Sustainable Urban form

With the aim to enhance sustainability in general including walkability, the recent urban forms of the designs of the Emirati neighborhoods have been denser and more compact, if compared with the older design models. While there are various guidelines and regulations related to the microscale walkability measures for the urban design of neighborhoods in the Emirates but unfortunately the macroscale walkability measures have not received similar attention. So, to investigate how would these denser and more compact recent neighborhoods designs better perform regarding walkability macroscale measures, the research utilized the urban modelling interface (UMI) walkability simulation tool to calculate the UMI Walkscores of these designs because it considers almost all macroscale factors including both urban morphology and urban planning measures and it also allows for the customization of the types, required catchment distances, and weights of the significance of locally provided amenities. The UMI Walkscores were calculated for the six recent denser and more compact neighborhoods designs and were compared with the UMI Walkscore for a conventionally designed model of urban sprawling neighborhoods. Unexpectedly, it has been found out that urban compactness per se is not a sufficient design measure for enhancing walkability in local neighborhood designs, where much higher compactness and density have achieved disappointing UMI Walkscores. So, it seems that for the recent neighborhoods' designs, little attention was paid to the impact of the street network connectivity measures of Intersection Density, Block Length and the link-to-nodes ratio, on UMI Walkscores, if compared with the main attention paid to increasing FAR through decreasing plot sizes. Meanwhile, the explicit macroscale urban planning measures including the land-use factors of the types, numbers, and the location of amenities, as well as the implicit factors of their destination and global weights seem to be more influential in enhancing the UMI Walkscores but have been less considered when planning these neighborhoods. So, besides considering well-known macroscale urban morphology aspects of street network connectivity and locational distribution of provided amenities, boosting walkability macroscale measures on the design level requires adopting a set of adequately customized measures including the appropriate values of their global and distribution weights. These walkability design weights should be also resilient and continuously reviewed to satisfy the changing needs of the local communities. Based on its findings, the research proposed a five-actions plan to help boost walkability macroscale measures in the design of local urban communities in the UAE.

Cities need to build on their resilience to cope with a broad range of natural and manmade hazards that threaten their competitiveness, livability, and functionality. Recognizing this need, the resilience concept is increasingly used as an organizing principle to guide research design and facilitate a more informed decision-making process. However, despite the abundance of studies on urban resilience, research on the link between urban form and resilience is limited and fragmented. This study sheds more light on this issue by reviewing and synthesizing theoretical and empirical evidence on how physical structure of cities can facilitate or hinder urban resilience. Acknowledging that each city is located within a nested hierarchy of scales that is characterized by cross-scale dynamics, only the macro-level aspects and elements of urban form are analyzed in this paper. These are namely 'scale hierarchy', 'city size', 'development type', 'degree of clustering', and 'landscape/habitat connectivity'. Key criteria and indicators for analyzing resilience of each element/aspect are specified and used to discuss how macro-scale urban form is related to various resilience properties such as robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness, modularity, flexibility, adaptability, and efficiency. Findings indicate that urban form has major implications for social, ecological, and economic functionality of cities and can play a key role in enhancing their resilience and sustainability.

In this paper we will present compact city planning and its design
concept, which compared to other concepts of the sustainable
urban form, most fully incorporates all relevant topics and
urban policies, such as increasing the density of development,
ensuring a mix of uses, containing urban ‘sprawl’ and achieving
social and economic diversity and vitality. We will examine
integrated shopping centre as a component of the compact city,
and establish its relationship with the concept of the compact city
and its characteristics. The shopping centre concept in historical
city core areas is not originally a sustainable concept. Instead, the
concept of adaptive reuse of old industrial buildings located in
the vicinity of city centre into retail functions is considered more
sustainable and can be considered as a component of the compact
city planning. The aim of this study is to examine the importance
of integrated pedestrian environment for urban realm within the
framework of the compact city concept. In order to determine
the level of compatibility between the principles of sustainable
urban form and the integrated shopping centre (ISC) principles of
design, we will examine several case studies of shopping malls in
the Czech Republic and Poland which are designed with the ISC
principles in mind.

The United Arab Emirates is experiencing a challenging turn towards sustainable social housing. Conventional neighborhood planning and design principles are being replaced by those leading to more sustainable urban forms. To trace this challenging move, the research has investigated the degree of consideration of sustainable urban design principles in two social housing neighborhoods in Al Ain City in Abu Dhabi Emirate, UAE. The first represents a conventional urban form based on the neighborhood theory; the other represents the new sustainable design. The ultimate aim is to define the obstacles hindering the full achievement of a sustainable urban form in this housing type. To undertake research investigations, a matrix of the design principles of sustainable urban forms has been initiated in order to facilitate the assessment of the urban forms of the two selected urban communities. Some qualitatively measurable design elements have been defined for each of these principles. The results of the analysis of the shift from 'conventional' to 'sustainable' case studies have revealed some aspects that would prevent the attainment of fully sustainable urban forms in newly designed social housing neighborhoods. Finally, the research concludes by recommending some fundamental actions to help meet these challenges in future design.

In the debate over what might constitute sustainable urban forms, three broad opinions have been expressed favouring the compact city, decentralised living or decentralised concentration. In this paper, I will argue that such a debate is not relevant to desert environments because desert environments have sensitive ecosystems and subsequently require sensitive human activity. In addition, their harshness requires the development of distinct urban forms that fully meet appropriate human needs. Following two years of research into the vernacular urban form of settlements in four Middle Eastern countries, a model of environmentally adaptive urban form design principles is suggested. The model suggests desert settlements be small in size; be built compactly; have integration between underground and aboveground spaces; and include interior courtyards, minimised spatial networks, buildings low in height, windbreaks and gates. They should maintain a balance between residential and non-residential uses; have dispersed services with a main linear centre; and utilise local materials. The paper would conclude that more consideration should be given to the nature of the environment to which a sustainable urban form is sought.

Published in the 2004 First Conference, Sustainable Architectural and Urban Development, Department of Architecture, Cairo University, 24-26 February 2004.

In Europe, the share of people aged 65 years and above is expected to increase exponentially, and in 2050, for the first time in human history, the number of older people will be larger than the number of children under the age of 15. Aging is associated with increased vulnerability and dependence on medical care services. For these reasons, providing access to health services to people aged 65 years and over is crucial. From the perspective of social equity, everyone should have the opportunity to access healthcare services equally, but due to economic and geographical issues, achieving this level of equity is challenging. The aim of this study was to fill the gap between scientific and actual practices using an accessibility measure to evaluate urban accessibility to primary healthcare services and to support decision-makers to better allocate resources in local restructuring of welfare policies. The accessibility measure was designed considering both the land use and the transportation components, the local healthcare supply system, and a multimodal transportation network. The methodology was applied to the city of Naples considering Local Health Agency (ASL) healthcare services to the elderly. The ASL is the largest health agency in Europe, consisting of 17 buildings serving nearly 200,000 elderly. The results show that the entire elderly neighborhood population suffers from poor accessibility to primary health services, especially in the city suburbs, and that the methodology could be effectively applied to urban planning strategies to achieve a high quality of life for elderly people. Due to poor dialogue between the authorities, this could help to improve the decision-making process through the lens of social equity.

Local facilities in residential neighbourhood play an important role towards the social sustainability of the local residents. These local facilities are basic components within a particular neighbourhood that include recreational facilities, health facilities, banks, post offices, educational facilities and other communal facilities. Their provision has a significant impact on enabling, sustaining and enhancing societal living conditions and improving quality of living. This denotes the importance of the provision of local facilities to the local residents to create a livable city. In Malaysia, through the development plans, zonings for the local services and facilities provide an important impact on the availability of these services within a neighbourhood. These were also supported by the demand and supply of the services and facilities required by the residents. Issues concerning local facilities in urban neighbourhood often revolve around the quality and catchment area, usage pattern and its accessibility. This paper apparently looks into understanding the usage pattern of the local facilities in several urban neighborhoods within the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur and Federal Territory of Putrajaya. Preliminary findings of the study expose local issues and problems related to the access and its usage of facilities within the residential neighborhoods which corresponds to the issues highlighted in the National Urban Policy (NUP). Following this, through a face-to-face household questionnaire survey, the researcher gathers information on the usage pattern in terms of frequency of use, mode of transportation used, perceptions towards quality and satisfaction of the local facilities. The paper concludes with the discussion of the factors that impact the usage pattern.

This paper draws from research conducted at an ongoing project, ‘SPLACH – Spatial Planning for Change’, which aims to inform a sustainability transition of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area urban planning, towards an improved food system, responding to contemporary cultural concerns.
But where does contemporary culture really stand with respect to  sustainability? Among many contenders for supplanting postmodernism, we would emphasize hypermodernism, digimodernism, metamodernism and transmodernism, since in many respects, these paradigmatic views are engaged with a sustainability transition.
Here, we assess how history, technology and visual culture are valued in contemporaneity. This is done by intersecting our readings of cultural paradigms with key ideas about sustainability, drawn from the
SPLACH literature review. Moreover, we highlight opportunities for urban design to accomodate a change towards sustainable urban environments

Compact city policies and practices are increasingly emerging around the world, with the main objective to create sustainable urban environments through changes to the city`s structure in order to make it more energy efficient, cleaner and livable. These changes may concern population densities, land use, transportation modes and the built environment. At the same time, the city`s sustainability is threatened by various challenges, that either weaken the city in long-term basis or create sudden catastrophic events. As a means to measure the potential strength against those challenges, the concept of resilience has been introduced to the planning field. Resilience capacity is formed through various urban elements including social, economic and physical factors. Based on the aforementioned facts the main goal of this research is to identify, quantify and qualify the effects of the urban compactness on the urban elements that develop a city`s resilience capacity.

Key Words: Compact city, resilience, sustainability, urban Planning, sustainable urban form, capacity building

Among the three pillars of sustainability, social sustainability has received the least attention, especially among the studies addressing the sustainable housing development in Dubai's urban neighborhoods. Unfortunately, these neighborhoods are not showing enough vibrancy of their public spaces and amenities which seemingly undermined their social sustainability. The lack of a comprehensive tool that can assess the interlinked indicators of social sustainability in urban neighborhoods has urged the research to propose an Integrated Measuring Tools Method (IMTM), that incorporates relevant computational simulation techniques alongside the appropriate conventional qualitative tools. The proposed IMTM was utilized in assessing the social sustainability indicators within the urban form of an existing neighborhood in Dubai. The assessment revealed that various urban form characteristics including; density, land-use, mobility options, mobility networks, streets layouts, and the built environment's safety and aesthetic qualities, are the main factors undermining social sustainability in the studied locality. The results informed a set of suggested redevelopment strategies/guidelines for this neighborhood that takes into consideration the exiting constraints and opportunities. These included; increasing density by infill development, redefining land-use to achieve diversity in housing types and decentralized amenities, diversifying mobility options, improving the spatial integration of the mobility networks while restraining the private cars movement, improving accessibility, enriching urban landscape, and finally enhancing the quality of amenities and services. A social sustainability redevelopment scenario was suggested based on these strategies. When compared to the exiting neighborhood utilizing the IMTM, it proved significantly better attainment of social sustainability principles. So, it might be claimed that the proposed IMTM and its outcomes proved to be a valid basis for assessing, redeveloping and validating social sustainability of existing neighborhoods with similar typology in Dubai, and potentially in the region.

Considerando a importância das cidades como fontes emissoras de poluentes atmosféricos e centros de grande aglutinação populacional, o trabalho investiga possíveis impactos de aspectos da forma urbana nas concentrações de poluentes. Sabendo-se que esta é uma área ainda incipiente dos estudos urbanos, a pesquisa buscou uma abordagem panorâmica do problema que pudesse indicar o potencial do campo e abrir novas discussões através de uma revisão teórica e um estudo de caso na cidade do Rio de Janeiro (CRJ). A investigação discute o estado da arte sobre as interações entre a poluição, elementos naturais e condições climáticas e a literatura que aborda as interações entre a qualidade do ar e indicadores da forma urbana. Também revisa indicadores de estudos morfológicos no que se refere a sua precisão de análise da tridimensionalidade da forma urbana e aponta a taxa de ocupação como fator de interesse para a investigação. Aproxima-se então do objeto de estudo e expõe, de maneira crítica, o tratamento da questão da qualidade do ar na Cidade do Rio de Janeiro (CRJ). O artigo sugere uma forma de modelagem e avaliação dessas relações, e apresenta, por fim, um estudo de caso na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, envolvendo métodos estatísticos aplicados a poluentes (SO2, CO e PI), variáveis morfológicas (taxa de ocupação e percentagem de verticalização) e meteorológicas (vento – direção e velocidade -, precipitação pluvial e temperatura do ar). Os resultados apontam a relevância e graus de influência das variáveis taxa de ocupação e verticalização na concentração dos poluentes considerados.

Among the three pillars of sustainability, social sustainability has received the least attention, especially among the studies addressing the sustainable housing development in Dubai’s urban neighborhoods. Unfortunately, these neighborhoods are not showing enough vibrancy of their public spaces and amenities which seemingly undermined their social sustainability. The lack of a comprehensive tool that can assess the interlinked indicators of social sustainability in urban neighborhoods has urged the research to propose an Integrated Measuring Tools Method (IMTM), that incorporates relevant computational simulation techniques alongside the appropriate conventional qualitative tools. The proposed IMTM was utilized in assessing the social sustainability indicators within the urban form of an existing neighborhood in Dubai. The assessment revealed that various urban form characteristics including; density, land-use, mobility options, mobility networks, streets layouts, and the built env...

This study develops a new approach for assessing the form of a traditional city by employing Christopher Alexander's generative method, which involves pattern and form languages. The pattern language for a traditional city and a new set of 20 properties of urban elements are developed to provide a better framework for understanding urban form. These properties are synthesised from the 15 properties outlined by Alexander and the 10 qualities proposed by Kevin Lynch. The Coherent Index is developed and implemented to assess the impact of generative forces on the urban form of the ancient quarter of Hoian, Vietnam. This study reveals that the ethnic interdependence and integration of the international community, the power of water and trade, and monarchical power were the most important forces that determined the form of Hoian between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.

The emergence of the concept of sustainability has led to increased discussions on what constitutes a sustainable urban form. Some of the discussions have sought to link urban forms to either the efficiency or the inefficiency of urban infrastructure systems; and from a purely theoretical perspective, the compact city design concept has generally been projected as the most sustainable urban form type. With regards to water supply, the concept is generally held out to provide a better spatial pattern that ensures that water utilities are technically, economically, socially, institutionally and technologically more efficient. Considering the financial constraints of developing countries, it was the claim of this research work that urban form is one of the key factors mediating where new infrastructure developments should occur, as efficiency and sustainability concerns increase.

In order to verify this claim, and the acclaimed benefits of the compact city model, two different urban form parameters were applied to water supply indicators for a small town in Ghana, called Wenchi; these were net densities (population and housing) on the one hand, and quality of urban space on the other hand. Quality of the urban space was determined using multi-criteria analysis. The specific urban quality features that were taken into consideration included severity of erosion, severity of encroachment on space provision for infrastructure, and nature of physical accessibility. The research therefore isolated the effects of density from urban space.

Analysis of the urban form showed that it is characterized by intense peri-urbanization, densification in the urban core, unlimited low density expansion on the periphery, fragmented public infrastructure provisioning, and poor physical quality of urban space. Analysis of the water supply system also revealed the following characteristics; 50 percent coverage, high incidence of pipe bursts, and high moderate occurrence of water theft. The two urban form measures explored in the research were subsequently correlated against the water supply indicators.

The correlations analysis showed that the relationship between densities and coverage in the study area was rather low. This is because both the lowest and the highest densely populated areas had almost the same coverage rates (approximately 50%). This indicated that other factors could rather have a much strong influence on where services are extended to. Consequently, the results showed that quality of space had a much stronger relationship with accessibility than densities. Practically, the utility providers contended that it was risky to undertake or continue with extension works in communities with very poor space quality. This was because of the extreme cases of erosions which rendered pipe lines vulnerable to frequent bursts, hence increased maintenance costs in such communities. Therefore, it seemed that a major consideration for extending pipe networks was the impact of urban form, measured in terms of the space quality but not population and housing densities.

Summarily, including space quality as an additional parameter, showed that reliance on densities and compactness can be overly simplistic, and sometimes lead to misleading results and conclusions. The inclusion of the nature and quality of space has brought much clarity to the discussions. However, from a methodological perspective, the point needs to be made that since a limited number of data points were used for much of the correlation analysis, the results presented in this report should not be seen as conclusive. Rather, they must be seen as pointing to a certain direction that can further be validated with further and more data points using different water supply systems with similar geographic and demographic characteristics.

Tasarıma Açık Alanlar ile Başlamak:  Kadıköy Gençlik Merkezi mimari programı, lisans öğrencileri için barınma gereksinimini karşılayacak bir yurt ile yapının bulunduğu çevrede yaşayan halkın kullanımına açık yarı olimpik kapalı bir yüzme havuzunun aynı yapı parselinde çözümlenmesi ile oluşturulmuştur. Yapının avlu çevresinde geliştirilen blok biçimi mimari programının düzenleyici unsurudur.

How to evaluate the Rendimento (yield) of an urban layout? “Rendimento” is a concept from the Italian school of Type-morphology used only for understanding buildings and territories up to the recent transposition to Portuguese language and to urban scale. Bearing this concept in mind, this paper analyses the case of the original project of a planned new town, aiming to identify characteristics which can enable the evaluation of the Rendimento of an urban layout. Based on that, a set of parameters for the evaluation and the design of Rendimento-based urban layout is settled. Therefore, in order to verify these parameters applicability, this paper presents an urbanization hypothetical proposition in Maringá city (PR), comparing it to a sample of Maringá’s urban expansion actual situation which is different from the original plan. Results points that is possible to design new urban areas with Rendimento fulfilling actual legal and real estate requirements: organic, site-coherent, social, environmental and economically sustainable areas. ***************************************************************************************** Como avaliar o rendimento de um traçado urbano? “Rendimento” é um conceito da escola italiana de morfologia urbana há muito utilizado apenas no entendimento de conjuntos edificados e territórios, e recentemente transposto para a língua portuguesa e associado à escala das cidades. À luz desse conceito e estruturado como um estudo de caso, este trabalho analisa o plano original de uma cidade nova planejada, buscando identificar as características que permitem avaliar o rendimento de um traçado urbano. A partir dessa leitura, é estabelecido um conjunto de parâmetros para a avaliação e o projeto a partir da noção de rendimento urbano. E, para aferir a aplicabilidade desses parâmetros, o trabalho apresenta uma proposta hipotética de urbanização em Maringá-PR, comparando-a com uma amostra de sua expansão urbana – diferente do plano original da cidade. Os resultados apontam que é possível projetar novas áreas urbanas com rendimento – orgânicas e coerentes com o sítio–, com sustentabilidade econômica e socio-ambiental, sem deixar de atender a requisitos legais e interesses fundiários.

Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is the mega city designated to be the leading economic center of Viet Nam. However, during the development process, the city has been facing certain difficulties and challenges, and therefore was not able to realize its full potential to match its role as a major and very important mega city of Viet Nam, as well as of Southeast Asia. In order for HCMC to be able to fulfill that role, it is critical that strategies to bring out the inherent potential of the city to its fullest are to be carefully researched. One of the ideas of development proposed by the city authorities is to create a smart city which will develop based on a highly-skilled, highly-educated economy. This is a correct and timely vision to enable HCMC to develop uniquely. However, in order to realize this vision, it is necessary to conduct researches in various fields, ranging from the development policies and driving forces for implementation to the economic, social and environmental solutions that will serve as a foundation for spatial development of the city. A well-designed plan for spatial development of HCMC will create opportunities for the city to fully harness each and every of its dormant driving forces to implement its development policies. This article studies the urban spaces of creative city HCMC in district 2, district 9 and Thu Duc district through the lens of urban morphology in order to analyze the existing urban form of HCMC. Through this, the article proposes certain scenarios for the spatial development of HCMC to be used as a guideline for later formulation of the general planning for development of creative city.

Cities as their macroform and textural unification, similar like the living organisms, formed in relation with the integrity between the contextual values and the cultural inheritance of the livers in time. As its likeness to living concepts, its growth implemented by habitants that were contributed to the urban formation via their socio-cultural, socio-economic and so social belongings to where they were living. As being an evolutionary process, urban formations, macroforms and textures generated in accordance with the functional needs to satisfy the cultural and traditional needs of living. In historical case, cities that containing integration of social, cultural, economic and environmental factors about different times and cultures, creates strong harmony and aggregation of urban formations layer-by-layer.
Contextual sustainability is a key factor in such historic part of cities, aiming not to harm the existing urban structure of it, which have been existed by integrity between the layers of social and experienced base influences in time. Also, it supports cultural city identity physically, since it is a concept existed by working incorporation with the existing contextual urban formation and layout.