Redevelopment Process Research Articles

Enhancing the Ecosystem of Central Areas in European Metropolises: A Project for Rome

The paper presents the results of a third-party research project defining the process of redevelopment and social and environmental regeneration along the historic urban axis of Via Nazionale and Corso Vittorio Emanuele II in Rome. The site is affected by the construction of the new tram line connecting Termini Station to the Vatican City. The study proposes an approach to the design of public spaces that, starting by inhibiting traffic from rubber-tired vehicles and private cars and the application of environmental mitigation strategies, allows to reduce pollutant emissions, enhance the cultural heritage along the urban axis, and revitalise cultural, social, and commercial activities, thus triggering a virtuous process of sustainable growth and development.

Temporal insights into mega-events and waterfront industrial heritage transformation: a case study of Shanghai’s Huangpu River industrial zone

This research examines the evolution and renewal of Shanghai’s Huangpu River industrial zone after the 2010 Shanghai Expo, with a temporal focus on the profound changes and development philosophies driven by this mega-event. By investigating emblematic case studies along the Huangpu River, such as the transformative 80,000-ton silo, the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Long Museum, this research articulates how mega-events serve as pivotal moments for reimagining and repurposing industrial heritage. In the wake of the 2010 Shanghai Expo, these industrial relics emerged as focal points of urban regeneration, embodying the tensions and synergies between historical preservation and contemporary urban development. This study explores the temporal layers—from the event’s catalytic role to enduring legacies—and reveals how time influences the trajectory of urban spaces and the community’s connection to them. Through this temporal lens, the paper analyses the redevelopment process, assessing how these initiatives have reconfigured the industrial waterfront into a dynamic cultural landscape. The findings offer a dynamic perspective on the temporal dimensions that underpin the redevelopment of industrial heritage sites, providing insights into how such spaces can be continuously activated and symbiotically integrated into the fabric of the city. This paper aims to contribute to a broader understanding of the complexities involved in harnessing industrial heritage for mega-events, with implications for future urban planning and heritage conservation strategies.

Pro- and Contra-Coalition: Governing the Rise and Fall of Creative Industrial Parks in China

A great number of creative industrial parks (CIPs) have emerged in the past two decades in China as a critical and popular approach to the adaptive reuse of abandoned industrial land in cities. However, a few vibrant CIPs have been closed in the past few years, and the sites are set to be demolished and redeveloped in a property-led manner, suggesting the fragility of CIPs as a land reuse approach. This article aims to elaborate on the institutional rationale behind such a phenomenon. Cases in Shanghai and Guangzhou are examined and presented. The key arguments include: (a) in the industrial land redevelopment process, public and private actors flexibly establish pro-coalitions and contra-coalitions to foster and close CIPs, with strategies to overcome institutional obstacles and to implement land redevelopment-pursued regulatory plans, respectively; (b) key actors forming the two coalitions overlap, such as the local government and the state-owned enterprise land occupiers, and their positions shift subject to specific circumstances; and (c) the finding of the two coalitions echoes the existing argument that there are forces beyond the growth machine driving China’s urban development and provides further insight into the explicit framework of the dual forces underneath.

Urban Transformation: Opportunities for Land Use Change in Urban Fabric Redevelopment

With the arrival of modernity in Iran, the concept of the "city" as we understand it today was born, undergoing significant transformations that have continued to evolve over time. These transformations in the physical structure of the city have created multifaceted challenges in three primary dimensions: housing, urban facilities, and transportation. This research, adopting a thematic approach to these challenges and aiming to provide valuable insights for social policymakers and urban planners, employs a descriptive-analytical method. It leverages existing data from documentary resources to explore opportunities for land use change in the process of redeveloping urban fabrics. The study delves deeply into the role of urban transformation in enhancing the quality of life and improving the efficiency of urban spaces. By investigating urban fabrics as crucial components in the redevelopment process, the research analyzes the various factors influencing land use change. Through detailed case studies, the article identifies existing opportunities for the improvement and modification of land uses within urban fabrics, offering practical solutions for optimizing these processes. The ultimate goal of this study is to propose comprehensive strategies for the optimal utilization of urban resources, thereby significantly enhancing the quality of life in urban environments. This study aims to provide a thorough understanding of the dynamics at play in urban redevelopment and to offer actionable recommendations for policymakers and urban planners to create more livable, efficient, and sustainable urban spaces.

Transforming Urban Space: The Success of Sustainable Regeneration in Speirs Locks

This paper examines the Speirs Locks area regeneration project in Glasgow, focusing on the implementation of a sustainable and inclusive master plan aimed at revitalising the canal area. The study explores the strategic integration of urban planning principles, stakeholder engagement and environmental sustainability in the redevelopment process. Through qualitative analysis and case study methods, the research highlights the project's successes and challenges, particularly in improving the social, economic, and environmental conditions in the area. The findings show that despite facing physical and infrastructural constraints, the regeneration project has significantly improved the quality of life of the local community and set an example for future urban redevelopment initiatives.

Making the Case: Exploring the Role of Case Management in Relocation and Return Decisions in Choice Neighborhoods Initiative

Leveraging novel case management data, we present the first comprehensive investigation into the role of case management services in housing relocation and return decisions within the framework of the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI), the current place-based public housing revitalization program. Our study employs multinomial logistic (MNL) regression models to demonstrate that a higher level of involvement in case management services is correlated with an increased probability of moving to a higher-income neighborhood during the redevelopment process, as well as a greater likelihood of returning to the revitalized neighborhood afterward. By achieving these outcomes, case management services play a crucial role in enhancing the chances for original CNI residents to reap the benefits of neighborhood redevelopment—a matter of enduring concern among social scientists. These findings are contextualized with both sociodemographic and neighborhood characteristics associated with relocation and return decisions.

Nature-Based Solutions to Enhance Urban Resilience in the Climate Change and Post-Pandemic Era: A Taxonomy for the Built Environment

Global environmental and health issues such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the weaknesses of current urban systems, including the poor availability and accessibility of green and public spaces in cities. Nature-based Solutions are configured as promising solutions to increase the resilience and health of the built environment by addressing climate and pandemic issues, promoting the psycho-physical well-being of users and proposing solutions for the protection of the environment and ecosystems. Following a systematic review of the scientific literature using the PRISMA methodology, this study aims to provide a taxonomic framework for Nature-based Solutions for the built environment that is applicable to the urban and building scales, highlighting key benefits in addressing pandemic and climate challenges and achieving urban resilience. This framework proposes a holistic and multifunctional approach that will prove to be a useful tool for researchers and policy makers to incorporate greening strategies into urban regeneration and redevelopment processes. The application of Nature-based Solutions still seems to be limited. It is therefore necessary to raise awareness of this issue among citizens and policy makers and to promote close co-operation between the different actors in territorial decision-making processes.

An analysis of diverse gentrification processes and their relationship to historic preservation activity in Chicago

ABSTRACT This article explores the unintended impacts of an immensely popular and far-reaching preservation program, the National Register of Historic Places, which was established to instill a sense of stewardship for heritage at a time when suburbanization and urban disinvestment threatened its existence. Anointing neighborhoods as “historic” has helped preserve them, but it has also increased market demand and facilitated gentrification. Drawing on census and preservation data, we use principal component and cluster analyses to identify neighborhoods in Chicago experiencing physical upgrading and the displacement of groups of lower socioeconomic status. Particular interest is placed on exploring neighborhoods characterized by gentrification and intensive preservation activity. The diversity in heritage-driven redevelopment processes and gentrification is then examined within three neighborhoods. The study reveals that preservation has not kept pace with changing demographic, housing, and consumption patterns within cities: a counterproductive policy lag exists, facilitating large-scale residential displacement of traditional urban populations, ranging from the most marginalized to the wealthier.

Formalizing ambiguous property rights as a panacea? Informal urban regeneration in Shanghai

ABSTRACT Urban informality is predominantly viewed negatively in international development discourse, with ambiguous property rights frequently blamed for various problems associated with urban informality in urban studies. To address these issues caused by ambiguity and informality, developing countries seek to establish clearly defined property rights as a legal and formal institutions. However, China offers new insights for critically evaluating the perceived necessity of formalizing ambiguous property rights in urban settings. In China, informal urban regeneration, a new type of urban informality, is thriving on allocated industrial land. This approach maintains existing land ownership while repurposing industrial buildings for new uses. This study selects three types of informal industrial land regeneration in Shanghai, revealing the nature of ambiguous property rights concerning the de jure and de facto rights of use, income generation, and transfer of land use rights. It explores how ambiguous property rights function in the redevelopment process. The Shanghai story shows that ambiguous property rights serve as a key mechanism in the operation of informal urban regeneration. The findings emphasize that radically formalizing urban informality by redefining ambiguous property rights is not necessarily a panacea. Instead, informal urban regeneration under deliberate institutional ambiguity maintained by urban governments offers an alternative.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF DILAPIDATED AND DANGEROUS BUILDINGS IN INDIA: OPTIMIZING TDR ALLOCATION FOR URBAN REDEVELOPMENT

This paper presents a comprehensive statistical analysis of dilapidated and dangerous buildings across urban wards in India, focusing on optimising the allocation of Transferable Development Rights (TDR) for effective urban redevelopment. By integrating empirical data on building conditions, urban density, and redevelopment patterns, the study develops a dynamic framework that applies advanced statistical models to evaluate the efficiency of TDR allocations in high-risk zones. The research addresses critical issues of liquidity constraints, TDR hoarding, and inefficient redevelopment processes, proposing a refined mechanism for optimising TDR distribution through data-driven strategies. The proposed model balances redevelopment incentives with environmental and infrastructural sustainability by incorporating real-time market dynamics and environmental cost factors into TDR pricing. This study also includes case studies on slum redevelopment and real estate liquidity, offering actionable insights for policymakers to deploy TDR exchanges to accelerate urban regeneration. The findings contribute to the advancement of sustainable urban growth by offering a novel approach to resolving redevelopment inefficiencies while maintaining ecological balance.

‘I leave the everyday behind, everyday’: Sounds and spaces of the revanchist middle classes in Berlin’s Fünf Morgen Dahlem Urban village

Processes of gentrification and redevelopment have accelerated in Berlin in the decades following reunification, however the lens of research inquiry has most often been trained upon districts like Kreuzberg or Neukölln – areas synonymous with media portrayals of Berlin as a hedonistic, gritty, artistic location. These analyses rarely deal with how the regulation of sound features in Berlin’s reshaping via investment capital. This paper builds on previous research on housing developments and regeneration in Berlin, however it centres itself within the under-researched, affluent space of Dahlem in southwest Berlin. While this long affluent area does not necessarily undergo new-build gentrification, luxury developments like Fünf Morgen provoke sonic and spatial conflicts that highlight cleavages between different factions of the middle-classes. The paper shows how luxury housing projects come to shape the sonic and spatial atmospheres of cities via a micro-examination of sonic and spatial struggles around Fünf Morgen Dahlem Urban Village built almost 10 years ago. Through a discursive and ethnographic engagement with the everyday life of this site formerly occupied by the American Army Forces, the paper explores the urban atmospheres created by these projects after their instantiation. It evidences the neoliberal privatisation processes at work via sonic and spatial conflicts in already affluent city areas.

Reflective practice as a basis for building a sustainable public space: the case of Kartuzy

AbstractRecent decades have been characterized by dynamic changes in the urban design process in post-transition countries such as Poland. Numerous activities have focused on upgrading the urban environment. The transformation that drives change also requires some new skills, which are described in the theory of reflective practice: observation, experience, and reflection. The goal of this paper is to build a descriptive scheme of the urban design process based on the reflective practice approach. The case of Kartuzy was chosen as the authors of this paper actively participated in this town’s 10-year redevelopment process, which can be seen as an experimental approach. The experience gathered allowed them to generate results on the issue of reflective practice, both in the sphere of practical skills and the theoretical results of research. One of the main conclusions is that knowledge exchange, observing the influence of actions of participants, and experiencing various types of interactions in the process of spatial development all drive reflection, which is a crucial element for taking another step in improving the quality of the urban design process. This paper contributes to a discussion on using reflective practice in the context of the development of public spaces towards making them more sustainable.

Commoning the compact city: The role of old and new commons in urban development

Although densification is generally seen to contribute to more sustainable urban development, it is often linked to market-oriented and for-profit development, contributing to the enclosure of urban space. We analyse how densification can take a different path through processes of commoning. We particularly aim to understand how commoning initiatives can contribute to new institutional arrangements that counteract enclosure and commodification in densification. We furthermore aim to contribute to conceptual clarity in the debate on urban commons by emphasizing the different roles of so-called ‘old’ and ‘new’ commons in urban development. Our analytical framework builds on a new institutionalist approach which stresses the analysis of localized and temporary institutional arrangements negotiated among actors in a given situation. We rely on a detailed case-study of a densification project in the city of Bern (Switzerland), where publicly-owned land was redeveloped into cooperative housing and urban green space. Our findings show how densification leads to a transition phase in which institutional arrangements defining land uses and allocating access and use rights are renegotiated. These are crucial moments where processes of commoning can shape the outcome of densification, although not independently from the supportive action of the public actor. We underline the potential of new commons, even when typically transitional, unstable, and temporary. Contrary to old commons, their potential lies not so much in the ability for long-lasting resource management, but rather in the capacity to change the conditions of governance during the transition between land uses, advancing more socially-sustainable outcomes in a key moment of the urban redevelopment process.

Evolution Process of Urban Industrial Land Redevelopment in China: A Perspective of Original Land Users

The crucial role of urban industrial land redevelopment in sustainable urban renewal has garnered widespread attention. While some scholars have explored the interest game among stakeholders in industrial land redevelopment, they primarily focus on the government-led model. Moreover, there remains a research gap concerning the impact of government intervention on the redevelopment of industrial land. This article utilizes evolutionary game theory to investigate the interest game between local governments and original land users in the model of urban industrial land redevelopment dominated by original land users. We establish evolutionary game models considering incentives and the combination of incentives and regulations, explore the interest balance strategy, and examine the impact of positive incentives and mandatory regulations on industrial land redevelopment. Furthermore, we employ a numerical simulation to unveil the impact of initial strategies and parameter adjustments on game strategy. The research results are as follows: (1) Under the original land user-led redevelopment model, only two evolutionary stability strategies exist: either the original land users implement industrial land redevelopment with positive responses from local governments, or neither party advances the process. (2) Government intervention is pivotal in facilitating the redevelopment of inefficient industrial land as economic subsidies and punitive measures motivate more participants to adopt proactive strategies. (3) The increase in government support positively correlates with the likelihood of industrial land redevelopment implementation by original land users. (4) The interests and costs of original land users emerge as crucial parameters influencing strategic decisions. This study enriches the understanding of the interests of core participants in industrial land redevelopment and provides valuable insights for sustainable urban renewal.

Archival Challenges for the Van Nelle Factory

Marking the anniversary of the redevelopment of the Van Nelle Factory in Rotterdam, the related project archive was formally transferred to the Rotterdam City Archive in order to enable proper archival conservation and public accessibility of this essential documentation. This article sheds light on the documentation and redevelopment process of a modern World Heritage (WH) site and on the role of archives as an example for other protected heritage projects or sites.

Process and Politics Surrounding the Redevelopment of a Municipal Parking Deck Site in Houghton, Michigan

A proposal to redevelop 1.7 acres of publicly owned downtown waterfront property located in Houghton, Michigan involved a private developer replacing a decaying municipal parking deck with mixed-use taxable construction. The city’s redevelopment process and the developer’s vision for the site met opposition from a small, but well-organized, group calling for a halting of the process and the defeat of incumbent councilors in the subsequent election. Our analysis of the ballots found that challengers received more strategic votes than incumbents and that straight ticket and Election Day voters disproportionately skipped the city council race on their ballots. These results are consistent with collective action theory and rational ignorance theory.

Calculative governmentality for agreement: Politics of urban redevelopment in Chengdu, China

Recently, the role of the state in urban redevelopment has drawn increasing scholarly attention. However, insufficient efforts have been made to determine how the state intervenes in and legitimizes the processes of urban redevelopment. Existing theoretical angles have also not provided convincing explanations for the democratization of urban redevelopment in some traditionally authoritarian regimes. Hence, this study attempts to narrow these gaps by examining the politics of urban redevelopment in Chengdu, China, from a Foucauldian governmentality perspective. A series of calculative tactics was adopted to promote the processes of reaching an agreement and legitimizing the demolition of old communities. These tactics enabled the local state to maintain its dominance in the participatory politics of urban redevelopment. This study contributes to the literature on urban redevelopment by elaborating the processes and roles of the state and governmentality and clarifying the calculative foundation of democratized urban politics in authoritarian regimes.

No Room for Modesty in Heritage Significance: The Case of Dennesig in Stellenbosch, South Africa

Significance and authenticity are two key concepts that run through the practice of urban heritage conservation. When combined, they form a powerful tool within a value-based system that ensures the preservation and continued use of historic places. Stellenbosch, being the second oldest town in South Africa, holds great importance as a historic town. However, several historic suburbs have experienced processes of redevelopment, studentification, and gentrification over the past decade, resulting in their deterioration. But what happens when the unique heritage character of a place is considered insignificant by developers, heritage practitioners, architects, and the local authority? This paper focuses on the Dennesig neighborhood in Stellenbosch, where the broader context of modest heritage significance has been neglected and erased from historical records due to poorly conceived planning, urban design, and mismanagement of heritage resources. The argument put forth in this paper is that in order to evaluate a specific case study site, one must consider the complexities of broader heritage and urban planning processes. This understanding is crucial to comprehend the factors that have shaped the current context and the eventual significance attributed to a particular place, setting, or townscape.

Vertical expansion in the making: Planning against deindustrialization by promoting “Industry’s Going Upstairs” in Shenzhen

In recent years, industrial metropolises in China have experienced a surge in proactive planning initiatives aimed at developing high-rise industrial structures, commonly known as “Industry’s Going Upstairs (IGU).” This study argues that the IGU represents a distinct form of urban verticality that is neither motivated by capitalist speculation nor sustainability prompts but rather by local states’ intervention to ensure economic resilience and enhance innovation capabilities. This study presents the case of Shenzhen to demonstrate how the adoption of the IGU initiative is catalyzed by concerns over manufacturing sectors’ out-migration and the effects of volatile US-China relations on the city’s competitiveness. In light of these circumstances, Shenzhen has embraced the ambitious IGU initiative as a practical approach to reverse the trend of deindustrialization while sidestepping the lengthy process of industrial land redevelopment. The paper concludes by emphasizing the need for a comprehensive understanding of political-economic factors that drive urban vertical expansion and their potential consequences.

A model to define a real estate investment risk index for the administrative municipalities of Naples

Real estate redevelopment processes represent an important avenue for achieving sustainable development goals, but at the same time, they pose complex and opaque decision-making problems. Most existing risk assessment tools involve aggregate-scale analysis or require knowledge of extensive project financial data, which is often not yet available under ex-ante evaluation conditions. The aim of the work is to define a specific index through a spatial decision support system based on an innovative model that enables public and private entities to conduct effective ex-ante risk assessment at a sub-municipal territorial scale for public-private partnership risks. The proposed model adopts the flexibility of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique and the GIS system’s ability to clearly display the spatial distribution of real estate risk.