The Arrabal of Alcázar viejo from Cordoba: Urban, Hereditary and Sustainable Regeneration of the Historic City Centre

Author(s):  
Rafael Cabello Montoro
Keyword(s):  
2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 282-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belén Mª Castro Fernández ◽  
Rubén Camilo Lois González ◽  
Lucrezia Lopez

Santiago de Compostela is an iconic place. From the 9th century through to the present day the city has acted as the final destination of a major pilgrimage route named after it. In the article we ask ourselves how the contemporary reinvention of the pilgrimage and pilgrimages on the Way of St. James has boosted tourism development in the city. Development has been concentrated in the historic city centre and in the area around the cathedral. The importance of tourism has transformed the significance of the city itself, which acquires a magical component as a place of arrival and encounter for all kinds of visitors. The historic city has been set up in the 20th century as a destination for the Way and for cultural tourism. The buildings, particularly those connected with the pilgrimage route, become highly attractive and symbolic places and tourists carry out a number of rituals in them. They travel and enjoy Santiago as a unique experience. The study of tourism and of the tourist transformation of Santiago de Compostela is undertaken using a qualitative and quantitative method. The article analyses the heritage and symbolic value of the historic centre, together with the growth of its tourism activities. Numerical data are also provided on the perceptions and behaviour of visitors using surveys carried out by the city's Tourism Observatory.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Álvaro Clua Uceda

On 11 October 1935, the inauguration of the Slussen urban cloverleaf took place in front of the excited citizens of Stockholm. It had the attributes of a pure traffic machine taken from the most advanced traffic engineering publications, and it expressed the optimistic cultural modernism that five years ago the Stockholm International Exhibition had promoted.1 This urban cloverleaf was made of translucent glass, reinforced concrete, metallic handrails, and reflective tiles and was meant to solve, in one single gesture, the complex urban link between the Lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea, between Gamla Stan – the historic city centre – and Södermalm – the southern district built on top of the 35-metre-high plateau [1]. The solution made difficult urban compromises between the foothills of the Brunkeberg topography, the smooth water surfaces of the Stockholm archipelago, the architecture of the historic urban tissue, and the demands of a complex articulated mobility. Boats, goods, suburban trains, subways, trams – later buses – pedestrians, cyclists, and automobiles finally converged on this place at different levels, completing the intricacies of a threedimensional geometry which, for the first time in history, was inserted into a compact city.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiago M. Ferreira ◽  
Pedro P. Santos

Historic city centres near watercourses are a specific type of urban area that are particularly vulnerable to flooding. In this study, we present a new methodology of flood risk assessment that crosses hazard and physical vulnerability information. We have selected the Historic City Centre of Guimarães (Portugal), a UNESCO Heritage Site, for developing and testing the defined methodology. The flood hazard scenario was obtained through the hydrologic–hydraulic modelling of peak flows with a 100-year return period, which provided flood extent, depths, and velocities. A decomposition of the momentum equation, using depth and velocity, allowed reaching a final hazard score. Flood vulnerability was assessed through combining an exposure component and a sensitivity component, from field-collected data regarding wall orientation, heritage status, age, number of storeys, condition, and material of buildings. By combining the results of the hazard and vulnerability modules in a risk-matrix, three qualitative levels of flood risk were defined. The individual and crossed analysis of results proved to be complementary. On one hand, it allows the identification of the more relevant risk factors—from the hazard or vulnerability modules. On the other hand, the risk-matrix identified other buildings with a high risk that otherwise would remain unnoticed to risk managers.


Author(s):  
Müge Akkar Ercan ◽  
Züleyha Sara Belge

Walkability is of rising importance in planning and design circles. In Turkey and the world, it is increasingly recognized as an urban strategy to create healthy societies within sustainable and ‘liveable’ cities. Despite this interest, the extent to which Turkish cities are walkable remains questionable. Defining the performative features of walkability, this research offers a micro- scale walkability assessment model with eight qualitative and quantitative factors of urban design. Describing the model with its factors, this article first presents a research methodology, then explores the walkability level of the historic city centre of Mersin, specifically Ataturk and Uray Streets (AUS). Finally, it discusses the major planning and design strategies that can improve walkability and liveability level of the historic city centre of Mersin, and underlines the contributions the model can make to current planning practice with reference to inclusive, human-centred and flexible design approaches. The research concludes that a sensitive qualitative and quantitative assessment of walkability is necessary to identify the walkability level of urban space. Additionally, it suggests that a comprehensive, integrated, and multi-dimensional planning and design approach regarding micro-scale, meso-scale and macro-scale is required to develop holistic and integrated urban design strategies to achieve walkable, liveable and sustainable cities.


Author(s):  
S. Auquilla ◽  
M. Siguencia

Abstract. Cuenca in Ecuador is a growing city, weak in the face of the changes that the expansion phenomenon implies. The area of El Ejido was the first expansion area of the city with valuable samples of the arrival of modernity in the city. Nowadays, this sector is not exempted from the effects of urban growth and deserves to be managed through a proper management plan for its preservation. Degraded landscapes have been identified, modern heritage architecture shows clear symptoms of abandonment and low maintenance, causing the disappearance of historic buildings. Given these and other problems associated with urban development, Cuenca, like other cities, has taken the initiative of adopting the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) adopted by UNESCO in 2011, as a measure to safeguard urban heritage. In 2014, the implementation of this relatively new approach was first initiated in the pilot area of the Historic City Centre of Cuenca. This area was included in the World Heritage List in 1999 based on criteria II, IV, and V.However, aware of the significant heritage values embedded at El Ejido and its close urban and landscape link with the Historical City Center, the aim of this research is the implementation of the HUL’s approach in a specific area located in El Ejido. Due to the clear difference between this sector and the Historical City Center, it is necessary to assess the first methodology used and work on a methodology that can be extrapolated to this sector and further on to other sectors of the city. To obtain the methodology for this area, it is essential to carry out a territorial exploration in cities with similar characteristics to Cuenca that are implementing an approach based on the study of the Historical Urban Landscape Recommendation.


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