New connectivity
In order to create a possibility for a social mix of the different communities, which in this case are the socio-economic weaker ethnic population and the middle and high income indigenous population, an intervention in the street network in required. By creating a centered neighbourhood, a situation for interaction of the different communities and the integration of the migrants into mainstream society is enhanced.
To investigate if the neighbourhood can be connected to the supergrid of the city, some interventions were measured and tested in space syntax. The images on the next page show these measurements. The top image shows the hierarchy in each situation, while the bottom image shows the connectivity of the lines to the supergrid indicated by the space syntax measurements.
Also by intervening in the neighbourhoods network a new hierarchy of streets is facilitated. This new hierarchy creates opportunities for new and larger scale developments in the neighbourhood. These developments will be handled more in detail in the next chapter.
The first image shows the current situation. This is the situation which has been analysed in the previous measurements. In this situation the neighbourhood is de-centered from the supergrid of the city.
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New hierarhy
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supergrid
Fig. 8.6 Centered neighbourhood according to Read (2005)
In the urban renewal plan of Parkstad two new connections will be made in the street network. In order to strengthen the eastwest connections in Rotterdam-South, these two streets in the neighbourhood will be connected to one of the city’s supergrid axes. I measured these interventions in space syntax to analyse if these connections have an effect on the connectivity of the neighbourhoods network to that of the larger city. The measurement however shows that these interventions have no or very little effect on the neighbourhood lines that will be connected. This means that with this intervention of creating two new connections, the effect for the neighbourhood is quite insubstantial. The local grid remains disconnected from the supergrid, therefore the neighbourhood continues to be de-centered from the city. In order to find out which intervention should be added to that of the urban renewal I tested some new connections in space syntax. Eventually I chose the intervention that needed the least interference and had the most effect in terms of connectivity. The third image shows this intervention. By connecting the main neighbourhood street directly to the intersection with a supergrid line, the neighbourhood immediately becomes better connected. In the bottom image the red lines indicate the supergrid. Now it becomes clear that by this intervention the neighbourhood is centered within the supergrid of the city. With this intervention the neighbourhood street becomes a strong backbone of the neighbourhood. In a later chapter I will explain how this new connectivity will have an effect on the functional layout of the neighbourhood.