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What once was old is new again: placemaking and transformational regeneration in Glasgow

James T. White

in Transforming Glasgow: Beyond the Post-Industrial City

This chapter considers the evolving urban form of residential architecture and urban design in Glasgow. It traces the history of the Victorian tenement, the city’s failed modernist redevelopment, and ... More

This chapter considers the evolving urban form of residential architecture and urban design in Glasgow. It traces the history of the Victorian tenement, the city’s failed modernist redevelopment, and the subsequent emergence of a place-making agenda that has reimagined the tenement for contemporary living. The chapter uses interviews with key informants and a review of archival data to describe the city’s approach to contemporary placemaking at two major urban regeneration projects, Laurieston and Pollokshaws. The chapter argues that both projects attempt to ‘recreate’ lost parts of the Victorian city and erase the city’s experience with modernism, while also mixing social housing with market housing to encourage more complete communities. The paper argues that this approach has led to a creeping reliance on the viability of market housing to deliver social housing and the wider regeneration aims of the project masterplans.Less

Planning for Mobility: Designing City Centers and New Towns in the USSR and the GDR in the 1960s

Elke Beyer

in The Socialist Car: Automobility in the Eastern Bloc

This chapter examines how planning for mobility, especially automobility, shaped designs for city centers in the USSR and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) during the 1960s. Taking the first ... More

This chapter examines how planning for mobility, especially automobility, shaped designs for city centers in the USSR and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) during the 1960s. Taking the first All-Union Conference on Urban Planning held in Moscow in 1960, it traces the evolution of urbanist debates in the architectural press and the urban design practice of the two countries. It discusses the general plans for Togliatti in 1968 and Moscow in 1971, both of which represented official approval of a definitive model for the modern Soviet city, and situates the fragmentary realization of these plans within the context of urbanism. The chapter also considers conceptions of space and “utopias of usage” at the root of urban planning and how central urban spaces were engineered and represented as spaces of movement.Less

An Improvisation-Based Model for Urban Interaction Design

Kristian Kloeckl

in The Urban Improvise: Improvisation-Based Design for Hybrid Cities

This chapter articulates four positions for an improvisation-based model of urban interactions in today's hybrid city environments. It builds upon the previous chapters by identifying the ... More

This chapter articulates four positions for an improvisation-based model of urban interactions in today's hybrid city environments. It builds upon the previous chapters by identifying the interactions in and with urban responsive environments and the art of improvisation as fundamentally related topics of investigation. From there, the chapter proposes to identify four key positions that are recurrent in different types of improvisation and that together point toward a foundational model for urban interaction design. These are: open beginnings, timing and agency, understanding in action, and unexpected interactions. These four positions provide a framework by which responsive systems and environments in the context of the hybrid city might be more systematically understood and developed.Less

Connecting places: towards a participatory, ordinary urbanism

Geoff Vigar and Georgiana Varna

in Transport Matters

This chapter examines the opportunities and pitfalls of integrating transport planning with urban design and place-making strategies, using design thinking as a way to address many of the ... More

This chapter examines the opportunities and pitfalls of integrating transport planning with urban design and place-making strategies, using design thinking as a way to address many of the ‘intractables’ associated with implementing transport policy. We argue for a focus on the substance and consistency of macro level strategy alongside the significance of creative and consistent micro level interventions. We position our argument alongside smart city debates, aiming to reinsert into these a more ‘ordinary’ approach that celebrates the significance of intervention in ‘ordinary neighbourhoods’ through the deployment of ‘ordinary technologies’ (benches, quality pavements) to create more livable cities and neighbourhoods. We concur that planning is a form of knowledge in action but choices over what counts as knowledge and how it is used and deployed are highly significant. In doing so, and to better secure citizen buy-in to the transformation of public space, we argue for an approach centred on co-design to counter planning orthodoxy that subverts people’s everyday needs to the paradigms and embedded routines of regulatory systems.Less

| | Introduction

in Grounds for Review: The Garden Festival in Urban Planning and Design

This introductory chapter begins by describing what garden festivals are and how they raise awareness of urban land issues and design. It then outlines the four stages of the festival process. First, ... More

This introductory chapter begins by describing what garden festivals are and how they raise awareness of urban land issues and design. It then outlines the four stages of the festival process. First, there is site acquisition and reclamation, including infrastructure development and the establishment of landscape design and site masterplan. The second stage centres on scheduling, marketing, publicity, and promotion. The third stage is the festival period itself, while the final stage involves festival closure and the dismantling of the site, the dissolution of the festival company and the sale of targeted assets. The discussions then turn to festival economics; sanctioning of festivals; the connection between garden festivals and local planning policies, festivals as exhibitions, and the impact of festivals on urban life.Less

Tradition in the Service of Modernity: Architecture and Urbanism in French Colonial Policy, 1900–1930

Gwendolyn Wright

in Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World

This chapter explores urbanism and architecture under French colonial policy during the period from 1900 to 1930, and discusses how urban design can be allied with power, relying on the support of ... More

This chapter explores urbanism and architecture under French colonial policy during the period from 1900 to 1930, and discusses how urban design can be allied with power, relying on the support of political administrators and using artistic skills to further political goals. It cites examples of French colonial architecture in the works of Le Corbusier, and concludes that the historical experience of French imperialism suggests the kind of questions one must ask when analyzing the intentions and effects of Western-sponsored urban reforms.Less

Urban Design, Planning, and the Politics of Development in Curitiba

Clara Irazábal

in Contemporary Urbanism Brazil: Beyond Brasilia

This chapter examines urban design and planning projects and processes in Curitiba, Brazil, which have been taking place since the 1960s. It discusses some political and institutional factors that ... More

This chapter examines urban design and planning projects and processes in Curitiba, Brazil, which have been taking place since the 1960s. It discusses some political and institutional factors that have facilitated the development of Curitiba's planning process, and some current urban governance and planning problems the city is facing. It argues that the institution of more effective citizen involvement in Curitiba's decision making is the way to relegitimize and continue the processes of urban design and planning that had such a brilliant start in the 1960s and a commendable implementation record from the 1970s to the early 1990s.Less

Reshaping the Metropolitan Territory: Contemporary Urban Interventions in São Paulo

Carlos Leite

in Contemporary Urbanism Brazil: Beyond Brasilia

This chapter examines the concept of contemporary urban interventions in São Paulo Paulo, Brazil. It analyzes the city's process of territorial transformation and the new possibilities for urban ... More

This chapter examines the concept of contemporary urban interventions in São Paulo Paulo, Brazil. It analyzes the city's process of territorial transformation and the new possibilities for urban intervention and design and discusses three recent complementary urban interventions. It also attempts to answers questions concerning the ability of urban design to rescue immense degraded historic areas without creating scenic simulacra and the management of wastelands in the context of urbanism.Less

Reclaiming City Image and Street Livability: Projeto Rio Cidade, Rio de Janeiro

Vicente del Rio

in Contemporary Urbanism Brazil: Beyond Brasilia

This chapter discusses the concepts behind Projeto Rio Cidade, an urban redevelopment program launched in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1993 to revitalize commercial corridors and neighborhood centers ... More

This chapter discusses the concepts behind Projeto Rio Cidade, an urban redevelopment program launched in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1993 to revitalize commercial corridors and neighborhood centers through urban design interventions. Despite in rapid implementation and unusual methodology, Rio Cidade has had positive results and repercussions in Carioca daily life. It has achieved four great improvements in city life and design. These include the consolidation of the role of public urban space in providing sites for recreation and socialization and the promotion of a “culture” of urban projects that revitalize and transform the urban image.Less

Ground Zero

Adrian Parr

in Deleuze and Memorial Culture: Desire, Singular Memory and the Politics of Trauma

This chapter examines how traumatic memory can impact upon the vitality of the urban landscape as in the case of Ground Zero using Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's concepts of smooth and striated ... More

This chapter examines how traumatic memory can impact upon the vitality of the urban landscape as in the case of Ground Zero using Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's concepts of smooth and striated space. It investigates what happens to the transcultural movement of an urban context once we begin to reduce that context to a problem of risk management, and discusses the security issues considered in the design of the Freedom Tower. The chapter contends that urban design has started turning things inside out a little more to distribute friendliness and imagine places filled with life in all its messiness, colour, taste, smelliness, complexity and restlessness.Less

Human–animal relationships in the urban wild

Seth Magle

in Anthrozoology: Human-Animal Interactions in Domesticated and Wild Animals

As our planet continues to urbanise, an increasing abundance and diversity of wildlife find ways to persist within cities and towns. I summarise general patterns of urban wildlife and also describe ... More

As our planet continues to urbanise, an increasing abundance and diversity of wildlife find ways to persist within cities and towns. I summarise general patterns of urban wildlife and also describe common interactions between people and wildlife in cities. Some of these encounters are very harmful, including property damage, transmission of disease, or attacks against humans or their pets. However, urban wildlife also have positive impacts on cities and urban residents, by providing ecosystem services such as pest control, and by inspiring a feeling of connection with nature. I discuss the implications of human attitudes for long-term coexistence between people and animals in cities, and point to areas for future research. As the biodiversity crisis continues to worsen, and as the planet continues to be modified by humans at an unprecedented rate, it is imperative that we make a place for wildlife within and near to our cities.Less

Alternative age-friendly initiatives: redefining age-friendly design

Sophie Handler

in Age-Friendly Cities and Communities: A Global Perspective

Chapter 11 identifies new and creative ways in which architects, artists and designers might be drawn into debates around age-friendly urban practice. The chapter describes the way in which current ... More

Chapter 11 identifies new and creative ways in which architects, artists and designers might be drawn into debates around age-friendly urban practice. The chapter describes the way in which current understandings of age-friendly design are limited and how an emerging field of socially engaged design practice can be harnessed to reinvigorate the terms of age-friendly debate and practice – drawing a new generation of designers into conversation with age-friendly policy. By redefining what we mean by age-friendly design, it becomes possible, this chapter argues, to expand and invigorate the field of age-friendly practice, enabling creative practitioners to engage with and creatively inform age-friendly policymaking.Less

The Vertical Cityscape in São Paulo: The Influence of Modernism in Urban Design

Silvio Soares Macedo

in Contemporary Urbanism Brazil: Beyond Brasilia

This chapter examines the influence of modernism in the urban design of the vertical cityscape of São Paulo, Brazil. It considers the isolated tower on a lot and the complex of towers in a block as ... More

This chapter examines the influence of modernism in the urban design of the vertical cityscape of São Paulo, Brazil. It considers the isolated tower on a lot and the complex of towers in a block as the hegemonic models that resulted from the Brazilian modernist paradigm, and discusses how they have configured São Paulo 's contemporary cityscape. It suggests that the approval of urban legislation regulating verticalization in São Paulo in 1972 influenced the city's spatial organization by generating ample and generous private open spaces, fostering construction of shared facilities in such spaces and encouraging the creation of corporate plazas while discouraging excessively tall buildings.Less

| | The Dutch Floriades

in Grounds for Review: The Garden Festival in Urban Planning and Design

This chapter discusses the Dutch international horticultural exhibition or ‘Floriade’. It explains how the exhibition has closer links to existing land-use planning policies than counterpart events ... More

This chapter discusses the Dutch international horticultural exhibition or ‘Floriade’. It explains how the exhibition has closer links to existing land-use planning policies than counterpart events elsewhere. The discussions cover planning in the Netherlands; Dutch Urban Park Design; the first Floriade, Rotterdam 1960; the Amsterdam Floriades, 1972 and 1982; the Zoetermeer Floriade, 1992; the Haarlemmermeer Floriade, 2002; and the future of the Floriades.Less

“Model of the Modern Urban University”: The New Spatial Form of the Chicago Circle Campus

Sharon Haar

in The City as Campus: Urbanism and Higher Education in Chicago

This chapter details the various architectural considerations and nuances behind the construction of the urban campus of the time—the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle (UICC), so named because ... More

This chapter details the various architectural considerations and nuances behind the construction of the urban campus of the time—the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle (UICC), so named because of its being straddled by the city’s railways. The university had realized the dream that was built upon the original Hull-House site by creating an urban microcosm that emphasizes the students’ individualities, celebrating the diversity thriving within; however, it had also failed to fully encapsulate the more intimate sense of community that had been the hallmark of the Hull-House settlement. The UICC cloistered itself like another of its predecessors—the University of Chicago—while at the same time rejecting the latter’s spatial and architectural precedents. This arrangement allowed for the intersection between the modern university and the modern city, which was quite indicative of midcentury American urban design.Less

Seen and Unseen: Ho Chi Minh City’s Sidewalk Life

Annette Miae Kim

in Sidewalk City: Remapping Public Space in Ho Chi Minh City

This chapter introduces Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s sidewalk life as an exemplar case in the midst of the current global foment where governments and people are searching for new ways to use and ... More

This chapter introduces Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s sidewalk life as an exemplar case in the midst of the current global foment where governments and people are searching for new ways to use and govern this important public space. This chapter outlines fundamental epistemological problems that have been hindering our exploration of this terrain of opportunity and conflict: old boundaries between social science, physical space, and urban design disciplines and conceptual dichotomies such as public/private and formal/informal fail to address the conditions of rapid immigration and urbanization while often introducing perilous urban planning interventions. The basis for the rest of the book, the chapter overviews an alternative theoretical framework for understanding public space that integrates both its physicality and social structure: a) a spatialized ethnography is needed to uncover overlooked urban populations and actual, situated spatial practices rather than assumed ones, b) a rehabilitated property rights theory which views public space in terms of socially negotiated and enforced entitlements and liabilities between property owners, police, street vendors, and the general public and c) a critical cartography that maps new knowledge about urban space.Less

Conclusion: Lessons from Contemporary Brazilian Urbanism

William Siembieda

in Contemporary Urbanism Brazil: Beyond Brasilia

This concluding chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the evolution of urbanism in Brazil. The results reveal that urban intervention projects have been used in Brazil to regenerate space ... More

This concluding chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the evolution of urbanism in Brazil. The results reveal that urban intervention projects have been used in Brazil to regenerate space and to open more opportunities to create and re-create the urban realm and that social inclusion projects were launched on the belief that government can use urbanism and the urban design process to respond to an existing territorial logic. The new towns of Brasília and Palmas demonstrate that modernism alone does not produce a better city; it simply yields a city with a distinct spatial structure based on formal principles.Less

Constructive Deviance: What Is DIY Urban Design? And What Is It Not?

Gordon C.C. Douglas

in The Help-Yourself City: Legitimacy and Inequality in DIY Urbanism

This chapter defines do-it-yourself urban design in detail. It does so first in contrast to existing social science perspectives (in sociology, criminology, art criticism, psychology, and critical ... More

This chapter defines do-it-yourself urban design in detail. It does so first in contrast to existing social science perspectives (in sociology, criminology, art criticism, psychology, and critical theory) on unauthorized urban space interventions more generally: place-based direct actions that challenge normative uses of particular urban spaces. It argues that DIY urban design is distinct in its intentions and its form. The chapter describes the process of inquiry and discovery at the outset of the research and initial observations. Definitions for other key terms, including informality and formality, are also given. Additional findings about the actions themselves and the people who create them flesh out the definition while introducing some points of distinction among types of DIY urban design activities. Three main categories of DIY urban design are described: spontaneous streetscaping, renegade renewal, and aspirational urbanism. The discussion raises many of the questions that guide the remainder of the study.Less