Page 14 - Beyond Decommissioning

Preface xiii

horizons to reuse/redevelopment (either per se as a post-decommissioning activity or
preferably as a strategic element of D&ER). Further the book addresses those respon-
sible for land planning including public authorities, architects, historians, environmen-
talists, real estate developers, and a wide range of other stakeholders (universities,
researchers, industries at large).
The book is not intended to provide optimal solutions to individual redevelopment
problems: each concrete redevelopment option will depend on multiple country or
site-specific factors, which are impossible to quantify in generic formulas. Rather,
through the use of concrete examples, the book illustrates a wide range of factors
and possible solutions for further investigation.
The book uses narrative techniques to provide a more profound meaning and help
the reader use imagination to visualize facts. (Actually it will be shown that the very
subject of this book—redevelopment—has a lot to do with imagination.) Techniques
applied in this book to enliven its style include backstory, flashback, imagery, celeb-
rity quotes, a bit of humor, and others. For example, imagery creates visuals appealing
to the reader’s senses and involves figurative language. Likewise, the book makes
wide use of anecdotes, newspaper articles, and stories of minor events leading to more
significant consequences or bearing universal meaning.
The narrative style of this book (occasionally verging on colloquialism) can make it
appealing to a more general class of readers, for example, the non-initiated, yet
attracted by environmentalism, history, or social aspects.
Finally I hope it will not be said of this book: “From the moment I picked up your
book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it.”
Groucho Marx (1890–1977).