scholarly journals RECENT CHANGES OF SQUARE DESIGN IN VILNIUS OLD TOWN: SEMANTIC ASPECT

2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-17
Author(s):  
Audrius Novickas

During the last ten years quite a few city squares in Vilnius went through the renovation process. Refreshed designs and aesthetic qualities of renovated public spaces were discussed rather widely in mass and scientific media. At the same time no considerable attention was paid to the impact of elements in new square compositions on the semantic codes of public spaces. The paper analyses the semantic aspect of changed public squares on the basis of the data collected upon field investigation as well as information from media on the intentions of all sides involved in the renovation process (municipality officials, developers, architects, artists). The main task of the work is to define the messages communicated by new elements in square design and to determine their relation to the rapidly changing sociocultural context of the Lithuanian capital. New square compositions are investigated in the context of the historic development of the same public spaces emphasizing the fact that previous designs were produced in accordance with changing concept of public spaces. A conclusion is made that recent changes in square design in most cases are directed towards conservation rather than transformation of the meaning of the space. New square designs stress upon defensive rather than communicative features of the public space in spite of democratic changes in the Lithuanian society. Naujausi Vilniaus senamiesčio aikščių meninio pavidalo pokyčiai: semantinis aspektas Santrauka Semantiniu aspektu nagrinėjami Vilniaus miesto aikščių meninio pavidalo pokyčiai, įvykę per pastarąjį dešimtmetį. Bandoma išsiaiškinti, kokias reikšmių slinktis lėmė viešųjų erdvių renovacija. Atskleidžiami svarbiausių miesto aikščių meninių pavidalų ir jų sociokultūrinio konteksto istorinės raidos charakteringiausi bruožai, išryškinami ankstesnių laikotarpių ir šiandien vykstančių renovacijų skirtumai. Tyrime naudoti duomenys, gauti integruojant lauko tyrimus ir žiniasklaidoje pateiktą informaciją apie kai kurių Vilniaus aikščių naujausių meninių pavidalų ženklinį charakterį. Atskleidžiamos prieštaros tarp šių dienų sociokultūrinio konteksto ir aikščių naujųjų meninių pavidalų semantinio turinio.

Ensemble ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol SP-1 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-59
Author(s):  
Sanjukta Sattar ◽  

The COVID-19 pandemic has paralyzed public life world-wide. The need for maintaining physical/social distance has led to a change in the order and nature of human activities across public spaces. As a result, the usual rhythm of activities in public spaces has come to be disrupted. Taking this into consideration, the study delves into the disrupted rhythm of the urban public spaces under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequently imposed lockdown. By adopting a case study-based approach, an in-depth analysis has been carried out to comprehend the change in the daily rhythm of a local road in the wake of the pandemic and lockdown. Lefebvre’s technique of ‘rhythmanalysis’ has been applied to carry out this study, as it is highly suited in studying the flow of everyday life in a spatiotemporal context. The article traces the change in the rhythm of activities in the study area during the pandemic and lockdown in comparison to the usual rhythm of activities that existed in the area before the pandemic. The findings of the study reveal that the pandemic has taken a toll on the study area, where the pre-existing rhythm of the public space has been overtaken by a disrupted rhythm that has given rise to chaos and confusion.


Author(s):  
Yordan Kristanto Dewangga ◽  
Sita Yuliastuti Amijaya ◽  
Hoseo Viadolorosa

The coronavirus pandemic or Covid-19 has happened in several countries, including Indonesia. This condition has an impact not only on public health but also on all sectors. Yogyakarta, a province in Indonesia, receives the impact of this pandemic, especially the Malioboro as a famous public area in the city. The Malioboro area, as an urban public space, becomes quieter due to the coronavirus pandemic. The new normal policy, which the government implemented through the adaptation of new habits, gradually bringing back the activities in the Malioboro area. Health protocols to maintain social distancing keep on encouraged with direct and written persuasive methods. The purpose of this study is to explore people's perceptions of urban public spaces in the new normal era in Malioboro. The method used was conducting a direct survey in Malioboro and giving a closed questionnaire online to the public. The discussion was performed by examining the results of a closed questionnaire with the current situation in Malioboro. The conclusions obtained that the community has received information to maintain social distancing. However, many people ignore the health protocols so that no difference with the situation before the pandemic. This condition does not change the spatial patterns and layouts related to space at the public scale and the distance of social interactions. Keywords: Covid-19; public spaces; social distancing; social interaction


2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally M. Murshed ◽  
Ahmed M. Ouf ◽  
Abbas F. Zafarany

AbstractA global concern claims that activities and functions that once filled traditional public spaces are privatized being less and less oriented to the public. In Cairo’s new settlements, public spaces don’t seem to contribute to its public life. Each community’s most valuable assets are the ones they already have; thus, urbanisms advocate the role of retaining traditional street patterns, vistas, and landscape of a community’s distinct character. The research aim is to identify design attributes to be added to the literature in terms of designing public spaces for the specific cultural context of Cairo, Egypt, and its new suburban settlements. The methodology then follows a comparative analysis study to reach the desired objectives of buildings a community character approach. In an exploratory method, two case studies of public spaces in Cairo are chosen following a purposive selection most relevant to the study. The target is to choose two cases in proximity for users to be familiar with the two of them and enable a reliable comparison. It then conducts a survey that involves the user’s evaluation of their public spaces in correlation to their needs. Jan Gehl’s twelve criteria are adopted by this paper’s field investigation for the assessment of public spaces’ quality. Findings of the study include an elaboration on Jan Gehl’s twelve criteria either by highlighting the importance of existing aspects or the addition of further criteria that showed value to public space quality and their users. The findings provide guidelines that help in designing quality public spaces in Cairo’s new settlements. The added value from this study is in identifying a set of factors or attributes that consider users’ needs for a given cultural context.


Author(s):  
OLEKSANDR STEGNII

The paper analyses specific features of sociological data circulation in a public space during an election campaign. The basic components of this kind of space with regard to sociological research are political actors (who put themselves up for the election), voters and agents. The latter refer to professional groups whose corporate interests are directly related to the impact on the election process. Sociologists can also be seen as agents of the electoral process when experts in the field of electoral sociology are becoming intermingled with manipulators without a proper professional background and publications in this field. In a public space where an electoral race is unfolding, empirical sociological research becomes the main form of obtaining sociological knowledge, and it is primarily conducted to measure approval ratings. Electoral research serves as an example of combining the theoretical and empirical components of sociological knowledge, as well as its professional and public dimensions. Provided that sociologists meet all the professional requirements, electoral research can be used as a good tool for evaluating the trustworthiness of results reflecting the people’s expression of will. Being producers of sociological knowledge, sociologists act in two different capacities during an election campaign: as analysts and as pollsters. Therefore, it is essential that the duties and areas of responsibility for professional sociologists should be separated from those of pollsters. Another thing that needs to be noted is the negative influence that political strategists exert on the trustworthiness of survey findings which are going to be released to the public. Using the case of approval ratings as an illustration, the author analyses the most common techniques aimed at misrepresenting and distorting sociological data in the public space. Particular attention is given to the markers that can detect bogus polling companies, systemic violations during the research process and data falsification.


2021 ◽  
pp. 239965442110338
Author(s):  
David Jenkins ◽  
Lipin Ram

Public space is often understood as an important ‘node’ of the public sphere. Typically, theorists of public space argue that it is through the trust, civility and openness to others which citizens cultivate within a democracy’s public spaces, that they learn how to relate to one another as fellow members of a shared polity. However, such theorizing fails to articulate how these democratic comportments learned within public spaces relate to the public sphere’s purported role in holding state power to account. In this paper, we examine the ways in which what we call ‘partisan interventions’ into public space can correct for this gap. Using the example of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM), we argue that the ways in which CPIM partisans actively cultivate sites of historical regional importance – such as in the village of Kayyur – should be understood as an aspect of the party’s more general concern to present itself to citizens as an agent both capable and worthy of wielding state power. Drawing on histories of supreme partisan contribution and sacrifice, the party influences the ideational background – in competition with other parties – against which it stakes its claims to democratic legitimacy. In contrast to those theorizations of public space that celebrate its separateness from the institutions of formal democratic politics and the state more broadly, the CPIM’s partisan interventions demonstrate how parties’ locations at the intersections of the state and civil society can connect the public sphere to its task of holding state power to account, thereby bringing the explicitly political questions of democratic legitimacy into the everyday spaces of a political community.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4577
Author(s):  
Carmela Cucuzzella ◽  
Morteza Hazbei ◽  
Sherif Goubran

This paper explores how design in the public realm can integrate city data to help disseminate the information embedded within it and provide urban opportunities for knowledge exchange. The hypothesis is that such art and design practices in public spaces, as places of knowledge exchange, may enable more sustainable communities and cities through the visualization of data. To achieve this, we developed a methodology to compare various design approaches for integrating three main elements in public-space design projects: city data, specific issues of sustainability, and varying methods for activating the data. To test this methodology, we applied it to a pedogeological project where students were required to render city data visible. We analyze the proposals presented by the young designers to understand their approaches to design, data, and education. We study how they “educate” and “dialogue” with the community about sustainable issues. Specifically, the research attempts to answer the following questions: (1) How can we use data in the design of public spaces as a means for sustainability knowledge exchange in the city? (2) How can community-based design contribute to innovative data collection and dissemination for advancing sustainability in the city? (3) What are the overlaps between the projects’ intended impacts and the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? Our findings suggest that there is a need for such creative practices, as they make information available to the community, using unconventional methods. Furthermore, more research is needed to better understand the short- and long-term outcomes of these works in the public realm.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5284
Author(s):  
Timothy Van Renterghem ◽  
Francesco Aletta ◽  
Dick Botteldooren

The deployment of measures to mitigate sound during propagation outdoors is most often a compromise between the acoustic design, practical limitations, and visual preferences regarding the landscape. The current study of a raised berm next to a highway shows a number of common issues like the impact of the limited length of the noise shielding device, initially non-dominant sounds becoming noticeable, local drops in efficiency when the barrier is not fully continuous, and overall limited abatement efficiencies. Detailed assessments of both the objective and subjective effect of the intervention, both before and after the intervention was deployed, using the same methodology, showed that especially the more noise sensitive persons benefit from the noise abatement. Reducing the highest exposure levels did not result anymore in a different perception compared to more noise insensitive persons. People do react to spatial variation in exposure and abatement efficiency. Although level reductions might not be excessive in many real-life complex multi-source situations, they do improve the perception of the acoustic environment in the public space.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 218
Author(s):  
Francesca Dal Cin ◽  
Fransje Hooimeijer ◽  
Maria Matos Silva

Future sea-level rises on the urban waterfront of coastal and riverbanks cities will not be uniform. The impact of floods is exacerbated by population density in nearshore urban areas, and combined with land conversion and urbanization, the vulnerability of coastal towns and public spaces in particular is significantly increased. The empirical analysis of a selected number of waterfront projects, namely the winners of the Mies Van Der Rohe Prize, highlighted the different morphological characteristics of public spaces, in relation to the approximation to the water body: near the shoreline, in and on water. The critical reading of selected architectures related to water is open to multiple insights, allowing to shift the design attention from the building to the public space on the waterfronts. The survey makes it possible to delineate contemporary features and lay the framework for urban development in coastal or riverside areas.


Author(s):  
Minh-Tung Tran ◽  
◽  
Tien-Hau Phan ◽  
Ngoc-Huyen Chu ◽  
◽  
...  

Public spaces are designed and managed in many different ways. In Hanoi, after the Doi moi policy in 1986, the transfer of the public spaces creation at the neighborhood-level to the private sector has prospered na-ture of public and added a large amount of public space for the city, directly impacting on citizen's daily life, creating a new trend, new concept of public spaces. This article looks forward to understanding the public spaces-making and operating in KDTMs (Khu Do Thi Moi - new urban areas) in Hanoi to answer the question of whether ‘socialization’/privatization of these public spaces will put an end to the urban public or the new means of public-making trend. Based on the comparison and literature review of studies in the world on public spaces privatization with domestic studies to see the differences in the Vietnamese context leading to differences in definitions and roles and the concept of public spaces in KDTMs of Hanoi. Through adducing and analyzing practical cases, the article also mentions the trends, the issues, the ways and the technologies of public-making and public-spaces-making in KDTMs of Hanoi. Win/loss and the relationship of the three most important influential actors in this process (municipality, KDTM owners, inhabitants/citizens) is also considered to reconceptualize the public spaces of KDTMs in Hanoi.


Author(s):  
Juan Carlos Márquez Cañizares ◽  
Juan-Carlos Rojas

"The use of VR technology within education is an area that has generated great interest in recent years, so this work follows that trend and contains nuances related to user-centred design education. The objective of this work is to identify students’ perceptions of the use of VR technology for ethnographic research. A group of 20 industrial design students from Tecnologico de Monterrey conducted a field investigation, which included interviews and surveys, using HMD with videos and stereoscopic images of a public park in Monterrey, Mexico. Based on the research and information analysis, areas of opportunity were identified and urban furniture proposals for the public park that place were generated. Once the design process was completed, an evaluation instrument was applied to measure, through statistical analysis, the students' perceptions of their experience using technology in the design process; gender, qualification obtained and the relevance of the technology used was also considered."


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