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Underground > Creation >

[sub]URBAN densification - Orlando, FL

AP

20:34 / 12.09.05

anyone interested in urban planning/architecture/city design/suburbia/urbanism or anything else related...

I am interested in articulating the problems of Orlando as a city (and subsequently articulating the "multivalent" issues present in many other cities that follow the post-industrial sprawl archetype that Orlando so wonderfully epitomizes).

This can be done in a variety of media, whether urban masterplan, social critique (writing etc) or anything else you can think of.

AP

14:54 / 13.09.05

or not...

23:24 / 13.09.05

sounds interesting...is it for a competition or something?? I am an architect, if that can be of use, but fortunately/unfortunately am working within the wild west coast of the South Island of New Zealand at the moment...which wouldn't be further away from the suburban, or Gibsonesque sprawl archetype.

AP

20:32 / 14.09.05

not for a competition...I am also [becoming] an architect. The notion is to create a sort of manifesto on what ails this situation and what could possibly fix it. Also, by making it specific to a place (Orlando) I hope to make it actually useful/use-able.

There is an off-shoot of the University of Florida School of Architecture called Citi-Lab Orlando that has begun (I think) to engage in this discussion.

15:22 / 15.09.05

Hmm. Well, it seems like there's been plenty of articulation of the problems of sprawl already. Car culture + air conditioning + lack of public transit/urban center value + valorization of the single family home + profit-driven overdevelopment = subdivision hell.

Orlando really is like the ideal test case for this kind of thing -- it's like ur-sprawl. But I think that was part of the inspiration behind Celebration, right? A small town built to order, from Main Street outward?
I've visited there, and it's creepy as hell, but I do think that as as an alternative to sprawl, it works.

(BTW, if you're thinking more along the lines of an analytical/critical document, it might get more mileage in the Switchboard or Head Shop. It really depends on what you want your end-product to be, though.)

So, uh, what do you want as an end-product? A document stating, "WE BELIEVE..." with lists of solutions?

AP

16:01 / 15.09.05

grant,

New Urbanism gave us Celebration. They have framed the problems in such a way that their proposed way of solving becomes accepted/embraced.

I agree, it's creepy. However, I'm not sure it is in any way a cure or even a treatment. It's a disguised sprawl all of its own.

Maybe my use of the word Manifesto was mis-leading. I just want to focus in on defining the specifics of the issues that you mentioned (and others) as they pertain to Orlando. Perhaps this can be done similarly to the Charter for New Urbanism, but surely that is a greater undertaking than what I am suggesting. Also, my education is in architecture, not urban planning etc, so some guidance in this realm is desired...

It is the duty of architecture to serve the people, as it were. At the moment, New Urbanism has communicated to politicians etc and has therefore exercised a certain degree of power in shaping new development. They have put themselves in the position to 'serve the people.'

Wouldn't it be great if other positions on the subject - that is to say, other ways of solving the problems that ail the contemporary US city - could exercise equal influence?

AP

16:07 / 15.09.05

(thanks grant)

21:14 / 19.09.05

What are the problems?

I mean, from a strictly architectural (or urban planning) standpoint?

AP

14:42 / 20.09.05

NYT

AP

14:54 / 20.09.05

Ecologically: many habits of suburban sprawl and its associated lifestyle are resource draining. Fossil fuels (in construction and during inhabitation), vast ecosystems are destroyed...generally speaking, balance is disturbed.

Socially: people live isolated lives, spend far too much time angry in their cars, and don't typically experience a degree of community worth calling genuine community.

As far as I understand, these are both architectural problems, that is, problems with architectural solutions.

AP

14:58 / 20.09.05

surely the powers that be (and benefit from the current situation) see no problems with it at all. Orlando is economically profitable, but at what expense? There is potential here, but money driven development, ocassionaly wearing the cloak of new urbanism, guides the growth...

AP

18:12 / 20.09.05

the "we believe" list might be nice, actually.

Celebration was created from such a "list" of constraints.

01:23 / 21.09.05

That's kind of what I'm thinking.

Start with problems, then devise solutions....

Tryphena Absent

08:24 / 21.09.05

You might be interested in this: Harlow North is a town being designed to provide solutions to typical sub/urban sprawl.

AP

14:10 / 21.09.05

thanks Nina, that's a very interesting project. All good responses come from well stated problems.

AP

15:20 / 22.09.05

The Orlando Condition is uber-sprawl. That's what I hope to address, that is, how to act (architecturally) in a condition of irreversible sprawl. How can architects and planners respond to this condition? Embracing the inevitable and acting within its constraints requires a degree of creativity far exceeding that of Utopian visions that come from clean slates.

AP

15:22 / 22.09.05

Orlando's Tabula definitely is not Rasa

14:38 / 28.09.05

I'm moving to lock this thread, because I think the duplicate thread in the Head Shop is probably a better starting point.