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Direct Design Assistance: Workshop featuring Ben Hamilton-Baillie, March 2007
Cancelled due to inclement weather and flight cancellations on the East Coast.
Tuesday, March 20, 6:00--8:00 p.m.
Coffman Memorial Union, Campus Club Conference Room ABC
University of Minnesota East Bank Campus
300 Washington Avenue SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455
The workshop is free, however, please RSVP to David Lowe at 612-625-9000 or by email at lowex005@umn.edu by March 15.
Description:
“CARS AND COMMUNITIES”
For generations, the spaces between buildings in the towns and cities across the USA and Europe have been dominated by the requirements of traffic engineering, with its language of signs, traffic signals, bollards, barriers, kerbs and road markings. As a result most cities, towns and villages look increasingly alike, and there has been little opportunity to express community values, history, or a sense of place.
In some mainland European countries this is beginning to change. Ben Hamilton-Baillie, an architect and specialist in urban design and local transport from England, describes some of these changes and sets them in a broader historical context. The examples, mainly from Denmark, Germany, Sweden and The Netherlands, outline a radical new approach to the design and management of public space in towns and cities.
Ben's talk examines some of the history of traffic in towns, illustrated by examples of some remarkable and surprising new approaches to safety and traffic management. He covers ideas about gateways and transition zones, speed management and safety, and the relationship between urban design, engineering and behavioural psychology. Such ideas are in their infancy in the USA, but they offer the possibility for new relationships between vehicles, pedestrians, bicycles and the public realm. Ben will draw on recent examples from several European countries to suggest ways in which traffic engineering and urban design might combine to enhance the prosperity, vitality and safety of the public realm.
Ben Hamilton-Baillie is a specialist in urban design and traffic engineering, and
director of Hamilton-Baillie Associates. Following a career in public housing, he
worked with the transport charity Sustrans to develop the National Cycle Network.
The award of a Winston Churchill Fellowship allowed him to investigate latest approaches to traffic in towns across mainland Europe. In 2001 he became the first
UK citizen to be awarded a Loeb Fellowship to the Design School at Harvard University, allowing him to research and develop ideas about the relationship between cars and communities. He has taught and lectured extensively across the UK, northern Europe and the USA, and is author of “Home Zones: Reconciling People, Places and Transport” (Harvard 2001). He is a visiting lecturer in urban design and transport at the University of the West of England.
Directions
The event will be held on the fourth floor Campus Club level of Coffman Memorial Union in Conference Room ABC. Coffman Memorial Union is located on the East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota at 300 Washington Avenue SE, Minneapolis, MN.
The nearest parking is in the East River Parkway Garage , just south of Coffman Memorial Union at 391 East River Parkway. Please view the University parking web site for other parking options . Staff of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota community funding recipients will receive additional information about parking validation. Carpooling is recommended.
Busing and biking are also options. The University of Minnesota campus is served by a number of transit and bicycle routes and all metro area buses offer racks for bike-bus connections. Contact Metro Transit at 612-373-3333 for transit information or view biking information from the University's Parking and Transportation Services Office.
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1 Ralph Rapson Hall, 89 Church Street S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55455, |