Publiek versus privaat op straat

density suburbia and older inner city
neighborhoods alike. What is going on?
This is not what we bargained for when
we handed over the prime cuts of city
land for ‘regeneration’!
You promised us the world
The design statements of planning
applications and the marketing material
advertising property in intensively
developed urban extension projects of
our times make a simple postulation: a
denser city creates more urban life.
Indeed it is hard to think of any
ambitious European urban city
extension project of recent times that
started off by promising people that
prospective buyers will have the
opportunity to become pioneers in the
district in which the streets will almost
certainly be abandoned – almost all of
the time – for a long time to come.
Come to think of it, this promise is
hardly surprising and quite easy to
understand if we are mindful of the
hard lessons people have learnt in the
preceding century in which planned
Ørestad a new city development, and the dream of a dense, lively urban area boosting with street
life, recreational opportunities, bicycles, happy and healthy residents and dynamic business
people. [by; Ørestadsselskabet]
14 TOPOS / 02 / 2010
districts often followed the
functionalistic planning and design
rationale that promised good times
ahead but more often than not delivered
the opposite: Dull and uninspiring
environments devoid of the life and
stimulation. We have learnt the hard way
that the environment in which we spend
time living or working has an impact on
our prospects of leading happy
individual lives and also on our capacity
to form inclusive and cohesive
communities.
Funky shell, hollow core
Our modern lifestyle is today highly
privatized in all aspects of living and
working and it is further coupled with
individual physical space standards that
lead to a paradoxical situation: Even