{"title":"Constructing Copenhagen in a Time of Economic Downturn: Reevaluating 1990s Postmodernist Urban Development before the City Became “Livable”","authors":"H. Steiner","doi":"10.1080/20507828.2021.2020966","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20507828.2021.2020966","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this article, I argue that despite its limited appearances, stylistic and planning oddities, poor building quality, and current pariah status in terms of building heritage, Copenhagen’s postmodern architecture is an intrinsic part of the Danish welfare architecture urban development. I wish to show that Copenhagen’s postmodernist development has been criticized largely for the wrong reasons, and that the period can offer alternative visions that do not inevitably yoke livability and urban quality of life to economic growth and consumerism. Moreover, I argue that this reinterpretation gives us a more differentiated understanding of the architecture that emerged at the turning point when Copenhagen went from being deprived and anonymous to become the prosperous yet livable urban center we know today, thanks to infrastructural investments following the 1989 government report Hovedstaden, hvad vil vi med den? (“the capital, where should it go?”).","PeriodicalId":42146,"journal":{"name":"Architecture and Culture","volume":"10 1","pages":"76 - 95"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42444654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Perforated Welfare Space: Negotiating Ghetto-Stigma in Media, Architecture and Everyday Life","authors":"M. Stender, Mette Mechlenborg","doi":"10.1080/20507828.2021.2016253","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20507828.2021.2016253","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Danish postwar social housing developments originally epitomized the dawning welfare state, promoting ideals of equity and community. Today, a number of these neighborhoods have come to occupy the reverse role and are publicly represented as “parallel societies,” “ghettos” or even “holes in the map of Denmark,” thus perforating the welfare state as a socially coherent space. Based on a media analysis and field studies in the so-called “hard ghettos,” this paper relates current media representations of disadvantaged Danish neighborhoods to architectural and residential ways of coping with territorial stigma. We argue that media representations of these housing developments contribute to rendering them spatially and socially detached from the surrounding society and that the architectural attempts to open up these housing developments may, in some cases, reinforce the stigma, further perforating the neighborhoods. Residents contest the stigma, yet those who can do so tend to detach themselves from the stigmatized neighborhoods.","PeriodicalId":42146,"journal":{"name":"Architecture and Culture","volume":"10 1","pages":"174 - 193"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47246188","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Welfare as Warfare: The Role of Modern Architecture during the Colombian Dictatorship","authors":"Maria del Pilar Sanchez-Beltran","doi":"10.1080/20507828.2021.2019382","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20507828.2021.2019382","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study draws on the findings of a cultural analysis of the state architecture built in the mid-twentieth century in Colombia and promoted by the former dictatorship of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. It questions the rationale underlying the infrastructure developed in Bogotá by situating it within the international politics of Latin America during the Cold War. I find that the massive transformation of the built environment during the Rojas regime remains a shadowy and elusive subject, but this does not mean that the regime did not have an agenda for the built environment. Architectural objects were material embodiments of the paradigms of the Modern Movement under the discourse of the welfare state, yet they conveyed the purpose of warfare. Most of these buildings have been largely neglected by canonical studies and communities, despite that they shaped the urban development of the country, and most remain in regular use.","PeriodicalId":42146,"journal":{"name":"Architecture and Culture","volume":"10 1","pages":"96 - 116"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49330774","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Layered Landscapes of Welfare Values – Revisiting Køge Bay Beach Park in Denmark","authors":"Anna Aslaug Lund, G. Jørgensen, Ole Fryd","doi":"10.1080/20507828.2021.2019975","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20507828.2021.2019975","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This essay studies the perceived spatial characteristics of the Danish welfare landscape of Køge Bay Beach Park from the late 1970s. The project is one of the few realized examples of landscape-based coastal adaptation projects in a Danish context, and it is expected to undergo an extensive modernization process in the near future. Based on the premise that the rising sea level requires great public engagement and investments, we claim that future climate adapted coastlines could be regarded as the next generation of welfare landscapes. By using Køge Bay Beach Park as a lens, we examine the potential perceived spatial qualities of integrating welfare values in coastal adaptation projects. We further discuss how past planning and design practices of welfare landscapes could be revived in the future transformation of Køge Bay Beach Park, and in future coastal climate adaptation projects in general.","PeriodicalId":42146,"journal":{"name":"Architecture and Culture","volume":"10 1","pages":"117 - 138"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44378822","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Warm-Soup Proximity: The Spatiality of Eldercare in Hyper-Aged Japanese Society","authors":"Xiaobo Shen","doi":"10.1080/20507828.2021.2017553","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20507828.2021.2017553","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Why do some people choose to live close to their elderly parents and how do they make sense of it? In Japan, multigenerational co-residence, a cornerstone of eldercare, has been replaced by a residential typology called kinkyo, living nearby. The optimal distance between the homes of family members, defined by the ability to deliver a bowl of soup before it gets cold, is considered a strategy to tackle the population aging. The purpose of this paper is to present a critical assessment of the intergenerational proximity which points to the need for further investigation of the role geographical distancing plays in future city planning. The qualitative data derived from individual narratives of four married daughters in Tokyo were obtained via online and mobile instant messaging interviews, through which real-life kinkyo situations are illustrated.","PeriodicalId":42146,"journal":{"name":"Architecture and Culture","volume":"10 1","pages":"139 - 155"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46582877","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Un-African Aging? Discourses of the Socio-Spatial Welfare for Older People in Urban Zimbabwe","authors":"Chiko Ncube, Tatenda Goodman Nhapi","doi":"10.1080/20507828.2021.2021746","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20507828.2021.2021746","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Global discourse has evidenced that the physical and social environment continues to have a large bearing on how people age, resulting in growing recognition of the socio-spatial needs of older people in urban environments. This article examines the representation of Zimbabwe’s older people, a subject that has rarely been the focus of critical analysis. A sample of national policy documents and media articles were carefully selected and inspected to determine the level of presence of older people’s welfare using discourse analysis. The article shows how the discourses on spaces of welfare for older people in Zimbabwe are layered and multidimensional. This includes challenges of access to spaces of welfare, the abandonment and neglect of older people, as well as the changes to family and community support known as Ubuntu.","PeriodicalId":42146,"journal":{"name":"Architecture and Culture","volume":"10 1","pages":"156 - 173"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47313748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cultural Centers in Hong Kong: Welfare Provision or Economic Instrument?","authors":"M. Yiu","doi":"10.1080/20507828.2021.2020040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20507828.2021.2020040","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract “Cultural center” is a new type of architecture and institution that has emerged since WWII and has become a model for many contemporary cultural institutions. It reflects the physical realization of the European welfare-state cultural policy, especially in Britain and France. With reference to the European cases, this paper examines three major cultural centers in Hong Kong from the 1960s to the present day (City Hall, Hong Kong Cultural Center, and the Xiqu Center at the West Kowloon Cultural District). Employing a socio-spatial approach, the methods include an archival study of government documents and spatial analysis of public space at the selected cultural centers. The paper demonstrates how the positioning of culture has shifted from a public welfare provision into a capital-oriented urban development strategy and, in this context, questions the role of contemporary cultural institutions.","PeriodicalId":42146,"journal":{"name":"Architecture and Culture","volume":"10 1","pages":"58 - 75"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47261216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Staging Openness through Atmosphere at the Oslo Opera House","authors":"Jeremy Payne-Frank, Siri Schwabe","doi":"10.1080/20507828.2021.2016254","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20507828.2021.2016254","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Openness is a term often found in relation with urban development projects that seek to add social value to the built environment, not least within the context of Nordic welfare cities. In this article, we explore the Oslo Opera House (OOH) as an example of contemporary Nordic architecture and interrogate its purported openness through an atmospheric lens. Our study is based on extensive fieldwork and unfolds using three interconnecting generators of atmosphere: materials, light, and movement. We argue that openness is paradoxically shaped through partial atmospheric enclosures, and further suggest that understanding the workings of atmospheres is crucial to coming to terms with how our contemporary urban spaces are produced and experienced.","PeriodicalId":42146,"journal":{"name":"Architecture and Culture","volume":"10 1","pages":"39 - 57"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42865907","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Form Follows People? – Copenhagen’s Ny Nørreport as a Post-Participatory Project","authors":"Nina Stener Jørgensen","doi":"10.1080/20507828.2022.2027637","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20507828.2022.2027637","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Following the dictum: “Form Follows People” two Danish offices used patterns generated from pedestrian movement to create the infrastructural layout when redesigning Copenhagen’s Nørreport train station. A choice that was praised by a unanimous jury and municipal client who were eager to present the winning proposal as being shaped by “the people.” However other readings are possible, the design can also be seen as a striking architectural gesture where the public is both framed as a vital prerequisite yet at the same time as the unaware producers of space. In order to understand this reasoning, this essay looks at the “human oriented approach” the offices adopted for the Nørreport project. This entails discussing the project as somewhat participatory and tracing its references back to the research on pedestrian movement done by Danish architect and urbanist Jan Gehl in the 1960s. An approach that now 50 years later can be seen coinciding with a shift in city planning where municipalities and planning offices readily embrace designing for more loosely defined subjects such as pedestrians or simply “people.” As the argument for the design only formally maintains the social agenda of participation, this essay asks whether the project could instead be read in terms of system design and its participatory practice understood in a cybernetic sense as feedback and input, and as such, if the project ultimately could be perceived as a “post-participatory” project.","PeriodicalId":42146,"journal":{"name":"Architecture and Culture","volume":"10 1","pages":"21 - 38"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42657942","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}