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The Role of Climathon® in the challenge of Multilevel Ecological Planning
No full textThe paper explores through the lens of participatory processes the growing movement of Climathon®, understanding their potentiality in innovating urban planning. Climathon® are expressively collaborative design events, aimed at developing solutions to tackle climate change at the urban level. These events represent ‘safe arenas for experimentation’ where multiple levels of knowledge, institutions, resources and actors, are systematically involved in the development of ‘urban climate change experiments’ to increase resilience and foster the ecological transition of cities. Through documentary research and semi-structured interviews, the paper analyzes two European case studies, from the genesis of the challenge to the outcomes, to understand their degree of participation and inclusiveness, which forms of partnership and incentives make the ideas come into action, who are the actors and stakeholders involved, how charges and benefits are distributed, and how does Climathon® fit into local and regional planning. By reading the process beyond the products, the paper explores if these co-planning moments, if properly linked to the overall planning process, could represent a new form of ecological planning made of small incremental parts, foreseeing their replicability on regulation and decision-making practices
The impacts of sharing platforms for tourism on spaces and communities: the possible role of placebased regeneration processes
No full textWithin the national and international scenario, the phenomenon of sharing economy in tourism is strictly linked to the “shadow hospitality” models, spread on platforms such as: Airbnb, Homelidays, Wimdu (Travel like e local), Vrbo (Vacation rentals by owner); Kid&Coe, HouseTrip, OnlyApartements. This new trend in tourism needs to be investigated in terms of impacts on local communities, public spaces and urban cultures. The so called “Airbnb effect” is influencing the housing sector, the typology of commercial facilities, and the local productive traditions. Several initiatives - both at municipal and communities level - started recently in European cities affected by these phenomena and different policies and measures were adopted for: protecting the housing accessibility, regulating the real estate speculation and stopping the expulsion of residents. In line with this perspective, the paper will discuss the following research questions: How to investigate the impacts of the shadow hospitality on cultural, social and economic environment of the urban areas affected by these phenomena? How a place-based regeneration process could contribute to rebalance economic opportunities and risks produced by sharing platforms in tourism, by dealing with the loss of authenticity of public spaces and the gentrification trends?publishedVersio
From the Viewpoint of Ecosystem Serives: A Study of Functional Regionalization in Chiayi City, Taiwan
No full textIn order to achieve the sustainable development goals on the spatial development of Taiwan's future land space, we need to comprehensive and systematic analysis of environmental resources. After the implementation of the Spatial Planning Act, all land is divided into four districts that are National Territorial Preservation district, Agricultural Development District, City-Country Development District, and Marine Resources District, with subsequent each county (city) need to according to the National Territory Planning Act, and propose their county (city) land plannin. This study tried to explore the ecosystem service of Chiayi county area, and quantification of ecosystem services. Then applying spatial mapping and k-means cluster analysis, mapping bundles of ecosystem services. An understanding of the location and characteristic of different bundles of ecosystem services, may take us a step further to mapping systems that have direct policy and decision-making relevance for sustainable resource management and land use planning
Re-positioning after the Fall of the German Wall: World Trade Centers Development in Cities of the former German Democratic Republic: Rostock, Dresden and Frankfurt (Oder)
No full textThe fall of the German Wall in 1989 symbolizes a fundamental system change for the entire global world order. As a physical boundary, the „Iron Curtain“ had symbolized the separation of Europe into an Eastern and Western block. After this divide, following the German Reunification, cities and regions in the former East took various efforts to re-position themselves within the new world order and its encompassing cultural, economic and political codes, with architecture serving as an agent to represent the new global system. During the early 1990s, for example, World Trade Centers have been established in cities like Rostock, Dresden and Frankfurt (Oder), utilizing the trademark licensed by the World Trade Centers Association, a global organisation that aims to foster a global trade infrastructure by referencing the iconic World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York. This paper asks: What were the intentions behind the establishments of World Trade Centers in cities of the former German Democratic Republic shortly after the fall of the wall, what were the effects? The aim of this investigation is to give an example of how architecture has been instrumentalized as representation of the global system within this transition period.publishedVersio
Cargo Hitching as a tool to transform the urban mobility system. Integrating passengers and goods transportation towards a more sustainable, desirable and efficient mobility
Get PDFMobility in cities is facing growing challenges. Urbanization trends, growing complexity of stakeholders scene, e-commerce and increasing fragmentation of freight transport all have negative impacts on congestion, safety, environment and quality of life in general. Authorities have developed uncoordinated policies and regulations in an effort to tackle such issues, often resulting in minor or even counter-productive effects only. The Green Paper on Urban Mobility, issued in 2007 by the European Commission, first explicitly mentioned the integration between passengers and freight mobility as a solution for increasing attractiveness and efficiency of the overall mobility system in urban areas, starting a new research branch. This paper presents passengers and freight transport challenges and regulation attempts and further discusses Cargo Hitching , that is the combination of people and cargo flows (cargo that hitches a ride on a vehicle transporting persons or persons hitching a ride on a vehicle transporting cargo), as an approach to promote sustainable, efficient and socially desirable passengers and goods mobility in both dense cities and shrinking peri-urban and rural areas. The potential and some limitations of Cargo Hitching will be discussed and results of a modeled application in Venice (Italy), case-study city in the Novelog project, will be presented. The focus will specifically be put on achievable operational, socioeconomic and environmental benefits and on the need of a fully renewal of governance and of the normative approach, key to the management of the mobility system as a whole in compliance with sustainability and efficiency objectives imposed on the one hand by market requests and on the other by the growing sensitivity of the various authorities and stakeholders.project SMART-COMMUTINGpublishedVersio
Cycling to School: Exploring Key Factors Influencing School-Going Children's Mobility Choice to Cycle in Tallinn, Estonia
Get PDFCycling and other active travel modes have dominated sustainable transportation policy agenda of many cities worldwide. Cycling is deemed beneficial for individuals’ health and well-being while contributing to liveability. While Amsterdam and Copenhagen are considered frontrunners in cycling, others are only taking their first steps. Tallinn, Estonia belongs to the latter category, setting up their first Cycling Strategy in 2018. Amongst other measures, the strategy aims to make cycling safer and more attractive in the vicinity of schools in order to increase the share of cycling to school to 25% by 2027. This demographic group are seen as a crucial to influence the potential future of Tallinn’s cycling culture. Despite the abundant literature on cycling, there is little to no focus on children in aspirational cycling cities. This research explores factors that influence cycling to school in Tallinn among children in the ages of 13-16. The research includes street observations, a survey (n= 511) at various schools and focus groups sessions with children, parents and mobility experts. The findings support the need for comprehensive strategies including cycling infrastructure modifications and convenient cycle parking facilities together with promotional campaigns designated for children and parents.This research was funded through the kind contribution of the EFL Foundation – a foundation that preserves the legacy of the prominent 20th century Dutch urban planners Cornelis van Eesteren and Theodor van Lohuizen. The Tallinn Cycling Coordinator, Erik Sarapuu offered much assistance throughout the study, by carrying out the surveys at schools, and also providing contacts for the focus group sessions.publishedVersio
Let’s meet at the urban courtyard! The role of the community participation in micro-scale urban regeneration in Krakow
Get PDFAccording to the recent urban regeneration policy shift, interventions are required at local-scale development. That approach aims at integrated microprojects promoting spontaneous regeneration and social integration with the local community involvement. In particular, within Urban Regeneration policies public participation is introduced as a tool to reflect public concerns and to guide the urban space transformation. In recent years, studies regarding regeneration were spatially focused on city centers, main public spaces, historical sites, and postindustrial land uses. However, not much attention was paid to the renewal of semipublic spaces reserved particularly for local residents. At the same time, urban courtyard areas become one of the significant sites within the latest Regeneration Programmes. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the behaviors and social attitudes towards participatory planning in semi-public spaces regeneration. The research was conducted based on the “Centrum D” urban courtyard case study in the Nowa Huta, the city of Krakow. The study was carried out using in-depth interviews with three groups of stakeholders: 1) local community leaders, 2) municipal officials, and 3) participatory practitioners. The findings are expected to add insights into the discussion on the community participation within micro-scale regeneration inside cities urban setting.publishedVersio
UN Habitat's participatory initiative to public space design involving residents, refugees and local authorities: the case of Nabaa', Bourj Hammoud, Lebanon
Get PDFThis paper explores the process of engaging participants in designing a public space in a neighbourhood with socially deprived people from different backgrounds. The space was designed by locals and refugees, with the support of the local authorities. The paper investigates the extents to which placemaking, initiated by a third party could generate a civic space that combines people through everyday needs stemming from the context, and being addressed over time, rather than in a fixed design outcome. It examines the intervention initiated by UN Habitat Lebanon in Bourj Hammoud municipality at the eastern boundaries of administrative Beirut, and specifically within it, the area of Naba’a. Studying this public space initiative within Naba’a addresses marginal neighbourhoods that are in need of ameliorating the living conditions, and improving the quality of life for the population. UN Habitat’s intervention comprised mediation between municipality and residents, and collaboration with the local residents and refugees within one neighbourhood in Naba’a, and framing their needs for an open public space. UN Habitat engaged the municipality in supporting the locals in executing this public space. The presentation argues that this process enabled place attachment for people with no official claim to an urban area.publishedVersio
The Role And The Future Of Small Towns In The Central Italy Earthquake Crater 2016 And "The Reconstruction Of The Possible", Participatory Workshop For A Post-Earthquake Development Plan In Bolognola
Get PDFThe earthquake that involved Central Italy in 2016, in addition to its disruptive effects on people, heritage and social capital, cracking the fragile balance of economic and demographic systems, has greatly amplified the attention paid small municipalities, on the Apennines Mountains. Summing the Small Municipalities Law and the National Strategy for Internal Areas, a sole largescale project affecting the so-called "earthquake crater" of Central Italy can be outlined and presented as a widespread reconstruction work, in the name of safety and technical, technological, administrative and planning innovation. Despite the magnitude of the objectives, the dislocation of damages, the distribution and over-provision of historical, public and private assets, the particularity of the places involved, characterized by extreme specificity and inhabited by local microcommunities with a strong local identity, are likely to enhance little programmatic tools. Assuming the necessity of a context-based and collaborative approach to producing effective change at the local and regional scale, the question is: how to make possible and support a local pro-active and cooperative environment? By focusing on the collaboration developed in 2017 between the Municipality of Bolognola and the IUAV University, the paper explores the possibility of codesigning an action plan for post-earthquake development
Exploring Associations between Street Networks and Cycling from the Perspective of Space Syntax: An Empirical Research of Yangpu District of Shanghai
Get PDFResearch on the correlation between physical activity such as walking and cycling and the built environment has received extensive attention. Based on how the built environment causes travel, most of the existing research focuses on spatial features such as land use, scale, density, and location on different geographic scales. The street networks is the largest and most obvious global space that affects the movement of residents. However, few studies pay attention to the influence of the structural characteristics of the street network on physical activity, thus ignoring how individuals are affected by the surrounding space elements in the process of movement. According to the theory of spatial syntax, the individual movement in the urban space network is caused by the space network itself under the same conditions, which means that the spatial configuration of the street network is a decisive factor for the movement pattern. Therefore, this paper, taking Yangpu District of Shanghai as an example, uses Mobike (a biking sharing service provider) location data to analyze the impact of urban spatial morphological characteristics on cycling. Firstly, the spatial network model of street space, which is based on the notion of a ‘segment map is established by spatial syntax, and the variables such as connectivity, integration and depth are used to characterize the spatial topological features of networks. Then, the time-space characteristics of the distribution of residents' cycling activities are analyzed by using Mobike location data. Subsequently, a spearman correlation analysis was used to assess the correlation between cycling activity and street network morphological characteristic. Interestingly, this paper finds that the local morphological characteristics of the street network have more correlations with the use of bikes than the global features. The space syntax variable that is most strongly associated with bicycle use appears at a search radius of 700 meters.publishedVersio