452 research outputs found
Sort by
Visibility, democratic public space and socially inclusive cities: The presence and changes of Turkish amenities in Amsterdam
Get PDFThis research introduces the concept of visibility as a useful tool to assess the democratic features of public spaces. We understand democratic public spaces as open spaces, which are accessible to all and allow different cultural expressions for individuals and groups. The concept of visibility refers to the visual perception of the observable features of distinctive urban groups in public space, which give evidence of their lived experiences, and how they engage with, shape, and construct public space in everyday life. The main assumption of the study is that the visibility of distinctive urban groups on the street manifests the rights of these groups to participate in the public life of the city, which is a key feature of a democratic public space. Consequently, the presence and changes in the visibility of urban groups in public space is a highly political issue, which raises concerns in relation to just or unjust urban conditions.
Open and democratic public spaces are an asset to achieve socially inclusive cities, recognized as such in academic and policy circles. However, the present political and economic context has turned public spaces into a tool for the branding and marketing of cities. Public space is increasingly designed and geared to attract tourists and higher-income groups, leading to trends toward the commodification of urban development. Such trends discourage the presence in, and uses of, public space by some groups, contributing to the erosion of key features of democratic public spaces.
The urban literature gives useful indications about the observable qualities of democratic public spaces, but their tangible and physical aspects have not been sufficiently studied in the urban design and planning literature. Furthermore, little attention has been given to the precise effects that urban transformations may have on the democratic features of public spaces, or on their implications for the design and planning of socially inclusive cities. Consequently, the main objective of this research is to advance knowledge about the democratic features of public space that promote socially inclusive neighbourhoods and cities.
The approach considers the visibility of commercial and communal amenities as a proxy for the presence and appropriation of public space by immigrant groups through their distinctive signs, languages, and uses. The analysed and documented the recent changes in the visibility of Turkish amenities in the streets of Amsterdam in the context of urban transformations in the period between 2007 and 2016. The methodology of the research included deskwork and fieldwork. The former included theory review and identification of the policy context. The latter included primary data collection about the immigrant amenities’ spatial and social characteristics, mapping of the presence and changes of the amenities in two selected streets, and finally, analyses, synthesis and interpretation of the findings.
Two streets located in the inner-city (Javastraat) and the outskirts (Burgemeester de Vlugtlaan) of Amsterdam were selected as case-study, in base of their location; demographic trends; and type of users. Their empirical examination was useful to appraise and document the presence and changes of Turkish amenities in these streets during the studied period.
There are five major findings in this research. First, visibility can be operationalized by studying the spatial and social characteristics of immigrant amenities in public space. Measuring and documenting the spatial (at city and neighbourhood level) and social (social life of parochial and public realm) characteristics of immigrant amenities, the visibility of culturally distinctive groups in public space can be compared in a synchronic and diachronic way. This constitutes an innovative approach to the empirical assessment of public space, which complements statistical and quantitative approaches to public space. A longitudinal analysis of these changes then offers a better understanding of the relationship of these changes with the corresponding urban policies and trends.
Second, immigrant neighbourhoods and their commercial amenities have been significantly affected by the commercial and residential gentrification of innercity immigrant neighbourhoods in Amsterdam. These trends have been the result of a gradual shift from a social democratic towards a liberal welfare regime in the Netherlands since the 1980s, which has strongly influenced successive national and city level urban policies and strategies. Since then, Amsterdam urban renewal and housing policies have evolved significantly from the ‘building for the neighbourhood’ approach towards a market-oriented approach.
Third, the social characteristics of immigrant amenities — related to their capacity to promote social contacts within the immigrant and larger community — are different for commercial and communal amenities. The former are more open, and therefore more visible in public space. The location-related spatial characteristics vary for inner-city/outskirts and main street/back streets locations. Inner city and main street locations are more visible for a broader public. Other spatial characteristics that contribute to a greater visibility of immigrant amenities are high levels of legibility; personalisation; and robustness.
Fourth, the visibility of distinctive urban groups in public space — linked to their participation in public life — is a strong indication of the socio-cultural inclusion of these groups into the society. Taking that into account, the decreasing visibility of Turkish amenities found in Javastraat during the 2007-2016 period has produced a negative impact on the socio-cultural inclusion of Turkish immigrants in Amsterdam.
Fifth, the decreasing visibility of immigrant groups has detrimental consequences for shaping democratic public spaces and for promoting urban justice principles, specifically from the perspectives of diversity and equity. Diverse public spaces welcome urban groups from different social, cultural and economic backgrounds. Equity refers to the accessibility of public spaces — both physically and perceptually — for different groups.
The overall conclusion is that visibility in public space can provide solid evidence of the most important aspects of democratic streets, which are difficult to obtain through conventional statistical methods. Even though this study focused on immigrant amenities (used as a proxy), the conclusions can be broadened to include other distinctive urban groups, such as sexual minorities, and vulnerable groups, as well as other forms of visibility such as festivals, parades and events.
Visibility can be a valuable tool for ex-ante and ex-post evaluations of the democratic character of streets to inform designers, researchers and policy makers about the impact of the proposed or finished interventions. It would be especially valuable in cases of profound neighbourhood transformation processes, which modify the demographic profile of a neighbourhood.
Finally, training and education of designers and planners of public space should incorporate visibility as an important concept to examine the diversity and vitality features of public space, in order to promote democratic streets and more socially inclusive cities. Neighbourhood visions and development plans should take into account the role of the presence of distinctive urban groups in public life to promote the sociocultural inclusion of distinctive urban groups
Architecture and the Time of Space: The Double Progression of Body and Brain
Get PDFIn this work Deborah Hauptmann deals with the relationships between mind, body, architecture and the city. Major authors ranging from Henri Bergson and Walter Benjamin to Henri Lefebvre and Gilles Deleuze are discussed in order to open up thinking on the roles of perception and the cognitive sciences in today’s society. Various themes are explored. Matter and mind are considered as kinds of multiplicities that affect our distinctions between subject and object. A theoretical framework is carefully constructed and argued in detail, allowing us to grapple with the existing problems of a rapidly changing field of disciplinary actions. The author looks at how vitalism has been applied to space, offers a view of the city through the question of who is allowed to claim right to the city and addresses the idea of the virtual and emergent. She examines the problem of experience by posing questions pertaining to both voluntary and involuntary memory. She concludes by making concepts surrounding biopolitics and noopolitics explicit and investigates their past discourses, demonstrating that they are still pertinent to both the field of architecture and philosophy.
This study should be regarded as an original contribution to the discipline of architecture in its broadest sense
Energy in Dwellings: A comparison between Theory and Practice
Get PDFEnergy simulation models for buildings are widely used by policymakers, researchers and consultants as a tool to advice on the reduction of residential energy consumption. Previous studies have shown that there is a gap between theoretical building energy simulation results and actual energy use. The discrepancy between theory and practice is problematic, as for instance expected energy savings are often not achieved. This thesis shows that analysing specific household types and building characteristics can contribute to a better understanding of amongst others the influence of the occupant on actual energy consumption. The effectiveness of thermal renovations is dependent on both occupants and building characteristics, which means tailored advice on renovation measures is necessary. We also found that occupants and building characteristics are equally responsible for variances in actual residential energy consumption. To reduce the gap between theory and practice on a single building level, simulation models are improved using calibration methods. In the final part of this thesis, a method is developed to calibrate simulations on a building stock level, making building energy simulation tools more reliable for policymakers
Multiscale spatial contexts and neighbourhood effects
Get PDFThis thesis has developed alternative methods of operationalising neighbourhoods at multiple spatial scales and used them to advance our understanding of spatial inequalities and neighbourhood effects. The underlying problem that motivated this thesis is that many empirical studies use predefined administrative units, and often this does not align with the underlying theory or geography. Despite the extensive literature on neighbourhood effects and, more generally, on sociospatial inequalities, spatial scale remains an under-analysed concept. As a response to this research gap, this thesis takes a multiscale approach to both theory and the empirical analysis of neighbourhood effects, highlighting the multitude of spatial processes that may affect individual outcomes of people. To operationalise this, we created bespoke areas (centred around each residential location) at a range of one hundred scales representing people’s residential contexts, primarily in the Netherlands but also in multiple European capitals. Using microgeographic data and a large number of scales combined with small distance increments revealed subtle changes in sociodemographic characteristics across space. In doing so, we provided new insights into ethnic segregation, potential exposures to poverty, and neighbourhood effects on income, all in light of the fundamental issue of spatial scale: The analyses of sociospatial inequalities are substantially affected by the scale used to operationalise spatial context, and this varies within and between cities and urban regions. The aim of this thesis was therefore not to find a single, ‘true’ scale of neighbourhood, but to acknowledge, operationalise, and better understand the multiplicity of spatial scales
Architecture & Urban Design–Amsterdam and Boston: MSc 2 Elective Design Studio | AR0067 | Spring 2018—2019
Get PDFMassive urbanization puts pressure on public space and demands new programs along with alternative gathering places such as public interior spaces and a variety of forms of collective spaces. Moreover, in the rapidly changing city, infrastructure and mobility remain of vital importance. A coevolving diversity of program cannot be planned, but interventions in the city need constantly to be grounded on sharp design approaches to respond adequately to the necessities of the time–while being environmentally sustainable, given the available resources.
In general, infrastructure, mobility, and public life manifest themselves in various forms as carriers of such urban development. Design experiments, as put forward in this book, show how to work with continuously changing urban conditions, with mobility transforming cities whilst with public spaces taking various forms, with programs which hybridize, and with new technologies to keep up with the urban dynamics. Given these themes, designs should carry awareness of the inclusiveness and accessibility of various systems and places, facilities, and technologies. Spatially this means questioning how to keep the city open and connected, attractive, and livable.
In the interdisciplinary MSc II Design Studio Architecture & Urban Design, students of the master tracks Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape Architecture of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment work closely together. The integrative approach of this graduate course setting allows the students to examine urban space as architectural space and architectural space as urban space. Through an experimental design method, developed during the 2018 national research project Stad van de Toekomst,1 the studio is founded on the interest in the intervention in the built environment and its immediate effect on architecture and urban design. The global framework of the Stad van de Toekomst project is directly projected on Amsterdam Sloterdijk Station and Boston South Station areas, compressed and applied to this ten-week graduate course.
Taken from a wider angle, the project is motivated by urgent social as well as local tasks in the urban areas, varying from housing demand, social inclusiveness, new economy, climate adaptation, and the like, taking into account the transitions in energy, mobility, circularity, and digitization. This echoes through in the central question of the Stad van de Toekomst project: How can we design and develop a transformation area in an integral way into an attractive and future-proof urban environment? In addition particularly, the project is motivated by the major system transitions impacting on societal tasks effectively desiring progressive urbanization in the first place
Urban Renewal Decision- Making in China: Stakeholders, Process, and System Improvement
Get PDFTo meet the growing rigid demand of urban housing, urban renewal has played a significant role, which significantly promotes the urban prosperity in China. However, at the same time, many problems occurred through large-scale urban renewal projects. To avoid unintended consequences that occurred in urban renewal, how these decisions were made can be one key focus. To better achieve the goal of sustainability, this research aims to deepen the understanding of urban renewal decision-making in China and contribute to recommend strategies to improve the system. Based on the participatory decision-making theory and the characteristics of urban renewal, a conceptual framework is built to achieve the aim of this research. According to the research framework, this research firstly conducted an empirical study of stakeholders’ expectations in urban renewal projects. Eighteen factors are identified and compared among the main stakeholder groups. Secondly, this research explores the stakeholders and their participation in the decision-making of urban renewal in China. Stakeholder Analysis and Social Network Analysis are complemented as the research methodology. In the third step, transaction costs theory is adopted to improve the understanding of urban renewal decision-making process in China. Based on the results of the above three steps, the last step of this research systematically determines a set of strategies for improving urban renewal decision-making in China by adopting the Analytic Network Process. The findings of this research add new knowledge on the exploration of the decision-making of public projects and can be directly adopted by the authority in practice
The Urbanisation of the Sea: From Concepts and Analysis to Design
Get PDFThe book tells the story of the sea-land continuum based on the case of the North Sea – one of the world’s most industrialised seas, in which the Netherlands plays a central role. The space of the North Sea is almost fully planned and has been loaded with the task of increased economic production from new and traditional maritime sectors. At the same time, it has been emptied of cultural signi ficance.
Through diverse projects from academia, art, literature, and practice, from analysis to design, the book explores synergies for designing this new spatial realm. Port city expert Carola Hein, professor of the history of architecture & urban planning at Delft University of Technology, and Nancy Couling, associate professor at the Bergen School of Architecture and researcher of the urbanised sea, combine forces with interdisciplinary experts to guide the reader through this complex and fascinating topic
aE Journal 2020/2021: aE studio
Get PDFIn our Architectural Engineering program we seek innovative and inspiring architectural solutions for environmental and societal issues. We are driven by the need to think differently about our building culture. Understanding existing potentials, knowing the possibilities of renewal and discovering how to design, innovate and change are central themes of Architectural Engineering. Focus areas are circularity, climate design, digital manufacturing, product design, material research, structural mechanics and computational modelling.
Architectural Engineering encourages students to explore their role as architects in facing today’s challenges. Under the guidance of a team of enthusiastic design tutors and together with various stakeholders, students search for innovative technical solutions for diverse problems in various contexts in both the Netherlands and abroad (i.e. Indonesia and the Caribbean). The three main research by design domains promoted by Architectural Engineering are ‘Make’, ‘Flow’ and ‘Stock’. Each domain requires a different approach and offers unique design solutions, while creating multiple value for the built environment together
In-Situ Determination of Buildings’ Thermo-Physical Characteristics: Method Development, Experimentation, and Computation
Get PDFAccurate determination of building’s critical thermo-physical characteristics such as the walls’ thermal resistance, thermal conductivity, and volumetric heat capacity is essential to indicate effective and efficient energy conservation strategies at building level. In practice, the values of these parameters, which determine not only possible energy savings, but also related costs, are rarely available because the current determination methods are time-and-effort-expensive, and consequently seldom used. This thesis combines theories, simulations, computations, and experiments to develop and improve methods and approaches for determination of a number of buildings’ most important thermophysical characteristics. First, a modification to the existing standard method, “ISO 9869 Average Method” is proposed to measure the walls’ thermal resistance. Two current problems are solved: long measurement duration (weeks) and imprecision. To further shorten the measurement period to a few hours, a new transient in-situ method, Excitation Pulse Method, EPM (Patent No. 2014467), is then developed and tested. This method allows the determination of the walls’ response factors which can be applied directly in dynamic models. More importantly, it is used to extract critical construction information including walls’ thermal resistance, thermal conductivity, volumetric heat capacity, and the possible layer composition. Finally, in an attempt to reduce the hassle, cost, and intrusion associated with locally-conducted experiments, the use of data from smart meters and home automation systems is explored. Building’s global characteristics including heat loss coefficient, global heat capacitance and daily air change rates are accordingly determined
ThinkingSkins: Cyber-physical systems as foundation for intelligent adaptive façades
Get PDFNew technologies and automation concepts emerge in the digitalization of our environment. This is, for example, reflected by intelligent production systems in Industry 4.0. A core aspect of such systems is their cyber-physical implementation, which aims to increase productivity and flexibility through embedded computing capacities and the cooperation of decentrally networked production plants. This development stage of automation has not yet been achieved in the current state-of-the-art of façades. Being responsible for the execution of adaptive measures, façade automation is part of hierarchically and centrally organised Building Automation Systems (BAS). The research project ThinkingSkins is guided by the hypothesis that, aiming at an enhanced overall building performance, façades can be implemented as cyber-physical systems. Accordingly, it addresses the research question:
How can cyber-physical systems be applied to façades, in order to enable coordinated adaptations of networked individual façade functions?
The question is approached in four partial investigations. First, a comprehensive understanding of intelligent systems in both application fields, façades and Industry 4.0, is elaborated by a literature review. Subsequently, relevant façade functions are identified by a second literature review in a superposition matrix, which also incorporates characteristics for a detailed assessment of each function’s adaptive capacities. The third investigation focuses on existing conditions in building practice by means of a multiple case study analysis. Finally, the technical feasibility of façades implemented as cyber-physical systems is investigated by developing a prototype. The research project identifies the possibility and promising potential of cyberphysical façades. As result, the doctoral dissertation provides a conceptual framework for the implementation of such systems in building practice and for further research