City Space Research Articles

Distinction, difference, and the place(s) of Latine working-class immigrants in the creative city

ABSTRACT This urban ethnography examines the “place(s)” of working-class Latine immigrants who participate in the production of cultural spaces in the creative city. In order to better understand their power to shape the space and the city itself, “place” is framed using theories of habitus and the production of space. Moving beyond professional elite artists and complicating the established categories of artist and worker, the analysis focuses on 37 in-depth interviews with first- and second-generation Latine immigrant artists and cultural workers. Based in the City of Santa Ana’s historic and gentrifying downtown, the research examines different locations from which working-class mostly Mexican immigrants help produce the creative city while also accepting and dissenting their various political, economic, and social positions. Latine immigrants in the creative city inhabit multiple physical and social locations with shifting levels of visibility and mobility shaping both minimal and maximal forms of difference. Although mostly temporary, expressions of alternative subjectivities and dispositions can exhibit distinctions associated with cultures of solidarity for working-class immigrant communities facing both exploitation and displacement.

Critical and prospective analysis of landscaping teaching in Brazil

Landscaping is responsible for taking advantage of available spaces in cities, organizing environments through the use of vegetation. The teaching of landscaping is interdisciplinary, involving knowledge that is related to the training of professionals. Through the application of a questionnaire, containing questions related to the teaching of Landscaping in Brazil, data were collected that were later analyzed using percentages, graphs, as well as maps that help in understanding this reality. It was possible to observe that the teaching of Landscaping in Brazil needs to be reviewed, as it is an interdisciplinary area and there are no specific undergraduate courses. Furthermore, professors of undergraduate courses that are directly related to Landscaping consider the workload to be small; in addition, most of them believe that the job market is promising and report the importance of the profession being regulated. In this way, it is possible to observe that teachers understand the importance and deficiencies that exist in the training of these professionals, and that there are aspects that must be reevaluated for better qualification in teaching Landscaping.

‘Queering’ Soho: Contesting the borders of normative space in the neoliberal city

In the context of the recent ‘black lives matter’ and ‘me too’movements, the issue of inclusivity and diversity, identity, gender, race,‘otherness’, is brought forth in many disciplines, architecture, academia, teachingand design practices. Although this is, of course, a positive progress, oneneeds to be mindful of the complexities and the potentially conflictual effectsof a normalisation, especially if this dismisses or disallows space for furtherprocesses of disruption, or if this commodifies queer space, objectifies theother, and hence distances it further. In this context, this study reflects onthe relationship between place, bodies, contested norms and social conventions,focusing on Soho, London as a case study, and on the associated evolution ofqueer spaces and narratives.

Counter-Mapping in Geographic Education: A Novel Approach to Understanding Urban and Cultural Dynamics in Cities

This study assessed the impact of counter-mapping on university students’ perception and knowledge of their cities, focusing on cultural diversity, urban dynamics, and social challenges. Using a quasi-experimental design with pretests and posttests in the province of Alicante, Spain, changes in the understanding of urban geography, everyday life, and cultural diversity were analyzed among 54 Geography Didactics students. Likert scale surveys and open-ended questions were employed, complemented by statistical and qualitative analyses, to measure knowledge and perceptions before and after the counter-mapping project. The results indicate that although quantitative correlations did not show statistically significant significance, qualitative analysis revealed significant and profound learning. Participants uncovered the hidden layers of their urban environments and gained a better understanding of the complexities and challenges of their cities. The project promoted the development of critical skills such as analytical thinking, active research, and effective communication, proving to be a valuable pedagogical tool that surpasses the limitations of traditional teaching methods and encourages active and committed citizenship. This inclusive and multidimensional approach enriches the diversity of experiences and knowledge, significantly contributing to the teaching of urban subjects, community engagement, and social responsibility and laying the groundwork for the proper tourist, cultural, social, or urban planning of city spaces.

Green-gray imbalance: Rapid urbanization reduces the probability of green space exposure in early 21st century China

Green space exposure provides greater beneficial effects on residents compared to unnatural spaces, commonly referred to as “gray spaces”. However, during rapid urbanization, gray spaces expand more quickly than green spaces, often encroaching upon and overtaking these natural environments. This unchecked growth leads to detrimental impacts on the human habitat and overall environmental quality. Consequently, it is essential to meticulously assess the spatial and temporal patterns of residents' exposure levels, as well as to thoroughly investigate the underlying driving mechanisms behind these changes. This study used population-weighted exposure level measurements to assess gray and green space exposure in Chinese cities in the early 21st Century (2000–2019). Additionally, the Gray-Green space Exposure Ratio (GER) was calculated, and the spatiotemporal driving mechanism of GER by each factor was analyzed by geostatistical modeling. The results show that gray space exposure is generally increasing in China, especially in eastern parts of China. The probability of exposure to gray spaces exceeds that of green spaces in some high urbanization rate cities. This trend will continue, albeit at a slower rate. Urban sprawl, built-up area density, and increased electricity consumption were the main drivers of rising GER, whereas greenspace integrity contributed to lower GER; the driving mechanisms for GER changes were spatiotemporal heterogeneous. This study provides a reliable reference for restoring the green space exposure to promote the living environment constructing and residents' access to nature.

A Study of the Relationship between Human Behavior and Urban Design during the Winter in a High-Snowfall Urban Area

This study focuses on the relationship between the outdoor environment and usage behavior of open spaces in cities with snowy and cold climates (winter cities), using an outdoor survey conducted at AKAPURA Plaza in Sapporo, Japan. This study seeks to understand walking and staying behaviors and analyzes their relationships to snowy outdoor environments. An analysis of the survey data shows that while the number of pedestrians using AKAPLA Plaza decreased as temperatures dropped, the ratio of staying behavior to the number of pedestrians did not decrease despite dropping temperatures. This study identified the following three design principles that can be applied to encourage the usage of open urban spaces during the winter. In winter, the number of pedestrians decreases in correlation with decreases in temperature; however, during the snowy season, walking can be encouraged by providing areas with less snow (PATH). Partially snow-covered areas can encourage photography and snow play behavior (STORAGE). Finally, providing walking routes to snow-covered areas can encourage staying behavior (APPROACH). These design principles were established based on the study in Sapporo and have the potential to be widely applied in other winter cities across the world through future research and analysis.

Influence of land use change on habitat quality: a case study of coal mining subsidence areas.

Revealing the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and key driving processes behind the habitat quality is of great significance for the scientific management of production, living, and ecological spaces in resource-based cities, as well as for the efficient allocation of resources. Focusing on the largest coal-mining subsidence area in Jiangsu Province of China, this study examines the spatiotemporal evolution of land use intensity, morphology, and functionality across different time periods. It evaluates the habitat quality characteristics of the Pan'an Lake area by utilizing the InVEST model, spatial autocorrelation, and hotspot analysis techniques. Subsequently, by employing the GTWR model, it quantifies the influence of key factors, unveiling the spatially varying characteristics of their impact on habitat quality. The findings reveal a notable surge in construction activity within the Pan'an Lake area, indicative of pronounced human intervention. Concurrently, habitat degradation intensifies, alongside an expanding spatial heterogeneity in degradation levels. The worst habitat quality occurs during the periods of coal mining and large-scale urban construction. The escalation in land use intensity emerges as the primary catalyst for habitat quality decline in the Pan'an Lake area, with other factors exhibiting spatial variability in their effects and intensities across different stages.

“If you just sit at home and look out of the window, then there is no life.” an ethnographic study of how home-dwelling people with dementia use the cityscape's life in practice

In the near future, more people with dementia will be living at home within an urban context due to a combination of an increased number of people living with dementia and this past decade's urbanization. A common perception is that home-dwelling people with dementia experience a shrinking world, but emerging research from the UK, Sweden, and the Netherlands has broadened this notion by foregrounding how people with dementia experience neighborhoods as a resource in self-care practices. With this article, we contribute to this emerging body of literature and aim to explore how people with dementia experience the cityscape in relation to the onset and progression of their dementia. This study outlines findings from a 7-month ethnographic study involving 12 home-dwelling people with dementia. Using semi-structured interviews, walking interviews, and photovoice, the study explores how the cityscape of Copenhagen, Denmark, affects the everyday life of home-dwelling people living with dementia. Through thematic analysis, three key themes are identified: interaction with the city's life and space as self-care practices, getting out and about as a way to practice a sense of “being in the world” and the loss of orientation abilities and the changing boundaries of the cityscape. The findings from this study contribute to current discussions concerning how people with dementia experience and perceive city and neighborhood environments.

Manoeuvring urban spaces in-between public and private: female agency in early-twentieth-century Gothenburg

ABSTRACT This article analyses female agency in early twentieth-century Gothenburg. It argues that female urban practices were a major catalyst for the transformation of urban space in the port city, which has traditionally been attributed to male-dominated activities in trade, industry and urban politics. Drawing on women’s personal memories and on insights offered by theoretical studies that consider gender and mobility as constitutive elements of urban space, the article focuses on women’s mobile practices in the rapidly changing industrial port city: on female migration, on how women navigated the labour market, and on their perception as home-makers. In doing so, it places particular emphasis on how women acted in the blurred boundaries between ‘public’ and ‘private’ spaces and thereby on one of the major ordering principles of urban life.

Diversity and Species Composition of Ants in Urban and Suburban Environments in Bejaia City (Algeria)

We conducted an ant inventory in urban and suburban spaces in Bejaia city to deal with this need for more information about ant biodiversity in the Algerian urban environment. The two methods, hand collecting and pitfall traps, are carried out 24 days in three months (May, June, and July) of 2022. In the urban habitats, 2,653 ant individuals were collected, comprising ten species, six genera and three subfamilies. In the suburban habitats, 6,706 ant specimens were collected, comprising 19 species, 11 genera, and three subfamilies. The most abundant subfamilies in both urban and suburban habitats are Formicinae, followed by Myrmicinae and Dolichoderinae. The results showed that suburban habitats are more diversified (H’= 1.72) than urban habitats (H’= 1.25). The equitability values for suburban and urban habitats are moderate, with 0.58 and 0.54, respectively. The Jaccard similarity index value is 0.45, indicating an essential turnover of ant species between urban and suburban habitats. The ant community’s composition differed between sampled sites (NMDS, Stress = 0.013). The average dissimilarity (as per SIMPER) was 90.37%. Four species (T. simrothi, L. cf. grandis, P. cicatricosa, and L. myops) contributed to 70% of the differences between sites of urban and suburban habitats.

Informal public space: exploring street vending in Tehran

ABSTRACT The shaping of public spaces in global South cities generally involves informal actors and activities competing for access, use, and visibility, with street vending being one of the most prevalent forms of urban informality. Despite the crucial role of street vendors in shaping the streetscapes and promoting employment productivity, they often face little dignity and tolerance from authorities. This paper presents findings derived from a case study in Tehran, using observation, photography, fieldwork notes, archival records, and urban mapping to investigate the dynamics of street vending in relation to human/non-human entities, including functional mix, ground-floor storefronts, pedestrian flows, and gender. Empirical evidence suggests that street vendors are attracted to high volumes of pedestrian traffic, acting as external stimuli or social catalysts that impact people’s relationships, especially women’s. The paper reveals a strong link between the predominance of street vending and increased levels of women’s activities, albeit with negligible use of public space by women vendors. The paper provides empirical evidence that street vending is a male-dominated occupation in the studied area. These findings offer insights for developing context-specific, spatially grounded interventions that recognise the diversity of street vendors and enable their activities to thrive in the public realm.

Above Ground Biomass and Carbon Sequestration of Urban Green Spaces in Danang City, Vietnam

Green space in cities is an essential component of the urban environment. Different forms of urban green spaces, with varying populations, plant communities, and roles, offer varying urban ecological advantages. Using the i-Tree Eco model, this study examined the structural characteristics of urban green trees and calculated the biomass storage capacity and carbon sequestration in urban green spaces in Da Nang City. The results revealed a considerable diversity of species composition among 7,513 trees belonging to 42 species of 20 families studied in four types of green spaces, with Terminalia catappa, Cyrtostachys renda, and Roystonea regia dominating. The average Shannon biodiversity index was 2.9, with the institution having the highest at 2.6 and the park having the lowest at 2.2. The total leaf biomass per hectare was 588.0 kg/ha, and the carbon sequestration rate was 2,845.30 kg/ha. Ficus subpisocarpa was the species with the highest value for these two advantages, and the park was the green space with the highest benefit in terms of biomass and carbon sequestration.

Evaluation of Public Gardens in Terms of the Relationship Between Climate and Design

National gardens are an important element of green spaces in today's cities, meeting the needs of the community for recreation, sports and interaction. However, environmental and social challenges facing cities are leading to changes in the design and function of these gardens. The concept of resilient cities refers to the resilience of cities against natural disasters, climate change and other risks. National gardens can be designed as an important part of becoming resilient cities. Equipping these gardens with structures resistant to various natural disasters and adopting sustainable practices such as water management can increase the overall resilience of the city. Sustainable city and eco-city concepts are also important elements to consider in the design of community gardens. These concepts include principles such as environmental sustainability, energy efficiency and strengthening green infrastructure. National gardens can be equipped with sustainable practices such as rainwater recycling systems, the use of local plant species and waste management. Nation gardens designed in this way not only provide recreation and relaxation for city residents, but also contribute to the environmental and social sustainability of the city. In addition, these gardens encourage community cohesion and solidarity. As a result, community gardens are important elements of resilient, sustainable and ecologically balanced cities. Adopting the principles of resilient city, sustainable city and eco-city in the design and management of these gardens can help cities meet future challenges and improve their livability.

On the issue of the concept of public sculpture in urban space

The subject of the study is the phenomenon of public sculpture. This topic is very relevant, as public sculpture causes extensive controversy, which involves sculptors, architects, urbanists, representatives of public organizations. The purpose of the study is to substantiate the place of public sculpture in the contours of the artistic and associative landscape of a modern city. The research methodology includes historical, cultural and cross-cultural analysis, a dialectical approach to assessing the trajectories of the aesthetics of public sculpture, as well as a conceptual analysis of the phenomenon of public sculpture in modern public, including urban, spaces. As a result of the research, the historical genesis of the phenomenon of public sculpture was presented, the place of public sculpture in the postmodern paradigm was characterized, attention was paid to the problems of low performance quality, inappropriate installation sites in public urban space and the creation of visual noise. Refined scientific definitions of the concepts of social and public sculpture are proposed. I'd like to emphasize the importance of researching and defining the concepts of public and urban sculpture, as well as the need to develop methodological approaches for the management and evaluation of public sculpture. This article proposes an adaptation of the concept of an artistic and associative city landscape, which allows public sculpture to harmoniously fit into the urban environment. The use of a methodological approach will allow us to manage creative activity in this area and make the right decisions regarding the ordering, financing and placement of public sculpture in public spaces of cities.

Trajectory Deviation Estimation Method for UAV-Borne Through-Wall Radar

Mini–unmanned aerial vehicles (mini-UAVs) are emerging as a promising platform for through-wall radar to sense the enclosed space in cities, especially high-rise buildings, due to their excellent maneuverability. However, due to unavoidable environmental interference such as airflow, mini-UAVs are prone to trajectory deviation thus degrading their sensing accuracy. Most of the existing approaches model the impact of trajectory deviation into a polynomial phase error on the received signal, which cannot fit the space-variant motion error well. Moreover, the large trajectory deviations of UAVs introduce the unavoidable envelope error. This article proposes an autofocusing algorithm based on the back projection (BP) image, which directly estimates the trajectory deviations between the actual and measured track. Thus, the problem of the 2D space variability of the motion error can be circumvented. The proposed method mainly consists of two steps. First, we estimate the trajectory deviation in the line-of-sight (LOS) direction by exploring the underlying linear property of the wall embedded in the BP imaging result. Then, the estimated trajectory deviation in the LOS direction is compensated for to obtain an updated BP image, followed by a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) approach to estimate the trajectory deviation along the track through focusing targets behind the wall. Simulations and practical experiments show that the proposed algorithm can accurately estimate the serious trajectory deviations larger than the range resolution, improving the sensing robustness of UAV-borne through-wall radar greatly.

예술가 없는 예술지구

In the process of revitalizing hateful spaces in cities, cultural urban regeneration is known to play a positive role in fundamentally renewing the old negative image of an area. While the voluntary closure of Seonmi-Village, a notable red-light district in Jeonju City, through the implementation of cultural governance, is well-documented, little attention has been given to the operations and policy implications of Seonosong Arts Village. This study thus examines the transition from Seonmi-Village to Seonosong Arts Village, employing data collection and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, including women’s rights advocates and local arts actors, with a focus on creative placemaking. As a result, it was stated that although the Women’s Rights Center’s solidarity activities with local artists in the process of publicizing women’s rights discourse showed tangible results, there was a relative lack of communication and solidarity between the actors. Furthermore, it was noted that artists tended to prioritize business endeavors over developing a comprehensive understanding of their locality. Hence, this study underscores the importance of nurturing a community of artists as local stakeholders for the sustainable implementation of cultural regeneration initiatives.

Gendered spaces in islamic cities: Bridging sharia law and urban planning goals

Gendered spaces in islamic cities: Bridging sharia law and urban planning goals

Nafplion Blues: Prison Stories. The Prisons of Nafplion as Brutal Scenographies

The prison sites and their timeless presence in the city of Nafplion were the starting point for two workshops for students of the University of the Peloponnese. The result of these workshops titled Nafplion Blues: Prison Stories, was presented in the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2023 as part of the Greek student exhibition. Students of the module “Performance and space” created the site-specific performance Listen-Watch-Βe Silent in which performers and spectators participated in a pilgrimage procession to former prison sites in Nafplion. The module “Social Theatre” was held at the Agricultural Prison of Tiryns. After a series of theatre workshops, the inmates and the students presented the devised performance The Journeys of the Potato, from Andes to Tiryns: Legends and Truths to only two spectators and the prison guards. In the present paper, the authors focus on the use of the prison – in the present and in the past – as performance space. Prisons function as the absolute dystopian places that oscillate between private and public space: from the Agricultural Prison of Tiryns’ hermetically sealed, private space to the open, public space of the historic city of Nafplion, where the buildings that once housed prisons are scattered throughout the city. In this type of found spaces, the spectators and the performers are moved both emotionally and physically. Through the brutality emitted by the real substance of the sites, the “scenographic city” reveals stories and traumas, while inviting spectators and creators to assume social and political responsibility. Keywords: performance space, found space, public space, private space, site-specific performance, social theatre.

PUBLIC SCULPTURE IN WARTIME UKRAINE AS A FORM OF THE STATE’S MEMORY POLITICS

The authors argue that during wartime in Ukraine, public sculpture serves as a reflection of the memory politics of the contemporary Ukrainian state. As such, these politics are aimed at breaking away from the Soviet legacy that continues to exist simultaneously in the form of hidden or sometimes obvious remnants of older colonial narratives of Ukrainian history and in the form of aesthetic artifacts akin to those that can be seen in the public space of big cities, e.g. sculptures and reliefs, etc. However, in its efforts to shed the Soviet legacy, Ukraine's memory politics often uncritically adopt dominant capitalist narratives, inadvertently perpetuating another form of cultural oppression and colonization. In addition to critiquing contemporary market-driven discourse, the authors stress the importance of not overlooking the layer of mythological memory, as it constitutes one of the most fundamental elements of Europe's cultural landscape.

Design and Development of Smart Parking System Using RFID Technology

We can now access all non- interenet things from anywhere through Internet of thinking IoT and it made easy to access. People must grow with the technology. With the Parking what we have now, People are facing difficulties to park their Vehicles in their Parking Space in Cities. In Our study we designed a Smart Vehicle Parking, with which people can know about the nearest Parking Slot it will give the data of available Parking Slots in respective parking Space. Using the Smart Vehicle Parking People can save their time by finding available Slots So they don’t have to spend time and it they don’t have to travel already filled parking lots in a parking areas. It also reduces fuel consumption which is good for atmosphere.Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is a device that allow us to store the data in RFID tag ,it is an automated identifying technique s for the remote retrieval or transponders.An RFID tag is a radio-frequency identification and tracking device that is used to integrated into a product, animal, or human, as it is using radio waves for tracking. Some RFID tags are read from many meters away . We can use RFID technology in malls and Buildings for vehicle Parking . This Vehicle Parking System is having RFID card,RFID Reader a LED display board, vehicle counter and a audrino micro-controller. When a car is to be parked , RFID reader which is installed near the entry gate will read the RFID card. When a vehicle enter a parking slot it will open the gate and the the vehicle will be identified and when it takes a Parking slot it will be displayed in the LED Display and the available spot will reduce by and occupied slot will be increased by 1. When the same vehicle leave the parking slot, the available slot will increase by 1 and occupied slot will reduce by one . We can also book and reserve a parking slot for us, when there are no parking slot availabe it will notify us as no Parking slot is available