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LANDSCAPE OF THE EVERYDAY - Hochschule Anhalt
LANDSCAPE OF THE EVERYDAY
------Concept of City Herford 2020

Xuefeng Zhang

A thesis submission
Master of Landscape Architecture Program (MLA)
Hochschule Anhalt                                April 2005

Tutors:
          Prof. Erich Buhmann
          Prof. Dr. Dieter Hassenpflug

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LANDSCAPE OF THE EVERYDAY - Hochschule Anhalt
Acknowledgments
The thesis behind this booklet was first formulated in the master course directed by
Prof. Erich Buhmann and in the project in IFEU directed by Prof. Dr. Dieter
Hassenpflug, for having instilled in me a calmness and self-confidence which,
without them, I wouldn't have found. Thank also goes to Prof. Dr. Carl Steinitz and
Prof. Dr. James Palmer, who helped me to resolve certain difficulties of the moment
and to acquire a certain rigor. At last, I thank all the Professors and teachers who
once taught me in my master course. They really gave me much powerful help.

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LANDSCAPE OF THE EVERYDAY - Hochschule Anhalt
Declaration of Authorship
I certify that the material in this Master Thesis is my own work and does not contain
unacknowledged work of others

  1. Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly
     attributed.
  2. Where I have quoted the work of others, the source is always given. With the
     exception of such quotations, the work of this thesis is entirely my own.
  3. This dissertation has not been submitted for the award of any other degree or
     diploma in any other institution.

Xuefeng Zhang       Matr. No: 2202200        Date:              Signature:

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Index

1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................5
2. LANDSCAPE OF THE EVERYDAY....................................................................7
3. SPEEDSCAPE                 I.............................................................................................10
    3.1 Walking/Reading (Chinese garden)………………………………………….13
    3.2 Carriage/Seeing (Baroque garden)...........................................................15
    3.3 River/Picture (Landscape garden).............................................................17
    3.4 Auto/Image (Urban landscape)..................................................................19
    3.5 Train/Panorama (Park)..............................................................................20
    3.6 Plane/Identity (World Park)........................................................................22
    3.7 Spacecraft/Distinguishability (Mars)………................................................24
4. SPEEDSCAPE II...............................................................................................25
5. „INTERFACE“---HERFORD2020......................................................................26
    5.1 Historical Review.........................................................................................27
    5.2 Analysis.......................................................................................................33
         5.2.1     landuse & existing condition.............................................................33
         5.2.2     green system & open space.............................................................36
         5.2.3     transportation system…………………………………………………...39
         5.2.4     social service…………………………………………………………….46
         5.2.5     goals of town development……………………………………………..52
   5.3 THE INTERFACE---Herford 2020……………………………………………….58
         5.3.1     problem statement………………………………………………………58
         5.3.2     theoretical thinking………………………………………………………61
         5.3.3     strategy…………………………………………………………………...63
         5.3.4     conclusion………………………………………………………………..67
6. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………...68
   Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………69

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1

INTRODUCTION

Landscape of the everyday is not the philosophical concept of anti-authority in 60’s.
Therefore, it will not resist highly privileged or noble landscape garden. The thesis
has no ambition to create a principle of landscape architecture; on the contrary, it
comes up from phenomena and from analyzing it deeply with media of speed. The
landscape comes through everyday life in different speeds; under the modernity
condition, landscape and everyday life alienates each other.
The first chapter of the thesis briefly describes how the everyday life of a modern
individual is alienated in the high speed and high efficiency. In the second chapter,
it illustrates: walking/reading (Chinese garden), carriage/seeing (Baroque garden),
river/picture (Landscape garden), auto/image (urban landscape), train/panorama
(Park), plane/identity (world park), and spacecraft/distinguishability (Mars). It
includes different speeds, 7 space understanding modes, and 7 related cases. The
purpose of the cases is not to explain how the works being constructed, but to
make the phenomenon being understood more deeply. The third chapter is a short
conclusion, not a theoretical conclusion but a summarization of phenomena. The
study made me deeply understand the phenomena and I got lots of experience at
the same time. The fourth chapter is a design achievement of the thesis: Concept
of city Herford 2020. In this project, I used the material of the first 3 chapters as a
theoretical background and practice it. The design tries to construct a connection
between some spaces of different speeds and to solve the conflict and problems
between them.

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Zeitgeist is a term from Hegel. Today, the zeitgeist is everyday life of today, which
means high speed and high efficiency. And for this kind of everyday life, it is also
necessary to have high-speed and high-efficiency landscape. Landscape design,
once as the way to realize the worship or mimicry of nature, now under the zeitgeist,
is transforming. This is the start point of think about this thesis.

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2

LANDSCAPE OF THE EVERYDAY

A Japanese detective looks at a street guide and tries to figure out where he is in
the city. He scratches his head, and looks around with a bemused expression. Is he
lost? Is he looking at the wrong map? Or is it just that he doesn’t know where he is
going?
This scene is from London Film festival. It was called “the man without a map”. In
an act of almost self conscious disavowal.
Paul Virilio said, “Hand can be used to finger things, but can also be changed into a
brutal and damaging instrument by way of speed and material”. Speed makes us
improve the efficiency; however it makes us have to take use of machine
equipments at the same time, which forces us to stay far away from natural
environment. Technique, like a veil, stays always between human and nature;
speed leads people to change the natural environment. People cut mountains to
build railways and highways; overpasses crossing the city and huge airports
distributing in suburbs become a new urban landscape. Theses large artificial
landscapes transform the original topography and human’s living environment.
When you go into a supermarket and buy a banana, unconsciously, you find that
the banana comes from Brazil. The banana costs not much, but took a long way
crossing half the global to appear in front of you, which would be unimaginable just
a century before, might be thought as magic.
Now, it is completely normal that some a manager of a multinational corporation

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has such a day. At 8:30 in the morning, he hurries out from his residence in Tokyo,
then gets on a BMW car, and drives to his office in a high rise in the downtown;
after he turns on the computer and has a video conference in internet with
colleagues in other countries, he packs stuff quickly and hurries to the airport. In the
two-hour-long flight to Shanghai, the manager sends messages and emails to the
people all over the world. After arriving in Shanghai at 1:00 p.m, he has quickly a
simple but nutritious business lunch; then he goes to inspect the branch company
in Shanghai, in particular the several suitable sites for the factory extension,
afterwards he has a video conference again at 5:00 p.m. Finishing all works of this
day, the manager drives his TOYOTA car to look for a strange restaurant in the
other side of Shanghai, since his son, who studies in the Bauhaus university
(Shanghai), is waiting for him there; after a nice dinner and lots of talk with his son,
he hurries again to fly back to Tokyo. Finally is he at home about 11:00 in evening,
and he feels not comfortable with his stomach because of a whole day’s bustling
and indisposition to the flight; “how nice if the transrapid train would be built from
Tokyo, through Seoul, Beijing, and to Shanghai.” thinks he aloud in the bed.
Like the banana from Brazil, people want to participate in the globalization, and
share all kinds of products brought by globalization, which trains a new generation.
They are eating bananas of Brazil, watching the same Hollywood film at the same
time, using the IKEA furniture, and having the same exclamation to the several
focus news in television: surprised, excited, angry, sad……
Although human the colours, races, and languages of human are not much
different from before, all the outside environment and the social conditions, that
define their life, have been changing essentially so much. With same asphalt roads,
same concrete buildings, and same-brand cars, the environment becomes difficult
to recognize. Globalization creates also the landscape of globalization.
Highways, traffic guideposts, pedestrian island, traffic lights, large advertisement
boards, parking lots……these compose the landscape in our daily life. These
artificial landscapes even become the basic condition of social life. Comparing with
traditional landscape, it has obvious function. It was luxury of nobles in 18th.century,

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but now it serves the public, even has some characteristic of forcing. The beautiful
natural landscape are divided or enclosed by artificial landscape with numerous
reasons, appearing fragmentary.

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3

SPEEDSCAPE          I

“In the windswept stairways of the Eiffel Tower… one meets with the fundamental
aesthetic experience of present-day architecture: through the thin net of iron that
hangs suspended in the air, things stream – ships, ocean, houses, masts,
landscape, harbor. They lose their distinctive shape, swirl into one another as we
climb downward, merge simultaneously.”        Walter Benjamin (ARC, P. 459)

1876   invention of clock
1883   time management of industrialization
1898 there were not more than 30 cars in America; ten years later, there were
       more than 700 factories producing cars
1909   a Italian futurist announced: “we have to say, a brand-new beauty-----the
       beauty of speed----- is making the world more exciting. Sports car with
       huge exhaust pipe flying like a shrapnel, it is much more beautiful than the
       victory goddess”
1912 the captain of Titanic tried to create a new time record of crossing the
       Atlantic
1937 the book “weakness of humanity” was published, telling people how to make
       friends with others in shortest time
1971   It is found in New York that accelerating the transmittance of TV advertising
       pictures brought better impact. Just the next day, the time of every TV

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advertisements was changed from 1 minute into 30 seconds.
1980’ s FedEX came into the world in UK; however, with the fax being used widely,
          FedEX was too slow to wait for.
1990’s   it was counted that the standard business lunch took 36 minutes in US. At
          the same time, email was already widely be used

After the industrial revolution, numerous new interesting findings and invention,
numerous new interesting findings and inventions have kept increasing quickly.
Now the new invented things of one year can even overstep the total sum of one
thousand years in ancient time, steam engine, train, car, plane, spacecraft,
telegram, telephone, fax, computer, optical fiber communication, etc.
In the excellent technologic revolution, human has been overstepping his own
speed, the speed of horse, the speed of river and wind, the speed of steam engine,
the speed of sound, even the speed of the global. In the coming future, human is
going to keep overstepping a lot of other speeds, throwing nature, even human
himself backwards far away. Goods, information, thought, even body of human are
transmitted and disseminated with unprecedented speeds in the space time. In this
process, the speeds breaks the limitation of human.
Goethe noted in his diary about traveling in Switzerland that the train make all
things disappeared------the perceptual impression of typical carriage travels in 18th.
century. You may     never thought about how much the everyday life has been
changed with the numerous speeds in a modern city. Everyday, people cross dark
tunnels, go to the office or a shopping centre from the dusky underground parking,
and cross the city through different districts. Only from long distance away, one can
see the whole scene of the city, its token and symbolism. However, the symbolism
has been partitioned from the real function of itself, or there two functions
separated from each other. Since its practical function is on the communication
tunnel in the dark, this point has the most fictitious possibility, even, it can be any
coordinate point in the world. It’s to use all kinds of conveyances to cross space in
people’s everyday life. They are launched, like “bullet”, crossing landscapes, what

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to see and hear disappearing immediately. The traveler in the “bullet” is no traveler
any more, but like a transported package.
As Paul Virilio noted, what new came with speed is the alienation process. Speed
kills distance, at the same time kills the experience of human and the beauty of
distance. Missing the relation between the inside and the outside environment
means a kind of alienation that appears parallel to the Marx so called alienation
coming from the working process. Concerning the dedication ceremony of the
railway from Paris to Leon, Heine Heinrich wrote in 1943, “Space is killed through
the railway, what left is only time. We can also creditably kill time if we have enough
money.”

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3.1 Walking / Reading        (Chinese Garden)

Reading is a very meticulous action, one wandering on the secluded and quiet
garden path, tasting carefully the context, and visiting every surprising peaceful
recess. In this process, the relationship between legs and space corresponds to the
relationship between eyes and text. Space, like text, spreads page by page.
Walking is direction-free, without the only axes, Forwards or backwards, is a
movement to any direction. The will or interest of the visitor decides the walking
direction. If necessary, one can walk back to the original place to explore again the
secret which is still not clear or so nice for him; or one can just stop and sit down for
a while, as people always stop occasionally to think over some sentences when
reading a text, and find something in the text has touched something in the
memory.
Reading of space depends on the textualization of the space, which means
readability and characteristic of signs. Thus the walking process becomes a
reading process and an operation process of signs. Like the game of riddle
involving characters, walking becomes a game of space, within which the space, in
the depth of text, is getting interesting, profound, and full of mysterious principles.
At the same time, too much operation of signs makes however the recession of
contents, so that there are lots of spaces created, flowery but devoid of content,
with too much reading technique but too little content.

Reading, a test of imagination.

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The inner side of Zhuozheng Yuan

Zhuozheng Yuan that situated in the city proper of Suzhou, is a representative of
the classical gardening in the south of the river, and it is one of the big famous
gardens in China. Originally it was a residence of a poet in Tang age, Mr Lu
Gui-Meng and after then, a Private garden was built by a top cultural minister in
Ming dynasty, Wang Xian-Chen in some place. The garden after construction was
constantly in expansion and in fall. However, it remained a kind of lingering charm,
namely plain, distant, mountain and water. The style of the garden belongs to Ming
age and it is classified to big garden. It is very proper to arrange the location of the
hall and courtyard which one can see in motion or look sight in making a temporary
stay. The garden is divided into three parts--the east, centre, and the west. To enter
the round door is the east and most of the pavilions and attics are newly
construction. All cream in the garden is located in the centre part where there is a
main building--Yuan Xiang Lou, and beside there, it has three small gardens that
are called garden of the garden. In the west part, the Chinese duck hall and the
other court-yards are built in Many intellectual's trace and calligraphy were left in
the garden, where is full of the natural and humane landscape. The architecture of
the hall and court-yard in the garden is magnificent and full of a various of artistic
styles. The garden's reputation is over the south of the river since Ming age up to
date.
(Source: material of Zhuozheng Yuan came from website of   Zhuozheng Yuan)

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3.2   Carriage / Seeing      (Baroque Garden)

Carriage plus seeing means browsing. Seeing is always an eyes action of
observing the surrounding world, but without participation of consciousness. Eyes,
as a pure organ, receive stimulations from outside through visual action. However
one always has no critiques on it at the same time. The action of seeing is related
to target, visual angle and horizon.
A carriage’s march is usually going forwards in some speed in a set direction,
nevertheless the visual line of the people in the carriage is always moving in the
direction parallel to the horizon, which makes the surrounding space become an
expansive, grand scene, different kinds of landscape, spreading along a or several
axes outwards to the faraway horizon. The even speed of the carriage demands
neat space distribution, a little bit faster than jogging, nevertheless it is still in some
limit so that people can see the details. It’s investigated that it must be not far than
20m that human can see clearly the face of the coming somebody.
However it’s said by an ancient Greek mathematician that the most emotionally
moving geometric forms are triangle, circle, square and rectangle, which are the
basic elements forming the universal harmony. Thus the forms and structures, that
are composed of these basic forms, can always be caught by eyes at the most first.
Although the space of seeing seems grand and harmonious, it can never exceed
the limit of horizon.

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The axis in Versailles

Versailles is the most famous garden in the world. Yet ‘garden’ is scarcely a fitting
designation. The scale is monumental and there is little sense of enclosure.
Versailles was designed as a palatial centre of government for an absolute
monarch, Louis XIV. It is resplendent as the prime example of the French Baroque
style, but it is not a friendly place. ‘Overbearing’ is a common description and
English critics have often been disenchanted with the place. Walpole saw Versailles
as ‘the gardens of a great child’ (H&T). Avenues project from Louis XIV’s palace
towards distant horizons, enfolding town, palace, garden and forest. There are
imaculate parterres, great basins, an orangery, a vast collection of outdoor
sculpture and some of the grandest fountains which have ever been made. The
park and garden were designed by Andre Le Nôtre between 1661 and 1700. There
are magnificent features: huge parterres, an orangery, famous fountains (which
operate....), rich bosquets (ornamental groves), a 1.8 km cruciform canal. The
Grand Trianon, another formal garden, was built on the site of a former village.
Versailles also has later additions. The Petit Trianon was given to Marie-Antoinette
in 1774. She favoured the irregular style, with hills, rocks and streams. The
Hameau was designed in 1785, as a stage village, for Marie-Antoinette to play with
her friends in the idle years before the French Revolution.
(Source: material of   Versailles came from website of   Versailles)

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3.3 River / Picture (Landscape Garden)

The river flowing windingly through numerous expansive landscapes slowly or
quickly, the natural island, expansive meadow, and suddenly dense woods
compose different kinds of pictures.
Landscape painting, as a painting way of expressing three-dimensional substance
in two-dimensional plane, tries its best to express the objectivity, i.e. to reflect the
real condition of nature. The painting is usually composed of some close shot,
medium shot, and long shot. It’s a imitation of nature, which is essentially a kind of
technical action; in this process, only those chosen landscapes will be absorbed
into the painting. A common landscape might be described however very beautiful,
and yet those grand landscape, by which people are always moved deeply, usually
cannot be expressed by way of painting.
Vision is always about flat plane, and any deeper feeling is caused by the
participation of consciousness. In the painting, a visual hallucination is created
intentionally – to create a kind of three-dimensional sense of depth, with close shot
and long shot. When you, sitting on a boat, go forward slowly along the river, the
landscape of two side changes slowly, a crowd of grass on the bank in the close
shot, a forest in the medium shot, and the wheat field and the slowing sloping
horizon in the long shot; the air congeals here when you press the camera shutter
quickly. A beautiful picture appears, with perfect composition and the real depth
sense; but what is it exactly behind this depth sense?

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The painting of Stourhead

Stourhead is the best example of a garden inspired by the great landscape painters
of the seventeenth century. Ernst Gombrich suggests it should bear the signature of
an Italianized French painter: Claude Lorrain (1600-82). The Stourhead garden was
made by a wealthy English banker who had been buying works of art in Italy at the
time he inherited the Stourhead estate. Henry Hoare II’s ‘Claudian’ garden was
made in an unusually well-proportioned valley behind the house. The Temple of
Flora at Stourhead was made in 1745 and the grotto in 1748. But the key date was
1754, when the lake and the Pantheon were made. It is based on the Pantheon in
Rome and the planned walk through the estate is based on the journey of Rome's
legendry founder, Aeneas. The five-arched bridge was made in 1762 and the
Temple of Apollo in 1765. Gothic features were added later in the century: Alfred’s
Tower, a Rustic Cottage and a Hermitage. The Stourhead woods were
underplanted with Rhododendron ponticum after 1791 and with more exotic
species in the twentieth century.
(Source: material of Stourhead came from website of   Stourhead)

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3.4 Auto / Image (urban landscape)

When you, sitting in a car, go forward fast along a road, and you keep your eyes on
the car window, the outside scenery go fast backward in frond of your eyes, the
images, one by one,     suddenly appearing but immediately disappearing between
your retina and the window. Although every image is real, it brings you a quite
illusory sense; like watching a film, the acceleration or deceleration of the car is just
same as the fast motion or slow motion. Although every action and the entire acting
process is continuous, the images that describe different occasional events have
nothing to do with each other.
Speed oversteps time sometimes, bringing occasional events from different places
together; speed even oversteps the content of the events, only displays the
occasional forms of the events. People may be curious about them but have no
time to search out their cause and effect. Space simplifies into images, not a
panorama but numerous images         which appearing in matrix; even the images are
more important than the real event itself. At first, the image and event are produced
and reproduced in their own way; then, some images combining with events, there
appear the event of producing images, and the image of producing events; thus,
space is occupied by images, and begins to produce events. Although the space is
abstracted into flat images, it   has its own organization rules. The image sparkles,
keeping on producing numerous phantasm. Since the image is not lighted up by
other illuminants but shines by itself, it stimulates people’s visual nerve. However, it
becomes sometimes completely composed of light, making people not able to see
the real aspect.

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3.5   Train / Panorama      (central park)

Travelling by train, for modern people, is somehow a little bit nostalgic or romantic.
When sitting in the train which is going through the pastoral country landscape, you
can see the extensive prairie, wheat field, blue sky…….a panorama; what you
cannot see clearly are the trees and houses just beside the railway. Thus there is
no close shot in the grand scene of panorama which seems always to keep some
distance with and always obscure. The whole travelling process in the train from
the beginning to the end constitutes a great panorama that composes a micro world,
including all elements.
In the panorama, all virtues of nature and the harmony between nature and human
are expressed incisively and vividly. No matter what direction you are looking from,
you cannot find how the train, the railway and yourself occupy the natural
landscape space. Not revealing anything, not announcing anything, the panorama
is a perfect replacement, like a Swiss snowing glass ball. The panorama has no
real scope and depth, but bonding ability; it bonds different elements together,
bonds audiences to pictures perfectly. The panorama does not follow the railway,
on the contrary, the railway follows the panorama. Anyway, the only way to avoid
indulging in it is to bow your head, not looking at the outside.

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The winter of Central Park

Central Park was the first landscaped public park in the United States.
Advocates          of    creating      the     park--primarily         wealthy         merchants   and
landowners--admired the public grounds of London and Paris and urged that
New York needed a comparable facility to establish its international
reputation. A public park, they argued, would offer their own families an
attractive setting for carriage rides and provide working-class New Yorkers
with a healthy alternative to the saloon. After three years of debate over the
park site and cost, in 1853 the state legislature authorized the City of New
York to use the power of eminent domain to acquire more than 700 acres of
land in the centre of Manhattan.

(Source: material of Central Park is wrote by Elizabeth Blackmar and Roy Rosenzweig)

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3.6   Plane / Identity    (world park)

The people who always come in and go out international airports must have the
same experience that airports all around the world seem similar; they are all
gigantic and complicated; one can hear, from the loudspeakers in every corner of
the airport, the voices in English and other languages; there are full of tax-free
stores, cafes, and bookstores, etc. selling fashionable clothes, magazines, makeup,
wine……. The airport is like a gigantic machine, swallowing and spitting crowds;
people are hurrying from here to there, and often get lost.
Contrary to the colourful airport, it is always rather narrow, limited, and monotonous
inside the plane. In the flight, because of the high speed, the connection between
passengers has to be stopped. Despite a row of small windows in the plane, there
is nothing interesting to see; thus the travelling experience is almost compressed
into the extreme of motonousness, so that the passengers are as sent to the
destination as packages. Wherever flying to, people just need to choose the airline,
and the plane itself is always similar to others.
It seems that all expression about identity and nation is concentrating in the
cost-free tourism guiding book in every seat, where one can see the Eiffel Tower in
Paris, the Empire State Building in New York, the Reichstag in Berlin, and the Great
Wall in Beijing. etc. Thus a city, a region or a country has a distinct identity; and all
the countries in the guiding book are abstracted into different airports here or there,
and planes are the extension of these spaces, like an elevator, joining them
together into a world country. Here, you can go through the games of identity with
one or more ID cards or passports. The space of identity itself seems similar, with
always the same temperature, about 20c although they disseminate the information
of identity to every corner. The space of identity makes identity become more and
more important, but what on earth is identity?

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The night of The Window of World

Just near China Folk Culture Villages, the park of The                                  Window of World is
contains examples of famous attractions from all over the world. With an area of
480,000 square meters, the park contains different sections covering Asia, the
Pacific, Europe, Africa, and America, as well as three others with exhibitions of
modern technology, classic sculptures, and famous avenues.
Marvelous sights and sites of historical interest in the world, ancient and modern,
natural landscapes and cultural sites as well as dwelling houses, sculptures,
drawings and even folklore and theatrical performances are here! Each is
presented as wonderful miniature replicas, made on a scale of 1:1, 1:5 and 1:1.5
respectively.Among the 118 scenic spots, you can find the pyramids of Egypt, the
Amon Temple of Karnak, the Angkor Wat of Cambodia, the Grand Canyon of
America, L'Arc de Triomphe of Paris, St. Peter's Cathedral of the Vatican City, the
Taj Mahal of India, the Sydney Opera House of Australia, and the Leaning Tower of
Pisa.Some large-sized spectacular attractions are also available, like the
108-meter-tall replica of the Eiffel Tower.
(Source: material of   The Window of the World came from website of   Window of the World)

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3.7   Spacecraft / Distinguishability      (Mars)

Interstellar travel as a great experiment, as auto and plane were invented, is going
on blazingly. One drives a spacecraft, navigating his way into the deep space, like
the exploration in the Columbus time. However, is it practical? The navigators on
sea bathe in sunshine and sea wind; although the weather is sometimes terrible,
they can adjust their navigating direction according to ocean current and wind
direction. But interstellar travelers huddle in the narrow spacecraft, like in a big can;
they are just going forward and forward in the unlimited dark without direction; It
seems like a shell launched fiercely from the earth. Due to different speed and
scale, blindness is intolerable for interstellar travel, nevertheless the traveler, not
like the sea navigator, is not able to make decision according to the experience of
the environment.
In fact, it is suspectable to relate distinguishability to the conception of
unlimitedness. In a totally unknown environment, there is always something that
looks similar to something in your memory, and you recognize it quickly and have a
first judgment. The distinguishment and t the judgment will merge same kind of
things according to the self-recognizing system, make something equal to another
thing, and infer something being another thing. At last, by inference and deduction,
it creates a extensible framework, in the surface of which there is an extensible
open system. But essentially, once you try to distinguish one of the other from
multiplicity, this “the other” will immediately be assimilated by the system which is
thus a shrinking system. All distinguishment makes the other shrink into self.

                                           Mars-sky

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4

SPEEDSCAPE           II

The different spaces related to different speeds together constitute speedscape; or
it can also be described that numerous speeds cross a relative entire space, tear it
into fragments, and compose speedscape. In this space, the fragmentary space
expresses the characteristic of each speed; sometimes it represents this speed,
and sometimes that; furthermore, the fragmentary space becomes too complicated
to cross. And this is the very space where modern people work and live, numerous
speeds interweave and go fast. Speed itself cannot be seen; what can e seen are
the trail and reference of speed: reading, seeing, picture, image, panorama, identity,
distinguishability……
Speedscape constitutes the main landscape of contemporary society, and defines
the way of our everyday life. The spatial form of speedscape is decided by speed
which is related to intensity, strength, and action. On its broad sense, it is not only
the speed of communication, but also the speed of communication, but also the
speed of reproduction and the speed of forgetting, the speed of all. For speedscape,
there is no difference between slow and fast. Speedscape is a phenomenon of
contemporary space form. It keeps changing under the impact of numerous speed
and complicated strength, and forming new morphs. Speedscape is not some
specific landscape, but kinds of signs or derivates coming from the crossing of the
speed through the space. It appear in any time, but always now; at the same time, it
can appear in any place without any regional difference.

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5

„INTERFACE“---HERFORD 2020

                             26
5.1   Historical Review

Approximately on the half distance between the mountain "Porta Westfalica" and
mountain “Stuchenberg” in the east, the mountain “Homberg” in the north through
the hills “Wiehengebirge“ in the northeast, and through the forest “Teutoburger
Wald” in the southeast, flowing the river Were and the river Aa out in the valley.
between the closely wooded, about 200-meter-high mountain “Stuchenberg” in the
east, the mountain “Homberg” in the north and the forest Teutoburger Wald, is the
city located on a height of only 70 m above sea level.
Prehistoric finds at the natural fords, shortly before the confluence of Werre and Aa,
confirm that here lived humans already for primeval times. There was also traces
witness of the fact that the Saxonian duke Wittekind moved back into this region,
before he conquered Franconia under the King Karl in 785 A.D. In 789 A.D. the
Saxonian Edeling Waltger founded the Stift Herford, the probably oldest Saxonian
woman monastery for the high aristocracy; for the historians that is the birth of
Herford. Few years later after its establishment, the king yard “Koenigshof” was
built on a reasonable defensive hill in the river mouth of Werre and Aa, which
functioned as the defence device of the ford against the King Karl. After the
adoption of this monastery by the emperor Ludwig in 823, its ascent began and it
became into the later so important imperial-lay prince abbey.
The awarding of the justice of market, coin and customs happened already a few
years later. With this market privilege confirmed by the King Otto in 973, Herford
belongs to the oldest markets in Germany.
In the Wik, the former resting and commercial square beside the fortified
Koenigshof, the today's quarter Radwig, the first businessmen settled down, whose
successful economy in connection with the mental-religious-cultural development
of the convent in the following centuries brought the city great meaning.
Once there was here the abbey, from which the abbesses exerted its important
influence in the entire medieval realm. In the small chapel “Wolderuskapelle”
should the founder of the convent, the holy Waltger, be buried.

                                                                                    27
In the years of 1220-1250 the cathedral church “Muensterkirche” was established
directly beside the abbey, as the first large building of a resounding church in
Germany. Since 1914/17, the city hall “Rathaus” with market hall “Markthalle“, the
chapel and the church built together a delightful ensemble. The great medieval
history becomes here alive, confirmed by the finds in the old foundations.
In 1011 the abbess Godesdiu created a convent in front of the gates of the city on
the mountains, as training centre for the daughters of the aristocracy. The king
Konrad III. confirmed Herford as the national convent in1147. In 1170 a citizen
municipality and the municipal law were founded. In 1220 a council constitution was
already introduced into Herford, as the second city in Westphalia, and, another part
of the city centre “Neustadt” was built beside the Altstadt and the Wik, the today's
Radwig. In the central 13.Century, the city took over the military protection and thus
developed afterwards directly the realm liberty of the city. the Herforder law book
appeared 1375.
The city is member of the powerful federation of the Hanse, it is wealthy and
influential, its businessmen covered the world.
Already in 1523 the reformation of Martin Luther began to become generally
accepted in Herford, and like 100 years later, in the middle of the 30jaehrigen war,
the realm Court of Appeal confirmed the city as realm city. This war and its
"Westfaelicher peace" of 1648 brought however nevertheless devastating
consequences to the city. It lost its independence, fell in the hand of Brandenburg
Prussia, and thus into the poverty of a cultivation city. That was why it did not begin
with the rapid beginning of the industrialization untill 19.Century.
In 1808, the last abbess of Herford, princess Friederike of Prussia died. The abbey
became a machine-equipped spinning mill after English model, with all technical
refinement of that time, including water turbine drive and gas lighting.
Herford became a regional town within the Prussian province Westphalia in1816,
and in 1847 there appeared the first connection to the Koeln Mindener railway with
its own station. The entire city centre “Innenstadt” was enclosed by city walls,
interrupted only by the in and outward prominent roads, the former gates.

                                                                                     28
What protected the city from enemies centuries ago, what served security of the
city, where the tension was largest in crisis periods, today offers peace and
relaxation all around, and the advantages of Innenstadt.
Approximately 66,000 inhabitants are living in the city (79 km2) now, after the
regional reorganization took place in1969. The city boundary has an overall length
of 56 km. It encloses 12,500 residential buildings with 30.000 dwellings, 3.800 work
places with 32.000 employed persons; 11 Grudschule, hauptschule, school for
learn-obstructed, Gesamyschule,3 Realschulen, 3 Gymnasien, 3 High Schools, 3
professional training schools, the university for church music, school of music,
study center of the correspondence university Hagen, the high landbauschule.

the city plan in 900        the city plan in 1200          the city plan in 13th. C.

Urban Developing Process

In 900, because of the orientation of the settlement at trade routes, Radwig was
developed as far trade settlement “Fernhaendleransiedlung” (Wik) by the
monastery of Herford

                  th                                                                   th
the city plan in 17 . C                                             the city plan in 18 . C

                                                                                              29
the city plan in 1825

Until 1200 it was the end of building Radwig and Altstadt around the markets
(Gaensemarkt und Alter Markt) and main streets with merchants' houses around
(today part of the pedestrian street), first city fortification with ditches, whereby with
the foundation of the Neustadt in 13th. Century. The fortification with repeated
ditches was finished being built until around 1250.
Development until 1650: The city fortification was built further with acute-angular
bastions and ditches in 16th. Century due to the development of firearm. In the large
city fire in 1638 among, the church “Johanneskirche” and large parts of the quarter
Radwig were destroyed.

In 1825 parts of the southern city ditch was filled up, whereby parts of the city
fortification had been broken step by step since end of the 18.Jh. Herford fell into a
farming citizen city in this time. 1), the little meaning of the boundary regions (large
parts of the today's city centre “Innenstadt” were used as gardens and areas of
arable land). 2), the situation that dense, closed buildings was existent essentially
only along the main streets and in addition the fact that the bulding ranges

                                                                                        30
extended still exclusively within the medieval city boundaries at that time (no
growing of the city). Here public buildings and churches are marked in red.

Up to the end 19. Century, a bulk style of the industrial sites of Herford resided from
its historical development in the area of Innenstadt (specially colouring shop,
spinning mills or soap factory), which was particularly strengthening the pollution in
the proximity of the new station to within the area of Goebenstrasse at that time ,
which represents a parallel to the today's development of this quarter in connection
with MARTa.

The extension of the station and the condensed new development in the quarter
Radwig represented substantial construction measure till 1910. At this time the
separating effect of the railway facilities was to be already observed on the town
development: in the west, there are thus only few new buildings behind the railway
embankment, but concentration of new buildings (in particular commercial and
industrial) in northeast proximity of the station.

In the two large air raids in November 1944 and March 1945, lots of building and
roads in areas of the southeast to the old market (Alter Markt) and the northeast to
the railway embankment, within the industrial areas, were particularly destroyed. At
the end of the war, 20% of the dwelling are lost, however these war-coused
destruction in its extent was smaller, than the loss of historical built volumes during
the urban redevelopment into a city centre which meeting the need of automobil
users.

The widening and/or expansion of the road of Berliner Strasse for better motor
traffic took place in four phases, what was connected with large losses of historical
built volumes in each case. The first "free impact" took place in the section in the
north to the new market; after this in the second step, the widening of the Berliner
Strasse was done in eastern direction up to the crossing with the Johannesstrasse:

                                                                                     31
Here thus an important, new motor traffic junction within the quarter of Altstadt was
developed. In the third and fourth step, further spreading of the Berliner Strasse up
to the station was then realized in eastern direction, where a further traffic junction
at the station free area was developed.

                  th                                             nd
the city plan in 19 . C                       the city plan after 2 . World war

                                                                                     32
5.2 Analysis

Landuse & Existing Condition

Services in the Innenstadt of Herford
Most services are essentially outside of the central shopping streets. Thus banks,
savings banks, law offices and insurance enterprises are concentrating along the
road Berliner Strasse. Also along the road Rennstrasse, there appears a strong
service orientated quarter, which shows however a mixture. Also in the Radewiger
Strasse, Seinstrasse und am Gaensemarkt, just like within the area of the
Tribenstrasse there are lots of catering trade enterprises.
In the central shopping streets Baeckerstrasse, Gehrenberg and Hoecherstrasse
there are few services enterprises , but lots of retail trades.

   Retail trade
   Public constitution
   Private Services
   Emptying
   Catering trade

                                                                     the plan of landuse

                                                                                     33
Dwelling in the Innenstadt of Herford
   living duration in Herford                                           renting & owning rate

              No indication 6%   1 year 5%
                                                                                                         Owning
                                                                                                         22%
                                        2-5 year 15%

                                             6-10 year 9%
Over20 Year   47%

                                        11-20 year 18%                  Renting 78%

source: GMA Innenstadtbefragung, in % of the asked ones (n=273), 2000

Between the new and old market already formed a relatively developed retail trade
center, which plays a big role of commerce in the Innenstadt. In the Innenstadt,
there are altogether 256 retail trades and stores, the emptying ratio is about 14%

      Retail trade
                                                                                 the plan of retail trade distribution

                                                                                                                    34
The average emptying ratio in West German towns is about 5% at present.
The number of the empty conditions rises continuously from 2000 to 2004.
Most empty houses concentrate beside the Gaensemarkt in Radwig.
Although the number of empty houses between the new and old market increased,
many shop, which were still empty 6 months ago, are already opened again. In this
area, the empty conditions shows normal conversion.

Reasons:
1. Purchasing power of the city center Innenstadt sinks
2. traffic problem
3. commercial structure is not rational.
4. There is no advantage in the goose market “Gaensemarkt“, in order to attract
   the customers.

      Empty standing shop unit
      less use

                                                           the plan of emptying distribution

                                                                                          35
Green System & Open Space

The city wall area is the historical indication of the old city wall and forms the most
important public green area around the whole city centre. The rivers increase the
recreation quality of the green ring. The citizens walk, jog and the pupils run
constantly along it and the walls remain alive. The continuity of the green ring is
however disturbed in different places of Berliner Strasse and Johannistrasse .
Outside the green ring there are two parks, which follow the green ring and support
the green system of the city centre. These parks have different characters. Near
the park in the north there are a High School and sport fields, i.e. it is rather
movement-oriented. In the opposite, there is the park in the south with recreation
functions.
In the town centre ”Innenstadt”, the pedestrian street and the surfaces around the
churches represent the important open spaces in the city. They are important
recreation places and social meeting places in the city centre and form the touristic
routes for city guidance.

plan of green system in Herford

                                                                                     36
MARTa lies outside the town centre “Innenstadt” and has a direct connection to the
green belt of the Innenstadt. The street “Augustastrasse” in the west of Marta,
forms an obstacle for a possible relationship between Marta and the park. The river
could not be in this sense a potential, however it is available because of ownership
structures. Shortest attaching of MARTa to the city wall area is the street
“Schillerstrasse”.

Plan of green system analysis

views of the green belt around Innenstadt

                                                                                  37
If we compare the environment of the city Herford to other cities, we could firmly tell
that Herford is rather a green city. We get to know already from national datas that,
the portion of green area per head with about 60 m2. That is relatively high.
The green system in Herford represent an exciting sample. The green areas
connect with each other like a ring or a corridor. There are two green rings, one
outside Herford and the other within Herford. The ring, which is outside Herford,
does not have strong continuity, but the ring around the city centre “Innenstadt” is
relatively continuous in the opposite.
The city is connected with the next cities by the green corridors and these green
corridors offer lots of important recreation places for the citizens. For example there
is a continuous green area between Herford and Bad Salzuflen, where different
free air sport activities take place.

plan of green system in the region of Herford      plan of regional green system analysis

                                                                                            38
Transportation system

Transportation Network around Herford

Two motorway connections, connect with the Vlothoer road in the north and with
the Bundesstrasse(B)239 in the south.
The B239 connects to the business district in the west and in the south.
The building of B239 is going to be finished in 2005 (B239 topographically
problematic)
The building of the B239 creates in addition functional connections (avoidance of
the transit traffic)

Transportation Network around Herford

                                                                               39
Transportation Network in Herford

Outward development system
Herford’s road net is arranged with an outward-developed system.
Characteristic of this system is traffic ring at external end, from which the individual
collecting and close jointing streets branch inward. A development with outer ring
usually makes a crossing-free, unimpaired pedestrian intertwining within the
residential area. Here however the city centre “Innenstadt” is divided by the roads
of Auf der Freiheit and Berliner Strasse and the pedestrian intertwining in both
sides is disturbed.

          Residential area
          Shopping area

          Traffic Street
          Collecting Street
          Residential Street

                                                           --------Transportation Network in Herford

                                                                                                 40
Traffic Stress

There is heavy shuttle traffic between the residential areas in the west and the
business areas in the east
---while there is large traffic stress in the streets of Hermanstrasse and
Hansastrasse, the widths of the two streets are insufficient. An extension of them is
almost impossible, since there is no land available for building the bridge of the
Hansastrasse because of the historical buildings beside. The Hansastrasse is also
difficult to be built.
---Although there is large traffic stress under the station, the road is only with three
tracks. Coming from the city centre (Innenstadt), the road changes from two tracks
into a single track. Therefore there is sometimes jam.

             Stress motor vehicle/Tag (day)
             Width f th       d
                                                                                    ------plan of Traffic stress analysis

The bridge in the street of Hansastrasse; view in Hermanstrasse;   historical houses by the crossing in Geobenstrasse

                                                                                                                      41
Parking Possibilities

Potentials:
---Parking bays: 2.750 in the town centre, 1471 of them in the three multi-storey car
parks.
--- multi-storey car parks (Radwig, Altstadt and Neustadt) together with car parking
guiding system reduce parking search traffic
---Parking bays are easy to reach from the main traffic routes
Problems:
---The enormous multi-storey car parks destroy a little bit the townscape
---The potential of the multi-storey car park as a gate to the Innenstadt was not
realized; the surroundings are more practical as inviting for the visitors.

        Parking lots
        Access Roads
        Multi-storey car parks:
        Capacity

                                                               ------Distribution of parking places

parking guiding system; Multi-storey car parks

                                                                                                42
Traffic Analysis – Public Transportation

Potential (city bus lines):
---bus station connected with station well
---best connection with the city centre (Alter market)
---bus linear network in radial form
---taxi-bus lines extend the traffic offer
Problems:
only 2 regional lines pass by MARTa, no city line
Use of the public transportation is very small

         Public Transportation
         300meter Periphery
         600meter Periphery

                                                           ------plan of public transportation system

Traffic Analysis - Pedestrian Precinct

Potential:

---those ways as recreation spaces go in a circle around the centre and offer various

possibilities, walking, jogging, etc..

---the traffic-reduced roads know could bring local people lots of traffic-reduced surfaces.

                                                                                                        43
Prolems:
---numerous underpasses under the major roads are clearly described with traffic
signs. However some areas are not unproblematic. Mobilized traffic is here
preferential.
---the city centre is divided by some roads and the ways of the pedestrian is limited.
The pedestrial crossing is missed on the crossong of Auf der Freiheit in front of the
station.

           Pedestrian Precinct (shopping)
           Recreation Spaces
           Road System
           Traffic-reduced Area
           Physical   and Psychological Border

                                                       ------plan of pedestrian system

Traffic Analysis - Bicycle Traffic

Potentials
---75% of the population live in the periphery of 3 km to the city centre
---relatively flat areas in the city centre ease exemplary the cycle driving.

Guide for the cycle driving: beside cycle tracks of the district, there are 4 urban free
routes and different regional                hiking routes.
Stress-free driving: many places are cycle tracks separated from traffic routes

                                                                                         44
(partly also bicycle routes available)
Popular and safety: in the last 10 years, bicycle traffic accidents increased nearly
20% when          the number of the traffic accidents sank
Problems
---despite positive development, the absolute number of cyclist is not much.
---it is doubtful whether the large investments (approx. 13mio euro) can lead to a
stronger use.
Approach
---all conditions is created for an effective and safe bicycle using, now it depends
on the citizens to take use of these possibilities.

        Route with Sign Posts
        Hiking Trials in the Country
        Restrictions by Pedestrian Precinct
        Disturbance by Major Roads
                                                              ------plan of bicycle traffic route

Bicycle parking & Sign posts

                                                                                              45
Social Service

Public Institution -----Administration, citizen service, finances, security, order, health

The city administration, accommodated in the two city halls (old city hall and
technical city hall), is in the centre of the city. The old city hall, which serves also
particularly for representative purposes, should be particularly considered in the
course of development questions and/or questions of urban operational readiness
level. In the west of the planning area, a chain of official offices extends along the
street Wittekindstrasse. Only the labour office lies in the north in the street
Hansastrasse. Likewise there are the police as well as the youth penal institution by
the Hansastrasse. Employment office and district court are located in the centre
near the city halls.
Remarkably in Herford, there is a high number of old people’s homes and social
institution for seniors close to church community centres (E.G. „Unter den Linden“).
All of them including the senior home behind that technical city hall, are in the south
of the city. Perhaps the social structures of Herford are to be found parallels to them.
There are 2 hospitals in Herford. The traditional Mathilden-Hospital is a general
Kath. Hospital and exists since the end of 19th. Century. In addition it runs a nursing
school. The general medical clinic of Herford is outside in the northeast of the city.

Distribution of public institution in the planning area   Distribution of public institution in Herford

                                                                                                          46
Training -----Kindergarten, schools, vocational school, university

There is a well distributed net of kindergartens in Herford, however there is no day
nursery in the planning area. About half of the kindergartens are related to the
church municipalities (usually Luth.), the remainder are municipal or private cribs.In
the allocation of the basic school districts, one can see it is not necessary that
every child visits the most convenient school. Also, here a comparison with the
population structure of the city should be informative.
With 3 High Schools, 3 six-form high schools (Realschulen), one comprehensive
school and 2 hauptschule with altogether 6000 pupils, a good supply is also here
given for the citizen. The only university in Herford is the university for church music
with about 30 students. By the deficiency of other resuming schools, young people
leave the city after their graduation and do not return to the city, which one can see
from its effect in the population structure.
The vocation school centre plays a large role for the city and in particular for our
planning area, that offers, beside the nursing school of the Mathilden-hospital and
the agricultural economics school, a building and wood-technical professional
training and trainings in the commercial und social branch, as well as training in the
field of nutrition, space equipment and landscape market garden. There are about
4500 pupils, many from outside. It is located by the cross on the way to station and
bus station in the planning area.

                                        distribution of schools in the planning area

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