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Assessing E-Motor Bikes Adoption: Challenges and Opportunities, The Case of Nyarugenge District
Get PDFElectric mobility offers a sustainable solution to transportation-related environmental and socioeconomic challenges. This study assesses the adoption of electric motorbikes (e-motorbikes) in Kigali City, with a focus on Nyarugenge District. Using mixed methods literature review, GIS mapping, field observation, surveys, and stakeholder interviews. we evaluate user awareness, infrastructure, technical feasibility, and policy readiness. Despite high awareness (98%) and usage (97%), adoption remains low due to battery limitations, poor service access, and regulatory delays. However, respondents support e-motorbikes’ environmental benefits and would adopt them with incentives. The study recommends expanding infrastructure, improving batteries, and fostering multisector collaboration to advance Rwanda’s sustainable urban transport goals
Artificial Intelligence and City-Making: The Potential for New Synthesis
Get PDFSince urban morphology was first established as theories and methods in the 1950s and 1960s, architects and planners have sought to apply it to urban regeneration. The Italian school of urban morphology led Aldo Rossi to develop a typological approach to city-making in the late 1960s. Giancarlo De Carlo built on urban morphology’s methods of analysis and sought to the community participation it called for in his work in the 1970s through the 1990s. De Carlo, a founder of Team X, hoped to use urban morphology to transform urban regeneration, demonstrating this possibility in projects at Urbino and Genoa, and establishing the International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design (ILAUD) as a vehicle for making this happen. Despite these efforts, urban morphology proved difficult to apply in the real world of urban regeneration. In the 1990s, Space Syntax emerged as an offshoot of the British school of urban morphology, focusing on urban analyses of cities that could be carried out using data analytics. In 2003 and 20l5, respectively, urban acupuncture and tactical urbanism were put forward as ways to simplify urban morphology’s methods and focus on interventions at different scales as the medium of its application. Today, artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to make urban morphology actionable and transform urban regeneration, as De Carlo hoped. This article reviews this history and offers a prognosis.
The Syntax of Campus Planning: A Comparative Analysis of Qatar University and Education City in Doha, Qatar
Get PDFThe paper examines the campus planning of Qatar University (QU) and Education City in Doha, Qatar. The comparative study includes figure-ground mapping, land-use classification, active frontage assessment, building height documentation, pedestrian shed analysis, and space syntax analysis to evaluate the morphological and spatial configuration of these campuses. It serves as a foundation to explore the evolution of the ‘campus’ concept from its historical roots to contemporary forms. Both campuses are large. Free-standing buildings tend to compose both campuses, distinct from traditional urban-block structures, with a typical block size that is over twice the average for other Doha neighborhoods (Major & Tannous, 2024). Key findings include that the QU campus developed centrifugally (center outward), while Education City grew centripetally (edges inward). Education City shows more active frontages and greater building-height diversity than QU’s more uniform low-rise profile. Vast distances and extreme summer heat hinder pedestrian accessibility, which metro, tram, and bus systems only marginally mitigate, favoring ‘edge-in’ vehicular access. Space syntax analysis reveals poor intelligibility, as peripheral expansions disrupt QU’s original masterplan, while Education City’s layout lacks any spatial coherence beyond its entry roads. Based on the review and analysis, the paper articulates three theoretical campus models: enclosed, edged, and scattered. Through all-line axial analysis and Visibility Graph Analysis (VGA), we argue that 1) the enclosed model can enhance focal visibility and multi-directional movement, and 2) the edged model can help to prioritize edge-to-edge readability, while 3) the scattered model tends to disperse visual and linear integration, resulting in reduced clarity for users. The paper concludes that contemporary campuses, such as QU and Education City, must integrate elements from all three models as their scale increases. However, they may suffer from compromised walkability and intelligibility if not carefully designed. The practical implications of these findings are significant, as they can inform planning practices and suggest improvements for campus walkability and coherence
Transformation, Connectivity and Accessibility Analysis of Elazığ’s Urban Squares
Get PDFUrban squares are significant public spaces utilized by city dwellers for social, cultural, political, and commercial purposes, in short, they are central venues for urban life. City users frequently prefer urban squares to carry out recreational activities. Within the process of urbanization, the most intensively used urban spaces are squares and the main streets associated with them. Streets that provide access to these squares, along with the squares themselves, serve as carriers of the social memory accumulated throughout a city's historical development, while also forming the core of urban life as elements of cultural heritage. Furthermore, urban squares stand out as key areas that reflect urban identity and play an important role in shaping the city’s image. This study aims to analyze the historical development, spatial transformation, urban context, and accessibility levels of 15 Temmuz Demokrasi Square and Republic Square located in the city centre of Elazığ. The physical and functional transformations these squares have undergone from past to present are evaluated with their impacts on urban memory and social life. Within the scope of spatial analysis, the positions of the squares in the street hierarchy, along with their local and global integration levels, are examined. In the accessibility analysis, service areas at the neighbourhood scale are determined based on walking distances
Designing with Geomorphology: Adaptive Territorial Strategies for Regenerative Public Space in Southern Italy
Get PDFThe Albano Urbano Greenway, developed in Albano di Lucania (Basilicata, Italy), exemplifies a methodological approach to territorial regeneration in post-demographic contexts. Grounded in the concept of Reclaiming Without Antagonism, the project interprets emptiness not as loss but as a field of possibility, where memory, landscape, and metabolism intertwine. The methodology follows a three-phase structure- territorial reading, geomorphological translation, and regenerative implementation- tinking diagnostic tools, theoretical frameworks, and low-impact constructive solutions. Through the integration of biophilic design, biomimicry, and Nature-based Solutions (NbS), the project establishes adaptive infrastructures that restore ecological continuity and symbolic belonging. Key strategies include the activation of interrupted metabolic flows, the reinterpretation of curated voids, and post-populational participation models suited to low-density territories. While still under execution, expected impacts are framed through bio-physical, socio-ecological, and symbolic indicators, offering a replicable framework for fragile contexts. The Albano Urbano Greenway thus contributes to advancing design methodologies for sustainable, culturally grounded, and adaptive regeneration
