Copenhagenization / Bicycle-Friendly Infrastructure

Cycling in Copenhagen has become an essential means of transportation and a dominating feature of the urban cityscape, often a powerful visual attribute with cycling popularity leading to congested bike paths throughout the day. The capital city - a city with more bicycles than people - has earned a reputation as one of the most (possibly the most) bicycle-friendly cities in the world. Starting in the 1960s, Copenhagen experienced a decline in utility cycling due to increasing wealth and affordability of motor vehicles. Consequently, with the energy crisis and the growing environmental movement in the 1970s, cycling experienced a renaissance. Danes were restricted in how much they could use the automobile, forcing commuters to began a campaign for better alternative infrastructure and cyclist-friendly policies. Today, the city boasts more than 200 miles of bicycle lanes, with 55% of its 1.8 million inhabitants riding a bike daily (37% from Greater Copenhagen). The city's success in bicycle use can be contributed to a variety of favorable cycling conditions — dense urban proximities, short distances and flat terrain — along with an extensive, well-designed system of wide cycle paths that are often safely separated from main car traffic lanes and occasionally have their own signal systems.

In recent years, Copenhagen has continued to support urban programs that will only help expand the city's sustainable transportation trend. Programs such as an urban bicycle-sharing initiative, a system of 1,000 publically-accessible bicycles - referred to as Bycykler (English: City Bikes) - throughout the city. The scheme would be the world's first large-scale urban bike-share program featuring specially-designed bikes with parts that could not be used on other bikes. The system, funded by commercial sponsors, allows riders to pay a refundable deposit at one of 100 special bike stands and have unlimited use of a bike within a specified area. Also, the City of Copenhagen is currently underway on an extensive network of bike lanes to extend farther out into the suburbs. A network of 13 high-class routes - 'bicycle superhighways' - dedicated to reducing traffic and increase the percentage of suburban commuters cycling to and from the city to over 50 percent. The proposed bike highways will be dotted with pit stops where it will be possible for cyclists to pump their tires and fix their bike chains, as well as synchronized traffic lights prioritizing bicycles over cars, bringing riders from the suburbs into Copenhagen safely and more efficiently.

The term Copenhagenization is a current concept in urban planning and design that relates to the implementation of better pedestrian facilities and segregated bicycle facilities for cycling in cities. Copenhagen's well-developed bicycle culture has given rise to the term, focusing city transport on pedestrian and cycling, rather than the car, and the benefits for street life and the natural environment, the health and fitness of citizens, and the level of amenity in cities. Originally coined by architect Jan Gehl, Urban design consultant and journalist Mikael Colville-Andersen, would popularize the term in this meaning to a broader audience, starting in 2007 with the Copenhagenize blog, that highlights how the bicycle can be an important tool in the creation of livable cities. Currently, this practice has been introduced in other cities - adopting Copenhagen-style bike lanes and bicycle infrastructure - in areas such as Melbourne, as well as New York City Department of Transportation's attempt to re-imagine city streets by introducing designs to improve life for pedestrians and cyclists.

Danish bike culture was put on the world's stage with BIG Architect's Danish pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. The pavilion was designed as a traffic loop created by the motion of city bikes and pedestrians tied in a knot, allowing visitors to gain the experience of urban cycling in Copenhagen by taking one of its 300 free city bikes along the cycle paths which are incorporated throughout the structure. The pavilion’s theme Welfairytales (Welfare + Fairytales) re-launched the bicycle in Shanghai as a symbol of lifestyle and sustainable urban development. When the Expo closed, the pavilion was planned to be moved to another site in Shanghai and function as a transfer point for Shanghai’s new city bikes.

BIG's Denmark Pavilion, Shanghai Expo 2010 — BIG's Denmark Pavilion, Shanghai Expo 2010

Birmingham, UK / Global City, Local Heart

On a day trip to the city of Birmingham in England, intent on seeing the Bullring shopping centre and Future Systems' Seifridges building, I had discovered a large construction project underway in Centenary Square - the largest public square in the heart of Birmingham. Interestingly, this urban square hosts, or adjoins, numerous performance halls and cultural institutions of the city: The Repertory Theatre, Symphony Hall, International Convention Centre (ICC), Town Hall, Central Library, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and the Baskerville House (Civic Centre). Originally designed in the early 20th century, the city council envisioned this area as a grand civic scheme - an urban territory for grand buildings and significant institutions. Today, Birmingham has grown to the second largest British city outside the capital London, densifying the urban core and expanding its metropolitan limits. The growing city fabric and condension of the city's cultural institutions has created a lack of cohesion and clear identity on Centenary Square, creating a strip-mall of grand buildings with little connection to the surrounding city.

The library as viewed from Centenary Square / August 2011 — The library as viewed from Centenary Square / August 2011

View towards the East of Centenary Square, Symphony Hall

When the Birmingham Central Library decided on relocating due to physical restraints, the original plan was to build a new library in the emerging Eastside district by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, focused on urban linkages and public activity. However, financial concerns and reservations about the location would sink the project. Years later, a new site would emerge on Centenary Square, between the Repertory Theatre and Baskerville House, as the new home for the library. Shrouded in banners proclaiming "Birmingham: Global City, Local Heart", the project is viewed by council leaders as the "the flagship for the regeneration of Birmingham", hoping to highlight the city's intellectual and cultural credentials and draw more visitors to the city. Nearing completion by 2013, the Library of Birmingham will tower over Centenary Square with capacity to accommodate more than three million visitors a year, making the structure Britain's largest public library and a clear sign of the continuing global renaissance in the construction of grand civic building. The architects of the project, Mecanoo, explains that their design, projecting a delicate glass/filigree skin inspired by the artisan tradition of the industrial city, will "transform the square into one with three distinct realms: monumental, cultural and entertainment."

You can checkout a flythrough video of the project design here.

London / Preparing for the 2012 Olympics

The 500 acre Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford (July 2011)

In 2005, the International Olympic Committee decided that London will serve as the host city for the Games of the XXX Olympiad, the Summer Olympic Games of 2012, defeating proposals from Moscow, New York City, Madrid and Paris after four rounds of voting. The successful bid, which focused on sustainability and reuse, was headed by former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe. This will make London the first city to hold the modern Olympic Games three times, having hosted the games previously in 1908 and 1948. The Olympic win prompted a redevelopment of many of the areas of London in which the games are to be held (the vast majority of events will be held in a regenerated area in East London), while the budgetary considerations have generated some criticism.

The 2012 Olympic Games will use a mixture of new venues, existing and historic facilities, and temporary facilities, some of them in well-known locations such as Hyde Park and Horse Guards Parade. In the wake of the problems that plagued the Millennium Dome, the organisers' intention is that there will be no problems after the Games and instead that a "2012 legacy" will be delivered. Some of the new facilities will be reused in their Olympic form, while others, including the 80,000 seat main stadium, will be reduced in size or relocated elsewhere in the UK. The plans are part of the regeneration of Stratford in east London which will be the site of the Olympic Park, and of the neighbouring Lower Lea Valley.

The Olympic Zone will encompass all of the facilities within the 500 acre Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. This park is being developed on existing waste and industrial land and will be an estimated seven minutes by the new Olympic Javelin train from central London. This new development in Eastern London has required the compulsory purchase of some business properties, which are being demolished to make way for Olympic venues and infrastructure improvements. This has caused some controversy, with some of the affected proprietors claiming that the compensation offered is inadequate. In addition, concerns about the development's potential impact on the future of the century-old Manor Garden Allotments have inspired a community campaign, and the demolition of the Clays Lane housing estate was opposed by tenants, as is that of Carpenters Estate.

As many are unaware, the costs of hosting the Games are separate from those for building the venues and infrastructure, and redeveloping the land for the Olympic Park. While the Games are privately funded, the venues and Park costs are met largely by public money. In Spring of 2007, the government announced to thea budget of £5.3 billion ($8.7 billion) to cover building the venues and infrastructure for the Games. On top of this, various other costs including an overall additional contingency fund of £2.7 billion, security and policing costs of £600 million, VAT of £800 million and elite sport and Paralympic funding of nearly £400 million. According to these figures, the total for the Games and the regeneration of the East London area, is £9.345 billion ($15.3 billion). The costs for staging the Games are funded from the private sector by a combination of sponsorship, merchandising, ticketing and broadcast rights. This budget is raised and managed by the London 2012 Organising Committee. According to Games organisers.