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Manifesting the unintended outcomes of transforming an inhospitable place into a vibrant neighborhood: the case of Liljeholmstorget, Stockholm
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southTo enrich the quality of urban spaces for social encounters is receiving a considerable attention in Stockholm and in most of current development processes. This paper aims to provide analysis about the provision of social qualities through macro and micro strategies in transformation of urban spaces to become meaningful places, to underline the mechanisms and structures behind the actual space. Both empirically and theoretically, the research discusses the ways public spaces are conceptualized implicitly by planning intentions, and explicitly by design of the physical environment. Through a critical but constructive perspective to the urban practice status quo in transformation process, the paper develops analytical expressions for shaping public places, their qualities and nuanced relations expected in everyday practice. To achieve this goal, this study applies Liljeholmstorget transformation project, as the representative case around densification policy in suburbs of Stockholm (1996-2009). The development strategy aimed at creating a transport hub to become more city like, means to achieve ‘diversity and shifting the industrial image’ by mixed-use blocks including: public services, residential, few offices, shopping mall, parking, and open spaces. Nominated as a best practice for “an important planning task in sustainable urban development”, the City was rewarded in 2010 for the transformation of “high quality, with integration of functions and realization of the vision for a safe, pleasant, and vibrant urban spaces”. The study examines the quality of public places, particularly manifesting the unintended patterns and ways, which different groups interact with the space and each other.publishedVersio
Urban regulations to [not] control urban growth: the case of Altamira (Pará) between 2000 e 2010
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southThis study investigates the process of urban growth in Altamira (Pará State) in the period 2000 – 2010 and the effectiveness of planning tools to regulate the growth of the city. The city of Altamira, located in SE Pará State, underwent major territorial changes starting in the 1970s, with the acceleration of the agricultural frontier expansion in the Brazilian Amazon. New forms of occupation were juxtaposed to urban structures inherited from previous periods concomitantly with the city expansion. During the 1970s, its urban population grew at a rate of 16% per year. In subsequent decades, growth rates decreased, reaching an average of 3% per year between 2000 and 2010. In recent years, the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric power plant can be associated with new transformations in the city.
Data integration - satellite imagery, orthophotos, field data and census data - is performed for the identification and analysis of the city structure and its expansion between 2000 and 2010. The main elements of urban structure are the regional roads and access corridors with industrial plants, high-income neighborhoods and natural attraction (Xingu River). Secondary elements of the urban structure are the central and sub-central district for commerce and services, and the majority of residential neighborhoods.publishedVersio
Planning at a crossroads: Dutch and Flemish planning cultures transformed
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southThe Netherlands is famous as one of the most meticulously planned countries in the world. Its planning history spans more than a century and many authors have commented on the scale and comprehensiveness of its planning system and the seeming ability to get plans realized. These characteristics have not only remained locked up within a professional community, they have expanded and grown into values broadly carried in society, leading Faludi to comment on Dutch culture as one characterised by “rule and order” with “a soft spot for planning”. (Faludi, 2005; Faludi & Van der Valk, 1994) Yet this culture is under scrutiny as 21st century developments such as globalisation and increasing citizen initiative re quire a more flexible spatial order. The contrast with the neighbouring country of Belgium is striking. From a century of development aimed at private homeownership, infrastructural development and weak national planning policy, a country has emerged with a remarkably diffuse building pattern, yet with a great diversity of building types and a high standard of individual housing comfort for the middle and upper classes. Due to this pattern Belgium suffers from gridlock and a lack of nature and open space, leading one of its preeminent architects to term it the “ugliest country in the world” half a century ago already. (Braem, 1968 / 2010)publishedVersio
Brazilian favelas and Indian slums upgrading: two case studies
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southThe depressing housing condition for the majority urban poor in the world is a pervasive and persistent global reality today. Over a billion people in the world live in substandard housing conditions. This population is likely to grow in rapidly urbanizing countries such as India and Brazil. In 2010 the number of Brazilians living in these conditions increased from 6.5 million in 2000 to 11.4 million in 2010, distributed in 6,329 clusters across 323 municipalities. In India, one third of the country’s population is estimated to be living in substandard housing. A recently released 2014 UN Prospects report 66 per cent of the world population will live in cities by 2050. With this the slum population in the world is likely to grow exponentially. We can expect the situation to worsen due to multiple, interlocking disadvantages slum dwellers face that relate to all three - social, economic and environmental – dimensions of their lives. The situation is challenging in the cities where the deficit of urban housing is already glaringly evident in their urban landscape in the form of numerous slum and squatter settlements.publishedVersio
Spatial planning and information technology: an ontology-based approach
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southOver the last three decades, the development of computer-based technologies has open unprecedented opportunities for knowledge building, design, evaluation and decision-making support in spatial planning. Spatial data technologies (e.g., geographic information systems, geographic positioning system) increased the availability of spatial information. Modern spatial planning approaches require integration, interpretation and representation of knowledge (Zhu et al., 1998). These needs can be addressed by computer-based systems, which are becoming an important tool for the decisionmaking process in spatial planning. Amongst the most popular research area of computer-based systems are the Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS). These systems aim to facilitate both experts and stakeholders throughout decision-making processes (Zhu et al., 1998) by taking into consideration varying parameters (e.g., institutional, urban, social, economical). However, traditional SDSS fall short of dealing with spatial problems that may be either semi-structured or may contain parameters that are difficult to be modeled due to uncertainties (Jankowski & Nyerges, 2001; Sikder, 2009).publishedVersio
Chinese Road Construction Society: the local practice of Introducing the Idea of Urban Planning, 1921-1937
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southThe understanding of Chinese cities’ modernization has advanced substantially in recent years, with volumes of resources available on late imperial cities (Skinner 1977; Rowe 2002) and twentieth-century cities (Buck 1978; Hershatter 1997; Esherick 1999). These studies have demonstrated that despite their political chaos and military strife, the late Qing and Republican eras were a rather innovative period, during which modern planning methods were introduced into traditional cities through various routes. In order to enrich this understanding, a case study was carried out on Hangzhou city’s morphological transformation and related early modern planning efforts between 1896 and 1927 (Fu 2015). During the case study, a civil society, the Chinese Road Construction Society, was found to have notable influence on the introduction of modern planning. Thus, in this paper, the society shall be the object of analysis, in order to clarify the society’s role and influence in the introduction of modern planning in China. The Chinese Road Construction Society (Zhong Hua Quan Guo Dao Lu Jian She Xie Hui) was founded in Shanghai in 1921 by several influential officials, led by Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Zhengting, to promote the construction of modern roads. It later gradually developed into a big association with branches all over the nation, and published its own monthly journal until the outbreak of World War II in 1937.publishedVersio
Repelling violence by design? Effects of the social and physical structure of resettlement communities on violence in the Bajo Lempa, El Salvador
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southConfronted with violence and chaos in the 1980-1992 Salvadoran Civil War, citizens fled to nearby countries to wait out the conflict. In the process most lost their land and their livelihoods. At the war’s end, citizens returned in large numbers, but, as a result of government economic reforms and land repatriation processes, they were forced to relocate into different regions than those from which they had come. In many cases, people relocated with those they had fled with and/or met in refugee camps, and established new communities using only what skills they possessed collectively to establish a governing structure and physical design. As a result, several communities were founded in the early to mid-1990s throughout El Salvador by people in very similar circumstances, but with many different ideas about what an “ideal” community might look like. Currently, many of these planned communities, along with the country at large, face daunting levels of violence, especially gang violence. What is unique, however, is that some these communities are much more successful in keeping violence outside their borders. This paper asks why?publishedVersio
Governance experiences in Brazil: in search of capacities for a shared metropolitan agenda
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southIn the globalized age, largely populated metropolitan areas, typically bringing together a number of different cities and extending over wide territories, face growing social, economic and environmental problems. International experience shows that, faced with resource constraints and conflicting interests, metropolitan management is, by and large, mostly ineffective while contributing to aggravate existing inequalities. Having to face rapid urban growth, housing shortages, informality and poverty, the Brazilian experience in metropolitan planning also reveals serious shortcomings. It can be argued that, since 1973, reflecting changing tendencies of the central administration, metropolitan management in Brazil underwent three stages. The first was a developmental phase, which spanned decades of centralized planning, and in which public agencies had access to a stream of financial resources. The second was a phase of neoliberal policies, which promoted decentralization and discredited centralized planning, and in which metropolitan agencies received reduced financial support. The third is a more recent, neo-developmental phase, which tends towards decentralization and social participation, and in which agencies are faced with insufficient resources and spreading problems.publishedVersio
The managerial administration of housing policies in São Paulo (Brazil): institutional arrangements, governance patterns, models of planning
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southThis work aims to enrich the discussion on the manner in which models of territorial management and planning are structured in Brazil. It is based on an analysis of the housing policy operated in the state of São Paulo through a state agency in particular, the Companhia de Desenvolvimento Habitacional e Urbano (Housing and Urban Development Company), CDHU, a public company that runs social housing programs throughout the state’s territory, serving low-income families (with income of less than 1,900 dollars a month, approximately).
The daily interactions between the State (CDHU) and some specific private actors involved in the managerial administration policy - engineering, management and consulting companies - are observed in order to illuminate the institutional arrangements they create and that are possibly established as a governance pattern of public policies in São Paulo.
The hypothesis refers to the State's operating dynamics and their influence on the models of planning adopted: the paradigm of the policy, with little pattern changes over the last twenty-five years, is determined from choices and arrangements that happen exactly in the interface between the state and the non-state actor, featuring a complex decision-making dynamics, which responds to interests that are diverse, heterogeneous, but produce concrete results on the planning, conception and implementation of programs and actions.publishedVersio
Territorial planning: challenges for capacity building and transformative praxis in Brazil
No full textProceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the southThe objective of the article is to analyze how processes of productive-economic and political restructuring and broader societal transformations generate a series of challenges and opportunities for building up the necessary human capacity as well as the transformative professional practice (praxis) that are required for urban and regional planning in Brazil. Countries of the global south in general, and Brazil in particular, have faced intense social-spatial contradictions in their development trajectories that have compromised their territories at multiple scales. Therefore, the urban-regional planning agenda in those countries represents an even higher level of complexity than in the global center. Territorial planning in the global south cannot be separated from issues such as inequality, informality, the scale and proliferation of precarious settlements and the clientelism and patronage that mark the relationships between private actors and the State.publishedVersio