Urban Design Strategies Research Articles

Social inclusion in the regeneration processes of historic centr

This paper deals with the theme of city users’ participation in the urban renewal processes. Although not a new approach, in the last years it has been considered as the best way to reach meaningful results in the planning of urban design strategies that take into account the citizens’ needs and desires. The paper focuses only on one part of a complex European Research Project carried out in the period 2011-2013 within the cooperation programme between Italy and Malta. During the research development we decided to do a specific activity related to urban knowledge and based on the cooperation between a sociologist and an architect. The historic centre of Siracusa was the case study and visual sociology was the methodological approach adopted. This is a way to connect the perception of the urban space to the process of identifying urban features. A focus group was formed and each of its members was asked to describe a part of Ortigia by doing a photoshoot; ten photos describing the city and answering two simple questions a) What part of your city would you like to show to one of your friends who has never visited it? b) What part of your city wouldn’t you like one of your friends to see? We classified the collected photos and then we organized a public discussion to evaluate the relationship between visual perception and oral description. In this way, we activated interactions between sensitive knowledge and logical considerations. Perception and representation were defined through relationships me/other oriented and city/tourists oriented for the purpose of constructing a conception of identity of the city. I will describe, step by step, the complex process that has led to the elaboration of a model of the social representation of the Urban Identity.

Impact of Urban Cool Island measures on outdoor climate and pedestrian comfort: Simulations for a new district of Toulouse, France

One of the first airmail services in the world, the Aeropostale, was located at the Montaudran airport of Toulouse, France. This landmark and its surroundings will be refurbished in the years to come and will be transformed into a mixed-use development, the Aerospace Campus, with residential buildings, and commercial, sports, educational and cultural facilities. This new district has been planned mostly on the basis of heritage and functional rules. The UCI project (from “Urban Cool Islands”) is a French national research project that discusses procedures aiming at incorporating a set of reasoned measures for local climate adaptation into this new urban area that will be set as a landmark development. This research aims to analyse and compare various suitable, resilient urban design strategies to provide support for their application in the Montaudran district, focusing on mitigating urban heat island effects in summer conditions. Three main methodological steps were undertaken: (1) the initial urban plan was assessed relative to a set of well-known urban morphology parameters and a microclimate analysis; (2) a set of urban design variations was established based on important microclimate adaptation measures as well as on the constraints and opportunities of the original plan; (3) the microclimate was modelled and the thermal comfort of pedestrians analysed. Results pointed out the major influence of water and green features on the mitigation of urban heat islands, notably in daytime. Besides creating an important urban cool island for pedestrians, the results showed great opportunities for supporting decision makers on specific integrated actions towards a truly sustainable neighbourhood.

Simulating the impact of urban development pathways on the local climate: A scenario-based analysis in the greater Dublin region, Ireland

In this study, the impact of different urban development scenarios on neighbourhood climate are examined. The investigation considers the relative impact differing policy/planning choices will have on the local-scale climate across a city during a typical climatological year (TCY). The aim is to demonstrate a modelling approach which couples a climate-based land classification and simple urban climate model and how this can be used to examine the impact differing urban forms and design strategies have on neighbourhood scale partitioning of energy and resulting consequences. Utilising the Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance (SUEWS) model (Järvi et al., 2011) hourly fluxes of sensible, latent and stored heat are simulated for an entire year under four different urban development scenarios. The land cover scenarios are based on those obtained by the MOLAND model for 2026 (Brennan et al., 2009) in our case study city Dublin (Ireland). MOLAND LULC are translated into local climate zones (Stewart and Oke, 2012) for examination. Subsequently, the types of building forms, vegetation type and coverage are modified based on realistic examples currently found across Dublin city. Our results focused on 2 principle aspects: the seasonality of energy partitioning with respect to vegetation and average diurnal partitioning of energy. Our analysis illustrates that compact scenarios are suitable form of future urban development in terms of reducing the spatial impact on the existing surface energy budget in Dublin. Design interventions which maintain the level of vegetation at a ratio≥9:16 to artificial surfaces reduces the impact.

Future urban design strategies for health and wellbeing

Purpose– Contemporary urban design has tried to account for the satisfaction of the human experience and climate change which might encompass several disciplines. However, from a methodological perspective, a systematic research approach is still lacking. Therefore, this paper aims to propose a universal research method embedded into early urban design phase with an example.Design/methodology/approach– A case study was used under the concept of DIDID Action Plan, which was proposed to integrate systematic research into urban design projects in the early phase with a focus on health and well-being. Moreover, design mapping skills tackling health risks at the population level were discussed.Findings– This proposal of DIDID Action Plan has provided inclusive steps for future urban design projects with a systematic approach, in particular for health and well-being aspect. DIDID denotes five planning stages, namely, dream, initiation, design, implementation and delivering. With the advancement of urbanisation and technology, more emphasis would be placed on health and well-being to delay chronic diseases by targeting risk contributors and to increase citizens’ quality of life and human life experience, although stopping the breakout of unexpected communicable diseases and disasters would also need to be considered from time to time as well.Practical implications– Systematic research to be integrated into early urban design phase could potentially avoid issues such as re-design and save manpower time and costs.Originality/value– This proposal is the first to provide a universal research method for early urban design phase with a focus on health and well-being.

A Bicycle-Based Field Measurement System for the Study of Thermal Exposure in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, USA

Collecting a fine scale of microclimate data can help to determine how physical characteristics (e.g., solar radiation, albedo, sky view factor, vegetation) contribute to human exposure to ground and air temperatures. These data also suggest how urban design strategies can reduce the negative impacts of the urban heat island effect. However, urban microclimate measurement poses substantial challenges. For example, data taken at local airports are not representative of the conditions at the neighborhood or district level because of variation in impervious surfaces, vegetation, and waste heat from vehicles and buildings. In addition, fixed weather stations cannot be deployed quickly to capture data from a heat wave. While remote sensing can provide data on land cover and ground surface temperatures, resolution and cost remain significant limitations. This paper describes the design and validation of a mobile measurement bicycle. This bicycle permits movement from space to space within a city to assess the physical and thermal properties of microclimates. The construction of the vehicle builds on investigations of the indoor thermal environment of buildings using thermal comfort carts.

O PAPEL DO DESIGN GRÁFICO NO PROCESSO DE RECUPERAÇÃO DE CIDADES EUROPEIAS: ALGUNS CASOS

Graphic design draws the form of the interaction among different entities. Citizens, administrators, institutions and local investors are specific categories of entities: they are all users (sometimes also providers) of urban services.Graphic design is a useful tool to visually coordinate the sometimes contrasting interests of city users and stakeholders towards the use of public services and facilities.The graphic design coordination process includes: - focus on specific local needs (what has to be visually represented)- highlight on addressees of the design project (communication targets): i.e. inhabitants and/or foreign investors, tourists, etc.- design out put that, according to the previous steps, may include a range of products, from wayfinding system (integrating i.e. public transport, pedestrian walks, monuments' signage), to social and civic campaign encouraging some habits, like cultural integration (i.e through posters and flyers), to place branding campaign (touristic promotion abroad), etc.As result, graphic design can contribute to reinforce and rationalize the offer of local services. This affects the way people perceive opportunities and what use they can make of public services and spaces.Best achievements are reached when the graphic design process is integrated to urban design and urban planning strategies.A selection of case studies and best practices will be shown in the following pages. Some Western European cities like Bristol, Amsterdam and Berlin have in the last years adopted a combination of urban design and communication design strategies. The presentation of these case histories may offer interesting methodologies in response to the need of an increment of the quality of the offer of local services and welfare.

Urban Design and Social Capital in Slums. Case Study: Moravia's Neighborhood, Medellin, 2004-2014

Taking as reference the historical context of the expansion phenomenon of Medellin and the anthropogenic processes based on Moravia's neighborhood, this paper purpose is to make an impact evaluation of the Integral Improvement Plan (PPMIM 2004-2011), using the relationship between the urban design features and the social capital variables. Initially, a theoretical and conceptual framework of the various topics under review is presented. Secondly, we confront the PPMIM's principles, its urban design strategies, its procedural methodology with the built project and evaluate its general socio spatial impact. Finally, we analyze its impact on the cognitive and structural dimensions of the social capital. The Integral Improvement Plan (PPMIM) brought the physical, ecological, cultural and social rehabilitation of the human settlement allowing recovering the historical as well as the cultural memory of the community and strengthening some aspects of the social capital and its ties, as the bridging and linking networks. Finally the paper highlights and summarizes positive and negative implications of slum upgrading programs and some necessary recommendations for urban design, the social capital that can really be translated into real resources for the self-sustainable development of low-income communities and their future generations.

River Restoration and Rehabilitation as a New Urban Design Strategy: Learning to Re-see Urban Rivers

This study analyses how river restoration-rehabilitation concepts can be transferred from natural settings to constructed environments and thus form part of an urban design strategy. In contrast to conventional civil engineering, this strategy explores how hydraulic challenges can be tackled through instead of against nature. The study focuses on urban rivers in Chile where unstable geographical and environmental conditions in combination with limited budgets require innovative solutions. The methodology uses research by design. From an environmental viewpoint, river restoration know-how is shifted from a restoring tool to a spatial analysis tool focused on understanding natural spatial processes. The outcome of this study is a cartography that maps the dynamic interplay between the natural water system and the city of Concepcion’s environmental conditions on the one hand and the relationship between the river landscape and urban development on the other.

Assessment of Urban Fabric for Smart Cities

Comprehensive understandings to the built environment especially the urban form is a prerequisite for building a smart city. This paper is based on computational methods to examine the urban fabric of Hankou, China, as a case study. Quantitative and comparative analyses are involved to understand the characteristics on the block scale, where massive demolition and new construction coincide with the existing historical context. Five urban fabric indicators are defined (i.e., density, compactness, fragmentation, variance, and cohesion) to conduct a case study for the 83 selected blocks using geographic information system tools and statistical analysis. Distribution patterns and correlations between these indicators are analyzed. Comparisons are made between typical blocks with high, median, and low fabric densities using comprehensive fabric indicators. The research results indicate that the organic order of the original urban fabric is facing damage, especially from arbitrary demolition, overinfilling, and spontaneous encroachment. Finally, this paper discusses how retaining the urban fabric makes the city a vibrant place to live. The sustainable development of a city should attach great importance to the protection and continuation of local characteristics of integrity and authenticity. The described analytical methods could contribute to the optimization of urban design strategies for future smart cities.

Revisiting the San Francisco parklets problematizing publicness, parks, and transferability

One day in 2005, a bench, some grass, and a tree suddenly appeared on a parking spot in central San Francisco. The parking meter was paid for two hours, and after that the installation disappeared. This action by the art-design-activist organization Rebar has led to the annual global event Park(ing) Day and an official planning program in San Francisco, From Pavements to Parks, inspiring cities around the world to introduce their own parklet projects.Many cities are facing challenges such as economic deficits and a lack of open public spaces, and growing concerns exist regarding the need for urban greenery. This paper discusses how parklets are challenging the role of public spaces and urban nature, drawing on discussions and conceptualizations of publicness, observational data, literature review, and document analysis to explore the influence of parklets as an urban design strategy at a local and global level.The symbolic change from parking space to public park space and the tactical urbanism inspiration of the concept constitute both parts of the symbolic value of parklets. At the same time, the line between community activism and urban strategy has been blurred. The city reviews, permits, and inspects the projects; and the sponsor is responsible for the design, financing, maintenance, and liability. The paper concludes that, even though parklets might provide a new public space and bring greenery to streetscapes, publicness, roles and responsibility, as well as the functionality of nature in these projects, remain crucial questions.

Fly-in Fly-Out (FIFO) Accommodation in Remote Regions: How Can Good Design Help?

This paper explores how urban design principles can be applied to Fly-in Fly-out (FIFO) accommodation camps. A template adapted from Mark Francis’ Landscape Architecture method and was used as a structured observation schedule to qualitatively assess operating FIFO camps in regional Western Australia and other similar living environments. Observational fieldwork was undertaken at the FIFO camps which included site visits, semi-structured interviews, participant observation and photography. This paper reports on four of eleven lessons learned from the research. The findings discussed are aesthetics; site selection; safety and hygiene; and legibility of the camps. This paper proposes that quality urban design strategies can be applied to all developments where people live and work, not just cities. The precedent of erecting temporary accommodation modules during commodity ‘boom’ periods and construction phases with the unfulfilled intention of developing the site for operations staff often falls short of workers health needs. This practice can leave skilled workers living in dilapidated and unsafe dwellings in contrast to corporate expectations that require workers to be highly productive and effective during 24/7 operations. As resource extraction becomes increasingly geographically remote, the use of FIFO workforces will likely increase therefore potentiating improved living environments. The research suggests that the FIFO living environment is lacking cohesion and improvements in camp design may promote the health and wellbeing of workers. The paper contributes to the growing body of knowledge about how FIFO work impacts the FIFO workforce.

A Holistic Research Approach to Measuring Urban Identity: Findings from Kyrenia Area Study

As cities are losing place identity under the influence of industrialization, technological advancements and globalisation, a key task for mainstream politicians, urban planners/designers and residents is to understand what makes a city unique and recognizable. As urban identity is formed not only through identifiable and memorable formal attributes, but through the meaning attached by the users of the city, there is a need for a holistic approach integrating objective measures achieved through pre-analysis of the urban environment, and subjective measures achieved through user surveys. This study, based on such a holistic research framework, aims to measure the urban identity in Girne (Kyrenia), using survey data with a sampling of 250 participants, following a pre-analysis of the town. The results of the analysis indicated that although historic landmarks are so powerful in constructing the urban identity, traditional urban pattern and social life have not been found significant in constructing the images of the city unless they are frequented by local residents. On the other hand, the new housing developments lacking locally appropriate architectural and contextual qualities do not influence the urban image at all. Further, as the findings revealed that the perception of urban identity changes in time, there appears an opportunity to regain and/or enhance identity through various strategies. These include urban design strategies that depend so much on the specific context of a particular area, including all environmental dimensions defined in the paper.

A44 If You Build it…do it Safely! Building in Safety While Creating Active Environments

Abstract Background Efforts to promote environments that facilitate opportunities for active living and travel should consider the fact that injury is one of the leading causes of death globally, with transportation-related injuries a common cause. Drawing on the latest academic research and best practices in the field of injury prevention, this project aimed to provide those working to promote active lifestyles with evidenced-based recommendations on how to build in safety while designing active environments. Methods In 2010, twelve New York City (NYC) government agencies collaborated to create the Active Design Guidelines (ADG), which provided evidence-based and best practice urban and building design strategies for creating environments that promote daily physical activity. We developed a supplement to the ADG, Promoting Safety, which provides information that links safe design and active design strategies. A systematic review of the existing literature was conducted to identify injury prevention strategies applicable to the ADG objectives. Injury prevention strategies were rated as strong, emerging, or best practice, according to the strength of the supporting research evidence. We identified 18 urban design strategies and 9 building design strategies that promote safety and physical activity. Evidence was strong or emerging for 14/18 urban design strategies and 7/9 building design strategies. The product that resulted included a summary of the strategy, evidence, rating, visuals, and a matrix to illustrate how active design objectives relate to safety promoting strategies. The product was designed for widespread dissemination, and was peer-reviewed by injury prevention professionals, design and transportation experts, and key stakeholders. Results Several key findings emerged from the evidence reviewed: 1) active design strategies are often wholly compatible with well-accepted injury prevention principles; 2) the safety of multiple active design strategies can often be enhanced simultaneously by a single injury prevention strategy; and 3) for several of the active design objectives reviewed, there is not yet evidence on the ways in which injury outcomes are involved, and further research is needed. Conclusions By partnering with architects, planners and other transportation professionals, injury prevention and public health professionals can contribute to ensuring that new and renovated spaces maximize both active living and safety. This project is significant for the field because it highlights the importance of interdisciplinary collaborations to foster the creation of safe environments. It also emphasizes the critical role that injury prevention professionals have in ensuring safety is incorporated when interventions to promote active transport are being developed in the future.

Climate and Urban Design of Maritime Public Spaces in Mediterranean Traditional Urban Fabrics

The traditional urban fabrics in Arab cities along the Mediterranean coast offer an exceptional ‘urban lab’ to study climatic design, urban patterns and forms applied in public realms. Nonetheless, due to the rapid modernisation and expansion of these cities, most of their old urban tissues are in a process of severe dereliction and abandonment. As part of the current asymmetric urban expansion, the new urbanisations and infrastructures within the old cities are applying generic and fashionable spatial schemes detached from climatic and morphologic urban considerations, which are generating discontinuous and dysfunctional townscapes. The key questions raised by this phenomenon are twofold: how do existing maritime urban settlements effectively response and adapt to the coastal Mediterranean climates? How can intuitive climatic design influences contemporary urbanism and landscape? This study proposes a synoptic and comparative analysis of appropriate public spaces in the Mediterranean cities of Tangier, Beirut and Malaga. It also reflects on the notion of ‘placeness’ and landscape recovery of traditional urban tissues through a wide range of urban design strategies in paradigmatic public spaces. Nonetheless are these chosen cases sharing similar urban patterns regardless their geo-climatic contexts? What makes Mediterranean urban voids resilient or not? The aim is to articulate the principles of ecologic urbanism; climatic design and landscape design by taking into account urban voids and solar orientation; natural ventilation and greenery; and surface materials and colours in unique urban spaces such as the old port and Medina in Tangier; the AUB Campus in Beirut; and the Guadalmedina creek in Malaga.

Re-invigorating the Spirit of Place of Kandy: Urban Design and City Planning Strategies

Kandy – the royal capital established in the 14th Century AD is a city that has undergone constant physical and socio-economic changes while continuing to have unique cultural traditions and rituals over six centuries. As the capital of the central province of Sri Lanka, it embodies a great degree of meaningful conceptions and symbolic representations associated with Buddhist rituals and cultural life. It is a city in Sri Lanka that has a unique spirit of place. However, regardless of all the heritage conservation efforts, with the rapid socio-economic and ad-hoc urban structural changes, the spirit of place of the city is being disturbed, thus losing its unique experiential qualities. Recently, the city had begun to lose the essence, meaning and the sense due to the physical alterations and modifications. Hence it is necessary to understand what is to be retained in a historic place and how the issue of reinstating the spirit of the place can be managed in Kandy. This paper intends to reveal how the wide-ranging traditional urban design principles and built form strategies have contributed to generate the spirit of place of Kandy and re-evaluate them in the present context. It proposes a set of key determinant factors that should be considered in decision making processes of its future planning and urban development. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/besl.v11i2.7606 Built-environment: Sri Lanka Vol.11(2) 2015: 1-11

Microclimatic Conditions of an Urban Square: Role of Built Environment and Geometry

Abstract Geometry plays a dominant role in thermal situations within city structures. This study aims to seek how this role affects thermal comfort of the visitors in an urban square. Computer simulations were performed along with physical measurements in an urban square during peak hot conditions of summer in Isfahan, Iran. In addition to the influence of built environment inside the square, the results confirmed the role of geometry on thermal conditions. The amelioration effect for the aspect ratio was higher than that of the orientation. Findings are useful for urban design strategies dealing with thermal comfort.

Review on a Practical Approach of Sustainable Urban Design Strategy in the Perspective of Conflict in Shanghai

Review on a Practical Approach of Sustainable Urban Design Strategy in the Perspective of Conflict in Shanghai

Suitability of different comfort indices for the prediction of thermal conditions in tree-covered outdoor spaces in arid cities

Outdoor thermal comfort is one of the most influential factors in the habitability of a space. Thermal level is defined not only by climate variables but also by the adaptation of people to the environment. This study presents a comparison between inductive and deductive thermal comfort models, contrasted with subjective reports, in order to identify which of the models can be used to most correctly predict thermal comfort in tree-covered outdoor spaces of the Mendoza Metropolitan Area, an intensely forested and open city located in an arid zone. Interviews and microclimatic measurements were carried out in winter 2010 and in summer 2011. Six widely used indices were selected according to different levels of complexity: the Temperature-Humidity Index (THI), Vinje’s Comfort Index (PE), Thermal Sensation Index (TS), the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV), the COMFA model’s energy balance (S), and the Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET). The results show that the predictive models evaluated show percentages of predictive ability lower than 25 %. Despite this low indicator, inductive methods are adequate for obtaining a diagnosis of the degree and frequency in which a space is comfortable or not whereas deductive methods are recommended to influence urban design strategies. In addition, it is necessary to develop local models to evaluate perceived thermal comfort more adequately. This type of tool is very useful in the design and evaluation of the thermal conditions in outdoor spaces, based not only to climatic criteria but also subjective sensations.

Building safety into active living initiatives

ObjectiveEfforts to promote environmental designs that facilitate opportunities for physical activity should consider the fact that injuries are the leading cause of death for Americans ages 1 to 44, with transportation-related injuries the most common cause. Drawing on the latest research and best practices in the field of injury prevention, the purpose of this article is to provide those working to promote physical activity with evidence-based recommendations on building in safety while designing active environments. MethodA systematic review of the peer-reviewed and grey literature published from 1995 to 2012 was conducted to identify injury prevention strategies applicable to objectives in the Active Design Guidelines (ADG), which present design strategies for active living. Injury prevention strategies were rated according to the strength of the research evidence. ResultsWe identified 18 urban design strategies and 9 building design strategies that promote safety. Evidence was strong or emerging for 14/18 urban design strategies and 7/9 building design strategies. ConclusionADG strategies are often wholly compatible with well-accepted injury prevention principles. By partnering with architects and planners, injury prevention and public health professionals can help ensure that new and renovated spaces maximize both active living and safety.

Research on Soundmarks of Soundscape at Historical District

The historical districts of cities in China are in a period of reconstruction and upgrading, the systematic research on these districts soundscapes will help to considerate soundscape at urban planning and design stage. The researchers collected the soundmarks at a large urban historic districts area in Guangzhou’s "Xiguan Area ", and explored people’s perception on these soundmarks through methods of soundwalk and on-site interview. The results showed that: the local language - Cantonese, was the most important soundmark of this region; the soundmark inside the blocks was the sound of chess entertainment, as well as the production and labor sound at workshops, which were the true embodiment of the urban cultural ecology and people's lifestyles; the sound of commercial activities was another soundmark which appeared in multiple places. The corresponding urban design strategy will be put forward through analysis on the soundmarks and environmental characteristics.