1. |URBANIUM|
Cities are �illed with all kinds of people who often have no
place to go – people of different ages, social backgrounds,
nationalities and generations living alone or together
searching for communal places, family-oriented activities,
multi-disciplinary spaces without costing them too much.
The Starbucks culture or Coffee Companies here in The
Netherlands demonstrate the success of a space suitable for
both relaxing and working state providing besides serving
coffee, tea and snacks a wireless network, newspapers,
chilling seating areas and computer tables. Although their
existence relies on a commercial business model, the
popularity of these coffee places seems to �ill in the gap
between working alone at home and working with others in
a silent space, between relaxation and concentration. They
create an atmosphere of multi-disciplinarity, which brings
together eating and working, talking and studying, the
collective and the individual.

2. Urban design planner, Mark Hinshaw asserts, grocery stores are
re-emerging ‘as one of the cornerstones of great places to live.” Many
‘IT WOULD BE WONDERFUL READING
are becoming social spaces, with espresso bars and welcoming NEWSPAPERS AND THAT IN A SOCIAL
seating’. People hang out, read the paper or a book, and meet friends SPACE, WHERE YOU CAN JUST WALK IN.’
— even when buying groceries is not a part of the trip. In present-day
society characterized by deconstruction, restructuring reality and the
CHRISTIAAN - 72 YRS.
blurring of boundaries, work life and private life are merging and the
need for spaces designed for different purposes is increasing. A visit to
the Humanitas Akropolis elderly home and the Turkish Communal
Center in Rotterdam illustrates the effectivity of a communal social
spaces in an urban landscape. Both initiatives unite people from
different background and ages, empowering their autonomy by
offering a public atmosphere open for ideas and input of everybody
visiting. Its organizational representatives operate in the backstage,
serving the needs and wants of the frontstage. The Turkish
community center is a place, where old and young generations blend
and opportunities for reading, chatting, billiards, learning, meeting
friends, doing groceries are present. Of course the Humanitas
Akropolis is mainly focused on the elderly, people from an age of 50 –
living there or in the neighborhood - are visiting the indoor and
outdoor public space facilitated with a hairdresser, supermarket,
beauty and health center, gym, library, restaurant and seats for
reading, playing chess or having conversations. Secondly its existence
is based on humanistic philosophical thought, which seeks to make
the best of life by creating meaning and purpose for us, human beings.
On the one hand humanists believe in individual rights and freedoms,
on the other hand they value individual responsibility, social
cooperation and mutual respect and that people can and will continue
to �ind solutions to the world's problems, so that quality of life can be
improved for everyone.

3. A philosophy integrated in the concept of Place-making, a way of
thought rising in the world of urban planning and city development. It
‘THERE SHOULD BE A PLACE CLOSE
capitalizes on a local community’s assets, inspiration and potential,
TO MY HOME, WHERE I CAN TAKE MY
ultimately creating good public spaces that promote people’s health,
CHILDREN TO PLAY.’
happiness, and well being by enhancing the quality and popularity of AMAL - 45 YRS
downtown areas. Urban revitalization is its purpose to be realized
through the process of making better places for which collaborations
amongst different disciplines, communities and personalities are
being set-up to create an interdisciplinary, cross-professional sphere
of input and ideas. The involvement of local residents empowers
social ties, cohesion, feelings of responsibility and their participatory
input by making them an integral part of the process of creation.
Reconnecting people to their neighborhood by connecting them to
urban planners, engineers, architects and potential key stakeholders
will certainly generate an environment of entanglement for people
feel more connected to a place if they - or someone they know -had a
hand in shaping it. Even without a direct link, just the awareness
fellow citizens played a role in the process of creation can make a huge
difference in their perceptions. Richard Florida adds this will result in
a public realm not only incorporating local character and citizens’
wisdom, but it will also instill a sense of civic pride and stewardship in
the community. Secondly neighborhoods being more diverse, where
everyone feels accepted and welcome, show a much higher rate of
emotional attachment. A neighborhood is not simply a set of
individuals, but a set of relations, �luid relationships being
longstanding or of such nature you can plug into and start playing with
them. Places that enable the foundation of such relationships are the
places that do better. The Urbanium – can offer such ecology being
multi-disciplinary, created by place-based strategy from a bottom-up,
community-based approach, a local livingroom in the neo-traditional
neighborhood

4. Ecology indeed for The Urbanium should be a pleasant surrounding
not totally betrayed by commerce and concrete de�inition leaving
space for imagination and personal initiative. Secondly its community
or people joining the space should be able to feel free in their behavior
offering opportunities for their input and need of activities and
self-regulation. Old structures are slowly fading and governmental
power is decreasing, perhaps time is there to take care of ourselves
and others. We used to feel the pressure from external forces, which
now seem to be integrated in our life by a process of governmental
socialization, feeding our internal regulation.
A process described by Norbert Elias to illustrate human development
- �irst in our childhood we learn societal norms and values by external
pressure of parents, schools and other peer institutions, so-called
Fremdzwang., which will eventually transform to Selfstzwang, when
we grow up, adapt and integrate these norms and values in our lives.
This development is exactly going on in present-day society and its
paradigmatic shift of authorities is expressing the need of
independence and self-regulation: social spaces regulated by
communities should empower this.

5. Thirdly, The Urbanium should provide opportunities for real human
contact away from television and computers now (urban) life has
I WANT TO STUDY, BUT NOT IN SOME
become and still becomes more technically complex often going hand in
SILENT UNIVERSITY LIBRARY NOR IN
hand with an unattractive atmosphere and a loss of social interaction. A COMMERCIAL SPACE WHERE I AM
Not being a rigid of�line space only, The Urbanium could be considered OBLIGED TO BUY DRINKS IN ORDER
a meeting point of both online and of�line networks, providing both TO MAKE USE OF THE INTERNET.’
technological and a –going-back-to-our-human-roots infrastructure.
We are suffering from what sociologist Robert Putnam calls the loss of
IREN – 22 YRS
‘social capital’ or what Internet sociologist Albert Benschop de�ines as
the phenomenon of strange familiars and familiar strangers. Relations
with neighbors and fellow citizens have become weaker in the past
decennia and society is breaking-up more and more. In the sixties a cult
of individualism hit the societal stage deconstructing religious
communal living and provoking against the establishment of the
church, the family, association life and local communities. According to
Putnam (1995) modern communication technologies, such as television
and the computer could be regarded the driving force of these changes.
With reference to city design, urban planners created streets favoring
cars at the expense of pedestrians, public institutions violated the
vitality of surroundings and processes of commercialization stimulated
consumerism facilitating individualism. In the end urban life has
become solitary poor, brutish, nasty and short for it seems we live
anonymously in our high-tech city culture, having adapted an anomic
hedonistic lifestyle, being mostly ego-driven focused on branding
ourselves, whilst moving fast through online and of�line space in search
for innovative input. And of course this could be considered a
never-ending story for inspiration is not easily to get since forces of
homogenization are at the heart of contemporary - what Jean
Baudrillard calls – Hyperreality.

6. COMMUNITY-DRIVEN
TRANSFORMATIVE
But in the end we are all human and even highly mobile people have
emotional attachment to their neighborhoods at least to some extent.
COLLECTIVE
There are neighborhoods existing of both mobile people and locally
rooted people and it is exactly this mix of residents helps create
opportunities for economic growth, provides solutions to address
FLEXIBLE
today’s growing environmental concerns and renders diverse
INSPIRING
ULTI-DISCIPLINARY
activities such as living, shopping, working, all in close proximity to
one another. Applying this mixed-use concept to the stage of the
EGO-LESS
EVER-CHANGING
social space, The Urbanium comes in by offering opportunities for the
FOCUS ON DESTINY
realization of different needs of different people in the neotraditional
neighborhood, all united under one roof by creating a town square
atmosphere. Transforming city life from Solve to Coagula – from the WHOLE
breaking down of elements to their coming together.
The Urbanium should therefore be a space without having an exact
appearance being at the core of one’s being, feeling just right and
FREE
WE
ADAPTABLE
TERNAL
leaving possibilities for development and exploration. A space not
restricted to a speci�ic name, like the study room, the of�ice, the
URBANIUM
restaurant, but being associated with – not pinned to - concepts as
alive, whole, comfortable, free, egoless, eternal – words derived from
Thomas Alexander’s mind shared in his book ‘The Timeless Way of
Building’ taking into account many of our basic human needs.
Alexander’s values occur as well in the Place-making philosophy
discussed earlier translated to keys as a focus on destination,
transformative, community-driven, adaptable, inspiring, �lexible,
collective, sociable, multi-disciplinary and ever-changing. In the end
it is all about taking our responsibility for being a human being,
listening to our needs, leaving the past of alienation from our roots
and becoming entangled with ourselves - hence our fellow creatures
– hence our planet.