The future perspective of mobility and public space

The modern street is designed to facilitate the flow of private vehicles powered by fossil fuels. The declining role of these vehicles presents new opportunities, but it also raises important questions: What do we want our cities to look like? How should they work? Who should they serve? To answer these questions, Roca Gallery has brought together nine prominent industry professionals and academics to write on the topic “Perspectives on Mobility and Public Space.” While each author in the series explores a unique concept, what the submitted articles have in common is that they emphasize the importance of breaking away from urban paradigms of the past that have proven so destructive both socially and environmentally. They offer alternative ways of imagining transportation, public space, and urban planning, citing inspiring experiences and fascinating case studies.

What articles can you actually read?

Award-winning architect and co-founder of the Office of Architecture of Barcelona (OAB) Carlos Ferratre explains in Landscape, Nature and Mobility how the composition of the Barcelona Botanical Garden changed the Montjuïc region in the 1980s and the ideas of creating a gateway creation between this area and the port in the future.

In shifting cities, the president of the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization, Lance Jay Brown, talks about our evolving views of public spaces, stressing that the transition to electric vehicles, as positive as it is, is the need to clean streets for pedestrians that don’t move.

In BUS: STOP Krumbach Revisited, curator and author Katharina Ritter tells the story of a small Austrian village that, despite the popular notion that low-density areas are worth a bit of investment, invited architects from around the world to design a local bus-stop remodel with very positive results.

A recently published article, The One-Minute City by designer and city expert Dan Hill, discusses urban planning not from top to bottom, but from “street up,” citing case studies in Sweden and elsewhere.

What’s Next?

Five more articles by field leaders on the topic of mobility and public space will be published in August. In Fleeting Moments in Time, Roberto Conferti, Vice President of the Association of Ports and Cities Cooperation (RETE), examines the functions of seaports and ports, in their domestic and international context.

Architect and Professor at the University of Calgary Francisco Alanez Uribe presents to an audience in Zurich [Realm] Mobility A case study on mobility and public spaces.

In Drawing Outside the Lines, Angus Bruce, Head of Landscape Architecture at HASSELL in London, advocates the creation of new green spaces in densely populated areas, and reflects on how the masterplan of Cathedral Gardens connects this vibrant new area of ​​Belfast.

Seattle Mobility Initiative Program Director Anna Zevarts calls for more inclusive mobility systems in Nondrivers: America Excludes Us.

Finally, in The Right to a Playful City, Iain Borden, professor and vice dean of education at The Bartlett, uses skateboarding as a springboard for ideas on how to redesign public spaces that prioritize well-being, freedom of expression, and participation in society. social communication.

Dialogue, relationships and inspiration

Roca Gallery’s mission is to initiate dialogue, create relationships, and inspire positive industry practices. The series “Different Visions of Mobility and Public Space” is part of an ongoing project in which the Roca Gallery expert panel proposes a new theme each month and explores the idea with some of the leading thinkers in architecture and design. All articles are available in English at www.rocagallery.com.