scholarly journals Placemaking, livability and public spaces. Achieving sustainability through happy places

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marichela Sepe

<p>Livability of places is set by many factors which are in turn influenced by a variety of elements - both tangible and intangible - concerning the area in question and its surroundings. One of these factors is constituted by urban happiness, which, together with the term sustainability meant in its wide meaning, constitutes a key concept in placemaking. In this respect, a new attention to urban happiness has been given but often in terms of theoretical sense or from an observational point of view. Aim of this study is to present the Happy place mapping, a method of analysis specifically devoted to the identification of factors that influence the perception of happiness from the urban point of view. To illustrate the method, the emblematic HafenCity case study carried out in Hamburg is showed. A long process of urban regeneration is interesting this area and the new public spaces are changing the identity of the city, making it more livable and agreeable both for locals and visitors. The discussion on questions related to methods that concern intangible aspects and on Happy place mapping conclude the paper.</p>

2020 ◽  
Vol 164 ◽  
pp. 04026
Author(s):  
Olga Kokorina ◽  
Dmitry Zinenkov ◽  
Tamara Datsuk

The article presents research materials and analysis of factors affecting the creation of new nodes of public spaces, as starting points for the development of Kotlin Island and the city of Kronstadt. Their current state and problems, resources and opportunities are described. Currently, there is a process of rethinking the value of the coastal territories of Kronstadt, the potential of which is not realized. One of the possible ways to solve this problem is to increase the use of coastal territories by creating tourism and public-business infrastructure along the coastline. Kronstadt has a number of unique characteristics, the use of which can transfer it from degrading to developing. This is possible by creating a polycentric model in the city - new growth points, as well as rethinking the value of abandoned and coastal territories. This approach will not only increase funding, attract more people, provide a sufficient number of jobs, but also subsequently create conditions for the further development of the city as an independent unit - the center of the St. Petersburg metropolitan area.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 230
Author(s):  
Onel Pérez-Fernández ◽  
Juan Carlos García-Palomares

Moped-style scooters are one of the most popular systems of micro-mobility. They are undoubtedly good for the city, as they promote forms of environmentally-friendly mobility, in which flexibility helps prevent traffic build-up in the urban centers where they operate. However, their increasing numbers are also generating conflicts as a result of the bad behavior of users, their unwarranted use in public spaces, and above all their parking. This paper proposes a methodology for finding parking spaces for shared motorcycle services using Geographic information system (GIS) location-allocation models and Global Positioning System (GPS) data. We used the center of Madrid and data from the company Muving (one of the city’s main operators) for our case study. As well as finding the location of parking spaces for motorbikes, our analysis examines how the varying distribution of demand over the course of the day affects the demand allocated to parking spaces. The results demonstrate how reserving a relatively small number of parking spaces for scooters makes it possible to capture over 70% of journeys in the catchment area. The daily variations in the distribution of demand slightly reduce the efficiency of the network of parking spaces in the morning and increase it at night, when demand is strongly focused on the most central areas.


2020 ◽  
pp. 177-192
Author(s):  
Iman Hegazy

Public spaces are defined as places that should be accessible to all inhabitants without restrictions. They are spaces not only for gathering, socializing and celebrating but also for initiating discussions, protesting and demonstrating. Thus, public spaces are intangible expressions of democracy—a topic that the paper tackles its viability within the context of Alexandria, case study Al-Qaed Ibrahim square. On the one hand, Al-Qaed Ibrahim square which is named after Al-Qaed Ibrahim mosque is a sacred element in the urban fabric; whereas on the other it represents a non-religious revolutionary symbol in the Alexandrian urban public sphere. This contradiction necessitates finding an approach to study the characteristic of this square/mosque within the Alexandrian context—that is to realize the impact of the socio-political events on the image of Al-Qaed Ibrahim square, and how it has transformed into a revolutionary urban symbol and yet into a no-public space. The research revolves around the hypothesis that the political events taking place in Egypt after January 25th, 2011, have directly affected the development of urban public spaces, especially in Alexandria. Therefore methodologically, the paper reviews the development of Al-Qaed Ibrahim square throughout the Egyptian socio-political changes, with a focus on the square’s urban and emotional contextual transformations. For this reason, the study adheres to two theories: the "city elements" by Kevin Lynch and "emotionalizing the urban" by Frank Eckardt. The aim is not only to study the mentioned public space but also to figure out the changes in people’s societal behaviour and emotion toward it. Through empowering public spaces, the paper calls the different Egyptian political and civic powers to recognize each other, regardless of their religious, ethnical or political affiliations. It is a step towards replacing the ongoing political conflicts, polarization, and suppression with societal reconciliation, coexistence, and democracy.


Author(s):  
Kevin Dean ◽  
Claudia Trillo

How far do current assessment methods allow the thorough evaluation of sustainable urban regeneration? Would it be useful, to approach the evaluation of the environmental and social impacts of housing regeneration schemes, by making both hidden pitfalls and potentials explicit, and budgeting costs and benefits in the stakeholders’ perspective? The paper aims at answering these questions, by focusing on a case study located in the Manchester area, the City West Housing Trust, a nonprofit housing association. Drawing from extensive fieldwork and including several interviews with key experts from this housing association, the paper first attempts to monetize the environmental and social value of two extant projects – a high-rise housing estate and an environmentally-led program. It then discusses whether and how a stakeholder-oriented approach would allow more engagement of both current and potential funders in the projects at hand. Findings from both the literature and the empirical data that was gathered show how in current housing regeneration processes, room for significant improvements in terms of assessment methods still exist. Findings additionally show that the environmental and social spillovers are largely disregarded because of a gap in the evaluation tools. This may also hinder the potential contributions of further funders in the achievements of higher impacts in terms of sustainability.


2021 ◽  
pp. 95-122
Author(s):  
Karim Wagih Fawzi Youssef

Contemporary shopping malls in Egypt have created new public spaces for lifestyle and leisure, which complement the commercial logic of consumer behavior. Mega malls in Egypt are simultaneously merging shopping, leisure, and entertainment, creating an ambivalence. They are representations of the globalized economy, but also manifest a certain uniqueness through their typology, their mode of insertion in the urban fabric and the type of public spaces created in them. This paper traces four new typologies in the design of six mega shopping malls in Egypt, constructed since 2010, as they integrate new public gathering spaces for leisure, recreation, and entertainment. Data on the new malls in Egypt was collected from corporate websites and promotional brochures, Google Maps and Street View, TripAdvisor, social media websites, visitor comments and news articles. A key finding is the trend of integration of large outdoor recreational spaces such as courtyards and plazas in mall design, the inclusion of a water element for attraction as well as the transition in function from simply offering goods and services to one that offers experiences and events to encourage recurring visits to the mall. The transformation of the mall parallels changes in conceptualizing the city of the 20th century as a large marketplace, an emporium of consumption, to conceptualizing the city of the 21st century as a large theatre and a festive place.


Author(s):  
Olga N. Bliankinshyein ◽  
◽  
Natalya A. Popkova ◽  

One of the criteria for a comfortable ecologically clean urban environment is access to green spaces, their number and quality in any given city. Public green spaces play an important socio-cultural role in the context of active and passive recreation of citizens, various types of recreational activities. The relevance of this study is due to increased attention to the formation of open public spaces in the city of Krasnoyarsk. The purpose of this work is to trace the evolution and identify the social and cultural significance of the green public spaces in Krasnoyarsk. The objectives of the research are to study the green spaces of Krasnoyarsk in a historical retrospective, analyze the green spaces of Krasnoyarsk from the point of view of their ecological significance, recreational use. Research methods included literature review on the topic, analysis of historical data, field survey of the territory, long-term observation, photographic recording, comparative retrospective analysis, and graphic-analytical method. The study captures the most common types of public green spaces and their role in creating a comfortable urban environment. It traces in the most detail the evolution and cultural significance of the most important historical green spaces in Krasnoyarsk: the City Garden (now the Central Park), Yudinsky Garden, Krutovsky Garden. These examples show that gardens and parks can be formed both on the basis of the natural environment of urban forests, and artificially created by the efforts of citizens, that over time they can undergo various quantitative and qualitative, planning and functional transformations. Despite the transformations that have taken place, all the studied historical objects still exist and are used for their intended purpose. In addition to these historical green areas, we examine the newly organized public green spaces with a cultural and recreational component over the past decades: Tatyshev Park, All-season Fun-Park Bobrovy Log, Flora and Fauna Park Roev Ruchey, Dream Gardens and others. The article notes the importance of municipal, public and private initiatives in the organization of local green areas. The analysis allows us to assert that there is a certain system of public green spaces in Krasnoyarsk. It has disadvantages, such as an uneven distribution of green areas throughout the city, lack of interconnections between individual elements, aging of certain areas of greenery, and the complete destruction of some. Nevertheless, the city authorities, architects, designers and the general public make great effort to create a green framework for Krasnoyarsk destined to have an important recreational and cultural role.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8352
Author(s):  
Chiara Garau ◽  
Alfonso Annunziata

The global process of urbanization, and the modification of social interaction determined by the pandemic crisis, poses the issue of the place of vulnerable users and, in particular, children, within the contemporary city. This research aimed to elaborate a theoretical and methodological framework, based on the concepts of affordance and capability, for analyzing the potential of public spaces to enable and support children’s independent activities. This potential, or meaningful usefulness, is expressed by the Index of Meaningful Usefulness of public Urban Spaces (IUIS). The latter is calculated via the tool ‘Opportunities for Children in Urban Spaces’ (OCUS). This methodology is applied to the analysis of significant public spaces within the historic center of the city of Iglesias in Sardinia, Italy. The results reveal adequate usefulness of the selected spaces, while underlining criticalities related to intrinsic spatial and physical attributes. The application to the case study confirms the validity of the theoretical and methodological framework embodied in the OCUS tool for supporting urban design and planning by orienting place-shaping processes towards the acknowledgement of children’s needs.


2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 198-205
Author(s):  
Hee Sun (Sunny) Choi

This paper explores what it means for a public space to embody the city within rapid urban change in contemporary urban development and how a space can accomplish this by embracing the culture of the city, its people and its places, using the particular case of Putuo, Shanghai in China. The paper employs mapping and empirical surveys to learn how the local community use the act of communal dance in everyday public spaces of this neighborhood, and seeks not to find generalizable rules for how humans comprehend a city, but instead to better understand how local inhabitants and their chosen activities can influence their built environment. The findings from this emphasize the importance to identify how public spaces can help to define cities with China’s emerging global presence, whilst addressing the ways in which local needs and perspectives can be preserved.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 11-41
Author(s):  
Daniela López ◽  
Valeria Laborda ◽  

The paper aims to analyse the potentiality of Schutzian phenomenological approach on institutions. We will maintain that this point of view has to take into account at least three aspects of institutions. Firstly, institutions should be considered as objective and sedimented configurations of meaning. Secondly, the historicity and the genesis of the institutional objectified meaning should be explored. Thirdly, life in modern societies shows how reference to the generating activities has been lost in our institutions and how that process has led to the disaffection of the citizens towards them. Motivated by understanding the process through which certain actors question their relative-natural concept of economic life and institute alternative types of economic actions, the article explores a case study of an economic institution in the City of Buenos Aires belonging to the so-called “Other” economy. Following the model of the well-informed citizen, the manuscript describes a type of “economic citizen” who transforms the imposed economic relevances experienced in everyday life into the centre of interest. The emergence of that interest is analysed by tracing back this particular economic institution to the process of sedimentation and of genesis of meaning. It is demonstrated that the process of institutionalization is shaped in contrast to dominant anonymous economic institutions.


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