Minutes from first group meeting (December 3rd)

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3/12/08 Group 3 minutes

Attending: Claudia Houck, Jörg Kappler, Markus Peter, Paul Wilson

Brief introduction

Each participant provided a brief introduction to their case study and responded to questions to help identify cross-cutting-themes and core questions.

Jörg Kappler

- Karlsruhe, East Germany – open space

- Lack of funding is primary problem with project

- Will discuss reasons why the project doesn’t work

- Sponsors, planning authority, architects – which part can we as landscape architects influence?

- Supposed to have been a gardening exposition in 2015 but now not sure when funding will be available

- How large is area? Several hectares

- Rebuilt former castle and slaughterhouse – very different structures, need to find connection between them within same space – find central theme

- Castle – was built before Karlsruhe was established, but destroyed several times including during WWII, rebuilt in 1970’s so actually younger than slaughterhouse

Paul Wilson

- Lincoln / NZ planning for expansions

- Settlement based on grid

- Policy changes affected the structure of the township

- Adjacent to University, which impacted how it developed also

- Water – half of township is on former lake edge, very wet area

- Land ownership – University owns large area of “drier patch”

- How did joining the UK change the development? Markets were lost overnight. NZ had strong trade basis for meat (especially lamb) and this market was lost when they joined UK

- How many people live there and who is involved in planning process? 2,700 residents, not including University (4000-5000) and research facilities (300-400). Landowners, public, environmental agencies, education groups, health and welfare all involved in process

- Formal participatory design process? Generic process under 2002 local government acts – councils must produce community outcomes and plans. Issues addressed through structured planning sessions.

Markus Peter

- Green belt Schweinfurt

- Structures/fortifications filled and destroyed because of development of war equipment

- Walls and ditches filled, department stores and other buildings built there

- Idea: make greenbelt around fort

- Rhein River – large, major river in Germany

- Project goal – to improve living conditions in city

- 1988 started project, one area completed in 2009, the others projected to finish much later

- Tourism? Not a strong component of Schweinfurt at this time, although there is a very important painter of the Romantic period from there – Carl Spitzweg, this could be used to build tourism

- Norman fortifications? Possibly just a copy of the Norman style, structure was for military defense

- Industry (garages, etc) will be relocated, but this is a long-term process

Claudia Houck

- Studying connectivity around the river Lagan in Belfast, Northern Ireland, from the standpoint of visual connection as well as physical connection of amenities, greenspaces, city centre, etc.

- Really more about revealing networks, rather than connecting individual points

- Pedestrian connectivity and public space use important

- Revealing layers of history

- Much of the space along the river is now privately owned – regaining public space as corridor along river is an objective

- Framework:

- Overall connections / networks

- Separate objectives within this framework: history, environmental, recreational, functional, etc.

Collecting and clustering core themes