(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)
Abstract
Internationally urban streets are increasingly regarded as valuable social public spaces (see among others: London’s Streetspace Plan and Paris’ plan for halving street parking). In a Scandinavian context, a number of trafficked streets are being pedestrianized or transformed into for example shared space. These future transformations of urbans streets stress the need for an understanding of the complex cultural history of streets. Every street had at their inception, social and cultural roles beyond their ‘object’ status. The materiality we understood then, is a complex question of material and social import, and an intricate play of the streets tangible and intangible identities. Paved pathways and streets secured throughout history in a ubiquitous way a fast and smooth exchange of people, goods and – in recent years – they became social inclusive and livable public spaces. Despite the many technical advances, natural stone became again particular popular as a paving material in the 1980s through changing paradigms and societal needs. The aim of this paper is to investigate the contemporary transformation of urban streets by studying the use of natural stones as paving materials from past to present and as a means to inform the future. We seek to map the links between the shifting use of natural stones and the spatial characteristics as well as the use of streets. This paper uses three Danish case studies to investigate the transformation of urban streets in relation to natural stones: Rømersgade-Linnésgade, Gernergade and Vester Voldgade in Copenhagen. Theories on circular economy and urban metabolism by Jane Hutton and Matthew Gandy are in addition to traditional material customs used as a framework for discussing the role of natural paving materials with regard to heritage, the present experience and as future materiality related to fossil free transportation, social and physical sustainability and circular economy.
Torben Dam is associate professor and member of the research group Landscape Arhcitecture and Urbanism at the University of Copenhagen. Torben Dam is working at the division of Landscape Architecture and Planning, which essentially is the Danish School of Landscape Architecture. The exchange between the architectural assignment and knowledge of many sorts is a key-point in research and teaching. Research, insights and experience are based on landscape architectural work world-wide. Research and development have over the year touched upon e.g. nature and landscape, dynamics in design with storm-water and paving materials, climate adaptation etc. Torben Dam was author and co-editor of “Best practice in Landscape Detailing” 2007. Torben Dam has been teaching landscape architecture students in design studios with emphasis on materials and technology since 1993.
Jan Støvring: Senior research consultant Jan Støvring was educated as a landscape architect at the University of Copenhagen, graduating in 2002. In 2008 he joined the Landscape Technology Research Group at the University of Copenhagen in order to teach and work on applied research projects. From 2012 to 2017, he carried out PhD research on permeable pavements. Jan Støvring is a course administrator and co-teacher (with Torben Dam) on the course in ‘Plants and Technology in Landscape Architecture 1+2’, a compulsory course for third-year landscape architect students.
Anna Aslaug Lund is an architect and landscape architect MAA PhD and assistant professor at the Section for Landscape Architecture and Planning, University of Copenhagen. Anna has comprehensive practice experience focusing on cities, landscapes, climate adaptation, and sustainable urbanism from a planning perspective as well as from a project design and detailing perspective. Her research interests are particularly centered on the following four themes: the spatial implications and potentials of climate adaptation, the relations between ecologies of nature and the processes of urbanism, narratives of landscapes and cities and, finally, the bodily experienced space.
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
Thursday 16th June, 2022