Inner-city Redevelopment Research Articles

Introduction: Architects as Global Entrepreneurs in the Long 20th Century

Throughout the 20th century, architects have become global entrepreneurs in expanding their portfolios and businesses. The far-reaching consequences of this historical development are at the core of this Special Collection. Our basic assumption is that since a substantial part of the modern built environment has been produced at the hands of private business, it is only logical to investigate it as such. During the period under research in this collection, architects and the commercial firms they were associated with played instrumental roles in the design, financing, construction and development of a wide range of building typologies, from sprawling suburbia to inner-city redevelopment schemes and social infrastructures.

Opportunistic obedient resistance: “Taking the state at its word” in resisting state-led inner-city redevelopment in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

There is an emerging body of literature documenting subversive strategies of urban disadvantaged groups in response to urban exclusion, but it is limited in capturing urban resistance through authorised channels. Between 2009 and 2017, some Addis Ababa inner-city slum residents, when faced with redevelopment-induced displacement to remote and underdeveloped parts of the city, demanded their right to stay put in the central and well-serviced part of the city through authorised channels appealing to senior officials to avoid state repression of outright resistance. They framed their claims by referring to state officials' promises and appealing to the developmental commitment of the state, pitting lower-level state officials against higher-level state officials, and actively seeking media attention. This article compares their strategy with two concepts developed elsewhere that capture claim-making “within the official discourse of deference.” This article advances the concept of “opportunistic obedient resistance” to capture the strategy of Addis Ababa inner-city residents in minimising the political repercussions of resisting state-led redevelopment interventions and tact in gaining support for their claim from senior state officials. Opportunistic obedient resistance is conceptually located in-between and overlapping the “rightful resistance” and “consentful contention” and co-existing with other subversive and authorised contention. The concept could be employed to comparatively analyse similar urban-based resistance that transpires without challenging the status quo in developmentally-committed authoritarian states and beyond.

Silent memorylands: City branding and the coloniality of cultural memory in the Hamburg HafenCity

This article illustrates the predicaments of self-acclaimed global cities that come under pressure to decolonise heritage practices. Examining the politics of public memory in post-imperial Hamburg through the inner-city redevelopment project Hamburg HafenCity, it shows how commemorative landscapes are co-produced by market rationalities. Through document analysis and interviews with city planners, artists and campaigners, the article explores urban toponymies and heritage sites as relational and contested configurations of post-colonial memory and culture. It finds that the HafenCity’s colonial heritage premediates the area’s contemporary symbolic programme which celebrates European expansion, cosmopolitanism and Hamburg’s maritime tradition. The article engages with the multiple modes of encounter and performative responses that (neo-)colonial memory landscapes elicit. It redraws the affective geographies of (un-)belonging in a post-imperial city and charts decolonial propositions of civil society actors.

Hybrid Urban Borderlands – Redevelopment Efforts and Shifting Boundaries In and Around Downtown San Diego

ABSTRACT In recent years, far-reaching urbanization and gentrification processes have been taking place in and around downtown San Diego. These have been accompanied not just by structural upheavals, but by social changes that still await in-depth analysis. In the context of San Diego’s inner-city redevelopment, urban research can profit from a border-theoretical approach, initiating a geography of urban boundaries focused on change processes and the redrawing, shifting, and dissolution of boundaries. Although urban neighborhoods are particularly characterized by differentiation, ambiguity, and fragmentation, border-theoretical findings have rarely been applied on this level. Against this background, the article traces processes of social “ordering” and “othering,” and the shifting of individual-subjective demarcations in the inner-ring suburbs of San Diego—the former warehouse district East Village and the adjacent Mexican-American community neighborhood Barrio Logan. A methodological triangulation of interviews, participatory observations, and cartographic and photographic visualizations illustrates the outward thrust and adaption of multi-dimensional boundaries between the downtown area and the urbanizing first ring—phenomena of what we have called “hybrid urban borderlands.” Aimed primarily at creating a wider understanding of urbanization processes in San Diego’s inner-ring, our project opens up further differentiations in the field of border studies across its disciplinary boundary to urban research.

The framing of inner-city slum redevelopment by an aspiring developmental state: The case of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Following the contested 2005 election, the Ethiopian state enhanced its repression of dissent and tried to gain legitimacy through delivering on development targets by branding itself as a “developmental state” until the election of a reformist Prime Minister in 2018. In line with its developmental aspiration, the Ethiopian state engaged in large-scale inner-city slum redevelopment between 2009 and 2017 by displacing thousands of households to the periphery. Based on six months of qualitative research, this article interrogates the way the Ethiopia state framed the inner-city redevelopment using Bob Jessop's “Strategic-Relational Approach.” The article argues that the Ethiopian state framed slum redevelopment to project itself as a developmental and to enhance state control of the inner-city. At the same time, the state used inner-city redevelopment, to minimize the cost of the intervention through dispossessing inner-city residents and leasing the land at a higher premium. However, since 2012, there is a tendency to use the redevelopment for the accumulation of high-end developers by framing the redevelopment as a means to build the “Diplomatic Capital Africa.” Overall, the Ethiopian aspiring developmental state used slum redevelopment not only to facilitate accumulation but also to consolidate its tight grip on power.

Monitoring 3D Building Change and Urban Redevelopment Patterns in Inner City Areas of Chinese Megacities Using Multi-View Satellite Imagery

Inner-city redevelopment is regarded as an effective way to promote land-use efficiency and optimize land-use structure, especially with the establishment of urban growth boundaries in Chinese cities. However, inner-city redevelopment as compared to urban sprawl has been rarely monitored in 2D space, let alone in 3D space. Therefore, in this paper, a novel approach to generate time-series 3D building maps (i.e., building footprint and height) based on high-resolution (2 m) multi-view ZY-3 satellite imagery was proposed. In the proposed method, the building footprint was updated by an object-based image-to-map change detection method, which employed spectral (i.e., HSV and NDVI) and structural features (i.e., morphological building index) to extract non-building and building objects, respectively; building height was estimated automatically through semi-global matching of multi-view images. We applied the proposed method to four representative Chinese megacities, i.e., Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai, and Wuhan, for the period 2012–2017, and detected building footprints with overall accuracies ranging from 84.84% to 97.60%. The building height estimation was also relatively accurate, with the bias, slope, and root-mean-square error being −0.49–2.30 m, 0.93–1.10 m, and 4.94–7.31 m, respectively. Our results show that the total building coverage decreased over the study period, accompanied by an increase in both area-weighted building height and floor area ratio. In addition, compact low-rise buildings have been replaced by open high-rise buildings in the urban redevelopment process. Moreover, due to the scattered spatial distribution of the redevelopment sites, the local spatial aggregation patterns of building density are unlikely to shift between hotspots (i.e., spatial aggregation of high values) and coldspots (i.e., spatial aggregation of low values).

Residential relocation and the remaking of socialist workers through state-facilitated urban redevelopment in Chengdu, China

This article discusses the unevenness in the social effects of state-facilitated urban redevelopment in China by examining the social transformation experienced by the housing class of socialist workers in two inner-city redevelopment projects in Chengdu. After government compensation schemes, former public tenants and subsidised owners associated with socialist work-units are far more privileged through cash compensation or relocation in new self-owned apartments than two other housing classes – migrant tenants and homeowners of commodity or rural housing – impacted by the same urban redevelopment. The objective and subjective transformation of socialist workers during the process of resettlement are examined from field interviews, with their status changing from welfare recipients in danwei compounds to proprietors in new gated communities. We conclude that state-facilitated urban redevelopment in the Chinese city is interdependent with, and mutually reinforced by, state-led working-class transformation in market society, so as to balance the two critical national objectives of economic growth and social stability. State dominance in conferring variable opportunities via launching unequal housing trajectories among social groups determines the significant disparity of impacts from urban redevelopment in China.

Paradox between neoliberal urban redevelopment, heritage conservation, and community needs: Case study of a historic neighbourhood in Tianjin, China

Today, China's inner-city redevelopment has evolved into the neoliberalism phase, which is characterized by market orientation, privatization, commodification, and short-term returns; this phase generally involves massive demolition and eviction, resulting in serious conflicts between land-based economic growth, heritage conservation, and social justice. The local community is susceptible to social, cultural, and economic impacts of redevelopment, as well as heritage conservation activities. Thereby, the perspectives of residents on these two components of the urban development agenda help to re-examine the demolition–conservation controversy from the perspective of social well-being. Based on an in-progress case in Tianjin, this study clarifies the multi-faceted paradox posed by the demolition–conservation dichotomy at the locality level. Further, the study performs an ex-ante investigation on the needs, concerns, and attitudes of the local community and dissects related contradictions with the local government's rationale for redevelopment, which is a prerequisite for facilitating responsive and democratic urban planning.

Assemblages of Urban Leisure Culture in Inner‐City Bucharest

AbstractInner‐city redevelopment in the south‐eastern European metropolis of Bucharest has been an intriguing object of analysis. Having been neglected for a long time by its inhabitants, urban politics and the local economy, the historical inner city recently experienced tremendous development of its evening/night‐time economy and leisure culture, as though it had received fresh impulses from European integration. However, there is no single cause which effected this unexpected proliferation. Therefore, this article traces the contingent ways in which the inner city has been affected, mainly through an empirical reconstruction of socio‐material assemblages of inner‐city leisure culture. A typology of (partial) assemblages is developed, which illustrates the heterogeneity, contingency and changeability of emerging temporary relations between various social, material and ideational elements. We demonstrate how localism and internal replication of limited business concepts have triggered the selective adaptation of various symbols of modernization. Against this background we argue that post‐transformational urbanity involves contingent social self‐referencing and socio‐material assemblage, rather than the adoption of prevailing translocal models of urban development. A critical reassessment of assemblage theory, as applied to this particular urban context, leads to final considerations concerning possible theoretical readjustments.

원지반 부착식 판넬옹벽의 현장 적용성 평가

최근 들어 도심지 재개발과 산업단지 조성 등이 활발하게 진행되면서 깎기 비탈면의 효율적 활용과 민원방지 그리고 환경훼손을 최소화할 수 있는 공법의 필요성이 점차 커지고 있다. 판넬식 옹벽은 지보재 보강을 통해 원지반의 전단강도를 증가시키고 전면판인 프리캐스트 판넬과 지보재를 체결하여 개별적 벽체를 형성시킴으로써 수평토압에 저항하는 공법이다. 프리캐스트 판넬의 적용으로 기존 옹벽에서 발생하던 콘크리트 현장타설에 의한 공기지연과 콘크리트 품질저하 등의 문제는 다소 해결되었지만 비탈면 과다절취에 의한 사토처리 및 토취장 확보, 및 옹벽 전면 콘크리트 노출로 인한 경관성 저하문제는 여전히 미결과제로 남아있는 실정이다. 본 연구에서는 기존 판넬식옹벽의 단점을 보완하기 위하여 판넬 전면을 자연암반형으로 연출하고 수직의 원지반에도 부착이 가능하도록 공정을 개선하였으며 실내 및 현장시험을 통하여 개발된 옹벽의 현장 적용성 평가를 수행하였다. 판넬에 대한 실내시험을 수행하여 자연암반형 판넬의 자체강도 및 거동특성에 대한 검증을 수행하였으며 현장 시험시공을 통하여 수직절취 및 원지반 부착에 대한 현장 적용성을 평가하였다. 또한 시험시공 시 보강재 및 비탈면에 대한 계측 을 수행하였으며 이를 3차원 수치해석 결과와 비교·분석하였다. 실내시험 결과 사보강에 의한 판넬의 펀칭강도 증가를 확인하였으며 현장 시험시공을 통하여 원지반 부착식 옹벽의 시공성 및 현장 적용성을 확인하였다. 또한, 장기계측 및 수치해석적 검증을 통하여 원지반 부착식 옹벽 시스템이 시공중 및 장기적으로 안정성이 확보됨을 확인하였다. New building methods are needed to aid increased inner-city redevelopment and industrial construction. A particular area of improvement is the efficient use of cut slopes, with the minimization of associated problems. A retaining wall of precast panels can resist the horizontal earth pressure by increasing the shear strength of the ground and reinforcing it through contact with the panels. Precast panels allow quick construction and avoid the problem of concrete deterioration. Other problems to be solved include the digging of borrow pits, the disposal of material cut from the slope, and degradation of the landscape caused by the exposed concrete retaining wall.This study suggest the methods of improvement of an existing precast panel wall system by changing the appearance of the panels to that of natural rock and improving the process of adhering the panel to a vertical slope. The panels were tested in the laboratory and in the field. The laboratory test verified their specific strength and behavior, and the field test assessed the panels' ground adherence at a vertical cutting. Reinforcement of the cutting slope was also measured and compared with the results of 3D numerical analysis. The results of laboratory test, identified that the shear bar increase the punching resistance of panel. And as a results of test construction, identified the construct ability and field applicability of the panel wall system adhered to in-situ ground. In addition to that, extended measurement and numerical analysis, identified the long-term stability of panel wall system adhered to in-situ ground.

State-led gentrification in Hong Kong

The specificity of Hong Kong’s gentrification trajectory reflects its urban morphology, political institutions, and social and economic structure. While continuously renewing itself economically, much of the city’s inner urban area building stock is old and functionally obsolete, whilst nevertheless providing affordable, well-located housing for lower-income and disadvantaged groups and small-scale commercial clusters. Constrained redevelopment is not the result of economic decline but rather of formidable frictions that make land assembly and vacant possession of buildings difficult. Hong Kong’s executive-led, quasi democratic government articulates with the public ownership of land and its management through the leasehold system, and leads inner-city redevelopment through the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) supported by various institutional and statutory arrangements. (Re)development is favoured because it generates significant state revenue from physical and economic intensification of sites. Although gentrification is not an agenda of the URA, it is a significant outcome of its redevelopment activities.

Keep costumes out, keep trains in: defining and defending spaces for “good jobs” in a Rust Belt city

The re-industrialization of brownfields has become an important economic redevelopment strategy in many “Rust Belt” cities, and labor-community coalitions have sought to ensure that such projects bring economic justice through good jobs to inner-city neighborhoods with high rates of unemployment. These coalitions have in many cases succeeded in establishing geographically defined job standards, such as living wage ordinances and community benefits agreements, but few studies have investigated how such “spatial fixes for labor” influence or fail to influence the relocation and investment decisions of firms. In this article, we compare and contrast two efforts to define and defend inner-city brownfields redevelopment projects as spaces for good local jobs in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We find that the influence of spatially defined job standards on relocation decisions varied with the different scales of political engagement and economic mobility involved in each case. In addition, we identify a common political factor in these decisions that previous research in labor geographies has not emphasized: the discursive trivialization of a firm’s primary product. In combination, the two cases suggest that future geographic research on economic justice and the agency of labor and its allies needs to attend both to the complex scalar dimensions of geographically defined job standards and to the roles of nonhuman products in political controversies over redevelopment.

The changing and different patterns of urban redevelopment in China: a study of three inner-city neighborhoods

China's urban growth is phenomenal, but some studies tend to see it as a consistent macro process without much turbulence at the micro levels. This article examines inner-city redevelopment in China by analyzing the cases of three types of neighborhoods: a work-unit compound, a historic quarter, and an urban village. It discusses how these projects were implemented, which actors were involved, and who the beneficiaries were. It argues that different patterns of redevelopment were applied in individual redevelopment projects, although all of these projects were property led. The local state's considerations when applying a particular pattern depends on institutional abilities, arrangements, recourses, and aims, as well as the power relations between the state, market, and community. A comparison of processes and outcomes shows that a top-down approach applied through delegated agencies or the immediate authority of the local state tends to implement redevelopment in a coalition with developers instead of considering the benefits for the affected residents and the preservation of the values of historic neighborhoods. In contrast, the bottom-up approach to the redevelopment of urban villages empowers the collective and villagers and enables them to benefit relatively more from the project. The local state has changed its role from an administrator to a facilitator, and has made significant economic concessions to advance the project in the context of significant policy changes in recent years.

Increasing the Adaptive Capacity in Unembanked Neighborhoods? An Exploration into Stakeholder Support for Adaptive Measures in Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Cities in deltas are vulnerable to climate change, especially their unembanked neighborhoods that are not protected by dikes. Rising sea levels and extreme water levels in the rivers can lead to the flooding of these urban areas. The Netherlands has a long history in water management. However, building dikes and the elevation of land are traditionally treated as rather stand-alone measures. Attention is rarely paid to the surrounding area, let alone to the complex context of cities and certainly not to disadvantaged neighborhoods. Yet, inner-city area redevelopment may provide opportunities to integrate flood management in these planning processes. In order to investigate the support of stakeholders for risk-reducing adaptive measures and more resilient measures, we did research in an unembanked inner-city area in the city of Rotterdam (The Netherlands), in which we conducted in-depth interviews with the central stakeholders. The main conclusion is that the most important barriers for integrating climate adaptation measures into that neighborhood are the fragmentation of water-safety policy (e.g. elevation of rebuilding locations) and the hierarchical governance arrangement in water management. This type of fragmentation led on its turn to fragmentation with other policy goals for the neighborhood. It also led to fragmentation between different areas in the same neighborhood that received political attention and those that are excluded from water-safety policy. This questions the approach in terms of social justice. An important side effect is that this governance arrangement also restricted innovation towards climate adaptation. Therefore, integrating water-safety policies in urban planning (in its capacity as a more integrative and comprehensive spatial approach) should be considered the best option to increase the adaptive capacity in delta cities. Not only can the negative effects in terms of policy fragmentation be dealt with effectively, but also spatial fragmentation can be tackled.

The Impact of Local Supporters on Smart Growth Policy Adoption

Problem: To succeed, the smart growth movement must be active at the local level. However, little is known about the movement's composition and effects. Purpose: This research aims to identify who pursues smart growth at the local level, what types of smart growth policies are being adopted, and the impact of supporters on the types of policies adopted. Methods: Using surveys I conducted with planning and development officials in 202 cities and other data, I estimate regression models predicting the effects of local activism and other possible influences on the number of smart growth, land preserving, and inner-city redevelopment policies these cities adopted. Results and conclusions: I found that (a) as the number of types of groups promoting smart growth increases, cities adopt more smart growth policies; (b) the supporters of smart growth have more impact on the adoption of land preserving policies than on the policies associated with inner-city redevelopment; and (c) cities in states that require comprehensive planning adopt more smart growth policies. Takeaway for practice: Politics prevents many cities from adopting comprehensive smart growth policies, though state laws that mandate comprehensive planning at the local level appear to encourage them. Planners can build support for smart growth by inviting environmental groups to the table and by devising smart growth policies that encourage both land preservation and inner-city densification. Research support: None.

Who Would Pay for Rural Open Space Preservation and Inner-city Redevelopment? Identifying Support for Policies that Can Contribute to Regional Land Use Governance

A growing literature has made the case for preserving rural open space and redeveloping inner cities. Together, these polices can contribute to the inside—outside strategy of `new regionalism'. However, it is unclear whether citizens are willing to pay for these two polices. Using data from a survey of Michigan's citizens, statistical analyses were employed to ascertain who would pay for both policies. Of the respondents, 37 per cent would pay for both policies. The coalition of support is centred on younger people, liberals and Whites, and people who are generally satisfied with their communities but are concerned about sprawl. When compared with the results for those who would pay only for one policy, the findings suggest that policy-makers may be able to broaden the coalition of support for policies that can contribute to regional land use governance if measures are taken to ensure that benefits are widely spread.

Spoiled Mixture: Where Does State-led `Positive' Gentrification End?

Over the past decade, policy-makers have introduced social mixing initiatives that have sought to address urban social problems by deconcentrating poor and working-class communities through attracting the middle classes back to the city. Such a policy objective clearly `smells like gentrification'. However, some commentators have warned against being critical of these policies, pointing out that the types of inner-city redevelopment generated by them is different from classical gentrification and that state-led gentrification offers benefits for many working-class communities. This paper draws upon research conducted in London to demonstrate how, despite having many commendable aspects, these policy agendas carry with them significant threats of displacement for lower-income communities. The paper also argues that, due to the mutating nature of gentrification, these threats are increasingly context-bound. In conclusion, the paper argues that those state mechanisms which might manage the unjust aspects of gentrification are inadequate.

Urban Regeneration and the Management of Change

In the decades following the Second World War the once proud transatlantic port and trading city of Liverpool witnessed serious, progressive decline. The city featured prominently in buildings at risk registers, and areas of traditional terraced housing remain programmed for destruction under the government's controversial Housing Market Renewal Initiative (better known as ‘Pathfinder’). In recent years Liverpool has seen a remarkable change of fortune. Key monuments have been restored, and multi-million pound projects of inner-city redevelopment are either on site or in the pipeline, including one for the site of the ‘fourth grace’. Six linked, tightly defined areas in the historic centre and docklands were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004; Liverpool celebrated its 800th anniversary in 2007 and is European Capital of Culture 2008.This paper sets out the historical background, recent initiatives and ongoing conservation challenges that confront the historic central and waterfront areas as well as the wider city of Liverpool. It relates threats posed by tall buildings and ‘iconic’ modern architecture to the concept of ‘historic urban landscape’, a UNESCO World Heritage Centre initiative aimed at the protection of urban identity and the management of change at the scale of historic cities.

Beyond metropolis: the planning and governance of Asia's mega-urban regions

Beyond Metropolis studies planning and governance in the regions surrounding the twelve cities in Asia with populations over ten million: Tokyo, Mumbai, Kolkata, Dhaka, Delhi, Shanghai, Jakarta, Osaka, Beijing, Karachi, Metro Manila, and Seoul. These regions are greater than cities plus suburbs: for almost all, development has sprawled into the surrounding countryside, enveloping villages, towns, and small and medium-sized cities, creating extended metropolitan regions. These areas, argues Aprodicio A. Laquian, are the centers of development for their countries: they represent huge markets; large and varied labor pools; and centers of politics, education, and culture. Beyond Metropolis examines these mega-urban regions in terms of governance and sustainability; water, transportation, and housing; and the twin questions of inner-city redevelopment and satellite area development. The author embraces, on one hand, unified regional planning and, on the other, cooperative efforts by urban residents for addressing their own problems. Beyond Metropolis builds on studies conducted during the 1990s under the Centre for Human Settlements at the University of British Columbia.

Is History Repeating Itself?

This study compares urban renewal in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s with inner-city redevelopment in China since the late 1980s. It finds that both programs use government authority and subsidies to make large-scale private or quasi-private investment attractive in the name of ameliorating living conditions. Cautiously applying Logan and Molotch’s “growth coalition” concept to China, the authors assert that a “growth machine” has formed during China’s economic decentralization processes. Despite the similarities, America’s urban renewal was an ill-fated federal program in which the local government and downtown business interests cooperated to boost declining inner-cities that were competing with burgeoning suburbs. In contrast, China’s redevelopment has been propelled by emerging local elites using decentralized state power to pursue fast growth in rising real estate markets. Greater insights into urban redevelopment can be gleaned through this comparative analysis.