scholarly journals Urban space as an image of the socio-economic context in contemporary cities

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-189
Author(s):  
Dijana Brkljac ◽  
Aleksandra Milinkovic ◽  
Milena Krkljes
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Urban Image ◽  
Urban Market ◽  
Symbolic Meanings ◽  
Urban Settlements ◽  
Image Creation

From the very beginning of urban settlements, cities have had a very clear expression, because urban elements bear with them the symbolism and messages tied to relevant points in history, changes in function, characters etc. These messages, carried through a range of urban elements, have been changing in respect to lifestyles, which, ever since the rise of capitalism, predominantly meant with respect to economic conditions. Such a free-market impact has become particularly evident in the light of contemporary totalitarian capitalism that has equated urban space with commercial and exhibition space, thus moulding it into an urban market. This paper is intended as a critical review dealing with the analysis of urban spaces in respect to urban image creation, all in relation to relevant socio-economic influences and conditionalities. It also considers new symbolic meanings to the existing urban form, which affect urban life and its inhabitants.

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 Faded Red Paradise: Welfare and the Soviet City after 1953

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 597-615
Author(s):  
MARK B. SMITH
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Soviet Power ◽  
Company Town ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe provision of social welfare and the shape of the Soviet city profoundly influenced each other, especially in the post-Stalin period. This article explores the relationship between welfare and city in the USSR after 1953 by focusing on four particular urban or exurban spaces: the company town, the microdistrict, the pensions office and the city's rural hinterland. After the ideological visions of the Khrushchev era faded, welfare moved even closer to the heart of Soviet urban life. It determined some of the contours of urban form, while the resulting urban spaces contributed fundamentally to the way that people understood Soviet power and the nature of their citizenship.

scholarly journals Roofing and thawing the sub-Arctic city. Towards the conceptualisation of wellbeing through urban surfaces

2020 ◽  
pp. 45-62
Author(s):  
Essi Oikarinen
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Personal Control ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Northern Regions ◽  
User Groups ◽  
The Relationship

An increasing amount of sub-Arctic population is living in cities and settlements. Despite the urbanisation, seasonality still affects the rhythm of life and willingness to spend time outside of home, which, in turn, affects health and wellbeing of the population. In addition to built artefacts, the materiality of sub-Arctic urban environment consists largely of changing weather conditions and seasonality, including phenomena such as thawing, freezing, snow, ice and slush, which have diverse effects on humans using the urban spaces, yet are not often part of conceptualisations of urban space that are formed in southern climates. In this paper, the relationship between sub-Arctic urban form, climate and users of the urban realm is critically re-evaluated using the concept of surface. Based on a review of the literature, the proposed approach gives agency not only to the weather, but also to different types of people inhabiting the urban space. This paper argues that the proposed approach takes better into account the varied nature of sub-Arctic urban spaces and their affordances as an entity: from privatised, roofed and weather-neutralised shopping centres and arcades to sledding hills, skating rinks and other winter-related spaces. This kind of conceptualisation could be beneficial when developing soft mobility plans for northern regions. Encouraging physical activity has direct effects on the physiological health of the population, but in addition to that, the approach attempts to acknowledge personal control of different user groups as a central aspect of wellbeing, which makes the viewpoint more holistic.

scholarly journals Towards an integrated architectural media space

First Monday ◽  
2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ava Fatah gen. Schieck
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Interaction Space ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Space ◽  
New Type ◽  
Large Projection ◽  
Display Walls

Large projection screens are becoming more and more ubiquitous in urban spaces. However, there is currently no methodology for designing media walls as an integral part of the urban built environment. This paper reviews the application of display walls and projection screens as an emergent new type of urban form in major metropolises around the world. It identifies issues related to the implementation of media walls, which perhaps form the basis for an integrated architectural media space. We suggest that in order to achieve real integration on an urban scale, we need to consider the design of space as a whole, taking into account the urban space, the dynamic visual information and the social interaction space.

How the physical characteristics may affect the social life of streets in Athens, Greece?

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charalampos Kyriakidis ◽  
Efthimios Bakogiannis
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Physical Characteristics ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Physical Features

Abstract The urban space is characterized by specific qualities that may contribute to, or mitigate the social life. These qualities were described by James Gibson as “environmental affordances”. According to that theoretical perspective, urban designers and environmental psychologists should focus on the physical features of a space in order to understand and explain the way in which it functions and the degree to which is sociable. For the scholars of road networks, this approach is particularly useful because streets shape the platform for a wide range of social interactions and experiences. Streets are by definition social spaces, which not operate always efficiently because of their form and their particular characteristics. This is one of the primary reasons why it is stated in the literature that public space is now declined and as a result it needs to recover its old glamorous prestige and importance. In the light of the above, the specific research as primarily qualitative, is focused on studies of the urban form of the Athenian streets and proposes a typology for them considering some key physical characteristics which affect with a specific way the embedded social life. Finally, an attempt is made to generalize the effects of the specific physical characteristics to the socialization of urban spaces.

Urban Spaces and psychic disease: A case series from Florence

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. s831-s832
Author(s):  
E. Rondini ◽  
M. Bertelli
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Life Quality ◽  
Case Series ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Positive Interactions ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Transport Services ◽  
The City

People with schizophrenia or other psychoses present alterations of multi-sensory processing and impairments in cognitive functions. They seem to be more sensitive to external stimuli than the general population, which can negatively impact on their emotional state. The purpose of the study was to assess how elements of urban milieu combine with spatial experiences of people with these disorders, affecting their spatial perceptions and social interactions. The group of participants consisted of 10 patients aged between 20 and 40 years, with schizophrenia or other psychoses. We used qualitative methods to assess behaviours in different urban routes, including a period of participant observation and a series of semi-structured interviews. Pathways within the city were recorded using a Global Position System (GPS), in order to link perceptual and behavioural data to specific urban spaces. The data analysis has revealed positive interactions between most of participants and the city. Different places have been differently perceived in terms of stress and comfort. The wide squares and the art-rich sites of the city center, as well as public parks and gardens, have been connected with positive feelings and senses of pleasure. Conversely, the presence of a high number of people and the movement experiences through public transport services have emerged to be associated with negative emotions. A deeper understanding of mechanisms and processes that interest the link between urban space and psychological disease can contribute to show new directions for the improvement of urban life quality and to progress both in psychiatry and in urban planning.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

scholarly journals Pedestrian Paths as an Indicator of Legibility Aspects of Omani Traditional Settlements

2021 ◽  
Vol 1203 (3) ◽  
pp. 032018
Author(s):  
Naima Benkari ◽  
Islam Sallam
Keyword(s):  
Urban Form ◽  
Objective Evaluation ◽  
Numerical Approach ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Urban Forms ◽  
Built Heritage ◽  
Urban Settlements ◽  
Local Patterns ◽  
Published Research

Abstract The interest for studying the Omani built heritage is not recent. However, the published research about the subject since the early 1970s, is limited in number and sporadic in topics and territories investigated. Moreover, there was no or little interest in examining this built heritage from the point of view of its urban design typologies. This paper is examining the urban form of these settlements and linking it with legibility aspects. Legibility and its influence on users of urban spaces have been significant for many theorists in urban studies. In their point of view, behaviour patterns of pedestrians are strongly influenced by legibility perception of the spatial patterns in urban spaces. The current research aims at studying the legibility aspects of traditional Omani residential settlements in an objective evaluation represented by numerical approach. Through a descriptive and analytical method, the results will link the influence of urban forms with legibility and behaviour patterns of pedestrians, which are deeply affected by the perception of body and mind. The paper explored paths’ forms influence on legibility perception of pedestrian in some of traditional settlements in Oman that have a strong urban identification. Five case studies representing traditional Omani settlements were chosen and analysed with an innovative quantitative approach capable of discovering, evaluating deficiencies, and suggesting solutions to develop local concepts for paths in any of urban settlements. The findings disclose that the contest to adopt international approaches to solve local urban spaces has created pointless, despicable, and unused spaces, while adopting local patterns, features and solutions will enhance the legible image of local urban settlements.

scholarly journals Urban Public Space in The Context of a New Era, Case of Annaba City-Algeria

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rym Mouni Bachtarzi ◽  
◽  
Djamel Alkama ◽  
Hana Salah-Salah ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Economic Stress ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
New Era ◽  
Urban Public Space ◽  
Quality Of Urban Life ◽  
Questionnaire Surveys

Urban public space is an essential element of the urban environment that contributes to the quality of urban life called to create a certain dynamic, places of life, places of meeting, of use, of conviviality, and of social cohesion, providing multiple environmental and health benefits. This urban space can become even more critical in times of crisis such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, where citizens face increased health and economic stress. As part of our study, we conducted questionnaire surveys during the period in which restrictive measures were imposed in response to the pandemic in Annaba city- Algeria, which has many public urban spaces (gardens, green spaces, squares…), these surveys were intended for users on their attendance and their perception of these spaces since the onset of this pandemic COVID-19, and the challenges they see for the future. Therefore, the findings of our study demonstrated the footprint of COVID-19 on urban spaces and their frequentation, as well as preventive measures in order to gain insight into urban planning and conception.

scholarly journals Finding the City in Sociology: Broadening and Deepening the Geographic Scope of the Urban and Inequality Literatures

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Prener
Keyword(s):  
Urban Form ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
American South ◽  
Urban Sociology ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Geographic Scope ◽  
American Cities ◽  
The City

Cities have long been the object of fascination within sociology. Key portions of sociological literatures on inequality and globalization, for instance, have focused on urban spaces as essential sites for the production and reproduction of social life, and urban sociology itself is one of the oldest fields in the discipline. For all of this prominence, however, locating the city itself in these literatures can be difficult. Much of our understanding of urban life and urban social problems is derived from a relatively small number of American cities. Moreover, cities are often relegated to a supporting role as a research site rather than an institution worthy of interrogation. This article reviews the path that has brought a specific set of cities to the fore of American sociological analyses. In response, broadening literatures to cities in the literal and figurative American South and producing deeper literatures of specific cities can give sociology the opportunity to produce more representative and contextually rich analyses of inequalities, urban social life, and urban form. The literature on St. Louis, Missouri, is presented as an example of what such a broader and deeper literature could encompass.

Urban geography 1: ‘Big tech’ and the reshaping of urban space

2021 ◽  
pp. 030913252110219
Author(s):  
Donald Mcneill
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Urban Market ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Global Platform ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Spatial Impacts ◽  
Regulatory Challenges

This report draws on the burgeoning geography literature on ‘big tech’ and how scholars have responded to its spatial impacts. First, it traces the revival in locational geographies and the role of global platform firms in shaping urban market geographies; second, it traces work on the urban governance and regulatory challenges posed by different types of capital; and technology entrepreneurship and start-up firms; third, it identifies work that has traced the impact of apps and platforms on the conduct of urban life, from delivery drivers to taxis to dating to real estate rental.

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