Urban Beautification Research Articles

Artistic Interventions in Urban Renewal: Exploring the Social Impact and Contribution of Public Art to Sustainable Urban Development Goals

The aim of this study was to explore the multiple roles of public art in urban renewal and sustainable development goals, combining qualitative and quantitative methods, with an emphasis on community engagement and the application of theoretical frameworks. Through a detailed analysis of public art projects in Teruel, Spain, and Chengdu, China, this study shows how public art plays an important role in enhancing cultural values, promoting social inclusion, and driving economic growth. Qualitative methods such as interviews and content analysis were used to gain in-depth insights into the views and experiences of artists, urban planners, policymakers, and community members. At the same time, quantitative methods such as questionnaires and spatial analysis were used to assess the specific impacts of public art on urban beautification, social inclusion, and economic growth.

Implications of Neoliberal Urban Beautification for Social Spaces and Marginalised Communities: A Case Study of Bada Talab at Ranchi

Implications of Neoliberal Urban Beautification for Social Spaces and Marginalised Communities: A Case Study of Bada Talab at Ranchi

Designing a ‘vibrant, attractive and sustainable city’: feminist approaches to beautification in Kampala, Uganda

Beauty, as an aesthetic ideal and intrinsically power-laden paradigm, is central to urban development projects. Yet there remains limited critical work that interrogates the colonial underpinnings, violent outcomes, and negotiations of beauty politics in urban beautification programs. In our article, we approach urban beautification campaigns in downtown Kampala, Uganda via an explicitly African, and Black feminist analytic of beauty. Specifically, we center the experiences of women market vendors as they navigate city greening initiatives and development plans which promise to ‘transform’ Kampala and re-brand it once again as the ‘Garden City of Africa’. We argue that pairing urban beautification and Black and African scholarship around beauty offers generative insights as it understands such spatial programs as always embodied, contested, and inseparable from intersectional power hierarchies. In turn, we take seriously and carefully examine discourses around beautification: by tracing its colonial and gendered foundations and its visceral impacts as it is internalized and renegotiated by low-income women operating in downtown markets in Kampala. As such, our focus on beauty situates beautification as a disciplining and displacing practice and as mentally and physically violent. Finally, it reveals how women try to envision their own beautiful Kampala.

URBAN PLANNING APPROACHES TO PLANNING THE BEAUTIFICATION SYSTEM OF RESIDENTIAL AREAS DURING THEIR RECONSTRUCTION

The analysis of planning experience of inhabited localities urban beautification in view of reconstruction was undertaken in the article. The question of Ukrainian experience of urban beautification system in accordance with approved standards and State Constructional Standards was envisaged. Analysis of validation state of local documents in urban beautification field was carried out and it has shown deficient percentage of regulatory documents approval on local level, which is one of key issues of urban beautification development. Furthermore, detailed analysis of foreign experience of urban beautification planning and development trend of this system I such countries, as USA, Canada, France, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan was carried out. It is shown that first and critical stage of planning of effective urban beautification is preparing and approving corresponding certificates and standards. Emphasis added to functioning normative legal documents on issues relating to urban beautification, in accordance to which the territory reconstruction in mentioned countries is realized. It was established that reference direction of urban beautification development in mentioned countries lies in parking lots removing out of the borders of curtilage or underground parking arrangement, landscape gardening development and classification of such territories by levels of urban gardening, territory reconstruction in accordance with typical schemes of street infrastructure development, urban gardening, cycle paths, etc. It is shown that problem solution of habitable open grounds organization on city level resides in usage intensification of such territories, and on the level of residential compounds – in increasing exploitation properties of open grounds. As a result of undertaken analysis it was established that raised problem of increasing the effectiveness of residential area usage within residential areas imposes complex approach, including question of land development intensiveness, architectural and planning organization and open grounds beautification.

State Murals, Protest Murals, Conflict Murals: Evolving Politics of Public Art in Ukraine

Russian interference and invasion in Ukraine have transformed that nation’s historical practice of mural painting. A traditional art form with deep religious and political resonance in Ukraine, murals have become an instrument for patriotic mass mobilisation against the Russian military threat. From the mid-2000s, spraypaint graffiti underwent a gradual process of professionalisation and reconciliation with mainstream culture as Ukrainian municipalities pursued urban beautification initiatives and city-branding strategies to mitigate the socioeconomic challenges of postsocialism. It was this legacy of apolitical, privately funded street art that provided the foundations for patriotic muralism following the Maidan “Revolution of Dignity” and the Russian annexation of Crimea. Amidst the post-Maidan search for a postcolonial understanding of Ukrainian culture disentangled from Soviet and Russian influences, professionally produced murals in central urban districts proposed new visions of national identity. The war’s intensification since 2022 has resulted in a decentralisation of mural production. No longer reliant on international festivals in urban centres, conflict murals are now made by Ukrainian artists in large cities and small towns across the country. The newest murals represent a blending of the physical and digital—with a subject matter often inspired by viral conflict memes; artworks are, in turn, shared with worldwide audiences via social media.

On public participation in efforts to beautify the towns and cities of Galicia in times of its autonomy. Prolegomenon

This paper is an introduction to studies of Urban Beautification Societies (“UBSs” in the plural) active in times of Galicia’s autonomy (1867–1914). The Societies were community organisations set up in many cities and towns across Galicia from the 1880s onwards with a view to improve the aesthetic in public urban space. To Galicia, years of its autonomy yielded years of considerable expansion of civic freedoms, including the re-enacted right to association. Formed by individuals with university education, UBSs were popular throughout Galicia, their structure frequently reflecting the local cross-section and specificity of social strata. Established in large, medium-sized, and small cities and towns (such as Cracow and Lviv; Przemyśl; Wadowice and Wieliczka), they attempted to reach their goals chiefly through establishing urban parks and green squares (often as not with accompanying infrastructure, such as tennis courts or bowling alleys); planting trees in market and other public squares and along communication routes; developing aesthetically pleasing small architecture; and taking initiative to erect monuments and install commemorative plaques, usually commissioned with eminent artists. The latter – in large cities in particular, where art communities were large and powerful – were occasionally UBS co-organisers and members, and thus capable of considerable influence over any Society activities, potentially including publishing, graphic artists and painters especially prominent therein.

Insight into vegetation inclusion along urban roads: A pilot study on the preferences of expatriate roadside users in downtown Doha, Qatar

Physical Activity (PA) is vital for health and well-being. Automobile-oriented urban development hinders PA in rapidly urbanized cities. In this regard, Complete Streets’ is an emerging design approach to provide equitable services for all road users while promoting PA. Qatar is introducing ‘Complete Streets’ as part of an urban beautification project in which trees are an integral design element. In the capital city of Doha, expatriates constitute a large portion of the resident population; and primary roadside users due to their dependence on public transportation like the Metro rail. Using a quantitative survey, this pilot study conducted in a typical road segment of downtown Doha investigated the preferences of expatriate roadside users for ecosystem services (ES) offered by the street vegetation, the four potential roadside vegetation types, and the associated reasons. The results revealed that the top two preferred ESwere the benefits of street vegetation in the aesthetic enhancement of streets and microclimate regulations. The vegetation type that was perceived to have more greenery was most preferred. The perceived ‘restorative’ benefits of street vegetation mainly influenced the preferences. The findings of this study provide insight into the inclusion of vegetation along roads under the beautification projects in downtown Doha by the Public Works Authority, Ashghal. It is the first study in Qatar that focuses on the preferences of expatriate roadside users for the ES offered by street vegetation and street vegetation types.

Innovative research on urban public art design from the view of interactive experience

with the continuous progress of social technology, people’s demand in the material, spiritual experience and living environment has been further promoted. The urban infrastructure and other hardware functions have been achieve.Therefore, people began to develop urban public art design, in order to further promote the urban beautification environment, and ensure the quality of people’s living environment. Nowadays, urban public art design has drawn the social development attention. This paper put forward the combination of technology and art, interactive experience enhancement, public participation and information design innovation direction., through the analysis to urban public art design innovation research on the perspective of interactive experience from the domestic and foreign cases.

Population variability of vegetative organs of Dahurian larch in Eastern Transbaikalia

The available information on the morphological diversity and localization of the morphological forms of Dahurian larch (Larix gmelinii) in Siberia is currently insufficient. This research seeks to fill the knowledge gaps to some extent. The paper describes the population variability of vegetative organs of Larix gmelinii growing in Eastern Transbaikalia, Russia. The problem is approached by studying a complex of morphological characters of natural Larix gmelinii populations along the Transbaikalian rivers. Also, the habitat conditions of Dahurian larch coenopopulations were recorded for further analysis of the connection between the morphological characters and the habitat parameters. The study established the values of morphological characters and their variability limits and traced the localization patterns of the morphological forms of Dahurian larch in the river basins. Moreover, the morphological characters of larch vegetative organs were found to relate to the location and the habitat conditions of the coenopopulations. The research materials can be useful for correcting the larch seeding zones in Transbaikalia, establishing larch genetic reserves, and introducing new morphological forms into the selection for urban beautification and protective plantations. The study provides additional information on the morphological variability patterns of Larix gmelinii for the area of species in general. Keywords: Eastern Transbaikalia, Larix gmelinii, vegetative organs, population variability

“Anxious Desires”

AbstractIn 1961, the Mexican government launched the Programa Nacional Fronterizo (Pronaf) in partnership with the country's economic elites, a precursor to the state's more widely known border industrialization project. Pronaf was ostensibly an urban beautification program targeting nine cities at the Mexico-US border, led by former Ciudad Juárez mayor Antonio Bermúdez and with architecture supervised by Mexico City–based modernist Mario Pani. However, as this article argues, Pronaf sought to better integrate the borderlands to the national market and political structure at a moment of crisis. The state's capitalist modernization plan of import substitution industrialization, which produced the so-called Mexican Miracle in the 1940s, was showing signs of strain. Greater consumption of products made in Mexico, based on a more patriotic identification by citizens at the border, would buttress the “Miracle,” which had initially ignored these very citizens based on metropolitan perceptions of their lack of allegiance to Mexico and affinity for the US. Understanding spectacular architecture to have not only a didactic but an affective function, Pronaf deployed a network of soaring, Jet Age–inspired built environments. These parabolic hyperboloid environments, accompanied by a hyperbolic rhetoric from Bermúdez, sought to convince border residents of the “beauty” and “desirability” of national culture and the fluidity of the national market just as their socioeconomic mobility came under greater government scrutiny. Pronaf piloted an affective infrastructure that desired to channel border residents’ citizenship and consumption toward the reproduction of the political and economic status quo, eventually setting the stage for neoliberal transition.

Forgotten Contributions: The Overlooked Impact of Ellen Harrison and Early 20th Century Women in Urban Greening

Many women and women-run associations were involved in historical urban beautification in the United States, especially tree planting, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While men had formal roles as city foresters, arborists, horticulturalists, and landscape architects, women from elite families sometimes labored for free to organize and advocate for urban tree planting. Tightly knit social circles of high-society women in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, yielded much greater influence in nascent tree planting and park creation movements than has generally been recognized. They often contributed their time, finances, input, and skill to landscape planting projects; however, they were not considered equal to the men who were compensated employees. These women planted, plotted, studied, and persevered, overcoming preconceived notions of womanhood, although their meaningful efforts were often viewed as merely an offshoot of their feminine domestic role. For women, limited by opportunities in male-dominated arenas, shaping their cities was a socially accepted means for empowerment. Ellen Waln Harrison (1846 to 1922) was a key figure in civic beautification in her hometown of Philadelphia and beyond. Ellen Harrison was married to Charles Custis Harrison, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, and she personally oversaw campus landscaping efforts, and was referred to as his “right hand.” Her story is emblematic of a larger trend regarding women in botany, horticulture, and urban forestry around the turn of the 20th century.

Urban Green Space for Sustainable Environmental Health in Relation to Pandemic Crises

Trace the timeline of a pandemic such as Ebola, SARS, and SARS-CoV-2. All these extremely infectious viruses led to a worldwide pandemic starting in 2002. All these three viruses are transmitted to humans by animals from the jungle. The novel human coronavirus COVID-19 is now the fifth documented pandemic since the 1918 influenza pandemic. Questions about pandemics are on the rise these days, and it is widely discussed in the media. Recently, awareness about urban green spaces is rising in this era, and numerous researchers claim that appropriate landscape planning and design with the conception of sustainability able to produce a beneficial and responsive environment for healthy urban improvement in relation to pandemic crises. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of urban green spaces for sustainable environmental health. The result shows that the role of urban green spaces improves immune system function, increases social capital and cohesion, reduces mortality, and increases life expectancy, reduces potential negative health impacts, and makes urban beautification healthier. In addition, the finding shows the benefits of urban green spaces in pandemics, for example improving mental health and stress reduction, improving physical health, decreasing the risk of disease transmission, and improving social cohesion.

Role of Functional Illumination Urban Beautification: Qatar-Doha Road Illumination Case

In this study, numerical analysis was made for 7 different road scenarios, which are called functional illumination in the architectural field. In functional illumination (road illumination) within the scope of the lighting masterplan, optimum illumination was provided in the simulation environment according to the criteria of the International Illumination Commission (CIE). According to the criteria of the CIE, the illumination system that does not adversely affect living things and the environment has been proposed by providing the limit values for the illuminance level, luminance, overall (resultant) uniformity, and longitudinal uniformity. In the architectural field, it is thought that functional illumination will increase the attractiveness of the city and contribute to architectural aesthetics by providing visual comfort.

Heritage, values and gentrification: the redevelopment of historic areas in China

ABSTRACT This paper explores the impacts of heritage-led urban redevelopment on local communities and the associated consequences of gentrification. The instrumental role of cultural heritage in urban governance presents an underdeveloped research field on gentrification. Especially in fast-developing countries like China, redevelopment is often associated with urban beautification that favours the interests of the affluent middle classes while disregarding the needs of the urban poor and migrants. This paper uses Qujiang New District in Xi’an and Taipingqiao in Shanghai as cases for examining the impacts of heritage-led redevelopment on the urban landscape and social fabric of Chinese cities. Following a qualitative approach based on built environment analysis and observation, together with in-depth, semi-structured interviews, this study shows how cultural heritage becomes an effective tool for governance in the context of urban redevelopment. The values generated by cultural heritage and its associated ideas, including urban beautification, high culture and economic benefits, legitimise state-dominated spatial reconstruction and the resulting gentrification and social fragmentation. Heritage-led urban redevelopment in China produces new spaces for social interaction, where the state’s control over its citizens is reinforced. These spaces support investor and upper-high class interests of capital accumulation and leave limited room for the development of alternatives.

Unruly Visual Art as a Source for Liberal Humanist Resilience

Abstract Visual art does not judge. That was the method advocated by the school of the skeptics of Pyrrho. Since everything was considered doubtful, they did not want to pass judgment on anything, with a view to achieving “ataraxia,” or the peace of mind. Nowadays “stress-resistant” people would say this means that resilience is thrown out of the window. Artwork is open, stated Umberto Eco. All serious interpretations are therefore possible. Contradiction, or at least ambiguity, is an important aspect of art. That is precisely what makes it such an interesting source of resilience. I will take as a case study the discussion that took place in the recent past about sudden unsolicited, inappropriate images painted on walls in Brussels. The artwork by Bonom, Vincent Glowinski, was not part of an urban beautification plan, but raucous protests against the absurd decisions of power and against the hypocrisy of our society.

Analysis and implementation of the solar tree by determining the optimal angle in Shiraz-Iran

The solar tree is a combination of technology and art that is considered as the application of solar energy in the art of urban architecture. This study aims to combine solar technology with architectural style and art, help urban beautification and investigate the increase in solar panels' efficiency by focusing on the optimal slope and no shading in the form of a new solar tree structure. In this paper, the best angle for placing panels on tree branches to increase Shiraz's maximum efficiency has been calculated. The best angle is done with the help of the NRI mathematical model. Also, the Fibonacci sequence, which originates from nature and real trees, has been used to minimize shadows on this tree. The panels' optimal slope calculations are performed using MATLAB software. Also, the monthly efficiency changes resulting from the optimal slope have been calculated and displayed. By analyzing the computational relationships and their implementation by PVsyst simulator, the optimal annual slope of solar panels obtained 30 degrees. By implementing it in the solar tree structure, the proposed model's annual efficiency has increased by 12% compared to the fixed state. This article examines the technical methods of using solar systems in urban architecture with emphasis on integration methods. In the proposed and implemented solar tree model with the ability to adjust the optimal angle and beautify passages, parks and recreation centers, it is possible to charge electronic equipment such as mobile phones, tablets, and electric bicycles through clean solar energy.

The Urban General Planning of Izmail in the Second Half of the 1940’S – 1960’s

The research is based on the analysis of general plans and archival documents on the urban development of Izmail. The processes of planning, building and reconstruction of the urban space in the post-war period have been investigated. The author considers urban planning documents as an important historical source that contains, in addition to graphic materials, detailed information on geography, history, industrial development, sociocultural activities and population composition of Izmail. It was found that the urban boundaries of Izmail significantly increased during the urbanization period. The author highlights the characteristic features of the urban planning by the Soviet authorities, housing construction and the development of infrastructure. At the same time, special attention is paid to the characterization of changes in the urban public and symbolic space, which were caused by the processes of Sovietization. Using the sources from the Izmail Archive, the author analyzes the results of implementation of general plans for the urban development, characterizes the issues of individual housing construction, names of streets and urban beautification. The materials of the article help to understand the characteristic features of urban construction in the Soviet Union border areas, which were annexed after the World War II, as well as the local features of the housing program in the 1960s.

АНАЛІЗ ДОСВІДУ ПЛАНУВАННЯ СИСТЕМИ БЛАГОУСТРОЮ ЖИТЛОВИХ ТЕРИТОРІЙ ПРИ РЕКОНСТРУКЦІЇ

The analysis of planning experience of inhabited localities urban beautification in view of reconstruction was undertaken in the article. The question of Ukrainian experience of urban beautification system in accordance with approved standards and State Constructional Standards was envisaged. Analysis of validation state of local documents in urban beautification field was carried out and it has shown deficient percentage of regulatory documents approval on local level, which is one of key issues of urban beautification development. Furthermore, detailed analysis of foreign experience of urban beautification planning and development trend of this system I such countries, as USA, Canada, Russian Federation, France, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan was carried out. It is shown that first and critical stage of planning of effective urban beautification is preparing and approving corresponding certificates and standards. Emphasis added to functioning normative legal documents on issues relating to urban beautification, in accordance to which the territory reconstruction in mentioned countries is realized. It was established that reference direction of urban beautification development in mentioned countries lies in parking lots removing out of the borders of curtilage or underground parking arrangement, landscape gardening development and classification of such territories by levels of urban gardening, territory reconstruction in accordance with typical schemes of street infrastructure development, urban gardening, cycle paths, etc. It is shown that problem solution of habitable open grounds organization on city level resides in usage intensification of such territories, and on the level of residential compounds – in increasing exploitation properties of open grounds. As a result of undertaken analysis it was established that raised problem of increasing the effectiveness of residential area usage within residential areas imposes complex approach, including question of land development intensiveness, architectural and planning organization and open grounds beautification.

RETHINKING URBAN RENEWAL PROGRAMMES FOR PANDEMIC CONTROL IN NIGERIA

Most urban renewal programmes in Africa are conceived as mere urban beautification projects. From Lagos to Dakar, move one or two kilometers away from the city centers and one is faced with filth and squalor that are summed up in two words –urban slums, in which a great majority of city populations reside. In Nigeria, population living in slums as percentage of urban population is put at 50.2 % in 2014, up from 41.0% in 2007. This highlights the rapid growth of urban slums in Africa with rapid urbanization largely fueled by rural-urban migration. Incidentally, lessons from COVID-19 indicate that if the trend in the growth of unplanned slum settlements are not checked, they will become the hotspots for pandemic transmission in Africa, as the slum populations are part and parcel of the entire urban population who indeed are key drivers of city activities in terms of labour supply, as well as their engagements in small scale informal business activities in the cities. In the light of existing knowledge on the potential threat of dense slum settlements to the spread of pandemic, this paper reviews the appropriateness of traditional approach to urban renewal programmes in Africa and makes recommendations for paradigm shift as historical evidences reveal that COVID-19 is neither the first nor the last pandemic.

Mayoral Leadership in Shaping Urban Beautification in Surabaya and Aspects Influencing Its Capacity

Leadership has an expansive meaning because it is a field study that comprises several different dimensions such as psychology, management, organization, and politics. On the other hand, the study of leadership’s role on urban development issues is still relatively scarce, especially in developing countries. The literature shows that local governments under the mayor as the highest-ranking position of municipal prioritise urban development is very much a function of socio-cultural norms and leadership styles. Therefore, mayoral leadership is vital regarding local government interventions to promote urban beautification in Indonesia. It is undeniable that leadership is a significant aspect of urban governance. Taking a case study in Surabaya, evidence shows that leadership plays important roles in urban governance, especially in facilitating and advising processes. Drawing on analysis of relevant documents, literature, and interviews with key decision-makers in Surabaya, the findings indicate that the quality of mayoral leadership has played a vital role in enhancing the beautification of urban form in Surabaya as a result of the urban design process. The mechanisms underlying this role include that the mayor has a sound understanding of the urban design and has been able to intervene to insist on good urban design as policy and has the standing to approach officials and community members on the urban beautification process. The quality of mayoral leadership has played a vital role in shaping the better urban beautification of Surabaya. A Mayor who has a wide-ranging grasp of urban design has advantages for the local government.