Table of contents of this page Our Challenge:    A short take on the objective of the workshop: Connected Communities - Rural Renaissance    Background - Subject :    Building the three introductory notes    FranzNahrada, The Village Dream is Still Alive    Chris Garvin and Karsten Stampa Size Matters - People Matter - Design Matters    Alfons Dworsky A Change in Spatial Paradigms: from hieratical centrality to user-defined local quality (Working title)    The fine points: The Connected Village    a different development path for "liveable cities"    1. LostRuralPotential ?    2. SuccessStories    3. WhyTheVillageIsForYou    4. SupportingWaves    5. TheNextSteps    Alternate titles for the Workshop    /Imagery    /Organisation

Our Challenge:

• To design a 90 minutes track on CORP 2010 together with CLEAR Village -" introductory notes and feedback" style on May 20th 2010.
  
• Our intervention is welcomed by the organizer, and the participating crowd of CORP is impressive.
• We decide to develop our proposition for three coordinated impules speeches here in a coordinated fashion.
• The conference website = http://www.corp.at/
  
• Here is the conferences discussion area: http://groups.google.com/group/real-corp/topics?start
  
• Here are some subjective /Highlights

A short take on the objective of the workshop: Connected Communities - Rural Renaissance

RURAL RENAISSANCE : ALTERNATIVES TO URBANISATION THROUGH LOCAL RESILIENCE

1. THE FACT :
The ongoing process of urbanisation poses threats to rural and peripheral areas in many parts of the world seemingly condemning them to progressive obsolescence and decay when they are in fact not only the lungs of our cities but also the possible link to genuine man-nature balance through technological and social innovation - examples exist but need to be multiplied strategically.

2. THE TREND :
There is a number of reasons that could raise our interest in the regeneration and redefinition of village habitat. A major one is that you do not have to be in cities any more to enjoy their offerings.
On one side villages are human-centric and to a large extent environmentally friendly, if one considers they could be self sufficient rather than dependent on their urban neighbours. On the other side this self sufficiency is supported and promoted by global connections of unprecedented scale.
The village functional logic coincides with some major societal challenges and opportunities which leads to the need to revisit, reinvent and revitalise the inherent virtues of village life.

3. THE PATH :
The way to redefine the importance and integration of villages in mainstream progress agendas, can benefit from the observable phenomena in the digital and online economy, where open source and participatory cocreation has generated unprecedented transformations. Emulating this change, design is gradually learning to become a process rather than a dictat - Participatory design is the way to go.
Furthermore we can demonstrate prototypical situations that combine this cluster of structured needs with existing opportunities and schemes of intervention (sharing best practice).

Background - Subject :

• The conference has the almost ironical subject "Liveable cities" and starts from the assumption that cities in general are not really liveable. So the subtitle is "Promising vision or unrealistic fantasy?".
• We will counteract the current limited fantasy based on urban competition and urban self - reference by talking about the new ways the urban world connects again to the rural world and thus new "liveable pockets" are created - which are characterised by many traits of the old village pattern, which is retrieved, transformed and enhanced for the 21st century. Our challenge is to convey the beauty AND the reality of this concept alike.
• The village is defined as the smallest possible unit of a human habitat that allows for societal living. (cf. Wikipedias definition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Village)
• main village characteristics (patterns) - for our best knowledge tells us that a liveable village must show:
• embeddedness in landcape rather that in "cityscape"
• productive - reproductive activities (not "settlement" only) based on this cultured landscape (agri-, horti-, aqua-, silviculture) embedded in a "wholistic" or "integrated" local economy
• local life support systems (education, services, health) largely based on networks and division of labour
• local participation starting from the planning and conception of the village to the governance and maintainance of the mature village itself.

Building the three introductory notes

public subpages for our abstracts, discussion and supporting material: /FranzNahrada GIVE /ChrisGarvin and KarstenStampa CLEAR VILLAGE /AlfonsDworsky TU Wien

FranzNahrada, The Village Dream is Still Alive

Chris Garvin and Karsten Stampa Size Matters - People Matter - Design Matters

Alfons Dworsky A Change in Spatial Paradigms: from hieratical centrality to user-defined local quality (Working title)

The fine points: The Connected Village

a different development path for "liveable cities"

1. LostRuralPotential ?

The ongoing process of urbanisation poses threats to rural and peripheral areas in many parts of the world.

• (We should create an account and overview of that by referring to UNDP and other sources)

2. SuccessStories

The scenario of progressive decay is a likely one, renaissance of villages seems to be a romantic dream but in fact is not impossible .

• (we should point to successful examples of village development that point to a different perspective) ->

3. WhyTheVillageIsForYou

There is a number of reasons that could raise our interest in the regeneration and redefinition of village habitat. They resonate with many diverse social groups and lifestyles and their diverse needs that need to be integrated

• (we should present a catalogue of reasons).

4. SupportingWaves

Villages functional logic coincide with some major technological and social trends and opportunities. A major one is that you do not have to be in cities to enjoy their offerings. This needs to new options in gestalt and function, that should be outlined

• (we should present a model of "21st century village structures".)

5. TheNextSteps

We can demonstrate prototypical situations that combine this cluster of structured needs with existing opportunities and schemes of intervention.

• (We show the opportunities of various situation models we discussed)

Alternate titles for the Workshop

Villegiatura 2.0 ? - refering to the "city flight" in Renaiscance Venice after the loss of maritime supremacy, leading to the development of a progressive and spectacular development of settlement, craft and trade, a unique linkage between refined urban culture and countryside living (very much linked to the name of Andrea Palladio). [1]

RURAL RENAISSANCE seems to be the favorite for the title.

- the organizers took connected village, but we still can use Rural Renaiscance heavily in our parts.

/Imagery

/Organisation