Underused Spaces Research Articles

Paradoxical postsecularity in the making: a methodological experiment in the study of China’s temple-centered urban redevelopment

The incorporation of Buddhist temples into urban redevelopment within China’s market transition became notable after the 2000s. Domestic and international real estate developers collaborated with local governments and state-owned enterprises in the construction of commercial complexes by converting under-used spaces around renowned Buddhist temples. Among these scattered projects of temple-centered redevelopment across Mainland China, this article identifies one during which the Hong Kong-based developer, Swire Properties (Taikoo in Cantonese), built an open, low-density shopping center in Chengdu around the Daci temple in 2014. Named as the “Taikoo Li,” the project attests to unique logics of planning and operation, while evoking discursive, cultural, and material practices, religious as well as non-religious, in people’s everyday life. Drawing upon an extensive ethnographic study in Chengdu, Sichuan, this article enters a dialogue with postsecularist debates dominated by Euro-American instances, and proposes micro-sociological reinventions of “postsecularity” by adopting a position of “methodological ludism” as opposed to conventional theist, atheist and agnostic positions. Our analytical and methodological inquiries aim to fully showcase the paradoxical nature of “postsecularity,” especially within a contemporary urban context, in which the paradoxes are sustained in the self-conflicting narratives of the researched as well as the reflexivity of the researchers.

Assessing urban park equity in Chaoyang District, Beijing using online review data

Urban parks are essential components of urban ecosystems, providing vital ecological resources for city residents. However, the rapid expansion of high-density urban areas has led to an unequal distribution of park resources, raising growing concerns about spatial equity. To address these challenges, we employed an improved Gaussian two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method, considering park quality variations and integrating sentiment scores from park reviews to calculate a comprehensive park accessibility index, accounting for both supply and demand dynamics among park users. The results demonstrate the significance of park management, as users prioritise convenience and cleanliness of public facilities. Recreational quality significantly influences park distribution equity, with areas near Beijing’s initial greenbelt zone showing improved accessibility (IA). Nonetheless, our analysis exposes disparities in urban park resource allocation within the Chaoyang District, indicating relative inequity. Spatial supply and demand mismatches, especially in the northwest and southeast, are evident. To enhance park layout equity, we recommend strategies like identifying and repurposing underused spaces, establishing pocket parks and micro-green areas, and improving recreational facilities. It is crucial to address the needs of vulnerable groups such as older residents and children. These insights stress the importance of ensuring fair urban park access to enhance the well-being of all city residents.

Urban Resilience: A Study of Leftover Spaces and Play in Dense City Fabric

Cities worldwide are urgently moving towards a more resilient and sustainable future. On this quest, national, regional, and local governments apply a combination of socio-spatial tools that regenerate and transform the city’s leftover spaces. There is an abundance of community gardens, cultural centers, and large-scale urban developments that, through programmed activities, reactivate underused spaces. The bearers of this process are professionals and individuals who have become aware of their actions in the contemporary urban landscape. This paper highlights possible design strategies that domesticate leftover spaces of diverse scales by injecting creative and playful programs, using Tokyo as a paradigmatic case study. More so than other global metropolises, the city represents a living laboratory for experimentation due to its compactness and the variety of urban patterns. Its leftover spaces demonstrate how play positively affects everyday life in public spaces, and how it enables extraordinary uses. A combination of ethnographic observations and spatial analysis is applied as a trans-disciplinary method. This approach allows an understanding of how people use playfulness to transform, appropriate, and utilize leftover spaces, which serves as guidance for urban planners and designers.

The impact of visual complexity on perceived safety and comfort of the users: A study on urban streetscape of Sri Lanka.

Increase in the variety of development in urban context has made it more complicated and complex for the users of public spaces. Absence of sufficient information to read the surrounding causes psychological anxiousness leading to perceived danger or discomfort for the urbanites. Consequently, perceived safety and comfort of the users is distinctively low in urban contexts, creating neglected and underused spaces. Complexity is one of the information processing variables as per Kaplan and Kaplan’s informational model which helps users to comprehend the surrounding environment. The streetscape plays a vital role in the daily movement patterns within the urban cities and is the transition boundary between the public and private realms. Visual complexity of these streets is a result of different configurations of elements within the urban areas. This research is conducted to ascertain the relationship between visual complexity levels of the streets with the perceived safety and comfort of the users. Shannon Diversity Index (SDI) and Fractal dimension analysis were conducted with 48 SVIs (Street View Images) selected within 1km radius of Colpetty junction, Colombo Sri Lanka covering all the possible compositions found within the context. The visual index data extraction had identified ten major components within the selected 48 SVIs. 78 subjective ranking responses for perceived safety, comfort (preference) and perceived complexity were collected from snowball sampling. Findings of the study revealed that perceived safety levels and preference scores for the SVIs are related to the Shannon Diversity Index calculation in an inverted ‘U’ shape where the highest and lowest SDI values are related with low preference scores and low safety levels. The SVIs with medium SDI values are perceived as the safest and most preferred by the users of urban streets of Colombo Sri Lanka. The SDI and fractal dimension values were significantly correlated with the perceived complexity scores of the users. The results of this study can be accommodated in the planning and designing of urban streetscapes of tropical climates for sustainable and friendly urban expansions.

Integrated Approaches to Ecosystem Services: Linking Culture, Circular Economy and Environment through the Re-Use of Open Spaces and Buildings in Europe

Green and blue infrastructure, nature-based solutions, and cultural and built heritage play a key role in enhancing ecosystem services provision and shaping urban quality and communities’ wellbeing calling for an integrated approach to ecosystem services in urban policy and planning and decision-making. On the other side, under-used spaces and buildings have social, cultural, economic, as well as ecological functions and benefits, which are essential to sustainable urban development. The EU has been developing and implementing policies for an integrated approach to urban development and sustainable land use through the implementation of the Urban Agenda for the EU and fourteen associated Partnerships. Thus, it engaged a broad range of institutions and stakeholders across Europe in promoting local projects and sharing best practices on sustainable land use and nature-based solutions, the circular economy, and cultural heritage. This paper reviews the experiences of cities involved in the Partnerships of the Urban Agenda for the EU by illustrating how they related to different modes of ecosystem governance and associated challenges, discussing how three case studies integrate different dimensions of ecosystem services and regeneration in under-used areas and what type of knowledge as well as regulation and governance modes they have developed for supporting innovation in land use planning and management for urban ecosystem services. The results show that appropriate alternative regulations and policies are little explored and that cities adopt an integrated approach, combining cultural, environmental, economic, and social dimensions in their interventions, directly or indirectly enhancing the benefits of built and natural heritage and urban ecosystems in under-used areas. However, some issues, such as nature-based solutions and climate change, are still partially integrated into the projects while priority is given to the cultural, aesthetic, and economic dimensions.

Lettuce Production under Mini-PV Modules Arranged in Patterned Designs

The growing need for clean energy and food production are favoring the use of underused spaces, such as rooftops. This study aims to demonstrate the compatibility of the use of rooftops both for the production of photovoltaic energy and for the production of food, despite the fact that both compete for the same resource, sunlight (rooftop agrivoltaic). In the experiment reported in this study, which was carried out in Almería (Spain) during the spring and summer of 2021, three shade treatments were tested for a lettuce crop, produced by photovoltaic modules with different arrangements: concentrated shade (CS), scattered shade (SS) and full sun (FS). This experiment was repeated in two seasons with high radiation levels and temperature. The results show that in these environmental conditions, the cultivation of plants that demand little sunlight, such as lettuce, is compatible with the shading produced by photovoltaic panels. In addition, it is shown that the same percentage of the area covered with shade (22%), but using mini-PV modules arranged in patterns, improves the productivity (fresh weight, dry matter, number of leaves, maximum length and dry matter of roots) of lettuce cultivation, both in spring and summer.

서울시 저이용 상업·업무공간의 현황과 활용에 관한 연구*

This study was written in order to analyze the current state and conditions of underused commercial and work space caused by the decrease in demand according to the change in the real estate market and to come up with utilizations of each case for the underused commercial and work space. Undersused spaces were defined by the used quantity of electric energy and embodied by the cluster analysis. The results has the following three points. Firstly, underused commercial and work spaces proved to be valid on the basis of electric energy consumption of a building. Secondly, the most underused spaces among non-residential ones proved to be commercial and work spaces and Gangnam, Mapo, Jung and Jongno-gus marked high-used ratio. Thirdly, the underused and non-residential spaces were embodied by economic, physical and locational conditions and 7 cases were classified with upcoming utilizations. This study was important enough to figure out the uses of non-residential lots and come up with the utilizations of each case and was expected to be a reference for efficient use of the underused commercial and work space.

Adequate Housing and COVID-19: Assessing the Potential for Value Creation through the Project

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the relationship between people’s behaviors and residential spaces, bringing to public and academic attention, on the one hand, the exacerbation of pre-existing problems and, on the other, the potential of spaces, such as communal gardens and apartment-block terraces, to become important resources of sociability or privacy. Overall, this raises the question of how to assess the responsiveness of the existing residential stock to needs that transcend the traditional concept of housing adequacy—e.g., the need for adaptable, open, and livable spaces. This research moves from the assumption that underused spaces in residential neighborhoods represent a crucial asset for creating new economic and social values through architectural and urban projects. Consequently, moving from an in-depth observation of a selection of public housing buildings in Turin as a paradigmatic case study, the aim is to explore the potential for the adaptive reuse of residential spaces at different scales—from the apartment to the neighborhoods—highlighting the implications for design. In doing so, the paper puts forward a methodological approach, which widens the way housing adequacy is normally assessed, by focusing on the possibility of transformation of often neglected spatial resources.

Temporary Use as a Participatory Placemaking Tool to Support Cultural Initiatives and Its Connection to City Marketing Strategies—The Case of Athens

For many cities, abandoned or underused spaces pose a major challenge, but temporary use is being manifested as a tool that can offer solutions. So-called “meanwhile spaces” provide opportunities for city officials to create the conditions for the cultural economy to be supported while simultaneously meeting urban regeneration goals and supporting city marketing purposes. In European cities, such as Berlin, Ghent, Nantes, and Bremen, there are examples where “temporary urbanism” is being incorporated into mainstream policy and is forming part of the city’s identity and tourism promotion. Temporary use is discussed in the context of current challenges facing European cities (austerity crisis, unemployment, refugee crisis, lack of affordable housing or office space). In this paper, the focus is on the creative sector. More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked discussion on how temporary use can cover a community’s needs. In this contextual framework, the scope was to explore the conditions under which temporary use becomes an effective policy tool and discuss management issues and difficulties that may arise. A description and analysis of the particularities of initiatives that were implemented in Athens compared to the ones in other European cities are presented. This paper is partly based on the works of the Athens URBACT Refill project, which included an extended consultation process with local stakeholders. Further field research was conducted regarding how temporary use initiatives with a cultural focus have been managed and the way the relations between owners, managers, and users were formed. Feedback from users and stakeholders’ representatives is presented. The key findings refer to the evaluation of the approaches used in temporary use initiatives with a cultural focus, the future perspectives, and the difficulty with drawing early conclusions on the effectiveness of these initiatives and the impact on the reputation of the city. Finally, the discussion is linked with promoting Athens as a city that allows experimentation by citizens’ groups and cultural initiatives in the context of temporary interventions.

From social movements to the coproduction of the city: the renewal of the Right to the City in the contemporary making of public spaces. The case of Madrid and Brussels

The article is based on the observation of Madrid and Brussels, where we can find recent similar claims for including each of their citizens in the city-making processes. Although Madrid has no experience in participatory planning, and Brussels is considered as one of Europe’s pioneers in this matter, with more than twenty years of experience, both cities encounter analogous citizen demands and self-organized actions for creating spaces that follow an ideal model that is more in line with some citizens’ requests.These demands range from asking for more possibilities in which citizens express their opinion and ideas about their environment (a new governance), to the requests for disposing of underused spaces for creating socializing places to gather (a new production of the city). Though, these urban social movements as Castells defines (Castells 1973) are not limited to mere demands, but also and nowadays systematically, they tend to pass to action and to hand the leading to empowered citizens.Thanks to crowdfunding, some projects don’t even wait until obtaining a public funding: once the building permit is given (for a permanent or temporary project), the budget for the realization comes from anybody who wills to be a sponsor. The online crowdfunding method can be applied also to crowd-thinking, crowd-creating and crowd-debating about the relevance of the project. Indeed, thanks to online networks and to mobile applications, citizens can not only express their discontent with the poor condition of a street or street furniture, but they can also make proposals and connect to other people to bring a collective solution to the matter.This vast range of means of production of the city in which its citizens struggle to achieve their ideal of a more inclusive city-making process, supposes that the degree of citizen empowerment is also broad. Notwithstanding the fact that the means used by Madrid and Brussels’ citizens to be included in the city-making are so diverse, many of these means claim to embrace a common Henri Lefebvre’s Right to the City.The article retraces the citizen-led and citizen-organized production of public spaces in Madrid and Brussels, intended as places to gather but also as places of discussion about the city-making, during the periods before and after the global crisis of 2008. The idea is to find the ways in which not only the governance is reconsidered to include citizens, but also the urban practices are questioned about their inclination to confine citizen participation only to the preliminary inquiries to a concrete project. Through the exploration of several cases of city-making which include citizens of Madrid and Brussels in the processes, the article questions which kind of Right to the city do they constitute: which are the city models defended by these practices (whose rights to what city? Brenner et al. 2012)? Are they a revision of Lefebvre’s theories in a (global crisis) context? Or are they a reinterpretation of Lefebvre’s Urban Revolution (Harvey 2013) responding to the contemporary withdrawal of the national state of many areas of the social life?

Metro/Education Montreal (1970): Rethinking the Urban at the Crossroads of Megastructures, Systems Analysis and Urban Politics

This paper revisits the “Metro/Education” project, an unrealized proposal for turning the underused spaces connected to Montreal’s underground metro system into a learning environment. Developed by architects Michel Lincourt and Harry Parnass in 1970, Metro/Education offered an alternative response to the campus plans for the newly created Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). The project shows how design was mobilized towards the strategic reorganization of education as part of a wider urban “system.” It offers a concrete illustration of how architecture and urban design, influenced by the discourse on megastructures, and informed by systems theory and environmental design, sought to redefine the role of designers as programmers of processes rather than designers of things. The paper also speculates as to how such intellectual emancipatory reconfigurations could go hand in hand with urban regeneration politics.

Agroecology to fight food poverty in Madrid’s deprived neighbourhoods

The agroecological movement is gaining presence in urban spaces, transcending the rural areas where it originated and revealing the need for an alliance between both worlds. As the social justice dimension is at the core of agroecology, one would expect that designing urban food systems with an agroecological approach would prioritize deprived neighbourhoods. However, this is not happening. To overcome it and address food poverty, we explore spatial design principles inspired by agroecology, to transform production and consumption along the urban-rural transect. We developed a methodology and applied it to a vulnerable neighbourhood (Bellas Vistas in Madrid, Spain), to outline a network of productive spaces and collective facilities for an agroecological transition that overcomes the middle-class bias commonly observed in Alternative Food Networks. It defines mechanisms to connect local needs with available resources, considering self-supporting communities, empty plots and underused spaces and buildings, as well as institutional policies and plans. This way, the traditional assistance approach can be replaced by a structural solution that disrupts dominant relationships bringing food sovereignty a step closer.

REVITALIZING LOST SPACE IN KADIKOY, ISTANBUL

Urban space is used by citizens at different frequencies and contains various different functionalities. Therefore, it can be observed that some areas are internalized while others remain abandoned. Underused spaces are referred to as lost space in literature, defined by Roger Trancik (1986). The work by Trancik has influenced other researchers into thinking and studying lost space in cities. Kadikoy is a historical settlement located in Istanbul. Starting from the 19th century, the area has gone through transformations under the chronological effects of industrialization, deindustrialization, modernization and lastly urban regeneration. Additionally, economic, political and social changes have led to lost spaces in various areas of Kadikoy. This research aims to identify these lost spaces, investigate the reasons of them becoming underused and propose solutions on how they can be regained into city life. The investigation consists of three parts: literature review, physical area analysis and a questionnaire towards frequent users of Kadikoy. In the literature review, Roger Trancik’s concept of lost space will be examined as well as other approaches towards underused spaces. Physical analysis such as figure ground and linkage will be used in the determination of differentiated areas of Kadikoy in terms of urban fabric. The questionnaire will provide a sociological point of view, to understand the reasons behind the preferences of users towards the spaces of Kadikoy. The following questions have been of guidance throughout the research: How are lost spaces segregated from the rest of Kadikoy? What were the driven causes in the formation of lost spaces? What can be done to revitalize these spaces into city life?

A comparison study on space-use analysis techniques and proposal of a novel method for determining space needs in public facilities

This paper deals with inefficient space management of public real estate resulting in discrepancy between the amount of space required for provision of public services and the amount of space that is available. This situation causes either waste of resources, in case of underused spaces, or affects quality of service if the space is overused. To address this issue, this paper compares different methods for space-use analysis and discusses their suitability for public facilities. It also proposes a novel, activity-centered method for defining space needs. The paper contributes to the state of the art in the following ways: It demonstrates that generally used methods for space-use analysis are not appropriate for public buildings due to their cost, complexity and building-centered approach. Moreover, it reveals that methods used in the private sector cannot be simply copied to the public one. However, its biggest contribution is proposal of a new, low-cost and activity-centered method for determining space needs that can be applied for multiple public buildings of different purposes.

Towards an Integrated Model of Livability of Public Spaces in Middle Income Neighborhoods

The New Urban Agenda prioritized livability of public spaces through design and management. As the management of public spaces defines the role they play in neighborhoods and the ways people react to it. Accordingly, all city elements are being reshaped and altered in the new policies and strategies of cities to meet people's interests. Nasr city, a middle-income neighborhood, is characterized by abundance of green open spaces relative to other parts of Cairo. However, based on former surveys and observations conducted by the authors, there were some remarkably livable public spaces in the district on the contrary to the general situation of underused spaces. With further analysis of these spaces, it is claimed that there are two models of livability of public spaces in Nasr City; formal initiatives and temporal acts. This paper aims at investigating the two management models through investigating the provided commodity each model serves in relation to community's needs, their governance models, the beneficiaries, and the time usages. To propose an integrated model that fulfills the needs of the community and enhances the livability of middle income neighborhoods. This shall be achieved through spaces' mapping and observations as well as interviews and questionnaires of the different stakeholders.

Converging social classes through humanized urban edges

Urban open spaces are created to be used by people. It is a place of convergence and social activity. However, these places have transformed into places of divergence. When spaces become dehumanized, it separates social classes. As a result, underused spaces contribute to urban decay. Particularly an urban edge, the JP Rizal Makati Waterfront Area is the center of this paper. The JP Rizal Makati Waterfront Area is a waterfront development situated along the banks of one of Metro Manila’s major water thoroughfare --- Pasig River. The park and its physical form, urban design and landscape tend to deteriorate over time --- creating a further division of social convergence. Social hostility, crime, negligent maintenance and poor urban design are contributing factors to this sprawling decay in what used to be spaces of bringing people together. Amidst attempts to beautify and renew this portion of Makati City’s edge, the urban area still remains misspent.This paper attempts to re-humanize the waterfront development. It uses the responsive environment design principles to be able to achieve this goal.

미군기지 유휴공간의 문화재생 사례 연구 : 캠프 그리브스 문화재생사업을 중심으로

미군기지 유휴공간의 문화재생 사례 연구 : 캠프 그리브스 문화재생사업을 중심으로

Urban gardening to foster community places on brownfields

In the changing world, urbanised areas and their growing populations are finding it increasingly necessary to make greater use of degraded city sites. These underused or completely derelict spaces and buildings, known as brownfields, appeared as potential spaces to fill the gap for temporary functions of short-term initiatives. Various bottom-up movements used participatory tools for engaging local people in the neighbourhood community life in Bratislava, Slovakia. The aim was to bring short-term activities such as mobile urban gardening to these parts of the city. These initiatives tried to improve diversity and strengthen social responsibility of communities and individuals. This paper aims to discuss the potential of using the social capital of local communities for temporary urban gardening activities, which are inherently connected to the space and its quality, to foster local sustainability. Urban gardeners are focused on local production of food, largely for local consumption. However, this paper describes lessons learned from implementing urban gardening activities in Bratislava and attempts to extend prior research on urban gardening by examining possible innovative ways of using vacant and underused spaces, such as brownfields, for its implementation into the planning practice.

Cumulative Cooperative Spectrum Sensing Scheme to Defend Against Selfish Users

Background/Objectives: This paper considers combatting the jamming and selfish attacks in Cognitive Radio (CR) networks operating at the white (unused) and grey (underused) spaces in the RF spectrum. CR facilitates effective utilization of RF spectrum resources but still vulnerable to various network attacks. Methods/Statistical Analysis: This study considered the jamming and selfish type of attack detection and to defend against them because of its severity. An Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is formed to combat the against jamming and selfish type of attacks in CR. Findings: In this system cumulative-sum algorithm is used, which incorpates the control centre information over the channel. The cumulative-sum based algorithm shows improved performance in provisioning better packet delivery ratio, throughput and minimum energy and packet drop. Further, this algorithms works better for more number of Secondary Users (SU), and the Unlicensed Users. Applications/Improvements: This work can be enhanced further by simulating under various network attacks and in the presence of numerous SU.

Operationalizing urban resilience through a framework for adaptive co-management and design: Five experiments in urban planning practice and policy

The emergent discourse on social-ecological resilience can be understood as a response to the rapid pace of change and severe challenges facing urban areas. This paper reports on one strand of research being carried out as part of the EU FP7 TURAS project (Transitioning to Urban Resilience and Sustainability) that aims to gain insight into the implications of social-ecological resilience thinking on urban planning practice and policy by presenting a unique, trans-disciplinary perspective that has been developed collaboratively between academic, local government and SME partners. A framework for adaptive co-management and design is introduced as a basis for the operationalisation of urban resilience, highlighting the need to actively solve problems collaboratively by exercising imagination and creativity, and presenting a new and potentially fertile source for innovation. Five experiments exploring urban planning practices relating to the framework are put forward as examples of urban resilience in practice: an online crowd-sourcing application for mapping underused spaces; an interactive timeline tool for identifying drivers of change over time; a guidance and signposting tool to help community projects overcome resource barriers; an epistemic network of citizens that exchanges knowledge and resources relating to underused spaces; and an online portal that provides visibility for community groups or projects, and facilitates horizontal networking. The paper describes each experiment, sets out the aims and theoretical contexts, records any initial findings, and reflects on the potential and limitations. Initial findings are discussed relating to the challenges of crowd-sourcing spatial or historical data, and the resource commitment required for the emerging practices. It is observed that the experiments attempt to address fundamental issues in urban planning practice and policy, and involve established and familiar activities. The paper concludes that the research provides insight into what urban resilience might mean in practice and that each experiment has the potential to make a tangible contribution to the transition to urban resilience and sustainability.