Urban Space as a Factor of Production: Accounting for the Success of Small Factories in Postwar Tokyo

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-298
Author(s):  
Benjamin BANSAL
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Manufacturing Firms ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Labor Costs ◽  
Full Account ◽  
Competitive Edge ◽  
Mixed Use ◽  
The City ◽  
Spatial Stratification

Abstract This paper demonstrates that small manufacturing firms in postwar Tokyo were exceptionally successful. Not only were they more productive than their national peers, they were also remarkably competitive vis-à-vis large factories in Tokyo. The existing explanations for this double outperformance do not take full account of the urban setting in which this process took place. Small factories compensated for higher labor costs by being more efficient users of urban space. They thrived thanks to Tokyo’s particular urban form, which included a preference for mixed use and often blurred the boundaries between living and workplace. Small factories also benefited from being embedded in the relatively egalitarian structure of postwar Tokyo, as the city avoided spatial stratification despite megacity growth. Although Tokyo’s small factories remain important, their competitive edge has eroded from the 1970s onward.

scholarly journals Student Homelessness: Sheltering Our Future: An Adaptable Approach to Underutilised City Spaces

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Caryl Ramos
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Modular Design ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Test Site ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Homeless Population ◽  
Future Application ◽  
Design Development ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
The City

<p>The increasing housing demands from population growth creates a persistent housing shortage and unaffordability in our cities. Students are one demographic that is dramatically affected as they move closer to their education provider for study. The student influx at the start of the semester creates a large demand in the already inadequate housing market. Students with a limited budget have reduced accommodation options and this consequently drives many into a state of homelessness. A study from University of Otago measures that over a quarter of New Zealand’s homeless population are students (Amore, 2016). This considerable number of students are living in cars, tents, couch-surfing and sleeping rough for weeks during their studies. The desperate situation impinges on the student’s health and well-being and thus their academic performance.  In this context, the scope of this research focuses on the requirements of homeless tertiary students in the urban setting. Their vulnerability, insecurity and distress are explored to provide direction to solutions that will alleviate the existing problems of their insufficient living environments. As proximity to the education providers and amenities are key factors, this thesis examines underutilised and leftover spaces within the city as opportunities for inhabitation, and to create efficient use of urban space. Currently, there are successful examples of activating overlooked laneways into vibrant spaces. However, these transformations rely on the activities in the lane and the interventions are largely landscaping and installations. By investigating the successful regeneration of previously undesirable and neglected spaces through architectural re-imagination, this thesis identify laneways to be a potential site to the urgent need for shelters.  The architectural experiments and design development are informed by the combination of site challenges and programme to form an overall design-led research. The thesis tests how temporary modular design has a significant role in the design of economic and adaptable solutions for the increasing issue of homelessness. This establishes that through a critical design, we may shelter those in desperate need within the urban context. The architecture provides a safe environment that is empathetic to its users and the larger urban scale while also creating a statement and awareness to homelessness. The thesis concludes with the design framework for a single test site and assesses its suitability for future application to other leftover spaces in the city.</p>

Diversity As A Unique Constellation of Superimposing Network Logics

2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 6-14
Author(s):  
Alain Thierstein ◽  
Anne Wiese
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Industrial Sites ◽  
Individual Site ◽  
Scale Levels ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The City ◽  
Underlying Processes

In the context of the European city, the regeneration of former industrial sites is a unique opportunity to actively steer urban development. These plots of land gain strategic importance in actively triggering development on the city scale. Ideally, these interventions radiate beyond the individual site and contribute to the strengthening of the location as a whole. International competition between locations is rising and prosperous development a precondition for wealth and wellbeing. This approach to the regeneration of inner city plots makes high demands on all those involved. Our framework suggests a stronger focus of the conceptualization and analysis of idiosyncratic resources, to enable innovative approaches in planning. On the one hand, we are discussing spatially restrained urban plots, which have the capacity and need to be reset. On the other hand, each plot is a knot in the web of relations on a multiplicity of scales. The material city is nested into a set of interrelated scale levels – the plot, the quarter, the city, the region, potentially even the polycentric megacity region. The immaterial relations however span a multicity of scale levels. The challenge is to combine these two perspectives for their mutual benefit. The underlying processes are constitutive to urban space diversity, as urban form shapes urban life and vice versa.

scholarly journals Sustainable urban structures to challenge climate change

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emil CREANGA ◽  
Maria DUDA
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Private Investment ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Urban Structure ◽  
Urban Structures ◽  
Modern Development ◽  
The City

Public spaces within the city in all their form of different types - streets, boulevards, squares, plazas, market places, green areas - are the backbone of cities. Over the centuries buildings defined the shape and quality of public spaces, valorising them in various ways. The post-modern development of urban form generated a great number of “urban spaces”, where there is no longer correspondence between architectural forms and social and political messages: shopping malls and theme parks, inner public spaces, strip developments etc. Urban sprawl accompanied by loss of agricultural/rural land and its impact on the environment are serious concerns for most cities over Europe. To strike the right balance between inner city regeneration, under-use of urban land in the old abandoned sites and the ecological benefits that accompany the new private business initiatives in suburban areas, is one of the major challenges confronting cities in Europe. The paper will analyze the complex relations between architecture and public space, in an attempt to understand how traditional urban structures, public and green spaces, squares and streets, could provide orientation for quality-oriented regeneration. Case in point is Bucharest - capital city of Romania - where aggressive intervention in the urban structure during the 1980s disrupted the fabric of the city. The investigation is oriented towards fundamental questions such as: how to secure and preserve sites that serve as initial points in upgrading processes, how to balance private investment criteria and the quality interests of the urban communities.The major aim is to provide a support for decision making in restoring the fundamental role of public urban space in shaping urban form and supporting community life.

scholarly journals La producción desigual de la morfología urbana madrileña = The uneven production of the urban morphology in Madrid

2020 ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Ramón Aguilar Lucato
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Urban Morphology ◽  
The City

ResumenSe analiza la impronta morfológica actual de la histórica producción desigual del espacio urbano madrileño. Se eligieron quince muestras de tejidos urbanos, tres en cada una de las clases morfológicas discutidas por Rodríguez-Tarduchy (2011), representativas de las innovaciones que se han generado en los modos de producir las grandes ciudades españolas. Cada tejido se localiza en una realidad socioeconómica en el marco de su clase morfológica (inferior, intermediaria y superior). La investigación se basó en el análisis de seis indicadores y posibilitó conclusiones cuantitativas sobre los cambios en los modos de diseñarse la ciudad en la medida que esta se expandía e innovaciones urbanísticas eran incorporadas a su trazado; y sobre las variaciones en la forma en una misma clase morfológica, pero en distintos contextos sociales. Con la ayuda del Diagrama Spacemate, se cuantificaron dos agrupamientos bien definidos y opuestos, confirmando la progresiva producción de una ciudad dual, es decir, densa en los tejidos más antiguos y difusa en las nuevas periferias.AbstractThis work verifies how the historical uneven production of Madrid's urban space is reflected in the present. Fifteen urban fabrics samples were chosen, three in each of the morphological classes discussed by Rodríguez-Tarduchy (2011), representative of the innovations that have been generated in the ways of producing large Spanish cities. Each fabric is located in a socioeconomic reality within the framework of its morphological class (lower, intermediate and upper). The research was based on the analysis of six indicators and made possible quantitative conclusions on the changes in the trends of designing the city as it expanded and urban innovations were incorporated into its layout; and on variations in urban form within the same morphological class, but in different social contexts. With the help of the Spacemate Diagram, two well-defined and opposite groupings were quantified, confirming the progressive production of a dual city, dense in the oldest fabrics and diffuse in the new peripheries.

scholarly journals Principios de la forma urbana en el trabajo de Leslie Martin y el LUBFS | Principles of the urban form in the work of Leslie Martin and the LUBFS

ZARCH ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 170
Author(s):  
Javier De Esteban Garbayo
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Modern Architecture ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Built Form ◽  
Siglo Xx ◽  
The City ◽  
Cambridge School

La revisión de la arquitectura moderna suscitada en el ámbito británico durante los años cincuenta y sesenta supone uno de los referentes para entender la evolución del pensamiento arquitectónico durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Uno de los temas de mayor alcance fue el esfuerzo por desarrollar nuevos principios de la forma urbana y superar algunas limitaciones de la ciudad moderna. El papel de Leslie Martin tuvo especial trascendencia tanto en la práctica como en el ámbito académico como director de la Escuela de Arquitectura de Cambridge y del grupo LUBFS (Land Use and Built Form Studies). Su trabajo, además de un modo singular de entender la ciudad, refleja algunas de las cuestiones más relevantes debatidas en este contexto. Del mismo modo que la comprensión de los aciertos y fracasos de propuestas urbanas como las de Leslie Martin permiten entender la deriva fragmentaria que toma posteriormente la reacción postmoderna, también posibilitan una base para repensar la ciudad contemporánea.PALABRAS CLAVE: Forma urbana, trama, espacio urbano, densidad, geometría.The review of modern architecture raised in Britain during the fifties and sixties became a reference to understand the evolution of the architectural thought during the second half of the twentieth century. One of the most discusses subject was the effort to develop new principles of urban form and overcome some limitations of the modern city. The role of Leslie Martin was particularly significant both in practice and in the academic field as director of The Cambridge School of Architecture and the LUBFS (Land Use and Built Form Studies). His work, in addition to a unique way of understanding the city, reflects some of the most relevant topics discussed in this context. In the same way that the understanding of the successes and failures of urban proposals such as those of Leslie Martin allow us to understand the postmodern fragmentary reaction, they also provide a basis to rethink the contemporary city.KEYWORDS: Urban form, Grid, Urban space, Density, Geometry.

The Urban Complex Energy Saving Effect Research

2015 ◽  
Vol 744-746 ◽  
pp. 2332-2335
Author(s):  
Yue Wang ◽  
Xin Zhang ◽  
Jing Fu Liu
Keyword(s):  
Energy Saving ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Social Benefit ◽  
Commercial Real Estate ◽  
Complex Energy ◽  
Environmental Benefit ◽  
Urban Complex ◽  
Saving Effect ◽  
The City

With the increase of population and the acceleration of urbanization, simple function and single develop commercial real estate can't satisfy the people's city life needs for the city whose land resources are scarce. Urban form began to spread from the extensive type to intensive transition. The urban complex as city entity set variety of urban space and architectural space at a suit is a product of urban development to a certain period, and it is the necessity of the development of urban economy. This article discusses the urban complex energy saving effect from the economic benefit, environmental benefit and social benefit three through the city synthesis theory research, thus further provide theoretical and practical basis for development of urban complex.

Possessing the City

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anish Vanaik
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Property Market ◽  
Property Development ◽  
Land Rents ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

This book is a social history of the property market in late-colonial Delhi; a period of much turbulence and transformation. It argues that historians of South Asian cities must connect transformations in urban space and Delhi’s economy. Utilizing a novel archive, it outlines the place of private property development in Delhi’s economy from 1911 to 1947. Rather than large-scale state initiatives, like the Delhi Improvement Trust, it was profit-oriented, decentralized, and market-based initiatives of urban construction that created the Delhi cityscape. A second thematic concern of Possessing the City is to carefully specify the emerging relationship between the state and urban space during this period. Rather than a narrow focus on urban planning ideas, it argues that the relationship be thought of in triangular fashion: the intermediation of the property market was crucial to emerging statecraft and urban form during this period. Finally, the book examines struggles and conflicts over the commodification of land. Rents and prices of urban property were directly at issue in the tussles over housing that are examined here. The question of commodification can, however, also be discerned in struggles that were not ostensibly about economic issues: clashes over religious sites in the city. Through careful attention to the historical interrelationships between state, space, and the economy, this book offers a novel intervention in the history of late-colonial Delhi.

scholarly journals Morphological Indices as Urban Planning Tools in Northeastern Brazil

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivanize Silva ◽  
Rafael Santos ◽  
António Lopes ◽  
Virgínia Araújo
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Northeastern Brazil ◽  
Width Ratio ◽  
Spatial Indices ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
Morphological Indices ◽  
The City

The purpose of this article is to analyze urban form through the mapping of morphological indices, namely impervious surface fraction, building density, verticality, height/width ratio, roughness length, and porosity, to support urban planning in the city of João Pessoa, PB, in northeastern Brazil. The application of this study identifies and calculates such significant indices for the city’s urban space from a Geographic Information System (GIS) model. The spatial indices play notable roles in climate at different scales, developing guidelines to maximize environmental quality, promote improvements to thermal comfort, minimize the urban heat island in the city of João Pessoa, and provide relevant data (considering microclimate aspects), guiding decisions related to the planning process.

“Exile from Ireland Left Him a Stranger Everywhere“: Representation of Dublin in Selected Louis Macneice’s Poetry and Some of the Stories from James Joyce’s Dubliners”

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-33
Author(s):  
Gabriela Czernecka
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Active Participant ◽  
Lower Middle Class ◽  
Louis Macneice ◽  
The Face ◽  
The City ◽  
Close Investigation

Abstract This paper discusses the representation of Dublin in the selected poetry of Louis MacNeice and some of the stories from James Joyce’s collection Dubliners. A close investigation of the city as a representative of urban space is interlinked with an examination of its role from the perspective of psychogeography. Both techniques are applied to show why and how two Irish authors portray the multi-dimensional decay of life in the city. In order to paint a whole picture of the relation between ‘space’ and ‘human’, I will also review the biographies of MacNeice and Joyce. For MacNeice, who was tormented by the experiences of domestic Belfast, going to the South was a promising escape. Yet, the change of urban setting did not bring him the expected result. MacNeice quickly became aware of the dirty, paralysed face of Dublin. Similarly, the childhood and day-to-day reality of the lower-middle-class profoundly shaped Joyce’s perspective of Dublin and, eventually, prompted him to go into deliberate exile in Europe. In his writings, however, Dublin constitutes the focal point of the structure, becoming an active participant in the events. Therefore, Dublin for MacNeice and Joyce is a place characterized by blandness, powerlessness in the face of foreign influences, and suffering caused by inertia.

Theatre and Urban Space: the Case of Birmingham Rep

2000 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-147
Author(s):  
Claire Cochrane
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Civic Consciousness ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City ◽  
Over Time

In NTQ61, Deborah Saivetz described the attempts over the past decade of the Italian director Pino DiBuduo to create ‘invisible cities’ – performances intended to restore the relationship between urban spaces and their inhabitants, through exploring the actual and spiritual histories of both. Earlier in the present issue, Baz Kershaw suggests some broader analogies between the theatre and its macrocosmic environment. Here, Claire Cochrane, who teaches at University College, Worcester, narrows the focus to a particular British city and the role over time of a specific theatre in relation to its urban setting. Her subject is the history and development of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in relation to the city – of which its founder, Barry Jackson, was a lifelong resident – as an outcome of the city's growth in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, which made it distinctive in terms of its manufactures, the workers and entrepreneurs who produced them, and a civic consciousness that was disputed yet also shared. She traces, too, the transition between old and new theatre buildings and spaces which continued to reflect shifting class and cultural relationships as the city, its politicians, and its planners adapted to the second half of the twentieth century.

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