DEGREE PROJECT IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT, SECOND CYCLE, 15 CREDITS STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN 2018 Urban movers – elevated railway structures and urban life HANS VILJOEN TRITA TRITA-ABE-MBT-18414 KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT www.kth.se urban movERS ELEVATED RAILWAY STRUCTURES AND URBAN LIFE Hans Viljoen 2 3 abstract index Elevated railway structures (ERS) urban type, an infrastructural type 1. BACKGROUND has for more than a century been and other typologies. 39 types of evolving as an urban archetype. Pre- ERS interventions are described as 2. PROBLEMATISING ERS sent in various forms in cities across the result of a global literary and ex- the globe, to transport the increasing periential search of various instances 3. THEORISING ERS URBAN MOVERS number of citizens, ERS are urban in- of ERS and projects that seek their ELEVATED RAILWAY frastructures that perform a vital role urban integration. It is a search for 4. POTENTIALISING ERS STRUCTURES AND in curbing congestion and pollution the potentials of ERS to contribute URBAN LIFE that plague cities so often. In spite of to urban life and urban form, beyond 5. CONCLUSION their sustainable transport benefits, their main transport function - po- First published in 2018. ERS are often viewed negatively as tentializing ERS. 6. REFERENCES written by Hans Viljoen. noisy, ugly and severing urban form, amongst other problems which will #elevated railway structures, 7. PICTURE CREDITS contact: [email protected] be elaborated on - problematising #elevated transit structures, #urban ERS. A theorisation of these prob- typologies, #urban infrastructures, Final presentation: 07.06.2018 #transport, #railways Examiner: Tigran Haas lems follows, looking at ERS as an Supervisor: Ryan Locke AG218X Degree Project in Urban Studies, Second Cycle 15.0 credits Master’s Programme in Urbanism Studies, 60.0 credits School of Architecture and the Built Environment KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden Telephone: +46 8 790 60 00 Cover image. ‘Drone views of Long Bien Bridge’, (Phillipe Lé, 2014) 4 5 background FIELD SKETCH - ARRIVING IN where I am immersed in the reality of The Hanoi Metro is currently URBAN INFRASTRUCTURES ASIA (BANGKOK & HANOI) Bangkok traffic beneath the railway - under construction. Eight routes a fast flow of motorbikes, cars, buses, are planned, of which the first line With the urbanization and den- Having set foot in Asia for the trucks and pedestrians confined to is scheduled to open in November sification of people, comes the infra- first time, my first experience outside narrow sidewalks shared with ven- 2018. (Hanoimetro n.d.) Construc- structures necessary to service them. one of the Bangkok airports, (after dors and parked bikes. The pres- tion on a second line is well un- These infrastructures are often large- a quick encounter with the tropical, ence of the concrete elevated railway derway and this line is scheduled scale centralized, engineered projects humid heat outside one of the exits) structures are overhead are an inte- to open in 2021. The system is an that feed cities with water, power, is the BTS skytrain ride into the city. gral part of the image of Bangkok’s elevated rail system. Most people in transport, treat their waste, etc. Infra- At first perplexed by the queue that urbanity and experience. Hanoi currently get around using structures are often inaccessible and formed at the station, I would later motorcycles. There are around five hidden from view from citizens. Infra- come to understand that the density HANOI METRO million motorcycles on the roads of structures are seldomly ‘made architec- of people in this city requires such Hanoi, causing heavy traffic conges- tural’, like other city-building projects choreography. The air-conditioned It was in Hao Nam (a wide double tion and pollution at times. The de- are. Transport infrastructures permit train is a relief against the heat and street in Dong Da, Hanoi), amidst many partment of transport wants to ban a slightly closer interaction with citi- I am surprised that despite this heat, music instrument shops, the Vietnam motorcycles and scooters by 2030. It zens, since they move along them, on there is no smell of sweat. The name National Academy of Music and the Vi- aims to do so with the introduction foot and in private and public vehicles. Ratchapraprop sounds familiar and etnam National Institute of Culture and of a BRT system and the new Hanoi Streets have been studied extensively in I head there, later doubting my Art Studies, that I first encountered the Metro (Hodal 2017). the urbanism and planning discourse. memory, I got off at a station, I bat- elevated structure of the Hanoi Metro Although the metro system should Elevated railway systems (ERS) have tle myself and my luggage through (Line 2A, near La Thanh station). Large free-up schedules, provide safe, quiet recently become focus features of ur- the densely peopled train. Again the concrete columns rise from rubbled traf- and cool transport to those who can af- ban, architectural and landscape pro- heat and a crowd of people at each fic islands to carry the heavy concrete ford to use the metro, this system also jects, notably the Highline project in point along the platform where the beams, tracks and eventually trains with in a sense restricts movement along New York and similar. However, these train doors will open. I am anxious commuters above. These traffic islands the lines it operates. Together with the projects happened at abandoned sites, about the entry squeeze and real- - post-construction sites - will likely be proposed ban on motorcycles, it will while the discussion is moving towards ize that I might have to wait for the filled with plants. However, especially also impose on Hanoians’ freedom of functional ERS and how these could second train to come. The view from within this arts and cultural context, movement. When considering urban become ‘architectural’ and ‘urban’. the elevated station allows one to could the Hanoi Metro structures not development, land and housing costs, see across this part of the city with become something more? Could the etc. the metro is also likely to inflate plenty trees and tall buildings. After context around the metro lines not in- the cost of owning and renting space a ramped exchange from one station fluence and differentiate the relentless around its stations, as it happened in to another, I get down to the street sameness of these metro structures? other cities like Bangkok. New elevated railway in Hao Nam, Hanoi, Vietnam. Author 2018. 6 7 problematising elevated railway structures Within existing research, ERS are problem 2 - Neglected / residual / areas were space is limited. For growth signing viaducts simultaneously with problem 4 - Dividing / segregating Research Question problematized in various modes: land- left-over spaces to take place in the same geographic the spaces beneath them. The authors scapes with a negative effect on the area, activities need to happen at dif- analyse theoretical urban planning Transport systems that use elevated The four-pronged problema- image of the city (Hormigo & Mori- Elevated railway structures by be- ferent heights or at different times. The approaches; they apply the concept of railways are sometimes criticised for tization of elevated railway struc- to 2004), residual or left-over spaces ing separated from the ground, allow infrastructures that perform this dis- mixed-use development to elevated segregating and gentrifying communi- tures could show the way to better (Qamaruz-Zaman, et al 2013; Shi for a free-flow of trains without in- tinction cause functional separations transport infrastructures by defining ties and neighbourhoods. The process urban integration of these struc- 2016), mono-functionality (Gabrielle terruption by traffic on the ground. and spatial interruptions in their sur- criteria for functional diversity and of their construction often require ac- tures. The question becomes - in et al 2016), urban segregation (Jensen They also span across b o u n d a - roundings. Gapspaces interrupt con- apply these criteria to three projects. quisition of land and the landowners what ways can elevated railway 2007; Karis 2017) ries like rivers and valleys or existing tinuity, either spatially, temporally or (Gabrielle et al 2016:2). The criteria: 1) are not necessarily fairly compensated. structures become better inte- roads, rails and highways. The spaces functionally. Gapscapes, in turn, are combining at least two functions at the The cost of using the rail system also grated within urban contexts and problem 1 - Un-architectural infra- beneath these elevated structures are the landscapes consisting of gapspac- same place; 2) physical integration, 3) excludes people without the means to become productive to urban life? structure however often neglected, left-over and es. (Hormigo & Morita 2004:182). functional integration, 4) construction pay regularly for tickets. The Bang- What kind of interventions can residual that could be utilized by citi- The authors construed a typology of according to a coherent masterplan kok Skyrail is one such example that remedy the problems of mono- Infrastructures are often engi- zens. A study of left-over space beneath 16 types along the JR Yamanote line (Gabrielle et all 2016:4-5). They apply was investigated by Jensen (2007) as disciplinary design, residual spac- neered and planned with a purely two flyovers in Kuala Lumpur was in Tokyo. These types considered per- these criteria in a comparative analysis much more than just an infrastructure es, mono-functionality and segre- functional purpose. This limits the po- conducted in 2013 (Qamaruz-Zaman, meability and interactivity between of three ERS renovation projects in project to overcome traffic congestion gation in both existing ERS and tential of urban structures to contrib- et al). The researchers found various gapscapes and the city (Hormigo & Europe (Issy-les-Moulineaux, Zurich and pollution.