Aalborg Universitet Shrinking Cities or Urban Transformation Laursen, Lea Louise Holst Publication date: 2009 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication from Aalborg University Citation for published version (APA): Laursen, L. L. H. (2009). Shrinking Cities or Urban Transformation. Institut for Arkitektur og Medieteknologi. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. ? Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. ? You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain ? You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us at [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from vbn.aau.dk on: September 25, 2021 SHRINKING CITIES OR URBAN TRANSFORMATION! PhD-thesis submitt ed for assessment at the Doctoral School of Planning and Development, The Faculti es of Engineering, Science and Medicine, Aalborg University Shrinking Citi es or Urban Transformati on! © Lea Louise Holst Laursen, Department of Architecture and Design, Aalborg University, 2008 Number printed: 15 SYNOPSIS Shrinking Citi es or Urban Transformati on is a PhD-thesis conducted at the Depart- ment of Architecture and Design, Aalborg University in the period 2004-2008. The PhD concerns the spati al changes that emerge in contemporary urbanity. Con- temporary urbanity can among others be characterized as both growing and declin- ing. On the one hand, a concentrati on of the urban into a highly urbanized nodal point is happening and on the other a deconcentrati on of the urban fabric in declin- ing territories is taking place. The starti ng point for the dissertati on is the term shrinking citi es, which has been introduced to describe the declining territories. This term is investi gated resulti ng in a questi oning of the term. This questi oning of the term brings about a further theoreti cal investi gati on of growth and decline and the underlying trends. Follow- ing the theoreti cal investi gati ons an empirical investi gati on of the cases Balti more and Denmark is conducted. This shall shed light upon whether the theoreti cal as- sumpti ons correspond to what is happening in the real world. The introducti on of the term urban transformati on is the result of these investi ga- ti ons and a response to shrinking citi es. Urban transformati on is a holisti c and rela- ti onal concepti on embracing both growth and decline. Thus, the urban landscape can be described as a conglomerate containing built-up and open spaces as well as urban growth and urban decline. Following the theoreti cal and empirical analysis the thesis enters into a focus of how to handle negati ve urban development. This concerns the investi gati on of design interventi ons conducted in the two cases Denmark and Balti more. These investi ga- ti ons are then transformed into a guiding model for how to handle shrinking citi es. This frame consists of fi ve overall themes: multi functi onal landscapes, soft tools, pragmati c soluti ons, strategic soluti ons and, arhcitecture and design and approach- ing the fi eld of negati ve urban development by encompassing the following issues: working overall strategically and locally with the place-based potenti als; to combine the local space pioneers with overall policies, to combine politi cal will with the use of place-based potenti als, to work in between phasing out and development, to create disti ncti on and add new energy. READING DIRECTIONS The PhD-thesis is divided into a total of seven parts. The fi rst part is denoted preface and concerns the introductory steps, with the introducti on, the research questi on and the research methodology. The second part of the thesis is called theoreti cal investi gati ons and covers the theoreti cal off set of the thesis. The third part cov- ers the development of an analysis model by which I analyze my cases. The fourth part is denoted diagnosis and covers the case study analysis, investi gati ng whether the term shrinking citi es is what we experience in real life. The fi ft h part concerns the introducti on of a new theoreti cal off set, where the term urban transformati on is introduced. Part six is called interventi on and starts with a descripti on of inter- venti ons conducted in Denmark and Balti more leading into the constructi on of a model for how to handle negati ve urban development. The seventh and fi nal part is named closure and concerns concluding remarks. Notes are placed in the end of the thesis numbered 1, 2, 3 and so forth, correspond- ing with a number in the text. References follow the author-date style also known as the Harvard referencing style. Here references are placed in the text by using brackets wherein the author’s name followed by the year of the publicati on is placed, being part of the sentence. If it is a direct citati on, the reference will consist of the author’s name, year of pub- licati on and page number. Finally, if it is quotati on from an already published text, the text will be surrounded with quotati on marks “… “, followed by a bracket with the author’s name, year of publicati on and page number. Websites are referenced in the text by author or organizati on followed by the year in which the material was posted on the web. These references correspond to the bibliography placed at the end of the thesis. Here each publicati on and website is situated with full publicati on data. The bibli- ography is listed alphabeti cally and when there are more publicati ons by the same author, these are listed chronologically, with the most recent ones on top. Finally, each illustrati on and each fi gure is numbered. These numbers correspond with a list of fi gures and a list of illustrati ons also placed at the end of the thesis. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is the result of four years of ‘on and off ’ research interrupted by the birth of my son, among other things. The research has been an interesti ng journey which has covered a lot of ground both regarding content and geographical placing. As the thesis shows, I have moved from focusing exclusively on shrinking citi es to see- ing urban shrinkage in a dynamic relati on with urban growth, talking about urban transformati ons. Geographically, my base has been my litt le offi ce in the depart- ment of Architecture and Design; but I have also been fortunate enough to be able to seek inspirati on and knowledge elsewhere, while being a visiti ng scholar at both Humboldt University in Berlin and Columbia University in New York. In relati on to the research I have conducted, there are a number of people I would like to thank. First of all, a special thanks to Professor Gitt e Marling, for stepping in and being my supervisor, commenti ng on all my work and giving useful feedback. Also thanks to Ellen Braae, my fi rst supervisor, who unfortunately got a new job in the middle of the process. In regards to my visits to foreign universiti es I would like to thank all the people I have been talking to, and especially, I would like to thank four persons. Thanks to Christi ne Hannemann at Humboldt University for making it possible for me to go to Berlin and introducing me to all the German shrinking citi es research. Thanks to Klaus Overmeyer for an interesti ng conversati on. Thanks to Robert Beauregard from Columbia University for letti ng me come to New York and contributi ng with great input. Also thanks to Neil Brenner from New York University for opening my eyes to a more criti cal view on shrinking citi es. A warm thanks to all my colleagues at the Urban Design Research Group at the department of Architecture and Design, Aalborg University. Here I would like to ad- dress a special thanks to Professor Ole B. Jensen for commenti ng on my work along the process. Also a special thanks to my friend and colleague Lasse Andersson for all the hours we have been talking about our PhD-research, among other things. Further a warm thanks to PhD-fellow Anne Tietjen from Aarhus School of Archi- tecture for interesti ng discussions and a great partnership and also for arranging a course and writi ng a paper together. Finally, a special thanks to my dear family for supporti ng me throughout my work, helping me and relieving me of other things so I could concentrate on working on my PhD thesis. In additi on to this, warm thanks from the heart to Thomas for always believing in me and to my son Marius for making me aware that life is more than work. Department of Architecture and Design Aalborg University November 2008 Lea Holst Laursen TABLE OF CONTENT SYNOPSIS READING DIRECTIONS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENT 0 PREFACE 0.1 SETTING THE SCENE 12 0.1.0 Negati ve Urban Development 12 0.1.1 The Story of Berlin 13 0.1.2 The Story of Shenzhen 17 0.1.3 Berlin and Shenzhen Give Reason for Discussion 20 0.1.4 The Research Process - From Shrinking Citi es to Urban Transformati on 22 0.1.5 The Process of the Research – Diff erenti ated Planning Soluti ons 24 0.1.6 Research Questi on 26 0.1.7 Findings 28 0.2 RESEARCH FOCUS AND METHODOLOGY 29 0.