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A Serious Need for Innovation

When it comes to digital transformation, the construction sector is lagging behind many other industries.

According to McKinsey, large construction projects typically take 20 percent longer to finish than scheduled and wind up 80 percent over budget.

Despite all of the technological advancements that have emerged over the last three decades— like mobility and the cloud—productivity has actually declined in some construction markets since the 1990s. There are several reasons for this.

First and foremost, it’s rare for construction companies to reward risk-sharing and innovation among rank-and-file employees. As a result, workers tend to stick to tried-and-true processes that they are comfortable doing. At the same time, McKinsey continues, construction companies often lack digital tools for managing supply chains, projects, and performance.

Most construction companies are still using paper-based management systems to organize and track workflows—just like they did in the early 1900s. For this reason, there remains a significant lack of coordination between construction managers and field workers. Critical information tends to move slowly across departments and employees. This results in missed orders, mistakes, and project delays. As a result, many contractors typically underperform financially.

As a whole, the construction sector has failed to keep up with the pace of innovation that we have seen in industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and utilities.

Add it all up, and there is a serious need for innovation and disruption in construction. And one of the best ways to get started is to create custom apps.

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The Deanes: 200 Years of Architectural Heritage

The Museum Building of Trinity College in Dublin (1853-7) is a seminal work of Victorian architecture, long regarded as the first expression of Ruskinian principles in stone, and famous for its pioneering structural use of Irish marble. This website presents new research on the building’s architecture and stonework, visualised using 3D laser scans, 360 photography and photogrammetry. Visitors can see the building as never before, explore its interior, stonework, and the rich carvings of the O’Shea brothers, as well as read in-depth accounts of the widespread sources that served to inspire the architects, Deane, Son & Woodward. A short video describes the transformative use of Connemara and other Irish marbles in the building.

The Museum Building of Trinity College Dublin

The Project

Making Victorian Dublin is an exciting and innovative collaborative project between geologists and architectural historians at Trinity College Dublin which has revealed the building industry responsible for Ireland’s Victorian architecture.  Funded by the Irish Research Council, the project aims to open new interdisciplinary horizons for the research of Ireland’s past.  For too long the craftsmen and quarrymen who cut, carved and constructed splendid buildings in Ireland’s towns, cities and countryside have been lost to history, overshadowed by the architects and patrons who designed and commissioned them.  But without the marble masons, stone cutters, carvers and builders these richly coloured and impeccably detailed buildings simply could not have been achieved.

Focused on Ireland’s most significant and influential building of the period, the Museum Building of Trinity College Dublin, researchers have uncovered the remarkable network of quarries, craft communities and transport routes which enabled its construction.  A few strides within this building displays the full range of Ireland’s remarkable stone resources.  The Museum Building pioneered the patriotic use of native coloured stone and established a taste for Connemara marble and Cork Red limestone which spread across Ireland to Britain and the United States.  Connemara marble with its distinctive green and white colour banding would become emblematic of Irish identity.  Further nationalistic emphasis is provided by elaborate stone carvings of the building that reveal a rich and diverse flora and fauna with a significant Irish-flavour.

The project will culminate in a book to be published in the Summer of 2019.

Principal Investigator and Architectural Historian, Prof Christine Casey:

“Architecture is the stage upon which our daily lives are conducted, from the splendid buildings of city and town to the more modest houses, public buildings and boundary walls which punctuate the Irish countryside. Too often we remember those who paid for these buildings and those who designed them. Architectural history is strong on patron and architect and weak on those who translated design and ambition into reality. Ireland’s historic buildings were created by generations of craftsmen from raw materials extracted and cut by quarrymen and stone carvers. This project has sought to illuminate this largely hidden history by foregrounding the history of building materials and craftsmanship. The local built environment can tell us much more about history and science than the standard narratives of architectural history. The colour, markings and texture of building stones provides a vivid and tangible snapshot of the earth’s infancy. Regions are characterised by the nature of their geology and building stone. The familiar and endearing walls of field and farmyard are composed of rubble stone which speak not only of our forbears but of our locality’s prehistoric formation .

As an architectural historian I have been humbled by my ignorance of stone. Hitherto focused only on its aesthetic qualities, I now understand the impact of geology on building history, why some stones are chosen and others not, why particular stones are so widely used, why certain stones are so highly valued, and why superlative architecture relied upon the highest quality of materials and craftsmanship. I look at buildings with new eyes and have brought this new perspective to every aspect of my research.”

Co-Principal Investigator and Geologist, Dr Patrick Wyse Jackson:

“The Museum Building at Trinity College Dublin has been dissected by geologists and architectural historians as part of the Making Victorian Dublin project funded by the Irish Research Council. This is a unique and innovative collaboration that has drawn together two distinctive areas of the sciences and humanities, and has generated a deeper understanding of each as exemplified by the Museum Building. Built in the 1850s at a time of directed promotion of dimension and decorative stone, a significant component of Ireland’s natural resources, this building demonstrated the versatility of this material for structural building but also for decoration, particularly through utilisation in columns in the hallways. Nine different decorative marbles and polished limestones assail the senses of the visitor and provide a geological lesson that reveals the underlying lithological foundations of our country. Connemara Marble and Cork Red Limestone are dominant but ably supported by stone varieties from Armagh, Fermanagh, Offaly, Galway, and Kilkenny.

Multidisciplinary projects such as the Making Victorian Dublin initiative demonstrate the value of close examination of a building such as the Museum Building. Importantly an understanding of how the characteristics of different rock types and how they are quarried dictates how they are utilised in architectural practice but at the same time an appreciation of the aesthetics conceived of by the architects can inform the stone types used. The Museum Building admirably demonstrates this blending of disciplines that led to its design and erection.”

 The Research Team

The team uniquely comprises researchers in Architectural History and Science.  This collaboration depicts the vital links between geology and architecture and renews the fruitful transdisciplinary approach adopted and celebrated by pioneering Victorian polymaths.

Principal Investigators:  Professor Christine Casey and Dr Patrick Wyse Jackson

Co-Principal Investigator, Patrick Wyse Jackson, is an Associate Professor in Geology and Curator of the Geological Museum in the Department of Geology, School of Natural Sciences, TCD.

Principal Investigator, Christine Casey, is a Professor in Architectural History in the Department of History of Art and Architecture, School of History and Humanities, TCD.

Research Assistants:  Dr Andrew Tierney and Ms Louise Caulfield

Andrew Tierney is a research assistant in the Department of History of Art and Architecture, School of History and Humanities, TCD.

Louise Caulfield is a research assistant in the Department of Geology, School of Natural Sciences, TCD.

Associated Researchers

A network of specialists and practitioners have been consulted on the carving, architecture, conservation and digital presentation of the building and links were established with international scholars of architecture and decorative stone in advance of an Autumn think-tank on 3rd October 2017 and an international symposium on 9th-10th February 2018.  Both events took place on Trinity College Dublin’s main campus.

Paul Arnold, Paul Arnold Architects

Leila Budd, Carrig Conservation International

Dr Susan Galavan, University of Leuven

Dr Tony Hand, EIT RawMaterials

John Hussey, Independent Researcher

Dr Edward McParland, Trinity College Dublin

Dr Fredrick O’Dwyer, Architect and Architectural Historian

Prof Roger Stalley, Trinity College Dublin

Prof Roland Dreesen, University of Ghent

Dr Hazel Dodge, Trinity College Dublin

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the contributions to the project made by the following people:

Funded by The Irish Research Council New Horizons Interdisciplinary Research Project Award Estates and Facilities, Trinity College Dublin Dublin City Council Heritage Office

Photography Ray Keaveney Adrian Lantry Andrew Sheridan Paul Tierney, courtesy of Dublin City Council Heritage Office Katie Wyse Jackson

Digital Consultation Prof Marie Redmond, Digital Humanities, Universita Ca’ Foscari Venice Niall Ó hOisín, Breffni O’Malley and Alan Clifford, Noho Conor Dore, Bim and Scan Limited Cora McKenna, Trinity College Dublin

Industry, Artistic and Architectural Consultation Ambrose Joyce, Connemara Marble Industries Limited Prof Martin Feely, NUI Galway Niall Kavanagh, McKeon Stone Yvonne McKeon, McKeon Stone John and David McEvoy, McEvoy and Sons Stone Masons Terry O’Flaherty, Ballyknockan Tim O’Connell, O’Connell Stone Stephen Burke, sculptor Jason Ellis, sculptor Sean Lynch, artist Charles Duggan, Dublin City Council Dr Lynda Mulvin, UCD Prof Peter Wyse Jackson, Missouri Botanical Garden Prof Paul Smith, Oxford Museum of Natural History Prof John Holmes, University of Birmingham

Trinity College Dublin Colleagues  Mike Clark Ron Cox Elaine Cullen Una Farrell Estelle Gittins Frank Hendron Gordon Herries Davies Monica Janson Peter Keogh Paul Mangan David Naylor Michael Philcox George Sevastopulo Fiona Tyrrell

Source: https://makingvictoriandublin.com/

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El Valor de las "Villas" en el Desarrollo Humano.

El estudio Gehl cuenta que fueron a ayudar a rediseñar el asentamiento informal más emblemático de Buenos Aires y cómo acabaron valorando lo que ya habían construido sus residentes.

Los planificadores y diseñadores urbanos a menudo encaran a una incómoda paradoja: la gente suele preferir los vecindarios que se han desarrollado orgánicamente, gracias a las contribuciones de muchos, sobre aquellos planificados por un pequeño grupo de expertos. A los urbanistas les encanta usar términos como ‘orgánico’, ‘espontáneo’ y ‘auténtico’; sin embargo, tienden a planificar y diseñar áreas que restringen esas mismas características. Nos enfrentamos de modo muy explícito a esta paradoja cuando Gehl, la compañía en donde trabajamos como diseñadores urbanos, recibió una invitación del gobierno de Buenos Aires a brindar asesoría sobre diseño en un ambicioso proyecto, liderado por la Secretaría de Integración Social y Urbana de la ciudad, para el redesarrollo del asentamiento informal más emblemático de la capital argentina. El plan busca convertir la Villa 31 —villa, en argot argentino, significa barriada— en un vecindario, un barrio propiamente dicho.

La Villa 31 es uno de los vecindarios más interesantes y vibrantes de Buenos Aires. Posee la granularidad y la escala de los asentamientos medievales a los que acuden en masa los turistas en lugares como Siena, Italia. Posee esa vida en la calle, con niños corriendo y jugando, a las que ciudades como Nueva York o Melbourne aspiran alcanzar a través de iniciativas Play Streets —en las que las calles se cierran al tráfico por períodos definidos para así abrirlas a la comunidad y promover la actividad física. Con las calles repletas de ciclistas y peatones, la villa posee una división modal más parecida a la de Copenhague y otras ciudades a la vanguardia en materia de transporte que a la de otros barrios bonaerenses.

Debemos tener cuidado de no idealizar estas características

Estratégicamente situada junto al barrio más adinerado de la capital, la Villa 31 es un doloroso recordatorio de la profunda disparidad socioeconómica en Argentina. Si bien la mayor parte de la ciudad es venerada como una sofisticada metrópoli, el 37 por ciento de los ocho mil hogares en este asentamiento informal carece de cocinas y una cuarta parte de los mismos no cuenta con inodoros.

Algunos residentes llevan consigo un par de zapatos extra para calzarse después de haber caminado por las calles cubiertas de barro. Algunos corredores son tan angostos que no permiten el paso de los vehículos de emergencia, lo que significa que cientos de familias se encuentran fuera del alcance de los mismos. El grueso de las viviendas no cuenta con agua potable ni se encuentra conectado a la red de alcantarillado. La electricidad está disponible a través de peligrosas conexiones informales, las cuales han resultado en electrocuciones y explosiones fatales.

La mayoría de los hogares está hacinada y carece de calidad del aire interior adecuada. Aunque la villa está ubicada en las inmediaciones de un centro de transporte, ninguna de las líneas de tránsito atraviesa la comunidad y el acceso peatonal se ve aún más limitado debido a las pandillas que controlan ciertas vías de acceso.

Después de 80 años de abandono, el gobierno municipal ha decidido enfrentar el desafío y ampliar el alcance de los servicios e infraestructura en la Villa 31. El objetivo es elevar los estándares de calidad de vida a los mismos niveles que en el resto de la ciudad. A la cabeza de tal extraordinaria y compleja tarea se encuentra un motivado equipo de jóvenes arquitectos, ingenieros, sociólogos y expertos en políticas públicas. Gehl se les unió para ayudarlos a llevar adelante la misión social del proyecto a través del diseño urbano, haciendo hincapié en la movilidad sostenible y el espacio público.

Como parte de nuestra labor, nos dedicamos a estudiar la vida pública en siete barrios representativos de la diversidad de Buenos Aires y a aprender del equipo de alcance público que ha estado trabajando con los residentes durante casi dos años. Nuestros hallazgos revelan que, en los indicadores clave de vitalidad urbana y movilidad sostenible, la villa supera a las zonas más ricas de la ciudad.

En las calles y espacios de la Villa 31 hay un mayor número de personas caminando, andando en bicicleta, socializando, jugando y mirando a la gente pasar que en el resto de los seis vecindarios que estudiamos. Además, nos dimos cuenta de que, en comparación con las barriadas informales construidas por los habitantes mismos previa intervención gubernamental, la mayoría de los proyectos de vivienda social subvencionados por el Estado durante el último siglo ha dado peores resultados (en lo que se refiere a seguridad y salud).

No cabe duda de la urgente necesidad de extender el acceso a los servicios públicos en esta zona. Durante décadas, los residentes de la Villa 31 han exigido infraestructura básica y presencia gubernamental; no obstante, cuanto más tiempo pasamos en la comunidad, mejor hemos podido apreciar la infraestructura urbana que ya ha desarrollado la gente del barrio. Estas familias enfrentan graves privaciones en muchos aspectos y, sin embargo, en medio de la escasez, el vecindario posee características —entre ellas, calles transitables y una vida pública dinámica— que algunas de las ciudades más privilegiadas ambicionan.

Junto con un dedicado equipo —Diego, Lucho, Licho, Nacho y Juani— Gehl ha ideado estrategias para conectar el vecindario, el cual ha estado aislado por mucho tiempo, con su entorno formal. El objetivo de hacer que la comunidad sea físicamente más accesible se complementa con el complejo proceso de integración formal de la villa en el tejido social y económico de la ciudad. Hemos ayudado a diseñar calles y espacios para interconectar las microcomunidades que conforman la villa y así reforzar la noción de que el espacio público realmente constituye la base común y la esencia del distrito.

A medida que nuestros diseños han evolucionado, nos hemos vuelto más conscientes de los riesgos que implica la reurbanización. En la villa, adherirse a los códigos de construcción modernos significa ensanchar las calles, restringir el afán emprendedor de los residentes y, posiblemente, incrementar los costos de construcción. Para cumplir con las normas, la comunidad se vería obligada a renunciar a algunos de sus más potentes atributos.

Los arquitectos de la Villa 31, es decir, sus habitantes, han creado un lugar cuyas características es necesario preservar al mismo tiempo que los arquitectos se unen al proyecto. A continuación, exponemos las cinco lecciones de diseño más importantes que hemos aprendido de la Villa 31, ilustradas por el artista local Fernando Neyra.

La proximidad es importante

Construida por los residentes mismos en terrenos de propiedad pública situados cerca del principal centro de tránsito de la ciudad, la Villa 31 les ha proporcionado a los migrantes y las familias de bajos recursos algo que ni el mercado ni la mayoría de los programas gubernamentales han podido: la oportunidad de habitar en la proximidad de las fuentes de empleo, servicios y demás comodidades que la ciudad brinda.

En Argentina, al igual que en los Estados Unidos y Europa, existe una demanda no satisfecha de vivienda asequible cerca de los centros de trabajo. Lamentablemente, la oferta de viviendas asequibles, incluidas las de asistencia social, a menudo se limita a las zonas residenciales de la periferia, las cuales carecen de acceso al transporte público y a puestos de trabajo adecuados. Esto restringe las oportunidades para los residentes y, al obligarlos a desplazarse a diario al lugar de trabajo, los condena a desperdiciar innecesariamente tiempo valioso.

Un barrio lo mismo puede ser denso que a escala humana

En una ciudad marcada por rascacielos y el movimiento rápido del tráfico en avenidas de ocho carriles, las calles estrechas y la forma compacta de la villa proporcionan un descanso del ruido y el ajetreo de la vida urbana. A pesar de que la Villa 31 es uno de los barrios más densos de la ciudad, la mayoría de los edificios tiene menos de cinco plantas de altura.

El ancho de la calle oscila entre los tres y los 16 metros, generando así una red de callejuelas compartidas caracterizadas por un agradable microclima. Con dinámicas plantas inferiores y balcones abiertos, las angostas edificaciones que conforman las densas manzanas, garantizan que siempre haya un par de ojos vigilando la calle. En lugar de ajustarse a una cuadrícula perfecta, estas callejuelas se curvan alrededor de las estructuras, generando una red de pasajes ondulantes que descubre distintas vistas del distrito y sus alrededores. Estos pasajes irregulares varían en anchura, lo que permite que surjan pequeñas plazas y espacios de reunión. Los callejones se convierten en atajos entre las vías paralelas, permitiéndole a los peatones tomar trayectos más cortos y directos que los vehículos.

Las calles pueden ser espacios públicos alegres y seguros

Las callejuelas angostas, junto con la actividad constante, obligan a los conductores a circular lentamente a través del tejido de la villa. El ritmo lento del tráfico genera un entorno social más seguro y sosegado que otras áreas de la ciudad que han sido diseñadas específicamente para el flujo de automóviles. Las calles de la villa se convierten entonces en punto de convergencia —un espacio para intercambios casuales y encuentros frecuentes. Incluso desde muy temprana edad, los niños se reúnen a jugar fuera del hogar sin supervisión, pero siempre a meros pasos de los adultos.

Al transitar por las calles de la villa, se puede observar a las familias sentadas al frente de las casas, reunidas para conversar con los vecinos o vigilar a los niños. Es posible ver a los residentes de la tercera edad entablar, desde el balcón o la ventana del salón, conversación con los transeúntes. En la villa, una pequeña unidad en la planta baja permite que una persona mayor viva de manera independiente y participe en la vida de la comunidad.

La arquitectura flexible genera oportunidades económicas

En la villa, la casa es mucho más que una vivienda —es una plataforma para el progreso económico. Una familia de inmigrantes puede comenzar, por ejemplo, con una estructura de dos habitaciones en una sola planta. Una puerta o ventana que dé hacia la calle es lo único que hace falta para establecer una pequeña tienda. Las iniciativas empresariales pueden ponerse a prueba sin los riesgos ni los costos que implica el alquilar un espacio comercial. Si el negocio falla, es posible transformarlo y ensayar otra vez con una idea nueva y mejor. Si el negocio tiene éxito, puede expandirse y ocupar la primera planta, mientras que los ingresos del negocio se pueden utilizar para costear la construcción de una segunda planta destinada a la vivienda. Asimismo, una tercera planta con acceso independiente se puede convertir en un apartamento que alquilarle a un primo o a una pareja de inquilinos.

La casa constantemente se adapta y se ajusta; puede subdividirse cuando la familia crece o ponerse en alquiler cuando un miembro de la familia se muda. Muchos de los residentes de la villa habitan al margen del sistema bancario formal, por lo que una casa más grande representa una forma de ahorrar lo mismo que una fuente de ingresos.

Con el tiempo, una empresa exitosa puede convertirse en un valioso activo para el barrio, el cual les permite a los vecinos satisfacer sus necesidades a la vuelta de la esquina. En la actualidad, una de cada cinco edificaciones en la villa aloja un negocio. En una sola de estas callejuelas se encuentran un mercado de verduras, un cibercafé, una peluquería, una lavandería, una sandwichería y hasta un consultorio dental. Cada uno de estos negocios se erige como testimonio del impulso empresarial de los residentes.

El carácter único de cada vivienda configura el espacio

Los proyectos de vivienda pública tradicionales colocan a los habitantes en módulos regulados estándar; se trata de estructuras con formas predecibles y uniformes, repetidas en ordenadas filas. Se desincentivan o prohíben las modificaciones personalizadas al exterior de las viviendas, puesto que afectan la pureza arquitectónica de la visión del proyecto. Libre de ideas estéticas estrictas y monolíticas, las casas de la villa reflejan en cambio la personalidad y el gusto de sus habitantes. Con la mirada atenta, un paseo por la villa revela, por medio de los colores y materiales escogidos, el orgullo que la gente siente por sus hogares. En una callecita tranquila, una fachada porta un azulejo pintado a mano, indicando el número de la casa y el apellido de la familia; la vivienda pintada les recuerda a quienes por allí pasan a la orgullosa familia que la habita.

Un nuevo paradigma

Durante dos décadas, los residentes de la villa han exigido cambios. Hoy en día, muchos agradecen las mejoras que el gobierno realiza en el barrio. Mas es imprescindible recalcar que no debemos idealizar estas condiciones, surgidas de la escasez y la necesidad. Sin embargo, también es preciso que reconozcamos los valores y las fortalezas de la comunidad, con el fin de preservarlos en el barrio tras el redesarrollo, y que apliquemos las lecciones allí aprendidas a otros proyectos de diseño urbano.

Las nuevas inversiones deben dirigirse a las necesidades reales de la comunidad, respetando las estructuras sociales que le han permitido mantenerse enérgica frente a las adversidades. Estamos convencidos de que la forma urbana de la villa —proximidad a los lugares de empleo, arquitectura flexible y adaptable, calles compactas y transitables y plantas inferiores dinámicas— no solo ha influenciado el fuerte nexo social que une a los residentes, sino también las estructuras extraordinariamente resilientes en las que éstos habitan. Al estudiar y aprender de comunidades autoconstruidas como lo es la Villa 31, los arquitectos involucrados en la creación de viviendas de interés social en Latinoamérica y otros lugares, brindan un gran aporte a la ciudadanía. Los dirigentes locales deben aceptar y adoptar la paradoja que lugares como la villa simbolizan. Estos espacios urbanos requieren de apoyo público sin que se regule excesivamente la vida orgánica que ya ha florecido en su ausencia.

Extendemos nuestro especial agradecimiento a todo el equipo de Barrio 31 y sobre todo a Diego, Lucho, Licho, Nacho y Juani. Le damos también las gracias a David Sim, quien influenció nuestro enfoque para este proyecto y las ideas en este artículo.

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Cities have turned into fire bait, but we can fix them.

Source: Wired Magazine

THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA city of Paradise is gone—the Camp Fire, by far the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history, has reduced home after home to ashes. It conjures images of a tsunami of flame tearing through the town, destroying everything in its path. Curiously, though, trees still stand between burned-out homes.

“If they're still there and they didn't burn and they're even green, then clearly those trees didn't contribute to the ignition of the houses,” says fire expert Jack Cohen, formerly of the US Forest Service.

At least not directly. High winds blow embers perhaps miles in advance of a blaze, firebrands that land on clusters of pine needles or leaves on roofs, quickly triggering hundreds if not thousands of house fires, as appears to have happened in Paradise.

Part of what makes the destruction of Paradise so shocking is that we tend to assume that cities just don’t burn anymore. Until around 1920, they did all the time, on account of being made largely of wood. “Cities were basically reconstituted forests,” says fire historian Stephen Pyne. “And so they were subject to the same winds and cold fronts and all the rest of it, and they burned exactly like forests.” Think Chicago in 1871, or San Francisco in 1906.

We stopped our cities from burning once. And we can do it again.

With the modernist city came fireproof materials like concrete and glass. Cities got sick of paying to rebuild, so they put fire codes in place, as well as better water infrastructure to provide firefighters with ammunition to battle the blazes.

Cities stopped burning to the ground, and the threat of fire was soon forgotten. Over the past few decades, cities in California in particular have crept closer and closer to fire-prone forests. Codes went lax, and many homes were still getting built with plain old wooden shingles.

“We quit vaccinating, in a sense,” says Pyne. “We quit doing all the things that we had learned to do to stop our cities from burning.”

The problem became abundantly clear last year, when the massive Tubbs Fire tore through Santa Rosa, not far north from San Francisco, destroying 5,500 structures and killing 22. And now the Camp Fire has eclipsed that carnage with a brutality that California is struggling to comprehend.

Part of the problem is climate change. Autumn has grown increasingly dry in California, which is poorly timed with hot, dry seasonal winds that tear in from the east, further desiccating vegetation and turbo-charging wildfires.

But regardless of climate change, we know how to keep our cities from burning—we’ve known for decades. “Let's face the reality of this problem,” says Cohen. “There are hundreds of thousands of houses that already exist, and we don't have to rebuild the houses to keep them from burning down during an extreme wildfire.”

A home’s vulnerability to fire largely comes down to the roof. If you live in a wildfire zone and your roof is made of wood shingles, you need a new roof made of composite shingles. End of story. With billions and billions of embers flying ahead of a wildfire, it’s almost inevitable that one will land on your roof and start a blaze.

The danger is compounded in a forested city, because trees are constantly shedding needles and leaves, which gather on roofs. “I would be willing to guess that one of the principle igniters of homes in Paradise was needle and leaf debris,” says Cohen. “Maybe years of needle and leaf debris that hadn't been cleaned up on the roof, on the decks, next to the wood siding at the base of the walls.”

Why would Cohen venture that guess? Because plenty of trees are still standing in Paradise, unharmed amid the near total destruction of homes. The fire didn’t leap from tree to tree, taking homes along with it. Instead, the fire sent out scouts in the form of embers, which landed on clusters of debris on top of and around homes.

This shower of embers can simultaneously ignite structures all over town, overwhelming firefighters. “And then we of course have evacuation going,” says Cohen. “So these houses are not being attended to as they're burning, which means that they just free-burn to total destruction.”

The alternative is to have every homeowner meticulously groom their homes and yards, creating a perimeter of 100 feet. You have to constantly remove pine needles and leaves from roofs and decks. You can keep flower beds near the house, so long as they aren’t loaded with mulch, which is very flammable. You don’t need to cut down trees per se, but you have to be willing to clean up after them.

These measures create a defensible space where embers may still land, but are less likely to start a conflagration. If embers do land on your manicured home, they will take far longer—perhaps hours—to start a fire sizable enough to cause significant damage. “If we have very ignition-resistant homes that won't be involving rapidly in fire, the house is the absolute safest place to be during one of these events, as opposed to running for your life in an evacuation,” says Cohen.

That is, you stay and fight. “Now we're talking about residents and firefighters distributed through the community picking up small ignitions,” says Cohen. “Currently we can't do that, by and large, because we have such highly ignitable community fuel systems, houses and lots of vegetation that can spread at high intensities.”

Wildfires aren’t going anywhere. With climate change, they’re getting worse. But this is not an unsolvable problem, and protecting homes doesn’t require that much investment. But not everyone can afford it without a subsidy. Many residents of Paradise were retirees, for instance, and wouldn’t necessarily have had the income to replace their roofs. And with limited mobility, many wouldn't have had the means to manicure their yards or have had the money to pay someone to do it for them.

So beyond attending to homes, the residents—all of them—in fire-prone communities will have to band together to bolster their cities against future flames. “Fire is in a sense a contagion phenomenon,” says Pyne, the fire historian. “Its power comes from spreading. So you've got to vaccinate basically everybody or it's not going to work.” If you methodically clear your home of organic debris and your neighbor doesn’t, all your work is for naught if a fire comes to town.

“It clarifies in a sense what you have to do,” Pyne adds. “It complicates it, in where are you going to get the money and social capital and political capital to do it?”

Insurance companies may help spur along a change in attitudes. “I've actually talked to people who've said, Oh yeah, I'm buying a new house and I'm changing the roof out before I close,” says Michele Steinberg, wildfire division director at the National Fire Protection Association. “Because my insurer is looking at where I am, knows what roofs burn, and is saying, You're going to pay more for your insurance than you are for your mortgage—a lot more.”

The question is whether the destruction of Paradise was enough to shock California into reinforcing every vulnerable city against the fiery menace.

[architecdura-blog]

The Value of "Shanty" Towns in Urban Planning.

The world known Gehl architects studio tells the story of how they came in to help redesign Villa 31, the most emblematic informal settlement in Buenos Aires, and how they ended up valuing what their residents had already built.

Urban planners and designers often face an uncomfortable paradox: people often prefer neighborhoods that have developed organically, thanks to the contributions of many, over those planned by a small group of experts. Urban planners love using terms like 'organic', 'spontaneous' and 'authentic'; however, they tend to plan and design areas that restrict those same characteristics. We were confronted in a very explicit way with this paradox when Gehl, the company where we work as urban designers, received an invitation from the government of Buenos Aires to provide design advice in an ambitious project, led by the Secretariat of Social and Urban Integration of the city, for the redevelopment of the most emblematic informal settlement in the Argentine capital. The plan seeks to turn Villa 31 -villa, in Argentinean slang, means neighborhood- into a neighborhood, a neighborhood proper.

Villa 31 is one of the most interesting and vibrant neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. It has the granularity and scale of the medieval settlements that tourists flock to in places like Siena, Italy. It has that life on the street, with children running and playing, which cities like New York or Melbourne aspire to achieve through Play Streets initiatives -in which the streets are closed to traffic for defined periods to open them to the community and promote physical activity. With the streets full of cyclists and pedestrians, the town has a modal division more similar to that of Copenhagen and other cities at the forefront in transport than to other neighborhoods of Buenos Aires.

WE MUST BE CAREFUL NOT TO IDEALIZE THESE CHARACTERISTICS

Strategically located next to the most wealthy neighborhood of the capital, Villa 31 is a painful reminder of the deep socio-economic disparity in Argentina. While most of the city is revered as a sophisticated metropolis, 37 percent of the eight thousand households in this informal settlement lack kitchens and a quarter of them do not have toilets.

Some residents carry a pair of extra shoes to wear after walking the muddy streets. Some corridors are so narrow that they do not allow the passage of emergency vehicles, which means that hundreds of families are out of reach of them. The bulk of the houses does not have drinking water or are connected to the sewerage network. Electricity is available through dangerous informal connections, which have resulted in electrocutions and fatal explosions.

Most homes are overcrowded and lack adequate indoor air quality. Although the village is located in the vicinity of a transportation center, none of the transit lines runs through the community and pedestrian access is further limited due to the gangs that control certain access routes.

After 80 years of neglect, the municipal government has decided to face the challenge and expand the scope of services and infrastructure in Villa 31. The goal is to raise standards of quality of life to the same levels as in the rest of the city . At the head of such an extraordinary and complex task is a motivated team of young architects, engineers, sociologists and experts in public policy. Gehl joined them to help them carry out the social mission of the project through to plan...

As part of our work, we are dedicated to studying public life in seven neighborhoods representative of the diversity of Buenos Aires and to learning from the public outreach team that has been working with residents for almost two years. Our findings reveal that, in the key indicators of urban vitality and sustainable mobility, the village exceeds the richest areas of the city.

In the streets and spaces of Villa 31 there are more people walking, cycling, socializing, playing and watching people go by than in the rest of the six neighborhoods we studied.

In addition, we realized that, in comparison with the informal neighborhoods built by the inhabitants themselves after government intervention, most of the social housing projects subsidized by the State during the last century have given worse results (in terms of security and health).

There is no doubt about the urgent need to extend access to public services in this area. For decades, residents of Villa 31 have demanded basic infrastructure and government presence; nevertheless, the more time we spend in the community, the better we have been able to appreciate the urban infrastructure that the people of the neighborhood have already developed.

These families face serious deprivation in many aspects and, nevertheless, in the midst of scarcity, the neighborhood has characteristics -among them, passable streets and a dynamic public life- that some of the most privileged cities aspire to.

Together with a dedicated team -Diego, Lucho, Licho, Nacho and Juani- Gehl has devised strategies to connect the neighborhood, which has been isolated for a long time, with its formal environment.

The objective of making the community physically more accessible is complemented by the complex process of formal integration of the town into the social and economic fabric of the city. We have helped design streets and spaces to interconnect the micro-communities that make up the village and thus reinforce the notion that public space really constitutes the common base and essence of the district.

As our designs have evolved, we have become more aware of the risks involved in redevelopment. In the village, adhering to modern building codes means widening the streets, restricting the entrepreneurial zeal of the residents and, possibly, increasing construction costs. To comply with the rules, the community would be forced to give up some of its most powerful attributes.

Below, we present the five most important design lessons we have learned from Villa 31, illustrated by local artist Fernando Neyra.

PROXIMITY IS IMPORTANT

Built by the residents themselves on publicly owned land near the main transit center of the city, Villa 31 has provided migrants and low-income families with something that neither the market nor most government programs have been able to do. : the opportunity to live in the proximity of the sources of employment, services and other amenities that the city offers.

In Argentina, as in the United States and Europe, there is an unmet demand for affordable housing near work centers. Unfortunately, the supply of affordable housing, including social assistance, is often limited to suburban residential areas, which lack access to affordable housing. public office and appropriate jobs. This restricts opportunities for residents and, by forcing them to move daily to the workplace, condemns them to waste valuable time unnecessarily.

A DISTRICT CAN BE as DENSE as the HUMAN SCALE

In a city marked by skyscrapers and the rapid movement of traffic in eight-lane avenues, the narrow streets and compact form of the villa provide a break from the noise and hustle and bustle of urban life. Although Villa 31 is one of the densest neighborhoods in the city, most buildings are less than five stories high.

The width of the street oscillates between three and 16 meters, generating a network of shared alleyways characterized by a pleasant micro-climate. With dynamic lower floors and open balconies, the narrow buildings that make up the dense blocks, ensure that there are always a pair of eyes watching the street.

Instead of adjusting to a perfect grid, these alleyways curve around the structures, creating a network of undulating passages that discover different views of the district and its surroundings. These irregular passages vary in width, which allows small squares and meeting spaces to arise. The alleys become shortcuts between parallel roads, allowing pedestrians to take shorter, more direct routes than vehicles.

THE STREETS CAN BE cheerful AND SAFE PUBLIC SPACES

Narrow lanes, along with constant activity, force drivers to move slowly through the fabric of the village. The slow pace of traffic generates a safer and quieter social environment than other areas of the city that have been specifically designed for the flow of automobiles.

The streets of the village then become a point of convergence - a space for casual exchanges and frequent encounters. Even from an early age, children gather to play outside the home without supervision, but always at the mere steps of adults.

As you walk through the streets of the village, you can see the families sitting in front of the houses, meeting to talk with neighbors or watch over children. It is possible to see the residents of the third age engage, from the balcony or the window of the living room, conversation with passers-by. In the villa, a small unit on the ground floor allows an older person to live independently and participate in the life of the community.

FLEXIBLE ARCHITECTURE GENERATES ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES

In the village, the house is much more than a home - it is a platform for economic progress. An immigrant family can begin, for example, with a two-room structure on one floor. A door or window facing the street is all that is needed to establish a small store. Business initiatives can be tested without the risks and costs of renting a commercial space. If the business fails, it is possible to transform it and try again with a new and better idea. If the business is successful, it can expand and occupy the first floor, while business income can be used to finance the construction of a second floor for housing. Also, a third floor with independent access can be converted into an apartment to rent to a cousin or a couple of tenants.

The house constantly adapts and adjusts; It can be subdivided when the family grows or is rented when a family member moves. Many of the residents of the village live on the fringes of the formal banking system, so a larger house represents a way to save the same as a source of income.

Over time, a successful company can become a valuable asset to the neighborhood, which allows neighbors to meet their needs around the corner. Currently, one out of every five buildings in the town houses a business. In one of these streets there are a vegetable market, a cybercafé, a hairdresser, a laundry, a sandwich shop and even a dental office. Each of these businesses stands as a testimony to the business impulse of the residents.

THE UNIQUE CHARACTER OF EACH HOUSING CONFIGURES THE SPACE

Traditional public housing projects place the inhabitants in standard regulated modules; they are structures with predictable and uniform shapes, repeated in neat rows. Personalized modifications to the exterior of the dwellings are discouraged or prohibited, since they affect the architectural purity of the vision of the project. Free of strict and monolithic aesthetic ideas, the houses of the village reflect the personality and taste of its inhabitants.

With an attentive look, a walk through the village reveals, through the colors and materials chosen, the pride that people feel for their homes. In a quiet little street, a facade carries a hand-painted tile, indicating the number of the house and the family's last name; the painted house reminds those who pass there to the proud family that inhabits it.

A NEW PARADIGM

For two decades, the residents of the village have demanded changes. Today, many appreciate the improvements the government makes in the neighborhood. But it is essential to emphasize that we should not idealize these conditions, arising from scarcity and need. However, we also need to recognize the values ​​and strengths of the community, in order to preserve them in the neighborhood after redevelopment, and apply the lessons learned there to other urban design projects.

The new investments should be directed to the real needs of the community, respecting the social structures that have allowed it to remain energetic in the face of adversity. We are convinced that the urban form of the village -proximity to the places of employment, flexible and adaptable architecture, compact and passable streets and dynamic lower floors- has not only influenced the strong social bond that unites the residents, but also the extraordinarily resilient structures in which they live.

By studying and learning from self-built communities such as Villa 31, the architects involved in the creation of social housing in Latin America and other places, provide a great contribution to citizenship. Local leaders must accept and adopt the paradox that places like the town symbolize. These urban spaces require public support without excessively regulating the organic life that has already flourished in their absence.

We extend our special thanks to the entire team of Barrio 31 and especially to Diego, Lucho, Licho, Nacho and Juani. We also thank David Sim, who influenced our approach to this project and the ideas in this article.