Creativity and Cities

Surprisingly, thursday night i stumbled upon a high quality broadcast. As usual, it was 00.30 (apparently this is the right time for cultural programs on italian television).
It was a documentary about Berlin and its artistic environment. The creativity is definitely having a blooming season there, and it also drives a change in the urban physiognomy of the city.
So terms such as regeneration and gentrification are well known not only for architects, sociologists and urban planners, but they are perceived as crucial processes for the future of the city by large part of the population. Indeed, these changes need to be controlled to avoid areas of the city to become big niche quartiers, inaccessible to most of the population.
Besides the transformation of former popular blocks into hip and expensive residences, another problem linked to the regeneration is the drastic conceptual changes that these areas are facing. For example, for some the quartier of Prenzlauerberg, now famous as the hippest place in the city, has lost its historical roots. It was transformed in something else, with the only purpose to make it cool, without taking care of the original Berlinese spirit that once used to live there.

Here's the doc in three parts

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Waiting for the Karnival

1. Jeg er færdig (i am done) with my semestral project.
2. Perfect song (well, just for the title, and the scandinavian sound) before the famouz Aalborg Karnival. I got the album Life from the Cardigans when I was 13. It was my brother's Christmas present. Ja, I was already a scandinavian fan.



3. So, in this moody lazy afternoon people are busy thinking about their crazy costumes for the parade, while I have found the topic of my Master thesis.
Months ahead yeah, maybe because i have someone close who keeps on saying that one needs to plan...well, I definitely got the Danish-planner way now.
So i'm going to write about a city (maybe Kbh?) and the relation with the musical scene and the impact on its identity. Something within the area called Urban Studies, i guess.
While looking for some literature i have found this American guy who's really into cities :)
He claims that in a globalized world, the place where one decides to live is more and more important. The book is Who's your city? by Richard Florida. I'm curious to read it.
In the meanwhile though, I did a test I've found on his website. The results are not exactely encouraging for me and my future déplacement, but the cities I've considered are quite different in size and they are in different country! So the outcome was fairly obvious. But, somehow it can help having an idea, in particular, if the cities are in the same country, and differences are not due to culture.

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Økoluoghi

In Danish Ecology is Økologi, which is pronounced something like Ökologhi for Italian speakers. If combined to the Italian word luoghi, it becomes Eco-luoghi (in English Eco-places), which is today's news topic.

Last 4th February at the Triennale di Milano an exhibition called Green Life has been opened.
It proposes urbanistic projects developed according to eco friendly principles.
In the smoky and grey city of Milan, this international exhibition shows the example of ten European cities that have already developed, or are about to accomplish, some innovative projects in their urbanistic system. Of course Northern Europe represents the avant-garde. Not only Stockholm and Copenhagen though, but also Hamburg, Friburg, Amsterdam, then down until the closer Salzburg and Vienna.


Unbelievable thinking that Amsterdam has an eco neighborhood with a limited number of cars shared between its inhabitants since 1998. Additionally , those crazy Dutch people want to make their capital the first eco-sustainable city in a few years: the so-called smart city project that has been launched in 2009.
Well...crazy...I'd rather say ambitious. In fact...if they state something, they usually go straight until the end, or at least that's the impression I got until now.

Amsterdam is ages, even decades, ahead of Milan then, which is, at the moment, only the hosting city of such an interesting and innovative exhibition.
We might hope, once again, that the Expo 2015 will give Milan the chance to start an eco project, and long-term ideas will replace the endemic Italian habit to patch things up, barely enough not to sink. Frankly, I'm quite sceptical though: Italy is a still country where personal interests are always more important than collective ones and où on en parle, en parle, mais rien change jamais. As Tommaso di Lampedusa wrote in his masterpiece Il Gattopardo, the principle that rules Italy is: "Cambiare tutto per non cambiare niente" [Changing everything in order to not to change anything]


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