City Quarters Research Articles

Re-envisioning the Heritage: Towards Interpreting Mandalay’s Multi-ethnicity through the Lens of Old City Quarters

Mandalay is a multi-ethnic metropolitan city since the 19th century. Mandala symbolism is included in the city structure of Mandalay. In order to compete the Western power structure, Mandala was based in Mandalay’s city planning design which was planned in parallel with Yangon to go against the colonial power. It was quite transparent which ethnic groups were kept there, how they served the king and made cultural exchange among them and formed the national centre of cosmopolitan power and future multi-ethnic capital city. After the king was sent to exile and during the colonial period, these diverse cultural patterns were disturbed. It has undergone many changes since its creation, very slow and inappropriate ad-hoc developments after independence and only promoting the ancient Myanmar cultural heritage in past few decades. This paper highlights the multi-ethnic cultural heritages of Mandalay where Mandala symbolism is included in the the city planning concept. The unique Myanmar feature of Mandalay not only lies in its Buddhist and ritual believes, but also in its multi-ethnic groups’ rituals and meanings because of nearly 170 years of impermanence of different heritage of diverse ethnic groups. There are some parts still visible in daily fabric and activities. The paper concludes that the complexity of urban cultural heritage highlights that simple definition of urban identity does not make sense for Mandalay. Capturing Mandalay’s ethnic complexity is beyond the range of a single short paper. In this paper we will limit our discussion to a focused discussion of Islamic, Thai, Chinese, Christian and Manipuris and Assamese communities. Mandala’s cultural exchange was transparent and there are still the possibilities to be so in 2023 landscape.

Climate and disease in historical urban space: evidence from 19th century Poznań, Poland

Abstract. This study examines the relationship between temperature levels and precipitation amounts as explanatory variables for the probability of death due to waterborne and airborne diseases in historical urban space. To date, the literature has not focused on the climatological epidemiology of 19th century Polish urban areas. We used individual mortality data from Poznań parish death registers between 1850 and 1900. Each deceased individual was assigned average monthly temperature values and precipitation amounts in the month of death, LAG1 (1-month-lagged) temperature and LAG1 rainfall, and place of residence. We studied the relationship between weather conditions and mortality using formalized statistical models reflecting the discrete nature of the response data (via multinomial logistic regression). Lagged monthly average temperature levels and lagged monthly average precipitation amounts were better predictors of airborne and waterborne disease mortality than the concurrent (non-lagged) monthly averages. The lagged effects of temperature and precipitation on waterborne and airborne diseases were significant (except for the smooth lagged average monthly temperature effect for airborne diseases). There was also significant spatial heterogeneity (differences among city quarters) in the prevalence of deaths due to waterborne and airborne diseases.

THE PROCESS OF FORMATION OF THE JEWISH SUBURBAN QUARTERS IN LVIV

nderstanding of formative and historical processes is basic for the comprehensive approach to the regeneration of historical city quarters, those of the ancient Jewish ghetto of Lviv in particular. According to archaeological and scientific urban studies, theneighbourhood started its development as part of the princerly “posad”, having an ancient Volyn road trading route as one of its forming factors (which survives to this day). Through the centuries jewish community has organically grown here, forming a unique ensemble of residential, religious and public buildings which naturally integrated in the spatial-planning structure of the city as it grew. One of the most prominent structures was the Great Suburban Synagogue (XVI cent.) which was the centre of ghetto’s life and spatial structure. Degradation of historical urban matter of the ghetto was caused by the tragedies of WWI and WWII, which also obliterated ghetto’s social basis and absence of any further practical and public re- consideration for the spatial-planning and historic background of the neighbourhood. Today, most of its blocks have remained a gray zone in the structure of the city center for more than 70 years. Disregard for the ghetto’s formation history and cultural background resulted in inconsistency of realised development approaches and interventions and general public unawareness of the district’s role in the history of the city. The author conducts research and visualizes the characteristic stages of the ghetto’s development, as well as the formative factors that determined it, taking 3 neighbouring historical quarters within its bounds as a basis for study. With this work, author aims at During the research, on-site study and measurements were performed, archival materials and historical iconography were analyzed, modern research works on the history of Lviv and Halychyna were analyzed too, and the obtained information was summarized. As a result, development of the historical quarters of the Jewish suburban district was characterized and structured from princerly times to present day while highlighting the quarters’ architectural and spatial-planning value.

Zloupotreba dece i mladih u romanu „Bogorodica plaćenika“ Fernanda Valjeha

On the basis of the theory of the novela sicaresca, this paper depicts the figure of the sicario (young assassin) in the novel Our Lady of the Assassins written by the Colombian author Fernando Vallejo. The figure is the symbol of the abuse to which chil- dren and young people in Colombia were exposed during the 1980s and 1990s. The paper implies that sicarios are both products and victims of socio-political circumstances in Colombia. It is emphasized that young hitmen come from marginalized social strata; therefore, they were suitable for becoming victims of manipulation and exploitation. Children com- ing from poor city quarters were deprived of love, attention, and care, which pushed them to grow up too quickly. Craving for money, they enter the world of crime, which nullifies their primordial innocence and purity. By entering this world, children become deprived of their basic human rights: the right to freedom of thought, speech, education, and existence. They become mere henchmen condemned to premature death. It is concluded that with the tragic death of a minor hitmen, Vallejo shows that in Colombia ruled by drug lords there is no (bright) future.

Micro-Museum Quarter as an Approach in the Culture-Led Urban Regeneration of Small Shrinking Historic Cities: The Case of Sombor, Serbia

Demographic and economic shrinkage has become a common trend in the current urbanisation environment, especially for small cities in developed countries. The desired socio-economic redevelopment of these cities has been significantly affected by the functional, organisational, financial, and professional constraints caused by both shrinkage and city size. Paradoxically, this slow development has enabled better preservation of their historic cores, urban heritage, and traditional culture. Nevertheless, the aforementioned local constraints have a profound impact on sustainable urban regeneration, and successful examples are still quite rare. This research presents an inspiring case—a small museum quarter in Sombor, Serbia. Museum quarters are a relatively new concept in culture-led urban regeneration; all known examples are located in big cities. Hence, this research tries to create an innovative methodological link between two theoretical fundaments: the role of cultural heritage in shrinking small cities and its expression through a museum quarter as one of the concepts of culture-led urban regeneration. An analytical framework for the aforementioned single case study is derived by forming this link. The main findings underline that the museum quarters in shrinking small cities should be developed in a micro-format to rationally address and the limited local resources. Furthermore, in contrast to museum quarters in big cities, they should be physically detached from the main retail street to enhance their separate identity and should be internally balanced in both spatial and functional aspects, meaning that the key museum/cultural institutions are equally dispersed throughout the quarter and clearly interconnected by a pedestrian-friendly open public space.

Automatic thermal model identification and distributed optimisation for load shifting in city quarters

ABSTRACT Buildings with floor heating or thermally activated building structures offer significant potential for shifting the thermal load and thus reduce peak demand for heating or cooling. This potential can be realised with the help of model predictive control (MPC) methods, provided that sufficiently descriptive mathematical models of the thermal characteristics of the individual thermal zones exist. Creating these by hand is infeasible for larger numbers of zones; instead, they must be identified automatically based on measurement data. In this paper an approach is presented that allows automatically identifying thermal models usable in MPC. The results show that the identified zone models are sufficiently accurate for the use in an MPC, with a mean average error below 1.5 K for the prediction of the zone temperatures. The identified zone models are then used in a distributed optimisation scheme that coordinates the individual zones and buildings of a city quarter to best support an energy hub by flattening the overall load profile. In a preliminary simulation study carried out for buildings with floor heating, the operating costs for heating in a winter month were reduced by approximately 9%. Therefore, it can be concluded that the proposed approach has a clear economic benefit.

Sustainable urban development of mobility and streetscape in historic city quarters, an ancient street in Alexandria - Egypt, as a case study

A historic urban district is a quarter built many years ago and contains valuable memories over a limited area with narrow streets for pedestrians, primitive transportation, and outdoor activities. Over the years, many districts have been growing randomly, and motorized transport has enlarged significantly and created severe problems. Improving the situation needs heritage protection and sustainable mobility development on its streets. The desired mobility focuses on managing travel demands, accessibility for all street users, and enhancing the environment. This research presents a proposed approach with an application framework for sustainable mobility development on historic roads according to its current conditions at the strategic level. It includes sequential phases to define desired goals, formulate and evaluate planning scenarios containing different action measures based on sustainability indicators and application of micro-simulation. In case of inappropriate evaluation results, approach phases allow the modification and re-evaluation of additional measures until deciding an acceptable solution. The application is limited to Ras El-Teen Palace Street, prominent in the ancient El Gomrok district, Alexandria and restricted to a Do-Nothing solution and a planning scenario. The application proves the approach's practicality and feasibility by improving traffic behaviour. Furthermore, the planning approach can indicate technical recommendations for further improvement.

Crises

One British publishing company has chosen ‘permacrisis’ as the word of the year for 2022. In fact, the crisis has been permanent for the time longer than one year. Over the last few decades, crises have become so integrated into our lives that they look like a familiar and permanent backdrop. Crises of all kinds succeed one another: economic, epidemiological, ideological, political ... But in spite of everything, life goes on and the end of a difficult year was brightly coloured by regional conferences, governor’s prizes (14–22), glorious anniversaries and accompanying magnificent exhibitions (8–13) in the field of architecture.The first part of the issue’s main section is devoted to different kinds of crises: complex, professional, energy and climate ones. Crisis phenomena are found even in the sphere of toponymy and architectural details. Paradoxically, any crisis is also a window of opportunity, and this is the focus of the second part of the issue’s main section.The issue about crises would not be complete without the heritage section. Despite the devoted work of restoration architects (14), researchers of the history of regional architecture (120–160) and certain achievements in comprehensive regeneration of quarters in Russian cities, heritage has firmly stuck in permanent crisis, and the “protected by the state” signs often don’t calm down, but rather provoke rejection because of their discrepancy with harsh reality.

Optimizing the safety of residential quarters in China's compact cities: A safety systems engineering approach

Choosing a place to live demands critical consideration of economic, social, transport and preferred lifestyle factors. Internal and external safety risks that may jeopardize people's safety and incur losses of life and property are besetting some residential quarters. This study aimed to establish an optimal safety system for China's compact cities by evaluating the risk factors comprehensively and proposing targeted measures to improve safety. Based on the current research and safety accident data, a model of the human-machine-environment system was developed for residential quarters. Fault Tree Analysis was used to identify the risk factors. The optimal safety system was constructed using System Dynamics to provide theoretical guidance to bring improvement. A case study was enlisted to generate empirical results to validate the proposed system. Qualitative analysis using geographic information system software and quantitative analysis using Grey Comprehensive Evaluation rating based on the entropy weight method yielded a score of 0.70 out of 1.00. Equivalent to the good level, the results confirmed the fulfillment of safety requirements with room for optimization by applying the new system. Analysis of weaknesses was accompanied by specific recommendations to remedy shortcomings and refine practices. This study contributes to the literature by analyzing a broad range of risk factors and employing IT and quantitative techniques to develop a feasible and practical safety system for residential quarters. The findings enhance the understanding of risk control in residential quarters, provide a systematic method to assess management efficacy, and inform the authorities to optimize safety management.

Prevalence of IBS and its relationship to vitamin D deficiency in Al- Nasiriyah city, Iraq

Objective: To learn how common irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is in the city of Al-Nasiriyah and whether or not this disorder is linked to a lack of vitamin D. Methodology: This cross-sectional study included 396 patients based on Raisoft online application's population size. Patients were randomly enrolled from July to December 2022 at three outpatient clinics in various city quarters. Study factors were age (years), gender, family history of IBS, smoking, place of residence, marital status and vitamin D level. Results: We found that 56.06% patients had deficiency of vitamin D while 39.65% had insufficiency of vitamin D. We noted that 18.18% had mixed IBS while 15.15% had unclassified IBS,13.38% had constipation and only 7.58 had diarrhea. There was significant association between Vitamin D level and place of living. Females had significant deficiency in vitamin D level (59.6%) and 50.7% and 45.1% cases of IBD had deficient and insufficient, respectively. Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency is common. Most urban patients’ features were mixed IBS, unclassified IBS, or constipation, and vitamin D insufficiency. Vitamin D insufficiency was higher in women. Most IBS patients were deficient or insufficient.

Comparative analysis of Jewish heritage tourism research methods

Jewish heritage tourism is a relatively new form of niche tourism which appeared in Europe in the 1990s, because of a renewed understanding of cultural and historical values of Jewish heritage. By its inclusion in tourism, Jewish heritage has become a visible component in destinations, which has led to the renovation of synagogues, opening of Jewish museums, organization of festivals, and also to the gentrification of neglected Jewish quarters in many European cities. The goal of this paper is to analyse the most common methods, selection of stakeholders, elements, research locations and spatial scope used in studies of Jewish heritage tourism. The analysis includes 28 scientific papers from databases and focuses on the research methods used in those papers. The results show that the most common methods used in studies of Jewish heritage tourism are content analysis and interviews. These methods have proven to be suitable for determining the state and representation of Jewish heritage in each destination, while for a higher level of integration of Jewish heritage in tourism, other methods are more appropriate.

»Learning from Las Vegas« Tianjin!

Abstract From the perspective of architectural research, globalization is often reduced to a merely recent phenomenon of construction firms and star architects operating worldwide today. This article argues for a global architectural history that examines the globally effective processes of exchange and circulation of capital, labor, and the increasingly unified standards of form, style, and material in building practice from a historical perspective as well: architectural globalization, therefore, can also be traced back, among other constellations, to a phase of an entanglement of the world that coincided with the height of European imperialism and colonialism around 1900. As a case-study serves in this essay the International Concession (Settlement) of Tientsin in China, where between ca. 1860 and 1945 altogether nine imperial powers from Japan, Europe (also the German Empire) and the USA developed their trading posts as veritable city quarters with representative architectures. Irony of history back-translated into present times: Today, these urban and architectural fragments from imperial pasts are being appropriated as an integral part of a veritable cultural heritage industry in which China itself, with the megacity of Tianjin, is now presenting itself as a global player, not least in the means of architecture and urban planning.

Administrative law tools regulating high-rise construction in historic city districts: Ukraine and Germany

Historical quarters in cities are a living embodiment of people’s culture and their collective memory, which preserve their heritage and past achievements. Urban identity depends on meeting the current needs while preserving the past. At the same time, urbanization exercise pressure on most countries, therefore they require updating administrative law regulation tools capable of protecting the identity of the rich national heritage. The aim of the article was a comparative legal analysis of the realities and prospects of preservation of historical districts of cities in the context of the practice of administrative law regulation of Ukraine and the Federal Republic of Germany. The methods of comparative legal analysis and observation were the leading methodological tools. The research revealed specific physical, socio-economic, and socio-cultural factors of urbanization, which caused noticeable and significant changes in the features of the administrative law tools that regulate urban planning. It was established that the widespread German concept providing that every planning act of a lower-level body must take into account certain mandatory provisions established by the acts of higher-level bodies is gradually being tested in Ukraine. It is substantiated that the armed aggression of the Russian Federation forces Ukraine to take further actions to build new safe real estate objects and preserving historically significant buildings that were damaged by war. In this context, the national administrative law tools that regulate urban planning in Ukraine will also be transformed. The vector of further scientific research will be a comparison of the practice of implementing administrative law tools that regulate urban planning in terms of post-war reconstruction in the selected states.

Urban Accessibility in World Heritage Cities. Accessibility Considerations in Pedestrian Routes in Historic City Centres.

In Spain, fifteen cities have been declared World Heritage Cities by UNESCO. This implies a responsibility to conserve all the heritage wealth of these places. However, what is the point of heritage if it cannot be known and visited? In order to be able to do this for all people, in equal and inclusive conditions, it is essential to consider Accessibility and Universal Design principles. This is a challenge that requires a personalised study in places that were precisely built with the idea of being inaccessible. In particular, the study of the urban fabric and pedestrian itineraries are the determining spaces that this article develops. The aim of this study is to determine the keys and possible guidelines for the definition of urban accessibility indicators in the routes of historic city centres. For this purpose, significant routes have been sought in historic centres from the accessibility point of view: areas of high pedestrian traffic (in many cases for tourist reasons). Thus, six of the fifteen historic quarters of the World Heritage Cities in Spain have been selected for the study, with examples of good accessibility practices and difficulties that can be identified in their itineraries. For this analysis, an initial study of the existing documentation on the subject (secondary information sources) is carried out, in addition to a direct analysis (primary information source) of the graphic documentation compiled in each of these places. Subsequently, a complementary analysis will be made of some examples of good practice in pedestrian routes in historic city centres in cities in other countries. On the basis of this preliminary analysis, a comparison will be made to establish common points and singularities among the different case studies first, and then with other cities. This diagnosis provides results that are identified as "keys to consider in the intervention on pedestrian routes in historic centres". These keys not only address issues of mobility, but also location, orientation, understanding, etc., thus addressing a holistic consideration of accessibility as a fundamental principle for all people, and in particular for the elderly sector, which is one of the groups that is clearly growing and which, without necessarily having to have a severe or recognised disability, needs an accessible environment that is easy to use. As a main conclusion, it can be said that the results of this study do not only have an internal application for these cities but can be perfectly extrapolated as a basis for the elaboration of specific indicators for any historic city centre in any city in the world, considering the necessary adaptation to the specific characteristics of each city.

Research on Activation Design of Street Leftover Spaces on the Main Island of Macao Based on Industry 4.0 and Propagation Models

Space has become a driver not only for knowledge, inspiration, cooperation, and policymaking, but also for high-end technology integration into the manufacturing domain. As the high-density city quarters, the Macau Peninsula carries multiple functions via its public outdoor spaces, and they are of vital significance. Closely intertwined with Industry 4.0 is therefore the next industrial revolution that is already showcasing the benefits of increased connectivity, intelligence, and flexible automation. The rapid urbanization of Macao was not guided by sound land use planning, induced the scattering of many negative spaces on narrow streets. Because of their irregular shapes and utilization difficulties, these spaces gradually become leftover spaces. A number of measurement-based street leftover spaces models have been developed over the years by researchers as well as standards bodies to model path in typical wireless environments. In this paper, the streets of Macao are analyzed based on the city characteristics. The pedestrians and spatial relationships are investigated via space syntax and SPSS regression fitting. Finally, activation design of street leftover spaces is conducted, for making better use of leftover spaces, compensate for the functional deficiencies of streets, and endow them with more vigor and vitality.

Using the dendro-climatological signal of urban trees as a measure of urbanization and urban heat island

Using dendroclimatological techniques this study investigates whether inner city tree-ring width (TRW) chronologies from eight tree species (ash, beech, fir, larch, lime, sessile and pedunculate oak, and pine) are suitable to examine the urban heat island of Berlin, Germany. Climate-growth relationships were analyzed for 18 sites along a gradient of increasing urbanization covering Berlin and surrounding rural areas. As a proxy for defining urban heat island intensities at each site, we applied urbanization parameters such as building fraction, impervious surfaces, and green areas. The response of TRW to monthly and seasonal air temperature, precipitation, aridity, and daily air-temperature ranges were used to identify climate-growth relationships. Trees from urban sites were found to be more sensitive to climate compared to trees in the surrounding hinterland. Ring width of the deciduous species, especially ash, beech, and oak, showed a high sensitivity to summer heat and drought at urban locations (summer signal), whereas conifer species were found suitable for the analysis of the urban heat island in late winter and early spring (winter signal).The summer and winter signals were strongest in tree-ring chronologies when the urban heat island intensities were based on an area of about 200 m to 3000 m centered over the tree locations, and thus reflect the urban climate at the scale of city quarters. For the summer signal, the sensitivity of deciduous tree species to climate increased with urbanity.These results indicate that urban trees can be used for climate response analyses and open new pathways to trace the evolution of urban climate change and more specifically the urban heat island, both in time and space.

Micromobility, Macro Goals: Aligning scooter parking policy with broader city objectives

Dockless electric scooters challenge cities seeking to regulate them amidst broader goals such as universal access. Cities are particularly concerned with improper scooter parking, which can impede access by other travelers. Despite an important role that scooter parking plays in both regulations and public discourse, no comprehensive view of current scooter parking regulations exists, nor is it clear how regulations align with broader city objectives. This research asks: how have U.S. cities regulated scooter parking to date and what issues do parking regulations aim to address? Data from 37 U.S. cities show that while areas of widespread agreement exist—nearly all (95%) cities allow scooters to park in the furniture zone—a wide range in scooter parking requirements exists. About three quarters of cities allow scooters to park at bike racks (78%) and against buildings (70%), while fewer than two-thirds allow scooters to park either on landscaping (62%) or against signs (60%). Even among cities with similar regulations, however, considerable nuance exists. Interviews with staff from six U.S. cities and existing research highlight motivations for scooter parking regulations. The regulations employed—and the high degree of variability across cities—yield implications for scooter parking policies, as well as scooters’ role in advancing broader city objectives. Scooter parking regulations play an important role in access, but cities should approach regulations as just one piece within a broader agenda of reclaiming streets for people and promoting mobility, sustainability, and access for all.

Comparative Life Cycle Assessment on City Quarter Level – A Case Study of Redensification

The German and European climate action programs and the ongoing discussion of resource efficiency require an in-depth analysis of the building sector, especially with the background of the German refurbishment backlog and high energy demands of the German building stock. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on the city quarter level allows fast and efficient evaluation of environmental impacts, emissions, and energy demands of densification in urban areas. This study presents LCA results for a specific urban city quarter. Thereby environmental and energetic values for specific building ages are developed and used to conduct LCA for the building construction and technical building services components. A 3D city model in CityGML-format of residential buildings serves as the basis for assessment. The results can be used to identify decisive drivers of energy demands and emissions and the saving potentials of different building development scenarios.

THE TRADITIONAL ARAB ISLAMIC CITY: THE STRUCTURE OF NEIGHBORHOOD QUARTERS

This paper is concerned with the structure of quarters in traditional Arab Islamic cities. Previous studies have stressed the idea of an urban structure that corresponds to social groupings, in that it is seen as a collection of neighborhood quarters. This spatial model has often provided the rationale for the design of new housing layouts. The purpose of this study is to examine this issue and to argue that the structure of these cities presents a global whole. To achieve this purpose a general and a specific question are addressed. The general question is about the physically sub-areas within the city, and the specific question is about the issue of social groupings and the kind of relation that space has to society. The proposition thus invokes the idea of a physical structure which appears to correspond to a social pattern. The city of Damascus is used as a model of analysis in which the urban structure is described and characterised. The argument is advanced that the traditional Arab Islamic city has a sub-area structure which is historically generated, but whose morphological combination is fine-tuned and adjusted so that the whole comes to dominate and unify the parts.

A\xa0holistic approach to model electricity loads in cities

Time-resolved, occupancy-dependent electricity load profiles at building level for city quarters or entire cities are important for planning authorities, project developers, utilities or other stakeholders in order to develop energy saving strategies and meet climate targets. Firstly, this information enables a more accurate modelling of renewable energy systems. Secondly, aspects like sector coupling, storage decisions and the impact of technologies such as electric vehicles or heat pumps on the grid can be considered. Thirdly, it allows a more detailed economic analysis. This paper contains the newly added features to the simulation environment SimStadt, which is used for strategic modelling of sustainable urban or regional areas with a spatial resolution at the building level. SimStadt interlinks 3D CityGML models with parameters for buildings physics to simulate energy demands and renewable energy potential. It was enhanced by the development of an electricity load profile generator with variable resolution and the addition of an hourly resolved PV potential analysis including a variable economic analysis. This enables e.g. the evaluation of photovoltaic potential with the associated investment, operating and levelized costs over the lifetime of hundreds of individual buildings in parallel. Together with additional electric building demand from heat pumps, electric vehicles or load shifting options through the use of battery storage, it will be possible to assess and compare the feasibility, benefits and economic viability of energy/electricity-related urban renewal measures in even greater detail and with a holistic perspective. The simulation platform enables the development of granular sustainable urban (sub)strategies and energy concepts through a holistic, time-resolved, building-specific approach to support transformation of the building stock to a sustainable, low-carbon one.