City's Urban Space Research Articles

A methodology for determining the city's urban space population

The article proposes a methodology for estimating population numbers based on data available from public information sources using an algorithm for processing and calculating geo-information remote sensing data, urban zoning, and demographic quantitative characteristics of the territory. The methodology provides detailed and accurate results. It is instrumental in conducting interdisciplinary studies in urbanized territories and serves as a basis for assessing the spatial and socio-economic development of urban and metropolitan areas.

Architecture as the art of creating human-friendly places

The public space of a city plays a special role in the life of every human being, as it meets basic and at the same time most important needs related to safety and comfort of life. It is a combination of an idea and a technique, which for centuries has reflected the changes taking place in people's social and cultural life. While the city is a multi-layered structure with a clearly separated private and public zone, creating mutual relations between the buildings. Camillo Sitte saw the city urban spaces as a work of art, które should be designed in such a way that the inhabitants feel safe and happy, as it is not just a show-off of technical skill, but an artistic undertaking. [1] The art of designing architecture does not exist for itself, but is created for the target audience. It provides a harmony that satisfies human needs and guarantees survival. It is an important factor influencing the development of an individual through the organization of a social living space. Urban spaces are primarily people and their needs that change over time. The first part of the article is devoted to the role of public spaces and the idea of the city as a work of art. The second part, in turn, is an attempt to define architecture as a kind of fine arts, taking into account the role it plays in the social life of Lublin's residents. The article is an attempts to emphasize the importance of architecture in designing a human-friendly environment as an art design that meets social expectations with the use of selected examples urban space of the city of Lublin.

Vida e morte de uma mulher pobre: agentes transformadores do espaço urbano?

Este artigo visa demonstrar a trajetória síncrona da vida de uma comunidade pobre de Recife e sua líder. Através deste relato, faz-se uma análise das transformações sociourbanas decorrentes da intervenção urbanística sofrida pela comunidade em 2010, das quais resultam inferências sobre a formação do espaço urbano da cidade e de suas relações com os pobres. Utilizou-se a História Oral como metodologia e as memórias e as histórias de vida dos ex-moradores como fontes. Foram utilizados os conceitos de “tática” e “estratégia” de Michel de Certeau para operacionalizar as análises. Este acontecimento pôs em movimento atores sociais, cujas ações e reações não são uniformes nem podem ser previstas ou controladas, mas “fabricam” identidades, deslocam fronteiras e continuam indefinidamente a cartografar a cidade no movimento incessante da história.

Whatever Happened to Dubai's Public Spaces?

As an ambitious city aspiring to become a major contributor to and player in the global world, Dubai often tends to be endeared to and affected by grand-scale urbanism and skyscraper skylines. The recent practice of architecture in Dubai is replete with examples of architectural monuments and miraculous constructions. Whilst the architectural feats required to raise grand structures for global branding and economic strategy are noteworthy, many other facets of urbanism also warrant adulation and exploration. One example is the narrative of human-scale urbanism—the pedestrian-driven places that put people at the center of the town. Due to its human-scale nature and morphology, the quotidian landscape, more than other existing settings, such as those modeled on “bigness” and dispersion successfully narrates a clear story about the essence of everyday urbanism: the nexus between the physical and the social, and the architecture and everyday life of the city's urban spaces. Life and culture in the UAE have evolved drastically, but in old communities where the quotidian landscape is still palpable, it has stayed the same—simple, open to everyone, and full of animation and affection.

方位にもとづく町名からみた横浜の方位観の生成

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the generation of Yokohama's aspect of direction through studying the relation of between the town name based on Yokohama's direction and the components related to natural, social-cultural or historical elements through analyzing generation pattern of relative and absolute direction. The following is the approach taken to study this matter: (1)Collecting data on the current town names of Yokohama and Extract/sort them according to direction. (2)To grasp how town names are made accordingly to direction, that is, the generation pattern in time. (3)To examine the generation pattern in space which are the relation of town names and urban space's components by visualizing the town name's spatial distribution and relations. (4)To consider the awaking generation pattern of Yokohama's aspect of direction on basis of the above. As a result, the following has been able to be made clear of: (1) There are 1370 town names in Yokohama. Of them, 194 are based on direction, 33 on UP-DOWN of relative direction, 99 on NORTHSOUTH EAST and WEST of absolute direction, 11 on CENTER/CENTRAL, 7 on MIXTURE, 44 on NO DIRECTION. Particularly there were 31 town names including EAST, and the number of combination names were 69. (2) Most of the town names based on absolute direction have rapidly increased since 1969. (3) We have visualized spatial distribution and relations as an arrow using Geographical Information System. As a result, 106 arrows/double arrows were able to be drawn, mostly along the Sakaigawa basin and the former path of Tokaido with most of them having small angular difference. Also, the lag difference between double arrows and the actual axis of four cardinal points of formerly Tachibana county, Kuraki county, Kamakura county are lagged counter clockwise while only formerly Tsuzuki county is lagged clockwise. (4) By combining generation pattern in time and space, we were able to make clear of the following 4 points. 1, The UP-DOWN axis along the Sakaigawa basin and the former main roads most notably the former Tokaido were assembled before the organization awakening of the city of Yokohama, which impact could still be seen as of now. 2, After the enforcement of the municipalism of Yokohama the reorganization of Yokohama as an city urban space that is conscious of NORTH SOUTH EAST and WEST axis is formed at formerly south Tachibana, county, north Kuraki county. 3, From 1939 and later NORTH SOUTH EAST and WEST axis is recognized at formerly south Kuraki county, Kamakura county, Tsuzuki county. 4, East, which is the direction the harbor is at from the areas where town names are named according to direction, can be seen to be particularly focused on.

Integrated urban design and open storm drainage in our urban environments: merging drainage techniques into our city's urban spaces

Flooding is the most common natural hazard in Europe. Cities cannot rely only on underground solutions which are expensive and inflexible. In order to reduce the negative impacts of flood, open and surface solutions play a key role in the efficiency of urban drainage systems. Utilizing the earth's surface as part of sustainable water infrastructure, also as powerful element for creating the space, adds multiple values to our urban environments. This article suggests a framework to increase the likelihood of turning the idea of flood resilient city to a best practice. The paper is clarifying the design principles. The target is turning a space to a functional place by applying drainage techniques in urban design, which requires robust local integration between the urban space and technical solutions. The study of storm water management in the Swedish and Dutch contexts was an important base for this formulation. Considering the important share of urban design in urban transition success, the paper is focusing on categorizing the required steps of flood resilient urban design.

Concept Of Revitalization Of Selected Military Facilities Of Dragoons Barracks In Olsztyn

Revitalization is a complex program to restore the functioning of the neglected urban areas in terms of spatial, economic and social. Revitalization activities on post-military facilities are stopping negative phenomena, such as degradation of space, social pathology or lack of proper functioning of the area, adapted to modern needs. The object of the work is to present some aspects with the revitalization of former military facilities in the area of the Artyleryjska Street in Olsztyn. The presented design concept aims to revitalize a neglected area of the barracks, which will enable the activation site and include it in the city urban space. The method adopted in this work is the architectural project of adapting selected post-military facilities for new functions, affecting the economic development and social integration of people.

Contesting Sustainability: ‘SMARTGrowth’ and the Redevelopment ofAustin'sEastside

AbstractThe compatibility between an agenda for sustainable urban development and the neoliberal economic restructuring of urban space has been observed within cities in developed countries across the globe. From providing economic support to local ‘green’ industries to creating bike lanes, municipalities develop sustainability strategies that are designed to boost their competitive advantage. Moreover, municipalities are responding to demands from popular social movements and national governments that seek to reconfigure societal relationships with the natural environment in cities. Cities are increasingly understood not as part of the ecological crisis but as part of the solution, or as places where alternative patterns of sustainable consumption and new socially and ecologically responsible industries can be developed. Over the last decade in Austin, environmental sustainability has become an uncontested paradigm that has progressively shaped the city's urban space and policy. Two competing conceptualizations of the environment, so‐called ‘environmental’ and ‘just’ sustainability groups, are explored in this article. I demonstrate how the notion of environmental sustainability has been selectively incorporated into the hegemonic vision of Austin's strategic growth plan. I argue that the dominance of this conceptualization is best understood by asking what counts as the ‘environment’ for environmentalists, and understanding the unstated assumptions about the environment shared by the business community and environmentalists.

A Perceptual Approach for Investigating Urban Space Diversity in the City of Doha

The city of Doha is growing rapidly with emerging urban nodes and centers, housing development. Little attention however has been paid to several growth aspects including the understanding of urban space diversity and the resulting inhabitants' spatial experience, their attitudes toward emerging urbanized spaces. Utilizing a perceptual approach in the form of an attitude survey, this paper explores urban spaces in the city of Doha as perceived and experienced by different groups. An investigation of a number of key urban spaces is undertaken through the identification of key urban nodes that are identified based on parameters that include density, commercial activity, and public accessibility. Spaces are examined from the perspective of Doha's inhabitants using 490 responses to a survey questionnaire. The results delineate that urban spaces lack key conditions amenable to creating urban diversity. Nevertheless, they corroborate the postulation that urban spaces are perceived and experienced differently by different groups based on their gender, age, and cultural background. The paper concludes with suggestions toward a more inclusive approach to the design of the city's urban spaces.

Re-centreing the city: Spirits, local wisdom, and urban design at the Three Kings Monument of Chiang Mai

Recent political events, such as the coup of 2006 or the ‘Red Shirt’ uprisings of 2010 underlined the divisions in Thai society between the provinces and the capital. As one of the world's most primate cities, Bangkok exerts a tremendous political, economic and cultural force upon the rest of Thailand. But how is such pressure interpreted, internalised and/or subverted? In this article, I look at Thailand's second-largest city, Chiang Mai, in Thailand's North, and the struggle to cure an increasing sense of urban crisis and thereby assert the former independent capital's symbolic authority vis-à-vis Bangkok. I examine this by looking at two specific discourses: that of architecture and spirit mediumship. Northern Thai architects attempt to cure Chiang Mai's ills through recourse to the ‘cultural heritage’ of the city's urban space, while spirit mediums call upon the sacred power of that space in order to restore Chiang Mai's ‘lost’ prosperity. The focal point for each effort lies at the city's centre: the Three Kings Monument and its surrounding plaza (khuang). Here, each group casts themselves as those most able to put Chiang Mai's past in physical form and thereby ensure Chiang Mai's future. In this article, I examine how ideas of cultural heritage become entwined with magico-religious concepts of power (sak). In each, there is a search for efficacious power in the face of political and cultural domination from Bangkok.

Everything in its Right Place? Drinking Places and Social Spaces in Mexico City, c. 1780–1900

This article examines how various drinking establishments figured in the delineation of social boundaries within Mexico City's urban space in the long nineteenth century. It explores the different spatial and social regulation to which pulquerias (taverns primarily selling pulque, a traditional fermented alcoholic beverage), vinaterias (taverns primarily selling distilled spirits) and cafes (establishments for the sale and consumption of liqueurs, wines, non-alcoholic beverages and food) were subject, within the context of broader processes of urban change and political change. The increasing segregation of more popular drinking places such as pulquerias and vinaterias into poorer, more peripheral parts of Mexico City and of cafes, as more elite social spaces, into wealthier, more central parts of the city contributed to the demarcation of social boundaries within Mexico City and conceptual boundaries of class within the imagined Mexican nation. Moreover, this article shows how various social actors, including proprietors and customers of popular drinking places, reacted to and negotiated with the increasing regulation of Mexico City's social space in the nineteenth century.

Gendered cities: women and public leisure space in the ‘postmodern city’

This paper focuses on women's leisure in city urban space. It draws on feminist discourses around ‘difference’ and cultural geography that explores public space as a gendered, sexualized and racialized arena. Empirically the paper discusses two case studies of women's leisure in the city: older women and ‘young’ mothers including a specific sample of South Asian mothers. The research suggests that although there is an obvious plurality of meanings attached to leisure and a plurality of sites where this takes place, thus providing evidence of the fragmentation of women's experiences, there remain a combination of structural factors that have varying influences on women's leisure opportunities in an urban context. The challenge for leisure studies is to complement its already multidisciplinary base by drawing on work that opens up the complexities of space, not merely in the recognition of ‘new’ lifestyles and the conspicuous consumption of leisure but also, as a site for the maintenance and reproduction of complex power relations, in this instance, primarily those of gender and ‘race’.