Urban Spatial Organization Research Articles

Are Virtual and Urban Spaces at Equilibrium?

The objective of this paper is to shed some light on the lack of significant transitions in urban spatial organization, in light of informational activities, which have turned fully virtual and mobile through the Internet, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. Futurist literature predicted at the time the dismantling of cities in the information age, but more recent literature has not confirmed this possibility. Data on commuting, shopping, and social contacting from the developed world reveal that people still prefer to use real-space facilities for these activities. These trends, and other ones, such as the lack of new technologies for faster physical mobility, call for continued equilibrium between urban and virtual spaces.

Visual meaning-making in an underprivileged neighbourhood landscape: milieus and atmospheres

By bringing together the spatially oriented ‘milieu’ and ‘atmosphere’ approach with the method of self-generated photo elicitation, this visual essay examines the possibility of the mediation of new meanings in urban neighbourhood representation and spatial organization. The milieu/atmosphere relationship offers a methodological background for visual communication in landscape, where, besides common and conscious interpretations, expression is given to non-graspable, sometimes inexplicable internal atmospheric experiences that have great potential to shift acknowledged understandings and interpretations of landscape aesthetics. A reflexive self-generated photo elicitation is introduced to bringing into communication unfamiliar atmospheric visual landscape experiences. This method is used in the underprivileged parts of the Kopli neighbourhood of North-Tallinn, Estonia. Some of the participants’ representations were handled as atmospheric pictures, which, although different from the acknowledged milieu approach, brought into communication the milieu character of a strong neighbourhood.

Research on Space Resources Use and Traffic Organization Optimization of Belt City

From the perspective of urban morphology, this paper mainly focuses on the relationship between urban space and urban transport, and then concluded the traffic characteristics of the belt city. Through the evolution of urban spatial structure and traffic organization development in Lanzhou as an example, by analyzing the spatial relationship between space resources and transportation organization, and further explore optimization strategy of the sustainable development of city. Then putting forward its recommendations of spatial structure use and traffic organization optimization.

Planning Thinking of the Transformation from a Resource-Based City to Ecological Civilization City: A Case Study of Pucheng Eco-City Planning

The issue of climate change triggered a reflection on the traditional industry patterns of resource-based cities and thinking of traditional planning, the concept of ecological civilization city arises at the historic moment. This paper discusses the inevitability of the transformation from resource-based city to ecological civilization cities on the base of using modern one planning means which includes urban spatial organization, urban industrial restructuring and urban construction implementation these three strategies, then thoughts on Pucheng Eco-city planning and construction are proposed and be hoped to provide reference to other similar urban planning practice.

Postmodern City, Gentrification and the Social Production of Fragmented Space

A new type of city has undoubtedly been taking shape in the latest decades to which, by commodity and lack of a better expression, is given the name of ‘postmodern city’. The compact city, with sealed social zoning and precise limits, whose centre shows a relative social homogeneity, is torn in a group of distinct fragments where the effects of cohesion, continuity and urban readability give way to more complex and discontinuous territorial formations, which are socially and spatially enclaved. This process is partly due to the fact that, since the end of the 1960s, housing in cities of advanced capitalism has been facing significant changes through the emergence of new housing products and new forms of accommodation by gentrification. As a response to a growing social fragmentation and complexity, these changes have influenced the urban spatial organization towards an increasing micro-scale segregation. By approaching Bairro Alto as a case study we will focus on theoretical formulations whose claims are that this gentrification tendency, as a specific process of socially selective recentring in the city’s central areas, has contributed to a social and residential fragmentation of contemporary urban space. The Bairro Alto, in the city of Lisbon, though repository of rooted and ancient cultural manifestations and traditions, has been facing deep changes in its social fabric with the arrival of new residents who have a particular lifestyle and who produce a particular and reticular social appropriation of the space-neighbourhood.

Legitimidade espacial: uma discussão sobre mutação e permanência das estruturas espaciais urbanas

palavras-chave | Mercado imobiliario, estrutura urbana, morfologia urbana. abstract | The aim of this essay is to demonstr ate how specific processes of verticalization -particularly those in urban areas that become physical supports for shared meanings and are, as such, transformed into symbolic spaces for the inhabitants that built them - lead to the disappearance of a particular urban spatial organization, thereby clearly affecting the principles that govern the social practices of these inhabitants, including those related to spatial appropriation (experience). The hypothesis that is put forward is that these processes of verticalization are not spatially legitimate. The theoretical references are principally de- rived from Norberto Bobbio and Max Weber. Empirical evidence to support this hypothesis is provided from the Casa Forte neighbourhood in the city of Recife, North East Brazil.

The Quarter: A Complex of Neighbourhood units in Turkey

In history, spatial organizations for houses have been changed and improved depending on the natural conditions, well-being of people, utilization of resourses, population density, family structure and urbanization rate. It can be said the spatial organization of housing that they are both in a relationship with culture and they are a total configuration of social, demographical, psycological, human behaviorial and environmental structure. Any housing settlement in Turkish Islamic tradition is macro and micro scaled organization in which social relation and cultural characteristics of society that are necessary for physical environment and society reflect. Basic element of urban spatial organization in Turkish Islamic housing pattern is “the quarter”. (Quarter is called as “mahalle” in Turkish culture) The quarter contains functional and semantic characteristics which are common for most Islamic civilization and Turkish Islamic cities. In this study, what meaning does the quarter have as smallest spatial organization element in Anatolia will be examined. In additon what kind kind of evolutionary process does the quarter face in Turkish settlement.

Slum Wars of the 21st Century: Gangs, Mano Dura and the New Urban Geography of Conflict in Central America

ABSTRACTThe political economy of violence in Central America is widely perceived as having undergone a critical shift during the past two decades, often pithily summarized as a movement from ‘political’ to ‘social’ violence. Although such an analysis is plausible, it also offers a depoliticized vision of the contemporary Central American panorama of violence. Basing itself principally on the example of Nicaragua, the country in the region that is historically perhaps most paradigmatically associated with violence, this article offers an alternative interpretation of the changes that the regional landscape of violence has undergone. It suggests that these are better understood as a movement from ‘peasant wars of the twentieth century’ (Wolf, 1969) to ‘urban wars of the twenty‐first century’ (Beall, 2006), thereby highlighting how present‐day urban violence can in many ways be seen as representing a structural continuation of past political conflicts, albeit in new spatial contexts. At the same time, however, there are certain key differences between past and present violence, as a result of which contemporary conflict has intensified. This is most visible in relation to the changing forms of urban spatial organization in Central American cities, the heavy‐handed mano dura response to gangs by governments, and the dystopian evolutionary trajectory of gangs. Taken together, these processes point to a critical shift in the balance of power between rich and poor in the region, as the new ‘urban wars of the twenty‐first century’ are increasingly giving way to more circumscribed ‘slum wars’ that effectively signal the defeat of the poor.

Study on the Coupling Mechanism of Urban Spatial Structure and Urban Traffic Organization

From the angle of the high relationship between the traffic organization and urban spatial structure, the geographic concept, coupling, was proposed in the article, and the coupling mechanism of urban spatial structure and traffic organization was studied primarily based on the analysis of the connotation of the coupling, and the coupling function of main associated factors between the urban spatial structure and traffic organization was analyzed.

Spatial structure and mobility patterns: towards a taxonomy of the Italian urban systems

- Urban spatial organization has become a wide field of research in the last years, since it is thought to be an important determinant of the city's performance from many points of view. Nevertheless, Italian urban spatial organization has not been studied in depth and a general description of the Italian urban territory is lacking. The aim of this work is to build a taxonomy of the Italian cities where the latter are conceptualised as agglomeration of contiguous municipalities on the basis of their patterns of spatial organization and commuting-to-work mobility. For this purpose, three preliminary steps had to be carried out. First of all, the major Italian urban systems have been identified, following a functional approach that is based on the principle of maximum self-containment of commuters' flows. Secondly, original indicators have been built to gain a better understanding of cities' spatial organization and of their patterns of mobility. Thirdly, the relation between these two dimensions has been investigated through a multivariate statistical analysis. The results of the analysis show that variables of spatial organization especially urban dispersion and of mobility patterns are closely related and that cities might be aggregated in five groups, ranging from the most compact and transitoriented cities to the most dispersed and car-oriented ones.

The urban design of a Balinese town: placemaking issues in the Balinese urban setting

This research considers the role of indigenous institutions and conceptions of space in the urban design process for producing culturally appropriate designs for Balinese towns. Employing a pluralistic approach (The Image of the City, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1960; Planning a Pluralist City: Conflicting Realities in Ciudad Guyana, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1976; House Form and Culture, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1969, Human Aspects of the Built Form, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1977), a case study of the town of Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia explores the popular accounts on the operative indigenous conceptions of space in contemporary Balinese urban settings. This exploration aims at providing a ground for reconnecting urban design proposals with their cultural context, thus promoting the spatially expressed localism originating from the diversity of cultures which is currently undermined by the highly standardized process of the Indonesian planning system. In particular, for the town of Gianyar, such an exploration provides a set of placemaking issues which is useful in devising urban design guidelines for achieving a town with more pronounced cultural identity. The research concludes that to achieve culturally appropriate places, the design process has to acknowledge the Balinese Hindu psycho-cosmic concept as the core principle in the design of Balinese townscapes. As such, the existing indigenous cosmic territory, which accommodates the relationship between human (microcosm) and environment (macrocosm), along with its adat law and institution, has to be incorporated in contemporary urban design processes. As a result, urban spatial organization, structure and form will significantly reflect the Balinese cultural identity.

Urban Environmental Language and Spatial Organization

In order to verify the incidence of some aspects related to communication in urban space studies, this paper approaches first the notions of perception and interpretation of cities in the works of the geographer, Milton Santos; of the architect, Gordon Cullen; of the urban designers, Kevin Lynch and Amos Rapoport, and the semiotics master, Lucrécia D'Aléssio Ferrara. The purpose is to characterize urban design as an interdisciplinary system of environmental communication. This system expresses the development of a field of design professions and the preparation of the professionals combining design knowledge and skills of different areas of design professions (urbanism, architecture, ergonomics and graphic design) with a general understanding of the communication and educational processes. This paper aims to show that spatial organization and the circulation system can not be seen independent of environmental communication, which provides the information the users will need to solve the wayfind problems. Environmental education has to be based on perceptual, cognitive and behavioral development.

Vernacular domed houses of Harran, Turkey

The beehive domed vernacular houses of Harran, Turkey were studied from the point of view of historical origin. The factors like climate, social and urban structure, spatial organization, construction and materials which effected the form of the buildings were considered. It has been discovered through this study that Harran houses can be built rapidly like tents, with burnt or sun-dried shallow bricks. Vernacular architecture of Harran illustrates the concepts of flexible building, climatic building design and re-usable building materials concepts. Possibilities of using this construction type in our times is discussed.

新幹線駅が立地した地方都市における駅周辺の市街地整備特性に関する研究 : 整備推進上の特徴及びその展開プロセスを中心として

The shinkansen has an impact to not only transportation but also economy, society and culture since 1964 which is opened. As a result, the shinkansen has brought to a change of urban spatial organization. Under such a circumstance, this paper aims to grasp the real conditions and timeserial and spatial development process of urban improvement project around the shinkansen station. And, this paper clarifies cause and effect of promoting project around the shinkansen station and clarifies interaction of interproject. And, this paper analyzed between a type of spatial development process and the characteristics of urban planning. Finally, this paper suggests desirable development process of urban improvement project and system of urban improvement after this.

Urban environmentalism: in the twilight between vice and virtue

The paper consists of a short and hopefully provocative essay, which comments on the significance of the sustainability ideal for urban planning and design. It is argued that environmental issues have become an inescapable and increasingly important framework for urban interventions. To the extent that contemporary environmental concern is associated with global crisis and individual vulnerability, then the long tradition of a romanticist attitude towards nature in urban design is no longer viable. Nature as ‘environment’ is now an object of anguish and risk. Consequently, addressing the environmental problem as a new arena of public interest has become a way of relegitimizing urban planning and design. However, given the scientific uncertainties surrounding the environmental problematic, it is suggested that the moral basis for the ‘greening’ of urban spatial organization, technology and architecture bears similarities to the aesthetic display of pre-romanticist sensibility in its disregard for urban social processes and problems.

The Role of Cocoa in the Growth and Spatial Organization of Accra (Ghana) Prior to 1921

At the present time, Accra--eighty years the seat of Gold Coast administration, and fifteen years the capital of an independent Ghana--stands atop an urban system that is relatively well developed by Black African standards. In several years the municipal population will reach the million mark, notwithstanding the fact that less than 5 per cent of the labor force is employed in modern manufacturing industries. Unlike most large cities in the West which expanded in response to the needs of industry, Accra grew despite a dearth of secondary industries. Foremost among its competitive advantages during the colonial period were its traditional role as a port, its administrative importance as a political capital, and its fortuitous location vis-a-vis the earliest cocoa-producing districts. It is proposed that this latter advantage was the primary determinant of the urban growth and spatial organization of Accra during the second decade of the present century, a seminal phase in its commercial development. In this paper I would like to discuss the impact of the early years of the cocoa trade, first, on Accra in relation to the emerging urban system and, second, on the changing pattern of commercial land use within the town. Most of the discussion refers to those years between 1908, when the first significant cocoa exports occurred, and 1921, by which time the townscape of Accra clearly displayed the impress of the cocoa trade. During this brief but eventful period the economic shock waves released by the revolutionary new crop set up a condition of disequilibrium within the colonial space-economy. Centers, such as Accra, which serviced the cocoa trade flourished, while many other languished. The paper focuses, then, on cocoa as a primary influence on the economic geography of Accra, at a time when its leadership in the urban hierarchy was being consolidated.

RESIDENTIAL STRUCTURE OF MIDWESTERN CITIES

ABSTRACT In studies of the spatial patterning of American urban land uses, the sector, ring, and neighborhood concepts persist because each describes the distinctive outcome of a separate spatial process. Sectors depend on the narrow urban images which housing consumers use when selecting a new residence. Housing producers create a concentric ring increment to the urban housing stock in each boom of the building cycle. Extended boom periods produce wide rings, short booms yield narrow rings, and border zones between rings reflect recession lulls in new construction. The intraurban transport technology that prevails during each building boom controls the areal density of new dwelling units and the shapes of new residential areas. A model urban residential pattern, generated to reflect construction cycles and transport eras, can be verified with census housing data and is consistent with sector, ring, and neighborhood concepts, and with distance-density decline models of urban spatial organization.

AN APPLICATION OF LINEAR PROGRAMMING TO URBAN SPATIAL ORGANIZATION

AN APPLICATION OF LINEAR PROGRAMMING TO URBAN SPATIAL ORGANIZATION