Archive for the 'english' Category

This is another reading response for the course Urban Design Theory given by David Monteyne at the University of Calgary.

The major theme I got from this week’s texts is the social meaning of urban space and the collective construction (or deprivation) of place. Norberg-Schulz [1] gives a philosophical account of what the essence of a place might be. Relph [2] and Oldenburg [3] problematize the impoverishment of public space and place in North America. Massey [4] provides a more critical and global understanding of place, whereas Hayden [5] sees urban place as a space for public history. Along these readings, I will discuss in the following a) how place can be conceptualized and b) how place should be transformed for the better. Read the rest of this entry »

This is another reading response for the course Urban Design Theory given by David Monteyne at the University of Calgary.

The readings I have chosen for this week are about the ecological, social, and participatory aspects of urban planning and design. A common theme–which may be utterly obvious–is that urban (design) processes are complex and are therefore to be treated by designers and planners with great care and compassion. While this complexity may call for professionals, I argue that it requires the public as protagonists not mere participants. At the end of this little text I argue for an–also possibly utterly obvious–intervention that integrates those aspects. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a reading response for the course Urban Design Theory given by David Monteyne at the University of Calgary.

Reading Hodge’s chapter [1] on the Modern history of Canadian city design, I wonder whether planning for a longer term is actually possible. Past planners couldn’t anticipate subsequent developments—like automobiles, urban expansions, and suburbanization—and I am not sure if we can approximate socio-economic and transportation developments over the next years. However, today’s planning decisions will have significant impact on how the cities of the future look, feel, and live like. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a reading response for the course Urban Desgin Theory given by David Monteyne at the University of Calgary.

The main theme throughout the readings for me was the significance and the divergent interpretation of open streets and squares as public spaces. It was particularly interesting to read how Baudelaire (as discussed by Berman [4]) sees Paris’ boulevards as a place where people of different classes would eventually come together again, whereas Engels understood Manchester’s thoroughfares as a “hypocritical plan” to hide the misery and poverty present in workers’ districts [1]. What troubled me reading this, is that his description of how Manchester is structured along class divisions, still applies to most cities of the world. People living in gated/suburban communities and those living in poorer neighbourhoods are not really bumping into each other on great common boulevards—instead, they probably stand bumper to bumper separated by steel, glass, fumes and noise. Read the rest of this entry »

Being rather busy these days with course readings and other stuff i tend to neglect this little blog of mine and indirectly you, dear readership. I’m sorry for that. But i have to tell you: the courses are really interesting. I am taking Social Contexts of Technology given by Patrick Feng and Urban Design Theory by David Monteyne. So to let you in on what the readings are about, i’m going to post some of my responses onto this blog. Thematically this fits in with what i was blogging about in the past and otherwise it is always nice to reuse material. So stay tuned.

The duck has posted some photos of our apartment on Flickr in a panomara style. We really like it there sitting in the Poäng, having a nice view and living in the center of Calgary.

Please, excuse if this blog comes down to a place of personal ranting, however, dear readership, as an auto-therapeutic practice preventing further harm or damage i need to share my frustration about the website of Calgary’s transportation company with you. I have written it all up as a customer feedback email, that i actually sent them.

Dear web team of Calgary Transit,

I value very much the existence of public transport, even when there may be some service irregularities, and I think Calgary Transit is a valuable part of the city’s life. However the CT website has very fundamental shortcomings. In fact, looking up connections and bus schedules on the CT website is an extraordinarily frustrating experience. Being forced to enter bus stops or road names in a specific way and even when entered correctly being told that there are technical difficulties is just not acceptable. Furthermore the site is very slow and it is not possible to bookmark certain connections or bus stops. There are many other things I could mention, but I am certainly not the first one to complain. I just don’t understand how Calgary Transit - the transport company of such an economically thriving city - gets by with this kind of service. What are the plans? When will this problem be solved? Would you consider putting the route data on Google Transit? I would really appreciate any clarifying answers on this. Thank you.

Today i received again an email from ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) with the subject line “An Invitation to Join ACM”. Before this, i have received numerous of those as postal letters as well as emails. This is probably caused by attending an ACM conference last year. I managed to stop getting the paper versions, but it seems as if my plea for removing my email address from ACM’s database was unheard. I never ticked a checkbox somewhere asking for monthly “invitation” emails and letters. Why is there no easy way of stopping them?

This rather annoying member recruitment practice is only a small thing that makes me feel pity and at the same time slight disgust for the organization that represents so many computer science students and professionals. Academic values like advancing the field for the sake of humanity and sharing knowledge in an open fashion seem to be replaced by careerism and exclusive content — which is ironically only accessible via horrible interfaces such as the ACM digital library. Can you believe people being lured into becoming an ACM member with a flip-flop calculator? It just seems a bit surreal.

It’s not the yearly fee that keeps me from joining. It just doesn’t appeal to me becoming a member of a cheesy elite club, that has little to do with educational, egalitarian, or emancipatory values that i would rather see embraced in computer science and academia in general. ACM is a member-based organization and ultimately — if the members choose so — it can be transformed. I sure hope it does soon.

PS: while i pick here on ACM, the critique probably equally applies to the IEEE Computer Society and the many profit-driven publishers.

Web comics are a great way to escape the dullness of work for a moment. If you’re just starting to read a comic that has been around for some time, it is actually possible to spend an afternoon enjoying the development of characters’ personalities and the comic artists’ drawing skills while clicking through hundreds of comic strips. For the geeks, bicycling aficionados, and hip indie rockers among my dear readership, i can heartily suggest taking a look at xkcd, Yehuda Moon, and Questionable Content. Take your time.

Yesterday we took our bikes and left all concrete behind to have a picknick along the river of the city we inhabit. Although windy and cloudy at first, it turned into an enjoyable evening. The girls and social scientists teams won in Boule against the teams of the boys and engineers–if you permit fuzzy borders and some overlap. Thanks everybody for joining in. Uwe found it to be a paradise-like place and took some beautiful photos.