Contemporary Urban Planning Research Articles

Zgrada "Energoprojekta" u Beogradu arhitekte Milice Šterić - visoka moderna kao paradigma urbane konzervacije

In examining the urban heritage, which has often been fragmented in Belgrade as a result of different social and political circumstances, the issue of the choice of methodology is often raised in urban conservation. The present paper will propose to consider along these lines the role of high (second) Modernism in the architecture and urban development of Belgrade. The strategies of urban conservation focusing on the main issue of the synthesis of the historical and planned structure would be directed towards the Modernist phenomena which are established as a platform structure of the urban conservation of Belgrade's spatial cultural and historical units. The present research analyses the potential and possibilities of implementing the postulates of the Modernist creative efforts in the contemporary architectural, urban planning and conservation theory and practice, with the analytical basis in the seminal work of architect Milica Šterić (1914-1997) - the Energoprojekt building (1956-1960), located in Zeleni Venac Square in Belgrade. This study, which is based on certain aspects of the high Modernism, namely rationalism and neutrality, aims to point out a number of issues in the current globalist textualism, in which concepts of high Modernism and internationalism are evidently manipulated in the historical urban contexts of the city.

The Framework of Urban Planning in China in the 21st Century: A Discipline at the service of Building a Nation

The character of urban planning in China must be understood within the framework of the policies of the country's planning. In this context, urban planning is subordinate to the economic construction of the nation.The most eloquent image of this Post-Socialism scenario is the intense urbanization processes of cities. New residential areas, downtown and affluent business districts, industrial and technology parks, are its image. However, what is the planning framework, procedures and urban instruments that allow these processes? The political structure of the Chinese state centrallyand hierarchically directs this planning through its state policies and guidelines of the Five-Year Plans,and its sectorial implementation through the different ministries. However, a lack of integratedplanning leads to the duplicity of competencies, lack of coordination and divergence of objectives. Anew framework, the ‘duoguiheyi’, tries to alleviate this situation. The land regime and its developmentis an essential factor to understand the transformation and growth processes of cities, as well asthe entrepreneurial character of the local state. At the same time, contemporary urban planning asa discipline has a short history and a very recent legal framework that generates a lack of cases ofreference and adaptation to rapid urban dynamics. In some chapters, the city of Hangzhou will serveas an explanatory reference.

Smart Techniques in Urban Planning: An Insight to Ruled-Based Design

In the last decades, the ideology of managing the city form and performance through pre-determined plans has gradually lost its validity. Some contemporary urban planning theories suggest the application of smart design techniques for managing urban complexity. However, the proposed approach has partially been experienced in practice, and more research on how to integrate them into urban planning is needed. This study aims to present an insight into the rule-based design as a smart design technique for a shift from pre-determined urban plans to design rules. The methodology is based on a comparative analysis between the experiments of some cases in the north of Europe. Research findings highlight that the capacity to deliver variety with harmony, the distinction between the roles of code writer and building designer, the potential to support the implementation process and to prescribe specific qualities, both for the spatial and organizational purposes, are significant factors for the integration of smart design techniques to urban planning.

“Smart Is Not Smart Enough!” Anticipating Critical Raw Material Use in Smart City Concepts: The Example of Smart Grids

Globally emerging smart city concepts aim to make resource production and allocation in urban areas more efficient, and thus more sustainable through new sociotechnical innovations such as smart grids, smart meters, or solar panels. While recent critiques of smart cities have focused on data security, surveillance, or the influence of corporations on urban development, especially with regard to intelligent communication technologies (ICT), issues related to the material basis of smart city technologies and the interlinked resource problems have largely been ignored in the scholarly literature and in urban planning. Such problems pertain to the provision and recovery of critical raw materials (CRM) from anthropogenic sources like scrap metal repositories, which have been intensely studied during the last few years. To address this gap in the urban planning literature, we link urban planning literatures on smart cities with literatures on CRM mining and recovery from scrap metals. We find that underestimating problems related to resource provision and recovery might lead to management and governance challenges in emerging smart cities, which also entail ethical issues. To illustrate these problems, we refer to the smart city energy domain and explore the smart city-CRM-energy nexus from the perspectives of the respective literatures. We show that CRMs are an important foundation for smart city energy applications such as energy production, energy distribution, and energy allocation. Given current trends in smart city emergence, smart city concepts may potentially foster primary extraction of CRMs, which is linked to considerable environmental and health issues. While the problems associated with primary mining have been well-explored in the literature, we also seek to shed light on the potential substitution and recovery of CRMs from anthropogenic raw material deposits as represented by installed digital smart city infrastructures. Our central finding is that the current smart city literature and contemporary urban planning do not address these issues. This leads to the paradox that smart city concepts are supporting the CRM dependencies that they should actually be seeking to overcome. Discussion on this emerging issue between academics and practitioners has nevertheless not taken place. We address these issues and make recommendations.

The Case for Inclusion of International Planning Studios in Contemporary Urban Planning Pedagogy

The pedagogy of urban planning education should include an understanding of the growth and complexity of city development issues, especially the best ways to respond to dealing with current and future challenges. At the same time, the nature of the city that urban planners engage with continues to change, with one major challenge being the increasing growth of informal settlements. This paper asserts that an essential component of contemporary urban planning pedagogy is the inclusion of international planning studios and, importantly, studios which focus on major urban social and civic planning issues, such as informal settlements. The latter have been acknowledged as a major sustainable development challenge and are incorporated into the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To support this assertion, the paper outlines the case for international planning studios, reviews the literature on studios—including planning and international studios—and discusses the benefits and challenges of organizing an international studio grounded on embracing global development issues and learning objectives. This paper uses a case study of an international postgraduate Master’s degree planning studio, set within an informal settlement (kampung) in Indonesia, held annually since 2015 to illustrate the above. The latter studio is in collaboration between the University of Sydney and the Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB) University, Indonesia. The paper concludes with a summation for the case for international studios in contemporary urban planning pedagogy, including a set of principles that can be used by planning programs when designing an international planning studio.

The NER project: a vision of post-industrial urbanity from post-Stalin Russia

This article examines a Soviet visionary architectural project from the 1960s, entitled New Element of Settlement (Novyi Element Rasselenia, NER). The best-known architectural product of post-Stalin Russia is the khrushchevka, a small-sized apartment in a prefabricated building, that replaced the kommunalka, a communal apartment of the previous decades. However, Soviet architecture of that period was not limited to one brand of Khrushchev Modern. It was also a time of experimentation and active searching for alternatives to mass-produced urbanity. One such alternative was the NER project which proposed a diagram for future settlements of post-industrial, non-consumerist society. In this article, I argue that this project sought not only to significantly revisit contemporary urban planning and architectural grammar, but also to reconfigure society in line with the project of de-Stalinisation and the renewed aspiration to construct communism. In particular, I show that the project relied on an original understanding of the relationship between the individual and the collective, as well as on a specific interpretation of the function of leisure under communism.

Closed circulation loops in historic buildings. Cultural diagnosis as one of the major factors in a contemporary designer’s workshop

Abstract Sustainable development has now become an element that is deeply integrated in contemporary architectonic design and urban planning. With the development of a modern designer’s workshop, resilience, passive, ecological, plus energy or nZEB buildings and various smart city issues have to be included in line with more conventional analyses prepared during the design processes. Currently, we also face the emerging theme of the circular economy. This has a great impact, not just on the introduction of circular loops into the flow of building materials, but also on the design approach and management choices. Historic heritage buildings forming part of the building stock must be considered within this new theme. Most existing research deals either with new or modernised buildings, or with the re-use flows of various materials, actually often coming from historic buildings which have passed beyond the limits of repair. This paper shows a different approach to historic buildings where a design was prepared focusing on best choice cases and included a chain of several intertwining approaches, presented against the background of a Polish case study in Warsaw. The aim of this work is to propose a design management procedure to be used when dealing with historic buildings. It follows both the path of a circular economy and of heritage values, emphasising the need to maintain as much of the existing fabric as possible. This analysis is also based on various issues of site research and is followed by historic building case analysis.

Re-Inventing Underground Space in Matera

The site of Sassi in Matera originates from a troglodyte village that is believed to be one of the first human settlements in Italy. The structure reflects the progressive transformation of natural caves into closed caves for urban use, and over time has distinguished a complex urban landscape that can only be fully appreciated when observed in cross-section. During the 20th century, the demographic rise and the socio-economic decline of the area turned these dwellings into a socio-environmental disaster and the area was definitively evacuated in the 1960s. Since then, the underground settlement has been revisited and is now considered and valorized as a cultural site. Inscribed in the UNESCO list in 1993, Sassi in Matera is the current European Capital of Culture (2019). This paper presents a brief overview on the worldwide approach to historical underground artifacts within contemporary urban planning, followed by an analysis of the application of the recent classification for underground built heritage (UBH) to Sassi. The different levels of reuse that have been carried out in Matera during the last decades are examined with a particular focus on the difficulties in facing gentrification, and examples of possible remedies provided by “ethical conservation for architecture” that preserves the communication of historical functions are discussed.

Survey methodologies of urban land uses: An oddment of the past, or a gap in contemporary planning theory?

The primary objective of this article is to review the evolution of urban land-use survey methodologies during the last century, with a special focus on the methodologies concerning field surveys that are conducted for urban planning purposes. Our review reveals, on the one hand, that there has been a steep decrease of interest in the further development of these methodologies over the last 50 years, and, on the other, that they have been seriously trivialized, as shown by the simplistic and empirical approach to land-use survey methodology in contemporary textbooks. Next, the article explores three possible explanations of the contemporary situation: (a) there is no potential for further development of field survey methodologies of urban land uses, (b) urban land uses are no longer significant to the analysis and planning of urban space, and (c) technologies, such as remote sensing and crowd-sourcing geo-platforms, have rendered field surveys of urban land uses obsolete. The article concludes that none of the above explanations is true, thus there is an obvious gap in contemporary urban planning theory with regards to the survey methodology of urban land uses, and this omission has a strong negative impact on the potentialities of urban analysis.

Lodz – Metamorphosis of the River System

Political transformations which affected Central and Eastern Europe at the end of the 20th century opened up new transformation opportunities before its towns and cities. Poland, burdened with its geopolitical baggage, tries to keep up with contemporary trends in urban planning, which are the domain not only of Western European countries, but which are dictated by the need to secure the quality of living in towns and cities of the entire developing world. Transformations in riverside towns and cities, strongly connected with the development of the environmental policy, are particularly interesting. The growing significance attached to the co-existence of a natural ecosystem and an urban structure becomes one of the crucial factors deciding about the quality of life in the city, and consequently about its competitiveness. Amongst complex and broad topics concerning riverside areas in cities, the topic that becomes one of the most important ones is the recovery of lost watercourses. An analysis of relevant examples all over the world clearly points to a high level of impact of projects connected with the reconstruction or renaturalisation of urban sections of rivers. The paper is divided into two analytical parts. The first one presents the topic of recovering watercourses in the perspective of contemporary urban planning solutions and an attempt to identify crucial elements that influence the attractivity of the city. The second part focuses on an analysis of the development, decline, and reconstruction of rivers in Łódź. This analysis is to lead to an attempt to define a new image of Łódź as an eco-city, based on its reconstructed river system.

Playful civic skills: A transdisciplinary approach to analyse participatory civic games

Although civic participation is an inseparable part of contemporary urban planning, the civic skills needed for meaningful engagement in the planning process and the way citizens learn them are still controversial issues. Digital transformations establish thematic connections between hitherto separated disciplines like media and communication studies and urban planning around citizen participation. Using playful digital media as participatory tools is a recent development. The learning and engagement affordances of games suggest there is potential to enhance civic skills and build a deeper form of civic engagement. Building on theories of urban planning, media and communication studies, and game design, this study proposes an analytical framework for investigating game affordances to enhance and expand civic skills. The model enables us to recognise how different aspects of a game -mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics- can increase civic knowledge, expand expression and communication skills, establish new ways to join publics, and provide new spaces for taking civic action. This study analyses the case of a civic game, developed as a participatory urban planning tool in the Dutch context, and proposes the notion of ‘playful citizenship’ as a new civic engagement style in urban planning.

Toronto’s Smart City: Everyday Life or Google Life?

In August 2015, Google reorganized its various interests as a conglomerate called Alphabet Inc. Under the new umbrella, Google’s search, data aggregation, and advertising subsidiaries, were joined by Sidewalk Lab and its suite of urban products: high-speed broadband services, Android Pixel2 phone, mobile mapping, autonomous cars, artificial intelligence, smart homes, and all the data captured therein. The City of Toronto’s recent award to Alphabet’s Sidewalk Lab for design services has sparked a heated controversy among urban planners and citizens alike. Toronto’s decision not only signals a different model of professional practice, but it also represents a conceptual shift away from citizen to urban consumer. By engaging a private technology company, one that passively captures data on its customers and then re-sales that data to third parties, Toronto’s smart city points to a significant change in the understanding and practice of contemporary urban planning and design. Acknowledging the city as a site of disciplinary disruption, this paper introduces Bratton’s stack theory as a way to understand networked urbanism more generally, and Waterfront Toronto specifically. We build on Bratton’s position by closely examining twenty-first century histories and anthropologies related to the Internet, privacy, and the dominance of big data. Our principal concern is with the transformation of personal and environmental data into an economic resource. Seen through that particular lens, we argue that Toronto’s smart city has internalized relations of colonization, whereby the economic objectives of a multinational technology company take on new configurations at a local level of human (and non-human) information extraction – thereby restructuring not only public land, but also everyday life into a zone of unmitigated consumption.

Public land revisited: municipalization and privatization in Newark and New York City

ABSTRACT Public land plays a central role in contemporary urban planning struggles. Using a comparative case study approach focused on the north-eastern US cities of Newark and New York City, we uncover patterns of land acquisition and dispossession that fit five broad and often overlapping periods in planning history: City Beautiful, metropolitan reorganization, deindustrialization, and devaluation, followed by hyper-commodification in New York City and redevelopment amidst disinvestment in Newark. Through this periodization, we find that accumulation and alienation of urban public land has largely taken place through two modes of municipalization (targeted and reactive) and two modes of privatization (community-led and capital-led). Uncovering these complex and contradictory processes strengthens the case for a more intentional approach to public land than either city’s leadership is currently pursuing, but which social movements have persistently demanded – one which prioritizes democratic decision-making in long-term land management, as well as public access, use and purpose.

Contemporary urban planning: the importance and consequences of citizen participation in the processes and decisions about urban space

This paper contemplates on the importance of empowering local communities to develop urban interventions. One example of such importance is observed on the revitalization of a square of Passo Fundo, RS, Brazil, conducted through a public/private partnership. A survey of user satisfaction and behavior presents the appropriation of the square. Planning, design and urban management actions performed throughout a period of eight years boosted crucial changes in the neighborhood urban dynamic.

Urban Heritage as a Generator of Landscapes: Building New Geographies from Post-Urban Decline in Detroit

At this historical moment, the urban planning and design professions are confronted with the twin challenges of unprecedented rapid urbanization on the one hand, and declining post-industrial regions on the other. In this environment, there are many different and often conflicting ideas about urban heritage and its relevance for contemporary urban planning and design. In this paper, we look for commonalities and a way forward from among a range of competing urban design models. We examine the illustrative case study of the geography and landscape of Detroit, USA. We consider seven contemporary urban planning and design ideals that dominate the contemporary planning and design discourse and their different views of the past and urban heritage in relation to the approaches in Detroit. From these, we draw a synthesis approach, making several recommendations and observations with a focus on the capacities of so-called “placemaking” approaches. In this paper, urban heritage is understood and examined as contributing a pattern of infrastructure that provides a helpful supportive framework, and (importantly) a set of structural limitations (e.g., historic plot boundaries), that can serve as a generative resource for new urban planning and design. We conclude that the necessary framework for democratic participation and opportunity within urban space can be provided most directly by leveraging the assets of urban heritage.

Planning and Design Attributes of Preplanned Postmodern Capital Cities: A Comparative Study

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Collective self-organised housing, an opportunity for consolidating the Australian dream

ABSTRACTIn promoting urban consolidation, Australia’s strategic urban plans have the unintended consequence of reducing, if not eliminating, an individual household’s capacity to directly engage with new dwelling production. Contrasts exist between the production processes of a free-standing home, typically constructed to contract, and that of a multi-unit building, typically speculatively designed and sold off-the-plan. Hence, in providing a vision of higher-density urban communities, Australia’s strategic urban plans arguably contribute to a disjunction between the function of higher-density dwellings and the individual households who seek to call them home. The paper suggests successful consolidation of the Australian Dream advocated by contemporary urban planning policies, requires that future residents be provided with greater capacity to influence multi-unit housing design. It draws on literature from a diversity of international jurisdictions to summarise the benefits realised by collectives of households developing housing for their own use. In particular, it shows collective self-organised housing can support the objectives of plans promoting urban consolidation.

Visual structure of landscapes seen from built environment

Vegetation in cities keeps climate warming down and improves the health of people and ecosystems while making for a pleasant urban setting. Contemporary urban planning promotes sustainable green cities. Green and blue infrastructures, which help maintain an eco-friendly environment, are the primary instruments of this movement. This paper attempts to show the relative weight of plant life (trees, grass, orchards, etc.) seen from buildings in different urban settings (local urban patterns of high or low density of buildings). Landscapes open to view are identified by combining a digital elevation model and an 11-class land-use layer (including buildings, facilities, grey infrastructures, green and blue surfaces) in a computational tool that calculates viewsheds. The results show that vegetation is very much present in urban landscapes. In high-density built areas of city centres, the landscape is varied although not open and is dominated by trees, low-rise residential buildings and grass. Grey infrastructures and bushes are also very common. In low-density built areas the rank order of objects in view is similar but the landscape is more panoramic.

TIPOLOGI ATAP PADA ARSITEKTUR VERNAKULAR DI SUMATERA SELATAN

The development of new urbanism paradigm in the world today, has been reminded of the importance of vernacular architecture in urban planning.. It would be advantageous for areas with high ethnic diversity as South Sumatra. This study aims to inventory the vernacular house typology in South Sumatra. Methods of study is to examine the vernacular houses of all ethnicities in South Sumatra (29 ethnicity) plus two ethnic from neighboring provinces (Kubu and Lambak). The study found 18 different types of houses, and also found that the typology of the roof consists of a limas roof, pelana roof, and a perisai roof. The variety of roof reflects the high ethnic mobilization in South Sumatra. Even so, as a result of acculturation that occurs in these dynamics, the variety is found only on the shape of the roof, while the other part of the building does not have a clear marker of difference. Implications of the New Urbanism presented in the design of contemporary urban planning in South Sumatra.

The courtyard of boroughs of Western Serbia in the 19th century

The courtyard in boroughs of Western Serbia is a result of three sources of influence: planned urbanism, origin and activity of the population. The tradition, the rural background of the settlers, the way of economy and the annual income of the household, have gradually influenced the formation of the courtyard. In the development of the courtyards there are three phases: the stage of a village courtyard, the village boroughs phase and the borough's phase. The village courtyard occupies a large area, the house is in the center of the plot, the auxiliary facilities satisfy the economic activity of the household (crop farming, cattle breeding). The courtyards of the village borough contains a condensed surface. The agricultural character of production (mostly, but not the only one) affects the number and schedule of auxiliary facilities. The house is located on the border of the plot (on the road/street side). Due to the high price of the land, the plot has a small width towards the street and develops in depth. The borough courtyard contains a small number of facilities, and the agricultural activity is minimal. The activity of the population: crafts, catering and trade, generate new objects on the yard. The plot is divided into two zones: house, commercial or agricultural yard. Auxiliary facilities on the plot are located in two ways: along the side of the plot, and on the back side of the plot. The courtyard gives a character to the settlement. It is necessary to take into account the characteristics of the yard and preserve them through contemporary urban planning.