Contemporary Urban Planning Research Articles

INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL ISSUE 4 : 2017

This issue of Planning Malaysia Journal includes a mixture of articles addressing various issues in contemporary urban planning. Article 1 raises the question of whether green initiatives in educational institutions, especially universities, were successful in producing green graduates. A survey among green and non-green universities students showed that there is no significant difference in the level of perception, attitude and responsible environmental behaviour between green and non-green universities graduates. Thus, it suggests that students’ involvement in universities’ green initiatives should be increased.Article 2 discusses the impacts of street urban design on the perceived safety by women respondents. As women’s role in the cities becoming more pronounced, the authors suggest that streets and urban design should consider the safety of women so that street can become a safe and highly utilised public space. Article 3 looks at the factors affecting house prices in Malaysia in order to determine the alternative benchmark for Islamic home financing scheme. It shows that house price index are influenced by economic growth, demand for housing loan and construction materials. Article 4, in the meantime, compares the Islamic home financing schemes on offer in Malaysia nowadays, and suggest that there is a need for banks to move on from the Al-Bay Bithaman Ajil to Musharakah Mutanaqisah Partnership housing financing scheme.Article 5 looks how innovative management of natural resources leads to increased participation of the local community and improved revenue for rural businesses. These, in turn, motivates local stakeholders to continue preserving the resources. Article 6 examines the practices regarding food waste management in hotels in Langkawi. It found that there was a lack of emphasis from the hotels on their policy related to wastage of food and unsustainable food consumption pattern by their guests. This reflects on the lack of practices towards sustainable food waste management by the hotel sector.Article 7 identifies changes and threats to Malay landscape preservation in traditional Malays houses in Melaka and Kelantan. It concludes that threats to such preservation include inappropriate use of garden space, problems regarding house ownership, inadequate fund for maintenance, and current development trend that leads to traditional Malay garden setting being replaced by modern setting.Article 8 discusses the use of agroforestry approach to improve sustainability of oil palm smallholdings. Rapid development and expansion of natural forest into oil palm land has decreased the agricultural sustainability of Malaysian oil palm production. However, the article shows that sustainability of oil palm smallholdings can be improved through agroforestry, which at the same time was found to also improve income of the smallholders.

INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL ISSUE 4 : PLANNING MALAYSIA JOURNAL

This issue of Planning Malaysia Journal includes a mixture of articles addressing various issues in contemporary urban planning. Article 1 raises the question of whether green initiatives in educational institutions, especially universities, were successful in producing green graduates. A survey among green and non-green universities students showed that there is no significant difference in the level of perception, attitude and responsible environmental behaviour between green and non-green universities graduates. Thus, it suggests that students’ involvement in universities’ green initiatives should be increased.Article 2 discusses the impacts of street urban design on the perceived safety by women respondents. As women’s role in the cities becoming more pronounced, the authors suggest that streets and urban design should consider the safety of women so that street can become a safe and highly utilised public space. Article 3 looks at the factors affecting house prices in Malaysia in order to determine the alternative benchmark for Islamic home financing scheme. It shows that house price index are influenced by economic growth, demand for housing loan and construction materials. Article 4, in the meantime, compares the Islamic home financing schemes on offer in Malaysia nowadays, and suggest that there is a need for banks to move on from the Al-Bay Bithaman Ajil to Musharakah Mutanaqisah Partnership housing financing scheme.Article 5 looks how innovative management of natural resources leads to increased participation of the local community and improved revenue for rural businesses. These, in turn, motivates local stakeholders to continue preserving the resources. Article 6 examines the practices regarding food waste management in hotels in Langkawi. It found that there was a lack of emphasis from the hotels on their policy related to wastage of food and unsustainable food consumption pattern by their guests. This reflects on the lack of practices towards sustainable food waste management by the hotel sector.Article 7 identifies changes and threats to Malay landscape preservation in traditional Malays houses in Melaka and Kelantan. It concludes that threats to such preservation include inappropriate use of garden space, problems regarding house ownership, inadequate fund for maintenance, and current development trend that leads to traditional Malay garden setting being replaced by modern setting.Article 8 discusses the use of agroforestry approach to improve sustainability of oil palm smallholdings. Rapid development and expansion of natural forest into oil palm land has decreased the agricultural sustainability of Malaysian oil palm production. However, the article shows that sustainability of oil palm smallholdings can be improved through agroforestry, which at the same time was found to also improve income of the smallholders.

Constructing the Antiracial City: City Planning and Antiracialism in the 21st Century

This study asks: How does racism continue to shape city spaces in the 21st century marked by more subtle forms of new racism or antiracialism? This article performs a rhetorical analysis of the city of Cleveland’s urban planning documents from the early 2000s to explore how rhetorics of contemporary urban planning rely on a form of neoliberal racism or antiracialism to at once recognize race while eliding the relevance of racism in the construction of urban spaces. Three strategies—market logic, hegemonic memory, and multiculturalism—give appeal to the plan by giving voice to issues of race, diversity, and even urban inequality while filtering out the more complex issue of structural racism.

THE ENDURANCE OF THE MODERNIST PLANNING PARADIGM: THE FUNCTIONAL CITY IN CONTEMPORARY PLANNING IN MEDELLĶN, COLOMBIA

The Functional City principles steered the development of Latin American cities post WWII, but their influence in current urbanisation in LA has not been acknowledged or studied, due to the presumption by planners that contemporary planning operates within a very different planning paradigm to the earlier modernist one. In contrast, this paper argues that contemporary urban planning practices in Colombia are still dependent today on functionalist urbanism. Through a case study of three of the 28 approved Planes Parciales (sectorial plans) in Medellin, Colombia, based on primary data sources, I argue how the Functional City principles have been overshadowed by and formulated from a socio-economic perspective which creates discrepancies between local planners and academics regarding their application. This study contributes to a better understanding of current urbanisation patterns in Latin America. Furthermore, this study will invite reflection and public debate over questions such as: urbanization for whom/against whom and who decides?

An Investigation of Public Art and its Role in Increasing Urban Quality: The Case of Arayampathy Batticaloa, Sri Lanka

In this modern world, urban sculpture is considered as a cultural necessity in contemporary urban planning. Urban sculpture can reaffirm or reveal a sense of place in a symbolic and visually stimulating way of evoking some aspect of social, natural, cultural, physical, political, economic or historical context of the site and its locale. Typically, public artists produce site-specific sculptures and prominent installations that add character and distinction to a development and the surrounding neighborhood. After studying the city planning critiques viewpoints about public art’s definition, nature and impact on city, this study evaluates the role of urban sculptures as a type of public art in enhancing public place quality in the case study of Arayampathy town, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. The aim of this research is to explore how urban sculptures play a significant role to enhance the urban quality and urban character. This research was conducted through observations, photographic surveys, activity mapping, cognitive mapping analysis, interviews and discussions with those who live in the selected case study area. What resulted was that through having some possible qualities and public art features, city sculptures Arayampathy have the ability to improve the qualities like legibility, sense of place, and pleasure besides developing local people’s social interaction and local cultural identity.

Effects of spatial access to neighborhood land-use density on housing prices: Evidence from a multilevel hedonic analysis in Seoul, South Korea

Attaining a mixture and diversity of land use within walkable neighborhoods is an essential principle within contemporary urban planning and design. Empirical studies by New Urbanists argue that mixed land use, neo-traditional, and walkable neighborhoods yield socioeconomic benefits and generate a substantial premium in residential property prices. However, few studies apply reliable metrics to capture the connections among urban form, the spatial distribution of land use, and travel behavior and then value their combined effects on housing prices. To bridge this gap, this study calculates the metrics of spatial accessibility and centrality, combining street nodes, networks, and built density by land use type within walkable neighborhoods. We investigate empirically the extent to which residents value spatial accessibility and centrality to residential, commercial, office, and industrial space regarding housing prices in Seoul, South Korea in 2010. The multilevel hedonic price models used suggest that residents highly value urban settings that access larger volumes of commercial and residential buildings in densely spaced areas along dense street networks. However, homeowners respond negatively to higher access to industrial property and weakly to office space. This analysis identifies the value of spatial access to heterogeneous land-use density in housing prices and provides policy implications for land use, transportation, and urban design.

Forum: resilience & design

This forum aims to encourage theorists of resilience to engage more closely with different aspects of design theory and practice. The introduction outlines a series of largely unacknowledged parallels between resilience and design, relating to the valorisation of processes over states, the loss of faith in ‘planning’, the ambivalent status of boundaries and interfaces, and open-ended political possibilities. Four short reflections then follow on various design-related topics: the significance of the ‘wicked problem’ in contemporary urban planning and design, and the urbanisation of responsibility; design’s potential to repoliticise and engender new forms of responsibility; the significance of the digital interface and the condition of everyday life in the ‘unplanned’ post-colonial city. Readers are invited to build on or refute the explicit and implicit links made between resilience and design in the various forum contributions.

How is urbanism socially constructed? An examination of Japan’s post stations

This research explores the spatial and historical origins of urbanism typical during Japan’s Tokugawa period (1603–1868). Urbanism will be shown through three overarching thematic categories: natural features, built form, and the uses and activities of Tōkaidō’s post stations. Post stations (or shukuba) were towns and villages established at regular intervals for the convenience of travellers who often journeyed along the Tōkaidō great road. The intent of the research method is to act as a ‘prism’ to reveal the way of life, seen through the eyes of Ando Hiroshige’s Tōkaidō series of woodblock prints (ukiyo-e or the ‘floating world’). The results of the content analysis reveal the fundamental role of transportation/movement networks in sustaining the social and cultural vitality of the post stations and the alignment of this urban model with Green Urbanism, Transit-Oriented Urbanism and Urban Spectacle theories in contemporary urban design and planning.

Reimagining planning: moving from reflective practice to deliberative practice - a first exploration in the Italian context

This paper explores what can be lost, both theoretically and pedagogically, if we reduce “planning” to “plan-making.” Under conditions of political conflict and plurality, complexity and connectedness, a subject-centered theory of reflective practice should give way to a situated and relational, inter-subjective and learning-oriented deliberative practice. By exploring diverse planners’ practices in Italy, based on 31 grounded, practice-focused oral histories, this paper represents an innovation, in terms of method and theory, in assessments of contemporary Italian urban and regional planning. The innovation is in identifying significant issues such as relationship-building, joining expertise with political power, integrating top-down and bottom-up approaches, refining participatory intelligence systems, and assuring public accountability in the conduct of planning for further analysis, and it identifies topics, strategies and skills that planning educators can and should address as well. Throughout, we explore not formal legal issues but informal social and political characteristics of critically pragmatic and interactive, deliberative practices that will be resonant with experiences of readers and practitioners in many contexts.

International conference ‘Jane Jacobs 100’, Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture, 24–25 May 2016

Jane Jacobs has been a highly influential thinker in urban design and town planning debates for the past half-century. She authored publications that became classics in urban studies literature, such as The Life and Death of Great American Cities (1961) and Cities and the Wealth of Nations (1984), and left behind a number of pioneering studies on urban economics and the primacy of cities in states.In May 2016, Jane Jacobs would have had her 100th birthday. To celebrate this occasion, TU Delft and Erasmus University College Rotterdam in the Netherlands took on the challenge of organising a conference wholly dedicated to critically discussing Jane Jacobs's legacy and relevance for the twenty-first century. The organisers emphasised that this was the only academic conference in the world dedicated to Jane Jacobs. The conference attracted about 150 participants and was held in the marvellous buildings of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at TU Delft. Nearly 40 presentations were divided among six parallel tracks:* Ethics and the just city;* Street spaces: history, heritage and memory;* The dynamics of neighbourhoods;* The reshaping of old urban fabrics in Chinese cities;* Organised complexity; and* Safety in the public space.Aside from this broad range of topics around the ideas of Jacobs, keynote speeches, workshops and special events, such as a 'Jane's walk' through Rotterdam, completed the programme.Keynotes: 'becoming' and reinventing Jane JacobsThe conference opened with three consecutive keynote lectures - the most notable of which, for depth and accuracy, was Peter Laurence's opening speech. Laurence's opening presentation of his book Becoming Jane Jacobs constituted the perfect introduction to a programme whose value, in a genuine Jacobsian spirit, consisted of the quality and depth of exchanges among participants who - regardless of their world views and affiliation - recognise in the American thinker an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Laurence's opening speech was rich with anecdotes, analyses and interpretations of Jacobs's life and thoughts, from her early writings as 'city journalist' up to her most comprehensive contributions as a scholar. Through his contribution, Laurence set the perfect ground for a conference that remained faithful to what Jacobs embodied in both her intellectual production and her urban activism: that it is not the sum, but rather the integration, of people's ideas, along their lifelong development, that constitutes the basis for cohesive and creative transformations of both the city and how we think about it.Professor Dirk Schubert (HafenCity University Hamburg) made a plea for contextualising Jacobs's ideas in contemporary urban planning, and critically re-evaluating such ideas. This provided a framework for critically discussing the conference theme - the legacy and relevance of Jane Jacobs in the twenty-first century - instead of being just a celebration. It was the explicit aim of the conference not only to 'celebrate' the figure of Jane Jacobs as urban activist, but to explore and critically question the value of her intellectual contributions for both contemporary and future urban planning.Arnold Reijndorp, professor of urban sociology at the University of Amsterdam, was the third keynote speaker. He explored how critical reflections on the ideas of Jacobs should take place, by referring to examples from the Netherlands. These three keynote speakers complemented each other and set the scene for the other discussions throughout the conference.Academic, activist or a symbol of women's emancipation?On a not-too-marginal note, the three opening keynote lectures dedicated to Jacobs's legacy also caused a reaction by Delft University's students. In the main conference room, two rows of chairs sat empty and displayed the names of female scholars who had not been considered as possible keynote speakers. …

The well-tempered way of transcending disciplines and solving urban problems

No abstract available.

Geddes resurrected: The legacy of Sir Patrick Geddes in contemporary urban planning in Tel Aviv

The paper examines Sir Geddes’ impact on contemporary city planning in Tel Aviv. In particular, whether and in what way previous work by Geddes has influenced 21st century planners in Tel Aviv. The paper reviews those issues by looking at one of the most ambitious plans the city of Tel Aviv has generated in recent years—the 2015 “Northwestern Plan”.In the winter of 2015, the new plan was enacted. The plan aims to create a new residential quarter on one of the last remaining sand dunes. This represents an attempt to create a mixed-use extension of the 1925 Geddes Plan for Tel Aviv by establishing a new district filled with expansive boulevards, parks, and public spaces. While the municipal authorities regarded the recently enacted plan as a successful adaptation of Geddes’ urban vision, antagonists perceived it as a publicity stunt, designed to brand the new district. The article explores these arguments, analyzes the social, economic and morphological principles embedded in the new plan, and compares them to those employed by Geddes 90 years ago. The analysis reveals that the original plan compiled by Geddes still serves as a relevant commodity for city planners, and as an inspirational source. 21st century planners involved in enacting the new plan turned to Geddes for inspiration however it remains questionable whether his ideology, civic principles, and conceptual approach to the city were fully realized in the new plan.

The Festival Guest Timur Bashkaev

The article features the principles of architectural development and contemporary urban planning projects. It tells about the necessity to identify the city’s ‘growing points’, as well as about an innovative approach to the transport problem in Moscow. The article also discusses designing of a vertical, multi-level city and densification of urban environment. Different alternatives for enlargement of green areas are proposed.

Crime prevention aspects of public space renewal in Budapest

Purpose Security is one of the most important challenges for contemporary integrated urban developments. In Hungary, every strategic document highlights this goal, seeking social and smart city solutions to the problem. Yet, what about crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED)? The purpose of the paper is to introduce a Central-European perspective into the international discussion of the topic. Design/methodology/approach Focusing on European Union-funded renewal of public space in the historic city centre of Budapest, the research investigates how urban security can be facilitated through urban planning and design. The analysis of two projects based on design documents and interviews with actors highlights the importance of CPTED, although it is not recognised officially either in the development or in the management phase. Findings March 15th Square is an attractive contemporary public space in the tourist-historic city centre. The project was centrally planned, executed with typical EU indicators, but without any special requirements for security. The process resulted in a safescape. By contrast, the main principal for the renewal of Teleki László Square, the first Hungarian example of community-based planning, was to instil a feeling of security. The public square became a fenced defensible space. Practical implications The analysis method can be used for other projects evaluating changes in urban security due to public space renewal: history, requirements for security, design solutions for space division, materials and urban furniture, as well as use of space and management after the regeneration. Originality/value The paper uncovers Hungarian cases where environmental crime prevention criteria are not explicitly but implicitly present in contemporary urban planning and design. In relation to urban security, it highlights the gap that exists among disciplines, indicative of a lack of dialogue among policymakers, researchers, designers and management.

Links between urban structure and life satisfaction in a cross-section of OECD metro areas

Contemporary urban planning is often oriented towards encouraging compact cities and the prevention of sprawl. But relatively little empirical work has quantitatively examined how land-use fragmentation, population density and compactness determine individual wellbeing. We analyse the relationship between these aspects of urban structure and life satisfaction in 33 cities distributed across five OECD countries. We create a unique dataset merging a household survey on environmental attitudes and behaviours in these countries with geospatial data on a number of indicators related to urban structure. In support of standard urban economic theory, we find a life satisfaction trade-off in terms of households' home sizes and distances to the urban core. A novel finding from the analysis is that the degree of local land-use fragmentation around households' residence is associated strongly and negatively with life satisfaction. We also find suggestive evidence that city centralization (the relative proportion of the population living in the core) decreases life satisfaction on average for individuals residing both within and outside the core.

Introduction: crisis and renewal of contemporary urban planning

ABSTRACTSince 2008, cities in the Western world have been under stress due to pressures that have been labelled as the 'crisis' and its 'consequences'. Despite the fact that several years have passed, international planning debates have not fully highlighted what we have learned from this challenging phase. How and to what extent have these stresses and changes affected planning activities and knowledge? How are current reforms of national and local planning systems influenced by the crisis beyond its discursive appearance? How can we cultivate critical approaches and how can we pragmatically translate critical knowledge into practice during and after a time of crisis? This article outlines the broad questions that were addressed, under different perspectives, by the authors in the theme issue. The article serves as an introduction by, first, briefly reviewing relevant positions in the planning and urban studies debates and explaining the relationships between urban planning and the crisis; second, by presenting the papers in the issue and highlighting planners’ roles, responsibilities and relevance in the crisis and in subsequent phases; and third, by calling for closer attention to the current signals of crisis in planning theory and practice, as well as by considering new responses derived from research.

Pedestrian accessibility in grid layouts: the role of block, plot and street dimensions

Research on urban form and walkability suggests that on average smaller blocks are better for pedestrians. We explore how block sizes, plot dimensions and street widths affect pedestrian accessibility in regular grids. Pedestrian accessibility is captured by the gravity index, which is proportional to the number of neighbouring plots that can be reached within a given walking radius and inversely proportional to the travel costs involved. Pedestrian accessibility is measured for the original town plans of well-known US and Australian grids and compared with thousands of computer simulated grids, analysing how close the grids come to the theoretical maxima of pedestrian accessibility, given plot sizes and street dimensions. The findings show how dimensions of plot frontages and depths, street widths and block lengths affect pedestrian accessibility in gridiron urban environments. Block lengths have a non-linear relationship to accessibility and smaller blocks are not necessarily better for pedestrians. In many cases, larger blocks have greater pedestrian accessibility than smaller blocks, which might explain previous variable findings on the effects of blocks sizes on walkability. Though block lengths in most of the famous grids we investigate come close to achieving maximum possible pedestrian accessibility levels, some of them could provide users with as much as 12 per cent more accessibility if their lengths were optimized for pedestrians. The lengths of the Manhattan and Indianapolis blocks come closest to maximizing pedestrian access, given their original plot and street dimensions. We illustrate a few prototypical block sizes that maximize pedestrian accessibility and may be suitable for pedestrian-friendly subdivisions in contemporary urban planning.

The feasibility of introducing light rail systems in medium-sized towns in Central Europe

The article makes a case for introducing light rail systems in medium-sized towns and cities in Central Europe and analyses the feasibility of such a project. This is particularly important in the context of the paradigm of mobilities and the idea of sustainable development. Contemporary urban planning has yet to find a satisfactory answer to the question of how to diminish the negative consequences of individual transport without placing inordinate limitations on the natural human desire for mobility. It would seem that the increasingly negative effects of car use – for which bus transport provides no attractive alternative – are fast creating a need for a means of public transport that is not only separated from street traffic, but that is also effective and environmentally friendly. These requirements are met to the fullest extent by light rail systems such as trams, tram-trains and various hybrid solutions.

A Study of Islamic and Arab Markets' Role in Revitalizing Urban Spaces

<p>Market places have occupied a major role in most cities around the world, being a site for more than just economic interactions, but rather a cultivating agent for social and cultural growth. The Arab and Islamic cities have a proud history of market places, most of the times being the main core of the city, with urban development encompassing it, and till the present day market places are in the heart of most communities. The <em>modern city </em>brought with it a devaluing of the traditional market places, making it a tourist attraction as in the case of <em>"khan el Khalil",</em>or leaving it to rust like <em>"bab el louq" </em>market. Those markets while playing a big role historically, <em>modern city planning </em>moved the services and markets into other form, thus becoming less important, abandoned, or even demolished at cases.</p><p>The issue at hand deals with how the contemporary urban planning affected market places, with emphasis on <em>closed markets</em> (Bab el-louk)which can be said to be the successor of the ancient <em>Bazaar </em>or <em>Wekala</em>. Bal el-Louk market was once in the heart of Cairo and vital part of its community life, but now the market after more than a 100 years, is in ruins, but hope is not yet all lost, since the market can still be revived and revitalized.</p><p>To tackle this issue a combination of <em>comparative and field studies </em>must occur. On the one hand, comparative studies with <em>markets </em>in the US or closed markets in European cities such as Paris or Copenhagen would be done to find the necessary elements and goals that would make those markets vital, and the necessary steps to revitalize our own forgotten markets. The other study would have to deal with the current condition of bab el louk market in Cairo, finding out the reason behind its demise, the owners and users feedback on said market, and the opportunities for change.</p><p>With the results of the studies, general recommendations would be made for the <em>revitalization </em>of the Egyptian marketplaces, using an urban framework that would lead to those markets be available for costumers again and back to playing their major cultural and social rule.</p>

Rooting out mixed use: Revisiting the original rationales

Mixed use has become one of the most popular principles of contemporary urban planning. In the United States, its benefits are so commonly extolled that it is easy to forget that some hundred years ago, US experts advocated the opposite—the rooting out of mixed use from cities—with the same passion that we argue for it today. This paper reviews early 20th-century discourses on the perceived harms of mixed use. These discourses paved the way for land-use separation to become a key tenet of 20th-century US municipal regulation. Understanding the case against mixed use made by our predecessors calls into question the basic assumptions we inherited from them.