scholarly journals Exploring the potential of Urban Leftover Spaces

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jasim Azhar
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Urban Fabric ◽  
Aesthetic Quality ◽  
Visual Preference ◽  
Spatial Environment ◽  
Human Perceptions ◽  
Design Attribute ◽  
Design Preferences ◽  
Preference Study

<p>A city’s spatial environment emerges from the ongoing negotiation between the constructed environment, urban processes, and bodily experience. Many spaces do not represent a static notion but are continually challenged and reconstituted, including spaces that appear to be ‘leftover’. The ability to recognise leftover spaces in the urban context is an integral part of the urban redevelopment process, where structured and layered approaches become useful in understanding how to transform these spaces into places. Consequently, leftover spaces in the urban fabric can be seen both as having potential and as threatening. Researchers have pointed out the issues, conditions, and importance of the positive utilisation of leftover spaces. These spaces can be designed, transformed, and integrated into the main urban fabric to achieve environmental and social gains. Creative and flexible design should lead to psychologically healthy places by improving the image of a city from within. However, there is insufficient information available on how to go about designing such spaces.  The revitalisation and aesthetic quality of leftover spaces could expand the dynamism of a city through strategic design interventions. This study explores how the visual perception of leftover spaces in Wellington City that influences both personal experiences and their potential usage could be enhanced. The research aims to investigate the potential of different types of urban leftover spaces, which could be used in a more effective way than they are present. The mixed methodology undertaken in this study seeks to inform planning initiatives by knowing what people feel about leftover spaces and their aspects that need improvement. This research, therefore, examines how such leftover spaces are defined and can be redesigned to become part of a built environment. The research thus consists of three studies starting with an initial visual preference study to understand human perceptions that could lead to better design solutions. The second study explored the differences in design preferences among participants coming from different fields of study, forming the main visual preference study. Visual preferences can guide behaviour and the emotional responses of different users in the redesign of such spaces and their essential attributes. Lastly, focus group discussions were held with built and non-built environment participants. To sum up, the results revealed that providing more vegetation is a critical design attribute for such spaces. The study contradicts theories that hold there are differences in the ways built and non-built environment experts perceive the environment.</p>

scholarly journals Exploring the potential of Urban Leftover Spaces

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jasim Azhar
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Urban Fabric ◽  
Aesthetic Quality ◽  
Visual Preference ◽  
Spatial Environment ◽  
Human Perceptions ◽  
Design Attribute ◽  
Design Preferences ◽  
Preference Study

<p>A city’s spatial environment emerges from the ongoing negotiation between the constructed environment, urban processes, and bodily experience. Many spaces do not represent a static notion but are continually challenged and reconstituted, including spaces that appear to be ‘leftover’. The ability to recognise leftover spaces in the urban context is an integral part of the urban redevelopment process, where structured and layered approaches become useful in understanding how to transform these spaces into places. Consequently, leftover spaces in the urban fabric can be seen both as having potential and as threatening. Researchers have pointed out the issues, conditions, and importance of the positive utilisation of leftover spaces. These spaces can be designed, transformed, and integrated into the main urban fabric to achieve environmental and social gains. Creative and flexible design should lead to psychologically healthy places by improving the image of a city from within. However, there is insufficient information available on how to go about designing such spaces.  The revitalisation and aesthetic quality of leftover spaces could expand the dynamism of a city through strategic design interventions. This study explores how the visual perception of leftover spaces in Wellington City that influences both personal experiences and their potential usage could be enhanced. The research aims to investigate the potential of different types of urban leftover spaces, which could be used in a more effective way than they are present. The mixed methodology undertaken in this study seeks to inform planning initiatives by knowing what people feel about leftover spaces and their aspects that need improvement. This research, therefore, examines how such leftover spaces are defined and can be redesigned to become part of a built environment. The research thus consists of three studies starting with an initial visual preference study to understand human perceptions that could lead to better design solutions. The second study explored the differences in design preferences among participants coming from different fields of study, forming the main visual preference study. Visual preferences can guide behaviour and the emotional responses of different users in the redesign of such spaces and their essential attributes. Lastly, focus group discussions were held with built and non-built environment participants. To sum up, the results revealed that providing more vegetation is a critical design attribute for such spaces. The study contradicts theories that hold there are differences in the ways built and non-built environment experts perceive the environment.</p>

scholarly journals Wpływ kapitału społecznego mieszkańców na kształtowanie przestrzeni wspólnych w środowisku mieszkaniowym

2020 ◽  
pp. 42-54
Author(s):  
Anna Cudny
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
National Development ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Aesthetic Quality ◽  
The Social ◽  
The City

Influence of social capital of inhabitants on shaping common spaces in a housing environment The last two decades of the century have brought unusually many changes in the built environment. These include not only changes directly related to the emergence of a new urban fabric, but also changes in social attitudes towards common spaces located in residential areas. The built environment has never been evaluated so strongly. This assessment translates not only into the everyday outdoor activities of residents (necessary, optional and social activities), but also to economic projects (purchase, sale and rental of real estate). At the same time, the city ceases to be, as it has been so far, mainly subjected to criticism, and the residents are gradually changing their demanding attitude concerning the development of space to participate in the process of its creation. Society wants to have a real impact on urban space, especially on the space closest to them. Thus, the right to the city is no longer a privilege or a duty, but it becomes a need. Trying to meet this need results in a phenomenon which we can increasingly observe in Poland, and which we have been witnessing abroad for many years: activities in public space are changing into activities for public space. They include the transformation of common spaces related to the place of residence—improving their aesthetic quality, functional changes, modernization of development elements. Observing numerous examples of public participation in shaping public spaces, it was noticed that the initiation, course and effects of activities largely depend on the social capital of the group undertaking said activity. Accordingly, there is a need for research on the mutual relation between the level of social capital and the issue of shaping and managing public space with the participation of local communities, which will be the main topic of the paper. To investigate the above-mentioned issue, qualitative research methods were used in relation to the relationship: site visit, non-participant observation and focus interviews. This contributed to a comparative study of three selected Warsaw case studies. They were analysed in terms of meeting the qualitative criteria selected for the study. These criteria have been indicated on the basis of the Social Capital Development Strategy 2020, which is one of the parts of the Medium-Term National Development Strategy. The result of the analyses is an indication of derived factors from within the group of space users and external factors that have a positive and negative impact on initiating, carrying out and maintaining the effects of changes in common spaces developed with the participation of local communities in Polish conditions. The conclusions can be used to improve future participation processes related to urban space - both by non-professionals participating in them, as well as experts - architects and town planners.

The Piazza degli Affari and the contingent nature of urbanism in fascist Milan

Urban History ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-83
Author(s):  
LUCY MAULSBY
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Public Works ◽  
Urban Change ◽  
Urban Fabric ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
New Business ◽  
Business District

ABSTRACT:During the period of fascist rule, Mussolini's government radically transformed the built environment by sponsoring a wide range of public works projects intended to bring fascist values of order and hierarchy to cities and towns throughout Italy. A close look at Paolo Mezzanotte's project for a new business district in Milan demonstrates that changes to the urban fabric were often the result of fierce and prolonged negotiations between multiple centres of power, despite fascism's totalitarian ambitions. This project thus serves as an opportunity to consider the particular forces that shaped urban change in Milan as well as a model for evaluating fascist era projects in other urban centres.

scholarly journals The Sensorial Latency of Urban Spaces

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Dylan Kanagaratnam
Keyword(s):  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Urban Fabric ◽  
City Life ◽  
Modern Cities ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Meaningful Experiences ◽  
Everyday Performance ◽  
Meaningful Connections ◽  
The City

<p>Architecture provides the platform for the inherent connections between people and their city to flourish. The urban realm naturally invites diverse people to inhabit and interact together, giving city life its vibrancy. Urban spaces encourage spontaneous interactions between people and with architecture, to produce creative acts of play and liberating moments of leisure. It has been suggested that these events encapsulate the everyday performance of the city and are the antithesis to everyday life. It is argued this performance is often ignored in modern urban design. It has been noted that Wellington’s waterfront offers areas where momentary and impotent engagement can be developed into meaningful experiences.  Simultaneously, the importance and potency of sound within urban spaces may be undervalued. It is often argued that modern cities assault our senses with sounds leading to discomfort and distracted inhabitation, contributing to a lack of engagement. Urban sounds are commonly dampened in public spaces to combat this assault, but with more thoughtful design these sounds can be reinterpreted to augment the innate everyday performances. This thesis proposes that controlling how people experience urban sounds through architecture can create a deep sensory performance that increases engagement, awareness and interaction.  This research explores ways to harness the latent sounds of the city to form meaningful connections between people and their city while providing moments of play and leisure. Once isolated and harnessed, the urban sounds’ unique and intrinsic power can aid the development of urban spaces, thus producing greater significance within the urban fabric. There will be focus on the connection between the senses, performance and the urban context. The opportunity to enable the acceptance of the environment and reflection on their city marks an important role within the urban fabric.  Concurrently, this research explores how an intuitive drawing-led process can integrate and challenge the boundaries of both interior and the exterior urban realm. Other interior architectural strategies, together with soundscape design and urban interior principles aid this interdisciplinary exploration.</p>

scholarly journals Tales of the Olympic city: memory, narrative and the built environment

ZARCH ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 12-33
Author(s):  
John R. Gold ◽  
Margaret M. Gold
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Event Space ◽  
Urban Fabric ◽  
Discussion Section ◽  
London 2012 ◽  
City Memory ◽  
The City ◽  
With Memory ◽  
Insight Into

The Olympics have a greater, more profound and more pervasive impact on the urban fabric of their host cities than any other sporting or cultural event.  This paper is concerned with issues of memory and remembering in Olympic host cities.  After a contextual introduction, it employs a case study of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (QEOP), the main event space for the London 2012 Summer Games, to supply insight into how to read the urban traces of Olympic memory.  Three key themes are identified when interpreting the memories associated with the Park and its built structures, namely: treatment of the area’s displaced past, memorializing the Games, and with memory legacy.  The ensuing discussion section then adopts a historiographic slant, stressing the importance of narrative and offering wider conclusions about Olympic memory and the city.

Examining Barriers to Sustainable Intercity Transportation in Ireland

2012 ◽  
Vol 2271 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Cafferkey ◽  
Brian Caulfield
Keyword(s):  
Stated Preference ◽  
Mode Choice ◽  
Sustainable Transportation ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Intercity Travel ◽  
Transportation Research ◽  
Intercity Transportation ◽  
Destination City ◽  
Preference Study ◽  
Main Factor

Over the past decade the Irish government has invested intensively in a large national motorway network. One benefit of this investment is that intercity travel has become considerably cheaper and quicker by car than by any other mode. The main objective of this research was to identify and examine the barriers to sustainable intercity transportation in Ireland. The majority of sustainable transportation research has occurred in an urban context; little research has focused on understanding the factors that encourage alternative modes for intercity trips. A stated preference study was conducted to determine which factors affect individuals' mode choice for an intercity trip. The results of this paper demonstrated that several factors affected individuals' mode choice for an intercity trip; the main factor was the requirement to have a car in the destination city.

Human Perceptions and Reflections on the Urban Context

2020 ◽  
pp. 136-155
Author(s):  
Gina S. Lovasi ◽  
Stephen E. Lankenau
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Environmental Features ◽  
Qualitative Approaches ◽  
Human Perceptions ◽  
Ecological Momentary ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Momentary Assessment

To highlight quantitative and qualitative approaches to better understand perceptions and reflections of urban residents relevant to the links between environmental features discussed in Chapter 5 geographically referenced health outcomes discussed in Chapter 7. Strategies to capture what residents perceive, feel, and recommend regarding their environments include characterization of lived experiences (via surveys, focus groups, in depth interviews) as well as detailed assessments of taking place within urban contexts (via ecological momentary assessment, photovoice, ethnography). Participatory approaches that engage community members are illustrated with examples from Bogotá, Madrid, and Philadelphia.

scholarly journals Forest landscape aesthetic quality model (FLAQM): A comparative study on landscape modelling using regression analysis and artificial neural networks

2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (No. 2) ◽  
pp. 61-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Jahani
Keyword(s):  
Sensitivity Analysis ◽  
Forest Landscape ◽  
Quality Model ◽  
Aesthetic Quality ◽  
Virgin Forest ◽  
Representative Study ◽  
Human Perceptions ◽  
Artificial Neural ◽  
Artificial Neural Network Ann

Today, the landscape aesthetic quality assessment is more technical and quantitative in environmental management. We aimed at developing artificial neural network (ANN) modelling and multiple regression (MLR) analysis approaches to predict the perceptional aesthetic quality of forest landscapes. The methodology, followed in this paper, can be divided into six distinct parts: (i) selection of representative study sites, (ii) mapping of landscape units, (iii) quantification of naturalness indicators, (iv) visibility analysis, (v) assessment of human perceptions, (vi) ANN and MLR modelling and sensitivity analysis. The results of ANN modelling, especially its high accuracy (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.871) in comparison with MLR results (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.782), introduced the forest landscape aesthetic quality model (FLAQM) as a comparative model for an assessment of forest landscape aesthetic quality. According to sensitivity analysis, the values of livestock density, tree harvesting, virgin forest, animal grazing, and tree richness were identified as the most significant variables which influence FLAQM. FLAQM can be used to compare the classes of aesthetic quality of forests.

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