The Danish capital was endeavouring to be pronounced the world’s best city for cyclists in 2015. The bicycle is already considered to be the obvious means of transport by most Copenhageners because the city council has made a concerted effort to improve the infrastructure, safety and parking facilities for cyclists.
- every day 37% of everybody in Copenhagen arrives at work or education by bicycle.
- 25% of all families with two kids in the city own a cargo bike.
- the 519,000 inner city copenhageners own 560,000 bicycles!
Many people have written about the Green Wave bicycle lane in Copenhagen but few have actually documented it.
This is a long section of it, filmed from a bike. The film doesnt cover the way to the city centre but has instead a sequence of the morning bicycle rush hour. The ride started about 08:15 AM. 08:30-09:00 AM seems to be peak hours, although the flow never really stops.
The city of Hamburg, situated on the banks of the river Elbe, has a population of about 1.8 million and faces numerous metropolitan challenges. However. Germany’s second largest city combines comprehensive approaches, policy commitment and the necessary funding needed to resolve these challenges. On the whole, it has an integrated and participative planning strategy and a strong commitment towards a “green” vision.
GREEN PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP
The city and more than 1000 active business partners have joined forces in a green alliance for environmental protection. The twelve biggest companies will reduce the CO2 emissions with 500.000 tons by 2012.
MASSIVE ENERGY SAVINGS
It should be mentioned that Hamburg has set ambitious climate protection goals such as reducing its CO2 emissions by 40% by 2020 and by 80% by the year 2050. CO2 emissions per person have been reduced by about 15% when compared to 1990, with annual energy savings of some 46,000 MWh, a major achievement for a big city. Energy networks will be put under city administration, and district heating will be provided for 490.000 households.
GREEN PORT
The Port of Hamburg on the river Elbe is Europe’s second largest in terms of number of containers handled. With a growing number of containers entering and leaving the port, expansion is a continuously discussed issue. However, geographical expansion into the surrounding area is, intentionally, just not pursued. Instead, the increasing need for greater capacity is met by making more efficient use of allocated land and by generating new areas through filling-up expendable harbour basins.
The Hamburg Dock Railway will become the largest hub for freight transportation by rail, and container taxi vessels in the port will replace container-handling trucks. One taxi alone replaces 60 trucks. Hamburg will also support green shipping by reducing port fees for environmentally friendly ships.
EXCELLENT PUBLIC TRANSPORT
The city has also achieved high environmental standards and good performance levels in terms of cycling and public transport indicators. Almost all citizens have access to optimal public transport within 300 meters of their given location. There is also a systematic structure for green areas which allow citizens easy accessibility. New suburban and underground train lines, including lines to the port and airport, will be constructed, and there will be a new network of cycle paths.
The City of Hamburg plans to launch a “train of ideas” whereby interested cities within the European Green Capital Award network ‘own’ a wagon and promote their respective green ideas, achievements and future plans. The train will then travel around Europe spreading experience and best practice in an innovative way.
The “Red Line” of Dubai Metro will start operations on 09.09.09, after a construction time of 3,5 years only. It is the first operating Metro System in an Arabic Golf country, while similar Metro projects in Saudi-Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi are still in the planning phase or under construction. Dubai regards today’s achievement as a milestone for a more sustainable development of its city infrastructure. Together with the new tram project and the recently successfully implemented bus routes, Dubai can offer for the first time a comprehensive public transportation system.
The first line of four planned Metro lines has a length of 50 km and was built mainly on Sheikh Zayed Road, the vibrant main road of Dubai, and will connect the International Airport with the central business hubs of the city. When the second “Green Line” will be opened in June 2010, Dubai Metro will be the longest fully automated rail system in the world, overtaking the title from the Vancouver Sky train. The full system will grow to a total length of 318 km in 2020.
On today’s start only 10 of the total 31 stations of the Red Line will be operational. Both tracks are running mainly on elevated viaducts, and underground only in the city centre. All stations, bridges and connected bus terminals are fully air-conditioned, and buses will provide services to reach each station. According to recent press releases the cost of the Project had increased during construction by 80% to approx.
7.5 billion US$.
The Ruhr area is famous for its series of landmarks, created by international artists on top of former mining dumps and in converted industrial buildings. One of the most important artworks is the Tetraeder (Bottrop/Ruhr area), realised by Wolfgang Christ and Jürgen LIT Fischer in the 1990s, during the period of “Strukturwandel” in the Ruhr area. Now the Tetraeder is the focus of attention again, due to an artwork that triggered a huge public discussion in the Ruhr area. The question is: who is allowed to define the public space?
Tetraeder in Bottrop by Wolfgang Christ and Fred F.’s aliens at the foot of the sculpture.
52-year-old Fred F. from Bottrop has created some images of aliens on the platform on top of the mining dump which serves as the base of the Tetraeder. He made them from old stones, which he collected on top of the hill and sorted according to colour (light grey to dark grey). Then he re-decorated the hilltop.
When the Regionalverband Ruhr rebuilt the platform and brought it back to its original state, it caused a landslide of public indignation: Many people in the area are convinced that Fred F.’s aliens were artworks as well.
People jumping around recklessly on avantgarde architecture – what could be more fun? Have a look at the teaser for the upcoming documentary My Playground by Kaspar Astrup Schröder, a film about movement, tricking and parkour in Copenhagen urban spaces, featuring the VM houses by ex-office PLOT and Mountain Dwellings by Bjarke Ingels Group as well as interviews with urban planners, local politicians, architects and philosophers.
More clips will be released during the winter. The film is scheduled to premiere in summer 2009.
Posted by: Scaledenmark
200 wind turbine rotor blades go to the scrapheap in the Netherlands every year, just because they have tiny fissures. When Rotterdam-based 2012 Architects, specialized in re-use projects, found out about this, they thought that there must be some way to give the unwanted polyester blades a second life.
In October their first rotor-blade project was finished: a playground in the north of Rotterdam. It consists of five old rotor blades, neatly sawn into pieces by a ship builder, decorated with colourful stripes and finished off with two F16-bomber cockpits. The blades create a graphic pattern and also form borders between different areas of the playground. Around an existing football pitch, the architects placed four little towers made from the fat ends of the blades: there’s a slide tower, a look-out tower (with the cockpits as lantern room) and a tower incorporating a little windmill, which generates energy for a water pump.
Before the turbine-playground, 2012 Architects designed e.g. a rooftop extension in Amsterdam made from old sinks, a shoe-shop in The Hague, furnished with scrap wood benches and a shelving system made from car windshields, and a coffee-bar for TU Delft made from the front panels of washing machines.
In October their first rotor-blade project was finished: a playground in the north of Rotterdam. It consists of five old rotor blades, neatly sawn into pieces by a ship builder, decorated with colourful stripes and finished off with two F16-bomber cockpits. The blades create a graphic pattern and also form borders between different areas of the playground. Around an existing football pitch, the architects placed four little towers made from the fat ends of the blades: there’s a slide tower, a look-out tower (with the cockpits as lantern room) and a tower incorporating a little windmill, which generates energy for a water pump.
