Identifying Design Interventions in Cities for Urban Sustainability

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohit Arora ◽  
Felix Raspall ◽  
Arlindo Silva
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Urban Growth ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Urban Sustainability ◽  
Descriptive Study ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Demolition Waste ◽  
Material Reuse

Cities have been the focus of recent sustainability and climate change mitigation efforts primarily because of unprecedented urban growth and ever-increasing resources consumption. A worrying trend has been the ever-decreasing life of buildings in cities because of premature building obsolescence. Premature building obsolescence has been cited as the major driver of demolition waste which accounts for more than 40% of total waste generated annually. This waste stream poses a bigger challenge as the pressure on natural resources increases with urban growth. A traditional way of looking at the urban sustainability has been from the perspective of the environmental sciences and waste management methods. Analyzing urban areas with design science perspectives could provide novel insights to improve existing resource consumption patterns and transform sustainability growth in cities. This study focuses on the problem of demolition waste arising from the premature building obsolescence in cities. It applies a design research methodology framework for identifying existing problems associated with demolition waste and generating strategies to transform cities into more sustainable urban systems. In the problem clarification phase, a detailed literature review was supported with stakeholder’s interviews to identify the state-of-art for building demolition process and demolition waste. Research was further extended to descriptive study-I phase to carry out a demolition case study and generate support tools to enable transformation in the existing scenario for achieving a desired state. Singapore, a dense city state of South-East Asia has been taken as a case study in this research. Results show that applying design research methods could help open-up a new dimension to solve urban sustainability challenge for built environment. It highlights that material reuse could lead to significant improvement in the built environment sustainability but the challenge associated with realization of material reuse practice needs to be addressed. Descriptive study-I concludes with the strategies on creating a reuse market through entrepreneurial innovation and an alternative material supply chain of secondary materials for regional housing demand. These results highlight the role of design research methods for tackling complex systems level problems in cities.

scholarly journals Smart Urban Planning: Evaluating Urban Logistics Performance of Innovative Solutions and Sustainable Policies in the Venice Lagoon—the Results of a Case Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (17) ◽  
pp. 4580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Mazzarino ◽  
Lucio Rubini
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Sustainability ◽  
Venice Lagoon ◽  
Urban Transport ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Transport Capacity ◽  
Urban Network ◽  
Urban Freight

Currently, remarkable gaps of operational, social and environmental efficiency and overall sub-optimization of the logistics and mobility systems exist in urban areas. There is then the need to promote and assess innovative transport solutions and policy-making within SUMPs (Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans) to deal with such critical issues in order to improve urban sustainability. The paper focuses on the case study of the Venice Lagoon, where islands—despite representing a relevant feature of urban planning—face a tremendous lack of accessibility, depopulation, social cohesion and they turn out to be poorly connected. By developing an original scenario-building methodological framework and performing data collection activities, the purpose of the paper consists of assessing the feasibility of a mixed passenger and freight transport system —sometimes called cargo hitching. Mixed passenger and freight systems/cargo hitching are considered as an innovative framework based on the integration of freight and passenger urban systems and resources to optimize the existing transport capacity, and thus, urban sustainability. Results show that the overall existing urban transport capacity can accommodate urban freight flows on main connections in the Lagoon. The reduction in spare public transport capacity, as well as in the number (and type) of circulating freight boats show—in various scenarios—the degree of optimization of the resulting urban network configuration and the positive impacts on urban sustainability. This paves the way for the regulatory framework to adopt proposed solutions.

Integrating the normative with the positive dimension of the new science for cities: A geodesign-based framework for Cellular Automata modeling

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 837-863 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Kong ◽  
Daniel Z Sui
Keyword(s):  
Cellular Automata ◽  
Urban Growth ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Positive Dimension ◽  
Simulation Tools ◽  
New Science ◽  
Ca Model ◽  
Normative Dimension ◽  
Modelling Process

Cellular Automata (CA) models are powerful simulation tools to study complex urban systems. Although there has been considerable amount of CA-based modeling work reported in the literature, few have been used as actual planning or policy making tools. The goal of this research aims to address the problem of “unapplicable CA models” by combining CA models with the framework of geodesign. Inspired by Batty's new science of cities, we put forward a geodesign-based framework for CA modeling to integrate the positive and normative dimension of the new science of cities as envisioned by Batty. Instead of merely applying CA models to positive urban studies, which typically requires more accurate predictions, we advocate the integration of positive (i.e. urban simulation) and normative (i.e. design) city science via the application of CA modeling to geodesign. By linking CA simulation with the geodesign framework, a geodesign-based CA model is developed and six urban design scenarios are integrated into the model, to test the urban growth impacts of these scenarios and generate a new design scenario accordingly. Using a case study of urban growth in Changping District, Beijing, we demonstrate that the normative and the positive dimension of Batty's new science for cities can be integrated. Geodesign, as a new conceptual framework, is helpful for streamlining the CA modelling process to evaluate different design scenarios and design new scenarios. In return, CA models could also contribute to the geodesign process by offering a tool for simulating and evaluating impacts of different design scenarios on urban growth.

scholarly journals DEVELOPING PARASITIC ARCHITECTURE AS A TOOL FOR PROPAGATION WITHIN CITIES

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-170
Author(s):  
Daniel Given
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Urban Growth ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
Primary Case ◽  
Architectural Development

The term ‘parasitic architecture’ is an overused, and misunderstood buzzword within the architectural and urban planning community. By breaking down, through case study, how a space is developed and evolves, reclassification of architectural parasites is possible. Focusing on how parasitic architecture has produced urban growth and development of community within Tokyo as the primary case study, the reclassification is based in pre-existing architectural development and the nature of actual, living parasites. This reclassification of architectural parasite produces three separate types of parasite; the ‘structured,’ ‘symbiotic’ and the ‘hyper transient.’ Through the use of redefinition and reclassification, parasites in an architectural or urban planning context are then able to be manipulated as a tool for propagation within the existing built environment. Space within cities and megacities are becoming more of a commodity, so by utilising these new parasitic tools, it is possible to manipulate space to allow for an increase in urban growth, whilst still being flexible enough to fit into pre-existing planning legislation globally.

scholarly journals Online Education and the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Case Study of Online Teaching during Lockdown

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nastaran Peimani ◽  
Hesam Kamalipour
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Uk

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a critical challenge for the higher education sector. Exploring the capacity of this sector to adapt in the state of uncertainty has become more significant than ever. In this paper, we critically reflect on our experience of teaching urban design research methods online during the early COVID-19 lockdown in the UK. This is an exploratory case study with a qualitative approach with an aim to inform resilient practices of teaching in the face of public health emergencies. Drawing on the experience of teaching the Research Methods and Techniques subject during lockdown, we discuss the rapid transition from face-to-face to online teaching and point to the challenges and opportunities in relation to the learning and teaching activities, assessment and feedback, and digital platforms. This paper concludes by outlining some key considerations to inform the development of more adaptive and resilient approaches to online teaching in the context of unprecedented global health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that it is critical to move beyond fixed pedagogical frameworks to harness the productive capacities of adaptive teaching.

Multiagent approach to temporal and punctual urban redevelopment in dynamic, informal contexts

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 199-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor Ryan Patt
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Dynamic Modeling ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Urban Redevelopment ◽  
Multiagent Simulation ◽  
Urban Sites ◽  
Planning Approaches

This article presents design research speculating on computationally enabled planning approaches for urban sites where informal developments make conventional masterplans ineffectual. The project advances the thesis that the spatial complexity of urban sites can be effectively studied through a network or mesh representation and that rapid change in informal settlements is not an obstacle to planned redevelopment but can be addressed through dynamic modeling and punctual interventions. In this way, the rapid turnover of the built environment can be a mechanism through which to introduce directed planning without canceling out bottom-up actions. In the case study presented, we use a multiagent approach that is able to adapt to a continuously changing context. The agents are driven by weighted random walks and compute localized analyses of the morphology of the network of public space as they move. The information generated by the multiagent simulation is aggregated to identify potential modifications to the urban fabric, with an emphasis on pedestrian connectivity.

Social Design for Services Framework

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie SARANTOU ◽  
Satu MIETTINEN
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Research Group ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Service Design ◽  
Social Design ◽  
Practical Action ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World

This paper addresses the fields of social and service design in development contexts, practice-based and constructive design research. A framework for social design for services will be explored through the survey of existing literature, specifically by drawing on eight doctoral theses that were produced by the World Design research group. The work of World Design researcher-designers was guided by a strong ethos of social and service design for development in marginalised communities. The paper also draws on a case study in Namibia and South Africa titled ‘My Dream World’. This case study presents a good example of how the social design for services framework functions in practice during experimentation and research in the field. The social design for services framework transfers the World Design group’s research results into practical action, providing a tool for the facilitation of design and research processes for sustainable development in marginal contexts.

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