Another City (3)
The History of Urban Squatting and the Struggle for the Right to Remake the City Today
Saturday 9 November 2019 from 5 pm – including soup kitchen!
Ungdomshuset (Dødsmaskinen), Kbh NV.
Talk by Alexander Vasudevan, Oxford University.
Another City (2)
Fredens Havn – a radical experiment
Sunday 29th September 2019, 5 pm – with soup kitchen!
Folkets Hus, 1st floor, Nørrebro.
Talk about the floating settlement Fredens Havn, a self-organized experiment with another way of living in the city, which has existed since 2011.
Another city (1)
Sydhavnen as a laboratory for alternative urban development and living
Saturday 14 September 2019, 1pm – 2pm
People’s Democratic Meeting in Sydhavn
Panel debate about Sydhavn, a traditional working class district known for its many allotment garden communities.
Fredens Havn
What to change
Architects may not be able to change society but we may be able to change architecture. And we may do so by learning from society.
Henrik Valeur, 2019
To the Director of the Biennale
Bose Krishnamachari,
Director of the Kochi Muziris Biennale
Kochi Muziris Biennale
From the she streets of Fort Kochi and the Students’ Biennale, which I think are more interesting than the “real” biennale. The students obviously don’t have much money so they have to be more inventive.
Kochi Muziris Biennale © Henrik Valeur 2019
Freedom?
To be confined to a tiny box of metal; to sit there inactive and immovable, is that freedom?
Henrik Valeur, 2019
Ban cars in cities
Opinion piece
Henrik Valeur, 2016
The problem
Do you know the feeling? You’re stuck in traffic and you can literally feel your blood pressure going up as you become increasingly frustrated with the time that is being lost because of all those morons who are blocking the way ahead. You may also begin to wonder what all those gasses and fine particles of soot, which are being emitted from all those idle engines in front, are doing to your health. And, if you’re less of a narcissist, you may begin to take pity on the poor cyclist who is being bullied by the big SUV or on the woman with her bags and children who is unable to cross the road.
Site about development urbanism
A site dedicated to the theory of development urbanism.
India: the Urban Transition (DPU)
Dialogue in development, University College London, Development Planning Unit.
12 October 2017.
Networking Bangalore
– applying complexity theory to design and planning
Lecture at the Open City Summer School, Politecnico di Milano.
7 September 2016.
A new voice in urban politics
Interview with Dr. Ashwin Mahesh in India: the Urban Transition – a Case Study of Development Urbanism, 2014.
Henrik Valeur, 2014.
Ashwin Mahesh is a scientist who turned environmental activist, development worker and technology entrepreneur before becoming a leading candidate for a newly formed national political party, the Lok Satta, contesting from the city of Bangalore. In this interview, he discusses problems of urban management in India today and proposes public participation and community building as means to solve the problems.[1]
India: The Urban Transition (Urban India)
Review by Mukta Naik, Senior Research Associate, Centre for Policy Research, in Urban India.
Drawing from his own experiences of practicing and teaching in Shanghai, China and focusing on his recent work in the Indian cities of Chandigarh and Bangalore, Henrik Valeur’s book is a commentary on the liveability of cities from the perspective of human health and safety over the long term.
India: the Urban Transition (SAI)
India: The Urban Transition (H-Net)
Review by Prof. Preeti Chopra, University of Wisconsin-Madison in H-Net Reviews
In an age when star architects dominate our attention, the Danish architect-urbanist Henrik Valeur’s book on India’s urban transition is an important reminder to us of a longstanding parallel history of architecture and urbanism, one where architects tackle social problems through practical engagement with the built environment.
In Conversation with Architect and Urbanist Henrik Valeur
Interview by Niveditha Ravikumar in Zingy Homes, Tete-A-Tete with Experts
Henrik Valeur, the Nykredit Encouragement Prize winning Danish architect-urbanist is better known in India for his book – India: the Urban Transition A Case Study of Development Urbanism, where he discusses and proposes solutions to some of the basic concerns of human existence – air, water, food, housing and mobility in urban Indian cities. Henrik is the founder and creative director of UiD – a networking urban consultancy and has the distinction of being the curator of the Danish pavilion at the Architecture Biennale in Venice in 2006, where the project, CO-EVOLUTION: Danish/Chinese Collaboration on Sustainable Urban Development in China, which he conceptualised and coordinated, was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Pavilion.
Henrik has been actively involved for half a decade now, with prestigious architectural schools in India, and has been closely working with Government bodies, bureaucrats, developers, entrepreneurs and activists.
Carnival we ought to grow out of
Interview by Dr. Kuldip Dhiman in The Tribune.
Your city is choking’ sadly does not seem a convincing enough argument for citizens to change car buying and use habits. The lead has to come from the planners; that, unfortunately, is not happening. At least a public debate has to start, simple doables put to test. You can’t let cars take over all the space there is. What kind of development is that?
Climate change
We are smart enough to understand how stupid we behave but we are not smart enough to do anything about it.
Henrik Valeur, 2015
Development Urbanism, Issues and possibilities: In Conversation with Henrik Valeur
Interview by Prof. Richa Sharma, Pillai College of Architecture, in Tekton Vol. 2, Issue 1, March 2015.
Henrik Valeur’s career straddles three distinct cultures and this has shaped his worldview about how cities function. He sees a great potential in urbanisation leading to change, particularly in the developing world. Valeur advocates a theory of urbanisation as a means to address poverty while safeguarding the environment, this theory he describes as ‘Development Urbanisation’.
Explore and experiment!
Development Urbanism – an alternative to the “smart city” concept
Social and Environmental Sustainability in Urban India
Talk at Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.
12 March 2015.
Abstract: With rural-to-urban migration and urban-to-rural remittance, the number of people affected by traditional “rural” ills, such as undernourishment and infectious diseases, may decline. However, if cities and urban cultures are not properly developed and maintained, “rural” ills may simply be replaced by “urban” ills, such as stress, physical inactivity and social isolation, which may bring about even more suffering.
Concept of smart cities created by IT companies
Article in Times of India 4 March 2015.
The government’s proposal to create 100 smart cities in the country which boast of world class amenities maybe a step in the right direction, but, the use of technology-driven services is a disconcerting point, architect-urbanist and thinker Henrik Valeur said at a talk-cum-informal discussion late Wednesday evening.
Reflections on Henrik Valeur’s Talk on Development Urbanism
Review in Hyderabad Urban Lab, 3 February 2015.
On Sunday, 1st February 2015, HUL and Lamakaan hosted a talk and presentation by architect-urbanist Henrik Valeur titled “Development Urbanism: An alternative to the ‘Smart City’ concept”. The following post is a reflection on some of the key themes touched upon in the talk.
Choose!
You cannot want to live in Venice and at the same time want to own three cars.
Charles Correa, 2013
The Berlin Wall – 25 years later
Did they become free like us – or did we become enslaved like them? @ Henrik Valeur, 2014
What it takes
Every valuable human being must be a radical and a rebel, for what he must aim at is to make things better than they are.
Niels Bohr
Kilamba
A modernist European vision of the city built by the Chinese in Africa!
Henrik Valeur, 2014
Co-evolution
As we become more and more interconnected and interdependent, human development is no longer a matter of the evolution of individual groups of people but rather a matter of the co-evolution of all people.
Henrik Valeur, 2014
India: the Urban Transition (book)
– A Case Study of Development Urbanism
Author: Henrik Valeur
Publisher: The Architectural Publisher B
Content: 344 pages
Publishing date: 1 July, 2014
Language: English
ISBN: 978-87-92700-09-4
Read more …
Bangalore’s waterways
Chapter 4 in The Great Potential of Bangalore’s Waterways. Full study available here.
Henrik Valeur and Radha Chanchani, Jaya Dhindaw and Kadambari Badami, Center for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning, the Indian Institute of Science, 2012, and Harman Preet and Sameera Sneha, the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, 2013.
“In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water along with other resources has become the victim of his indifference.”[1]
Running out of water – in India
Paper in India: the Urban Transition – a Case Study of Development Urbanism, 2014.
Henrik Valeur, 2013
According to the “Performance Audit of Water Pollution in India” by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India:
“Water contamination weakens or destroys natural ecosystems that support human health, food production and biodiversity. Water-borne diseases kill millions people […]. Livelihoods such as agriculture, fishing and animal husbandry are affected by poor water quality”.[1]
Yet …
“Presently, only about 10 per cent of the waste water generated is treated; the rest is discharged as it is into our water bodies”.[1]
Alternatives to the Automobile in the Indian City
Commentary in Economic & Political Weekly
Henrik Valeur, 2013.
For the past century, the automobile has captured the imagination of people around the globe and for many, it still constitutes the ultimate symbol of having achieved middle-class status. According to a rapidly-growing number of academic studies, however, the automobile may have detrimental effects on human health and life quality, especially in cities, where the concentration of automobiles contributes significantly to pollution, environmental degradation, social isolation, stress and physical inactivity.[1]
Development
In India, life expectancy has increased from 32 years in 1951 to 66 years today. In China, several hundred million people have escaped extreme poverty since 1981.
What did we, who had all the scientific and technological advantages, achieve?
Faster cars and bigger television screens?
Henrik Valeur, 2013
Making India slum-free
Paper in India: the Urban Transition – a Case Study of Development Urbanism, 2014.
Henrik Valeur, 2013
Compared to China, where rapid urbanization seems to have been instrumental in lifting several hundred million people out of extreme poverty during the past three decades, urbanization in India has been slow and, as a possible consequence, poverty alleviation has been almost stagnant.
The slum dweller
Short story in India: the Urban Transition – a Case Study of Development Urbanism, 2014.
Henrik Valeur, 2013
Pawan is 26; he’s a good-looking guy, with a charming smile and eyes that inspire confidence. Furthermore, he holds a university degree in geography and is working for the High Court of Haryana and Punjab as a clerk. It’s only a temporary job but he is also taking classes in the evening to pass the examination to qualify for taking on a higher and steadier position with the government.
What to do?
Better do a little good than a lot of bad!
Henrik Valeur, 2013
Dreams
Great cities are made of dreams rather than of bricks and mortar!
Henrik Valeur, 2013
Car-free sector (in Chandigarh)
Published in The Global Urbanist
Henrik Valeur, 2013
Chandigarh
In contrast to Bangalore, in the south of India, which has been influenced by both British colonization and contemporary processes of globalization, Chandigarh, in the north of India, is a unique modernist city. It was designed in the early 1950’s by a team of Indian and foreign architects headed by Le Corbusier, one of the “fathers” of the modernist movement.
What is a good city?
It is a city in which we can let the children play outside without having to worry about their health and safety!
Henrik Valeur, 2010
Car-free campus (in Bangalore)
Published in The Global Urbanist
By Henrik Valeur, 2013
Mobility is crucial for human development and for the functioning of cities but the automobile may not always be the best solution, especially not in cities where it may have detrimental effects on human health, the environment and development.
While evidence of these effects is piling up in a rapidly growing number of academic studies nothing much seems to be done on the ground. Though the following case, from Bangalore, may, perhaps, provide some inspiration.
The horrendous costs of motorized transportation in (Indian) cities
Paper in World Streets, 2013, The Global Urbanist, 2013 andIndia: the Urban Transition – A Case Study of Development Urbanism, 2014
By Henrik Valeur, 2013
It could presumably be argued that it is the combined ability to both move and think that has enabled us, human beings, to achieve the kind of progress we have achieved. Today, however, mobility and thinking often seem to oppose – or even exclude – one another, especially in cities, where the current modes of transportation and traffic behavior are not only threatening the health of the individual but also that of communities and eco-systems.
Bangalore – the urban schism
Essay in India: the Urban Transition – a Case Study of Development Urbanism, 2014.
By Henrik Valeur, 2013
By the beginning of the 21st century, Bangalore had emerged as a global hub for software development, production and services, with most of the world’s leading IT companies being located there and two of the leading Indian IT companies being headquartered there.
Incompleteness
The city’s incompleteness gives it a capacity to mutate.
Saskia Sassen, 2013
Bad vs good
The problem is that the good is slow and small whereas the bad is fast and big!
Henrik Valeur, 2012
The Power of Urbanization
– from Babylon to PRD/HK
Talk by Henrik Valeur at Lund University, Sweden.
14 September 2010.
I want to talk about the creative and destructive forces of urbanization.
It is often assumed that urbanization is the result of economic, social and technological development, but maybe it is more accurate to say that it is urbanization, which enables economic, social and technological development. And in so doing urbanization provokes changes of existing orders, both in nature and among people. But without urbanization no change, no development!
What to say?
In Canada you can say whatever you want but there is nothing much to say. In China, on the other hand, you have to be careful about what you say. Still, there is a lot to say.
A Chinese journalist who received his training in Canada, 2006.
Possibilities and needs
For architects in the rich countries almost everything is possible but hardly anything is needed. For architects in the poor countries hardly anything is possible but almost everything is needed.
Henrik Valeur, 2012
Shanghai – the hyper-modern city
By Henrik Valeur, 2011
In an essay from 1863, “Le peintre de la vie moderne” (“The painter of modern life”), the French poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire, defined modernity as “the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent” which characterizes the present, in contrast to the eternal and immutable.
The godfather of the hyper-modern city
By Henrik Valeur, 2011
“I apologize”
Chen breathe
“I apologize to the party, the people and my family”
He sits down. A broken man who has lost everything. The last two years he has spent in prison in Beijing and under house arrest in a distant province. It is spring 2008 and he is now sitting in a courtroom in Tianjin, waiting for his verdict.
He risks the death penalty.
Grow your own food!
Article in Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 47, Issue No. 24, 16 Jun, 2012.
By Henrik Valeur and Arshinder Kaur, 2012
Growing your own food in the city is becoming a global trend; from growing vegetables in recycled plastic bottles in a loft in New York or in a slum dwelling in Manila to community kitchen gardens in a posh neighborhood in London or in a favela in Sao Paulo; people are experimenting with ways of becoming self-sufficient with food in urban settings.
Empower the people!
Put switches on the street lamps, so lighting will be under public control.
Guy Debord, 1955.
Sustainable cities
Sustainable cities integrate and adapt to nature, just as they integrate and adapt to people!
Henrik Valeur, 2012.
The global meets the local – or does it?
Le Corbusier Memorial Lecture by Henrik Valeur in Chandigarh, India.
6 October 2010.
I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to speak here, in memory of Le Corbusier, one of the truly great masters of architecture, in Chandigarh, which is, in many respects, his most important masterpiece.
But I will not speak so much about the past, but rather about the future. And the important role architects can play in shaping the future.
The poor are moving to town
Feature article in Information 21 June 2010 (originally in Danish).
By Henrik Valeur, 2010.
According to the UN, the world will be populated with two billion more people within the next twenty to thirty years, almost all of whom will inhabit cities in the developing world.
Building cities for nearly 100 million additional people every year over the next twenty to thirty years is a challenge, but also an opportunity of enormous dimensions. Depending on how it is done, it could either become one of humanity’s greatest successes or one of our worst failures.
Self-organization
Such (self-organizing) systems have several advantages over more traditional systems: robustness, flexibility, capability to function autonomously while demanding a minimum of supervision, and the spontaneous development of complex adaptations without need for detailed planning. Disadvantages are limited predictability and difficulty of control. […] Perhaps the most challenging application would be to design a complex socio-economic system that relies on self-organization rather than centralized planning and control.
Francis Heylighen
Development Urbanism (DTU)
Lecture by Henrik Valeur at Denmark’s Technical University.
28 February 2012.
Development urbanism is a multidisciplinary field focusing on sustainable urban development as a means to combat poverty and protect the environment. It is particularly relevant in developing and emergent regions undergoing processes of rapid urbanization.
Lost in Transition
Talk by Henrik Valeur at the 51st IFHP World Congress in Copenhagen.
24 September 2007.
Abstract: While Mao Zedong sent millions of people to the countryside, his successor, Deng Xiaoping initiated an even more frenetic movement in the opposite direction. In the past 20 years some 400 million Chinese people have moved to the cities, and in the next 20 years an additional 400 million people are expected to follow suit. Even if China is still the World’s number one manufacturing country, and its apparently inexhaustible pool of cheap labor is still the main driver of the globalization of trade, the manufacturing industry is no longer the main driver of economic development in China.
Change
Cities bring change – for society and for individuals – and the status quo is no friend of those without food or health care or a future. The part of the world that is rural and poor moves glacially – only occasionally shocked by famine or civil war or, very rarely, something as helpful as the Green Revolution – while the part of the world that is urban and poor is changing rapidly. There is opportunity in change.
Edward Glaeser, 2011.
Chandigarh – an Indian adventure!
Essay in Journal of Architecture Vol. 1, No. 2, 2012 (India).
By Henrik Valeur, 2011.
After more than 300 years of British colonization, the inclusive and contradictory India was no longer capable of holding herself together. At independence in 1947, India split into two, and subsequently three, independent nations.
Thus the capital of Punjab, Lahore, came to be located in Pakistan, while the Indian part of Punjab came to lack a capital. The first Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, therefore decided to build a new one.
Flow
On those stepping into rivers staying the same other and other waters flow. Heraclitus, ca. 535 – 475 BC.
Things stay the same only by changing.
Natural inspiration
If we want to live in harmony with nature we have to think and act more like nature. And in nature nothing is decided in advance!
Henrik Valeur, 2012.
The Diagram
By Henrik Valeur, 2001.
Looking at film footage and development schemes documenting the suburbanization around Copenhagen during the late 60’s and early 70’s, it is striking to see how directly principles of temporal organization were transformed into principles of physical organization. Corresponding to the labor unions demand for eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep and eight hours of leisure the territories of the suburbs were divided into segregated zones of production, living and recreation.
My grandfather
My grandfather was the first chief engineer of Glostrup – a suburb of Copenhagen. He was appointed in the 1920’s, when the municipality consisted of three villages with a total population of less than five thousand. For many years he was only chief of himself as he was the only one employed in the technical administration. Nevertheless, when he retired in the 1960’s Glostrup was a modern and fully integrated part of the metropolitan area of Copenhagen, accommodating a population of more than twenty five thousand.
Nothing much has happened since. Today the roads are still the same and so are most of the buildings. The population has even dropped slightly, yet the technical administration now employs perhaps a hundred people.
Henrik Valeur, 2012.
Evolution
Darwinism stresses conflict and competition; that doesn’t square with the evidence. A lot of organisms that survive are in no sense superior to those that have gone extinct. It’s not a question of being “better than”; it’s simply a matter of finding a place where you can be yourself. That’s what evolution is about. That’s why you can see it as a dance. It’s not going anywhere, it’s simply exploring a space of possibilities.
Brian Goodwin, 1995.
Order
Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone.
Zhuangzi, ca. 369-286 BC.
Urban Ecologies(1)
Manifesto.
By Henrik Valeur, 2008.
The 20th century marked a quantum leap in human evolution: the transition from rural to urban life. Resulting in enormous – and enormously disparate – increases in material welfare.(2)
Heroes
All my heroes are dead.
Gilles Deleuze gave life to philosophy and then he took his own life.
Rem Koolhass gave life to architecture and then he took life out of it again.
Henrik Valeur, 2012.
