Talk "The Promise of Bicycle Urbanism" @ TEDx Vienna - The City 2.0

I recently gave a talk at the TEDx Vienna City 2.0 event. Running through this process and meeting the inspiring team and other speakers made me learn a lot. Thanks to everybody who supported me in preparing the talk and of course to the whole team at Smarter Than Car! :)

Here is the video.

"The mainstreamed bicycle as a tool for creating future cities is just starting to take-off. Can we imagine a city where the benchmark for successful urban development is how we are able to use pedal-powered vehicles?
The idea of such a bicycle urbanism is what Florian is working on with the Chinese-Austrian NGO Smarter Than Car. He will make you understand why the bicycle is the most effective way to restructure our cities to become fit for future urban challenges.
Florian explains why he believes that the bicycle is still massively under-explored in contemporary urban planning and administration. He shows examples of what we can learn from bicycle cultural exchange with a city like Beijing to re-think our cities along the lines of pop-up urbanism on two or three wheels."

Urban Stories Beijing

I am looking forward to giving a talk in Zürich at ETH DARCH's Chair of Architecture and Urban Design run by Urban-Think Tank, alias Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner. The talk will be part of the Urban Stories lecture series which puts an emphasis on deciphering the underlying "urban plans, instruments, visions, political decisions, economic reasonings, cultural inputs and social organizations" which have produced a certain urban morphology. With this knowledge 'urban operational tools' shall be defined which collectively will form an operational urban toolbox as an "improvised manual to navigate theories".

It is a great opportunity to merge the research were doing in Beijing with Smarter Than Car with new insights into Beijing's urban development and contemporary urban morphology. 

Talk: New York's Pedal Power and Beijing's Bicycles

This Thursday, Smarter Than Car is hosting a lecture in Beijing, where Shannon, Liman and me will present some of our current research about bicycle culture in Beijing and New York. This event is a preview to an upcoming talk which STC will give at ‘UIA2011 Tokyo – The World Congress of Architecture’ later this year.

See the flyer for details (click to enlarge)

Linkliste "Lernen von Fahrradkulturen in Peking und New York"

BEIJING 

http://www.stcbj.com/
"Smarter Than Car (STC) was set up as a platform for promoting cycling, the bicycle life and preserving Beijing’s unique cycling culture."
 

NEW YORK CITY


http://www.nyc.gov/bikes
NYC - Department of Transportation's bicycle program with several initiatives.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/bike/home.shtml
"The goal of the Department of City Planning, New York City Department of Transportation, and the Department of Parks and Recreation Bicycle Network Development program is to reduce congestion by promoting cycling in New York City."

http://www.youtube.com/user/nycdot
youtube-channel of NYC - Department of Transportation
 

http://www.streetfilms.org/bike-lanes-in-the-big-apple/
Short movie describing the development of bicycle infrastructure in NYC. 

http://www.bikenewyork.org/
"Bike New York is a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose mission is to promote and encourage bicycling and bicycle safety through education, public events, and collaboration with community and government organizations."
 

http://www.ridethecity.com/
Bicycling directions for (as well) New York City. 
 

http://www.transalt.org/
"Our mission is to reclaim New York City's streets from the automobile, and to advocate for bicycling, walking and public transit as the best transportation alternatives."

http://bikingrules.org/
"Biking Rules is a new 'Street Code' for NYC cyclists, following the simple principle that our responsibility to others on the street increases in relation to our potential to cause harm."

www.bikemonthnyc.org
"Each year the Department of Transportation and Transportation Alternatives team up to bring you Bike Month NYC, a city wide campaign to promote the joys of cycling in New York City."

http://rollingcarbon.org/
Rollingcarbon.org calculates the carbon impact of various New York City commutes.
 

http://www.crashstat.org/
"For the first time, all New Yorkers had a way to see pedestrian and cyclist crashes in every neighborhood, enabling them to back up their first-hand experience of dangerous streets with comprehensive hard data."

http://www.recycleabicycle.org/

 Recycle-a-bicycle is a community-based bike shop and non-profit organization that provides educational/job training programs and encourages environmental stewardship and everyday bicycle use.

http://rightofway.org/

"Right Of Way is a group of activists dedicated to asserting the rights of car-free street users -- including pedestrians, cyclists, and skaters -- and fighting back against car domination."


http://www.nycbikepolo.com/

"Bike Polo has been played in New York since 2003. Now, our home court is The Pit at Chrystie & Broome Streets."


http://nybma.com/news/

"The NYBMA is a worker’s alliance of the messenger, by the messenger, and for the messenger. Our mission is to unite, represent and advocate for the bike couriers of New York City."

http://www.fixed.gr/ 
"Home is where the harbl is."


http://www.iparkedinabikelane.org/
"I Parked In A Bike Lane.org is a humble movement aimed at raising driver awareness towards the problems associated with blocking bike lanes."

http://www.bikeblognyc.com/

"I write about mutant bikes, messenger events, bicycle technology and the vast realm of bicycle culture."



http://www.brooklynbybike.com/

"Brooklyn by Bike was born out of a love for traveling around the city by bicycle. Others think we are crazy but we have a passion for our wheels like nothing else."


http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/

"While I love cycling and embrace it in all its forms, I'm also extremely critical. So I present to you my venting for your amusement and betterment." 


http://brooklynspoke.wordpress.com/

"I’m a father, husband, writer, TV producer, comedian, and city cyclist.  Just another voice in the ongoing discussion about city biking."


http://www.bikecult.com/

"The Bike Cult resource, a work in progress, includes listings of bike and cycling groups, velodromes, world and olympic champions, along with excerpts and updates from the book." 


http://newamsterdamize.com/

"We are dedicated to NYC’s Slow Biking Culture, guaranteed 100% Lycra-Free ! Relax. Enjoy your city." 


http://www.astoriabike.com/

"About Bikes and Biking in New York City. Bike, Damnit! Bike!"


http://www.bikehacks.com/

"BikeHacks.com comes to you from both coasts of the USA. We write BikeHacks 'cause we love bikes. We dig up all kinds of cool, interesting and useful stuff, from the funky to the functional." 


http://www.dykesonbikecycles.com/

"We formed in spring ’06 to promote the integration and visibility of the existing community of queer bike riders."

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bicyclesonly/
"the purpose of almost all my photos is to inspire New Yorkers to make everyday trips by bicycle"


http://www.streetsblog.org/ 
"Streetsblog is a daily news source, online community and political mobilizer for the Livable Streets movement." 


 http://www.streetfilms.org/
"Streetfilms produces short films that show how smart transportation design and policy can result in better places to live, work and play."



INTERNATIONAL


http://thecityfix.com/
TheCityFix.com is an online resource for sustainable transport news, advocacy and “best practice” solutions from around the world. 


http://www.copenhagenize.com/ 
"Each and every day roughly 500,000 citizens choose the bicycle in Greater Copenhagen. This blog highlights who they are, why they do and how it was made possible."


http://amsterdamize.com/
"I’m just an Amsterdam native who won’t take his city and its cycling extravaganza for granted anymore, thinking these posts might be clues for others, inspiration perhaps, if you will."
 

Learning from Bicycle Cultures in Beijing and New York

I will be giving a talk in Vienna as kind of cultural-learning event to inspire Vienna's efforts in raising bicycle ridership in the city and to support the creative use of pedal-powered vehicles by urban planners, designers and policy makers. The talk will feature Smarter Than Car's research on bicycle culture in Beijing, China and some recent efforts to understand New York's bicycle supporting strategies and specific culture.
The talk and a subsequent discussion will take place on May 18th 6:30 PM at 'Wiener Planungswerkstatt', 1010 Wien, Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz 9.

Poster (click to enlarge)

Outline (German):
Die Unterstützung von Lebensentwürfen die intensive Fahrradnutzung integrieren, kann einen wertvollen Beitrag für lebenswerte und kulturell diverse Stadtlandschaften leisten. Der Vortrag präsentiert Beispiele aus Peking und New York als kreativen Beitrag zur Weiterentwicklung der Wiener Fahrradkultur. In Peking untersucht Smarter Than Car Lebensstile und ökonomische Strategien verbunden mit dem Fahrrad, spezifische Fahrrad-Infrastrukturen und die hohe Diversität der Fahrradnutzung. Ein Blick nach New York zeigt eine stark auf Gemeinwesen aufbauende Fahrradkultur, die in jüngster Vergangenheit von progressiven Strategien der Stadtverwaltung unterstützt wird. Der Vergleich von Fahrradkulturen sowie Gesetzgebungen soll die Diskussion über die Positionierung der Wiener Fahrradkultur ermöglichen.

'Planning, Ecology and the Emergence of Landscape'

Lecture at USC | Architecture by Charles Waldheim 'On Planning, Ecology and the Emergence of Landscape' gives a good overview on landscape urbanism projects of the recent years.The lecture was (I suppose) held during the academic year 08/09.

I will collect and repost more lectures here regarding landscape urbanism and ecological urbanism.

Environmental Health by [re]designing Nature in a Solidary Way: Natalie Jeremijenko at k/haus Vienna

This is a short account of Natalie Jeremijenko's lecture: 'On engineering biodiversity, improving environmental health and wrestling Rhinocerous Beetles' which was held in conjunction with the ÖGFA series 'Solidarity - How do democratic spaces come into existence?' as part of the exhibition '[re]designing nature' at k/haus Vienna. 

It was inspiring to get new ideas of how to conceptualize our urban narratives in (environmental) design. From my notes taken during the lecture... 

Become an 'IMpatient' in the environmental health clinic to participate in changing what design means and in producing new collective goods. Nourish our common knowledge of how stuff is made. Get involved at the clinic's field offices floating as PET-bottle-barge on the East river or as an installation in the 'other-space' at the inside of a roundabout. Measure the sky's clearness with a wearable breathing mask indicator. Take out your environmentally pimped sensor feral robot dog to raise awareness about the state of the soil next door by performing for media outlets (let the media dogs bark for you!). Connect impatiently the local artists and community groups in financing a NOpark biofilter down the street. Resist the urban pollution fallout by installing an urban space station on your roof which will service your building's air. Visit 'Manhattan's National Wildlife Habitat' to understand urban environments in a different way, get in contact and flirt with the animals and enjoy previously invisible information at the 'amphibious architecture'. Become an 'adventurous eater' to break down existing borders in our food-webs.
(Yes,) We can (!) organize our common creative resources to become agents for environmental change, thereby overcoming a current 'crisis of agency'. We are all equally qualified to realize the transition of our material culture in a joyous, playful and sensual way. 

I will write a subsequent post presenting the work of the environmental health clinic in a more in-depth way.

Talk: 'Creating Bioenergy Landscapes: An Ecological Perspective' at HKU

I will give a guest lecture on next Tuesday, 9th of February at the Division of Landscape Architecture in the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Hong Kong. The talk will elaborate on bioenergy as design strategy within landscape architecture practice.

Synopsis
Society increasingly seeks to address climate change, energy security and peak oil by using biomass as ‘biofuels’ for energy production. This has created ambivalent reactions from both scientists and environmentalists. Landscape architects are still underrepresented in this discourse, but may create bioenergy landscapes as multiple-use green spaces, infrastructure areas or on temporarily unused land. Bioenergy promises like green house gas savings, ‘clean’ energy or environmental sustainability will have to be considered by landscape architects with an informed and critical mind, to be able to truly assess bioenergy potentials of any given site.
This talk will therefore present benchmarks for bioenergy landscapes in terms of ecological functioning, energy
efficiency and possible green house gas savings. A review of landscape projects addressing bioenergy shall stimulate the discussion about landscape architecture practice in the context of bioenergy production. Finally, perspectives will be presented for bioenergy landscapes to become a vital element of landscape architecture projects.