91 research outputs found
Designing new practices of transformative urbanism: an experiment in Toronto
No full textThe increasing complexity, rapid change, and often unpredictable outcomes of city-design-and-building processes demand new modes of practice that are responsive and adaptive to the specifics of such changing contexts in the twenty-first century. These include open-ended outcomes, rather than rigid and predictable products, that emerge out of interactions with a specific context, specific communities and specific interactive processes. This article describes how we can design such new practices of transformative urbanism, derived largely—but not exclusively—from the innovation, resourcefulness and collective creativeness of informal urbanisms. To illustrate such new practices of transformative urbanism, the author describes an experiment in the city of Toronto undertaken as a partnership between the residents of the Thorncliffe Park neighborhood and urbanists from the University of Toronto. The article concludes by describing several promising results of the experiment
Representing the under-represented: labor unions as urbanists
No full textPersistent precarity is a fundamental, yet usually hidden and often overlooked condition
of urbanism, particularly for those who represent the human labor that produces and reproduces
the capitalist city. The question, then, is how do those who represent this under-represented human
labor, unions, engage with and influence the underlying power structure that actually shapes the
city? Labor unions simultaneously shape and are shaped by the spatial political economy of the
contemporary city. This article examines this phenomenon through analysis of an illuminating case
study, the powerful Culinary Union in Las Vegas. Drawing from different primary and secondary
sources, this article offers several valuable insights: organized labor is significant in the spatial
production of the city, urban precarity can be mitigated by advocating for the public realm, and
asserting agency in the power dynamics of the city can be an effective way of influencing its urbanism
From Dichotomy to Dialectic: Practising Theory in Urban Design
No full textA conventional assumption about theory and practice is that they represent a dichotomy in which theory represents abstract thinking to explain observations, while practice depends on a more instrumental conception of knowledge to help accomplish tasks. The paper examines this dichotomy under the premise that urban design is primarily an intellectual activity, and that the theory/practice relationship can take a number of mutually beneficial forms, especially dialectical ones. Furthermore, the paper suggests that since urban design is a complex and multifaceted field, the most useful theories are ones that are integrative (i.e. that incorporate function, form and process) rather than singular (e.g. based almost exclusively on ideas of green design, technology or historicism). These ideas were tested in an experimental urban design studio for graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009. The paper introduces the theory being applied, Kevin Lynch's book Good City Form, describes the pedagogical process as an investigation of the theory/practice relationship, and concludes with insights for professional practice
Inappropriate appropriations of planning ideas: Informalizing the formal and localizing the global.
No full textThis research explores how the American planning idea of the neighborhood unit was implemented in India, why and how the recipient society appropriated the concept, and what that means for how Indian cities actually develop. Using insights from cultural studies, anthropology, planning, and historiography this research examines the adaptation of the concept at the national and state level, and document and analyzes the spatial transformation of three built neighborhood units in the city of Jaipur. It does so by employing a combination of four research methods within a case study approach: archival research, analysis of built up areas using Geographical Information System (GIS), the neighborhood history calendar technique, and semi-structured open-ended interviews. This research reveals that the aspirations of elites and the contemporary planning and development agendas of recently independent India facilitated the introduction and institutionalization of the neighborhood unit concept. However, a range of actors including planners contributed towards the appropriation of the neighborhood unit. Indian planners attempted to adapt and translate the concept in order to translocate its American origins into Indian patrimony. This enabled planners to claim equal ownership of the concept and helped internalize it. The residents appropriated the envisaged spatiality of built units by transforming residential land use into commercial, encroaching on open setbacks to build residential extensions, and building temples in what were intended to be recreational parks. In addition, the urban poor have built informal settlements on the peripheries of these neighborhood units, and the state and its capillary organizations such as the Housing Board and Urban Development Authority have appropriated the open spaces and planned land uses. This study reveals that everyday practices of residents have substantially enriched the simple planning concept through a diverse range of appropriations. Such a pervasiveness of appropriations suggests patterns of collective behaviors that call for more multifaceted and historic studies of Indian cities in order to plan efficiently. It also calls for revisiting present subdivision norms that emphasis residential land use and proscribe other uses in neighborhoods apart from a few convenience shops. Planners and policy-makers, once they begin to appreciate the worth of these informalities, have sufficient ingredients at hand to create rich, lively and diverse neighborhoods in Indian cities.PhDArchitectureCommunication and the ArtsLandscape architectureSocial SciencesUrban planningUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/127070/2/3328982.pd
City as flux: Interrogating the changing nature of urban change
No full textWhat do we mean by the changing nature of urban change? First of all, in the 20th and 21st centuries, cities have been changing in different and dramatic ways, whether through grassroots mobilizations, through technological leaps, or through profit-driven speculations. Second, our understanding of how cities change has also been evolving, in particularly through empirical work that challenges the broad-brush universalizations of conventional thinking. The authors of the six selected articles take us through an around-the-world tour of cities and regions that range from Mulhouse in France to Dakar in Senegal to Las Vegas in the United States to Bogota in Colombia and beyond. Each author carefully examines the nature of urban change and how planners, developers, and citizens are either dealing with that change or even shaping it. Together, what the articles suggest is that we need a more fine-grained understanding of the city as flux in order to obtain better theoretical insights as well as urban practices that can better manage and ultimately shape urban change to benefit citizens, especially those who are marginalized
Laser welding of polypropylene using two different sources
No full textIn this paper, laser weldability of neutral polypropylene has been investigated using fibre and carbon dioxide lasers. A design of experiment (DoE) was conducted in order to establish the influence of the main working parameters on the welding strength of the two types of laser. The welded samples were characterized by carrying out visual and microscopic inspection for the welding morphology and cross-section, and by distinguishing the tensile strength. The resulting weld quality was investigated by means of optical microscopy at weld cross-sections. The tensile strength of butt-welded materials was measured and compared to that of a corresponding bulk material
Crisis urbana y respuesta institucional en dos megaciudades. Lecciones del manejo de la devastación sísmica en las ciudades de México y Los Ángeles
No full textApoyado en un marco analítico derivado tanto de la teoría institucional como de la teoría
de la planeación urbana, este estudio examina los resultados de dos programas creados
para restablecer el orden y la estabilidad después de una situación de crisis urbana.
Estos son: el Programa de Renovación Habitacional Popular en la Ciudad de México,
establecido luego del terremoto de 1985, y el Programa Ghost Town establecido en la
ciudad de Los Angeles, California, después del terremoto de 1994. Ambos han sido encomiados
por su accionar rápido, su financiamiento masivo, el mejoramiento de las
condiciones preexistentes, la participación comunitaria, y la coordinación institucional.
El argumento principal de este estudio es que las intituciones de planeación urbana
en ambas ciudades fueron efectivas durante la crisis provocada por los sismos, principalmente
porque se apoyaron en rutinas institucionales: un tipo de procedimiento que
suele ser denostado o subestimado porque tiene la reputación de ser extremadamente burocrático.
Las instituciones de planeación en la Ciudad de México y Los Angeles respondieron
con efectividad porque fueron capaces de adaptar rutinas institucionales, en
forma rápida y eficiente, a circunstancias imprevistas y dramáticas. Planteado como
un estudio de caso, este análisis se propone clarificar y explicar la dinámica de la planeación
urbana en un contexto de crisis de dos maneras: Primero, los estudios de caso
demuestran que un análisis institucional explícito y sistemático ayuda a entender mejor
qué elementos dan buenos resultados en materia de planeación urbana, y por qué.
Segundo, el análisis institucional muestra bajo qué condiciones pueden servir las rutinas
institucionales como herramientas poderosas y efectivas para resolver situaciones
imprevistas sin importar el contexto sociopolítico dominante
Fits-and-starts: the changing nature of the material city
No full textHow and why does the material city in the late 20th and early 21st century change? This article examines one type of prominent urban change, which is “fits-and-starts” and represents change that is concentrated in space and time and that nonetheless has longer term repercussions with high economic and environmental costs. Through a review of the literature and an illuminating case study in Las Vegas, this article reveals how human perception and decision-making via two interrelated phenomena, future speculation and manufactured obsolescence, drive such change. The case study in Las Vegas is particularly fascinating because as a city of apparent extremes, it not only reveals in clear relief phenomena that are present in the capitalist city but it also offers insights into basic patterns of decision-making that actually shape—or design—the contemporary city. The article concludes with more general insights into the nature of this type of urban change and implications for alternative types of urban practices
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