Posted by: Guiding Architects

Last weekend the annual GA network meeting took place, this time in Barcelona. We had great weather, nice food, long nights, looked at some amazing architecture - and talked about the guiding business, of course.

The network is growing steadily, and at the meeting no less than 6 new members were accepted: GA is now represented in Bilbao, Budapest, Istanbul, New York, Shanghai and Valencia. We’re going global!

Each year, one European city is awarded the title of European Green Capital. The award goes to a city that has a consistent record of achieving high environmental standards; is committed to ongoing and ambitious goals for further environmental improvement and sustainable development; can act as a role model to inspire other cities and promote best practices among other European cities. For 2010, the award goes to Stockholm. So, what has Stockholm done to win this prize?

City development: The city is building two new eco-profile residential areas, using experience gained from eco-profiled Hammarby Waterfront. Located on former brownfields, one of the new areas – Stockholm Royal Seaport – aims at being fossile fuel free by 2030, while the entire city of Stockholm is aiming to achieve this by 2050. Stockholm Royal Seaport is to be a showcase for sustainable urban construction where innovative environmental technology and creative solutions are developed, tested and presented. This city district will be an example for other cities to follow, a world-class environmental urban district.

Biogas is produced in waste water plants, through digestion of organic waste sludge. In Hammarby eco-district, the waste water from a single household produces sufficient biogas forthe household’s gas cooker. Most biogas is, currently, used as fuel in eco-friendly cars and busses. Collection of food waste for biogas production is to increase from 4,500 tonnes to 18,000 tonnes between 2008 and 2012.

Green areas: 90% of the population live less than 300 metres from a green area. This allows for a better, local quality of life, recreation, water purification, noise reduction, and enhanced biodiversity and ecology. Stockholm has 24 official bathing beaches within the city’s boundaries, and several more are planned.

Congestion charge: A congestion charge was introduced in 2006 for cars travelling in and out of the inner city area during daytime hours. The emission reduction levels from congestion taxes was approximately 30,000 tonnes CO2 in the year 2006. Emission levels are down 10-14% and air quality has been improved by 2-10%. Traffic has been reduced by 20%.

Transportation: All inner city buses run on renewable fuels and all subways and commuter trains run on renewable electricity making them an even more environmentally sustainable means of transport. In Stockholm, the number of people cycling has increased by 75% over the past ten years. Stockholm has 760 km of cycle lanes, and more are being built.

Towards a fossil fuel free city: Stockholm has reduced CO2 emissions by 25%, compared to the 1990 levels. Stockholm has the ambitious target of becoming a fossil fuel free city by 2050. 69% of all households have access to district heating – and the share of renewable energy in district heating is nearly 70%.

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/europeangreencapital/green_cities.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEv12li9hyI&feature=player_embedded
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/europeangreencapital/green_cities_submenu/stockholm_2010_2011.html
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/europeangreencapital/docs/about/brochure/egc-brochure-stockholm_en.pdf

Posted By: sights.se

The HafenCity continues to expand from west to east and from north to south. The biggest inner city building site at this time is situated on the 7.9 hectare site that will become Überseequartier. Work at the southern half will commence in 2009, and its northern half will be realised by the summer of 2010.

PRIMARY SCHOOL AT SANDTORPARK
Next to Überseequartier the primary school Am Sandtorpark / Grasbrook by Spengler Wiescholek architects was inaugurated on September 11th. The 5 storeys high structure overlooks the Sandtorpark on the northern side. The 2 storey high recessed multi-purpose hall is situated on the ground floor, together with the Cafeteria and the adjacent kitchen. The natural illumination and ventilation of the internal schoolrooms has been assured through an open, central areaway.

The schoolyard can be found on the rooftop and was constructed as an open courtyard with a tendriled safety fence and a canopy that makes an utilisation even in the rain possible.

The building received the “Umweltpreis” (price for environmental care) in Gold from the HafenCity GmbH for its outstanding environmental qualities.

Posted by:  a-tour

ga-Paris and the Pavillon de l’Arsenal have signed an agreement of collaboration to discover the history of Paris, to analyse the contemporary city and to understand the metropolis of tomorrow.

Created in 1988, the Pavillon de l’Arsenal is a centre for information, documentation and exhibition of urbanism and today’s architecture of Paris, a unique place where the development of the city and the new architectural projects are presented to everyone. More than 300 architectural projects, 940 hectares of ongoing urban operations and six large territories in continuous mutation are introduced to explain the city of today and of tomorrow.

ga-Paris has included the Pavillon in its standard visits. We will also inform our guests of the activities of the Pavillon via our website as well as this blog.

Posted by: ga-Paris

There’s a great new article on Guiding Architects on the website of the Goethe Institut, describing a tour in Berlin with Thomas Krüger of Ticket B and explaining what the aims of our network and guided tours are. And the best thing is: it’s available in English as well as German.

Posted by: guiding-architects.net

From 20 until 22 February, the annual guiding architects network meeting took place, this time in the Ruhr area. We made a little film during the meeting, which gives a nice impression of our members and what we do during the meetings. This time, we held our usual presentations about the past year, talked a lot about the new website and the blog, but also about organizational issues and marketing ideas, we ate some typical Ruhr-area pea soup and finally did a guided tour to local architecture, led by local member Detlev Bruckhoff.

Music partly from “Symphony A40″ by mongkok
Posted by: guiding architects

Network-member a-tour from Hamburg offers two open excursions to Amsterdam and Hamburg in May and June.

The trip to the Netherlands takes place from 5 to 7 June and includes 1 full day and 2 half days of guided tours in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Rotterdam, organized by local network member architour. On the programme are the university campus of Utrecht, housing blocks by MVRDV in Amsterdam-West, the IJ-front of Amsterdam and the inner city of Rotterdam, including Museumpark and Kop van Zuid.

The excursion to Copenhagen will take place from 8 to 10 May and includes 1 full day and 1 half day of guided tours, organized by local network member Scaledenmark. Part of the programme are Amager beach, Holmsbladgade culture house by Dorthe Mandrup, student housing and housing blocks in Ørestad by a.o. Plot, BIG and MVRDV, the opera house and Amerikaplads masterplan by West 8.

Coach transfer from Hamburg is offered for both tours.

For more information about the tours, please contact a-tour: mail@a-tour.de

Photos: Office building Kraanspoor in Amsterdam by OTH Architects (top) and Prism House for Sports and Culture in Copenhagen by Dorthe Mandrup in Copenhagen (bottom).

Posted by: a-tour

Ticket B, our network member in Berlin, organizes a special excursion to Tokyo from 14 to 21 March, 2010.

The excursion will be guided in German and English by Ulf Meyer, a German architecture journalist and Japan-expert who currently teaches at Kansas State University. The programme includes projects by Kenzo Tange, Kisho Kurokawa, Toyo Ito, MVRDV, SANAA, Tadao Ando, Foreign Office Architects, Kengo Kuma, Herzog & de Meuron, but also an early-morning visit of the Tokyo fishmarket and a trip to the town of Kamakura. Individual extensions of the tour to e.g. Kyoto are possible.

For the detailled programme and any other information that you might require, please contact Ticket B: info@ticket-b.de.

Posted by: Ticket B

Façade of department store Bijenkorf (”Beehive”) in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, designed by Gio Ponti in 1969.

Posted by: architour