Chinese Transition to a Consumer Society and its Reflection on the Urban Landscape

2011 ◽  
Vol 243-249 ◽  
pp. 6457-6460
Author(s):  
Ming Xiao

China’s newly constructed shopping malls in the urban areas have greatly changed citizens’ shopping and living habits, altering the fabric of the urban space, and modifying the social scene. The citizen’s initial reaction to this development is hot pursuit that eventually gives way to boredom. This paper discusses the relationship between the shopping mall and the urban environment, from the point of view of public space. It shows public space ruled and controlled in the shopping mall. It shows that urban shopping malls do not respond to the citizens expectations and demands for public space, and that the citizens’ need for social public space is irreplaceable. Ultimately, this paper points out that to the need for further research in the area of public space, it must to fulfill the needs of city dwellers.

2019 ◽  
pp. 145-164
Author(s):  
Shuxiang Cai

Compared with the gradual and long exploration processes typical of European and American countries, China experienced a period marked by extremely high-speed modernisation and urbanisation, following the Land Reform. This is exemplified by a great number of urban reconstruction projects which have changed the traditional fabric of most cities. Yet, following the trend of cultural consumption since the late 1990s, numerous integrated restoration projects for historic districts were implemented to promote tourism as a promising industry to sustain economic growth. As a consequence of growth-oriented urban entrepreneurship, public spaces in these historic urban areas have also been perceptibly privatised. To a large extent, the capital and the authority of the local government directs the future prospect of the historic urban landscape in Chinese cities. On the other hand, development-oriented urban construction stimulates a rise in awareness of the need for protection strategies to conserve historic urban fabric. On a global scale, the public sector has begun to introspect on urban governance under the spirit of entrepreneurship. The urban renewal has now been extended to urban regeneration and the previous public-private partnership has been substituted with a multi-sectoral cooperative model. In recent years, the Chinese central government has proposed the core concept of “Seeing people, Seeing things, Seeing life”, which is re-orientated towards historic-city regeneration as a way of promoting “Micro-renewal and Micro-disturbance”. Among such activities, the use of exhibitions as a strategy for simultaneous spatial transformation and activation has gradually formed a common path, encouraging many cities to regenerate historic urban areas. This article is based on on this reorientation, taking Quanzhou as an example, making a critical observation on the new form of public space it has produced, and digs into the operational mechanism behind it as well as the possibility for publicness.


Author(s):  
Myer Siemiatycki

The eruv is perhaps the most creative, confounding, and contested spatial construct in Judaism. Territorially, it demarcates the urban space within which prohibitions otherwise attached to Sabbath observance for Orthodox Jews become permitted. While virtually imperceptible to the human eye, eruvin (pl.) sanctify what would otherwise be sacrilegious. An eruv thus creates permissive religious space for Jews on Sabbath. Hundreds of cities worldwide, including urban areas across North America, are home to an eruv. Notwithstanding their prevalence and undetectable physical imprint on urban landscapes, the establishment of eruvin has unleashed intense hostility and resistance in some locales. Opposition has typically been mounted by a surprisingly mixed array of critics including non-Jews, non-Orthodox Jews, and dissenting Orthodox Jews. The eruv highlights, in compelling fashion, the spatial challenges of navigating faith, ritual, secularism, and pluralism in contemporary American cities. Seemingly ethereal religious beliefs can occasion radically different perceptions of public space.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shusheng Wang ◽  
Yuan Jiang ◽  
Yuqian Xu ◽  
Linjie Zhang ◽  
Xinpeng Li ◽  
...  

This paper studies the Xi’an City Wall (XCW) as a sustainable historical heritage. Based on the conservation process of XCW, the study is focused on four experiences that drive its sustainable development. First, the opening of gates through XCW helped to maximize its preservation while meeting the needs for urban transportation. Second, transforming XCW into an urban public space facilitated the gradual building of its camp into a city-dominated landscape. Furthermore, integrating social activities into the public space carried by XCW brought people closer to the heritage. Moreover, the use of XCW as the benchmark for the modern Xi’an urban space pattern ensured the continuation of its historical coordinates on the basis. In order to maintain the sustainability of XCW, a future sustainable development plan is put forward according to the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach proposed by UNESCO. This plan has a generalization guiding significance for the future policy formulation of XCW. Findings from this study serve as a reference for the planning and conservation of historical heritage in cities.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
JAMES GREENHALGH

Abstract This article examines the control of outdoor advertising in Britain, tracking its development as a mirror of the practices of spatial governance. It evidences both a largely forgotten, yet radical change in the urban environment, whilst also functioning as a lens through which we might examine local government's role in driving change in the visual environment of cities and towns. The article argues that, despite important early work by preservationist organizations, local corporations and councils were the principal drivers of legislation, altering attitudes in central government that ultimately led to stringent control of outdoor advertising in urban space. Beginning in the nineteenth century, but coming to the fore during the interwar period, corporations and councils pushed for ever greater controls over the size and siting of billboards, hoardings, and posters. In doing so, they deployed a language of amenity, and conjured with seemingly social democratic notions of citizens’ rights to push their agenda. The study is thus revealing of the ways in which town planning, patterns of holistic control in the visual environment, and the philosophy of urban modernism shaped even the most mundane, extant urban areas and left a lasting impression on the urban landscape.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1(78)) ◽  
pp. 29-40
Author(s):  
N.V. VERNIHOROVA

Topicality. Today, the concept of inclusion is widely used in socio-economic aspects of people's lives, including in the organization of urban space. The implementation of the principles of inclusion in the field of nature management has great potential in the field of park management. At the moment it is known about the creation of the first inclusive park in Ukraine in the Dnieper. Its creation is based on the principles of affordable and safe recreation in the park for children with disabilities. Therefore, based on the role of parks as an element of public space, it is important to highlight the main opportunities and goals of their use in the field of inclusive nature management. Aim and tasks. The purpose of the article is to analyze and summarize the features of inclusive nature management in general purpose parks. Research results. The introduction of an inclusive approach in the field of nature management is based on solving the problems of accessibility to ecosystem services of all segments of the population. Due to the vulnerability and high level of destruction of artificial ecosystems, certain environmental regulations must be met in the field of park management. These requirements are created in accordance with the specifics of the park's ecosystems and their intended use. Some types of city parks, such as: arboretums, botanical gardens, zoos, parks-monuments of landscape art, in accordance with the Law of Ukraine "On Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine", are classified as objects of protection. Thus, the quality of ecosystem services in these areas to some extent depends on the implementation of environmental requirements. Conclusion. The study outlines the essential differences between socio-economic and natural inclusion. The main goals of the park facilities within the framework of the implementation of the inclusive approach are outlined. The positive consequences of the expansion of recreation parks and moderate recreation in urban areas are highlighted.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-38
Author(s):  
Imam Faisal Pane ◽  
James .

Business Hotel and Convention Hall Selayang design start with looks of the business improvement in Medan Ring Road. Medan Ring Road has several new shopping malls and another business center. Medan Selayang District becomes the location of design because it is not located too far from the downtown and the ring road. The site refers to RDTR (Detailed Spatial Plan) Kota Medan 2035 is a commercial area which suitable to design hotel and convention hall as a commercial building. The site is located in a master plan which contains other several commercial buildings; they are a youth center, a museum of art, and shopping mall. The design of this hotel and convention hall have a concept of neo-vernacular architecture which is referred to Malay Architecture in Medan because Medan culture starts from Deli Serdang Empire which has Malay culture and architecture. Therefore, Malay Architecture is rarely visible in Medan City. Malay architecture in Medan is potential to entertain the customers and show to the local communities about the origin of Medan. The hotel design uses modern technology that mix with architecture elements in Malay Architecture. The convention hall design shows big Malay roof to be the point of view. The shape of the buildings is designed from suppression of the site shape.


Author(s):  
С.С. Касаткина

В статье предложен дискурс определения понятия «древний город», введено авторское значение понятия «семиотическое пространство древнего города», рассмотрены семиокоды города как элементы урбосферы. В исследовании применены историко-культурный, визуально-семиотический методы, обоснован системно-семиотический подход изучения древнего города, связанный с пониманием трех элементов урбосферы: концепта (историческое значение древнего города), структуры (социальная жизнь горожан) и субстрата (физическое и ментальное пространство — городской ландшафт). Основу данной публикации составил анализ субстратных значений древнего города как ресурса его развития, основанный на изучении семиотических пространств городов Вологодской области. Выявлено, что историческая память города, его материальный и ментальный ландшафт и уникальный визуальный образ являются ключевыми семиокодами древних поселений, на основе которых возможно эффективное конструирование социокультурного развития любого региона страны. Автор предлагает перспективные направления работы с пространством старинных городов России на примере внимания к семиотическому пространству городов Вологодской области, способствующие активному социокультурному развитию их территорий. The article defines the concept of “ancient urban areas” and comments on the author’s perception of spatial semiotics of ancient settlements. It also treats urban semiotic conventions as elements of urban space. The research employs historical-cultural, visual-semiotic and systemic-semiotic approaches in order to investigate such elements of urban space as concepts (history of ancient urban areas), structures (urban dwellers’ social life), and substrates (physical and mental space, urban landscape). The article analyzes the substrate of ancient settlements as a resource for sociocultural development based on the investigation of spatial semiotics of urban areas of the Vologda Region. The article maintains that the historical memory of an urban area, its material and mental landscape, its unique visual image are key semiotic conventions which may be used to efficiently promote sociocultural development of a region. The author speaks about some promising avenues for processing the spatial semiotics of ancient Russian settlements promoting their sociocultural development.


Author(s):  
Rodrigo Balestra ◽  
Amilton Arruda ◽  
Pablo Bezerra ◽  
Isabela Moroni

As the Industrial Revolution took place and steam driven machines emerged in the 18th century, the Industrial Age began and cities became the core of industrial and populational growth. That phenomena occurred as the job opportunities and quality of life increasingly developed away from the countryside, with the arrival of electricity and inventions such as the light bulb, thanks to important people like Sir Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison. The city, therefore, can be looked in two different ways: the urban space, occupied with tangible elements, and the social environment, filled with urban practices and cohabitation. An essential matter in many disciplines, the city is a recurrent topic for researchers who seek to understand this phenomenon of human activities. The history behind the rise of the cities show tell us about the creation of urban spaces and its manifestations, functions, transformations and the complexity inherent to the various typologies in cities all over the world. The city is a scenario full of overlapping messages that characterize the accessibility and urban communication. This is defined by Nojima (1999) as the result of the interaction between social representations and the scenario where they occur. It is through the interpretation of these messages that are manifested in the urban design accessible from cities (streets, buildings, gardens, squares, furnitures), that the individual defines the elements that identify their city. This paper discovery the concepts of city and their accessibility relationships with urban practices - design of urban activity - that directly influence the implementation of urban furniture and, above all, the importance given to them by the population, with regard to its true functions (adequacy, accessibility, ergonomics, identity and others) of their uses and appropriations. It is important for the study also understand the urban furniture relation with the project of cities - is to complement the public space or the way how interferes the urban landscape. It is need to understand how society is shown in front of herself and the world itself that surrounds and what are the affective devices that make city living when connected - through the use - therefore, this is the powerfull forces of individuals and community , space practices created by the tactics of the population to allow theirs ambiance, wellness, safety and comfort, sensations often perceived by the set of elements that constitute the urban furniture of cities.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/IFDP.2016.3291


2019 ◽  
Vol 118 (4) ◽  
pp. 877-893
Author(s):  
Maria Rosaria Marella

Cities are quintessentially human and collective products. All urban space is the product of social cooperation. Therefore not just the “public” space but the metropolis as a whole must be considered as a commons. This assumption is not neutral from a legal point of view. It raises the question of whether private property of urban land is compatible with the conception of urban space as commons. The answer depends on how much we can push on the disintegration of property to expand the perspective of collective entitlements on urban resources against the commodification and new enclosures of urban space. Drawing on a legal realist approach to property, it is possible to dissolve the unitary conception of ownership into a bundle of rights. This article is a first attempt to enfranchise urban property as a legal form from its fate of being a mere boundary between the haves and the have-nots and revisit its role in the construction of social relations of production within the metropolis.


Societies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora Weinberger ◽  
Markus Winkelmann ◽  
Karin Müller ◽  
Sebastian Ritterbusch ◽  
Rainer Stiefelhagen

Blind and visually impaired people have to cope with the safe movement through public space and the (lack of) knowledge of spatial issues and walkable routes. These challenges often lead to a fear of accidents and collisions, frequently also of disorientation. This, in turn, can result in a reduced radius of action, restricted mobility, and later on, in social isolation. Against this background, the project TERRAIN aims at developing a technical guidance system for orientation and navigation in urban space. For the development of this assistance system, the project pursues an approach in which reflexive, responsive, and deliberative dimensions have been integrated to address the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) in a co-design process. This paper focuses on the participation of citizens independent of vision impairments in the project which provided a variety of relevant indications of impacts and potential technical adaptations from an ‘outer’ point of view. In addition, conclusions can be drawn about the existing desirability and acceptance of the technical solution among the potential users as well as their social environment of potential users. In addition, it turned out that the citizen participation process raised different expectations among the project partners. Therefore, this article evaluates the participation results from the perspective of the technology developers and the technology assessors.


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