consuming than the traditional methods. Moreover, in a country with collapsing economy like Ukraine – where time and money are scarce, but demand for restoration is huge – it is important to explore the chances, that technological progress has to offer.

I did not intend to develop a static masterplan or design proposal for destroyed areas but rather try to create a parametric tool for easier imagination of different possible futures. A parametric model, which would help accelerate tiresome participation processes and which would enable stakeholders to better imagine possible options for the future development of urban areas. An instrument, that could be used for fast decision-making to help build back better our cities.

I set myself a goal to learn new software and develop a script, capable of generating multiple plausible spatial solutions by easily adjusting several parameters, which would stand for different tangible urban components, like building geometry and street components.

A tool that I imagine doesn´t intend to prescribe every single detail of urban space and impose the vision of the planners onto the communities. It should turn the professional knowledge of an architect or urban planner (knowledge that I gained during the years of studying) into a set of rules and limitations, which would be the basis for the script to generate controlled variety. As much as we want citizens to participate, it is important to understand that not every aspect of the built environment can be a subject of their desires. There are certain rules, building codes, that we just have to follow instead of deciding collectively. In addition, architects possess knowledge gained during long education and intuition about the matters of practicality, that comes from professional experience of observing successful examples of built structures. My vision is to embed this professional knowledge into a visual code so that it can generate many plausible solutions, from which the stakeholders then can choose. I intend to give the users freedom of choice but as a future planner, I want all the possible choices to make sense.

Watch a video tutorial and download Buildings & Streets Generator here

In the next article I also describe the logic behind my Buildings & Streets Generator (BSG).

As we proceed, let me show you now how I applied the newly developed generator to the context of Irpin.

Spatial Vision

Another important observation I made is that while I can replace manual modeling of urban fabric through a script, the location and shape of development areas should rely on a general vision for a given site. In other words, while urban fabric configuration code itself is generative and universal, development areas on which the buildings are to be located might be constrained by different barriers, strengths and weaknesses of a particular site, where the code is implemented. Thus, some kind of a vision and understanding of the site´s uniqueness is necessary to give an input for the script, because it´s not capable of creating such a vision by itself. My intention for the code is to make it reusable on any site. But a vision for every site must be unique and is a prerequisite for defining development areas, which are necessary inputs for the script.

Normally, during a bottom-up planning process, stakeholders develop a spatial vision together with the guidance of planners and local authorities. As I am not a part of this process, I can only imagine what the stakeholders might want based on the preliminary results of the survey, conducted by Gensler architects. Therefore, do not take my vision as a “face value”, but rather see it as a necessary step before distributing areas for development and implementing a script, which is a main part of my thesis. After all, even if the citizen´s vision is different from mine, remember that the script can be easily adjusted to another one by changing the simple input geometry.

From lifeless garage landscape to green oasis

Assuming that the current and potential residents of the given site share Gensler´s general vision for Irpin as a “garden city with a smart heart“ and value green spaces of high quality, it would be a sin not to recognise wasted potential that the area around the lake has. Before the war, it was covered by long slabs, consisting of garages. Their structure almost resembles row houses, but these are solely for cars. It might sound weird to you if you come from Western Europe, but in Ukraine, it is not uncommon to see this kind of boring and monofunctional landscape.

During the battle of Irpin, many of these garages were destroyed. To avoid the same mistakes in the future, I suggest demolishing the rest of them and using this space for better purposes instead – recreation and additional residential developments. I am reserving an area around the lake for a future park. No development areas should be distributed there. This idea would fit into a narrative of garden city.

Insights that I gain at this stage, will help me define the inputs for the script. So, what other factors are there to consider?

Making use of existing resources

In a collapsing economy, when money and resources are scarce, it is reasonable and sustainable to make use of existing infrastructure, that is already on site. For example, existing foundations of destroyed buildings might be reused in order to save precious materials and construction effort.

Similarly, I assume that the road network will remain the same with minor adjustments in line with the city´s plans. Notice, that the shape of road network will have an influence on typology that can fit into space between them. For example, the parallel roads are located pretty close to each other where garages used to be. This gives us a hint, that only low houses (row or detached typology) can be used in those areas.

Vision Map

Restoration scenarios

Experimenting with a final product has been the most exciting phase of this project. I have played around with hundreds possible options for my site of interest. With the help of the developed script it is possible to generate and visualize lots of them within minutes. Here are some of my favourite ones.

Cities should be dense in the interests of urban living and sustainability, but a blend of dwelling types should be aimed for at the district and block level. (Palsson, 20, pp. 176–177) You will notice that all of these scenarios include properties of different typologies and sizes, which is probably to result in a diverse, not segregated society. It is professional
doctrine that the grain of residence by class should be fine and blurred. If one looks for equity, for communication between groups, and the ability to cross barriers, then one is led to advocate a much finer grain of residence. (Lynch, 1987, pp. 265–267)

In all scenarios, the area around the lake has been left out from reconstruction and should be preserved for recreation purposes. In addition, I provided secondary streets with tree alleys.

Scenario A

In this scenario, the remaining foundations of destroyed buildings are being utilized in a most efficient way. Detached houses are being rebuilt exactly how they were before the war, while row houses are being distributed in place where garages used to be.
In order to utilize garage foundations, houses of small sizes and with a maximum height of two storeys had to be chosen, because the distances between garage rows are pretty small. A development area on the northern side of the district has been further subdivided, so that three blocks could be generated.

Scenario B

This scenario can accommodate the largest number of potential residents out of the three scenarios that are shown here. Even though I provided row houses with omissions now, the overall density and number of potential residents rises drastically because of the increased usage of block typology. Large blocks can generally be said to be denser because the proportion of road area to built-up area is smaller. Conversely, smaller block sizes help boost an area’s vibrancy and porosity. (Palsson, 20, pp. 174–175) This time I didn´t
subdivide development area in the north, which allows for a height of 8-15 storeys. I find this type of block (high and wide) very appealing and suitable for the site, because they offer high densities and FAR (floor area ratio) while keeping low to moderate BCR (building
coverage ratio). Considering the fact that Irpin residents value green areas and want to perceive their city as a “garden city“, low BCR should be preferred. The top priority of urban planning is to use land sparingly. Land is a limited resource that over the centuries
has been increasingly appropriated. This fact has affected the ecological balance. (Reicher, 2016, p. 52)

Scenario C

In this scenario I allocated typologies dependent on the street hierarchy, which is reasonable,
as wider roads are needed to satisfy higher densities. The development area on the intersection of secondary roads, like in every one of these scenarios, became a ground for blocks, while row houses are aligned with the tertiary streets, while tiny detached houses can be reached via one-way residential streets.

Which scenario is your favourite one? Can´t choose? Maybe it hasn´t been visualized yet. Go ahead and experiment with the tool for yourself.

Reflexion

I would have loved to say that the script, I have worked so hard on, is universal and applicable to any context and purpose. But, as always, there are a few “buts“, that the user has to be aware of before starting to work with it. After all, it is just a digital tool, which can reduce the amount of architect´s work significantly, but it is not a magic wand.

I shaped it with a very concrete goal in mind, so, by definition, it can´t be universal, even if it is parametric. Just like the other tools, described in an abstract about successful
practices, this one is unique and has its own limited target audience.

Parametric algorithms like this can be very useful not only for participation purposes, but also expand possibilities for academic community to conduct better science.

All in all, I hope, that you will enjoy experimenting with the script and that it can be useful to other Blender enthusiasts out there!

Categories
Article

A Right to Freedom and a Duty to Build Back Better

Cover: Volodymyr Ivanov, UNIAN 2023

This essay is an intellectual meditation about land use through the prism of current events. It originated as an assignment for my land use ethics course at RWTH Aachen with a dear Professor Benjamin Davy, who asked us, students, to write this meditation as something, which should come from our hearts.

“All those who are struggling for freedom today are ultimately fighting for beauty.”

― Albert Camus

A Right to Freedom

Since 24.02 my life changed forever, as the rockets flew on my beloved and peaceful homeland. Since then, unimaginable anxiety and hatred are spreading into every corner of my heart. It means if I am honest, that no such meditation is possible for me right now, which doesn’t include constant thoughts of the immense suffering of my people and the destruction of my favourite cities, which are burning to the ground, while my soul is trapped inside.

Now, what does it have to do with land use ethics, some may ask.

It all started with the imperialistic ambitions of one small man with a big ego, who looked at
Ukraine and had a simple thought: “It’s mine”. Needless to say, such a thought contradicts
completely the knowledge and desires of people, who are actually living on that land, no matter what exactly a small man really means by it. Did he think: “These are my cities, my houses, my hectares of the rich fields, my land with all of its useful resources”? Or did he rather mean: “These are my people; we are the same and thus must be united. Their language sounds like mine, we have a common cultural heritage”?

What is Ukraine? A piece of land with its resources or an old culture, language,
tradition? In fact, there are multiple signs, that putin recognizes both aspects. Seizing the first and eliminating the second is his goal. Three days before the war, russian television
broadcasted his two-hour speech, an appeal to his people, which looked more like a list of a
thousand reasons to invade Ukraine. There he explained similarities between russian and
Ukrainian people, promoted propaganda about the non-existence of Ukrainian nation as
such, told lies, that our people want to be “liberated” from the Nazis, NATO, the USA and
other imaginary enemies he invented to justify his war crimes. On the other hand, our country is valuable for the riches of its earth. For decades it has been called a “breadbasket” of the Soviet Union. And now, on the territories, annexed 9 years ago, the occupants mine for coal with no respect to the ecosystems and use it for their purposes. In 2022 they also started to massively cut out our ancient forests in the temporarily occupied regions in the North of Ukraine.

All of these arguments show that a simple piece of land has both a physical and a spiritual
aspect, just like Marylin Strathern stated in her Oxford Amnesty Lecture “Land: Intangible or Tangible Property?” Such a hypothesis leads the reader to another beautiful quote:

“To think about land rights at once enlarges and diminishes whatever we might wish to say about human rights”

― Marilyn Strathern

I not only understand it with my head but since recently feel it in my heart, that this sentence is completely true. As I started to think about our war through the prism of land use rights, I felt so right and so wrong at the same time. For example, if I deny putin his right to own Ukraine, even though we know that all land on earth should belong to all people, am I allowed to say “OUR forests”, “MY city”, “get out of MY beloved Ukraine”? Who gave me the right to such ownership? Is it right to welcome refugees from all over the world, while denying russian citizens entry? Is it right to kill for the sake of freedom? Is it right to ask NATO to intervene and protect our homes, while brave Ukrainian soldiers fight for freedom and other European values? Would it be ethical in regard to minorities in the East of Ukraine to deny them their wish to be a part of russia, because the majority wants to stay in Ukraine? My heart would rather answer “yes” to all of these questions, and as a result, I feel like in the light, or rather in the darkness of the current events, I am turning into a miserable monster myself, because such an answer leaves a trace of doubt and diminishes much of what I have to say about human rights. It diminishes my belief, that all people are the citizens of the world and should have unrestricted possibilities to move freely on the whole surface of our planet. It shatters my conviction, that the opinions of the
minorities have to be respected. It even devalues the most important Commandment
of God: “Do not kill”.

On the opposite side, the fearless fight for our land enlarges our belief in human rights to a
degree, that it becomes our essence. Brave Ukrainian people suddenly discovered in themselves an ability and even a duty to sacrifice their lives for the most sacred of all rights – freedom. They’d rather die as free people than live in a cage under russian rule. And under “russian rule” I don’t mean that there is something wrong with allowing peaceful russian people to come and settle here if they wish. With russian rule, I mean in particular their corrupt authorities, who humiliate the ideas of democracy, freedom of expression and every basic of human rights. I will not go into detail here. To describe all atrocities of the russian regime, one article would not be enough. Books have been written about it and most recently, the records of war crimes, committed during the last year can be found on the tables of the lawyers in Hague.

As an excuse to deny certain people rights to our land I can say, that it’s a common practice,
to isolate psychopaths, to imprison killers, to prevent criminals from doing even more harm.
In a civilized world, everyone agrees, that sometimes such means are necessary to protect the common good. Never forget, that Ukrainians are not only fighting for their land, but also for the common good and everything that we call “European values”, even though
such appropriation of values is very Eurocentric and shouldn’t be encouraged. We will not fall and we will not allow russian expansion into other peaceful countries. Nowadays we can feel great support even from so-called neutral countries, which can’t and shouldn’t stay silent while injustice is happening. In my opinion, those who shouted “Never again!” after WWII, have no moral right to stay silent, when it is happening again.

It is right to want to stop the aggressor at all costs. It is right, to not let them destroy our homes, lives and democracy, even if we have to use weapons for it. After all, we have never
stolen even a bit of their land, never killed their civilians, we’re merely protecting ours. This
thought and the fact, that the whole world supports us, gives me great strength and shows
that we are on the right path, even though our hands got dirty.

Sadly, but true, authoritarian regimes and the common people (who maybe have nothing at all to do with this war) tend to represent their country very disproportionately. Who has all
the power over important decisions – has the power over the land, including its people,
resources, even culture and truth. That’s how putin became russia and russia became putin.
People’s protests have little value, as they are being brutally silenced. After decades of oppression, they no longer have the ability to represent their country. The whole power is
concentrated in the hands of the few. If we believe in the rule of people, such madness
should not be allowed to spread into countries who not yet suffer from authoritarianism.

Building Back Better

Tragedies of today make me think about tomorrow. I understand that when I finish my studies, and gain professional experience, my abilities will be very valued in Ukraine as there
is much to be rebuilt.

So how do we build back better, for the people and environment? How can we avoid wars in the first place? How do we prevent one person from gaining too much power over the land and people?

“The patrimony of the poor man lies in the strength and dexterity of his hands; and to hinder him from employing his strength and dexterity in what manner he thinks proper without injury to his neighbor, is a plain violation of his most sacred property”

― Adam Smith

This quote is all about the empowerment of common people. Just give them the right space and tools to act depending on their best knowledge and abilities, adjust and simplify the policies accordingly – and they will work for the wellbeing of their nation, turning lifeless grey neighbourhoods into vibrant and diverse spaces for trade, creation, self-expression and
communication. Sharing ideas, broadening networks and bottom-up development have
always been important components of the free world. Empowered citizens, when they have all of their basic needs met and can live their life in dignity, are less likely to fall under the rule of oppression, than poor, miserable people, who are too busy looking for means to feed their families and don’t pay attention to what is happening on the political arena.

Adam Smith was a Scottish economist and moral philosopher, and his series of books “An
inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations” laid the foundation of classical economics and free trade. Not only did he recognize the working class as the main pillar of a nation’s well-being and stated the importance of them having decent wages and conditions, but he also rooted for establishing a strong local economy to secure stability. Nowadays we also know it to be an eco-friendlier solution in comparison to economies with long supply chains, even though modern free trade often undermines the vision of its founder.

In addition, in the third tome of this series of books, Smith harshly criticised those who act
purely out of self-interest and greed, encouraged his readers to act for the common good and strongly despised wars (in particular he used the fall of the Roman Empire as an
example), as something which “…interrupted the commerce between the towns and the
country. The towns were deserted, and the country was left uncultivated, and the western
provinces of Europe, which had enjoyed a considerable degree of opulence under the
Roman empire, sunk into the lowest state of poverty and barbarism.”

Another important point, that I want to emphasize, is governmental control. Adam Smith attacked most forms of government interference in the economic process, saying that they hinder economic prosperity and people’s freedom. Of course, some basic regulations must always be imposed to not turn our world into chaos, but the power of government should not be absolute. Yes, the books of Adam Smith are about the economy, but we can extend this idea to urban planning, too. In fact, many famous economists can’t touch on important subjects of commerce and rights without mentioning land use. And the other way round, no urban transformation can take place without the consideration of its economic and social aspects. So, in addition to Adam Smith’s teachings, let me draw attention to an icon of every good urbanist, who was obsessed with empowering common people – Jane Jacobs. She said: “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” She agreed, that when the citizens become designers of their neighbourhoods, embracing bottom-up initiatives, they also become masters of their
lives.

However, on the road to empowerment lies an important, uncomfortable, but unavoidable
milestone – contrition and realization of our own (previous) ignorance, incompetence and
covetousness.

A prominent economist, a fighter for social and environmental justice, animal welfare and
circular economy, Johann Heinrich von Thünen, once wrote:

“We have to be strong enough to unlearn what we know. Only then shall we be able to
recognize as true what entirely contradicts our own mistakes”

― Johann Heinrich von Thünen

In his book „The Isolated State in Relation to Agriculture and Political Economy“, he also harshly criticized “egoistic characters striving for splendour, honour and pleasure, without appreciation and respect for the higher man and without truth“, because of which “our civilisation [is going] down the road to self-immolation out of greed, out of stupidity and, above all, out of accident.”

Thinking of people belonging to the land, rather than thinking of land belonging to people is an ancient aboriginal concept, which we have to readopt. Fulfilling our duties to the next generations means treating land and its resources, animals, nature with respect. Ukrainians are spilling their blood to have another chance to be better at this. Can putin say the same?

Building back better for all requires rethinking our values, realizing our previous mistakes and even overturning some systems, which restrict people’s creative actions. Scientists and some politicians agree, that “business as usual’ makes it impossible to prevent further wars
and climate catastrophe. Tiresome and extensive work on all levels and in all fields is needed. To some, it may sound like an impossible task, because it would mean changing our own perception of the world and our lifestyle. These discussions are not new and have been happening for decades before the recent war. We had so many problems to solve and didn’t understand that we were just happy people. Now Ukrainians realize it better than ever – every problem can be solved, however difficult it is, when we have a peaceful sky over our heads. Working hard for the well-being of our land without having to constantly look out for falling rockets – what a blessing it would be! But we won’t go back to “business as usual”, we will work to create a future, where there is no place for inhumane catastrophes – no matter if they are of human or natural genesis. We will never be the same.

“Accepting the absurdity of everything around us is one step, a necessary experience: it should not become a dead end. It arouses a revolt that can become fruitful.”

― Albert Camus
Categories
Architecture and Urbanism Article

Sustainable Architecture

What is sustainability? There are so many definitions of it. Among others, in terms of architecture, it is an ability to face the challenges of the future, such as a rapidly growing population, globalization and digitalization, food and resources scarcity followed by poverty and refugee waves. Moreover, according to scientists, climate change will inevitably lead to more and more unpredictable nature catastrophes. We as planners should take it into account, always keeping in mind that neither of the three factors of sustainability (ecological, economic and social) can be neglected.


The architecture of tomorrow must offer or, if possible, even be the solution to some of the pressing problems. It should provide necessities, give possibilities, unite communities and, most important, – be able to change. After all, change is the only constant in our turbulent and insecure world.


Therefore, sustainable architecture is all about flexibility, modularity, inclusion and eco-friendliness, while sustainable urbanism means short distances, decentralization, safety, diversity and self-sufficiency. Only when we learn to be thoughtful about our planet and its finite resources, we can achieve a sustainable way of living. For example, before spreading further and further into the wild, destroying the natural habitat of animal species, we should focus on the renovation of the existing neighbourhoods and redevelopment of fallow and abandoned territories. Secondly, following the rules of the circular economy instead of perpetuating the wheel of consumerism and waste is crucial. Organic, recycled and recyclable, deconstructible and reusable building materials are the future. I am sure, someday, we will have to build our houses from waste we created over the centuries. In addition, every good urbanist has to make sure that natural cycles (such as the water cycle, sand cycle etc.) are not being seriously interrupted.


All in all, technological innovations in recent years have been very promising. Equipment for CO2-free energy generation, automated household utilities, modular vertical gardens, permeable paving stones, and even structures made out of fungus which can partially be a replacement for concrete already exist. Furthermore, architects would be happy to start testing and implementing such innovations en masse as soon as possible.
So why is the shift towards sustainability so slow?

This is a complex question with no simple answer. The disadvantage of innovations is that brand-new technologies have high investment costs. It means, they will become profitable, but only after many years of exploitation. This way it is rarely possible to make a lot of money very fast, it’s rather a long-term investment. At the same time, capitalistic system has treated nature as if its resources were infinite. It made it easy for companies to destroy habitats in the name of growth. The cheapest option is most often an unsustainable one, be it an energy source, a mode of transport or a building material. That’s why sometimes we, as consumers or experts, don’t have the power to choose the most sustainable option. In our world, who has money – has the power.

As you see, it does not only take urbanists to make a diverse society work in a way that is the least harmful to the environment and to future generations. It requires societal change, although political willingness is not there. It is important, that the decisions at every level of governance are made collectively and not only by those, who put profit higher than the common well-being. Subsequently, it is important to normalize the processes of participation and let the local community decide the fate of their neighborhoods themselves. Let people be the co-designers of neighbourhoods, which they know from the inside.

Needless to say, such a shift requires radical changes in a whole social system, beginning with politics and ending with our own perception. But who said it would be easy? The realities we are facing today are harsh and we can only go through them together, while leaving the stiffness of our own minds behind, opening up to new possibilities and forms of living, embracing change and caring for each other as well as for our planet.

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Article

Engineers Without Borders in Haiti

Around four years ago, I joined the university group “Engineers Without Borders – Karlsruhe Institute of Technology e.V.“. It is a non-profit organisation that carries out development cooperation in a wide range of areas worldwide. I became interested in the Beaumont – Haiti project because I wanted to help people suffering from natural disasters and political instability in one of the poorest countries in the world. We are relocating a school and an orphanage in a small mountain village called Beaumont. Due to the devastation caused by Hurricane Matthew and at the same time the construction of a new national road, directly in front of the old site, a new home for the pupils and orphans had to be built. With this decision, our Haitian-German partner organisation Pwojè Men Kontre turned to us about seven years ago. And so one thing led to another.

We create the basis for the reliable operation of the orphanage and the school by constructing safe buildings. We design, plan and realise the entire new site, using the skills we have acquired in our studies in a practical and sustainable way. With the resulting earthquake- and storm-proof buildings as well as the planned infrastructure, we are creating a home for orphans and a place for school children to learn.

We want to give children in Haiti perspectives that we all take for granted. But in Haiti, this does not only mean providing access to sufficient drinking water, the light at night and education as a foundation. Above all, it also means designing every building to be earthquake and hurricane-resistant. A principle for us to make sustainability possible in this country in the first place. This gives the next generation chances to receive a proper education. In the end, they will not only shape their own future but will also be able to actively develop the entire country.

From Germany, we plan, calculate and discuss multiple possibilities for designing buildings that are later realised by us in cooperation with the Haitians on site. Since the project came into being in 2014, a lot has been achieved – several classrooms, an orphanage, a canteen, a multifunctional assembly hall with a solar system, as well as a self-sufficient sewage system have been built.

I joined Engineers Without Borders in 2017 and have since designed buildings, water and sewage systems and drawn them in CAD while other association members have implemented them in Haiti. Recently, I also had the opportunity to participate in Construction Phase 9 and finally go to Haiti myself for six weeks. Our team, together with the Haitian workers, built a new classroom and started another one. I would like to share this progress with all of you because it means a lot to me!

Construction phase 9 was the first construction phase since 2019. At first, due to Covid-19, all travel plans worldwide were cancelled and we had to stop construction on site. But other political accidents and a 7.3 magnitude earthquake also shook Haiti recently, which kept delaying the ninth construction phase. Neither the team nor the board of the association could know for sure when and if it could take place at all. But all the circumstances were taken note of and the team studied the situation in the country in detail. Appropriate additional security measures were taken and finally, the travel team could set off!

Photo: EWB, David Clement

After our arrival, it was with a heavy heart that we noticed the traces of the earthquake that had hit the country in August: many houses are badly damaged or completely destroyed, broken infrastructure, such as buried roads, complicate land routes, building materials are missing or difficult to supply. Fortunately, all buildings constructed by EWB have remained intact except for minimal, statically irrelevant damage. The site visit of the orphanage and the school gave us goosebumps, as we realised more than before that our work to construct high-quality earthquake-resistant buildings is not in vain.

In the 9th construction phase, we set out to build two more classrooms. This was an ambitious goal, especially considering that most of us had never been to Haiti before and had hardly any construction site experience. But we were confident, motivated and excited to finally continue this important work.

In the first two weeks, we quickly learned how to use a wide variety of tools properly: Saws, drills, demolition hammers and vibratory plates were used daily on the construction site. We learned and mastered important techniques of timber construction. In the same way, our processes, such as the tying of the reinforcement cages, became faster and more precise. But as on any construction site, we were constantly confronted with challenges. Due to the lack of fuel, our first concreting session was briefly on the brink of failure – without fuel for the vibratory plate and concrete mixer, the trenches for the foundation could neither be levelled nor the foundation concreted. But help came just in time from Hugo, our partner and building material supplier, who got us 3 gallons of petrol.

Left: Vibratory plate in action
Right: Reinforcement cages are ready

We started the first big concreting session with a lot of joy and of course a healthy portion of excitement before the exhausting day. In the blazing sun, we first started with three concrete mixers at the same time: 4 buckets of gravel, 2 buckets of sand, 1 bag of cement, water in – concrete out, continuously without interruption. But as it had to happen, not everything went according to plan: one hour after the start of the concreting, the first concrete mixer stops working due to a broken joint. Half an hour later, the V-belt of the second concrete mixer breaks and at about the same time the workers start to strike. But after negotiations with the workers and a few phone calls to get a V-belt at short notice, the concreting could still be completed well thanks to combined efforts.

The further concreting of the plinth, the floor slab and the second foundation went smoothly with our practised team and good preparation.

Photo: EWB, David Clement

On our days off, we enjoyed the beautiful landscape and the warm hospitality of the Haitians and were able to recover from the strenuous work. Of course, the programme also included visiting the destinations of the surrounding area: be it the dark caves in the valley or the mountains to enjoy the breathtaking views. With luck and good weather, you can even see the Caribbean Sea in the distance from there. Haiti’s nature is extraordinary and fascinating to the European eye. Palm trees and lianas, flowers of different sizes and shapes, as well as large colourful butterflies, giant spiders, tropical frogs, snakes, hummingbirds and multi-coloured lizards will remain in our memories for a long time.

Photo: EWB, David Clement
Photo: EWB, Tanja Zuppé

Over time, the language barrier and different cultural backgrounds were no longer an obstacle to having a beer with Valleur (director of the orphanage) in the evening or playing board games and learning new dance moves with the girls at Nan Ginen orphanage. We also built a good relationship with the workers who accompanied us on our trips. From time to time they brought us boxes, full of passion fruit, guavas, coconuts and oranges, which was just what we needed after the exhausting days on the construction site.

The last week on the construction site was very productive, but not easy. Unlike previous construction phases, some of which were months long and involved several teams taking turns and continuing each other’s work, this construction phase consisted of only one team that had to build the classroom from start to finish. We were aware that there is still a lot to do to finish the building before we had to leave. The classrooms are very much needed here right now. The number of pupils is increasing, so at the moment classes are even being held in the dining area of the canteen. Also, two classes are always studying in the auditorium at the same time, which is not an optimal solution because of the noise pendulum. That’s why we started the final week full of energy.

After the classroom walls were braced together, they had to be covered with wooden slats. From the outside, the load-bearing components are not visible, but from the inside, the truss is open and will soon be used as shelves by the teachers and schoolchildren. The roof trusses were almost entirely completed by our Haitian helpers Stanley and Jean Vanex and erected on the roof. These had to be braced, which is essential for the load-bearing capacity of the roof truss. Meanwhile, Stanley and Vanex are good at working with wood, which is rare for Haitian workers. We have done some training with them on how to use different saws and other tools used in woodworking and have gone through all the roof truss plans together in detail. Our Haitian friends did the new tasks with a lot of interest and motivation – slowly and unsteadily at first, but with time more and more quickly and accurately until all the roof trusses were in place and fastened.

Here in sunny Haiti, German traditions have not been forgotten either: after the completion of the wooden construction, we celebrated a small topping-out ceremony with some good Haitian rum. It was breathtaking to watch the first sunset from the freshly built roof because the view from up there is just insane!

Now the battens and the sheet metal had to be attached to the roof. But again, things did not go according to plan: there were heavy thunderstorms and showers for two days.

Working on the slippery sheet metal in this weather was dangerous. Longingly, the team waited for the sun – and then it came. Again, there were days of nailing and screwing on the construction site, the house took its final shape. After the shutters and the door are mounted and the screed is poured, the building can be used.

Even during the rain, we had no time to be lazy. Some repairs in the showers of the girls’ dormitory were done, the tool container was tidied up and the available material for the next teams was carefully counted. Additional training on the maintenance of the PAUL water filter, as well as on the maintenance of the batteries of the photovoltaic system were conducted with the caretakers of the school to ensure the longevity of the electricity and freshwater supply.

The bricks for the second classroom were prepared. The construction management of the building of this classroom will be taken over by our local friends, Stanley and Jean Vanex, after our departure.

Shortly before our departure, we were invited by Valleur to church and then to dinner, where we could experience Haitian Catholic traditions. While in Europe during Catholic masses it is being melancholically preached about our sins, here the atmosphere is much more cheerful, with singing that can easily be mistaken for relaxing beach music if you don’t understand the lyrics. After mass, we had the opportunity to meet Bishop Joseph Gontran Decoste. He told us a lot about his trips to Germany, about how the beauty of the Cologne Cathedral impressed him and about the cooperation with German Catholic associations that have been supporting Haiti for 60 years. He was very interested in our work and even invited us to visit Les Cayes. The exchange with this nice and grounded man was very interesting and inspiring – we are envious of the next travel teams that will be able to take up his offer.

It was with heavy hearts and not without tears that we said goodbye to the orphans. During the time we lived in the Nan Ginen orphanage, we got very used to them. Even though we could only communicate with gestures, it was so much fun to play and dance together in the evenings, to listen to them sing. Dancing and smiling are international languages, yet we regretted several times that we didn’t learn Creole better before the trip so that we could have deeper conversations.

Suddenly the day of departure arrived – six weeks have flown by. Our suitcases are full of Bernardette’s (our cook) homemade jam and our hearts are filled with pride for what we have achieved and with the most beautiful sunny memories that will warm us all winter in cold rainy Germany.

Photogallery

Categories
Article

Stop Nord Stream 2!

The Nord Stream, also known as the Baltic Sea Pipeline, is a system of underwater gas pipelines that run from Russia to Germany. The first two strands of the pipeline (Nord Stream 1) were built in November 2011 and run from Vyborg to Lubmin near Greifswald.

The subsequent, similar Nord Stream 2 project also consists of two tubes and runs roughly parallel in terms of geography. The laying work on the first strand was completed on June 4, 2021. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is to transport 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year from Russia to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania through the Baltic Sea.

Nord Stream 1 is owned and operated by Nord Stream AG, whose shares are owned by Gazprom (51%), E.ON (now Uniper), Wintershall (both Germany), Gasunie, OMV (Austria) and Engie (France; previously GDF SUEZ SA). Nord Stream 2 is owned by Nord Stream 2 AG, which is wholly owned by the Russian Gazprom group.

If the entire life cycle emissions are taken into account, the carbon footprint at high leakage rates during extraction or transport is roughly the same as that of coal.

Inefficient and unecological

However, according to the German Institute for Economic Research, an additional line to secure the natural gas supply in Germany and Europe is unnecessary and economically unprofitable. There is no short-term or long-term coverage gap for gas. The existing gas infrastructure covers current and future needs.

Samuel Bailey

Rather, Nord Stream 2 threatens to start dangerous lock-in effects that will delay the expansion of renewable energies. Gas as a climate-friendly bridging technology is a myth. The opposite is the case. Due to the methane emissions during extraction, transport and use, natural gas is a climate killer, just like coal. Natural gas consists of almost 100% methane (CH4), which is a potent and aggressive greenhouse gas with a global warming potential that is more than 100 times stronger than that of CO2. If the entire life cycle emissions are taken into account, the carbon footprint at high leakage rates during extraction or transport is roughly the same as that of coal. Considering the already advanced accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the expansion of new gas infrastructure can, in the worst case, accelerate the reaching of tipping points in the climate system, which clearly contradicts the EU’s climate targets. The obligations from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement clearly mean that no fossil fuel infrastructure – and therefore no natural gas infrastructure either – may be built. We have to get out of fossil fuels by 2050 at the latest, but the new gas terminal will not be ready until 2025 at the earliest. That will never pay for itself. Instead of investing billions of euros into backwards-looking technology, Germany should finance sustainable and environmentally friendly projects.

Great damage to marine ecosystems

Nature conservation organizations in Europe are concerned – if the project is implemented, Germany will no longer be able to achieve the goals set in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Germany’s broken commitments will have disastrous consequences for the environment and the first signs of it are already being felt.

The problem of contamination by leakage was already known from the first Nord Stream project. Even then, the fire brigade had to clean beaches from black poisonous grease. At the moment, Nord Stream 2 appears to have hoped to cover up similar incidents. According to the state environment ministry, the pipeline builder had found irregularities in a dredger that could lead to grease contamination. This was not reported to the responsible authorities but concealed. In addition, highly toxic chemicals are being used in the construction of the pipeline, which are harmful to human and marine animal health.

Since 2018, when the project started, the German Nature Conservation Association has been evaluating it critically. The route through five marine natural reserves leads to irreparable damage to the sensitive marine environment of the Baltic Sea. Typical habitats are endangered or have already completely disappeared – and without a real need, because in Germany there is no short- or long-term coverage gap for gas.

The battle with coal is not over yet – but we are already facing the next climate killer. Governments need to understand – we need action, not words. We demand Germany’s immediate withdrawal from the Nord Stream 2 project and instead more investment in sustainable projects.Stream 2 und stattdessen mehr Investition in die zukunftsfähigen Projekte.

Lobbying powers

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is not only an extremely polluting project, it is also an example of the close relationship between the federal government and lobbyists in the natural gas industry.

A study by LobbyControl and Corporate Europe Observatory shows how the federal government regularly asserts the interests of corporations. For example, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy has negotiated behind closed doors with the gas industry that natural gas should play an important role as a transition technology to renewable energy sources. When calculating the gas demand, the overestimated figures from Nord Stream 2 were used instead of the research commissioned by the federal government.

Germany supports Nord Stream 2 because Gazprom has excellent connections with the highest political circles. One of the prominent examples is former Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who is both chairman of the shareholders’ committee of Nord Stream AG and chairman of the supervisory board of the Russian oil company Rosneft. Another case is Marion Scheller. The former head of the energy policy division at BMWi became the chief lobbyist at Nord Stream in September 2016.

So-called “dialogue process” Gas 2030, which was organized by the German Energy Agency Dena, took place completely behind closed doors in the first few months away. The meetings of corporate lobbyists and officials took place; not even the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety was invited. The independent study carried out on behalf of the Federal Environment Agency was not included in the dialogue process because it came to the conclusion that if the climate targets are met, gas demand will decrease. In addition, the “blue hydrogen” produced from fossil natural gas is described in the report of the dialogue process as CO2-neutral and recommended for use, including the risky CO2 capture and storage.

In my opinion, in the time of the climate crisis, we have an obligation to deal with such issues. The choices we make today will directly affect the future of our children. It is our responsibility to demand from politicians that such nature-destroying projects stop immediately! More decision-making power for scientists and people, less for lobbyists!

Sources
DIW Kurzgutachten Bedarfsentwicklung Erdgas Nord Stream 2
Scientists for Future Diskussionsbeiträge Erdgas-Infrastruktur: Brückentechnologie oder Risiko
DUH Genehmigungs-Krimi NordStream2
Howarth 2016 methane emissions summary (englisch)
Lobbycontrol Studie Wirtschaftsrat Klimabremser
Studie deutsche Ratsprasidentschaft Industrie in der Hauptrolle
Tagesspiegel Erdgasinfrastruktur
The great gas lock (englisch)
Umwelt Bundesamt Treibhausgas-Emissionen

Cover: Ulrich Baumgarten, Getty Images

Categories
Travel

The Khmer Heritage

Night. Heat. Overwhelmed with pleasant excitement, I pull my suitcase through the crowded streets of Bangkok towards the bus agency, because I know – the next dawn I will meet in a new for me, interesting and mysterious Cambodia. While I’m waiting for the bus, I notice a group of young people who seem to have just finished school. From their accents it was clear that they came here from around the world. It didn’t take much effort for me to approach them and get acquainted – traveling alone, you involuntarily start to sail along incredible currents, meeting interesting and so different people on the way. We talked for a long time and played various games until our bus arrived. And how cool it was! The seats are wide, comfortable, with folding backs, where you could sleep – such transport is very common in Asia. A few hours passed unnoticed, it began to dawn, and here we are on the border of two countries. We were taken off the bus because we had to cross the border on foot. After a series of different procedures and paperwork, I finally set foot on Cambodian soil.

What I saw surprised me a lot. The border area itself was like a crowded bazaar – traders shouted prices from behind the counters under the buildings of hotels and casinos, while travelers were trying to find their vehicles. Poverty, hunger and hopelessness immediately caught my eye. Homeless people sat on the roadsides, begging for alms, and exhausted, dirty women with babies in their arms wandered among the crowd. And there were so many of them that I felt helpless and insignificant, because even after feeding one poor man, I realized that I could not help hundreds of others.

When I found my bus and perched comfortably again, I just thought about how lucky I was to be born in a prosperous country, to have a roof over my head, food every day, not to mention hygiene products.

We moved on and soon arrived in Siam Reap, where I spent three busy days. The reason for this trip was my dream to see Angkor – the ancient capital of the Khmer Empire, the ruins of which are located near this city. But I will tell you about it later.

So, saying goodbye to my new acquaintances, I went to meet my host, whom I found on the Couchsurfing site. I arrived at my destination – a primary school, located quite far from the city center. No tourists could be seen here, so I, a blonde with a European appearance and a blue suitcase, was very different from the locals. I waited for my host for more than an hour, so I had time to watch people, and I noticed one very strange thing: all the women who saw me were happy and smiling, the children waved merrily at me, while the men frowned, looking furiously. I still do not understand what caused such a reaction. (If anyone has any guesses or explanations – please share them in the comments!)

At the school behind me, a bell rang announcing the end of lessons, and a noisy crowd of children, about 8-10 years old, poured into the yard. I couldn’t believe my eyes, but most of them got on their scooters and drove home confidently. I was shocked! Little kids. On scooters.

After two hours, I got tired of waiting for a host who didn’t even respond to my messages, so I quickly found a hostel on the Internet in the heart of the city with a pool and round-the-clock parties for only $3 a night. But, what a pity! I was so far from the center, and public transport was nowhere to be seen. Fortunately, I came across a tuk-tuk on the way, so I didn’t have to walk three kilometers on the hot asphalt under the tropical sun. The driver drove me to the doorstep of the hostel, where I heard loud music and laughter. Fortunately, there was a free bed for me in a room with 19 people. After a grueling road, I just dreamed of a pool! So before going to the city, I had a good rest, swam, getting acquainted with many cheerful young people from all over the world, who also stayed here. As you can see, traveling alone does not mean being lonely.

I was anxious to see the city, so without delay, I went for a walk. Despite the fact that Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world, it was a great pleasure to walk its streets. Yes, the roads and sidewalks were bumpy, the houses were not in the best condition, the knots of power lines on the many poles looked unsightly, but there was so much different greenery that it gave the city a special charm. I have never seen such colorful flowers of different shapes and sizes, so I felt like in a paradise garden. Additionally, Buddhist and Hindu temples with their golden domes and ornaments only intensified this feeling. Even now, as I write this article, I am overwhelmed with emotions that I unfortunately cannot describe. I remember the monks in their orange robes resting in the courtyard of the temple in the shade of flowering trees. Stray dogs and cats perched peacefully beside them, and kittens jumped on the trees. It was very touching – the doors of the temple are open to all living creatures. Personally, I brought from there as much peace of mind and tranquility as even the sea has never given me. By the way, how many kittens can you see in this photo?

In the evening, the streets of Siam come to life. Bars and cafes are filled with people – locals and tourists. If you come to this city and want to have fun – I advise you to visit the famous Pub Street. Don’t be surprised if taxi drivers offer you to buy drugs from them – they try to make money on tourists in various ways, but keep in mind – Cambodian laws strictly prohibit the sale and use of drugs.

Having walked a lot, I returned to the hostel. After a little chat and a swim in the pool, I went to bed early, because the next day I had a long and busy program. Although I really enjoyed living in a hostel with young people and non-stop parties, staying up until the morning was not my priority, because I came to see the cultural heritage.

Dear readers, if there are girls among you who also love or intend to travel alone, then I want to warn you to be careful. There will always be many men in a hostel, cafe or at the party who will try to get you drunk and ready for sex, maybe even offer you to marry them. Never forget that you, your physical and mental health, your desires or unwillingness are the highest priority. Do not succumb to such provocations just because “they want something, and you are uncomfortable to refuse.” Be able to say no, walk away from the unwanted companion and stand up for yourself.

So, finally the morning came. The long-awaited trip. It was three o’clock in the morning, but thousands of tourists had already gathered under the walls of Angkor. I was not surprised, after all this is the former capital of the Khmer Empire, the largest city of its time. Two thousand years ago, these areas were already densely populated and technically developed. The whole complex covers an area of ​​about 200 km2 and is marked by the geometric structure of the plan and the harmony of the composition. In total, there are about 100 multi-storey palaces and temples, built without cement or other binding materials. The stone blocks are connected by the principle of a lock. Numerous towers, decorated with inscriptions and masterful carvings will not leave visitors, accustomed to European architecture and art, indifferent.

This is not the end of my acquaintance with the culture of Cambodia. Following my tradition, I found a theater here, which was a grand performance about the history of this region. The variety of colorful costumes, masks and decorations, as well as the number and skill of the actors were breathtaking. But the events they brought to life on stage were sad. Many upheavals, wars and crises were experienced by the Cambodian people: the strong and unique Khmer kingdom became a vassal of the Siamese Empire due to endless class strife and invasion. This was followed by French colonization, Khmer Rouge terror, genocide, armed conflict, poverty, and devastation. The consequences of these events still continue to negatively affect the country’s economy and social order.

And again, I realized that we actually have so much and don’t appreciate it. We quarrel, trying to find flaws in everything. But in fact, daily food and the availability of an apartment, clean tap water, the opportunity to study – these are the reasons for the great joy. I know this is hard to believe, but without exaggeration, billions of people in our world do not have such privileges. And those who even have a peaceful sky over their heads and a stable situation in the country – won the jackpot in the lottery called life.

Categories
Project

Primary School

Location: Bad Mergentheim, Germany
Team: Iryna Vakulyk, Sebastian Nitka

Bad Mergentheim is located in the northeast of Baden-Württemberg, centrally in the Taubertal at the confluence of the Tauber and Wachbach rivers, in the Heilbronn-Franconia region. The city offers a wide variety of educational opportunities and, as a medium-sized center, therefore has an important function in the field of education.

Building Concept
Campus Concept

With the new construction of the 3.5-class elementary school, the “Auenland” education campus will be more powerful and efficient. It will give the children of the adjacent existing residential areas and the future residential areas to the east and north of the school location the short ways to school, as well as the option to approach all educational qualifications according to their talents and abilities.

Ground floor plan
First floor plan
Second floor plan

The new 3,5-grade elementary school in a small town Bad Mergentheim including a possible future extension with a cafeteria and additional rooms for all-day care is to be situated between existing kindergarten and secondary school in a mainly living area. It should serve as an urban orientation point and identification point for the neighborhood. Due to the location of the planning site and the structure of the building, the connecting axis between the school buildings will become the central point of the school campus. The aim of the competition is to develop a primary school that uses the existing premises such sports halls and outdoor sports fields initially in synergy and meets the requirements of a future-oriented, modern educational establishment, where children from 1 to 4 grade have access to high-quality, light and spacious classrooms, as well as smaller group workrooms and break areas with possibilities to exercise.

Section A-A
Section B-B
North facade
East facade
South facade
West facade

The main entrance is on the northern side where the car park and the bus stop are located. Behind a simple but clearly perceptible two-storey portal, a spacious and representative foyer opens up, from where school facilities such as library, gym as well as teacher’s area can be reached. In the middle you find a grandeur, spacious staircase which leads to the classrooms in the first and the second floors. This staircase fulfills a function of a common break area and consists partially of a climbing wall, where pupils from all grades can play and develop their physical abilities. In addition, benches for sitting are also integrated into the staircase. Each floor (except for ground floor) has two smaller multifunctional areas, which are accordingly assigned to each grade. They can be used both for free time or learning in small groups. From there pupils have access to the loggias, which when needed can be used as emergency exits.

Energy concept
Ventilation concept

The new primary school is made of regional and low-CO2 building materials such as perforated bricks. The playground roofing is made of colored solar glass, which on the one hand touches the surroundings with pleasant colourful shades and on the other hand ensure the solar profits. The flexible floor plans offer the possibility of possible usage change to office units in the future. Durable and easily joinable materials, used economically, support the idea of sustainability. Although the school is equipped with a cooling system, it is possible to achieve pleasant room temperature without it. The doors and windows are provided with special slits for night ventilation. Massive building components are naturally cooled and the warm air will go out through the dormer windows, letting the cool air in.

Facade section
Categories
Project

Trees’n’Peace (Part 1)

Location: Chungcheongnam-Province, South Korea
Educational institution: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

The aim of this project is to design a new multi-functional administrative city in South Korea. The main objective is to obtain outstanding and innovative urban design and planning concept to present a driverless city as a 21st century urban paradigm for a new future city. It should be able to face and offer solutions to such important problems as climate change, centralization and “education fever” – the largest social problem of Korean society. Naturally, a mixture of multi-functions in the field of new knowledge industries, education, R & D, IT services, and global exchanges is crucial to the success of the New City as well as to realize the innovative synergic effect between the public and private sectors.

Masterplan

It is assumed that automated vehicles and car sharing will drastically reduce the number of private cars and traffic jams accordingly. The outdated and harmful idea of possession a car will not be promoted, that’s why I designed this city to be free from on-surface long-term parking lots. Instead, there will be multi-storey garages withing 5 minutes walking distance from every corner of the city. They will offer parking spots for automated shared vehicles while they are not in use, as well as for many visitors of this new spectacular city. For the citizens who still have private cars, underground parkings in their houses and at work should be sufficient.
Even the most remote neighborhood is well-connected to the city centre due to partially automated public transportation system. The new city is designed to be built mainly on the flattened land on the both sides of the river, leaving the three mountain peaks almost untouched. They will be used as hiking spots, promoting healthy way of living and connection to nature.
There are three bridges across the river which connect the both sides of the city. The middle bridge is a part of car-free city centre and the other two are large multifunctional platforms where public occasions such as concerts, exhibitions etc. take place.

Land use/Circulation
Density/Open space
Section: Primary road
Section: Secondary road

Overcoming “education fever” citizens and world visitors will rejoice and respect diverse lifestyles, with an affection of such human values as democracy, spontaneity, autonomy, freedom, creativity, imaginativeness, nomadic spirits and meaningful human contacts. Not only educational institutes and research institutes of various levels, but also art schools and conservatories will be accommodated, so that everyone can feel needed and included and find something special to him/herself.
Non-polluting industries equipped with innovative technology in the New City will provide source of new employment.

The city of short distances consists of many various self-sufficient neighborhoods, each of them with their own administrative communities, educational, commercial and high-quality green recreational areas.

Mostly car-free city centre will accommodate government ministries and other government agencies as well as many other state-run organizations. Convention center, international organizations, and cultural facilities (exhibition halls, performance centers, art galleries, etc.) will complement the main administrative function of the city. Multifunctional open spaces, green alleys and high amount of green facades are important characteristics of high-density city centre. On this 3D model you can see so called “urban jungle” – new kind of a mixed use block which consists of a common ground floor, used for commercial purposes, and a few “towers”, some of which are residential while the others contain bureaus. Members of each block decide themselves how they want to use the public roof of the ground floor.

Neighborhoods in European style, inspired by the structure of wonderful city Barcelona, are close to downtown areas with a high plot ratio. Blocks with three to six storey houses have common green yards in the middle and ground floor is used for commercial purposes, attracting visitors from adjacent neighborhoods and tourists from afar.

Slightly remote areas with a low plot ratio will be perfect for families, who would like to take a rest from the city hustle. This neighborhood is similar to the previous one, except here every household has a possibility to have their private gardens inside the block.

Terraced houses with a low plot ratio are located around the mountain except its northern side. Small private gardens and wilderness of the mountain is something you rarely find in the cities nowadays.

Remote and peaceful area with a very low plot ratio looks rather like a village. One to three storey detached houses with spacious gardens will probably attract elderly citizens. Adjacent agricultural fields will be a main source of food for the whole city.

Categories
Project

Oceanographic Institute

Location: Triest, Italy
Educational Institution: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

The Oceanographic Institute Triest is a marine science institute and forms together with the Acquario Marino della Città di Trieste a lighthouse for education and research. An institute building is to be created on the special location on the pier which is a prominent place in the city that connects the old town, port and industrial area.

In addition to observation of the Mediterranean Sea, the research of overarching relationships and changes in the world’s oceans is taking place here. With its heterogeneous program it offers besides the specific research rooms and laboratories also areas for open discourse and education. In addition to the institutional uses, there is a plausible public part with a café and exhibition space. Moreover, educational, commercial and public uses are not clearly separated in the building, which means the visitors can take a look at some of the institute facilities in order to become inspired by science. In addition to the public orientation, the purpose of the house is to become a meeting place in which culture and research are lived and where the pressing problems such as climate change, sea level rise and species extinction can get attention of the public.

Urban context
Floor plans

From the foyer with an information stand you can enter the exhibition area. The cafe is located on the northwest side, where you can enjoy a wonderful view. Cavitation channel is integrated into the exhibition.

There are two access cores between which an atrium spans. It has a different, special character on each floor. The cavitation channel can be seen from the 1st floor. There is also a reading room with a small library, a study room where you can see the laboratories and where two more water basins are located. The 3rd floor is completely private with its laboratories, workshops and a conference room in the middle. A table is organized around an opening in the ceiling.

South-East facade
North-East facade
North-West facade
South-West facade

Section A-A
Section B-B

Oceanographic institute and the neighboring Acquario Marino della Città di Trieste will become a striking ensemble at the port of Triest. At the end of the pier there is a movable filter that cleans the harbor water from garbage and industrial oil stains before it flows into the open sea.

Axonometry
Facade section

Moreover, the institute’s adjustable shading slats are made of recycled plastic waste, which has been removed from the sea. Solar panels are attached to the roof and they can almost entirely cover the electricity usage of the institute. This way, I wanted this building to become a manifestation of how architecture and planning can help in solving the ecological problems, which Triest is facing.

Lamella manufacturing