COVID-19: Cartography as a Witness of Change of Spanish Urban Models along History Due to Sanitary Crisis

During past centuries, pandemics were something very natural to the human race, but as result of industrialisation during the 19th century, they became a larger problem. The arrival of populations to big cities provoked the development of irregular and overpopulated quarters without any measures of safety, and facilitated the expansion of diseases. The problem resided in sanitation problems, as the example of what happened in London and Paris. As a solution, in different cities, and as a starting point, Paris with the Haussman’s proposals, issued different reforms and extension plans were made in Spain (Nadal 2017, 357-385). Humanity believed that these extension plans would give us a healthy density and an ordered expansion. We opened big boulevards to believe that we had a wide city to walk, but nothing could be further from reality. At the beginning of 20th century, history repeated itself, and now, a new pandemic crisis has shown that cities have, again, a crisis of congestion. Keywords: cartography, cities, COVID-19, urban models

Drifting Producers

Drifting Producers (2004) is an installation artwork built around three large urban models representing a utopian city. [Figure 27] The installation is created by a group of South Korean artists, designers, and curators who call themselves Flying City. The installation is part of a larger project which the artists carried out in an old neighbourhood in Seoul. The project and the installation of Drifting Producers (they bear the same title) are interconnected, although the project lasted for many years (2003–2009) and took many different forms, such as art-and-community workshops, performances, publications, and yet another installation artwork (no longer existent).

The Role of the Virtual City in Urban Development

The virtual reality of cities is the current historical period of urban progress and a kind of interconnected co-activity between innovative virtual elements, elements of the city and its urban parts according to the affected relationships of social, financial, cultural, spatial, political and local features. Where contemporary concepts of virtual reality were presented by the philosophical corps without clarifying their role comprehensively in the urban development processes of cities, so the research aimed to determine the roles of the ideas of the virtual world and the virtual city in the work of both specialists and decision makers, and the urban development processes of traditional and historical cities, where the research information methodology compares theoretical architectural and urban models to intersect with the basic concepts related to the virtual city, the research reached multi-level roles in terms of impact and degrees of complexity, which contribute to an innovative reproduction of urban development processes.

Developing a Label for Excellence in Design for Urban Sustainability

<p>The thesis investigates the impact caused by urban development on the environment. In addition, the thesis proposes and tests a methodology and a prototype tool for assessing the environmental performance of urban environments. The first section of the research briefly discusses some of the important environmental performance rating systems available on the market, such as USGBC-LEED, BREEAM, ISO 14000, NABERS and CASBEE. Their use for assessing urban developments is investigated critically. The thesis points out relevant flaws in the methods of these institutions, exposing a gap in knowledge of urban environmental assessment. The next step of the thesis begins by considering some historical societies and their urban models in order to understand how those making urban developments have approached the environment and its limitations. Indeed, the analysis of these historical models was based on selected speculative aspects, since confirmed by the investigation, as being essential for an ecologically balanced society. The thesis dedicates a chapter to describing the impact caused by the progressive monetarization of ancient society on the relationship between the urban environment and nature. The chapter introduces a discussion about how money has interfered with and speeded up the process of job specialization in urban areas, and how it has been shaping urban areas today. The thesis then reflects on important urban problems from an ecological point of view, pointing out relevant issues in modern urban development. Additionally, the research connects the problems of modern urbanism and the economics that have acted as a major force in shaping cities and their expansions. Finally the research proposes a methodology for environmental assessment, based on the ecological footprint. The prototype tool developed puts together all relevant environmental aspects. It also includes personal habits, combining these with urban design, transportation, consumption and energy resources to measure the footprint impact. The research recognises that the footprint cannot be treated as a static number; therefore, the research also presents a second instrument, which calculates the biocapacity per capita, according to population and economic growth, serving as a numerical ecological parameter for the first prototype tool. This enables the environmental impact of proposed changes, such as urban growth, to be assessed. A number of case studies using the tools are presented. These include three new urban developments which have a label for more sustainable urban design (LEED). The measurement prototype tool is also applied to some of the ancient societies previously studied, in order to compare the present urban and life style model with that of ancient urban societies. The thesis ends by comparing results from LEED for Neighbourhood Development with those of the new prototype tool, including comparison of modern and historical urban models.</p>

Developing a Label for Excellence in Design for Urban Sustainability

<p>The thesis investigates the impact caused by urban development on the environment. In addition, the thesis proposes and tests a methodology and a prototype tool for assessing the environmental performance of urban environments. The first section of the research briefly discusses some of the important environmental performance rating systems available on the market, such as USGBC-LEED, BREEAM, ISO 14000, NABERS and CASBEE. Their use for assessing urban developments is investigated critically. The thesis points out relevant flaws in the methods of these institutions, exposing a gap in knowledge of urban environmental assessment. The next step of the thesis begins by considering some historical societies and their urban models in order to understand how those making urban developments have approached the environment and its limitations. Indeed, the analysis of these historical models was based on selected speculative aspects, since confirmed by the investigation, as being essential for an ecologically balanced society. The thesis dedicates a chapter to describing the impact caused by the progressive monetarization of ancient society on the relationship between the urban environment and nature. The chapter introduces a discussion about how money has interfered with and speeded up the process of job specialization in urban areas, and how it has been shaping urban areas today. The thesis then reflects on important urban problems from an ecological point of view, pointing out relevant issues in modern urban development. Additionally, the research connects the problems of modern urbanism and the economics that have acted as a major force in shaping cities and their expansions. Finally the research proposes a methodology for environmental assessment, based on the ecological footprint. The prototype tool developed puts together all relevant environmental aspects. It also includes personal habits, combining these with urban design, transportation, consumption and energy resources to measure the footprint impact. The research recognises that the footprint cannot be treated as a static number; therefore, the research also presents a second instrument, which calculates the biocapacity per capita, according to population and economic growth, serving as a numerical ecological parameter for the first prototype tool. This enables the environmental impact of proposed changes, such as urban growth, to be assessed. A number of case studies using the tools are presented. These include three new urban developments which have a label for more sustainable urban design (LEED). The measurement prototype tool is also applied to some of the ancient societies previously studied, in order to compare the present urban and life style model with that of ancient urban societies. The thesis ends by comparing results from LEED for Neighbourhood Development with those of the new prototype tool, including comparison of modern and historical urban models.</p>

Procedural modeling buildings for finite element method simulation

Finite element methods for heat simulation at urban scale require mesh-volume models, where the meshing process requires a special attention in order to satisfy FEM requirements. In this paper we propose a procedural volume modeling approach for automatic creation of mesh-volume buildings, which are suitable for FEM simulations at urban scale. We develop a basic rule-set library and a building generation procedure that guarantee conforming meshes. In this way, urban models can be easily built for energy analysis. Our test-case shows a street created with building prototypes that fulfill all the requirements for being loaded in a FEM numerical platform such as Cast3M (www-cast3m.cea.fr).

Words, drawings and digital representation: visual interpretations of the narratives of machado de assis in morro do castelo

This article’s purpose is to create a digital graphic reconstitution of Machado de Assis’ literary characters from the narrative “Uma por Outra”, edited in 1897, focusing on the fictional scenario based on the physical relationship between a specific house on the Misericórdia street and houses on "Morro do Castelo", that existed in an urban context and now disappeared. The methodology combines previous studies on the representation with historical digital urban models, responsible for potentialize the documentary information and promoting the points of view of the characters. The article led to finding an approach to using iconography and digital models in order to conclude that the author’s fiction was based on a real site. The main research limitation concerns Castelo Hill disappearance in 1922 and the limited remaining iconographic sources. In addition, research on theoretical studies of representation of the city as a graphic report have taken place. Therefore, the originality of this study deals with interesting literary research and the results and conclusions will serve as reference to further new areas of knowledge about the cities.

Accessibilità post-pandemia: riflessioni sullo spazio pubblico

The correlation between the psycho-physical well-being of citizens and the provision of green areas has been one of the cornerstones of urban planning since its inception, as its constant commitment to adapt cities and territories to emerging challenges. The spread of SARS-Cov-2 has changed the relationship between citizens and urban space. The public space, has been limited and banned, confining citizens within their private space and the psycho-physical well-being of citizens depended only on the quality of the domestic space.The pandemic represents a moment of reflection and research for the disciplines that deal with the quality of life of citizens. The pandemic crisis may be an opportunity to rethink the role and importance of the provision of public space, in particular urban green areas, their distribution and effective accessibility. The contribution aims to rethink urban models capable of responding to the challenges of the post-pandemic city