Research in Urbanism Series
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Strasbourg’s inclusive policies for migrants and the IBA urban developmental paradigm
Full text linkThe issue of limiting motorized traffic can sometimes generate unexpected problems. For example, the city centre of Strasbourg is crossed by a major motorway, which is constantly congested and polluted. This source of irritation is now at the heart of debates on urban planning. The public authorities wish to transform the route into a boulevard as well as to develop surrounding areas. Currently, the numerous vacant spaces around the transport infrastructure are used by various associations, whose right of residency is relatively unsettled. An increasing number of small illegal settlements can also be found here as well as in adjacent neighbourhoods. While the city council is implementing inclusive policies towards migrants, how can these issues be translated locally into urban planning tools?
Strasbourg is an important transit point for migrants between France and Germany. Further, due to its border location, the city has always been an important hub for the exchange of ideas; in particular, new concepts of urban planning find fertile ground here. In order to transform the motorway, the public authorities intend to implement the German urban development tool known as the International Building Exhibition (German: Internationale Bauausstellung or IBA). In the following, we examine the IBAs of Hamburg and Berlin in order to try to identify good practices which could inspire French town planners and elected officials. This study is conducted through the prism of Henri Lefebvre’s book The Right to the City (1968)
Experiences from a participation process in Göttingen Osterode: Design Thinking as a target-oriented method for the participation of young people
Full text linkAlthough young people are equal members of the community, they are generally excluded from municipal planning processes. This problem can be resolved by fostering participation, thereby making them more than mere spectators. Young people form a heterogeneous group of individuals who want to be taken seriously, explicitly addressed and motivated. However, it is not easy to reach and motivate youngsters to take part in participatory processes. They frequently have a busy schedule at school, time-consuming leisure activities and long travelling distances in rural areas with inadequate public transport. One approach to sparking the interest of young people, who are constantly online or on their smartphones, is to use the internet. However, methods other than digital participation are required to foster their involvement: We need a dedicated form of participation that takes account of young peoples’ wishes, requirements and ideas in an interesting and attractive way.
In the district of Göttingen Osterode am Harz (a.H.), researchers and regional managers have considered various methods to encourage the participation of teenagers, identifying some concrete results that can be achieved in the target group. In particular, they tested the method of Design Thinking as a form of youth participation. In this paper we consider the background to youth participation and look at how this can be fostered, in particular by investigating the method of Design Thinking. This is found to be successful in motivating young people to get involved in urban design
Image Tagging and Gearing Resources applied to students’ graphic materials: Learning techniques in pursuit of Inclusiveness for Urban and Landscape Design
Full text linkInclusiveness can be considered a requirement for contemporary statements in urban and landscape design referring to age, condition, gender or nature. But how is inclusiveness influenced by spatial design? Can this relation be measured or proven? And more precisely, which interactions are considered across different generations or between human and non-human agents?
This paper describes student’s work evaluation procedures through a methodology consisting of selecting picture-based content from initial reference materials provided by teaching staff, as well as graphic material designed and produced by the students, to further analyze these through data visualization techniques and the production of info-graphics. In a latter step, a gearing game – which is a type of sociogram used to understand agents and matters of interest – is utilized to drive a discussion about design statements for further stages of development concerning students’ design projects.
The first stages of the methodology are strongly influenced by how the students perceive elements from reference materials and represent these in their own design productions. A literature review further investigates the dichotomy between representation and perception, and the generation of subjective images.
As a final consideration, this work aims to create combined methodologies by incorporating participatory observation methods (e.g. photovoice and flow charts) from the social sciences into urban and landscape design, as they are understood through an accurate design of the learning experience. Similarly, non-representational design and dataviz diagrams from urban and landscape design could potentially be implemented in the teaching of social sciences
Stroll’n’Draw, All Inclusive: Let Us Embrace Contingency to Visualise and to Reinforce the Uniqueness of Places
Full text linkIn this paper, I discuss the education of inclusive urbanism as the inclusion of the environmental awareness genesis, attitudes toward urban design, cognitive biases and the acceptance of contingency. How do places ‘happen’ to become what they are? What characterises their potentially unreducible singularity in light of general planning laws?
I suggest educating along a didactic triangle of rules, novelty and singularity in a spatialisable tabular fashion. In addition to using the methods presented here in teaching, these approaches can also be used to create more inclusion in urban development processes as a whole. With a 3D visualisation matrix of analogue, hybrid and digital methods, I proceed to four exemplary multi-methodological teaching modes to tackle the ever-bygone status quo, to introduce research methodology and, thereby, the defeasibility of both the premises and the conclusions in all-too traditional urban design.
I focus on abductive reasoning between the unique locality and the general space of possibility as trial acting and “plan-b thinking” to dialectically shuttle within didactic triangle and visualisation matrix. The curriculum allows for principal and exemplary multi-methodological cross-linkage. Open projects serve as stepping stones into the broad variety of non-algorithmic human occupations in 21st century urban planning. Let us understand our own multiple personal urbanites way beyond professional applicability
Incorporating spontaneity in urban disciplines
Full text linkSpontaneity is a term with a wide range of meanings in the architectural and urban context. In principal, two predominant stereotypes of spontaneity have emerged, one related to “informal” architecture, recognized as a condition of material scarcity, and the other to urban actions performed without premeditation, which have been commonly identified as “unplanned”. In many disciplines such as sociology, art, music, literature and natural sciences, spontaneous behaviour is largely viewed as a positive quality, identified as a natural process or act. In an architectural context, however, spontaneity is often associated with poor, deprived and dilapidated urban environments. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to determine the significance of spontaneity in the architectural and urban realm as well as its incorporation in the development of the urban landscape. The first part of this paper will focus on the definition of the term and its recognition in architecture, whereby spontaneity is portrayed as a dynamic, open and unmediated concept. Additionally, taking into account the stereotypical interpretations of spontaneous architecture as informal or unplanned, an epistemological paradox will be revealed in the interaction between the architectural project and its realization. By considering the practical example of Skopje, spontaneity is interpreted as the carrier of the city’s genetic material and hence incorporated in the methodology for the urban development of Skopje city
Landscape architectural perspectives as an agent for generous design
Full text linkLandscape architectonic compositions that draw on the underlying landscape structure can function as a carrier for changing programmes, cultures, processes, etc. Precisely such an explicitly spatial design is required to foster the inclusive city, one that is not only socially just but also sensitive to the environment while allowing for and evoking diverse social and natural processes. The objective of an ‘inclusive city’ is often related to social issues, which might easily lead to the exclusion of ecological values; the opposite approach may prove equally exclusive. Inclusivity also means creating room for the unexpected. From a design point of view, this requires two underlying attitudes: a willingness to see any design assignment from different perspectives as well as a readiness to create sustainable, flexible and open designs.
These two attitudes are inherent to landscape architecture, which traditionally prioritizes the site over the programme, and—because of the long term, time-based condition of the landscape—is forced to think in open-ended designs. In this paper we discuss a selection of graduation projects of the landscape architecture track at the TU Delft in order to illustrate how inclusivity is inherent to a complete understanding of landscape architecture. Four essential perspectives on analysis and design—perception, palimpsest, process and scale continuum—are discussed in order to reveal their capacity to serve as a basis for designing inclusive urban landscapes
Towards the co-production of urban space for increased inclusiveness
Full text linkIncreasingly, civil society is demanding greater participation and involvement in urban development. For this reason, planning processes have become more openly structured in recent years, offering a wider range of opportunities for participation. In order to enable such participation not only in planning but also in producing the city itself, structures for the co-production of urban space have now established themselves. The co-productive city is being made reality by civil society and local actors, whose goal is to create a long-term and sustainable value creation chain. As a counter-model to the neoliberal city, co-productive urban development requires alternative financial and organizational structures. Here our primary focus is the community-based and inclusive production of space that also redefines the role of the planner
Participatory Workshops as a Tool for Building Inclusivity in New Towns in Africa
Full text linkAfrica is currently the fastest-urbanizing continent in the world. As part of this rapid growth, New Towns are increasingly employed by private developers as a means of providing well-serviced urban environments to middle- and upper-income groups. These comprehensively-planned New Towns are often seen in contrast to the perceived ‘chaos’ and ‘congestion’ of large African cities. As a result, two urban forms, the highly controlled New Towns and the unregulated settlements at their edges, engage in complex social and economic exchanges, but remain spatially segregated and socially exclusive. Current research points to the need for an alternative approach to top-down New Town planning in Africa.
Participatory workshops are one alternative that can offer planners access to local knowledge that is otherwise difficult to access. This paper explores the potential of short-term reflective, design, and serious gaming workshops by reflecting on the experiences of the authors in four recent workshops. The paper evaluates the effectiveness of these workshops as useful tools to increase inclusivity in African New Towns by bringing together stakeholders with competing agendas and supporting open discussion, negotiation, and informed decision-making. The paper concludes that participation from stakeholder groups that would normally be marginalized from the planning process (such as current residents, temporary users, and residents of adjacent unregulated communities), can offer new insights to planning bodies and inform more inclusive New Towns across the continent
Green Infrastructure Planning in Germany and China: A comparative approach to green space policy and planning structure
Full text linkGreen Infrastructure (GI) provides an important life-support system for regions and cities. Inspired by, supported by or copied from nature, GI is intended to deal with issues that traditional grey infrastructure can hardly accomplish. Initiated by the European Union’s (EU) Biodiversity Strategy, Germany was an early adopter and thus a role model for the GI approach. In particular, a systematic GI planning system composed of formal and informal planning instruments has been established and implemented from the national to the local level. In comparison, China has not yet officially issued guidance or laws for GI planning. Instead, GI implementations are mainly concentrated at the urban and local scale in the form of green municipal engineering. Scrutinizing the spatial planning system in China, however, we can identify a top-down “5+1” model as a GI planning framework. This includes five types of statutory and non-statutory planning together with the garden city movement. Germany may benefit from China’s diversified and inclusive GI development model and its efforts to promote regional transformation and enhance citizens’ sense of pride in their city. On the other hand, China can learn from Germany’s integrated GI planning system and top-level design. Due to the cross-cutting nature of the issues involved, China’s national spatial planning system must be reformed in order to improve GI planning in the country.
The aim of this paper is to compare GI planning in Germany and China, two countries at different developmental stages and with contrasting social and governmental systems. In so doing, we hope to build a “bridge” for the exchange of experiences
Conclusions
Full text linkWe are facing a paradigm shift in the production of housing, and it is precisely in this transition where contexts as different as The Netherlands and Chile find a common denominator: the problem of affordability and general discontent in the face of a supply that is increasingly remote from the economic capacity and needs of people. Access to housing has become a scarce commodity. In a growing context of demands for the right to the city, the provision of affordable housing has become such a situation that it has promoted the inhabitants to position themselves as protagonists - seeking solutions that cope with the housing problem through collaborative processes. In Europe these processes have re-emerged as a reaffirmation of self-determination in response to the commodification and standardization of housing. However, in Chile the search has been more related to means of collaborative survival through the dynamics of allegamiento and self-organization in pericentral areas.
From this common point of departure, the initial chapters of the book identify collaborative processes, alternating experiences both in Chile and in Europe. The European case, reviewed from the Dutch social housing model and the re-emergence of collaborative housing models, provides three important points of reflection when traditional and consolidated systems face novel and emerging models. First, the opportunity that arises from the hybridization of both systems and cooperation among different actors. Second, the importance of having a cultural change, followed by regulatory frameworks, to ensure the implementation and subsequent massification of new models. Third, despite the legal and operational barriers, the European experience has shown that self-organized and self-managed models are possible, necessary and effective when housing demands have not been satisfy by the State nor by the market.