Dam Square

FINAL REVIEW

Come out to see our final review: Manifesto and individual presentations.

December 17, 2010

Meyerson Hall, U Penn Campus (34th and Walnut)

Lower Gallery

11am-6pm

Place de la Republique - Paris, France

In a city of tourists, Place de la Republique is a respite for the locals. Once teaming with urban life, it is now cut off by the seven lanes of traffic that encircle it. The square has become a secluded island in a sea of cars, visited only by those brave enough to cross the street. Actions need to be taken to recover this great urban square to improve the quality of life for the three neighborhoods that surround it.

Trafalgar Square

Showtime Trafalgar!

Aquatic Trafalgar!

Piazza Venezia

This quadrangle shaped plaza, located at the foot of the Campidoglo hill and dominated by the majestic Palazzo Venezia and the imposing Vittoriano memorial, is considered to be the heart of Rome. Surrounded by the most unique bits of history this square has the potential to act as some vast outdoor museum-it in fact is bounded by the area of forti (roman forums), the campidiglio , and looks into the Colosseum at the palatine hill– yet now serves as one of the busiest traffic squares in the city.

Rather than being overpopulated by motorbikes, cars, and buses, which has turned it into a not pedestrian friendly space, the vastness of the square plus the dominance of the imposing surrounding buildings are what make the square not be so digestible at the human scale. Considering the fact that throughout Rome’s history, city planners have always tried to maintain both physical and symbolic connections between ancient and modern, now the design challenge is how to redefine a more pedestrian friendly urban space which encompasses both old and new within it.

Piazza San Marco

Venice hosts 12 million visitors a year. Piazza San Marco has always been at the heart of the city. High tides flood the plaza over a hundred times a year. The city of Venice installs temporary walkways in high traffic areas when the city is flooded. Can these temporary structures be made a more permanent part of the plaza? Can they function on multiple levels? Can the high tides become celebrated (rather than dreaded) events allowing for a new experience in San Marco?

Grand Place

The Grand Place or Grote Markt in Dutch was once a thriving outdoor market where craft, trade, and politics all basked in the spotlight of urban glory. The highly ornate gothic facades were first home to affluent guilds such as the cabinet makers, the brewers, and the masons among others. Throughout the years these monuments evolved to include tenants such as the Duke of Brabant, Marx and Engels, and more recently the Museum of the City of Brussels. The plaza has also shifted in function over the course of 500 years from a market, execution, and festival ground to its current day persona of an open air museum. Aside from yearly programming such as a small winter ice rink, a weekend concert or two, and the 2-day flower carpet installation, the Grand Place above all else is a place to take a picture. The ornament, in all its grandeur, height, and inertia, commands our attention. This project is about softening the grips of this command and assigning the visitor a part to play once again.

Dam Square

A vision for an improved Dam Square in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Puerta del Sol

The Puerta del Sol is situated to be the most prominent square in Madrid, in terms of location and historic importance. It currently suffers from not only a lack of cohesion and order, but it has no visual identity, nor amenities such as seating to keep users there. The new design proposal seeks to remedy these problems, among others.

Final Project Teasers

A mixture of our design ideas from our last review until now. We're coming down to the wire: final presentations are on December 17th!

Please comment on any of the projects if you feel inclined!

Stayed tuned over the next day as each student gives you a taste of what is to come....

studio distractions

Midterm 2

To introduce you all to our manifesto concept:

Stay Tuned.

Final Review

Don't be a square, come to our FINAL REVIEW!

When: Friday, December 17th, 11:00AM - 6:00PM
Where: Lower Gallery, Meyerson Hall

Midterm 1

The decided format of our unorthodox midterm is as follows:

Drawings are primarily comparative analysis of the ten squares.

There will be scale models of each square for spatial comparison.

A short video will introduce the manifesto, followed by a formal presentation.

Afterwards, discussion and critique of the manifesto will occur.

The advantage of this is that, as landscape architecture students, our minds are in design mode. It is beneficial to take a step back, shift gears and think in a different way. As one of our professors said, "You all know how to design, you need to learn how to think more."

Days (and hours) leading up to the midterm:

Manifesto Time

The structure of this studio is a bit different in that, up until the midterm, our focus was solely on the creation of a manifesto. This manifesto outlines the reasons WHY the historic European square should be changed. Stay tuned for our full manifesto, but in the meantime...process:

propaganda

one of many, many manifesto meetings

(this one took 8 hours I believe)

Draft #10?

Fearless leader

brainfood (local beer...sustainable of course)

more propaganda

Class Trip

To better understand squares, both historic and contemporary, our professor Jerry Van Eyck took us to the Netherlands and Belgium. Cities visited include Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Brussels. Throughout the week-long trip we met with various professionals in the design field to help us better understand public space in these areas. After this trip, we all spent a few days in our squares to better understand them through site inventory and analysis.

Album dropping this spring

Jump

Jump

Fries in Rotterdam

Fun in Theatre Square, Rotterdam

Prom photo!

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Selection of Squares!

Am Hof - Vienna

Trafalgar Square - London

Rossio Square, Lisbon

Puerta del Sol - Madrid

Plaza Venezia - Rome

Marienplatz - Munich

Place de la Republique -Paris

Piazza San Marco - Venice

The Dam - Amsterdam

Grand Place - Brussels

Syllabus

Ten landscape architecture students were chosen to participate in The Square Project. Led by landscape architect Jerry Van Eyck, we began only knowing that we would eventually redesign a historic European Square.

See the full syllabus we were provided with here.