Carroling for livable cities

We would like to say good-bye today with some pictures of an innovative «carroling» group: The group «Hofgesang» in Switzerland has combined the efforts of over 60 choirs to revive city courtyards. The group gives Ideas how to restore the courtyards, make them accessible for social events in the neighborhoods and make them greeener and more livable. In this sense, we wish you all the best for a happy New Year with lots of energy and impulse to continue in finding a more sustainable livestyle.

What started the movement? The rear side of the city is largely unknown. Even though courtyards and backyards take up as much as one fourth of the city’s space, hardly anyone pays attention to them. As late as the 1950s, these spaces were widely used by small-scale industries, or to grow vegetables, to dry laundry or beat carpets. They were work places and thus also places where people met and interacted with each other. Children watched these proceedings, participated in the work or found corners to play in. Since then, most of these courtyards have either been turned into parking space or have otherwise been rendered unsuitable for community purposes. In consequence, the increasingly multicultural residents who live around these courtyards have been deprived of spaces in which good relations among neighbors can develop. This loss not only reduces the quality of living, it also endangers a peaceful coexistence. People who are forced to know their neighbor’s favorite TV-program and who witness each flushing of the neighbor’s toilet, but who never meet and thus never get to know each other, are unlikely to have much sympathy for each other. Conflicts are not far away. It is therefore all the more surprising that the quality and the changing function of these semi-public spaces has so far scarcely been noticed by politicians and city planners in Switzerland. In this situation, HOFgesang recommends a root treatment: the recovery of purpose-alienated courtyards as habitats.
:: www.hofgesang.ch

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:: Ecards of the Advent Calendar

The Advent Calendar Team wisches all readers Happy Christmas and lots of renewable energies for 2010

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