Public lecture at Rutgers, the State University, sharing impressions from four months sabbatical research across Europe, using the bicycle for lengthy excursion through the metropolitan regions of Vienna/Austria, Budapest/Hungary, and the Ruhr Region in Germany. The focus of the presentation is on underlying cultural narratives that shape planning and design approaches to cultural landscapes within the suburban context.
And actually Annette asked me and I don’t think I need an introduction in this room I would believe I think I know actually if I don’t know you if I don’t know all of you yet I will know you at some point I believe um so my name is W
From Hua I’m a uh professor in the department of landscape architecture and at this time there may even people joining us via Zoom so I know I think Ariana needs to be on Via Zoom hello Ariana good to have you um and um I may probably get going and start my
Conversation about an absolute fabulous time that I had last summer and fall because one of the super amazing things of being a full-time faculty member is you can take a sabatical and the point of a sabatical is to focus on a particular topic and also to allow for
Extended travel to research that topic and uh my sabatical this year was or this semester was on the ideas of exploring cultural landscapes and I went to Budapest Vienna and the rural region and as I said my major mode of transportation is the bicycle in this
Case and that whole of the research was possible only through the active help of my colleagues from the Hungarian University of AG Agriculture and life science the University of Natural Science in the Vienna the Technical University in Vienna the University Alliance Ru and the Mosen shaft so a number of academic and professional
Institutions that were super friendly and making connections and helping me to look beyond my uh my visual understanding and I was able to conduct 25 interviews that informed my visual perception so I will share today my impression Impressions from these three Metropolitan regions and my focus will be on the underlying cultural narratives
That shape planning and design approaches to cultural landscapes within the Suburban context and that talk today is just one milestone in a much longer endeav so I keep on working on this so any thoughts or interesting TI you may have and and any questions you have are really
Welcome because this is not the end of it this is like really diving into it so I appreciate your conversations and oh I totally forgot thank you also to the ruer Center for European studies for co-sponsoring this event and they um also gave us the crackers at the end so
Please hang out a little bit and have a chat and have a nibble on a cheese or something so that’s what they gave us thank you so much um so yes here we go uh so the I focus on Suburbia and this is actually where most people in the United States
Live and where climate change is causing new demands and that’s not anymore just the land the competing land uses of housing roads and commercial use we need more space for flood planes and energy Landscapes and that is an additional competition for land use in the Urban
Fringe in our academic field there is a wellestablished discussion on the topic of Suburbia and on the topic of cultural landscapes my goal is to connect and Link those two conversations because I believe they’re still relatively separate in our field and of course I hope to identify lesson lessons learned
From our travels for New Jersey so first question is what is Suburbia any idea can you give me any answers what is Suburbia you all live there so what is Suburbia most of you do you go to school then so what yes it’s a place without large amounts of work businesses
Or kind of commercial areas andily resal you’re saying primarily residential without businesses other thoughts what Suburbia single family homes as opposed to multif family dwellings simil single family homes are relatively low density yes need more space than an urban environment will allow which means those big box things right the the the big
Um uh those big big warehouses and those kind of things that that they happen in Suburbia because they get more space any other thought yeah like parts of the town where there are houses so outer parts like lower density and outer parts of the town homes and uh so that is yes
That’s describes it relatively well I believe and my follow-up question is to you why do people move to Suburbia why do they do that yep M Maria the lower density and more peace yep Lori family oriented one more Yep schools schools yes good school and school districts that’s the
Thing so it’s about this it’s about these definitions of a good life and interestingly I think there are two reasons why people move to Suburbia the one is with that we just um had like go get out of the city but also move here from rural areas to get access to good
Urban jobs because what we kind of tend to forget that Suburbia is actually a very Urban urbanized space and an urban fun like in a connection and a in a functional connection with the urban centers and in my eyes actually as you know New Jersey is like for me the
Ultimate Suburban State our centers are outside like Philadelphia and New York they’re not within our state and also I guess you all know that New Jersey was in center of early Center of industrialization that’s actually what no one mentioned here like we are the heart of first American industrialization except the the the
Warehouses right you mentioned that but the the uh um early installation here here in New Jersey um but also we are the Garden State and have a large portion of rural areas and this is why people move out move to the peaceful land like already in the 19th century city dwellers
Established Sumer homes or permanent residences seeking a better and healthier life just like we are doing it today this evolved into the single family homes sitting in the American lawn and a pastural landscape with people with no people but Short Grass that’s what I think most of you will agree that these
Images do not show cultural landscapes and is there such a thing as a Suburban cultural landscape to address that question we need to look at the significantly different approaches to the ideas of Nature and Landscape in Europe and North America the United States um of America are strongly influenced by the ideas of
The Age of Enlightenment as we all are aware with a strong focus on individual Freedom the open land is the opportunity to fulfill the individual proceed of Happiness the painting by John Gast right up here um shows that clearly and I think most of you have have have had this panting
In high school like it’s a very very very famous famous image um open land is the promise of freedom and progress leads the way the national park movement as you know of the late 19th century had the goal to preserve the last pieces of open land uh because it was everything
Like when this painting was painted in 1872 most of the American West was divided up it was getting close so the American Park Service had the idea to preserve this vision of the Virgin land and to serve as an aesthetic promise of the land of opportunity at the time when
Most when most of the US territories were already settled many of you may also know the image on the right the so by fra mil illustrating the AGR Romanticism of the 19th century in Europe here we we idealize a landscape that showed the hand of the farmers and
The Craftsmen and that became became an aesthetic ideal inherited land rooted in Tradition this is not about individual freedom of using land rather this image expresses stewardship of inherited land the Traditional landscape tells the story where I come from and where I belong to this way of life and the Pastoral
Landscape came under threat with the upswing of the Industrial Revolution and within this visual system modern industry cities and infrastructure were considered an ugly disturbance just think about all these fights about windmills and how much windmills fit in places so actually I would think I would call the heath Cod Meadow Preserve in
South Brunswick a cultural landscape it’s beautiful it’s pretty and it also offers a glimpse into the rich farming history of this area however the official definition of the National Park Service would not cover that because it requires to be a landscape that holds a significance in American history and it’s authentic to
His historic time period as you all know General Washington crossed the Delaware from Pennsylvania to New Jersey on Christmas 776 to attack the British troops in Trenton so what about the rest of of the land in between like the Delaware Water Gap and Trenton does that not have any
Meaning what about these people whose Heritage does not link them to the white males fighting the British these questions about the American cultural landscapes are guiding my research so and for for the traveling part of research I developed these three questions so like what is the relationship between landscape ideal and planning practice
Why and how are suburbs growing and uh I’m looking also into the experience of place the feeling like how do you how do you like how do you feel in a place and that’s important for me and that is part of my biking along uh if Sebastian is is you’re on
The on the zoom on the call thanks for taking that image so with that in mind I went to Europe and I start for me the rural region in West Germany is for me the Natural Choice because it has significant parallels with New Jersey it has a rich industrial past no real
Central City and the urbanized space is a mix of old and new commercial areas housing roads and farm Fields Vienna represents for me a picture perfect example of the city rural jaon position and Anette I would love a conversation with you about that um as of The Narrative of the city with
Urbanites and to Trad the Traditional landscape and country folks of course the interconnections within the metropolitan area are much more complex and we’ll get to that my third example Budapest represents a clear and straightforward application of one important culture landscape idea into today’s planning practice and we will
See that but before I do that what is that red line anybody who knows about that what’s that red line history class like not not landscape history but General history High School history class what is that red line does anybody know that red line the East West yes that was the
Eastern western divide or what we even call the Iron Curtain from 1947 to 1989 this impermeable border between the US influence in the west and the Soviet influence in the East during the Cold War so the rural region is clearly in the west like at the border of Netherlands and Belgium Vienna
Just at the edge and what I think Super interesting Austria was a neutral state in those days they were not a member of NATO and not of European Union Hungary was within the Eastern block dominated by the Soviet Union under communist Rule and actually when you think about New
Brunswick New Brunswick’s push of the Hungarian population really increased after the 1956 Uprising in Hungary when even more h Arians came to New Brunswick um and uh so but the thing with the Communist rule was also that for example that rule allowed only for a very limited private property
Ownership so next question what are these two lines these two blue lines oh sorry that’s not is not moving along now it is whoops it was too fast gave you the answer away this thing is a little bit slow okay this gave the answer away it
Was supposed to be the the um Blue Line SL that’s the European Union right the and actually this is like Britain not anymore in the EU and there’s Ukraine and belus is not in the EU the point is you can say that the West truly expanded the capitalist system the principles of
Private property along ownership uh with of private property ownership along with the introduction of one European market brought significant change and that’s why I’m doing this relationship to history because that changed life of everybody impacted in Europe by this so on my trip I took photos and
Notes about the feeling of the places along with apparent qualities and deficits from a planning and design perspective getting around was a mix of bicycle public transportation and actually one day I rented a car I as I said I conducted 25 interviews with leader in the field from Academia professional practice and
Public administrations and I’m so glad that some of you are on Zoom right now now let me start with this absolutely fabulous gorgeous city of budapes it’s just great place to be anyway um on the river danu the Forest Hills of Buddha of the Buddha site developed into the preferred housing
Areas while the flat pest side opens up to the white Hungarian Plains Buddha pest goes back to Roman settlement and after the fall of the Roman Empire Europe was shaken by the migration period Hungarian tribes settled in the late late 9th century in the Carpathian Basin in the year one
When in the year 1000 sand istan became the first Christian king of Hungary the Turkish Ottoman Empire expanded north and west and ruled Hungary for about 160 years the Reconstruction of the Tom of the ruler gulaba and several Turkish bath still give witness of that period and a note
For the students in the studio from Puerto Rico and St Augustine this is about the similar time period when Spain conquered the Caribbeans so we have a we have things that happen at in history that are still relevant for us Austria defeats the Turks and rules
Over Hungary and the guy on the horse oh it’s this thing is slow why does it show here o this is it shows the thing am I here it’s weird sorry for that but it actually shows on my screen as moving forward but it doesn’t move forward on that screen oh there it
Was here I go no is it went back I have no clue what this is doing I have absolutely okay we’re good that’s is it so I’m saying the guy on that horse over here like that’s Prince Eugene who was the military fellow who was leading the military operations of
Defeating the Turks and his Monument is is placed overlooks Budapest placed in front of the castle many hungarians however were not so happy with the Austrian Rule and after several quarrels I make it that short the compromise of 1867 was found meaning a dual monarchy with a Hungarian
King and Buddha PES and an Austrian emperor in Vienna and it’s actually interesting how the Hungarian people talk a little bit different about that period than the Austrian people however it was hopefully it works yep um the national identity was very very important uh component in the Hungarian struggle for independence from
Austria and actually the Hungarian landscape was a symbol for that identity in image form p by traditional land use in the introduction I made the point from today’s perspective an AGR romantic reference to of an idealized landscape has a conservative connotation in the 19th century however this reference
Between place and identity was a driver of Liberation and selfdetermination the hero Square in Budapest was built to celebrate the 1,000 years of Hungary showing the the tribe leaders that conquered the land the monument was also the Terminus of the first Subway on the European continent completed
1896 so this was actually a period of significant competition between Budapest and Vienna who would be the most uh Grand scale in Urban Development like the houses in Vienna and Budapest are just one store higher than the one in Vienna it’s it’s just a it’s really fun
To see those two cities and how they were competing um after World War I actually Hungary became a sovereign state but lost 2third of its territory with the Treaty of Trianon and I find it impressive yet you find these monuments all across the country after as I mentioned earlier
Hungary ended up behind the Iron Curtain after World War II that’s why I’m mentioning it the Soviet sale economic planning had a focus on heavy industry and large scale residential development factories farms and large lands were nationalized however private ownership um was still allowed in this period and
That was super interesting to learn for me when I when I spoke with local planners in in Budapest in this period Falls the first push for suburbanization which was actually a side effect of restricted Mobility so in Hungary and people wanted to move uh rural areas to find more more
Opportunities in the cities they had to get a permission to move into Budapest for example but not always the per mission was granted so what people did they couldn’t move into Budapest they settled at the vicinity meaning you had a whole bunch of suburban settlements kind of like a hog happening without
Them without the proper development and so uh so that was what their colleagues called the first push of suburbanization in Budapest you probably remember 19 well you don’t remember 1989 but you may have heard about it in history books the first whole into the Iron Curtain was
Pushed uh was pushed in it in in august 19 1989 the situation was in that summer that East Germans had traveled to Budapest it didn’t Advance oh my goodness it didn’t advance but it Advanced here here we go okay my thing is that image um there policeman pushing over
That that gate it was a really weird summer the summer of 1989 the situation was East Germans were with all these changes were eager to leave East Germany like out of the Soviet area Soviet Rule and were free to travel to Budapest so ended up Budapest was full with e
Germans many of them hanging out in the German Embassy so the hungarians thought how do I get rid of them and how do I make something without offending the Soviets so the thing was they came up with the idea of a paneuropean picnic and between Austria and Hungary so the
Point was they opened the gate and suddenly a whole bunch of people escaped and they could open the Iron Curtain without offending the Soviets and that was I thought a super smart move but however the following political changes changed the life and hungry significantly um there is a thing here here we
Go the the country entered the free market capitalism and the early 1990s were were marked by a gold rush attitude like everything else like it was really crazy times in Hungary and all over the Eastern block the government sold Apartments to tenants rather cheap and a
Few years later people sold them with a profit to market value and got the money to build a house in the suburbs that was actually a second push for suburbanization in Budapest joining the European Union in 2004 gave Hungary full access to the European market and opened the door for significant significant European
Funding yep so with all this integration into Western capitalism today’s government has a strong Affinity to history and National and National traditions and this became very clear to me when I saw the celebrations for the national holiday it was really it was actually was a lot of fun
And the fireworks across the Dan were Absolut Splendid that was amazing that that was like anything better than I’ve seen anywhere here for Fourth of July like really really brilliant fireworks totally L them anyway let me take you on the bike let me take you on the tour let
Me take the tour the suburbs to the small town of Buddha yenu just 30 minutes by car from the city center it’s an apparently very wealthy town with a new library like that here is that means like it’s a new public library and of course you also have the
Monument for 1956 as mentioned and uh the historic Wine sellers and this thing I was really impressed by that is actually it says the old uh fire station it’s a fire station but this was a really Chic Cafe like the thing you find in in Highland Park or actually you find
It more in in bookland or someplace like really Cafe where the people in the like would the people with the Apple Computers right would sit there and do their meeting kind of thing those those kind of place like fancy nice and and lovely and the word on the street is or
Actually word among the pl planning folks is that the mayor of the town has a is relatively good friends with the Hungarian prime minister Victor Orban so this is an example of urban guidelines and these are guidelines just for the for the town of Buddha yanu and
Over a very short period of two years similar guidelines were developed for every Hamlet town and city across the country this was a big push and my actually my colleagues in the landscape architecture Department were saying well this was very architecture driven like it’s kind of copying historic architecture and whatever the local
Architect was thinking is my taste that became the design guideline for the town um and so they researched and prepared these Architects research and prepared design guidelines following a historic precedence and for me no that is an example for applying an idealized past into a planning system
Um into the planning practice so when I walked through town I came across that building down here this one this is built clearly following those design guidelines like it’s almost like a rebuilding of an of an building and then actually this map caught my eye and so like this is like downtown
Very clear but these Road patterns up here I thought this looks like a Suburban C sec in a way like somehow it looks like that so guess what I went there and that hopefully it moves on and that’s what I saw right it’s very much a Suburban expansion um and actually it’s outside
Of that design guideline area and most of the new homes up there were this typical suburb balos and you see also here these like really very rich people’s mansions and and this kind of very rich people capitalism that really took hold and hungry some people are really well off many of them not
So and that has and but that Forest here behind is not touched and that has to do with landscape preservation and that the forest enjoys a very high level of protection so the rapid development and Sub oranization of n after 1989 triggered a planning discussion that produced the
Oh it’s really yeah now we got just patience um that produced The Budapest Regional plan from 2005 the forested areas as I mentioned enjoy very high level of protection because they were not repr privatized and that’s something special that I learned from my colleagues that all the other farmlands and and farms and
Factories most of that was uh repr privatized but the forests were not so the forests are still government owned and that is something if something is a forest it’s really well protected so the gray area outlines the zones for further development and Suburban expansion unfortunately and that’s not very uncommon in the planning
World The Creation the approval of the plan was a very slow process and while discussions were going on municipalities designated development areas to a much larger amount than they would need even with that plan in place Suburban expansion of imperious surface will continue however on the other hand Hungary
Developed a national landscape strategy and when I was reading it I was really impressed that is the landscape idea perfectly like translated into a planning strategy I think that was super so um and this thinking of landscape as a basic component for natural and cultural heritage as uh the as the base
To human well-being as a consolidation of national local identity this thinking also guides the protection development of cultural landscapes in The Budapest suburbs on the other hand still Economic Development pressure is heavy and it’s going on and like in other other metropolitan area U oh here we go like in any other metropolitan
Area you can see those big buck stores along the freeways um and up there there are some socialist housing n near to uh near historic villages and I came and this is actually here you see that ongoing infill that’s going on like like expansion going on and then this was
Just a lovely cultural Landmark that I passed by uh with that Chapel the northern NOP do I take time or do this yeah uh the Northern Hills are still Within Reach from Budapest and give a taste of the overall population density of Hungary this is still very close to the
City so with now I got myself a rental bike and I did a tour from Budapest north towards s Andre so it says like there about s 18 kilometers that was my my goal that’s what I went to um and this brand new bike path leads along the duu towards the tourist town
Very touristy town of sant an and I was impressed by the well prepared bike infrastructure uh with a shaded seating and the bike repair stand this infrastructure makes the landscape well accessible for tourists and locals and now I will make my way to the South a bike tour that a regular tourist
Would not take Chapel is a long island formed by the two arms of the denu river like this sorry for that that is the one armor of the duu and that’s the other one and the chapel island is in between and the northern part is still within the city limits of
Budapes and the southern half is this uh open landscape yeah here we go so the Buddha District of Chapel is connected with Kuda rail to the inner city and you see here and I think that that was for me an impressive thing this is like old housing and then the
Socialist blocks smacked right in the middle of it right like this is this is massive massive thing and then like this whole this this classic modernism socialist housing uh dominating that that island and it is overall still very much working class today I came Al I came along that abandoned industry
Side uh where a former motor industry has closed down and small business moved in and 70% of that indust industrial space is actually vacant and I pass this monument and I think it’s abs absolutely super fitting it’s the first time I’ve seen that that a monument for the victims of work
Accidents that’s like on a factory side I think that’s something very special um I keep on riding my bike the landscape opens up and I pass along this big box furniture store and I tell you that road was not a pleasure to go on on
The bike no that was I was happy when I was off it so I came through several small villages passed by uh a cemetery and my final stop on my tour was the his town of rat rat it has a prominade along the duu and this they built this um this
Historic Mill like the floating Mills they used to have so this is a reconstruction of a floating Mill over the river and I would might call this a reintroduction of a cultural landscape object and actually I was quite tired and took the train back I will close my Budapest tour with
A cultural landsmark in the sub Northeast of the city and I think uh anet you have been there too right a couple of times uh the castle of Galu was the Summer Place of the Austrian Empress Elizabeth and I spoke earlier about the conflict between Austria and
Hungary but Elizabeth was very liked by the hungarians as she learned the language and the story is that she had a Hungarian lover Duke andrai who lived here in G so leaving Budapest I want to make two points the visual ideas of the European cultural landscapes have an
Important role in the Hungarian planning practice and second that there’s very often to be seen a direct link between IND individual municipalities and the central government and part of my future research is to understand more about that link between local action and central government in a government that
Is restructured as the young government is right now happening well and that reference actually to that Austrian Empress leads me now to Vienna Vienna is about 2 and a half hours North by Northwest Budapest by train and has a similar landscape character forested Hills with a River
Basin and it also Roots back to uh Roman settlements and in 1440 it became the resident of the hubs Borg Dynasty which was which were a family of really really powerful European rulers and the way they married that into power in a way a lot um around 1800 Vienna was also a
Major Cultural Center in Europe for example ludrick from be hofen was among the many artists who lived and worked here be hofen was also one of the early orites who enjoyed Suburban living he rented this Countryside apart oh okay be hofen rented this Countryside apartment as a retreat from the city and
Today uh this former spart town is now part of of the Vienna 19th District 19th century Vienna was characterized by city trans by by a massive transformation from a small medieval town to multiethnic Industrial metropolis and this is why I have these gas tanks these former gas tanks as industrial elements in
Here uh the Urban Design about was was a physical planning for representation and for growth and the workforce for Vienna came from all across the Austrian Hungarian monarchy and the city reached about 2 million residents in 1910 there was a massive growth World War II was quite a
Difficult sorry World War I was had a difficult outcome for Austria and um they became a very small but new Austrian Republic that’s what they call the First Republic Municipal elections in Vienna brought a leftwing government and that was called then the red Vienna and I mention that term because because
The red Vienna is kind of a important term in urban planning um however um red does not mean Republican here because actually all across I think everywhere around the US red is the color of the Socialist and communist movements and so that’s why it’s called the red Vienna among the among the formal
Examples of high quality architecture for lowincome housing is the K Marx held year um and over the years over the decades Vienna developed an amazing amount of public housing with a healthy social mix um and that was a priority for the city government when I mean
Healthy social mix I say that uh the income level for entering for obtaining one of these projects you would call American context affordable housing units is relatively high so it means that people of different income groups live in these homes so uh it’s not you only have the poor
People here and the rich people there you still have a relatively good mix in these and so today they still have about 20 200,000 units of that however Vienna is growing rapidly and um it’s an attractive place to live more building is needed and the new development here
At the Lake City ESPN where uh gives place for about 20,000 25,000 new residents and 20,000 jobs this new city at the fringes is already well connected with Subway and bike with subway line and bike routes to the city as a bicyclist I was overall very impressed by the smart public
Transportation mix Vienna of course has a super excellent Subway Light Rail and pedestrian and bus system and this corner for me showed all the additional elements like The Pedestrian crosswalk the bicyclist and there is the bus stop in the background at this corner also there
Is the the car sharing that is run by uh this parking spot is for car sharing that is run by the local uh Public Transportation Authority uh and you see the spot for scooters in green there’s the bark parking spot and there is the rental bike system uh run by the public
Transportation Authority and that actually works really well and I use that frequently it was a lot of fun and very the current City development includes an open space Network that is connecting the inner city with the Suburban landscape the green swth and the north and east is the Vienna Forest
And the forest was already protected in 1912 and builds the backbone of an open space system that expands Beyond City borders for example here that is the Vienna Forest in the background and the wine and The Vineyards uh Follow That Forest Edge here in pel STO okay let me again on another bike
Tour I want to get you taken a bike to along the duu and the South Farmland and The Villages of the mfed this thing here like this spiral for spiraling down the bike is exactly there at that bridge so I’m so the pedestrians the bicyclist have a separate path on a freeway bridge
And that’s the spiral that brings them down to the water level um in the city the danu is channeled by scandalized for flat control and pass actually passing through refineries I reach the duu uh Wetlands a national park with a great tourist infrastructure and I was passing also these absolutely lovely bathing
Spot that was so cute nobody there out of that landscape I entered then into the rural landscape and gr enen St was one of my first Villages I came through it’s linked by Vienna to bus you see that bus stop here um and of course cars and it’s undergoing like you see all
This modern new additional development while that house on the the right for me speaks for that Homeland tradition the mareld is an important agric agric a agrarian landscape with significant vegetable production and a very very rich history would go too far but there are significant cultural elements in this overall landscape and
Yes this was a long stretch on the hot day uh with a bike but I truly can say I experienced the openness of the land and you see that line of wind farms in the distance entering the village of rutor I passed by the church and the main street
With a clear rural character around the corner new single family homes showing how much more impervious surface is created by the roads and driveways of these houses people most likely owner of those homes I believe most likely live in an urban job but love the rural setting and they enjoy The Agrarian
Landscape this flower met here is the outcome of European Union Meadows STP program and the Wayside Shrine on the path illustrates the local relationship between the historic relationship between nature and religion my last Village before returning Vienna was rasov and I bought great strawberries here again you see
The single family housing at the Village Edge technically all these are suburbs of VI but they don’t feel like that these villagers see the city critically and would not accept a higher density residential development they would just not go for it and they are also and they’re also politically relatively
Conservative while Vienna most likely has a left leaning government the JX position the jaos between liberal urbanites and conservative country people makes sometimes collaboration difficult in addition the city of Vienna is a federal state with a like within the state of lower Austria and also close to the
State of banland so you have state level governments and you have all these small Municipal governments that are facing this big city government so that collaboration between like a mayor of a small town and the mayor of of of Vienna is difficult on a regional scale there are actually collaborative initiatives that
Reach into the neighboring countries within a European Union framework in addition and that’s thought that was absolutely original um there’s a local there’s a local initiative actually funded by the government um that’s called the city vcin city vicinity management or suum forat uml management um these are this is a small office two
People literally two people are doing networking not nothing else but networking making connections between local administrations um and with a on a very very Hands-On working level one example is that that sorry for that one example is this fellow here this gentleman that’s Andreas Haka who um is from the city
Vicinity management initiative and talks about the challenges of urban expansion at the southern edge of Vienna at a bike tour uh for that was organized by the Austrian Society of lens architects the first stop was the farm R Nole an active historic farm doing Innovative agriculture the same time the site for
New Urban Development that will provide housing for 20 thou 21,000 residents and there you see the planners how they were in introducing to the group The ideas and they’re trying to integrate cultural landscapes like this farm and have an idea also focus on climate change mitigation on their tour the Landscape
Architects discussed the qualities of the Urban Fringe and the skepticism of residents concerning new development people in obala that is this small town here um that’s still in Vienna they were very skeptical of a Subway extension because they did not want those people here right we know that attitude the
City of schot is super wealthy because it has the international airport in itself and while a actually here a local councilman explained to us to explain to the group that an earlier planning earlier planning missed up to set aside land for local infrastructure and the result is now for social infrastructure
And the result is now that the city must negotiate with investors to include needed kindergartens the tour then it went on an extra tour with these uh City vicinity management and that was about energy Landscapes one of the final stop was the solar field with its movable panels for a better combination of
Agriculture and energy production showing Innovative projects that address the increasing complex land use demands on the Urban Fringe was one aspect of that bus tour but most importantly having stakeholders from City and vicinity in the bus Network Bridging the urban rural divide both Vienna and Budapest are
Examples for the important role that the cultureal landscape plays in Europe for local Regional and national identity in both regions landscape elements reflecting an IDE agricultural past are indicators for natural and cultural heritage and this goes beyond important places it includes the ordinary very much actually like JB Jackson was
Talking about when he talks about places it includes the ordinary places and this this definition includes the ordinary places historically this idea oops historically these ideas were um about the idealized agricultural pth past and that image changed with the introduction of the post-industrial landscape in the rural region that’s my last stop that’s
Up here in the northwest of Germany so that Ral region has significant par parallels with Northern New Jersey it’s a polycentric region with a mix of Housing Industry and transportation infrastructure and about 5.2 million people and that’s quite like North Jersey for you very much like that the
Marketing pitch for the region is a city of cities because there’s not a single City that en car the identity rather Urban centers are interwoven forming diverse in between situations the region was the international Powerhouse of the 19th and 20th Century the mining of anthroid coal provided the energy for
Producing steel and Machinery starting in the 1960s the rise of all as energy source and the Outsourcing of steel production caused a dramatic decline just like we saw in the American Rust build unemployment and abandoned factories contributed to a bleak atmosphere in this situation the state government employee Thomas sez had the
Idea to bundle existing funding programs into one big initiatives so the international building exhibition coordinated and promoted 117 projects in 17 cities creating a momentum of change in progress so when we discussed this EBA IMA Park this part this this big big building exhibition in the US we always
Think about oh there’s lots of money extra spent in reality this was existing funding programs that were coordinated to in order to bring them to bring the event uh and to coordinate the the the momentum into one event because that was right successful further events followed most important
For us the EBA mop Park encouraged discussions about the best best design approaches toward abandoned factories and other Brown Fields so the dbook KN that most of you you will know is for me the absolute Paradigm change in the discussion of post post industrial landscape where the
Office of Peter Lotz and in the design competition of 1989 uh developed a design uh that explores explored the logic of industrial production processes and gives this logic as an interpretation for the principles of the park here the designed green became the order industrial relics were allowed to
Decay with this industrial relics were not anymore just ugly components of a dominant of a decaying decaying industry of a dominant and Abstract system but became integrated in the park design and this or Bonker was not just like a ugly leftover but becomes the backdrop for I
Believe a very poetic garden design so the landscape Park dbook Nord marks the Paradigm change towards the idea of post-industrial Landscapes and the celebration of an idealized industrial past becomes most obvious for me in this furnace Hall The Honest like you see that that image that
Is shown there it’s like the work the honest and hard work of the steel worker who kind of guides the takes these instruments to to guide and to uh uh direct the hot iron when it comes out of the furnace and these were times of worker solidarity through strong unions uh and
From a today’s perspective life was relatively in order under this perspective industrial craftsmanship as a way of life allows for orientation and meaning against an overall complex Digital Society therefore I’m saying I’m arguing that the principle of an idealized past and the landscape Paradigm continues it just moves one
Step further now it is an idealized aarian past with an idealized industrial past in opposition to the challenges of new new capitalism just like the cottage and The Farmhouse are part of the postal landscape this workers housing is part of the post industrial landscape those simple homes were built in close
Vicinity to the factory and the coal mine the work in a coal mine was very dangerous and you had to rely on each other so it formed a particular kind of community in group work and living was closely interwined far supporting that Community from an Urban Design point of
View these settlements were not extensions of the urban fabric but were developed as functional additions to the factories connected by industrial Railway today these railroads build the backbones of an extensive recreational bike system and thanks to Sebastian hopefully you’re on the call uh for this great tour that you took me along on
These bike RS we can compare this with our rail to Trail program however our rail to Trail program are very often based on residents initiatives the planning of these bike systems has a much stronger government involvement a new development are these high-speed long-distance commuter bike paths they are not
Oh here we go that’s some these are the longdistance commun bike path they are not um designed for leisure but for getting people into work interestingly the ad ADM the ADM the administrative unit um that uh that deals with them is not the parks or recreation department but is
The State Department of Transportation so these are uh they follow the approach of Designing roads but just for bicycles and the bikers of course a great way to experience this landscape formed by coal mining and all Hills in this part of the region are artificial heaps formed by material expect
Extracted from mining for coal Land Art installations support their integration into the post-industrial cultural landscape another even more problematic impact of coal mining is subsidence when Excavating the coal underground the land sinks and in the rural region this was up to 100 ft 30 m i mean 100 ft that’s a
Lot that’s a lot sinking left this had very practical impact for example that you could not use sewage pipes because they would break um therefore sewage had to be collected in these open sewage Canal so like that is an open sewage Canal passing by a residential area this was actually this
May sound gross at the moment uh but it was a massive Health uh Public Health Improvement of having collecting the sewage safely and bringing it away so with the end of the mining it was possible to put these sewage pipes to put the sewage actually into pipes
And to construct a new River on it and thank you for the MOs shaft for these slides um and after building more than 200 miles of raw of new sewage pipes the new ire the river on top is now waste waterf free that was a 30y year 40e long
Effort which was really expensive the New River became a backbone of the large scale Amire luns park with Innovative land architecture along the way a current project is that jump over the ire so here we see that’s actually that New River ire this tunnel is actually over here there is a ship canal
That goes over the river so the river goes under a shipping canal and all I keep doing this I keep doing this I shouldn’t do that um and on on top of it is that pedestrian bridge that does that jump over it uh um and that was
Actually Hol if you’re here this was the place where we did our design exercise in 2017 and this landscape design will be celebrated within the internatural with the horiculture exhibition 2027 another designed landscape showcased in that Garden exhibition will be this Lake in Lunen and you look at
That Sky yes these dark clouds gave a lot of rain that’s the day my iPhone died when I when it was so much rain that actually got so wet because I had to look on the map and it is it died like literally um so and also including
Uh this image of The Masque here um that I passed that day because we he when we always talk about this cultural landscape thing keep in mind that our population is changing and that any consideration of cultural landscapes has to reflect on today’s diverse culture and uh that image is actually
That is for uh Ariana you listening via zoom and that image is about the Farmland Heroes who uh are a farm group that do Urban farming but also do um uh great educational programs and I want to close my Ru tour with this exhibition of hypernurb poses the question
How digital perception will shape our view on landscape and nature my research on the bicycle brought me to three landscapes in Europe and made me rethink the term cultural landscape in two ways actually first a projection of a simplified history on Place turning it into a turning it into
A meaningful Place Christopher rymond calls this the phenomenological approach to a sense of place second there is a relation with he what he called the relational approach where the meaning of place evolves through social interaction and individual experiences those new narratives are linked by a group or individual to a particular
Place think about the memories created by a family gathering in the park or the birthday party that you do this is the place that you did the birthday party so it’s that group that shares that memory overall cultural landscapes help us navigate our environment and establish a
Sense of belonging the sense of place helps people to find their way in a complex environment and fosters social interaction this is how Place relationship I believe supports Quality of Life coming back to my original landscape questions I would say that in Vienna the rural urban divide is is a challenge for
Collaboration and leads to more imperious Services through single family homes the Hungarian National landscape strategy applies traditional image of cultural landscapes and celebrating the post-industrial Landscapes is a core component of local industry in identity in the rural region in many conversations colleagues pointed out that the Suburban expansion
Is the main threat for cultural landscapes and many newcomers in Vienna and Budapest require many newcomers in Vienna require more homes and infrastructure oops and at the same time uh the informal collaberation between City and municipality seems to be a promising approach in Budapest we saw that the Communist
Period moving restrictions uh Po and postcommunist privatization was a driver of suborganization assessing The Budapest Regional plan will take more research but the strict protection of forest is already definitely definitely very helpful Urban Development in the rural region followed the demands of large- scale Industries addressing the post-industrial landscape’s uh decline
Is supported through the design by event approach both Budapest and Vienna offer offer a strong local and Regional identity that is threatened by uncontrolled Urban expansion and big box stores the post-industrial Landscapes experience that has arrived in the mainstream as an addition to the cultural landscape concept the overall
Outcome of my research on the bicycle is that good infrastructure supports the landscape experience at human scale and human speed also New Jersey we need more and better walk and bike systems thank you so [Applause] much any thoughts questions yes so did you see a lot of electric bikes
On the like that Highway the commuting bike Highway yes they’re coming along uh some um but probably not more than here a little bit more possibly but yeah huh yes of based on what you saw in JY what would be your recommendations for working to get moreable and in our Suburban landscape um
Actually uh here it is the the the of course you as landscape arets have a strong role in this that’s what you’re studying for but also it is the role of the citizen that is strong and uh I believe so when you think about our rail to Trail programs that are mostly by
Local initiatives and um I’m not and uh so the ideal level would be a County government like counties are the right scale to develop a bike system because they uh that would be right scale we the middle sex county is working on it but it’s
Working on it so that may take a time so my answer is directly it is the is you all have to have an active voice in doing that and using more bicycles just to create the demand I think that’s the other thing that’s when I when I when we
Think in New Brunswick OH you cannot use a bike here because it’s so dangerous it’s so dangerous because you’re not using the bike and so that may be one thing any other thoughts can we actually have a chance to see what if anybody on the audience online audience is doing
Something we need to change this to end the slideshow an escape any other questions in the meantime yes um I’m wondering you know you a lot of the elements that you described seem somewhat predictable in an European context in terms of Transit and infrastructure access to Nature and
Those sorts of things um I wondered um what you found most surprising or unexpected in the research um actually it is the within the conversations and those were two things in Hungary I was surprised of how strong the influence of the current government is on the planning practice that’s what
Colleagu said like I had a really great conversation with the head of the Hungarian Planning Association and those conversations told me how the influence is is is a strong thing in uh I was surprised in Vienna about the this tiny office that does this networking thing
And uh that was I had no clue about it and I came across by accident in a way um and so that way of networking and an in an informal way is very helpful and the interesting thing is here in New Jersey we have for example the regional Planning
Association that is however very very much uh New York oriented and has the image of being New York oriented this uh Vienna coordination group like those people don’t sit in Vienna they are not paid by the city of Vienna or don’t have a Vienna Focus they are really about
Networking and these are the two things I would say surprised me the most Tim you know we we do have a little better public private balance it comes to this kind of stuff do you see it changing at all in Europe where it’s so government focused that there is going
To be a little bit more bottom up rather top down or is in your opinion going to remain top actually the the role of bottom up initiatives is strong so for example I think Sebastian should be on the call Sebastian schle who is uh initi of the laaa initiative like a bottom up
Initiative that does that supports smaller projects and so or when I talk about these uh Farm Heroes these aahen people so these are local initiatives of people interested in something and bringing this forward and that is a a development that is not as well established as it is here in the US but
Is a way I think where successful American models are applied and are used so that’s coming coming along interestingly much less of that in hungry that I was saw that’s that is a is a different situation but also in Vienna there’s a number of these initiatives and groups that do these
Things Anette I want to link your last um question or last statement with the first so we are totally agree that you know this like experience at the human scale human speed walk bike systems can change so my my hypothesis is if we have this then the planning practices will
Change because also the planners should experience these Landscapes differently but you are basically saying no because there is there are definitions you know in rules of cultural landscape this is influencing planning practices so so how how it’s a bit of a top down bottom up question what do you think how how
Strong are planning practices influenced by Concepts and where do you see the possibilities to change them through what you also call this phenomenological approach actually being there so okay so so I think the answer is on two levels the one thing is that these concepts are cultural Concepts that people feel and
Believe in so that that Narrative of landscape is very strong in the same way the American Narrative of land as the place of opportunity is strong so it’s a strong cultural idea um what I for our field I think or in terms of research is it will be
Interesting to say how even how we Define cultural landscapes as a in order to have a definition that influence legal planning practices because when you um when I was talking about like colleagues at middle County uh in Middle County talking about cultural landscape so what is that here in this place and
One thing is that the National Park Service starts is in the process of widening their their definition I was I was like very short and narrow minded my so they’re widening that and I believe that’s a good path and the whole discussion of everyday places is a good
Discussion the thing that I found absolutely intriguing was that in the in the German dis German language discussion within Austria and Germany of the last about 20 years ago uh the JB Jackson was totally super fashionable like everybody wrote and spoke about JB Jackson that’s because that was an
Opportunity to get away from this conservative idea of that landscape is just conservative and interestingly for me in in America this approach of JB Jackson is not has not into has not entered at least what I know uh the planning world and so the everyday place is is is not
Within planning systems but with a whole bunch of other Innovative systems and for example um Kathleen you are like at the last colloquium in landscape architecture you brought these third I think third spaces was that concept right that is a concept of uh of uh cultural landscapes in a way
In a in a setting that are uh developed through a through an interactive approach and so I believe as part of our research in the field is exploring how can the formal definitions change or be improved but then because they have an influence on legal practices that’s that’s kind of my
Answer that’s kind of a thing that I would like to explore throughout the next year yes um so thanks for the presentation uh from combining Your Love of landscape and biking y to you for that quick question regarding you know understanding context between where you went in New Jersey yeah talk about
Cultural landscapes and certain criteria establish that and often times those criterias are based on values so what you showed us was a valuing of n natural Forest a value of preservation idealized agricultural Landscapes uh sort of uh preservation historic past so those all sort of become criteria in the United States
When you when you talk about the idea of opportunity the value of opportunity so what what place does business business development capitalism exploitation you know taking and just you know doing what you need to do to get the dollar how does that fit into the context or definition of cultural
Landscape that is a very deep question um and so so the question about how does a let’s say nasty use of capitalism think that’s kind of what you describe um into the concept of cultural landscape actually I believe it’s thej Theos between those two that a place
That you have identity with that you have a relationship to kind of is the opposite to this this nasty capitalistic world so it’s a little bit the Main Street and Wall Street discussion so the Wall Streets are the mean guys that exploit you um and the main street is
The place where you know uh the the the the the lady that sells you the sugar cone in a way and so it is that um and I do believe and my more question that I do believe the concept of cultural landscape is that ja Theos between a
Place or a system or or or a context where I can easily navigate Beyond a uh an opposite to a place where an abstract capitalistic system of a super digitalized society makes me lost and I believe that’s the the the distinction between the two and this is also where the value is between
The two so of be being able to have a place and to to navigate my environment yes uh so you alluded to it a couple of times um the idea of diversity MH and so I I guess have you seen uh either with your research in Europe or your research uh
Here any mechanisms for sort of understanding the cultural landscapes of cultures that are not necessarily a part of those planning organizations or not well represented in those planning organizations how do we actually sort of recognize cultural landscapes for you know you minority groups or or groups
That are not necessarily a part of that system a positive example of that and actually that question what you’re posing is makes for me New Jersey so interesting and a positive example is Oak Tre Road in Island Woodbridge and actually Oak Tree in the the um the town
Management of RBD has changed their sign ordinance in order to appeal more to an Indian Community so there are different rules for signage in Iselin than there would than there are in downtown rdge and so that uh that is one way of saying the Indian culture has the Indian
Community has a different way of expressing their streetcape and that to be possible that is one way the other thing is um a number of these um and that’s that’s a direct influence into a planning practice um the other thing is with the discussion when we worked on
The middle sex County cultural landscape plan all that conversations were starting to say how uh what are how we can support that social interaction uh that interaction that develops new definitions of places that go beyond the historic marker um and that’s I think these are these are the two things that belong to
That good thank you so much it was a great afternoon and hope enjoy a little B nibbling of cheese and that thank you so much and thank you to everybody attending online that was super cool thanks for coming