The ways in which Reprogramming the City: Opportunities for Urban Infrastructure has resonated since its launch in Boston last year at the Boston Society of Architects BSA Space Gallery has been fantastic.
I had the opportunity to talk to mayors from around the world about leveraging the potential of existing urban assets, and was invited to share some ideas on the topic in pieces published in The Guardian, Architizer, The Boston Globe and other places – it’s been a great period of time. While it’s hard to pick a high point from the list, a strong candidate is on the horizon as the project now goes to Copenhagen.
The Danish Architecture Centre in Copenhagen has asked me to create an updated and expanded version of Reprogramming the City for them. The new version will open on October 1, 2014 at the DAC, Strandgade 27B, Copenhagen, Denmark. There’s a lot to be excited about in the Copenhagen version. A range of new projects will be featured, with a focus on some great initiatives for repurposing urban infrastructure being done in Denmark and Scandinavia. (More info here.)
New projects include “Under the Bridge” a proposal by Vision Division to create a pedestrian walkway on the concrete vault of the Tranebergsbron bridge in Stockholm, Sweden, with the covered areas beneath the bridge becoming public entertainment areas for film festivals and cultural events.
Also coming from Stockholm is a bold idea to safeguard future urban food supplies. BuzzBuilding, by Belathew Labs, aim to make Stockholm self-sufficient in protein by transforming the city’s traffic roundabouts into a series of insect farms and bee sanctuaries under their InsectCity project which embraces a number of infrastructural elements of the city as potential food production areas.
There is considerable momentum in the field of repurposing urban infrastructure for food production, as a number of projects along these lines make their entrance into the Reprogramming the City arena. Rooftop farms are represented with Copenhagen’s impressive ØsterGro, while at the other end of the spectrum is Growing Underground, a new initiative that uses disused deep level London Underground tunnels as growing areas to produce local food for London today, and a climate safe growing environment for the future.
Also featured will be new images and updated project information from projects such as Urban Air (above) and a range of other projects that were part of the project’s Boston premiere.
The new and expanded version of Reprogramming the City: New Opportunities for Urban Infrastructure is an exciting move forward for the project, and establishes an EU-specific version of the exhibition to continue on to other European venues.