INTI - International New Town Institute

Excursion to Navi Mumbai

Michelle Provoost — 2010-11-24T21:25:00Z

In the 4th quarter of 2010 the TUD will organize an excursion to Mumbai (see study guide TUD, AR0362, History of the great metropolises). INTI is participating in this project because of Navi Mumbai, the New Town that was started in 1972. From the start it had to cope with many difficulties, and now claims to be the largest planned city in the world with 800.000 inhabitants. The aim of the excursion will be to study this city and produce essays, pictures and observations which will make up an alternative travel guide to Mumbai - because of course the New town is not included in the regular tourist guides...

Contact hours: 88 hours
Course language: English
Education method: Instruction 36 hours
Independent study 80 hours
Excursion 80 hours
Assessment: Essays as contribution to the excursion guide

Enroll in the excursion by sending an email to Sophie van Ginneken at s.vanginneken@newtowninstitute.org

PhD Meeting

Rachel Keeton — 2010-11-13T09:38:00Z

The International New Town Institute is pleased to invite you to the annual PhD meeting on Wednesday, November 10 at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

INTI is inviting researchers from all over the world who are currently doing PhD research on New Towns and related topics. The purpose of this PhD meeting is to exchange knowledge and extend social and professional networks. The venue of the PhD meeting will be TU Delft. During this informal meeting, there will be an opportunity to present your research to the group.

If you would like to do so, please send in your abstract before October 15 to info@newtowninstitute.org.

Although the PhD-meeting has an informal character, a scientific board will review your abstracts in advance. This may enable you to have your university cover your travel & hotel expenses.

New Towns & Politics

Rachel Keeton — 2010-11-12T09:50:00Z

The ultimate political act in town planning is the building of a New Town. Governments, developers and planners conspire to create a brand new community on a tabula rasa, based on the latest models of social and economic behavior.

Or is the idea to build a New Town from scratch just proof of a fatal misunderstanding of what makes a city a city? Is it a sign of a gross ignorance on the part of politicians, planners and all those involved in this process of the complexity and the unpredictability of the urban? Whatever the situation might be, New Towns and Politics are closely related, even condemned to each other.

With the fourth INTI conference, New Towns & Politics, we wish to explore thoughts, analyses, projects, designs and political actions pertaining to the political dimension of New Towns, old and new. A call for papers has just closed. Authoritative and provocative keynote speakers will be invited to enliven the event with their presentations and a film program will open up unexpected vistas on the question of New Towns & Politics.

Learning from Almere

Rachel Keeton — 2010-09-14T08:52:00Z

In collaboration with the WSF Flevoland/De Nieuwe Bibliotheek, INTI is pleased to offer a new course for inhabitants and other people who are interested in Almere.

Almere is, similar to every other city, the result of a combination of deliberate choices and coincidences. The development of the city is therefore much less transparent compared to the promises made beforehand in spatial plans or outlines. In the context of Almere this lack of transparency is even increased by the speed with which this new town has been developed. To give an overview of and some calm in this urban whirlwind INTI and WSF Flevoland/De Nieuwe Bibliotheek offer a course of six lectures. The course ‘Learning from Almere' will start in September 2010.

The course offers city inhabitants and other people interested in Almere a unique opportunity to learn and understand the development of this unique city. The course is structured along important themes in (the development of) Almere that will be presented, analyzed and discussed by several experts.

The course consists of six lectures by experts in a specific field or theme. Every lecture will address a certain element of the history, building, governance and management of this city. The course will be moderated and hosted by the staff of both International New Town Institute (INTI) and the WSF Flevoland/De Nieuwe Bibliotheek.

Overall purpose of the course is to inform participants but also to enhance their fascination and understanding of Almere.

Details:

Tuesday evenings: 14/9, 21/9, 28/9 en 5/10, 12/10, 19/10 2010

Openbare Bibliotheek Almere (Het Nieuwe Lokaal)

Stadhuisplein 101, 1315 XC Almere

Start at 20.00 hrs (hall open at 19.45 hrs)

Estimated length of each lecture: approximately 1,5 hours (coffee and tea included)

Click here for more information.

Dutch Spoken

Costs Participating costs are € 60,- for the full program.

It's is also possible only to attend separate meetings. Participation costs will then be € 12 for every evening and you will not receive texts for further reading or a certificate of participation.

The maximum number of participants is forty.

If you are interested in participating in the course Learning from Almere please contact info@plusbibliotheekflevoland.nl, or click here for more information.

TReC* invites you to YAPYAŞA!

Jacob Buitenkant — 2010-09-06T07:52:52Z

YAPYAŞA is a scientific and artistic work searching for new financial, temporal and organizational models of urban transformation. YAPYAŞA is an interactive real-time, real-agent, role-playing city game. YAPYAŞA utilizes parametric 3D urbanism. YAPYAŞA is politically neutral towards all actors of urban transformation. YAPYAŞA professionally takes a position for ‘design by collective intelligence'. YAPYAŞA aims to demarcate Istanbul's collective common interests through the interactions of players. YAPYAŞA acts upon transforming the generic urban block that represents 70% of the city fabric, by addressing a variety of pressing themes from an imminent earthquake to long-term sustainability, re-densification to legalization. The word YAPYAŞA** [build&inhabit] is an allusion to the Turkish term YAPSAT [build&sell] and it promotes a socially sustainable urban transformation.

- World Wide Newsfeed

INTI acquired relevant New Town books from library of Dutch Ministry VROM!

Jacob Buitenkant — 2010-09-02T08:20:27Z

The Dutch Ministry of Social Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment (VROM) is cleaning up its library. INTI had the opportunity to choose all the relevant New Town books from over 120,000 publications! The books will soon be moved to the special INTI section in the library of Almere.

- World Wide Newsfeed

Israel to end assistance to planned city on West Bank

Jacob Buitenkant — 2010-09-01T08:36:49Z

Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak will inform the PA that assistance will be withdrawn, despite months of cooperation, because the construction does not comply with laws to protect the environment, the Hebrew-language daily Israel HaYom reported.

The news follows reports Wednesday that right-wing Israelis were planning further protests against the city on the grounds that roads leading to it would divide the illegal Benyamin settlement.

Previous demonstrations against the planned community have seen far-right Israelis break into the construction site and threaten workers.

www.maannews.net

New pilgrims city planned north of Mina

Jacob Buitenkant — 2010-08-31T16:13:51Z

“There are two options. Either we construct concrete buildings or set up tents with modern designs,” said Habib Zain Al-Abidine, deputy minister of municipal and rural affairs, who estimated the cost of building the new city at SR30 billion.

Al-Abidine said the new city project would be completed within five years. “We'll construct either multistory buildings or tents to accommodate 1.5 million pilgrims,” he told Okaz Arabic daily.

The new city project in Mina would enable the Saudi government to allow more pilgrims from within the Kingdom and abroad to take part in the annual pilgrimage. More than 2.5 million pilgrims, the majority from abroad, perform Haj every year.

The minister said plans for three new projects worth SR1.4 billion would be presented to higher authorities for approval. They include the construction of toilets and car parks in the holy sites and the shifting of slaughterhouses outside Mina.

He said over the past 17 years, a number of development projects have been carried out at the holy sites at a total cost of SR30 billion.

Al-Abidine said the new train system linking the holy sites of Makkah, Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifa would transport 150,000 pilgrims this year.

“We have no plan to change the shape of the trains because the present shape was selected on the basis of scientific studies,” he said.

Al-Abidine said the new railway system was implemented in accordance with international standards. “When trains operate between the holy sites, pilgrims will feel the difference, especially with the disappearance of 30,000 buses,” he pointed out.

Al-Abidine said the government has spent more than SR6 billion on the railway project.

He said the Chinese company, which carried out the Mashair railway project, is obliged to operate and maintain the trains for three years. It will also train Saudis in operation and maintenance. “We have conducted workshops for Tawafa organizations to operate railway stations and manage crowds,” he said.

He said the new railway system would serve domestic pilgrims in the first phase, adding that ticket fares will be included in the service charge. He said trains would operate throughout the year.

World's Fastest-Growing Megalopolis Hides in Fog

Jacob Buitenkant — 2010-08-30T12:24:06Z

"A decade ago — as part of plans to raise living standards in the western provinces — the Chinese government put Chonqing at the center of a $200 billion program of investment in infrastructure and commerce. The Guardian has described it as “the biggest megalopolis you've never heard of.”

City of Ambition, an online “gallerybook” by Turkish photographer Ferit Kuyas, is a spectral and haunting look at the drastic urbanization of what was once a relatively modest-sized metropolis. Chongqing's population in its main urban areas was a little over 5 million in 2000. By 2020 it's estimated that it will be 20 million."

Kuyas' photos show a rapidly expanding city shrouded in fog as it treads towards a newfound status as one of the world's megacities.

Het Mirakel van Nowa Huta

Rachel Keeton — 2010-08-30T09:36:00Z

This is the fourth installment in Joris van Casteren's series on New Towns across Europe. In this article from the summer issue of Hollands Diep, Van Casteren explores this Polish New Town and the people that call it home. Nowa Huta was also the subject of a recent INTI research trip.

Click here to order a copy of Hollands Diep.

Click here to read Van Casteren's article online.