New Urban Research Articles

Quality of life: quantitative analysis in New Urbanism and LEED-ND certified neighbourhoods

Given the substantial rise in the urban population, it is imperative to evaluate the quality of life (QoL) in residential communities. New Urbanism (NU) and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) are globally recognised neighbourhood design initiatives that strive to improve QoL. Nevertheless, the degree to which these initiatives effectively enhance QoL remains questionable. This assessment seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of key design practices in these two initiatives by examining the satisfaction levels of residents. It focuses on five key attributes that contribute to enhancing the QoL in residential neighbourhoods: safety, comfort, connectivity, sense of place, and aesthetic appeal. Three neighbourhoods were selected for analysis in the USA. The residents’ questionnaire was utilised as the main tool for the quantitative analysis. The findings revealed a positive association between safety and comfort and overall QoL. NU neighbourhoods showed the highest satisfaction levels, while LEED-ND neighbourhoods had the lowest. Key determinants of QoL were identified as well. The main contribution of this study is to provide insights for enhancing the design parameters of NU and LEED-ND certification to improve QoL and bridge the gap between professionals’ perspectives and residents’ preferences.

Learning pedestrian’s perspective towards sidewalk through new urbanism

In the 1990s, several urban and environmental designers discussed various issues related to suburban expansion, including income disparities, environmental degradation, and rampant use of motorized vehicles. The New Urbanism movement became known in the 1970s and 1980s in America. The principles of New Urbanism are clearly illustrated in the book Charter of the New Urbanism (Leccese & McCormick, 2000). The nature of being friendly to pedestrians is one form/pattern of the theory of New Urbanism. New Urbanism is also known as neotraditional design, transit-oriented development, and traditional or neighborhood development (TND). The analysis technique used for this goal is IPA (Important Performance Analysis). Before conducting the analysis process, it is necessary to test the validity and reliability and the Wilcoxon test of the variables used. The study focuses on the Tunjungan area in Surabaya City, an essential element of accessibility for trade and service areas. A pedestrian network is necessary for safe and comfortable mobility, as mandated by the Regulation of the Minister of Public Works. TOD nodes were created to connect public and private transportation and link neighborhoods and districts through corridors. These corridors are essential in developing New Urbanism theory, which recommends corridors with mixed land use patterns to create a compatible environment and protect public security, health, and safety. Community participation is necessary to develop regulations related to corridors.

Adjusting New Ruralism: The ‘soul’ of Waddington, N.Y. and placemaking at the Water's edge

Despite significant contributions to the multidisciplinary literature in rural development, U.S. planning scholarship has tended to privilege an urban focus given challenges accompanying globalization, the migration of people from rural to urban areas, as well as cultural-practice perceptions of ‘rural’ within the profession. As a result, frameworks have prevailed that are designed to improve livability in cities, including two dominant conceptualizations -- New Urbanism (NU), and New Ruralism (NR), the latter consisting of approaches that preserve or enhance rural-urban edges for the benefits of urban areas. Often overlooked are deep rural areas and their unique development challenges enabled by geographic isolation and compounded by population decline. In this relative vacuum of attention, the Northern New England Chapter of the American Planning Association (NNECAPA) drew on its experience to recommend a counterpoint to NR, calling for an adjusted New Ruralism ([a]NR) framework to better assess and guide planning and development in more remote rural areas to create places in which people can thrive. The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to introduce the framework as part of the scholarly literature; second, to suggest the placemaking activities evident in Waddington, N.Y, a small village near the Canadian border along the St. Lawrence River, not only contribute to the community's “soul,” but also makes the community an ideal case study among those NNECAPA is collecting to further define its [a]NR conceptual umbrella. Finally, in undertaking our documentation in this task, we answer the regional chapter's call to help improve its scaffolding. Through the nexus of practical placemaking and the broader rural studies knowledge front, we suggest three major adjustments, represented visually as a model of intersecting restructured mindsets and corresponding, more specified strategies for further deliberation.

Chasing World-Class Urbanism: Global Policy versus Everyday Survival in Buenos Aires

Chasing World-Class Urbanism: Global Policy versus Everyday Survival in Buenos Aires

Locating New Urbanism Developments in the U.S.: Which Cities Have New Urbanism and Why?

This article aims to examine the characteristics of cities where New Urbanism (NU) developments are located as of 2019. We first develop a set of hypotheses to explore why some cities are welcoming NU developments more than other cities and how the cities differ in terms of general real estate development determinants, fiscal capacity and regulatory authority, advocacy group support, and cultural diversity. We then employ a Negative Binomial Regression to test the relationship between concentrations of NU developments and a variety of city characteristics by using a data set of 6923 urban cities. The results suggest that NU developments are advocated by cities with a higher level of environmental awareness, better fiscal and regulatory status, and better cultural diversity. The research results highlight the importance of continuously gaining support from environmental groups and the general public for effective expansion of New Urbanist developments within the U.S. These findings also indicate that for noteworthy changes in growth patterns to arise at a large scale across the U.S., there must be changes in values and preferences, and institutional capacity in updating land-use regulations that allow for sustainable growth.

Standing the Test of Time: Neo–Traditionalism as Neoliberalism in Garifuna World Music

The encroachment of enclave tourism upon centuries-old villages of Afro-indigenous Garifuna along Honduras’s North Coast presents but one example of neoliberalism’s global ascendency during the 1990s. One way that the privatization of the commons materialized was in the commodification of “minority” cultural practices within nation-states -- what Charles Hale (2005) calls “neoliberal multiculturalism.” Mark Anderson (2013) observes that this “marketing of ethnicity produces the promise of inclusion at the potential price of cultural and territorial rights” (ibid.: 277-78). Garifuna cultural practices are pivotal to the promotion of Honduras as a tourist destination; however, visitors encounter visual art, costumes, music, and dance as forms of entertainment while remaining segregated from surrounding Garifuna communities. As a result, their market value is as “symbolic capital” which traffics in stereotypes and apolitical narratives (ibid.: 291).I argue that Garifuna music functions similarly as symbolic capital within the world music industry. I examine the success of Garifuna musical neo-traditionalism within this industry during the mid-aughts as contingent upon neoliberal marketing strategies akin to those implemented by the resorts built within Garifuna Central American coastal villages. Dale Chapman (2018) and Jay Hammond (2020) have noted a similar function for neo-traditionalism in present-day jazz scenes, whereby musicians mine past aesthetics and values for new forms of individual branding and new options for consumers. Moreover, the premium placed upon “timelessness” in these cases presents neo-traditional musical practices as a foil to musical styles too “untempered” and “common” (reminiscent of “the commons”) in comparison. Central to the story of Garifuna world music is its development as a preferred alternative to punta rock, which arose circa 1979 as a dance genre driven by youths soon realizing local punta and paranda rhythms on keyboards and drum machines. In contrast, the production of recordings by the Garifuna Collective and Aurelio Martinez from the early millennium until today—dominated by acoustic instruments and featuring time-tested, respected musicians steeped in traditional storytelling—takes a page from the Buena Vista Social Club phenomenon of the late 1990s to generate global esteem for Garifuna music and culture.

Measuring the Spatial-Physical Indexes of RahAhan and Reazashhar Neighborhoods in Mashhad Based on New Urbanism Approach

Measuring the Spatial-Physical Indexes of RahAhan and Reazashhar Neighborhoods in Mashhad Based on New Urbanism Approach

EXAMINING THE IDEOLOGY AND POLITICS OF NEW URBANISM

New Urbanism (NU) is an urban planning movement that values certain design principles in cities, such as walkability, mixed-use development, and accessible transit. Since its emergence and formalization as a movement in the late twentieth century, numerous North American communities have been built or renovated to adhere to New Urbanist principles, and a significant body of research studies the outcomes in these places. This essay reflects on the existing scholarship to identify recurring issues in New Urbanist communities; namely, these neighbourhoods consistently turn out to be unaffordable and economically exclusive, as well as to create tension or awkwardness between different social groups. As such, I find that rather than merely falling short of theoretical ideals like economic and social diversity, the NU physical design principles can backfire and produce the opposite outcome of their vision for optimal communities; this occurs as a function of environmental limitations like the nature of capitalist real estate markets and the complexities of integration in diverse communities. The essay moves on to interrogate the movement’s failure to advocate for policy changes that would support its social goals and, at a deeper level, their choice to refrain from any political stances. Underneath NU’s attempt at ideological impartiality, I find that their implicit ideal of “community” leads to pernicious tendencies such as embracing homogeneity and disregarding public life. Overall, I argue the movement must reorient from implicit to explicit politics and openly advocate for progressive policy in order for their theory to actually produce diverse, healthy communities.

El excepcionalismo verde y el nuevo urbanismo en el mercado de las miniciudades costarricenses

Las miniciudades son negociadas y publicitadas como nuevos productos inmobiliarios que contribuyen a diversos cambios para adaptarse a las realidades locales y a los retos que imponen las metrópolis. Este artículo trata sobre cómo el mercado inmobiliario utiliza el excepcionalismo verde costarricense y la teoría arquitectural del Nuevo Urbanismo (NU) para inspirar el diseño de los proyectos de uso mixto llamados miniciudades en Costa Rica, y así justificar la venta y promoción de supuestos “nuevos” productos urbanos. La estrategia metodológica incluye un breve análisis histórico de conceptos que concatenan en una discusión sobre el discurso publicitario y las técnicas de paisajismo ya que esta es una ventana para la comprensión de los “mecanismos discursivos” de diversos actores. El caso de estudio seleccionado es la miniciudad costarricense más antigua: Avenida Escazú. La contribución del artículo es una reflexión sobre del discurso simbólico publicitario, desde la perspectiva de la geografía urbana y la semiótica, para identificar cómo el sector privado utiliza el excepcionalismo verde para justificar las “novedades” en las dinámicas de consumo en las miniciudades. Se va más allá de una clásica conclusión binaria y, de esta forma, se cuestiona y resalta la complejidad del NU en Costa Rica. Se concluye que, el sector privado participa de la mutación de espacios, prácticas e intercambios en diversas formas urbanas, brindando lo que el sector público no ha podido satisfacer: el sentimiento de seguridad, de limpieza, de moda, de tranquilidad y de comodidad asociadas a las formas urbanas tradicionales.

La cultura urbana como espectáculo: la experiencia de modernidad en la Exposición Internacional de Barcelona 1929

Este artículo propone una mirada renovada sobre la Exposición Internacional de Barcelona 1929 a través de su cultura material y visual, los pabellones comerciales, sus atracciones y la configuración de su espacio para analizar cómo el diseño del evento se interrelaciona con varias dinámicas inscritas en la cultura urbana y a la experiencia de modernidad. Veremos así la centralidad que cobran las experiencias sensitivas, cómo el régimen visual del evento se relaciona con la circulación de saberes en el siglo XIX o que vínculos establece el consumo con la creación de nuevos espacios urbanos, nuevas formas de entretenimiento y estilos modernos como el Art Déco. El objetivo será visualizar el alcance del evento de 1929 en la concreción de culturas urbanas asociadas a la irrupción de la sociedad de consumo que se intuyeron en 1888.

After recovery: new urban emergencies

After recovery: new urban emergencies

New Urbanism in the New Urban Agenda: Threads of an Unfinished Reformation

We present evidence that New Urbanism, defined as a set of normative urban characteristics codified in the 1996 Charter of the New Urbanism, reached a seminal moment—in mission if not in name—with the 2016 New Urban Agenda, a landmark document adopted by acclamation by all 193 member states of the United Nations. We compare the two documents and find key parallels between them (including mix of uses, walkable multi-modal streets, buildings defining public space, mix of building ages and heritage patterns, co-production of the city by the citizens, and understanding of the city as an evolutionary self-organizing structure). Both documents also reveal striking contrasts with the highly influential 20th century Athens Charter, from 1933, developed by the Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne. Yet, both newer documents also still face formidable barriers to implementation, and, as we argue, each faces similar challenges in formulating effective alternatives to business as usual. We trace this history up to the present day, and the necessary requirements for what we conclude is an ‘unfinished reformation’ ahead.

Disparate Projects, Coherent Practices: Constructing New Urbanism through the Charter Awards

The Congress for the New Urbanism’s (CNU) annual <em>Charter Awards</em> offers a rich set of documents with which to understand the discursive construction of the New Urbanism movement in the world. Every year, since 2001, developers and designers submit work representing their plans and projects to CNU for consideration of an award. In each case, a collection of urban design practitioners with expertise in New Urbanism comes together as jurors to evaluate the submissions. A handful of projects are recognized with an award and profiled in the <em>Charter Awards</em> booklet. This booklet offers a snapshot of what the movement’s awards program jurors in a given year see as its exemplary work and most innovative accomplishments. Using a framework for understanding the discursive labor that design award programs perform, I examine two decades worth of <em>Charter Awards</em> and analyze narratives and messages presented therein concerning how New Urbanism exists in the world. I advance three claims through this analysis. First, the <em>Charter Awards</em> as a text discursively constructs disparate projects and plans as part of a singular movement. Second, the <em>Charter Awards</em> narrate New Urbanism as a worldwide movement that transcends particularities of place, culture, and history. Finally, CNU uses the <em>Charter Awards</em> to effectively claim universal relevance to urban development despite the particularities of places and the divergence of development contexts.

Morfología urbana, infraestructuras ferroviarias y crecimiento económico en las ciudades cántabras

En el territorio de la actual Comunidad Autónoma de Cantabria tuvo lugar desde mediados del siglo XVIII un intenso proceso de articulación territorial que culminó con la construcción del Ferrocarril de Isabel II y de la red ferroviaria de vía estrecha. Las nuevas infraestructuras viarias favorecieron el crecimiento de algunos núcleos urbanos entre los que se encuentran Castro Urdiales, Torrelavega y, sobre todo, la capital regional, Santander. Aunque con distinta intensidad, tiempos y ritmos, representan tres notables ejemplos del proceso de transición urbana y urbanística en España.El núcleo central de la investigación en que se apoya este artículo es el impacto urbanístico diferencial de las infraestructuras ferroviarias en la remodelación de la morfología urbana y en el nacimiento de nuevos paisajes urbanos.En Santander influyeron en la potenciación del centro urbano y de la “ciudad balnearia” de El Sardinero, así como en la configuración de áreas suburbanas y periurbanas industriales, que constituyeron unidades paisajísticas bien diferenciadas. En Torrelavega las dos estaciones existentes funcionaron de manera muy distinta en la articulación del espacio y el paisaje urbano. Los ferrocarriles mineros de Castro Urdiales constituyeron un verdadero “cinturón de hierro” mientras que, por el contrario, la localización periférica de la estación tuvo escaso impacto.

Pearl River Delta: Scales, Times, Domains

Pearl River Delta: Scales, Times, Domains

Dispositivos de vigilância como tecnologias de controle no capitalismo de dados

O presente artigo apresenta os dispositivos de vigilância sob a ótica de Michel Foucault em suas duas categorias: disciplinar e biopolítica. Tais conceitos são as bases que utilizo para refletir, a partir de autores contemporâneos, sobre as atuais técnicas de vigilância inseridas no que se pode chamar de uma nova categoria de dispositivo: o tecnopolítico. As investigações são feitas através da análise conjunta de duas tecnologias de poder contemporâneas: as redes sociais – com enfoque no Facebook – e as smart cities – ou ‘smartização’ das cidades. Através de conexões entre os conceitos apresentados e os dois estudos realizados, reflete-se sobre o papel da vigilância e seus mecanismos de controle dentro de três entendimentos do presente: dos dados como os novos combustíveis fundamentais da atual fase do capitalismo; do neoliberalismo como ideologia predominante nas relações sociais, de trabalho e de produção do espaço urbano; e da cibercultura, com a gradual dissolução dos limites entre real e virtual. O artigo aponta que os dispositivos tecnopolíticos têm impactos substanciais na produção de subjetividades e de cidadania – sendo condicionantes de um novo modo de viver urbano e contemporâneo – e propõe cenários possíveis de enfrentamentos a tal conjuntura.

Walkability – the New Urbanism principle for urban regeneration

ABSTRACT Walking should be one of the primary modes of transportation in sustainable cities, being more environmentally friendly, sociable, and health conscious. The principles of New Urbanism (NU) promote walkability, creating urban patterns that support the needs of pedestrians. With that in mind, this study aims to define the relationship between walkability and NU in the context of urban regeneration, establishing the urban attributes that influence walkability in the revival of post-industrial areas. The research comes from a statistical analysis of the flow of people in Księży Młyn (Poland) and a field study from Carré de Soie (France) where urban attributes potentially determining walkability were evaluated. The study confirms that pedestrian traffic and urban form can be optimised through a holistic approach. It sets out the relationship between walkability and various phenomena, including i) social – how users behave in public spaces (the role of pedestrians and cars), and to whom the space is dedicated; ii) economic – how the attractiveness of the service and commercial offer are improving, and how real estate prices are changing; and iii) environmental – how the visual attractiveness of the place and the convenience of the space for pedestrians has improved (shop frontage and accessibility).

The sound of new urbanism

ABSTRACT Understanding the nexus between soundscape and urban form is challenging. This research explores soundscapes in new urbanist (NU) developments to contribute to the urban form studies of sound environment. NU developments promote the quality of life (QoL) in dense, walkable settings with mixed-use buildings. An under-examined, yet critical aspect of New Urbanism approach is the soundscape. To study the relationship between soundscape and NU, this research investigates soundscapes from NU developments by assessing preference of 95 residents and visitors as well as on-site sound pressure level (SPL) measurements within five NU developments in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. Findings suggest that soundscapes of NU developments are overall at the high SPLs and differ at various development typologies with significant implications for urban form. The research proposes recognizing the sound-related attributes of urban form so that sound-related resolutions can be applied to other geographical and planning practices.

African New Towns: An adaptive, principle-based planning approach

The New Towns (mixed use urban developments planned and built from scratch) initiated across the African continent since 1990 are overwhelmingly designed and built according to urban planning models from the previous century (Watson 2013; Marcinkowski 2018; Keeton and Provoost 2019). This has produced a generation of New Towns with rigid physical infrastructure and strict building regulations, that do not support the spatial manifestations of the ‘informal’ sector. As a result, these New Towns may become insular enclaves and informal settlements may develop adjacently to them. Residents of these adjacent areas may not have access to the services and amenities offered within the New Towns (Keeton and Provoost 2019). Coupled with the implicit vulnerabilities of emerging and threshold economies, the contextual mismatch of the imported urban models exacerbates spatial segregation at an urban scale. Additionally, contemporary New Town models often do not take current climate variability or future climate change threats into account. As implemented in the African context, they rarely respond effectively to surrounding natural landscapes or environmental sensitivities (Keeton and Nijhuis 2019). Building on the arguments that (1) equal access to resources is a key component of sustainable development and that (2) urban planning benefits from new linkages between critical social theory and environmental science, this research proposes that applying adaptive urban planning principles to New Towns in the African context can increase ecological sustainability and social inclusivity (WCED 1987; Fainstein and Campbell 2012). The objective of this research is therefore to address the spatial challenges of African New Towns by developing an alternative planning and design approach that acknowledges both social and environmental dimensions, as well as the constant state of change that all cities exhibit. This is done by addressing four main research questions: (1) What are the spatial problems of African New Towns caused by the application of common planning approaches? (2) What are the principles of a more adaptive and sustainable planning and design approach and how can they address these problems? (3) How and to what extent can the adaptive planning and design principles be improved and applied? And finally, (4) As a result of the findings, how can adaptive planning approaches and the related principles be implemented? The research first identifies the spatial challenges specific to contemporary African New Towns through a combination of empirical data collection and literature review. The research moves forward to bring these shared spatial challenges together with a set of guidelines for New Towns originally written by Michelle Provoost as an addition to UN-Habitat’s New Urban Agenda (Provoost 2016). The analysis of shared spatial challenges is used to revise, expand and refine these guidelines into a set of adaptive planning and design principles specific to African New Towns. The resulting principles are then tested by applying them through case study analysis of three existing New Towns to establish their universality as well as their ability to acknowledge local specificities. In the final phase of the research, two short-term workshops validate the results by testing implementation of the principles in two African New Towns (Tatu City, Kenya and Mahonda, Zanzibar). The research concludes that the adaptive planning and design principles can be an effective starting point for stakeholders involved in the development of New Towns across Africa. It furthermore concludes that these principles must be adapted locally to meet the individual urgencies of different sites. This research contributes to the existing body of literature on contemporary African New Towns (Watson 2014; Murray 2017; Van Noorloos and Kloosterboer 2018; Keeton and Provoost 2019). Notably, most authors working on this topic primarily employ internet sources or a single case study to build their arguments, which can be problematic in the African context where remotely-sourced data is often unreliable and New Towns as a group exhibit vast divergences that may limit the transferability of results from individual case studies. This research therefore fills a knowledge gap by bringing together empirical evidence acquired during fieldwork in Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, and Tanzania, combined with literature review and the results of interdisciplinary workshops to support its claims. It also contributes to the current debate on normative assumptions regarding planning in the Global South (Watson 2002; Watson 2016; Cirolia and Berrisford 2017), and directly addresses the disconnect between academia and practice regarding contemporary African New Towns (Grubbaur 2019; Keeton and Provoost 2019). Finally, this study aims to provide an alternative approach for planners, developers and decision-makers initiating tomorrow’s New Towns in Africa.

El jardín del palacio de Fernán Núñez (Córdoba)

El solar que ocupa el palacio de Fernán Núñez (Córdoba) contó con un huerto que debió formar parte del antiguo castillo mudéjar, germen del nuevo espacio palatino antes de su transformación a partir de la segunda mitad del siglo XVII. Las nuevas reformas urbanas implantadas en esta centuria, donde el agua jugó un papel fundamental, favorecieron la creación de un jardín, de inspiración cortesana, que ha permanecido hasta nuestros días. Su origen y evolución, siendo el más antiguo de su categoría en la provincia, ha estado al margen de la Historia del Arte, de ahí su estudio actual.