30 August 2008

Dutch waters


In the Netherlands the water is always present, and the Dutch people has built their identity as they have worked with water to create new land and a society.
Amsterdam, the river by Amstel where they made a dam, is a good example of how urban life and dynamic waterways are connected together in a complex system. And this complexity is present in everything built. Dikes protect the land from the North sea and strong rivers. Canals distribute water with the pressure needed. Houses have to be built on sand layers 11 or 21 meters down and the building of the new Metro is a real challenge as the engineers have to solve the problem of stability in the ground when the ground water is disturbed.

Case I, Cartagena, Colombia


Taxi on the beach.

Cartagena on the Caribbean coast could be an example of how a modern city uses and abuses its waters. The old city is on the World Heritage List, beautifully situated on a narrow peninsula between the mangroove forests and the rough sea. But the city has grown both along the shores and spread on free land inwards. On the shores Cartagena now faces the trouble of land being washed out by the sea, and further in open sewages and contaminated water is a problem both for people and nature.
Despite it´s challenges Cartagena is the pearl of the Caribbean attracting visitors from Colombia and the rest of the world. It has a walled colonial city and a moderne high-rise skyline towards the sea.

Towards the water

Most of the worlds population live by the coast or connected to lakes, rivers or just a source. Water is the source for life, but it also contains an aesthetical meaning. People tend to seek water for it´s reflections of light, it´s movements or it´s sounds. And in many cultures it also bears a religious meaning.

All these people seeking the water has lead to a very high population-density along many coasts or shores. Most of the worlds megacities are found here and even in less populated areas the shores have been used, and very often this is a privatization of the zone closest to the water.

In this blog the public use of the waterfront will be focused on. Public space is created in a constant negotiation between private and public forces, and on these pages there will be a focus on the forces of these dynamics, and how it is solved in planning, architecture and design.