LANDSCAPE OF THE EVERYDAY - Hochschule Anhalt

LANDSCAPE OF THE EVERYDAY
------Concept of City Herford 2020
Xuefeng Zhang
A thesis submission
Master of Landscape Architecture Program (MLA)
Hochschule Anhalt April 2005
Tutors:
Prof. Erich Buhmann
Prof. Dr. Dieter Hassenpflug
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Acknowledgments
The thesis behind this booklet was first formulated in the master course directed by
Prof. Erich Buhmann and in the project in IFEU directed by Prof. Dr. Dieter
Hassenpflug, for having instilled in me a calmness and self-confidence which,
without them, I wouldn't have found. Thank also goes to Prof. Dr. Carl Steinitz and
Prof. Dr. James Palmer, who helped me to resolve certain difficulties of the moment
and to acquire a certain rigor. At last, I thank all the Professors and teachers who
once taught me in my master course. They really gave me much powerful help.
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Declaration of Authorship
I certify that the material in this Master Thesis is my own work and does not contain
unacknowledged work of others
1. Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly
attributed.
2. Where I have quoted the work of others, the source is always given. With the
exception of such quotations, the work of this thesis is entirely my own.
3. This dissertation has not been submitted for the award of any other degree or
diploma in any other institution.
Xuefeng Zhang Matr. No: 2202200 Date: Signature:
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Index
1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................5
2. LANDSCAPE OF THE EVERYDAY....................................................................7
3. SPEEDSCAPE I.............................................................................................10
3.1 Walking/Reading (Chinese garden)………………………………………….13
3.2 Carriage/Seeing (Baroque garden)...........................................................15
3.3 River/Picture (Landscape garden).............................................................17
3.4 Auto/Image (Urban landscape)..................................................................19
3.5 Train/Panorama (Park)..............................................................................20
3.6 Plane/Identity (World Park)........................................................................22
3.7 Spacecraft/Distinguishability (Mars)………................................................24
4. SPEEDSCAPE II...............................................................................................25
5. „INTERFACE“---HERFORD2020......................................................................26
5.1 Historical Review.........................................................................................27
5.2 Analysis.......................................................................................................33
5.2.1 landuse & existing condition.............................................................33
5.2.2 green system & open space.............................................................36
5.2.3 transportation system…………………………………………………...39
5.2.4 social service…………………………………………………………….46
5.2.5 goals of town development……………………………………………..52
5.3 THE INTERFACE---Herford 2020……………………………………………….58
5.3.1 problem statement………………………………………………………58
5.3.2 theoretical thinking………………………………………………………61
5.3.3 strategy…………………………………………………………………...63
5.3.4 conclusion………………………………………………………………..67
6. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………...68
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………69
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1
INTRODUCTION
Landscape of the everyday is not the philosophical concept of anti-authority in 60’s.
Therefore, it will not resist highly privileged or noble landscape garden. The thesis
has no ambition to create a principle of landscape architecture; on the contrary, it
comes up from phenomena and from analyzing it deeply with media of speed. The
landscape comes through everyday life in different speeds; under the modernity
condition, landscape and everyday life alienates each other.
The first chapter of the thesis briefly describes how the everyday life of a modern
individual is alienated in the high speed and high efficiency. In the second chapter,
it illustrates: walking/reading (Chinese garden), carriage/seeing (Baroque garden),
river/picture (Landscape garden), auto/image (urban landscape), train/panorama
(Park), plane/identity (world park), and spacecraft/distinguishability (Mars). It
includes different speeds, 7 space understanding modes, and 7 related cases. The
purpose of the cases is not to explain how the works being constructed, but to
make the phenomenon being understood more deeply. The third chapter is a short
conclusion, not a theoretical conclusion but a summarization of phenomena. The
study made me deeply understand the phenomena and I got lots of experience at
the same time. The fourth chapter is a design achievement of the thesis: Concept
of city Herford 2020. In this project, I used the material of the first 3 chapters as a
theoretical background and practice it. The design tries to construct a connection
between some spaces of different speeds and to solve the conflict and problems
between them.
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Zeitgeist is a term from Hegel. Today, the zeitgeist is everyday life of today, which
means high speed and high efficiency. And for this kind of everyday life, it is also
necessary to have high-speed and high-efficiency landscape. Landscape design,
once as the way to realize the worship or mimicry of nature, now under the zeitgeist,
is transforming. This is the start point of think about this thesis.
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2
LANDSCAPE OF THE EVERYDAY
A Japanese detective looks at a street guide and tries to figure out where he is in
the city. He scratches his head, and looks around with a bemused expression. Is he
lost? Is he looking at the wrong map? Or is it just that he doesn’t know where he is
going?
This scene is from London Film festival. It was called “the man without a map”. In
an act of almost self conscious disavowal.
Paul Virilio said, “Hand can be used to finger things, but can also be changed into a
brutal and damaging instrument by way of speed and material”. Speed makes us
improve the efficiency; however it makes us have to take use of machine
equipments at the same time, which forces us to stay far away from natural
environment. Technique, like a veil, stays always between human and nature;
speed leads people to change the natural environment. People cut mountains to
build railways and highways; overpasses crossing the city and huge airports
distributing in suburbs become a new urban landscape. Theses large artificial
landscapes transform the original topography and human’s living environment.
When you go into a supermarket and buy a banana, unconsciously, you find that
the banana comes from Brazil. The banana costs not much, but took a long way
crossing half the global to appear in front of you, which would be unimaginable just
a century before, might be thought as magic.
Now, it is completely normal that some a manager of a multinational corporation
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has such a day. At 8:30 in the morning, he hurries out from his residence in Tokyo,
then gets on a BMW car, and drives to his office in a high rise in the downtown;
after he turns on the computer and has a video conference in internet with
colleagues in other countries, he packs stuff quickly and hurries to the airport. In the
two-hour-long flight to Shanghai, the manager sends messages and emails to the
people all over the world. After arriving in Shanghai at 1:00 p.m, he has quickly a
simple but nutritious business lunch; then he goes to inspect the branch company
in Shanghai, in particular the several suitable sites for the factory extension,
afterwards he has a video conference again at 5:00 p.m. Finishing all works of this
day, the manager drives his TOYOTA car to look for a strange restaurant in the
other side of Shanghai, since his son, who studies in the Bauhaus university
(Shanghai), is waiting for him there; after a nice dinner and lots of talk with his son,
he hurries again to fly back to Tokyo. Finally is he at home about 11:00 in evening,
and he feels not comfortable with his stomach because of a whole day’s bustling
and indisposition to the flight; “how nice if the transrapid train would be built from
Tokyo, through Seoul, Beijing, and to Shanghai.” thinks he aloud in the bed.
Like the banana from Brazil, people want to participate in the globalization, and
share all kinds of products brought by globalization, which trains a new generation.
They are eating bananas of Brazil, watching the same Hollywood film at the same
time, using the IKEA furniture, and having the same exclamation to the several
focus news in television: surprised, excited, angry, sad……
Although human the colours, races, and languages of human are not much
different from before, all the outside environment and the social conditions, that
define their life, have been changing essentially so much. With same asphalt roads,
same concrete buildings, and same-brand cars, the environment becomes difficult
to recognize. Globalization creates also the landscape of globalization.
Highways, traffic guideposts, pedestrian island, traffic lights, large advertisement
boards, parking lots……these compose the landscape in our daily life. These
artificial landscapes even become the basic condition of social life. Comparing with
traditional landscape, it has obvious function. It was luxury of nobles in 18 th .century,
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ut now it serves the public, even has some characteristic of forcing. The beautiful
natural landscape are divided or enclosed by artificial landscape with numerous
reasons, appearing fragmentary.
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3
SPEEDSCAPE I
“In the windswept stairways of the Eiffel Tower… one meets with the fundamental
aesthetic experience of present-day architecture: through the thin net of iron that
hangs suspended in the air, things stream – ships, ocean, houses, masts,
landscape, harbor. They lose their distinctive shape, swirl into one another as we
climb downward, merge simultaneously.” Walter Benjamin (ARC, P. 459)
1876 invention of clock
1883 time management of industrialization
1898 there were not more than 30 cars in America; ten years later, there were
more than 700 factories producing cars
1909 a Italian futurist announced: “we have to say, a brand-new beauty-----the
beauty of speed----- is making the world more exciting. Sports car with
huge exhaust pipe flying like a shrapnel, it is much more beautiful than the
victory goddess”
1912 the captain of Titanic tried to create a new time record of crossing the
Atlantic
1937 the book “weakness of humanity” was published, telling people how to make
friends with others in shortest time
1971 It is found in New York that accelerating the transmittance of TV advertising
pictures brought better impact. Just the next day, the time of every TV
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advertisements was changed from 1 minute into 30 seconds.
1980’ s FedEX came into the world in UK; however, with the fax being used widely,
FedEX was too slow to wait for.
1990’s it was counted that the standard business lunch took 36 minutes in US. At
the same time, email was already widely be used
After the industrial revolution, numerous new interesting findings and invention,
numerous new interesting findings and inventions have kept increasing quickly.
Now the new invented things of one year can even overstep the total sum of one
thousand years in ancient time, steam engine, train, car, plane, spacecraft,
telegram, telephone, fax, computer, optical fiber communication, etc.
In the excellent technologic revolution, human has been overstepping his own
speed, the speed of horse, the speed of river and wind, the speed of steam engine,
the speed of sound, even the speed of the global. In the coming future, human is
going to keep overstepping a lot of other speeds, throwing nature, even human
himself backwards far away. Goods, information, thought, even body of human are
transmitted and disseminated with unprecedented speeds in the space time. In this
process, the speeds breaks the limitation of human.
Goethe noted in his diary about traveling in Switzerland that the train make all
things disappeared------the perceptual impression of typical carriage travels in 18 th .
century. You may never thought about how much the everyday life has been
changed with the numerous speeds in a modern city. Everyday, people cross dark
tunnels, go to the office or a shopping centre from the dusky underground parking,
and cross the city through different districts. Only from long distance away, one can
see the whole scene of the city, its token and symbolism. However, the symbolism
has been partitioned from the real function of itself, or there two functions
separated from each other. Since its practical function is on the communication
tunnel in the dark, this point has the most fictitious possibility, even, it can be any
coordinate point in the world. It’s to use all kinds of conveyances to cross space in
people’s everyday life. They are launched, like “bullet”, crossing landscapes, what
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to see and hear disappearing immediately. The traveler in the “bullet” is no traveler
any more, but like a transported package.
As Paul Virilio noted, what new came with speed is the alienation process. Speed
kills distance, at the same time kills the experience of human and the beauty of
distance. Missing the relation between the inside and the outside environment
means a kind of alienation that appears parallel to the Marx so called alienation
coming from the working process. Concerning the dedication ceremony of the
railway from Paris to Leon, Heine Heinrich wrote in 1943, “Space is killed through
the railway, what left is only time. We can also creditably kill time if we have enough
money.”
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3.1 Walking / Reading (Chinese Garden)
Reading is a very meticulous action, one wandering on the secluded and quiet
garden path, tasting carefully the context, and visiting every surprising peaceful
recess. In this process, the relationship between legs and space corresponds to the
relationship between eyes and text. Space, like text, spreads page by page.
Walking is direction-free, without the only axes, Forwards or backwards, is a
movement to any direction. The will or interest of the visitor decides the walking
direction. If necessary, one can walk back to the original place to explore again the
secret which is still not clear or so nice for him; or one can just stop and sit down for
a while, as people always stop occasionally to think over some sentences when
reading a text, and find something in the text has touched something in the
memory.
Reading of space depends on the textualization of the space, which means
readability and characteristic of signs. Thus the walking process becomes a
reading process and an operation process of signs. Like the game of riddle
involving characters, walking becomes a game of space, within which the space, in
the depth of text, is getting interesting, profound, and full of mysterious principles.
At the same time, too much operation of signs makes however the recession of
contents, so that there are lots of spaces created, flowery but devoid of content,
with too much reading technique but too little content.
Reading, a test of imagination.
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The inner side of Zhuozheng Yuan
Zhuozheng Yuan that situated in the city proper of Suzhou, is a representative of
the classical gardening in the south of the river, and it is one of the big famous
gardens in China. Originally it was a residence of a poet in Tang age, Mr Lu
Gui-Meng and after then, a Private garden was built by a top cultural minister in
Ming dynasty, Wang Xian-Chen in some place. The garden after construction was
constantly in expansion and in fall. However, it remained a kind of lingering charm,
namely plain, distant, mountain and water. The style of the garden belongs to Ming
age and it is classified to big garden. It is very proper to arrange the location of the
hall and courtyard which one can see in motion or look sight in making a temporary
stay. The garden is divided into three parts--the east, centre, and the west. To enter
the round door is the east and most of the pavilions and attics are newly
construction. All cream in the garden is located in the centre part where there is a
main building--Yuan Xiang Lou, and beside there, it has three small gardens that
are called garden of the garden. In the west part, the Chinese duck hall and the
other court-yards are built in Many intellectual's trace and calligraphy were left in
the garden, where is full of the natural and humane landscape. The architecture of
the hall and court-yard in the garden is magnificent and full of a various of artistic
styles. The garden's reputation is over the south of the river since Ming age up to
date.
(Source: material of Zhuozheng Yuan came from website of Zhuozheng Yuan)
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3.2 Carriage / Seeing (Baroque Garden)
Carriage plus seeing means browsing. Seeing is always an eyes action of
observing the surrounding world, but without participation of consciousness. Eyes,
as a pure organ, receive stimulations from outside through visual action. However
one always has no critiques on it at the same time. The action of seeing is related
to target, visual angle and horizon.
A carriage’s march is usually going forwards in some speed in a set direction,
nevertheless the visual line of the people in the carriage is always moving in the
direction parallel to the horizon, which makes the surrounding space become an
expansive, grand scene, different kinds of landscape, spreading along a or several
axes outwards to the faraway horizon. The even speed of the carriage demands
neat space distribution, a little bit faster than jogging, nevertheless it is still in some
limit so that people can see the details. It’s investigated that it must be not far than
20m that human can see clearly the face of the coming somebody.
However it’s said by an ancient Greek mathematician that the most emotionally
moving geometric forms are triangle, circle, square and rectangle, which are the
basic elements forming the universal harmony. Thus the forms and structures, that
are composed of these basic forms, can always be caught by eyes at the most first.
Although the space of seeing seems grand and harmonious, it can never exceed
the limit of horizon.
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The axis in Versailles
Versailles is the most famous garden in the world. Yet ‘garden’ is scarcely a fitting
designation. The scale is monumental and there is little sense of enclosure.
Versailles was designed as a palatial centre of government for an absolute
monarch, Louis XIV. It is resplendent as the prime example of the French Baroque
style, but it is not a friendly place. ‘Overbearing’ is a common description and
English critics have often been disenchanted with the place. Walpole saw Versailles
as ‘the gardens of a great child’ (H&T). Avenues project from Louis XIV’s palace
towards distant horizons, enfolding town, palace, garden and forest. There are
imaculate parterres, great basins, an orangery, a vast collection of outdoor
sculpture and some of the grandest fountains which have ever been made. The
park and garden were designed by Andre Le Nôtre between 1661 and 1700. There
are magnificent features: huge parterres, an orangery, famous fountains (which
operate....), rich bosquets (ornamental groves), a 1.8 km cruciform canal. The
Grand Trianon, another formal garden, was built on the site of a former village.
Versailles also has later additions. The Petit Trianon was given to Marie-Antoinette
in 1774. She favoured the irregular style, with hills, rocks and streams. The
Hameau was designed in 1785, as a stage village, for Marie-Antoinette to play with
her friends in the idle years before the French Revolution.
(Source: material of Versailles came from website of Versailles)
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3.3 River / Picture (Landscape Garden)
The river flowing windingly through numerous expansive landscapes slowly or
quickly, the natural island, expansive meadow, and suddenly dense woods
compose different kinds of pictures.
Landscape painting, as a painting way of expressing three-dimensional substance
in two-dimensional plane, tries its best to express the objectivity, i.e. to reflect the
real condition of nature. The painting is usually composed of some close shot,
medium shot, and long shot. It’s a imitation of nature, which is essentially a kind of
technical action; in this process, only those chosen landscapes will be absorbed
into the painting. A common landscape might be described however very beautiful,
and yet those grand landscape, by which people are always moved deeply, usually
cannot be expressed by way of painting.
Vision is always about flat plane, and any deeper feeling is caused by the
participation of consciousness. In the painting, a visual hallucination is created
intentionally – to create a kind of three-dimensional sense of depth, with close shot
and long shot. When you, sitting on a boat, go forward slowly along the river, the
landscape of two side changes slowly, a crowd of grass on the bank in the close
shot, a forest in the medium shot, and the wheat field and the slowing sloping
horizon in the long shot; the air congeals here when you press the camera shutter
quickly. A beautiful picture appears, with perfect composition and the real depth
sense; but what is it exactly behind this depth sense?
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The painting of Stourhead
Stourhead is the best example of a garden inspired by the great landscape painters
of the seventeenth century. Ernst Gombrich suggests it should bear the signature of
an Italianized French painter: Claude Lorrain (1600-82). The Stourhead garden was
made by a wealthy English banker who had been buying works of art in Italy at the
time he inherited the Stourhead estate. Henry Hoare II’s ‘Claudian’ garden was
made in an unusually well-proportioned valley behind the house. The Temple of
Flora at Stourhead was made in 1745 and the grotto in 1748. But the key date was
1754, when the lake and the Pantheon were made. It is based on the Pantheon in
Rome and the planned walk through the estate is based on the journey of Rome's
legendry founder, Aeneas. The five-arched bridge was made in 1762 and the
Temple of Apollo in 1765. Gothic features were added later in the century: Alfred’s
Tower, a Rustic Cottage and a Hermitage. The Stourhead woods were
underplanted with Rhododendron ponticum after 1791 and with more exotic
species in the twentieth century.
(Source: material of Stourhead came from website of Stourhead)
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3.4 Auto / Image (urban landscape)
When you, sitting in a car, go forward fast along a road, and you keep your eyes on
the car window, the outside scenery go fast backward in frond of your eyes, the
images, one by one, suddenly appearing but immediately disappearing between
your retina and the window. Although every image is real, it brings you a quite
illusory sense; like watching a film, the acceleration or deceleration of the car is just
same as the fast motion or slow motion. Although every action and the entire acting
process is continuous, the images that describe different occasional events have
nothing to do with each other.
Speed oversteps time sometimes, bringing occasional events from different places
together; speed even oversteps the content of the events, only displays the
occasional forms of the events. People may be curious about them but have no
time to search out their cause and effect. Space simplifies into images, not a
panorama but numerous images which appearing in matrix; even the images are
more important than the real event itself. At first, the image and event are produced
and reproduced in their own way; then, some images combining with events, there
appear the event of producing images, and the image of producing events; thus,
space is occupied by images, and begins to produce events. Although the space is
abstracted into flat images, it has its own organization rules. The image sparkles,
keeping on producing numerous phantasm. Since the image is not lighted up by
other illuminants but shines by itself, it stimulates people’s visual nerve. However, it
becomes sometimes completely composed of light, making people not able to see
the real aspect.
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3.5 Train / Panorama (central park)
Travelling by train, for modern people, is somehow a little bit nostalgic or romantic.
When sitting in the train which is going through the pastoral country landscape, you
can see the extensive prairie, wheat field, blue sky…….a panorama; what you
cannot see clearly are the trees and houses just beside the railway. Thus there is
no close shot in the grand scene of panorama which seems always to keep some
distance with and always obscure. The whole travelling process in the train from
the beginning to the end constitutes a great panorama that composes a micro world,
including all elements.
In the panorama, all virtues of nature and the harmony between nature and human
are expressed incisively and vividly. No matter what direction you are looking from,
you cannot find how the train, the railway and yourself occupy the natural
landscape space. Not revealing anything, not announcing anything, the panorama
is a perfect replacement, like a Swiss snowing glass ball. The panorama has no
real scope and depth, but bonding ability; it bonds different elements together,
bonds audiences to pictures perfectly. The panorama does not follow the railway,
on the contrary, the railway follows the panorama. Anyway, the only way to avoid
indulging in it is to bow your head, not looking at the outside.
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The winter of Central Park
Central Park was the first landscaped public park in the United States.
Advocates of creating the park--primarily wealthy merchants and
landowners--admired the public grounds of London and Paris and urged that
New York needed a comparable facility to establish its international
reputation. A public park, they argued, would offer their own families an
attractive setting for carriage rides and provide working-class New Yorkers
with a healthy alternative to the saloon. After three years of debate over the
park site and cost, in 1853 the state legislature authorized the City of New
York to use the power of eminent domain to acquire more than 700 acres of
land in the centre of Manhattan.
(Source: material of Central Park is wrote by Elizabeth Blackmar and Roy Rosenzweig)
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3.6 Plane / Identity (world park)
The people who always come in and go out international airports must have the
same experience that airports all around the world seem similar; they are all
gigantic and complicated; one can hear, from the loudspeakers in every corner of
the airport, the voices in English and other languages; there are full of tax-free
stores, cafes, and bookstores, etc. selling fashionable clothes, magazines, makeup,
wine……. The airport is like a gigantic machine, swallowing and spitting crowds;
people are hurrying from here to there, and often get lost.
Contrary to the colourful airport, it is always rather narrow, limited, and monotonous
inside the plane. In the flight, because of the high speed, the connection between
passengers has to be stopped. Despite a row of small windows in the plane, there
is nothing interesting to see; thus the travelling experience is almost compressed
into the extreme of motonousness, so that the passengers are as sent to the
destination as packages. Wherever flying to, people just need to choose the airline,
and the plane itself is always similar to others.
It seems that all expression about identity and nation is concentrating in the
cost-free tourism guiding book in every seat, where one can see the Eiffel Tower in
Paris, the Empire State Building in New York, the Reichstag in Berlin, and the Great
Wall in Beijing. etc. Thus a city, a region or a country has a distinct identity; and all
the countries in the guiding book are abstracted into different airports here or there,
and planes are the extension of these spaces, like an elevator, joining them
together into a world country. Here, you can go through the games of identity with
one or more ID cards or passports. The space of identity itself seems similar, with
always the same temperature, about 20c although they disseminate the information
of identity to every corner. The space of identity makes identity become more and
more important, but what on earth is identity?
22

The night of The Window of World
Just near China Folk Culture Villages, the park of The Window of World is
contains examples of famous attractions from all over the world. With an area of
480,000 square meters, the park contains different sections covering Asia, the
Pacific, Europe, Africa, and America, as well as three others with exhibitions of
modern technology, classic sculptures, and famous avenues.
Marvelous sights and sites of historical interest in the world, ancient and modern,
natural landscapes and cultural sites as well as dwelling houses, sculptures,
drawings and even folklore and theatrical performances are here! Each is
presented as wonderful miniature replicas, made on a scale of 1:1, 1:5 and 1:1.5
respectively.Among the 118 scenic spots, you can find the pyramids of Egypt, the
Amon Temple of Karnak, the Angkor Wat of Cambodia, the Grand Canyon of
America, L'Arc de Triomphe of Paris, St. Peter's Cathedral of the Vatican City, the
Taj Mahal of India, the Sydney Opera House of Australia, and the Leaning Tower of
Pisa.Some large-sized spectacular attractions are also available, like the
108-meter-tall replica of the Eiffel Tower.
(Source: material of The Window of the World came from website of Window of the World)
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3.7 Spacecraft / Distinguishability (Mars)
Interstellar travel as a great experiment, as auto and plane were invented, is going
on blazingly. One drives a spacecraft, navigating his way into the deep space, like
the exploration in the Columbus time. However, is it practical? The navigators on
sea bathe in sunshine and sea wind; although the weather is sometimes terrible,
they can adjust their navigating direction according to ocean current and wind
direction. But interstellar travelers huddle in the narrow spacecraft, like in a big can;
they are just going forward and forward in the unlimited dark without direction; It
seems like a shell launched fiercely from the earth. Due to different speed and
scale, blindness is intolerable for interstellar travel, nevertheless the traveler, not
like the sea navigator, is not able to make decision according to the experience of
the environment.
In fact, it is suspectable to relate distinguishability to the conception of
unlimitedness. In a totally unknown environment, there is always something that
looks similar to something in your memory, and you recognize it quickly and have a
first judgment. The distinguishment and t the judgment will merge same kind of
things according to the self-recognizing system, make something equal to another
thing, and infer something being another thing. At last, by inference and deduction,
it creates a extensible framework, in the surface of which there is an extensible
open system. But essentially, once you try to distinguish one of the other from
multiplicity, this “the other” will immediately be assimilated by the system which is
thus a shrinking system. All distinguishment makes the other shrink into self.
Mars-sky
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4
SPEEDSCAPE II
The different spaces related to different speeds together constitute speedscape; or
it can also be described that numerous speeds cross a relative entire space, tear it
into fragments, and compose speedscape. In this space, the fragmentary space
expresses the characteristic of each speed; sometimes it represents this speed,
and sometimes that; furthermore, the fragmentary space becomes too complicated
to cross. And this is the very space where modern people work and live, numerous
speeds interweave and go fast. Speed itself cannot be seen; what can e seen are
the trail and reference of speed: reading, seeing, picture, image, panorama, identity,
distinguishability……
Speedscape constitutes the main landscape of contemporary society, and defines
the way of our everyday life. The spatial form of speedscape is decided by speed
which is related to intensity, strength, and action. On its broad sense, it is not only
the speed of communication, but also the speed of communication, but also the
speed of reproduction and the speed of forgetting, the speed of all. For speedscape,
there is no difference between slow and fast. Speedscape is a phenomenon of
contemporary space form. It keeps changing under the impact of numerous speed
and complicated strength, and forming new morphs. Speedscape is not some
specific landscape, but kinds of signs or derivates coming from the crossing of the
speed through the space. It appear in any time, but always now; at the same time, it
can appear in any place without any regional difference.
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5
„INTERFACE“---HERFORD 2020
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5.1 Historical Review
Approximately on the half distance between the mountain "Porta Westfalica" and
mountain “Stuchenberg” in the east, the mountain “Homberg” in the north through
the hills “Wiehengebirge“ in the northeast, and through the forest “Teutoburger
Wald” in the southeast, flowing the river Were and the river Aa out in the valley.
between the closely wooded, about 200-meter-high mountain “Stuchenberg” in the
east, the mountain “Homberg” in the north and the forest Teutoburger Wald, is the
city located on a height of only 70 m above sea level.
Prehistoric finds at the natural fords, shortly before the confluence of Werre and Aa,
confirm that here lived humans already for primeval times. There was also traces
witness of the fact that the Saxonian duke Wittekind moved back into this region,
before he conquered Franconia under the King Karl in 785 A.D. In 789 A.D. the
Saxonian Edeling Waltger founded the Stift Herford, the probably oldest Saxonian
woman monastery for the high aristocracy; for the historians that is the birth of
Herford. Few years later after its establishment, the king yard “Koenigshof” was
built on a reasonable defensive hill in the river mouth of Werre and Aa, which
functioned as the defence device of the ford against the King Karl. After the
adoption of this monastery by the emperor Ludwig in 823, its ascent began and it
became into the later so important imperial-lay prince abbey.
The awarding of the justice of market, coin and customs happened already a few
years later. With this market privilege confirmed by the King Otto in 973, Herford
belongs to the oldest markets in Germany.
In the Wik, the former resting and commercial square beside the fortified
Koenigshof, the today's quarter Radwig, the first businessmen settled down, whose
successful economy in connection with the mental-religious-cultural development
of the convent in the following centuries brought the city great meaning.
Once there was here the abbey, from which the abbesses exerted its important
influence in the entire medieval realm. In the small chapel “Wolderuskapelle”
should the founder of the convent, the holy Waltger, be buried.
27

In the years of 1220-1250 the cathedral church “Muensterkirche” was established
directly beside the abbey, as the first large building of a resounding church in
Germany. Since 1914/17, the city hall “Rathaus” with market hall “Markthalle“, the
chapel and the church built together a delightful ensemble. The great medieval
history becomes here alive, confirmed by the finds in the old foundations.
In 1011 the abbess Godesdiu created a convent in front of the gates of the city on
the mountains, as training centre for the daughters of the aristocracy. The king
Konrad III. confirmed Herford as the national convent in1147. In 1170 a citizen
municipality and the municipal law were founded. In 1220 a council constitution was
already introduced into Herford, as the second city in Westphalia, and, another part
of the city centre “Neustadt” was built beside the Altstadt and the Wik, the today's
Radwig. In the central 13.Century, the city took over the military protection and thus
developed afterwards directly the realm liberty of the city. the Herforder law book
appeared 1375.
The city is member of the powerful federation of the Hanse, it is wealthy and
influential, its businessmen covered the world.
Already in 1523 the reformation of Martin Luther began to become generally
accepted in Herford, and like 100 years later, in the middle of the 30jaehrigen war,
the realm Court of Appeal confirmed the city as realm city. This war and its
"Westfaelicher peace" of 1648 brought however nevertheless devastating
consequences to the city. It lost its independence, fell in the hand of Brandenburg
Prussia, and thus into the poverty of a cultivation city. That was why it did not begin
with the rapid beginning of the industrialization untill 19.Century.
In 1808, the last abbess of Herford, princess Friederike of Prussia died. The abbey
became a machine-equipped spinning mill after English model, with all technical
refinement of that time, including water turbine drive and gas lighting.
Herford became a regional town within the Prussian province Westphalia in1816,
and in 1847 there appeared the first connection to the Koeln Mindener railway with
its own station. The entire city centre “Innenstadt” was enclosed by city walls,
interrupted only by the in and outward prominent roads, the former gates.
28

What protected the city from enemies centuries ago, what served security of the
city, where the tension was largest in crisis periods, today offers peace and
relaxation all around, and the advantages of Innenstadt.
Approximately 66,000 inhabitants are living in the city (79 km2) now, after the
regional reorganization took place in1969. The city boundary has an overall length
of 56 km. It encloses 12,500 residential buildings with 30.000 dwellings, 3.800 work
places with 32.000 employed persons; 11 Grudschule, hauptschule, school for
learn-obstructed, Gesamyschule,3 Realschulen, 3 Gymnasien, 3 High Schools, 3
professional training schools, the university for church music, school of music,
study center of the correspondence university Hagen, the high landbauschule.
the city plan in 900 the city plan in 1200 the city plan in 13th. C.
Urban Developing Process
In 900, because of the orientation of the settlement at trade routes, Radwig was
developed as far trade settlement “Fernhaendleransiedlung” (Wik) by the
monastery of Herford
the city plan in 17 th . C the city plan in 18 th . C
29

the city plan in 1825
Until 1200 it was the end of building Radwig and Altstadt around the markets
(Gaensemarkt und Alter Markt) and main streets with merchants' houses around
(today part of the pedestrian street), first city fortification with ditches, whereby with
the foundation of the Neustadt in 13th. Century. The fortification with repeated
ditches was finished being built until around 1250.
Development until 1650: The city fortification was built further with acute-angular
bastions and ditches in 16 th . Century due to the development of firearm. In the large
city fire in 1638 among, the church “Johanneskirche” and large parts of the quarter
Radwig were destroyed.
In 1825 parts of the southern city ditch was filled up, whereby parts of the city
fortification had been broken step by step since end of the 18.Jh. Herford fell into a
farming citizen city in this time. 1), the little meaning of the boundary regions (large
parts of the today's city centre “Innenstadt” were used as gardens and areas of
arable land). 2), the situation that dense, closed buildings was existent essentially
only along the main streets and in addition the fact that the bulding ranges
30

extended still exclusively within the medieval city boundaries at that time (no
growing of the city). Here public buildings and churches are marked in red.
Up to the end 19. Century, a bulk style of the industrial sites of Herford resided from
its historical development in the area of Innenstadt (specially colouring shop,
spinning mills or soap factory), which was particularly strengthening the pollution in
the proximity of the new station to within the area of Goebenstrasse at that time ,
which represents a parallel to the today's development of this quarter in connection
with MARTa.
The extension of the station and the condensed new development in the quarter
Radwig represented substantial construction measure till 1910. At this time the
separating effect of the railway facilities was to be already observed on the town
development: in the west, there are thus only few new buildings behind the railway
embankment, but concentration of new buildings (in particular commercial and
industrial) in northeast proximity of the station.
In the two large air raids in November 1944 and March 1945, lots of building and
roads in areas of the southeast to the old market (Alter Markt) and the northeast to
the railway embankment, within the industrial areas, were particularly destroyed. At
the end of the war, 20% of the dwelling are lost, however these war-coused
destruction in its extent was smaller, than the loss of historical built volumes during
the urban redevelopment into a city centre which meeting the need of automobil
users.
The widening and/or expansion of the road of Berliner Strasse for better motor
traffic took place in four phases, what was connected with large losses of historical
built volumes in each case. The first "free impact" took place in the section in the
north to the new market; after this in the second step, the widening of the Berliner
Strasse was done in eastern direction up to the crossing with the Johannesstrasse:
31

Here thus an important, new motor traffic junction within the quarter of Altstadt was
developed. In the third and fourth step, further spreading of the Berliner Strasse up
to the station was then realized in eastern direction, where a further traffic junction
at the station free area was developed.
the city plan in 19 th . C the city plan after 2 nd . World war
32

5.2 Analysis
Landuse & Existing Condition
Services in the Innenstadt of Herford
Most services are essentially outside of the central shopping streets. Thus banks,
savings banks, law offices and insurance enterprises are concentrating along the
road Berliner Strasse. Also along the road Rennstrasse, there appears a strong
service orientated quarter, which shows however a mixture. Also in the Radewiger
Strasse, Seinstrasse und am Gaensemarkt, just like within the area of the
Tribenstrasse there are lots of catering trade enterprises.
In the central shopping streets Baeckerstrasse, Gehrenberg and Hoecherstrasse
there are few services enterprises , but lots of retail trades.
Retail trade
Public constitution
Private Services
Emptying
Catering trade
the plan of landuse
33

Dwelling in the Innenstadt of Herford
living duration in Herford renting & owning rate
Over20 Year 47%
No indication 6% 1 year 5%
2-5 year 15%
6-10 year 9%
11-20 year 18% Renting 78%
source: GMA Innenstadtbefragung, in % of the asked ones (n=273), 2000
Between the new and old market already formed a relatively developed retail trade
center, which plays a big role of commerce in the Innenstadt. In the Innenstadt,
there are altogether 256 retail trades and stores, the emptying ratio is about 14%
Retail trade
Owning
22%
the plan of retail trade distribution
34

The average emptying ratio in West German towns is about 5% at present.
The number of the empty
conditions rises continuously from 2000 to 2004.
Most empty houses concentrate beside the Gaensemarkt in Radwig.
Although the number of empty houses between the new and old market increased,
many shop, which were still empty 6 months ago, are already opened again.
In this
area, the empty conditions shows normal conversion.
Reasons:
1.
Purchasing power of the city center Innenstadt sinks
2. traffic problem
3. commercial structure is not rational.
4. There is no advantage
in the goose market “Gaensemarkt“, in order to attract
the customers.
Empty standing shop unit
less use
the plan of emptying distribution
35

Green System & Open Space
The city wall area is the historical
indication of the old city wall and forms the most
important
public green area around the whole city centre. The rivers increase the
recreation quality of the green ring. The citizens walk, jog and the pupils run
constantly along it and the walls remain alive. The continuity of the green ring is
however disturbed in different places of Berliner Strasse and Johannistrasse .
Outside the green ring there are two parks, which follow the green ring and support
the green system of the city centre. These parks have different characters. Near
the park in the north there are a High School and sport fields, i.e. it is rather
movement-oriented. In the opposite, there is the park in the south with recreation
functions.
In the town centre ”Innenstadt”, the pedestrian street and the surfaces around the
churches represent
the important open spaces in the city. They are important
recreation places and social meeting places in the city centre and form the touristic
routes for city guidance.
plan of green system in Herford
36

MARTa lies outside the town centre “Innenstadt” and has a direct connection to the
green belt of the Innenstadt. The street “Augustastrasse” in the west of Marta,
forms an obstacle for a possible relationship between Marta and the park. The river
could not be in this sense a potential, however it is available because of ownership
structures. Shortest attaching of MARTa to the city wall area is the street
“Schillerstrasse”.
Plan of green system analysis
views of the green belt around Innenstadt
37

If we compare the environment of the city Herford to other cities, we could firmly tell
that Herford is rather a green city. We get to know already from national datas that,
the portion of green area per head with about 60 m2. That is relatively high.
The green system in Herford represent an exciting sample. The green areas
connect with each other like a ring or a corridor. There are two green rings, one
outside Herford and the other within Herford. The ring, which is outside Herford,
does not have strong continuity, but the ring around the city centre “Innenstadt” is
relatively continuous in the opposite.
The city is connected with the next cities by the green corridors and these green
corridors offer lots of important recreation places for the citizens. For example there
is a continuous green area between Herford and Bad Salzuflen, where different
free air sport activities take place.
plan of green system in the region of Herford plan of regional green system analysis
38

Transportation system
Transportation Network around Herford
Two motorway connections, connect with the Vlothoer road in the north and with
the Bundesstrasse(B)239 in the south.
The B239 connects to the business district in the west and in the south.
The building of B239 is going to be finished in 2005 (B239 topographically
problematic)
The building of the B239 creates in addition functional connections (avoidance of
the transit traffic)
Transportation Network around
Herford
39

Transportation Network in Herford
Outward
development system
Herford’s
road net is arranged with an outward-developed system.
Characteristic
of this system is traffic ring at external end, from which the individual
collecting
and close jointing streets branch inward. A development with outer ring
usually makes a crossing-free, unimpaired pedestrian intertwining within the
residential area. Here however the city centre “Innenstadt” is divided by the roads
of Auf der Freiheit and Berliner Strasse and the pedestrian intertwining in both
sides is disturbed.
Residential area
Shopping area
Traffic Street
Collecting Street
Residential Street
--------Transportation Network in Herford
40

Traffic Stress
There
is heavy shuttle traffic between the residential areas in the west and the
business
areas in the east
---while
there is large traffic stress in the streets of Hermanstrasse and
Hansastrasse,
the widths of the two streets are insufficient. An extension of them is
almost
impossible, since there is no land available for building the bridge of the
Hansastrasse because of the historical buildings beside. The Hansastrasse is also
difficult to be built.
---Although there is large traffic stress under the station, the road is only with three
tracks. Coming from the city centre (Innenstadt), the road changes from two tracks
into a single track. Therefore there is sometimes jam.
Stress motor vehicle/Tag (day)
Width f th d
------plan of Traffic stress analysis
The bridge in the street of Hansastrasse; view in Hermanstrasse; historical houses by the crossing in Geobenstrasse
41

Parking Possibilities
Potentials:
---Parking bays: 2.750 in the town centre, 1471 of them in the three multi-storey car
parks.
--- multi-storey car parks (Radwig, Altstadt and Neustadt) together with car parking
guiding system reduce parking search traffic
---Parking bays are easy to reach from the main traffic routes
Problems:
---The enormous multi-storey
car parks destroy a little bit the townscape
---The potential of the multi-storey car park as a gate to the Innenstadt was not
realized; the surroundings are more practical as inviting for the visitors.
Parking lots
Access Roads
Multi-storey car parks:
Capacity
parking guiding system; Multi-storey car parks
------Distribution of parking places
42

Traffic Analysis – Public Transportation
Potential (city bus lines):
---bus station connected with station well
---best connection with the city centre (Alter market)
---bus linear network in radial form
---taxi-bus lines
extend the traffic offer
Problems:
only 2 regional
lines pass by MARTa, no city line
Use of the public transportation is very small
Traffic Analysis - Pedestrian Precinct
Potential:
Public Transportation
300meter Periphery
600meter Periphery
------plan of public transportation system
---those ways as recreation spaces go in a circle around the centre and offer various
possibilities, walking, jogging, etc..
---the traffic-reduced roads know could bring local people lots of traffic-reduced surfaces.
43

Prolems:
---numerous underpasses under the major roads are clearly described with traffic
signs. However some areas are not unproblematic. Mobilized traffic is here
preferential.
---the city centre is divided by some roads and the ways of the pedestrian is limited.
The pedestrial crossing is missed on the crossong of Auf der Freiheit in front of the
station.
Pedestrian Precinct (shopping)
Recreation Spaces
Road System
Traffic-reduced Area
Physical and Psychological Border
Traffic Analysis - Bicycle Traffic
Potentials
------plan of pedestrian system
---75% of the population live in the periphery
of 3 km to the city centre
---relatively flat
areas in the city centre ease exemplary the cycle driving.
Guide for the cycle driving: beside cycle tracks of the district, there are 4 urban free
routes
and different regional hiking routes.
Stress-free driving: many places are cycle tracks separated from traffic routes
44

(partly also bicycle routes available)
Popular and safety: in the last 10 years, bicycle traffic accidents increased nearly
20% when the number of the traffic accidents sank
Problems
---despite positive development, the absolute number of cyclist is not much.
---it is doubtful whether the large investments (approx. 13mio euro) can lead to a
stronger use.
Approach
---all conditions is created for an effective and safe bicycle using, now it depends
on the citizens to take use of these possibilities.
Route with Sign Posts
Hiking Trials in the Country
Restrictions by Pedestrian Precinct
Disturbance by Major Roads
Bicycle parking & Sign posts
------plan of bicycle traffic route
45

Social Service
Public Institution -----Administration,
citizen service, finances, security, order, health
The city administration, accommodated in the two city halls (old city hall and
technical city hall), is in the centre of the city. The old city hall, which serves also
particularly for representative purposes, should be particularly considered in the
course of development questions and/or questions of urban operational readiness
level. In the west of the planning area, a chain of official offices extends along the
street Wittekindstrasse. Only the labour office lies in the north in the street
Hansastrasse. Likewise there are the police as well as the youth penal institution by
the Hansastrasse. Employment office and district court are located in the centre
near the city halls.
Remarkably in Herford, there is a high number of old people’s homes and social
institution for seniors close to church community centres (E.G. „Unter den Linden“).
All of them including the senior home behind that technical city hall, are in the south
of the city. Perhaps the social structures of Herford are to be found parallels to them.
There are 2 hospitals in Herford. The traditional Mathilden-Hospital
is a general
ath. Hospital and exists since the end of 19 th. K
Century. In addition it runs a nursing
school.
The general medical clinic of Herford is outside in the northeast of the city.
Distribution of public institution in the planning area Distribution of public institution in Herford
46

Training -----Kindergarten, schools, vocational school, university
There is a well distributed net of kindergartens in Herford, however there is no day
nursery in the planning area. About half of the kindergartens are related to the
church municipalities
(usually Luth.), the remainder are municipal or private cribs.In
the allocation
of the basic school districts, one can see it is not necessary that
every child visits the most convenient school. Also, here a comparison with the
population structure of the city should be informative.
With
3 High Schools, 3 six-form high schools (Realschulen), one comprehensive
school and 2 hauptschule with altogether 6000 pupils, a good supply is also here
given for the citizen. The only university in Herford is the university for church music
with about 30 students. By the deficiency of other resuming schools, young people
leave the city after their graduation and do not return to the city, which one can see
from its effect in the population structure.
The vocation school centre plays a large role for the city and in particular for our
planning area, that offers, beside the nursing school of the Mathilden-hospital and
the agricultural economics school, a building and wood-technical professional
training and trainings in the commercial und social branch, as well as training in the
field of nutrition, space equipment and landscape market garden. There are about
4500 pupils, many from outside. It is located by the cross on the way to station and
bus station in the planning area.
distribution of schools in the planning area
47

tribution of kindergarten in Herford
Distribution of kindergarten & churches in Herford
dis
48

Distribution of primary school and special school in Herford
Distribution of different schools in Herford
49

Culture and Recreation -----Sport; Recovery; Video home system; School of music; Museum;
Public library
it is clear, when one looks at the plan of the town, that there is a ring of sports fields
at the peripheral areas, usually used by associations. In addition, there are 2 large
sport and recreation centres, the "H2O" in the south and the "sport centre in small
ones the field"("Sportzentrum im Kleine Felde") in the west of the city. Both have a
large attraction also on places in the region around Herford owing to fun bath
and/or ice-skating hall. There is a further ring of gymnasia halls near the city centre,
always related to a school, but also serving people outside the school.
It is interesting that the further recreation facilities like cultural facilities are all in the
planning area, or near it. In Radwig and the Goebenstrasse, there are the only 2
museums of Herford (Poeppelmannhaus with the municipal. Art Association;
MARTa), the people's high school lies at the cathedral church square
(Münsterkirchplatz) in the Innenstadt; the school of music locates near MARTa with
1500 pupils; there is a public library, with a youth centre inside; and the only cinema
of the city is easy to be found at the corner of Radewiger- Elisabethstraße.
Distribution of cultural & recreation facilities Distribution of C. & R> facilities in the planning area
50

Distribution of sport field & facilities
Distribution of gymnasia hall
gymnasia hall
51

Goals of the Town Development
Herford
is the centre in the governmental district of east Westphalia lip;
has 65,344 inhabitants (2002), lies in close range of Bielefeld;
has a medieval town centre and a tri-polar urban structure with pedestrian street
(approximately 1,000 m long);
has a new attractive city centre of the Goebenstrasse quarter, with the developing
of this area;
economy: 4,076 work places with 36.341 employing; commuter balance:
+9,000;
guidance industries: furniture and furniture supporting industry, the clothing industry,
mechanical engineering, packing -, disposal and environmental technology, food
industry.
The retail trade-relevant area includes RD. 130,000 adults; 37% of the customers in
the city centre are foreign (BBE 2003), the purchasing power flows off to Bielefeld
and into the ECE Werrepark Bad Oeynhausen.
Goal:
Economic Location
Herford
is to be developed as strong economic location with its considerable,
efficient enterprises and a differentiated job supply.
The quality and infrastructure of the economic location Herford must be therefore
adapted to the constant structural changes as well as be marketed professionally.
The culture and authority centre MARta will become the image carrier for the
"furniture city Herford". It stands exemplarily for new co-operation with the economy,
which promote Herford as progressive living and economic location.
Goal: Housing location
Herford must become again an attractive and payable housing location for young
families.
Herford
must offer all citizen a high quality of life
52

Development of the housing location also means to let the people who work in
Herford feel home in the city.
Herford’s high potential of open space with riverbank landscape, forest areas and
local recreation infrastructure must be maintained and used.
Increase of the property in particular of young families through the promotion of
new building in the one-/two-family house sector (Herford development land
politics).
Development of stable and attractive residential districts in existence through
renewal and reconstruction of city quarter with function change and integration.
Development of differentiated education and care offers for children and young
people with the emphasis of "location school".
Device of open spaces for local recreation and leisure use by the maintenance and
change of play and sport areas in the residential environment.
Goal: Culture & Recreation Location
Herford will interlace its meaningful city-historical, cultural and leisure-oriented
potentials as important contribution for the urban development and will use them
intensively.
MARTa, the historical buildings, the city-historical museum, the northwest German
Symphony Orchestra, leisure facilities like the H2O and others are to promote not
only touristic activities, but at the same time lead to an identification of the Herford
citizen with their city .
To develop the local culture in order to attract visitors.
Stabilization of the swimming pool H2O in a high quality level and advancement of
the leisure facility, art ice-skating, free bath, etc.
Recreation offers for families, in order to strengthen Herford as attractive leisure
location in the region.
The existing public culture and leisure locations and facilities should be maintained
and be developed further with other facilities entirely.
Revaluation of the historical city shape by investment into architectural monument s
53

and historical outdoor installations, in particular the historical city wall, working the
characteristics
out, in order to make history in the townscape experienced.
Goal: City Centre (Innestadt)
Development of one entire city centre with its parts according to their own qualities.
Stabilization of a main retail trade area with connected stores and shops along the
pedestrian road between the Neuer
Markt and the Radwig bridge by support of
up-to-date concepts
Redefinition of
the "head areas" of Radwig and Luebberstrasse/Neuer market e.g.
by combination of target group-referred retail trade, service, catering service and
housing.
Work on a development concept of the city centre with its parts, in which each part
are thought
about according to its qualities and in its characteristic and which
defines the main retail trade area.
Acquisition and promotion of economy development for the retail trade and
enterprise in the town centre. Parallel: total urban
controlling of the retail trade
development
for the stabilization of the city centre.
High-quality development
of the urban design in the city centre and adjustment of
the infrastructure to new needs.
Stimulation of the city centre by bundling all events, actions and festivals in a total
concept, in order to increase the experience value of the city centre.
Old part of town (Altstadt)
To build the city centre at the old market "Alter Markt’ (central bus stop)
Retail trade centre close to the cathedral church (Muensterkirche, the
market hall
( Markthalle) & city hall (Rathaus)
Heterogeneous urban structure, confusing entrance situation (Rennstrasse)
The city wall area as tree promenade with citizen centre
The main points
of management: the old market (Alter Mark), the cathedral church
square (Muensterkirchplatz), and the market hall (Markthalle)
54

Real estates is aligned to commerce, empty conditions in the flat floors.
By loss of large shopping malls at the end of the 90's (Kaufhof, Koehler, Kox)
declining frequency, but almost no empty situations.
Business structure of Altstadt:
high portion of retail trade
middle portion
of DL and HW
low portion of emptying
Around the old market (Alter Markt)
16%
21%
8%
56%
New part of town (Neustadt)
Between Luebbertor
and "Alter Markt"
Retail Trade
Service & Handicraft
Restaurant, snack bar
Emptying
The new market (Neuer Markt) with high urban design quality, Johannis church
(Johannis Kirche) and ST. Johannes Baptist as well as many architectural
monuments revalue this area.
The road Berliner Strasse
cut the bank & residential districts in the north, bad
accessibility.
The city wall area (Mindener Strasse), commerce declining, many service & small
handicraft.
Transition to the Altstadt
High-quality residence in the north, promoted flat construction in the east.
Business structure of the Neustadt:
higher portion of DL and HW than in the Altstadt
55

smaller portion of EZH
Neuer Markt/ Lueberstrasse
20%
Radwig
10%
38%
33%
High urban quality, but cut by city center ring (backyards
become fronts).
neglected fallow lands and real estate.
Is good housing location
in the city.
Retail Trade
Service & Handicraft
Restaurant, snack bar
Emptying
lies between station and "Alter Markt" and has a part of the pedestrian road.
Oldest part of the city with Jakobikirche and (gaense-)Markt.
The city wall areas function as green belt beside the water.
by loss of the magnet enterprise (C&A) 1998, no frequency in the retail trade,
problem of emptying.
Business structure of Radwig:
same portion of ETZ and DL HW
high emptying
56

Radwig
20%
17%
Since 1874 it has been an important
location of the Westphalia laundry industry,
Wasserkrat. The station area has favoured industrialization, Goebenstrasse as vein
In the middle of the 90's fallow-lying intermixed fields partly have emptying
Expo reference project "MARTa"
is the master project of the revitalization of this
New secondary centre must be tied
up over distance to the city centre "Innenstadt".
Linkage to the city centre through old connections: schillerstrasse and Arndtstrasse
or prominent connection: Station & Radwig
conclusion
29%
34%
Station & Goebenstrsasse
of the development.
problem.
area, further public & private investments followed.
Station & station square were renewed at end of 90's.
Profile
building of the four city parts (retail trade, serving achievement, work,
experience, culture) in a city centre “Innenstadt”.
Magnet: Trade: Klingenthal, H+M, Saturm,
Elsbach
Culture: MARTa, school of music, Poeppelmann house
Gastro: Rubens, Rio, Elsbach
Potentials: Kaufhof, C+A & fallow
lands, development surface, Elsbach, goods
assumption
station
Good binding to Goebenstrasse
Better entrance
situation of the parts
Retail Trade
Service & Handicraft
Restaurant, snack bar
Emptying
57

5.3 THE INTERFACE – Herford 2020
Problem
Statement
Since appearing at the beginning,
city Herford has experienced different
developing times, dimensionally the city changing
from small to big, the urban
structure and morph changing
a lot. The today’s Herford is the overlapping result of
different
urban structures of different times, with the traces of time and speed.
1.
Fragments of instrumental rationality
Increased rationalization brought increased fragment, as Henri Lefebvre argued,
in two decades following world war II, technocratic and bureaucratic
organization had permeated nearly every sphere of existenc e, resulting in ever
increasing functional specialization, social separation, and culture activity
escaped systematization. For Lefebvre, one of the
typical embodiments of this
relentless “rationalization” was the contemporary city, which one could know
from his decrying of Lacq-Mourenx, a new town in southwestern France. The
city is cut into pieces, which is the result of instrumental rationality of different
times. The new developed traffic system cut the original organic urban structure
of the
historical core “Innenstadt”. For instance, because of more vehicles being
used and rational road systematization, two wide roads were built, Auf
Freiheit in the north and Johannisstrasse in the south of the historical Innenstadt
in 1960s. But at the same time, these two roads cut the Innenstadt into
three
parts and cause each of them more isolated from each
other, and also
destroyed the dimension of the original
historical roads as well as the historical
urban space.
der
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plan in 1825 plan in 2004
As a part of the historical Innenstadt, Radwig, the island surrounded by rivers
Aa and Werre, is a representative part in the town, the worst part comparing
with other two parts in the Innenstadt. It was completely
a perfect historical
quarter, with very nice natural conditions: water around, lots of old trees,
meadows…….beautiful landscape.
There is a church Jakobikirche and a
market square Gaensemarkt in the centre of Radwig, surrounded by stores,
restaurant, cafes and old residences. Besides there is a museum
“Popelmannsmuseum” in the south of Radwg by the river where there was a
historical protection fort.
However, today Radwig is cut into two parts by one of
the two busy wide roads, Auf der Freiheit so that the organic urban structure
and atmosphere are totally lost. More seriously in this small island of the
historical core, economic
situation is getting down, empty stores and flats are
getting more and more. In a word, although the natural condition in Radwig is
excellent,
it is becoming desolate, even some places look very wild now.
Additionally just in the north to Radwig, by the river the newly built museum
Marta must bring more stress to the adjacent Radwig.
Urban blocks are getting more and more isolated, the quality of public space
and social life are losing, which is a problem not only
in Herford, but in lots of
modern city. The well-known city is becoming stranger and stranger, and people
always drive cars though it so fast that they even
do not notice any
transformation.
In so-called modern city, there appears the malaises of
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modernity which is described by Charles Taylor as “impending break down”.
However the contradiction between instrumental rationality and urban form is
unsolvable with traditional architectural method which
based on the traditional
dialectics.
2. Speed, event and morphology
The city appears in different forms because of different speeds. For instance,
the blocks along the road Auf der Freiheit, the river and the pedestrian are in
different sizes.
Along the railway where trains going with a speed about
150km/h, there are no really blocks,
but some big factory or ware houses; along
Auf der Freiheit on which the speed is about 60 km/h, the blocks and buildings
are very big, people just going through
very fast; along the river with a peed
about 25 km/h, there are homogeneous distributions of villa houses with nice
environment; and
along the pedestrian street with a speed about 10km/h on it,
there are lots of stores restaurants and other functional buildings with different
façades from different historical times, where people can linger here and enjoy
themselves.
150km/h,
along the railway 25km/h, along the river
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60km/h, along the road of Auf der Freiheit
10km/h,
along the road of pedestrian street
Theoretical
Thinking
Bernard
Tschumi once noted, for the relation between society and formulation of
architecture,
the architecture can not have no connection with what happed inside
the
However, there are some kind of confusion where the different speeds crossing
with one another, that can be found distinctly in particular in Radwig, where
these main four different speeds all have strong influences and cross here.
Thus the problem of speed in Radwig is most serious in the city.
However, we are not looking at the typology of the architecture, but looking
them as different events and stories.
space. The formulation of architecture could be thought as one part of social
events.
Therefore, when the architecture presented the events which happened in
the time, this architecture itself became also event.
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Strategy
Based on the analysis, the idea is to create a folding interface structure around
Radwig which is called the folding interface Ring of Herford.
It here has two meanings, it is not only the protection of Radwig but also the bridge
of it.
As the interface structure around Radwig, it is closed and protects the safety and
centrality of Radwig. It is a “Verfremdung (alienation)” of Radwig, creating the
historic of the past through recovering the past of new things. The interface
structure will change the outside or absent of Radwig into the inside and present, and it will become the symbol of Radwig, loading the love and hate of the people
here.
As a landscape platform of Radwig and even Herford, it is open and full of
enthusiastic and free dimension. It is a performance stage of daily life of the city.
In addition, as a bridge, the interface structure will connect Radwig and the
surrounding, making a cyclic
system from Marta to the Bahnhof, Radwig, Altstadt,
and to the park in the south, solving
the problems brought by different speeds.
Another important concept of the interface is the idea of ecological architecture. As
the combination of architecture and landscape, the interface will connect not only
the different urban spaces of different times and scales, but also architecture and
landscape and nature. What it will bring to the city is not to emphasize the interface
structure itself, but to intergrade into the environment and to integrate the green
fragments of Ladwig into a system. And in this system, it will be proposed how to
save energy, water.etc.
63

Master Plan
3d perspective
64

typology of interface
information analysis system
65

elationship analysis
detail_1_shopping, open space (near the station)
detail_2_exhibition space, open space (near Poeppelmannsmuseum)
66

Conclusion
detail_3_ Café (near the park)
As a typical example in modern city, Radwig has been devided into fragments
because of the speed of rationlity, which makes people not want to stop, cosume
here. Thus, it’s difficult to attract people or tourits from Marta or Altstadt . So I use
the folding interface as a strategy to solve the problems from the different speeds,
furthermore to make
it reintergrade into Herford and to make Radwig attractive and
living again. Thus, Altstadt, Marta and Radwig, as organic parts of city Herford, will
play
different roles, function together for the beautiful future of Herfod-Herfod 2020.
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6
CONCLUSION
Zeitgeist is a term from Hegel. Today, the zeitgeist is everyday life of today, which
means high speed and high efficiency. And for this kind of everyday life, it is also
necessary to have high-speed and high-efficiency landscape. Landscape design,
once as the way to realize the worship or mimicry of nature, now under the zeitgeist,
is transforming. This is the start point of think about this thesis.
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Biblioography
Dan Kiley, Dan Kiley in His Own Work
Garrett Eckbo, Landscape for living (1950)
Ian D. Whyte, Landscape and History since 1500, (2002)
Leon Krier, Houses, Palaces, Cities, editor: Andreas Papadakis (New York: A.D.
1984).
Leonardo Benevolo, Die Stadt in der europaeischen Geschichte, trans. Peter
Schiller
(Muenchen: Verlag C.H.Beck 1993), pp.184-217.
Manfredo Tafuri, Architecture and Utopia, trans. Barbara Luigia La Penta
(Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England: MIT
press,1999).
Michael Hays, Architecture Theory since 1968, (London: MIT Press,
2000).
Michael Spens, The Recovery of the Modern, (Bath: The Bath Press,
1996).
Neil Leach, The anaesthetics of architecture, (Cambridge, Massachusetts, London:
the MIT press, 1999).
Peter Katz, The New Urbanism, ( New York: McGraw-Hill,
1994).
Paul Virilio, The Speed of liberation, (Jiangshu: translated by Lu Yongyuan,
2003).
Steven Harris and Deborah Berke, Architecture of the everyday, (Yale Publications
on Architecture: Princeton architectural press, 1997).
Simon Bell, Landscape –pattern perception process,
(1999).
Simon Swaffield, Theory of Landscape Archiecture
Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of ,Mechanical Reproduction, (New
York: Schocken Books, 1969).
City of Herford, Stadtentwicklung & Stadtplanung Einfuehrung, ( Herford, 2004)
City of Herford, Stadt- und Innenstadtentwicklung aus Sicht der Wirtschaftsfoederung,
( Herford, 2004)
69

VITA
Xuefeng Zhang
born in Jiang Xi, China in 11. 1976
Education
College:
South China Tropical Agriculture University (1994-1998) Bachelor of Landscape
Architecture
Peking University (2001) MBA
Graduate School: Hochschule Anhalt (2002-2005) Master of Landscape
Architecture
Employment
She Junnan Architectural office (1998-2000) Landscape Architect
Guang Dong Xingyi Decoration Company (2000-2001)
Interior Architect
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