Here's an outline of a City Land Use proposal which I suggested the other day that I'd put forward. I have some maps here now which may help understanding.
Here's a repeat of the one above:
[img:lwc7h80t]http://www.tospitimou.com/Neualtenburg/ ... 12Size.jpg[/img:lwc7h80t]
First, the concept. Several important issues confront us in our new phase. Among them: (1) Prim management, (2) Ratio of revenue generating space to city supported space, and (3) Need for Public areas for events. This proposal attempts to address in one way or another all 3 concerns.
We have already put into effect a City Prim Land Reserve, totalling about 4000m2, of "held aside" land to ensure suffucuent prim capacity in the coming years. With careful management, shifting prim allocations from location to location, as they are needed, these approx 1000 extra prims should serve us well. However, setting aside 4000m2 takes that land out of the revenue generating catagory and into City-supported.
In that situation, with Kendra's departure, who had kindly allowed her private land to be used for public events, we cannot afford to hold that land off the market as well, so it has been sold. We are then faced with only 2 remaining open public spaces in the sim: The Platz and the former Altenburg. The general extent of these two areas are circled in red on the first map above.
At this juncture, Salzie introduced a concept. She pointed out that the oldest historical RL City centers are not rectilinear in configuration, but rather organic, having evolved over centuries of use transforming from one land use to another. She suggested re-thinking the shape of the Platz with this in mind.
With the conviction that retaining the Altenburg section as an open public space will be wasteful of our scarce land and prim resources, I suggest that we instead enlarge the Platz, in ways that I'll describe, forming it into our sole public space for events. At the same time, I suggest that the street arrangement in the Altenburg section be rearranged to be more organic... curved... and that that section be parceled out into residences and "off-the-beaten-track" shops. The south gate would remain where it is. The proposal to bring Gwynethstrasse thru to the south gate would be implemented.
Now, this section in fact has a very clear swath of unoccupied (meaning... owned by the City) land streching all the way to the top of Schloss hill. All land within the red encircled section on the above map is availble for this re-consideration.
This area as well would be cleared and re-parceled. But, at this point we come to some "spiritual" aspects to think about.
Neualtenburg is a community of people, sharing a collective experience. Its physical form is the location of that experience. But it's also the result of every individual person devoting effort and energy to one of the thousands of tasks and interactions which comprise the history. Only the visually most obvious of those results are the buildings and arrangements of the City today. But, as our hsitory goes on... those constructions, and the location itself, become more and more embued into the spiritual nature of the community... they depart from being "just builds" and evolve towards containing a collective consciousness of the City.
That said, different buildings, even different parts of the terrain, carry different content. As Gwyn has pointed out, the Schloss Hill originally held the chamber of the Assembly, where the first RA got the fledgling democracy going. It was later felt that the Assembly of the People (my phrase) should be located more where the people were at, so it was moved first to the old Rathaus on the south side of the Platz, and later to the existing location.
Stepping back from the streets of Neualtenburg (or flying higher, really, after turning off the fog), one can see the basic form of the City. It centers in The Platz. This, like the ancient Agora of Athens, is and should be the center for social, commercial and political interaction. Life emanates from this center.
Balancing the center on either side are the polarities of male and female, the Church as the female container of the spiritual component of life, and the elevated, upward thrusting Schloss hill as the location of the male attributes of logic, intellect, order. I am NOT refering to the qualities of individual human beings. The male and female attributes of our community energy/experience are the yin/yang of life, understood as the polar opposites which mix and blend everything in life, as they do in fact blend in Neualtenburg.
Understood in this light, the existing Schloss is a violation of the truth of the one polarity, and should be removed. It shows to us a medieval aristocratic castle... symbolizing the oppressor class, the fortress walls protecting the wealth of the owners, a vast, ornate and dramatic construction with little functionality representing the hollowness of pride and superiority, isolation from the people themselves.
I would suggest rather that Schloss hill be devoted, at its top at least, to an accessible institution embodying those qualities held in highest esteem by the community, on the male polarity of life... adherence to law, logic, learning. That it be a truly balancing component to the female church, a building which already opens its doors wide to the location of the common citizen on the Platz.
I do not have a fully realized conception for what this building or buildings should be. I'll work on that. Two images/suggestions come quickly to my mind. One is that the buildings there might be an extension of the adjacent School, perhaps with a special focus on government and/or law. Second, that the accessibility be enhanced, not only with the existing spiralling roadway, but by the addition of a large terrace looking over the City, to which people can easily fly and land, or be transported to by "tp"'s. Claude, as well, has suggested a "bridge" springing from the existing School up to the buildings on the hill.
Around and below the "Center of Learning/Center of Law" there should be residences/shops, stretching down the slopes in all directions except the north, where the existing school is located. I'll try to prepare some suggested street plans which maintain the "confused" organic quality of the City while adding considerably more revenue generating housing (or shops). These parcels would fill the entire remaining space of the hill and the former Altenburg.
Going back to the Platz. I suggested that it should be enlarged. I would suggest that Catfahrt be removed. That the building on the corner across from the Biergarten that Pelanor wishes to buy be pushed against Diderot's shop, and that that building present itself to the west as well as the south. Behind Diderot's house is Eugene's hotel, which will be at right angles to Pelanors institution. All the other empty shops along the north side of the Platz would be pushed back, into the section where Bond's former house now stands. Sudanestrasse can end there... other Platz shops can be placed against the wall next to the gate (another time-honoured medieval tradition).
On the south side, the majority of Blade Dancer Allee should be removed, and the row of shops pushed back so that they are in line with Dianne's existing shop. The one on the corner by the church would be removed. It is possible that one or two Platz shops couth be placed above and behind that row, up on the MoCA hill.
I've now got a map prepared which focusses on the two redevelopment areas. Compare this with the map above. Note especially the enlarged Platz, and also the large number of houses/shops around the small neighborhood circle which was previously Altenburg.
[img:lwc7h80t]http://www.tospitimou.com/Neualtenburg/ ... ection.jpg[/img:lwc7h80t]
Needless to say, all suggestions are heartily welcomed.
Sudane
).
