scholarly journals Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice in the Urban Design Process: Towards a Multi-disciplinary Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Moureen Asaad ◽  
Marwa Khalifa ◽  
Ahmed S. Abd Elrahman

The city is a complex living organism mostly affected by decisions taken whether they are political, organizational, or design decisions. Such decisions vary in scale starting with planning, urban design, and architectural scales. Urban design has been commonly agreed to occupy a hypothetical intersection between planning and architecture. It emerged to bridge the disciplinary gap between architecture and planning. Since 1960s urban design literature attempted to define what good urban design and good city form is, and the process to achieve it; yet in practice the end product doesn’t always achieve high quality in terms of urban design initial objectives. Over the last decades, the gap between disciplinary dreams in theory and real outcomes translated as urban design product of different practices has been growing in the field of urban planning and urban design. Since the urban design product does not meet its expected objectives in theory then something must be wrong with it, and a thorough investigation must come in order to perceive such gap. The Research aims to answer two main questions regarding urban design through examining the Urban Design Process; the first is whether the urban design process is capable to bridge the multidisciplinary gap? And the second question is with the little knowledge and lack of success criteria for the urban design process; how can the success of urban design be measured?

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 386-389
Author(s):  
Eduardo Oliveira

Evinç Doğan (2016). Image of Istanbul, Impact of ECoC 2010 on The City Image. London: Transnational Press London. [222 pp, RRP: £18.75, ISBN: 978-1-910781-22-7]The idea of discovering or creating a form of uniqueness to differentiate a place from others is clearly attractive. In this regard, and in line with Ashworth (2009), three urban planning instruments are widely used throughout the world as a means of boosting a city’s image: (i) personality association - where places associate themselves with a named individual from history, literature, the arts, politics, entertainment, sport or even mythology; (ii) the visual qualities of buildings and urban design, which include flagship building, signature urban design and even signature districts and (iii) event hallmarking - where places organize events, usually cultural (e.g., European Capital of Culture, henceforth referred to as ECoC) or sporting (e.g., the Olympic Games), in order to obtain worldwide recognition. 


Author(s):  
V. P. Urenev ◽  
◽  
Engel Barbara ◽  
O. S. Savytska ◽  
N. O. Dmytrik ◽  
...  

The article discusses issues related to the monitoring of public opinion in pre-project studies on the further development of the Cheremushki district in the city of Odessa. These studies were carried out as part of the international project “Unloved Heritage of a Socialist City?”, in the period from 2016 to 2019. The project was attended by Germany, Ukraine, Russia. The first and second stages of the project were devoted to the study of the German experience in renovation and a research workshop in the city of Odessa. The third stage is the creation of an office to familiarize residents of Cheremushki with pre-project research and monitoring public opinion. The article describes the results of a survey and two discussion round tables on the development and problems of the area; the authors noted the importance of taking into account the results of a sociological survey when conducting pre-design decisions. As a result of the discussion of the first round table, the participants came to the following conclusions: the residents of the region are indifferent to the adjacent territories, believing that these are housing and communal services tasks; their interests end outside their apartments; it is necessary to find methods to activate local residents and involve them in the management of their local territories; the solution may be to create a model quarter on Cheremushki as an example of successful renovation, thereby attracting residents to self-government and the desire to change something; a sociological survey of residents and their acquaintance with research developments on the topic of the development of Cheremushki will favorably affect not only future design decisions, but also the thoughts of residents themselves about the fate of their habitat. Analysis of the survey, the second round table and monitoring the opinions of residents led to the following conclusions: at the moment, investors are not interested in investing in the development of the Cheremushki region; there is no detailed plan for the development of the district at the official level, the city authorities support point and chaotic development; German experience as tracing paper cannot be transferred to Ukrainian realities; the district is inhabited by people of different social levels who have different levels of understanding in the ongoing processes, but most of them favor the preservation of basic architectural and urban planning decisions and the modernization of houses on Cheremushki; there are activists of the region and specialists interested in developing Cheremushki along the path of modernization and comprehensive renovation, using the experience of architectural and urban planning solutions in other countries, for example, Germany, but legal, economic and state support is needed; in conditions of extensive development of the city, it is advisable to use and develop existing territories.


2021 ◽  
Vol 274 ◽  
pp. 01001
Author(s):  
Tatyana Zakirova

The article discusses the prospects for the application of innovative technologies in the theory and practice of urban planning on the example of Kazan. Market relations in recent decades in our country have created a number of acute problems of modern urban planning – the curtailment of long-term planning, the reduction of environmental control in the city and its environs, etc. It is necessary to refer to the Healthy Cities initiative of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe. The first steps in this direction have already been taken in Kazan. This is a project of the new business center of the Republic of Tatarstan «Smart City Kazan» and the first «smart house» built on the territory of the Technopolis Himgrad. In Kazan, there are prerequisites for the introduction of ecourban design methods. These are vast water areas of the Volga and Kazanka rivers, the banks of which have not yet been fully developed. This is a large square in the city center, which was vacated after moving the airport outside the city limits. For Kazan, it will also be useful to replace the decorative glass false facades, often found on brick buildings after reconstruction, with vertical «solar walls» of air thermal technology.


2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 193-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasna Cikic-Tovarovic ◽  
Nenad Sekularac ◽  
Jelena Ivanovic-Sekularac

During the last years we have been facing a growing need of involving architects into processes of modern city medialization. Transposing contemporary media logic into architecture must be accompanied by qualitative answers within architectural theory and practice. The field of media facade is interdisciplinary - not only does it involve research within architecture and urbanism, but also within some border areas of technology, urban design, art, culture, media and marketing. Media facade design process involves analyses of some specific design aspects.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  

The urban and rural landscape of Ras Al Khaimah reflects the major investments in manufacturing and trade that have been made by its rulers since its entry into the United Arab Emirates Federation in 1972. The emirate’s pharmaceutical, ceramics, cement, and other industries have met with much success and have been accompanied and supported by widespread organizational and economic reforms and investments. The emirate has experienced year-after-year of growth and development, which continued even through the recent global economic downturn. The vision of His Highness Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi to diversify Ras Al Khaimah’s economy and encourage growth in a range of sectors will impact the future shape of the city of Ras Al Khaimah and its position within the emirate. Such growth highlights questions about the future shape of Ras Al Khaimah in relation to the Ruler’s vision of economic diversity. His Highness would like to reduce Ras Al Khaimah’s reliance on industry and encourage growth in a variety of sectors, including projects related to sea ports and the airport, the expansion of the Free Trade Zone, and an increase of investment in the tourism sector. As a result, planning is underway to define how these sectors can work in harmony to create a functional city, one that generates income, provides an agreeable home for its residents, and constitutes an attractive destination for tourists. The Urban Development Lab in Ras Al Khaimah was developed in response to a call for tenders by the Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research in the area of urban planning and development research in Ras Al Khaimah. The Urban Development Lab is an innovative process that uses perception studies and live interactive sessions with residents to capture the “tacit knowledge” of the city’s residents with regard to their perceptions and aspirations for Ras Al Khaimah’s urban landscape. The findings of the perception studies and live sessions are combined with global research on best practices in urbanization to begin to develop a culturally-relevant participatory urban design process for this city. The study’s lab process began with a comprehension phase in October 2012, which was designed to collect background information on the way that Ras Al Khaimah’s residents perceive their city. This information was used in the formation and administration of a survey instrument that focused on urban planning. The deliberation phase followed the comprehension phase and used highly-structured group sessions to acquaint residents with urban planning practices while seeking to crystalize their perspectives on Ras Al Khaimah. Finally, the consolidation and delivery phase involved ICOS’s processing of its data and formulating a comprehensive report that served as the basis for this Al Qasimi Foundation Working Paper. ICOS’s initial report was completed in October 2013. The Urban Development Lab process demonstrated that residents of all regions of Ras Al Khaimah would ideally like the city to develop into a place that puts importance on the family and that has diverse sectors of economic development. The neighborhood is the point of reference in Ras Al Khaimah. Accordingly, the majority of residents identify the appearance of their neighborhood as its most important aspect. Residents favor mixed-use neighborhoods that have essential services close by. The willingness shown by residents to move around their neighborhoods on foot could pave the way for Ras Al Khaimah to become one of the first walkable cities in the region. ICOS is an independent research organization working in areas of urban and community development, rights and citizenship, and youth education and employment. ICOS uses its research methodologies to gain a deep understanding of the reality on the ground in Ras Al Khaimah and to engage people in the process of assessing their own situations. كما هو الحال مع العديد من المواقع التاريخية في منطقة الخليج، يمثل التجديد الحضري للمنطقة القديمة في رأس الخيمة ، الإمارات العربية المتحدة تحديا في الحفاظ على التوازن بين المحافظة والتجديد. يهدف هذا البحث إلى تسليط الضوء على أهمية منطقة البلدة القديمة كموقع تاريخي وثقافي لصانعي السياسات في الإمارة.


Nasledje ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 125-138
Author(s):  
Rade Mrlješ

In examining the urban heritage, which has often been fragmented in Belgrade as a result of different social and political circumstances, the issue of the choice of methodology is often raised in urban conservation. The present paper will propose to consider along these lines the role of high (second) Modernism in the architecture and urban development of Belgrade. The strategies of urban conservation focusing on the main issue of the synthesis of the historical and planned structure would be directed towards the Modernist phenomena which are established as a platform structure of the urban conservation of Belgrade's spatial cultural and historical units. The present research analyses the potential and possibilities of implementing the postulates of the Modernist creative efforts in the contemporary architectural, urban planning and conservation theory and practice, with the analytical basis in the seminal work of architect Milica Šterić (1914-1997) - the Energoprojekt building (1956-1960), located in Zeleni Venac Square in Belgrade. This study, which is based on certain aspects of the high Modernism, namely rationalism and neutrality, aims to point out a number of issues in the current globalist textualism, in which concepts of high Modernism and internationalism are evidently manipulated in the historical urban contexts of the city.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-228
Author(s):  
Victor Brunfaut ◽  
Bertrand Terlinden

This article, based upon pedagogical experimentation in development in a master-level architecture studio at the ULB School of Architecture (Brussels), focuses on the concept of a linear city in a metropolitan context. This concept is proposed by the Grand Tetouan (North Morocco) spatial development scheme as a framework to think about the future of this territory. The interest of the concept lies in its being both a descriptive and project-oriented tool, which allows working with students on the intricate relationship between these two moments of urban design. The coastal region has been the subject of a proposal for a “linear garden city” by a follower of Soria y Mata, Hilarión González del Castillo (1929), a project that left traces on the “palimpsest” (Corboz, 1983/2001) of the actual territory. The idea of the linear city, which has been, throughout the 20th century, a recurrent thematic in urban planning theory and practice dealing with the issue of industrial development of the modern city can be, in the specific case of the Grand Tetouan region, re-examined through the lens of tourism as an industry. The exploration is based on an analytical approach by the use of the notion of urban material (Boeri, Lanzani, & Marini, 1993; Viganò, 1999), an approach that creates the conditions of understanding (describing/designing) the existing territory through the mapping of its physical elements, a description that can then be used to develop an analysis of the forms of production of these elements and the complexity of their uses: how the city is, formally and socially, built (Secchi, 1989).


Author(s):  
Max Hirsh

Airport Urbanism concludes with an autobiographical account of the author's relocation to Singapore. Through observations of daily life and interviews with planning officials, the chapter demonstrates the urban design challenges entailed by the influx of short-term visitors and temporary migrants, who account for 40% of the city-state's population. The author argues that the current discipline of urban planning, as well as scholarly approaches to urban development in Asia, need to be reconceptualized in order to engage with the added demands that temporary inhabitants place on urban housing and transport systems. Ultimately, scholars, designers, and policymakers need to work together in order to explore how cities can productively accommodate a growing number of itinerant inhabitants and harmonize their needs with those of full-time residents.


2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abraham Akkerman

Early environmental myths of the body and the sky have been instrumental in the emergence of prehistoric urban environments, and have continued to play an important role in urban design through history to this time. The notions of the body, as the absolutely immediate, and the sky, as the unreachably distant are shown here as precursors to the core proposition of mind-environment transactions, introduced by Walter Benjamin a century ago. Late prehistory and early antiquity manifest the idea of epochal and ongoing progression in mind-city interaction, specifically, as a gender-based configuration of edifice versus space, or volume versus void, in the built environment. The North Star, as a celestial feature representing permanency and solidity, was critical in the formation of masculine myths of the environment upon which the very notion of a designed edifice had been founded, and from which the early city had emerged. The feminine counterpart of the edifice is urban void, often the garden, the street or the city square. Whereas in Neolithic communities the open ritual space seems to have been the most important design element, city-form since antiquity has habitually accentuated the masculinity of edifices over designed voids. More feminine attituted drawing on prehistoric acumen can help refocusing the emphasis on urban volume, onto dynamic urban design of open public spaces for human movement in the city.


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