Showing papers in "Journal of Urban Design in 2012"

Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change

Abstract: Peter Newman, Timothy Beatley & Heather Boyer, Washington DC, Island Press, 2008, ISBN: 9781597264990 (pbk) This is a useful and creative book, summarizing considerable experience and constructive ...

Unpacking Walkability: Testing the Influence of Urban Design Features on Perceptions of Walking Environment Attractiveness

Abstract: The potential environmental and health benefits of active transportation modes (e.g. walking and cycling) have led to considerable research on the influence of the built environment on travel. This paper presents the findings of a study combining environmental audits and a survey-based respondent mapping tool to test the influence of micro-scale built environment characteristics, including ‘green street’ storm water management features, on resident perceptions of walking environment attractiveness. Results suggest that this method is sensitive enough to unpack a concept like walkability into individual component characteristics. Findings from an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model indicate that in a predominantly single-family residential context well-designed green street facilities, as well as other features such as parks, separation from vehicle traffic, and pedestrian network connectivity can significantly contribute to walking environment attractiveness.

Placing Graffiti: Creating and Contesting Character in Inner-city Melbourne

Abstract: Debates over definitions of urban graffiti as either ‘street art’ or ‘vandalism’ tend to focus on either contributions to the field of artistic practice or violations of a legal code. This paper explores the place of graffiti as an urban spatial practice—why is graffiti where it is and what is its role in the constructions and experiences of place? Through interviews and mapping in inner-city Melbourne, the paper explores the ways that potential for different types of graffiti is mediated by the micro-morphology of the city and becomes embodied into the urban habitus and field of symbolic capital. From a framework of Deleuzian assemblage theory graffiti negotiates ambiguous territories between public/private, visible/invisible, street/laneway and art/advertising. Graffiti is produced from intersecting and often conflicting desires to create or protect urban character and place identity. It is concluded that desires to write and to erase graffiti are productive urban forces, while desires to promote or pro...

Accounting for the Needs of Blind and Visually Impaired People in Public Realm Design

Abstract: Public realm schemes are being introduced in urban areas without the usual delineation between the footway and carriageway provided by kerb edges. Concern has been expressed about the resulting spaces on behalf of the approximately two million people in the UK who are blind or visually impaired. This paper questions these concerns and presents the results from a questionnaire and in-depth interviews, and observational studies of blind and visually impaired people navigating in urban streets and spaces with and without shared surfaces. They show that blind and visually impaired people can identify many different surface types and delineators, and they use these, along with other features of the urban environment, in creative ways to identify their location and guide themselves. Shared Space schemes need to preserve a safe area for pedestrians, they need to provide a rich physical environment of contrasts in terms of surface tactility, colour contrast, and the enhancement of sound and other sensory clues.

Urban Street Pattern and Pedestrian Traffic Safety

Abstract: This study examined the effect of different urban street patterns on vehicle-pedestrian crash severity. Pedestrian crash data for the City of Calgary for the years 2003-2005 were used to estimate a partially constrained generalized ordered logit model. Besides street pattern, many variables related to drivers, road, environment and traffic characteristics were used as control variables. The results indicated that currently popular urban street patterns, like loops and lollipops design, were found to be associated with higher pedestrian crash severity, when compared to the traditional gridiron pattern.

Addressing the Challenges of Urban Landscapes: Normative Goals for Urban Design

Abstract: Despite the flourishing of the urban design field over the last quarter of a century, many of the issues and problems haunting urban environments have not been resolved Forces such as globalization, immigration, the explosion of digital technologies, and the rise of a service economy centred on consumption have important spatial and design implications, while how we design our cities may have repercussions on a variety of concerns ranging from climate change to the epidemic of obesity The paper traces some of the spatial implications of socio-economic shifts during the last decades, and explores the role and responsibility of urban design in addressing the outlined challenges

Design Blindness in Sustainable Development: From Closed to Open Systems Design Thinking

Abstract: The fields of urban ecology, ecological design and environmental ethics are essential elements of sustainable urbanism. Thus far, however, these fields really only contemplate eco-restoration, regeneration and resilience. To achieve sustainability, urban areas must be retrofitted to be net positive; that is, to expand future options, diversity and ecology relative to pre-industrial conditions. It is contended that the failure to do so is because the methods and metrics of sustainable urbanism were influenced by decision theory. Decision theory is ‘bounded’ systems thinking as it is designed to choose among alternatives or pathways. The resulting analyses and tools are negative as, for example, they allow social gains to balance out ecological losses. Design, in the sense of ‘open’ systems thinking, is needed to increase future options and add multiple benefits across many dimensions and scales. Key sustainability strategies in urban ecology, ecological design and environmental ethics, such as eco-efficien...

From Place to NonPlace: A Case Study of Social Media and Contemporary Food Trucks

Abstract: Street food has contributed to the vitality of urban life across cultures for centuries; however, in recent years, major US cities are witnessing its transformation into a highly mobile service that benefits from online social media platforms. Place, social media and mobility in this food truck phenomenon are the basis for a methodological approach that aims to uncover new social dynamics occurring in cities. The first investigation departs from a social factors analysis of public space in order to reveal the cognitive and behavioural differences among various actors in relation to their direct experience of the environment specifically focusing on users of social media and non-users. The study then addresses the social processes of electronic communication and mobility among food trucks that transcend place. This research approach employs a ‘nonplace’ theoretical framework to visualize a temporal and malleable network of interconnected social and spatial processes. These investigations offer the field of...

The problem with thinking about or for urban design

Abstract: This paper is concerned with the interface between urban design as a practical, applied and ultimately creative activity, and the nature of the knowledge produced to support urban designers in their work. A distinction is being drawn between thinking about urban design and its resulting urban forms and normative thinking for urban design. The paper argues that thinking about urban design might usefully be informed by social science methods, but that the conclusions from such work must be in some ways limited to the applied field. Thinking for urban design, however, must embrace the wicked nature of urban design problems, and the interpretive and political nature of how we come to judge built form solutions. Research for urban design might therefore embrace methods and practices employed in the arts and humanities just as legitimately as those adopted in the social sciences. Similarly, assessments of research outputs produced within a tradition of urban design must adequately account for the nature of the field and its practices.

University Planning and Architecture: The Search for Perfection

Abstract: Jonathan Coulson, Paul Roberts & Isabelle Taylor, Routledge, 2011, 263 pp., ISBN: 978 0 415 57110 4 The built environment of a university has a long and enduring tradition as a place of teaching an...

The Accidental Youth Club: Skateboarding in Newcastle-Gateshead

Abstract: Skateboarders re-invent and interrogate the physical structure of cityscapes as they use spaces, buildings and objects for skating. However, skaters are routinely regarded by the civic and business interests who dominate city centre planning and regeneration as, at best, a nuisance and at worst an unruly and dangerous blight. This paper reports findings from a research project involving skaters which begins to unpick this stereotype. A participatory methodology combining mapping, interviews and observation was used to identify spots used by skaters in Newcastle and Gateshead (North East England). The key spots were characterized using four criteria: trickability, accessibility, sociability and compatibility. Findings reveal that two further factors temporal and relational dimensions are crucial to the journeys skaters embark on. Sociability was the one constant factor defining favoured spots. The study revealed a sociable, entrepreneurial, creative skate scene. Far from being a problem the skaters add to the social capital of the cityscape. The findings suggest that rather than designing out skaters from the city the civic authorities should work with skaters to sustain their scene as a positive benefit to city regeneration.

Fluid City: Transforming Melbourne's Urban Waterfront

Abstract: Kim Dovey, with Leonie Sandercock, Quentin Stevens, Ian Woodcock & Stephen Wood, UNSW Press, 2005, 277 pp., ISBN: 0-415-35923-6 Part urban design critique, part theory and part case study analysis,...

Street Design and Street Use: Comparing Traffic Calmed and Home Zone Streets

Abstract: This research compares the street activity in two very comparable streets over exactly the same period using time lapse cameras. The aim of the research has been to assess which approaches to street design might encourage the street life and activity most envisioned in the UK's national residential street guidance Manual for Streets. The two streets are directly comparable apart from their design qualities. One has been traffic calmed and the other has had home zone features applied to one section. This work found that residents stayed in the home zoned section of the street for relatively long periods, engaging in optional activities and also socializing. This is in contrast to the traffic calmed street which has emerged through a public involvement process, and where the resulting street did not show any significant change in the way that the street was being used.

“There's Something about Subi”: Defending and Creating Neighbourhood Character in Perth, Australia

Abstract: Planning policy in Australian cities currently favours a more compact urban form, but proposals for higher-density development are frequently resisted by residents who argue that the ‘character’ of a place would be damaged or destroyed. This paper explores the factors underlying this resistance and assesses the extent to which character can be designed for. The paper relates a case study of the Perth suburb of Subiaco, where the design of a major redevelopment project was shaped by the form of surrounding areas, but where long-standing residents claim that it is ‘out of character’ nonetheless. Reflecting on the case through theories of place, urban design and ‘affordances’, it is suggested that this rejection of the project owes much to the way that urban designers focused on replicating certain physical features of Subiaco's character, while neglecting a host of everyday social and experiential meanings that were of equal significance to residents.

Moving Bodies: Open Gyms and Physical Activity in Santiago

Abstract: This paper analyzes the functioning of four recently installed open gyms—gyms installed on squares and green spaces that can be used free of charge by anyone—located in Providencia, a residential and commercial district of Santiago, Chile. Specifically, this research seeks to understand, among other questions, who uses these facilities, how often and for how long, as well as whether users were habitual exercisers prior to the installation of the gyms. The methodology used was twofold. The first study technique was to systematically observe the exercise areas between 7:00 am and 11:00 pm on four days (Wednesday and Saturday) in the months of December and August, corresponding respectively to summer and wintertime in the southern hemisphere. In addition, a survey was distributed to the 166 gym users asking, among other questions, how often they visited the gyms, for how long, if they did any other type of physical activity, and whether they were regular exercisers before the installation of these premises. ...

People in the Design of Urban Places

Abstract: This issue of the Journal of Urban Design focuses on research related to social issues in urban design2 Concern with social issues in urban design and planning arose in the 1960s in response to mo

Urban Design Since 1945—A Global Perspective

Abstract: David Graham Shane, Chichester, John Wiley & Son, 2011, 360 pp., ISBN 978 0 470 51526 6 That title—a global perspective on urban design since 1945—is sure to raise expectations for anyone who teach...

A Glamorous Gentrification: Public Art and Urban Redevelopment in Hollywood, California

Abstract: This paper will discuss the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority's Art programme. In particular, it will examine Gilbert ‘Magu’ Lujan's design for the subway station at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street and how it has been mobilized to serve the city's renewal. Often referred to by the title ‘Hooray for Hollywood’ (1999), Lujan's design is an example of a public art project used to brand urban space by reinforcing the city's historical connection to the film industry. It constructs a material dimension to the association between the streets of Hollywood and the concept of glamour. However, as will be argued, a glamorized Hollywood threatens to displace those communities and individuals that exist along the neighbourhood's social periphery. In other words, glamour promises to efface those very extremes that have long characterized the urban space in Hollywood.

The 1922 ‘Symphony of Sirens’ in Baku, Azerbaijan

Abstract: In 1922, a ‘Symphony of Sirens’ was performed by the sounds and movements of human crowds, machine guns, cannons, factory sirens, airplanes, hydroplanes, trains, battleships and a steam-whistle machine across the spaces of Baku, Azerbaijan. Conceived well beyond the conventions of revolutionary festivals, the Symphony manifested 1920s avant-garde aspirations for a radical unity of the arts, technology and urban space. Furthermore, the location of the Symphony was notable: Baku was a city on the edge of the former Russian empire, and Azerbaijan had only two years prior been incorporated as a Soviet Socialist Republic. Connecting with several core tenets of the Soviet socialist and avant-garde movements, the 1922 ‘Symphony of Sirens’ can be interpreted as an avant-garde expansion of Soviet internationalism. The ways in which the Azerbaijani metropolis activated this bricolage of art, space and politics is significant, not least because the spectacle condensed a wide range of practices and ideas from Taylori...

Beyond Aesthetics: Assessing the Value of Strip Mall Retail in Toronto

Abstract: Many city planners are increasingly focusing on urban design guidelines to shape future growth. However, the social implications of this type of planning rarely appear in city plans. Toronto's new planning policies are shown to establish a polarized view of the city, focusing on aesthetic concerns rather than the use and users of spaces. Interviews with small business owners and local planners were used to establish the benefits of, and threats to, strip malls. The findings reveal that strip malls provide affordable retail space for small businesses not available elsewhere and the spaces are seen as highly desirable by many ethnic business owners. This paper highlights some of the problems associated with design-centric planning.

Urban Design in the Real Estate Development Process

Abstract: Steve Tiesdell & David Adams (Eds), Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2011,, 326 pp., ISBN 9781405192194 (hbk) This edited collection is a pragmatic book exploring various ways of increasing the likelihood ...

Enclosing Paradise: The Design of Gated Communities in Barbados

Abstract: The nature of the physical boundaries of residential developments may reflect urban history, vernacular traditions and social conditions. This paper examines the urban design characteristics of gated enclaves in Barbados. The analysis illustrates that the quality and opacity of boundary treatments varies with the income level of neighbouring residential areas. Gating in Barbados reflects a development process complicit in transforming traditional urban forms into globalized neo-colonial urban design.

From Urban Concept to Urban Engineering: The Contribution of Distributed Collaborative Design to the Management of Urban Projects

Abstract: The complexity of urban systems is an increasingly common topic in academic literature. Following in the footsteps of the industrial sector, which has understood this issue for many years, urban engineering must also tackle the challenges created by complex systems. Industrial engineering has provided a number of responses to this challenge, including design technologies, which are notably collaborative. It seems possible, at least in theory, to transfer a number of best practice methods and adapt these to the conceptualization of urban development projects (in the initial phase) in order to encourage their global management (in terms of strategic decision making) and their social acceptability. The challenge is then to formulate new methodological models, as well as to create an environment dedicated to their application.

Public Perceptions of Compact Suburbia in Progressive, Burgeoning Communities

Abstract: Northwest Arkansas has a burgeoning population, and its suburbs need to become denser to accommodate in-migration sustainably. A sample of the region's public responded to housing development at 10 units per acre, as demonstrated by a physical model. Only around a quarter reacted favourably but, at the same time, the respondents were uniformly supportive of regional sustainability objectives that require greater suburban density. Recognition of the link between greater suburban density and regional sustainability tended to be associated with support for compaction, and acceptance of the spatial characteristics of denser suburbs was strongly associated with support for its implementation. Public support for denser suburbs in this region, and burgeoning areas elsewhere, could be improved if the link to regional sustainability is clarified and exemplars are used to demonstrate liveable, high quality precedents.

What Place is this Time? Semiotics and the Analysis of Historical Reference in Landscape Architecture

Abstract: This paper revisits the potential contribution of semiotic analysis to heritage design. A case study analyzes lay interpretations of a number of urban landscape designs, displaying different ways to refer to the invisible (archaeological) past. A total of 12 draft designs were produced referring to the past of three sites on the fringe of the Dutch city of Almere, and the various design options were discussed during in-depth interviews. A semiotic framework made it possible to grasp the structure and process of interpretation of the plans and their embedded historical references. It is demonstrated that categories of place routinely override categories of time in the interpretation of a historical reference and that designs (and therefore references) steeped in design tradition, or, more broadly, artistic tradition, are rarely understood by the potential users. Further, the study shows that the interplay of spatial, temporal and cultural context does not allow for an ideal strategy of historical reference...

Room at the Top—The Roof as an Alternative Habitable / Social Space in the Singapore Context

Abstract: Rooftops have been both forgotten spaces for the underprivileged as well as celebrated spaces of the affluent. However, the rooftop as an alternative means of development has become increasingly explored as a means of densifying the city, replenishing open space for social interaction in an increasingly depleted public realm. This paper considers the practicalities of top up densification and, in the context of Singapore, their use as alternative social spaces. It argues that they should be included alongside the conventional urban spaces of the street and square (public) or alternative social spaces of the mall, arcade, court or hotel lobby (semi-public) in the broader open space infrastructure for civil society's appropriation. It further argues that in their current guise, they are semi-public domains. For their transformation into public spaces, a re-investigation into existing social boundaries and a greater symbiosis between public–private interests are needed to be able to create more civic rooftop...

Cultural Diversity and Spatial Structure in the Indian Urban Context

Abstract: Cities around the world have marked differences in spatial form and structure. To some extent this can be attributed to cultural differences. However, the impact spatial form has on the interactions within and between residents of different neighbourhoods is unclear. This paper calls on empirical evidence collected in the Walled City of Ahmedabad, India, home to Hindu and Muslim residents in distinct neighbourhoods for centuries. Employing Space Syntax method, this paper reveals significant differences in how public spaces are spatially laid out by these two communities. Muslim neighbourhoods have a spatial structure typical of a naturally evolved settlement, where the most integrated spaces are clustered centrally. In contrast, Hindu neighbourhoods have an ‘inside-out’ pattern, with the most integrated spaces located at the neighbourhood edge. The cultural significance of these distinct forms is discussed alongside the relationship between the neighbourhoods and the rest of the city. These findings on spatial structure could have an important role in Ahmedabad’s urban planning . A better understanding of how public space relates to lifestyle and culture could contribute to improved community relations. It could also contribute to dealing successfully with communal conflict, economic development, social sustainability as part of Ahmedabad’s future urban planning strategies.