Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
prehensive areas can be seen in the city of Leicester which has created a 12 mile,
2,400 acre park by reclaiming a formerly derelict river corridor running through the
city. Similarly, some of the formerly polluted and industrially abandoned Lea valley
in east London has also been renovated—with part used for the 2012 Olympics site.
Portland in Oregon, even removed a freeway along its principal river and replaced it
with a promenade and parks, a valuable addition of recreational space for the inner
city. Another recent trend in some central areas of cities that have little recreational
space is to create temporary or
'pop-up' recreational areas
. This was pioneered in
Paris, where some river-side roads and parking areas are closed to traffic in the sum-
mer months or on weekends, creating temporary beach-like areas on these areas by
adding sand. This provides recreational spaces for local residents, another example
of the way that cities are using spaces for temporary occupation, as they do with
festive events (Chap. 14).
A very different new environmental initiative is particularly associated with Ger-
man towns and cities. Many have been pioneers in studying the climate to main-
tain the
local climate advantages
and minimize deleterious effects. For example,
Freiberg created new planning regulations that either prevent buildings acting as
obstructions to the cool local winds that flow from the nearby Black Forest, or
ensure that the design and orientation of large new buildings allows winds to 'flow
through' the structure, as seen in the city's redeveloped soccer stadium. Rather more
cities have attempted to avoid the shadow effects from large buildings which can
worsen the effect of winter conditions. For example, in the 1980s Calgary's new
City Hall was deliberately built with its higher floors set back, creating a stepped
structure to reduce the shadow effect on the neighbouring central city plaza. Yet the
dangers of flooding from its location in a flood plain was ignored, meaning that it
suffered devastation in the June 2013 floods, which was made worse because the
main heating and electrical devices were in the basements of flooded buildings.
Attempts are now being made to rewrite city codes to ensure such vital utilities are
located on higher levels. Other settlements have deliberately orientated their road
patterns so that prevailing winds cannot funnel down straight roads, which cause
particular difficulties for pedestrians and traffic in storm conditions. Similar exam-
ples of the need to relate buildings and open spaces to the local climate are also dis-
cussed in Chap. 8 on Winter Cities. It is also worth remembering that many ancient
Greek and Roman towns used arcades around squares to provide cooler, shady areas
for businesses, socialization and political debate, a morphological feature copied
in many medieval new towns built in south-west France. In hot climates there has
been a tradition of orientating buildings to cut out the direct rays of the sun, often
using screens and shades to do so, with the addition of verandas around houses to
create cooler areas. Fountains and other water features were also added, not just to
provide a local water supply, but as cooling focal points of public squares. In many
of the oldest urban areas around the Persian Gulf large funnel-shaped towers orien-
tated to sea breezes were built, bringing cooling winds into the interior of buildings.
In Augsberg a rather unique feature was the medieval development that canalized
streams from the nearby Alps, so that they flowed through this prosperous medieval
banking town, bringing cooling waters into the city in the summer. These and many
