Socialising Office Space: Flexibility through a layering of multiple programs in traditional office buildings.

<p>This design-research project explores extending the flexibility of a typical 1960s open-plan office building. Through the use of cross-programming, the building now works along a 24- hour timespan. Housing a co-working office, community space and a night shelter, the building models a more efficient use of office space within our central cities. A focus on the individual allows a meaningful connection to space and to others through parallel design interventions that operate as desks and as sleeping pods.</p>

Socialising Office Space: Flexibility through a layering of multiple programs in traditional office buildings.

<p>This design-research project explores extending the flexibility of a typical 1960s open-plan office building. Through the use of cross-programming, the building now works along a 24- hour timespan. Housing a co-working office, community space and a night shelter, the building models a more efficient use of office space within our central cities. A focus on the individual allows a meaningful connection to space and to others through parallel design interventions that operate as desks and as sleeping pods.</p>

Community decision-making and privatised spaces: A case study of suburban shopping malls in the Wellington Region

<p>Shopping malls are a widely disparaged urban form, particularly when these have been built in favour of traditional public spaces. Critiques have ranged from their aesthetic to the impact they have on civic life and broader democracy. However, despite being in private ownership, they have been found to play crucial community functions. This is particularly true in suburban communities which often lack alternative forms of community infrastructure. Concurrently, across the globe, a number of malls are in decline and some communities are losing the only form of community space available to them. Moreover, they are often unable to contribute to decision-making regarding these spaces due to their private ownership. This thesis examines the role that suburban shopping malls, in Aotearoa New Zealand can, and do play as community spaces. It assesses decision-making mechanisms, questioning how communities can participate in the development of what they conceive of as their community spaces. Two cases of declining malls in the Wellington Region– the Johnsonville Shopping Centre and the Wainuiomata Mall were selected and 12 semi-structured interviews and three focus groups were conducted. This research found that these malls played an important role as spaces where communities were built and members socially engaged in often ad-hoc, but significant ways. However, due to the private nature of these spaces, community members often felt powerless and unable to participate in decisions relating to this space. This thesis demonstrates the ways in which the legal binary of public and private fails to encapsulate the nature of modern spaces, which in reality, typically exist as a socially constructed hybrid of both. It challenges the existing framework of property rights based on this binary, and subsequent wider community exclusion from decision-making. In response, this thesis offers policy recommendations around community decision-making in order to stimulate vital suburban community space into the future.</p>

Community decision-making and privatised spaces: A case study of suburban shopping malls in the Wellington Region

<p>Shopping malls are a widely disparaged urban form, particularly when these have been built in favour of traditional public spaces. Critiques have ranged from their aesthetic to the impact they have on civic life and broader democracy. However, despite being in private ownership, they have been found to play crucial community functions. This is particularly true in suburban communities which often lack alternative forms of community infrastructure. Concurrently, across the globe, a number of malls are in decline and some communities are losing the only form of community space available to them. Moreover, they are often unable to contribute to decision-making regarding these spaces due to their private ownership. This thesis examines the role that suburban shopping malls, in Aotearoa New Zealand can, and do play as community spaces. It assesses decision-making mechanisms, questioning how communities can participate in the development of what they conceive of as their community spaces. Two cases of declining malls in the Wellington Region– the Johnsonville Shopping Centre and the Wainuiomata Mall were selected and 12 semi-structured interviews and three focus groups were conducted. This research found that these malls played an important role as spaces where communities were built and members socially engaged in often ad-hoc, but significant ways. However, due to the private nature of these spaces, community members often felt powerless and unable to participate in decisions relating to this space. This thesis demonstrates the ways in which the legal binary of public and private fails to encapsulate the nature of modern spaces, which in reality, typically exist as a socially constructed hybrid of both. It challenges the existing framework of property rights based on this binary, and subsequent wider community exclusion from decision-making. In response, this thesis offers policy recommendations around community decision-making in order to stimulate vital suburban community space into the future.</p>

A Communitys Urban Rejuvenation - The Cabarets Trouper

<p>The 1990s brought innovation to retail shopping, enabling consumers to begin to shop from the comfort of their own home. Today, Online shopping continues to revolutionise the industry, creating a highly competitive market space while advancing “convenience shopping”. As customers can now purchase anything at their fingertips, those that choose to shop in-store find their desires are also competitively meet. Evolution within the retail industry has meant that many stores have become a part of “big box” developments. These facilities provide customers with readily stocked merchandise and the in-store experience of “convenience shopping”. Online shopping and Big Box stores will continue to lure people away from what once were vibrant urban retail environments posing various adverse effects on our streets, city centres and local businesses. Broadway Avenue, Palmerston North is one of many streets that have fallen victim to these developments creating unpleasant retail experiences for the community. This thesis argues how interior architecture can assist rejuvenating desolate urban environments. It proposes that by applying selected interior principles to an urban street it can create a space that begins to challenge the current programme encouraging the street to adapt for the community. This design based research proposes to create a community space ‘living room’ by treating the street as though it is a residential space within a retail environment. It aims to preserve and maintain a sense of history and diversity within the cityscape. The existing site attributes will be used to create a set of design rules and regulations within the shopping environment to encourage internal and external spaces to feed off one another adapting frequently to cope with the competitive nature of the retail sector.</p>

A Communitys Urban Rejuvenation - The Cabarets Trouper

<p>The 1990s brought innovation to retail shopping, enabling consumers to begin to shop from the comfort of their own home. Today, Online shopping continues to revolutionise the industry, creating a highly competitive market space while advancing “convenience shopping”. As customers can now purchase anything at their fingertips, those that choose to shop in-store find their desires are also competitively meet. Evolution within the retail industry has meant that many stores have become a part of “big box” developments. These facilities provide customers with readily stocked merchandise and the in-store experience of “convenience shopping”. Online shopping and Big Box stores will continue to lure people away from what once were vibrant urban retail environments posing various adverse effects on our streets, city centres and local businesses. Broadway Avenue, Palmerston North is one of many streets that have fallen victim to these developments creating unpleasant retail experiences for the community. This thesis argues how interior architecture can assist rejuvenating desolate urban environments. It proposes that by applying selected interior principles to an urban street it can create a space that begins to challenge the current programme encouraging the street to adapt for the community. This design based research proposes to create a community space ‘living room’ by treating the street as though it is a residential space within a retail environment. It aims to preserve and maintain a sense of history and diversity within the cityscape. The existing site attributes will be used to create a set of design rules and regulations within the shopping environment to encourage internal and external spaces to feed off one another adapting frequently to cope with the competitive nature of the retail sector.</p>

Whose Sidewalk?

Home is a nodal point in a series of polarities, including family-community; space-place; inside-outside; private-public; domestic-social. These may not be stable but seem both solidified and undermined as they play out their meaning and practice in and through the home. The “public” is traditionally the state’s domain, while the “private” the citizens’. But where does “private” end and “public” begin? Can a border or boundary be placed between the two? Is such a boundary culture-specific or universal? Is it static or dynamic? Scholars often perceive borders as barriers and bridges, porous and impenetrable, and border studies have shown that urban entities have their own internal and external borders. I argue that such internal urban micro-boundaries can be found in the domain of domestic space, separating the private from the public, and that they are dynamic and constantly negotiated. Not necessarily marked, they are acknowledged by a mutual and tacit agreement, a social and cultural consensus. In this paper, I focus on common expansions of private into public space in Limassol, Cyprus, and the ways in which, this social consensus is achieved through the use of several tactics. As I illustrate, all these tactics seem to transform public space into private, on a symbolic level. The paper’s contribution lies in the examination of this type of boundary, which has received little academic attention, as well as in the introduction of the term “tactics of inhibition.”

Spatial evolution path of Gulangyu Island historical international community: from the perspective of actor-network theory

Gulangyu Island is a special case of social development and changes since modern China. In the past, Chinese and foreign people lived together and Chinese and Western cultures coexisted, resulting in an international community with outstanding cultural diversity and modern quality of life. As a functional carrier, space is of great reference significance to the research on the spatial evolution path of the Gulangyu international community with the accelerating globalization and rapid expansion of urbanization. Based on the interpretation of historical maps and the integration of historical geographic information, this paper explores the evolution path of Gulangyu community space in modern times from the perspective of actor-network theory. It is found that: (1) The change of key actors promotes the spatial evolution of the Gulangyu international community. (2) In the stage of foreign culture dissemination (1840–1902), foreign nationals, as key actors, promoted the formation and development of actor-networks through administrative recruitment and other means, and promoted Gulangyu Island to change from a traditional Minnan community to a modern community form, with the embryonic form of an international community beginning to emerge. (3) In the stage of multicultural integration (1903–1940), overseas Chinese returning home became key actors. The concept of a combination of Western cultures was not only embodied in community management but also acted on space practice to promote the multicultural integration of the Gulangyu international community. This paper summarizes the effects of various factors on the evolution of community space, to provide a reference for other coastal cities to rationally develop islands and promote the multicultural integration of local communities.

The analytic study of librarian-user and importance-satisfaction on the use factor of complex cultural space in library

PurposeThis study surveyed users and librarians who have been transforming libraries into a complex cultural space by reflecting the trends of the times, investigated and analyzed various status of complex cultural spaces, including perceptional differences among different groups and made an attempt to present a direction for the diversification of library's role.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzes the difference between the level of importance and the level of satisfaction for the operational style and use of complex cultural spaces, current status and use of programs and services of libraries as well as the perceptual difference between librarians and users. In order to do so, opinions were collected from librarians who operate complex cultural spaces and users who use the spaces.FindingsFirst, the study compared to see if there is a difference between the preferred complex cultural space of libraries and the type of complex cultural space actually provided by libraries. Libraries do not only have data spaces but also made education space, performance space, exhibition space, rest space, community space and experience space available for users. Users were found to more frequently use exhibition space, performance space, rest space and education space among other spaces whereas the utilization rate of community space and experience space was identified to be significantly low. Second, this study also compared to see if there is a difference between users' preference for the type of programs operated by library's complex cultural spaces and the actual programs offered. The comparison of perceived differences between librarians who are the operators of the programs and users who participate in the programs is to compare and improve the consistency of supply and demand. As a result, it was found that the supply and demand for educational programs were most consistent, which would lead to higher participation rate and enhanced operational performance and satisfaction with libraries. Lastly, investigations were carried out to see whether there is a difference in the levels of importance and satisfaction for the operation of complex cultural spaces and perceptional difference between libraries and users. Comprehensively analyzing the results, in the first quadrant of “Keep the Good Work,” librarians showed a higher level of perception compared to users. In particular, librarians were found to have a different perception towards programs (contents) compared to users. Based on such results, a systematic program must be considered when planning for library programs in order to increase uses' satisfaction. In addition, in the second quadrant of “Concentrate Here,” with a high importance and low satisfaction, users showed a high level of importance for programs (contents) whereas libraries identified accessibility as a more important factor, indicating a big perceptional difference between users and librarians.Research limitations/implicationsThis study examines the differences between the opinions of operators who create complex cultural spaces and operate programs in the spaces and the opinions of users who participate in the spaces and programs, and it was found that no other studies in Korea and overseas have done the same yet. In addition, it carries a significant meaning in that it does not only investigate the perceptions towards importance and satisfaction, but also suggests improvement directions based on the perceptional differences between users and librarians. In other words, librarians who implement policies at actual sites seem to be able to reflect the results of this study and decide the operation direction of the library.Originality/valueUsers also participate in various services and programs that library's complex cultural spaces offer and enjoy their cultural life. It carries a significant meaning in that the study evaluates the importance-satisfaction of factors affecting the use of complex cultural spaces of libraries by examining perceptions of those users who actually have the experience of using library's complex cultural spaces when the number of libraries attempting to transform into a multicultural space increases. The study made an attempt to enrich the knowledge and understanding of users' visit/use of libraries, suggest improvement directions and factors to focus. Continuous efforts and additional studies must be made in order to vitalize library's complex cultural spaces and secure the position of a cultural facility as well as a communication space located at the heart of regional society.

European course of Republic of Moldova: socioeconomical and juridical aspects

The article analyzes various aspects of socioeconomic and juridical life of the Republic of Moldova in the context of European integration. The author pays special attention to the functionality of state institutions and the level of trust, perception of the population regarding the quality of the act of justice, the quality of the act of government as a whole. The analysis reveals major problems that need to be solved from the perspective of bringing our country closer to the community space, to join the European Union. The extensive use of the results of different sociological investigations allows the author to make a comparative and dynamic analysis of the situation in the field of justice and other fields of activity.