scholarly journals Designing Cities Through Sound

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara Martucci
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
The United States ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Complex Environments ◽  
Sound Sources ◽  
Acoustic Environment ◽  
Auditory Responses ◽  
Sonic Environment ◽  
Negative Feelings

Sound shapes space. However, the architectural training of designers usually prioritizes visual aspects of a building or urban space without considering the sonic environment and auditory responses of humans who may engage or occupy the built environment. The concept of the “soundscape” brings together the visual and sonic environments, allowing designers to develop more nuanced, responsive, and effective spaces (Southworth, 1967, pp. 6-8) Acousticians define soundscape as “a person’s perceptual construct of the acoustic environment of that place” (Kang & Schulte-Fortkamp, 2017, p. 5). People’s interpretation of auditory sensations can lead to either positive or negative feelings regarding that specific place. Because urban spaces include both a great number of sound sources and a high number of people occupying and moving through them, the sonic environments and urban soundscapes are complex, layered, and dense. This research evaluates the sonic qualities of urban spaces to provide designers with a means by which these complex environments can be better understood, analyzed, and created. It draws on an expanding body of research in architectural acoustics, and direct observation of cities in the United States and Italy conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than relying solely on numeric calculations, this work probes the notion of the “perceptual construct,” seeking to make visual these constructs. Drawings and photographs from different cities are used to study the form of the city through urban edges and the emerging concept of green acoustics. The work provides a way of creating a new architecture of public space through the lens of the sonic environment.  

scholarly journals Exploring Successful Small Urban Spaces’ Criteria with Emphasis on Cultural Context

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-482
Author(s):  
Parvin Partovi ◽  
Kebria Sedaghat Rostami ◽  
Amir Shakibamanesh
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Short Time ◽  
The City

In the crowded cities of the present age, public spaces can provide a quiet area away from the hustle and bustle of the city that citizens can interact with by incorporating utility features and meeting human needs and Relax there. Small urban spaces are among the most important and effective urban spaces to achieve this goal. Because these spaces due to their small size and lower costs (compared to larger spaces) for construction can be created in large numbers and distributed throughout the city. In this way, citizens will be able to reach a public urban space on foot in a short time. If these spaces are well designed, they can encourage people to stay in and interact with each other. It is not difficult to identify and experience high-quality successful places, but identifying the reasons for their success is difficult and even more difficult, understanding if similar spaces in other places can be considered successful. This question is important because public space with deep social content is considered a cultural product. Public space is the product of the historical and socio-cultural forces of society. Therefore, one of the most important issues that should be considered in the study of public spaces and the reasons for their success is the cultural context. In Iranian cities that have been influenced by the values and principles of Islam,recognizing Islamic principles and their role in shaping public spaces can lead us to desirable results. The purpose of this article is to develop a conceptual model of successful small urban spaces with an emphasis on cultural issues, especially in Iranian-Islamic cities. In this regard, the effective criteria for the success of urban spaces in general and small urban spaces in particular in the two categories of Western countries and Iranian Islamic cities were examined and then, taking into account the criteria derived from cultural theorists, the conceptual model of research with 38 subcriteria is provided.

scholarly journals Explicit and implied significance of contemporary public spaces. Part 1. Spaces of attractions

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 063-082
Author(s):  
Dariusz Dziubiński
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Current Model ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Direct Experience ◽  
Beach Bar

This text presents considerations encouraged by thoughts and conclusions gained from research on several beach bars and their comparison with other urban public spaces, run in Wrocław from 2018 to 2019. The similarities and differences between the two types of spaces provoke a question about the meaning of what we call „public spaces” today. The question is also asked, somewhat perversely, about the validity of following best practices based on proxemic principles and focused on attracting and retaining people in urban spaces. The paper examines not so much the rules but the purpose, in other words the type of space we receive/can achieve as a result of applying these principles, since people in the urban space (private or public) are only guests, while their choice is reduced to the top-down offer. The above doubt also results from the conclusion regarding the most important feature determining attractiveness of a beach bar space, which in my opinion, is the freedom of behaviour for users. In it we can see deficiencies of the prevailing narrative about our participation in space and, above all, the possibility of choice, or what should be called the limitations of choice – the lack of possession/self-agency. Such a situation, largely conditioned by politics (and economics), reduces public space to the role of a  “space of attractions” (curiosities), whose action and participation is based on experiencing – on a direct experience. The clash of these two forces – standardization and individualization, erodes the current model of common spaces based on the historical (nineteenth century) one, whose images are transferred only in the form of empty clichés. Thus, the limitation of choices, the need to fall into line and appearances of a community lead to an escape upwards – enclaves for the chosen ones (omnitopia) and downwards – niches for the rebellious ones (heterotopia), while beach bars represent both ways of escape. Against this background, the purposefulness of expert/ top-down creation of public spaces, carried out in isolation from other essential values and laws, appears problematic.

scholarly journals The Contested Gallery: street art, ethnography and the search for urban understandings

AmeriQuests ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Urban Environment ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Street Art ◽  
Cultural Characteristics ◽  
The Road ◽  
The City

This is a paper on street art and its role as a form of artistic insurrection that challenges popular understandings of public space and urban visual culture. I would like to think of it as a field guide to urban seeing, a means of revising the way in which we view the cityscape and its imagery. It is a way of imagining the city as a canvas onto which ideas may be inscribed and reinterpreted, where resistance percolates up to those who look for it. It is here, in what Kathleen Stewart has called a “place by the side of the road” that the work of the street artist exists, slowly gurgling up through the cracks in the sidewalk and briefly illuminated by the yellow-white glow of the street lights. Street art most often takes the form of adhesive stickers, spray-painted stencils, and wheat-pasted posters, and while it shares many similar aesthetic and cultural characteristics with graffiti, street art embodies a unique ideology. Graffiti represents a territorialization of space (‘tagging’, or reclaiming urban spaces through the use of pseudonyms as territorial markings); street art represents a reterritorialization of space. Rather than taking space, street art attempts to re-purpose the existing urban environment. This paper seeks to reflect the changing dynamic of urban space through an analysis of the practice of street art. By examining the roles that street artists play in disrupting the flow of visual noise in the city, I will illuminate the cultural value and significance of this form of urban artistic resistance.

scholarly journals 'Making' A Statement - Exploration of 3D Printing Technologies as a form of Customisation and Ownership in Urban Spaces

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mark Bagley
Keyword(s):  
3D Printing ◽  
New Media ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Corporate Culture ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Observational Research ◽  
Parametric Modelling ◽  
Urban Context

<p>Ownership of urban space has been heavily contested in recent years by prominent artists, policy-makers and citizens alike. From Shephard Fairey and his condemnation of corporate culture in public space, to Banksy and his use of imagery as a form of political activism, the presence of 2D media in urban environments has become increasingly relevant. This research summarises recent advances in our thinking about space and place, and seeks the potential opportunities for customisation and taking ownership of these spaces to create a socially engaging, collaborative environment for the creative city (Florida, 2003). By using street art and graffiti culture as a model for creative inclusivity, this research explores the effects of new forms of data collection and configuration and the design opportunities they present. In doing so, this research hopes to promote discussion and debate into how we may use new media such as 3D printing and computer-generated imagery to make provocative statements and elicit responses.  To explore 3D printing as a means of customising and taking ownership of space, this research identifies recurring themes in traditional 2D media, as well as manifestations of 3D and 4D media in urban spaces. This background research is documented in a taxonomy of precedents combined with a technology review and observational research in the field. This background research provides a context for researching through design in the form of iterative physical experimentation and reflection. Beginning with abstract experimentation, the first stage of testing digital making technologies identifies opportunities provided by different software, materials, scanning and 3D printing itself, at all different scales and resolutions. This active process of making also tests the visual languages and aesthetics afforded by the technologies, particularly parametric modelling techniques as well as low resolution models with new visual qualities. By applying the knowledge gained from the abstract experimentation and observational research, different issues surrounding the urban context are identified and responded to using 3D technologies. These responses are carefully articulated to ensure that they are not only ‘of the street’ but also ‘of the technology’ and thereby serve as examples of ‘making meaning’ through 3D media in an urban context.</p>

scholarly journals Architecture as the art of creating human-friendly places

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 059-076
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Chęć-Małyszek
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The City

The public space of a city plays a special role in the life of every human being, as it meets basic and at the same time most important needs related to safety and comfort of life. It is a combination of an idea and a technique, which for centuries has reflected the changes taking place in people's social and cultural life. While the city is a multi-layered structure with a clearly separated private and public zone, creating mutual relations between the buildings. Camillo Sitte saw the city urban spaces as a work of art, które should be designed in such a way that the inhabitants feel safe and happy, as it is not just a show-off of technical skill, but an artistic undertaking. [1] The art of designing architecture does not exist for itself, but is created for the target audience.  It provides a harmony that satisfies human needs and guarantees survival. It is an important factor influencing the development of an individual through the organization of a social living space. Urban spaces are primarily people and their needs that change over time. The first part of the article is devoted to the role of public spaces and the idea of the city as a work of art. The second part, in turn, is an attempt to define architecture as a kind of fine arts, taking into account the role it plays in the social life of Lublin's residents.  The article is an attempts to emphasize the importance of architecture in designing a human-friendly environment as an art design that meets social expectations with the use of selected examples urban space of the city of Lublin.

scholarly journals 'Making' A Statement - Exploration of 3D Printing Technologies as a form of Customisation and Ownership in Urban Spaces

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mark Bagley
Keyword(s):  
3D Printing ◽  
New Media ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Corporate Culture ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Observational Research ◽  
Parametric Modelling ◽  
Urban Context

<p>Ownership of urban space has been heavily contested in recent years by prominent artists, policy-makers and citizens alike. From Shephard Fairey and his condemnation of corporate culture in public space, to Banksy and his use of imagery as a form of political activism, the presence of 2D media in urban environments has become increasingly relevant. This research summarises recent advances in our thinking about space and place, and seeks the potential opportunities for customisation and taking ownership of these spaces to create a socially engaging, collaborative environment for the creative city (Florida, 2003). By using street art and graffiti culture as a model for creative inclusivity, this research explores the effects of new forms of data collection and configuration and the design opportunities they present. In doing so, this research hopes to promote discussion and debate into how we may use new media such as 3D printing and computer-generated imagery to make provocative statements and elicit responses.  To explore 3D printing as a means of customising and taking ownership of space, this research identifies recurring themes in traditional 2D media, as well as manifestations of 3D and 4D media in urban spaces. This background research is documented in a taxonomy of precedents combined with a technology review and observational research in the field. This background research provides a context for researching through design in the form of iterative physical experimentation and reflection. Beginning with abstract experimentation, the first stage of testing digital making technologies identifies opportunities provided by different software, materials, scanning and 3D printing itself, at all different scales and resolutions. This active process of making also tests the visual languages and aesthetics afforded by the technologies, particularly parametric modelling techniques as well as low resolution models with new visual qualities. By applying the knowledge gained from the abstract experimentation and observational research, different issues surrounding the urban context are identified and responded to using 3D technologies. These responses are carefully articulated to ensure that they are not only ‘of the street’ but also ‘of the technology’ and thereby serve as examples of ‘making meaning’ through 3D media in an urban context.</p>

The War of Billboards: Hijab, Secularism, and Public Space in Bishkek

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emil Nasritdinov ◽  
Nurgul Esenamanova
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Gender Hierarchies ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Religious Ideals ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

In this article, we explore how religion claims its space in the city of Bishkek. The growing community of practicing Muslims asserts the right to be in the city, live according to its religious ideals, and create Islamic urban spaces. Such claims do not remain uncontested and, because religious identity has strong visual manifestation, religious claims become the subject of strong public debate. This contestation overlaps with socially constructed gender hierarchies—religious/secular claims over the urban space turn into men’s claims over women with both sides (religious and secular) claiming to know what women should wear. Yet research shows that Kyrgyz women in Bishkek do not really need fashion advice. The Islamic revivalist movement among women in the Kyrgyz capital has since the 1990s created a strong momentum that has a life of its own and is fairly independent. Muslim women wearing a hijab have become very visible and influential urban actors with their own strong claims for the city.

scholarly journals Investigating Users Changing Needs in Relation to Non-designed or Unplanned Public Spaces in Cairo

2021 ◽  
pp. 47-66
Author(s):  
Joseph Milad Namar ◽  
Mohamed A. Salheen ◽  
Ayat Ismail
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Construction Process ◽  
Continuous Change ◽  
Open Spaces ◽  
City District ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Formal Design

In recent studies, public spaces are defined as living organisms that are subjected to continuous change. These changes affect the different uses of the urban space, its composition and design aspects, in order to cope with the users’ changing needs. Rather than that, users intervene in the space formation either formally, by including the community and stakeholders in the design process fully or partially; or informally, by small or big actions done by the space users in order for the space to satisfy their current needs. Several spaces in Cairo are dealt with as leftovers of the buildings design and construction process. These spaces have passed through several changes that affected and was affected by the Cairines (Cairo citizens) and their culture of dealing with public spaces to accommodate their changing needs. The deficiency in public spaces in Cairo urban spaces is reviewed. And the inability of the formal designed/planned spaces to respond to the spaces’ users with their changing needs is investigated throughout the research. In order to focus on a public space in Nasr city district in Cairo, sequential mapping to the area over different ages is carried on, examining the changes -formally and informally- in the space to cope with area users. That is accompanied by surveys and questionnaires that aim to determine the needs of the users in the space and whether they are met or not. The questionnaire also aims to measure the level of intervention and satisfaction of the users in this space, to explain how its users intervene in adapting to the existing formal design, and to find out how these interventions shape and affect directly and indirectly the dynamism of the space as a formal planned public space. The paper aims to review and find out theories and practices that provide solutions for dealing with non-designed open spaces development in terms of users changing needs and contributions. The results from the study show some development considerations that need to be respected in Cairo public spaces with more concern for people’s usage and interaction with the space.

scholarly journals Movement Through the Marginalised: An Urban Landscape Investigation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Freddie Bensemann
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Landscape Architecture ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Black Spot ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Urban Public Space ◽  
Space Design ◽  
Marginalised Groups

<p><b>In Western democratic society, urban public space has always been dominated by theMainstream user. The Marginalised, to being periodically shifted from one area to another through prevailing processes that gentrify and regulate space. These habitual processes directly and indirectly manage civic space eroding particular character evolved fromMarginalised occupation and expression, and in doing so, urban space caters to the needs and wants of the Mainstream.</b></p> <p>This project investigates such a situation yet with such habits reversed. Through the landscape design of urban space the project asks can we design urban space to accommodate thesocio-spatial needs of the Marginalised whilst at the same time, support Mainstream users?</p> <p>The investigation situates its research in Te Aro Park, a public urban space in Wellington Cityoccupied predominantly by the Marginalised. From the homeless to the eccentric, the drugaddict to the gang member, the space is often a considered a black spot avoided oruncomfortably and rapidly moved through by the Mainstream user. With a social hierarchy that has been flipped on its head the space exudes the diverse nature of Wellington with murals and public artwork that represent the Marginalised groups including local Iwi.</p> <p>This project aims to use landscape architecture design to critically assess, seek and developpotentials for harmony of urban spaces exhibiting spatial and social conflicts betweenMarginalised and Mainstream citizens. It is an attempt through landscape architecture technique, to destabilize the binary between Mainstream and marginal, and therefore engender conditions for truly diverse urban spaces. In doing so the research discovers how designers can approach public space design problems while opposing the forces of displacement. The researchadditionally contributes an understanding of the underpinnings of trying to introduce new actors without displacement of the existing and more vulnerable actors.</p>

scholarly journals Healthy Cities, New Technologies and Sustainability: A Collaborative Mapping of Informal Sport Activity in the Public Space of Cities as an Innovative Tool for Understanding City Sport Phenomena

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 8176
Author(s):  
Marta Cornax-Martín ◽  
Nuria Nebot-Gómez de Salazar ◽  
Carlos Rosa-Jiménez ◽  
Ana Luque-Gil
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Sport Activity ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Sports Activity ◽  
Outdoor Sports ◽  
Physical Attributes

Urban public space has become one of the main infrastructures for informal sports in cities. However, despite the high impact of that practice, local records only show the sports activity at the urban spaces specifically designed and regulated for that purpose. More information about where this practice arises and what attributes of urban space promote it would allow the adoption of specific measures in urban and sports policies. This paper proposes a methodology mainly based on the mapping of this informal sport activity and urban places where it appears by local communities and sportspeople. These collaborative maps are supported by the use of geographical information system (GIS) technologies and surveys on local communities. The research establishes a double objective of identifying urban spaces where citizens perform outdoor sports and deepen the knowledge of the physical attributes of public spaces that promote sports and local demands related to public space requirements. This methodology has been tested in the city of Malaga, the European City of Sport 2020, as a reference of a city with a growing outdoors’ sport activity. The main contribution is focused on the use of new tools that offer subjective information: opinions and habits of citizens in relation to sport urban practice. This information—which is difficult to obtain through other resources—should be considered for the design of urban and sports policies according to citizens’ demands.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document