Bring back the connections

This research proposes an exhaustive analysis of the possibilities generated by small-scale interventions concentrated mainly on the public space to regenerate the urban life of our cities and to design a series of specific strategies in the Nieuw-West neighborhood of Amsterdam.

The aim is to develop a research focused on the critical analysis of the use of the public space and to develop innovative strategies to regenerate the urban life by promoting the active use of public places and the social interaction among citizens. The fact that this problem is usually spread over large areas of the city, requires solutions based on strategies of “urban acupuncture”; term used by authors such as the urbanist Manuel de Solà-Morales and the Brazilian mayor and governor Jaime Lerner to describe an urban strategy based on making catalytic, small interventions, which should be realizable in a relatively short period of time and capable of achieving a maximum impact with regard to the immediate surroundings. When the urban interventions have to be implemented in the consolidated urban tissue frequently have to be limited only to the ambit of the public space. Then the notion “urban acupuncture“ can be transformed into “public space acupuncture,” which can be defined as an effective urban strategy of regeneration of the public space of the city and its urban life based on independent, but coordinated small interventions.

// Bring back the connections is a project by Lei Mao in collaboration with Berlage Institute and Casanova-Hernandez Architectsfor the 5th IABR (International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam), in 2012.

城市连接的回归

这项研究通过对小尺度的公共空间改造的各种可能性的研究和策略性设计，来使阿姆斯特丹的新西部社区城市生活重生。

这项研究的目的是试图建立一个完整的研究项目，一方面注重于对公共空间的使用进行具有批判性的分析，同时能够发展出具有创新性的设计策略，最终通过促进市民对公共空间的积极使用和社交互动来使城市公共生活获得再生。公共空间衰败的这一情况常常发生在大部分的当代城市中，这需要基于类似于“城市针灸”的解决策略；这一策略最早被 Manuel de Solà-Morales 等城市学者以及巴西的政要Jaime Lerner所提及，用于描述一种相对短时间内可实现性强的，对于周围能快速产生较大影响的，一种类似催化剂的小型改造设计。当一种城市改造设计必须被频繁地植入相对固定的城市肌理之中，这种改造设计必将是基于城市公共空间的。于是，“城市针灸”的概念可以被转换为“公共空间针灸”，我们可以将它定义为一种基于独立互助行为的小型改造设计策略，从而达到使得城市公共空间和公共生活再生的目的。

// 城市连接的回归是一个毛磊在2012年，在贝尔拉格研究所与卡萨诺瓦－赫南德兹建筑事务所共同为第五届鹿特丹建筑双年展完成的项目