Urban Plaza Research Articles

Building a Commonsense Knowledge Model of Activities in Urban Plaza with the Spreading Activation Theory

The objective of this paper is to develop commonsense knowledge modeling and reasoning for ambient intelligence. Urban plaza activity is set to be the theme in this paper. By collecting various activities and events of human beings in urban plaza, dependencies are further analyzed. In this research, the commonsense knowledge model of activities in urban leisure space is called “SmartCypin”. This paper presents a semantic network of commonsense knowledge that is useful in capturing human experience in ambient intelligence environments.

The Research of Urban Plaza Design

Discussing the contemporary landscape design of urban plaza based on sorting and analyzing the plaza design of Martha Schwartz. The author aimed at the Landscape Architecture’s character, presented some new proposals to solve landscape design of urban plaza problems, and given out a specific design objective to discussing the theory and methods appropriate for the basic conception “taking man as the center” in the urban design.

Building Pleasant Landscape of Urban Plaza

After sorting and analyzing the plaza design of Martha Schwartz, to discussing contemporary landscape design of urban plaza. The author focus on the LA’s character, some new ways and means are put forward to solve landscape design of urban plaza problems, and an explicit design orientation is given out to discussing the theory and methods appropriate for the basic conception “Taking man as the center” in contemporary urban design.

Cerrando y reabriendo el espacio público en la ciudad latinoamericana

This analysis provides a glimpse of the contradictions between the artistic and often idealized representational purposes of the urban plaza, and its political and economic base. Bringing these contradictions to light helps to demystify and highlight the ways in which public urban design is deeply ideological (rather than neutral) both in artistic style and political purpose. Further, by identifying the political and economic objectives of designed public space, its planning, design, construction, or refurbishing takes on new meaning. A public space that is valued ostensibly as a place for people to sit, read, and gather, becomes a strategy for revitalizing a declining city center, a tourist center, and a means of attracting new investments and foreign capital.

Designing an identity: The synthesis of a post-traditional landscape vocabulary in Hong Kong

Hong Kong portrays itself as a post-traditional city through its designed landscapes. Its contemporary plazas and parks involve design references drawn from sources in Europe and China. The result is uniquely contemporary and self-referential, with no tradition apart from an evolving local post-traditional landscape aesthetic. Two cases are examined, Millennium Plaza, a western-influenced urban plaza, and Kowloon Walled City Park, based on the Jiangnan Chinese garden style. The analysis indicates how the use of Chinese and European design elements has become a means of reinforcing a post-traditional, synthesized identity for Hong Kong.

Theater of Public Space: Architectural Experimentation in the Théâtre de l'espace (Theater of Space), Paris 1937

Architect Edouard Autant and actress Louise Lara used theater to investigate architecture as an art of situation, of placing people in meaningful spatial relationships with one another. Autant designed the Théâtre de l'espace to model the experience of an urban plaza with multiple, simultaneous scenes that both surrounded and were surrounded by the audience. Performances juxtaposed fictional narratives, improvisation, and real situations to propose a paradigm for public space in a modern, collective society. Through theater, Autant and Lara investigated architecture not as form but as action, a practice particularly relevant to design in cities.

Cultura in the modern city: the microgeographies of gender, class, and generation in the costa rican plaza

This article examines the microgeographies of everyday life in Parque Central and Plaza de la Cultura, two plazas located in the central city of San José, Costa Rica. These locales are created by the individual temporal and spatial attributes of plaza users whose daily movements and activities define these spaces. The growing differences of these locales in terms of the users' class, gender, and age, and their corresponding social activities, is reinforced by differences in local interpretations of the concept of cultura. These social, behavioral, and ideological differences have created spatial boundaries such that people do not cross from one locale to the other, the users do not overlap, and their representations of cultural life are seen as competitive and mutually exclusive. Based on ethnographic evidence, I suggest that this differentiation is a constructed spatial representation that symbolizes the changing nature of Costa Rican ideology and culture. The contrasting and often conflicting images of the two plazas reflect important differences in class-orientation, gender participation, and generational values that separate contemporary Costa Ricans socially, and politically. In San José, Costa Rica, cultura is often discussed as a value from the past, a cultural ideal that is desired, but that conflicts with aspects of modern life. In order to discuss how cultura remains a cultural theme in the urban plaza the everyday life and social behaviors of Parque Central and Plaza de la Cultura are compared. In this comparison time, space, and social activity change the meaning and interpretation of cultura reinforcing the contrasting metaphors expressed in the physical design of each.

A new concept and a manual for toll plaza planning

This paper presents a methodology for the development of a toll plaza design manual intended for a preliminary estimation of the configuration of an urban barrier toll plaza, such as plazas on toll highway facilities, toll bridges, and toll tunnels. The manual is meant for cases in which conventional methods of toll collections are combined with electronic methods of automatic vehicle identification. During the development of the manual, a new concept o the throughput equivalent volume o was established. This concept is used to convert different volume combinations, of various toll-collection methods, and different vehicle classes at a specific plaza, into a common iequivalenti volume. The result is a homogeneous volume of equivalent vehicles, termed throughput equivalent volume, which enables the summation of various volumes of vehicles bound for each lane category: manual, automated, and dedicated automatic vehicle identification lanes. The method that was developed makes it possible to determine the number of lanes needed for each specific category; this is done by dividing the sum of the throughput equivalent volumes by the throughput capacity of the equivalent lane. A flow chart showing the proposed process and examples of the design charts developed are presented and discussed. Further discussion of the sensitivities and complexities of the planning process for a toll plaza is provided. The paper concludes with a list of five principal recommendations for the planning process. Since the results obtained are preliminary and intended to be used in a planning manual, the need is emphasized to fine-tune the plaza configuration for each specific site conditions with a simulation model that considers the randomness of the arrival of vehicles and the throughput variability of each plaza lane.

URBAN MICROCLIMATES AND GROWTH OF SWEETGUM STREET TREES

Summary Microclimates characteristic of urban park, plaza, and canyon spaces were related to physiology and growth of even-aged sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua L.) street trees. Microclimates, tree growth, and physiological responses were characterized diurnally and seasonally. Park and plaza sites received unobstructed sunlight while the canyon was limited to four hours of direct solar radiation in midsummer. Potential seasonal insolation was 44 per cent of the potential maximum at the canyon and over 90 per cent at the park. Heating from paved surfaces at the plaza resulted in cumulative pan evaporation nearly 50 per cent greater than the other sites. Tree growth at the plaza and canyon acclimated physiologically and develop-mentally to the prevailing environmental conditions. Indicative of shade acclimation, canyon trees exhibited thinner leaves and less trunk growth when compared with the park; crown size and shoot growth were unaffected. In contrast, plaza trees, growing in a very coarse and shallo...

Growth and water relations of Liquidambar styraciflua L. in an urban park and plaza

Growth and water relations of 10-year-old sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua L.) street trees were studied in sites with low and high potential evapotranspiration to determine how these differences are integrated by growth and water relations over time. The trees were located in the parking strip between the curb and sidewalk at a partially vegetated urban park and an urban plaza in Seattle, Washington. Crown size, and seasonal and diurnal stomatal conductance and water potential, as well as diurnal air temperature and humidity, were measured over 2 growing seasons. Yearly trunk growth since transplanting was measured from increment cores. Vapor pressure deficits and air temperatures averaged 18% greater at the plaza, but whole-tree water loss appeared to be much lower than the park trees due to more restricted stomatal conductance and crown size. In addition, yearly diameter increment declined progressively once the plaza trees were established in the existing soil several years after transplanting. Lower water potential in the plaza trees indicated greater internal moisture deficits than the park trees, and tissue analysis revealed lower nutritional status, particularly nitrogen. A manipulative study of water and fertilizer to several additional plaza trees showed an interaction between water and nutrient deficiencies in the coarse and shallow soil that apparently limited growth. Furthermore, soil limitations probably interacted with paved surface conditions over time by reducing nutrient recycling from leaf litter, and generating higher vapor pressure deficits that would contribute to prolonged stomatal closure. Restricted growth and water relations status of the plaza trees represented an equilibrium between chronic high-resource demand above ground and limited below ground.

Microclimates and Tree Growth in Three Urban Spaces

Abstract Microclimates characteristic of urban park, plaza, and canyon spaces were related to physiology and growth of even-aged sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua L.) street trees. Microclimates, tree growth, and physiological responses were characterized diurnally and seasonally. Park and plaza sites received unobstructed sunlight while the canyon was limited to four hours of direct solar radiation in midsummer. Potential seasonal insolation was 44% of the potential maximum at the canyon and over 90% at the park. Afternoon air temperatures and vapor pressure deficits were somewhat greater at the plaza than the other two sites, and potential pan evaporation was nearly 50% greater over the season. Tree growth at the plaza and canyon acclimated physiologically and developmentally to the prevailing environmental conditions. Thinner leaves and less trunk growth when compared with the park were indications of shade acclimation in the canyon trees. This did not, however, appear to affect crown size or shoot growth of canyon trees. In contrast, plaza trees were sparse and stunted, exhibiting diminished crown size and diameter increment when compared with tree at the other sites. Less favorable water relations suggested that chronically higher evaporative demand and limited soil resources restricted growth of the plaza trees. Park, plaza, and canyon designations of urban spaces can provide a useful framework for predicting microclimatic factors that can affect tree growth for an urban site. Long-term growth and development, however, with in any of these urban spaces will depend on interactions with existing soil conditions.