Urban Morphology and Asian Cities

Characteristics of a city's morphology and its evolution can only be studied within the context in which different phases of
development  or evolution took place.  With this  understanding in mind  a comparative study has  been done.  It  is  observed that  the Colonialists  often  created  a  dual  urban  regional  system  favoring  the  development  of  the  major  coastal  cities  tied  to  their  home economy  and  the  extraction  of  wealth  from  the  inland  regions.  However,  it  is  believed  that  under  national  rule,  what  ever,  the colonizers have produced will be observed, deliberated and re-evaluated time and again, for positive assimilation of useful ideas. As these  are  the  ideas  of  a  civilization  that  has  emerged  and  experienced  through  the  ages  but  under  different  environment.  This assimilation in spirit may eventually give direction towards a valid and authentic architecture and urban morphology suited to the land and the people.
Keywords: Colonial rule, Urbanization, Urban Morphology, Physical Manifestation, Civilization

Apparently  Chaotic  urban  morphology  provide  with  socio-spatial  dimensions,  shows  clues  to  a hidden order that gives a distinctive texture to Bengal settlement morphology. This paper attempts to explain some  of  the  notable  Bengali  social  norms,  some  of  which  have  transcended  from  indigenous  period  to
contemporary  time.  They  influenced  in  producing  a  set  of  environmental  norms  and  artifacts  using  that conceptual  framework  in  subconscious  mind.  This  framework  if understood  will  aid  in  explaining  the  link between  societal  (intangible)  values  and  built-environmental  (tangible)  artifacts.  Other  way  round,  the evaluations of the end product (built environmental artifact) also reveal those human norms and behaviours led to some manifestation in the quality or characteristics of life in terms of comfort or spatial organizsation. The framework or relationship that has been identified is expected to be a useful tool for future sustainable urban
design in this region.
Keyword: Built-environment; Urban morphology, Societal norms

As the civil society in the cities of East Asia develops and matures after decades of authoritarian rule and narrowly focused economic growth, the forces of transformation are coming not only from the top but also from the bottom, through self-organized actions by citizens and community groups. In cities from Taipei to Tokyo, communities and non-profit organizations have become more active not only in advocating for more urban open spaces, but also in making them on their own, often with the support of other non-profit groups, growing networks of volunteers and even local governments.

This paper revealed urban axis and city shape identity that influenced by its concepts and present activities issues in 'Lan Na' historic cities in northern Thailand. This study using space syntax technic called axial line analysis combined with GIS analysis, to examines how history geo-politic issues have influenced to its urban axis and network. Results show urban axis has highly coexisted with its city shape determined through high integrated axial lines. This city shape was, however, defined by its establishment concepts as 'Sankh' , 'Traiphum' and freeform. Different shapes of urban axis have been determined by these concepts. As well as the largest public space in some 'Lan Na' historic cities, it directly attaches to high integrate lines that represent as urban axis core. However, depending on gradually develop influences, the function of public space in urban axis core has various types. Mostly, these spaces, have related to Bud-dhism religious usage or colonialism spaces. Settlement pattern using kernel analysis revealed that residents in every city settled in a tranquil area determined by space syntax. Additionally, settlement clusters adjacent to urban axis or high activities traffic. In summary, from reviewed historic cities in 'Lan Na' , it found that this urban axis could be identified using multi-method. To enhance urban axis in historic cities, both object and subject aspect had to be revealed to apply as delicate historic conservation measures.

The unprecedented pace of urbanization and modernization of China in the last three decades has led to a huge restructuring of the pre-existent urban fabrics and the progressive reshaping of the city form, its inner structure and urban landscape, by promoting the growth of many new high-rise residential superblocks and suburban commercial, industrial, and business districts built around major Chinese cities. Famous for the UNESCO protected urban gardens, Suzhou has over 2,500 years of history. Like in many Chinese cities, the low-rise urban landscape of the old city clashes visually with the verticality of the contemporary built environment, especially evident in the new residential urban zones of Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP). Focusing on four selected case studies of large-scale housing projects in SIP, the paper explores how these new residential communities have engaged the themes of verticality and high-density living to create extensive constellations of modern but uniform high-rise urban communities. It also considers how and comment about the contradictions within this acontextual modern urban landscape, which mirror to some extent a larger trend in Chinese and other East Asian cities, in a phase of exceptional urban development and economic growth at the turn of the 21st century.

"Le nombre de plus en plus élevé de villes moyennes en Afrique nécessite de développer une analyse du phénomène urbain qui ne soit subordonnée ni à l’étude des métropoles ni à celle des communautés, lesquelles ont fait les beaux jours des études anthropologiques. Après être revenu sur l’histoire de la discipline, cet article esquisse les jalons d’une approche globale de la ville permettant d’étudier de manière comparative les centres secondaires.

An important feature of urbanization process in Africa is the proliferation of small and medium urban centers which constitute the major part of the urban population today. However in the literature these towns remain often in the shadow of studies devoted to the analysis of metropolis or small communities in the city. After a retrospective of urban anthropology’s history, this paper outlines a global approach able to grasp secondary cities in a comparative perspective."

Ternate City as an old city and has a long history of experiencing a change in character that damages the authenticity and uniqueness of the city, the heritage of the city and its cultural heritage. This study aims to find the spatial pattern of Ternate city, with the approach of spatial morphology, so that the conditions of the original space and its changes can be found. The method used is literature study in the form of old maps and new maps, comparing changes in space from time to time, analyzing the diachronic and synchronic processes of change to find spatial structures so that they can be used as references in the city's architectural preservation efforts. Abstrak Kota Ternate sebagai kota tua dan memiliki sejarah panjang mengalami perubahan karakter yang merusak keaslian dan keunikan kota, pusaka kota dan cagar budaya nya. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menemukan pola tata ruang kota Ternate, dengan pendekatan morfologi ruang, sehingga dapat ditemukan kondisi ruang asli dan perubahan nya. Metode yang digunakan adalah studi literatur berupa peta lama dan peta baru, membandingkan perubahan-perubahan ruang dari masa ke masa, menganalisa proses perubahannya secara diakronik dan sinkronik untuk menemukan struktur tata ruang agar dapat digunakan sebagai acuan dalam upaya pelestarian arsitektur kota. 1. PENDAHULUAN Ternate sebagai sebuah kota memiliki keunikan tersendiri, karena nama Ternate juga melekat pada nama Pulau dan nama Kesultanan. Ketiga elemen ini menggunakan nama yang sama, memberi kekuatan karakter tersendiri bagi sebuah kota pulau kecil yang masih kuat peran kesultanan. Kesultanan Ternate yang bermula pada 1257 memberi peran penting dalam struktur dan tata ruang kota Ternate hingga saat ini. Hadirnya bangunan baru ikut berpengaruh besar terhadap perkembangan tata ruang kota, membuatnya semakin pesat meninggalkan karakter asli sebagaimana kota tersebut awalnya dibangun. Hal yang menjadi fenomena umum kota-kota di Indonesia ini menjadi semakin mengkhawatirkan untuk kota bersejarah atau kawasan kota tua, karena merusak ciri khas yang dimiliki suatu kota. Dalam perkembangan jaman, kota-kota di asia mulai tampak serupa, membuat kita tak dapat mendefinisikan sedang berada dimana [1].

The questions of gated communities are nothing novel or unique to the contemporary urban landscape. Urban enclaves or gated communities have become part and parcel to the types of contemporary development both in terms of an urbanization model and accepted form of public life. More specifically the forms of spatial complexity associated to each urban landscape reflects a specific 'form' of territorial structuring impacting an explicit morphological modularity which radically reconceptualises the neighbourhood, urban block, plot and building. Hong Kong's territorial constructs and its affective abandonment of the city surface favour the elevated 'podium' complex, producing both island enclaves of commercial and domestic hybridization. Tshwane's territorial construct radicalizes the scales of the street, block and plot, internalizing the social and commercial communities through its extraction of activities from the urban street. Building a critique from the French Morphological tradition, and its reading of social-spatial complexity and the city, this paper problematizes the differences of gated morphologies for low density (South Africa) and high density (Hong Kong) landscapes. Secondly, it offers a unique comparison to the various morphological complexities of gated communities as models of urbanization in the 21st Century, mechanizing both disciplines of architecture and urban planning to critique the morphological expressions of gating in developmental strategies.

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, has grown from a small trading town to a metropolitan city. With the passage of time an organic morphological pattern has been spontaneously developing here without any rigid planning proposal. However, the spatial structure of organic cities like Dhaka is generally developed spontaneously in line with inhabitants' aspirations. Within the apparent spatial disorder of the ‘natural city’, people must have a territorial need for sense of a place. Indeed, the mohallas, the historic neighborhoods in old Dhaka, had a territorial base, which revealed a social segregation symbolized by geographical definition. It is crucial to identify the essential components of present urban morphology in order to sustain the urban condition necessary for the continuation of our cultural milieu amid rapid urban transformation. This paper analyses the visible form of Dhaka to identify its different territorial units that have distinct social as well as spatial identity in the image of its inhabitants. Within the apparent morphological disorder in an organic city, Dhaka, a ‘tree’ like mental organization exists in cognitive image of inhabitants. This paper gives an evidence of a community at local level in Dhaka defined by the ‘territorial boundary’. These reflect inhabitants' particular need for identity and sense of a place within the organic city.

When we read and hear about Colombo, Sri Lanka, we don’t often read and hear about religion experience.  However, when we step outside on to the streets of Colombo religious experience is obvious and ubiquitous.  This project reviews the scholarly and anecdotal record and compares it to the social and spatial life of the contemporary inner-city.  As well as temples, churches and mosques, the spatiality of religion extends to the street, markets and homes of the city: religious experience is more than worship and sanctioned ritual.  It is felt through all the senses in Colombo.  For example, the cool shade of a bo tree allowed to grow through the hot pavement; the colours and styles of dress; the aromas and flavours of the richly syncretic cuisine; small acts of kindness; and the sounds of observance: voices and instruments connecting the humans, their material realm and the cosmological world.  When religious experience and innovation determine the spatial and the social to such a high degree, why is it that history does not acknowledge their presence?  This blindness to ‘urban religion’ is evident in the literature on Colombo, but also in urban studies more generally.  Situational analysis of the social formation, the urban environment and religious experience represents a way to move past axiomatic views of religion, cities and their relationship. This study also reflects on how a more anthropological understanding of the capital, Colombo, might offer alternative perspectives of the nation and its complex social identity in the post-conflict era.

The paper focuses on Soviet symbols in Inner Asian capitals and the conflicts around socialist legacy. We analyze Ulaanbaatar, Kyzyl, and Ulan-Ude as three different models of transformation of political symbols in urban space. All three capitals in their names contain the word "red" semiotically associated with communist ideology. Correspondingly, we see three different models of symbolic struggle for urban space. Theoretically, the paper is based upon the model of symbolic politics. Empirically, the research is based on materials of our own observations, discourse analysis of media, and official municipal documents. In general, the research is an analysis of symbolic practices of power in the conditions of a number of complex changes in Inner Asia.

Streets are an important part of every urban environment, and the best of them have a number of qualities in common. In his 1995 study on urban form, Allan Jacobs identified a number of physical qualities that distinguish "great streets." These characteristics include accessibility, ability to bring people together, livability, safety, comfort, participation and responsibility. These qualities are accretions of fortuitous conditions, care and accountability by residents or city agencies, as well as deployment of diverse elements of urban design, such as the creation of public spaces, greenery, visual complementarity of architecture, good maintenance, and qualities of construction and fabrication. Jacobs tested his theoretical framework in Occidental urban environments; the following essay extrapolates it to East Asia, examining the case study of Qiaojia Road, an important downtown street in central Shanghai.

RESUMO: A evolução das cidades pode ser
interpretada através de elementos gráficos,
como o recomendado por Marcus Vitruvius
Pollio (1º século a.C.) (Maciel, 2006), cujas
formas de expressão eram planos, elevações
e perspectivas, que se revelam como
instrumentos preciosos e confiáveis para a
leitura das cidades. Importa estabelecer esses
elementos, que aparecem como representações
de cidades, em vários estágios de construção
das suas malhas urbanas, em documentos
como a cartografia ou a iconografia. Estes são
testemunhos relevantes na análise e permitem
uma leitura atenta da "realidade" das cidades,
em épocas distintas. Para além de compreendêlos como representações dum determinado
período, eles permitem a reinterpretação atual
do tecido urbano, devendo ser considerados
instrumentos dinâmicos na compreensão da
leitura das cidades. Tendo em conta a cartografia
e a iconografia de várias épocas, faremos uma
análise comparativa do tecido urbano histórico,
de duas cidades, com recurso à implantação
e ao desenvolvimento urbano diferenciados
(Évora e Setúbal). Para alcançar esses objetivos,
iremos ler e interpretar elementos morfológicos
da Cidade Medieval (fortificações, praças, ruas,
quarteirões, mercados, edifícios singulares
entre outros) e estes respetivos documentos
testemunhais, a fim de se compreender a
evolução diacrónica, nas suas semelhanças e
diferenças.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Cartografia; Iconografia;
Tecido urbano; Interpretação.

Hong  Kong  si  rivela  capace  di  generare  un’esperienza  estetica  straordinaria  attraverso elementi  dal  carattere  ordinario,  extra-architettonici;  se  per  un  verso  la  percezione  del visitatore  scorre  distratta  tanto  sulle  poche  architetture  iconiche  quanto sull’onnipresente edilizia generica, per l’altro verso essa viene coinvolta in modo totalizzante dalla densità del costruito e dal dinamismo dei flussi in cui ci si trova forzatamente immessi e, più in generale, dalla sensazione di essere parte di un enorme meccanismo.

A critical review and setting of base for the right futures

The point: Great hullabaloo is being made about the future and how most people shall live in 'urban' areas. Many experts, organizations, conferences are on board a crazed bandwagon and spurting trends all built on befuddled logic and advocating band aid approaches. It is time to disentangle the mess and set forth clear fundamentals. Eventually building up to a new vision.

THE EMINERE ORDER

L’applicazione di diverse tecniche per lo studio della città rimane oggi (Whitehand, 2018), com’era 20 anni fa (Whitehand, 1997) e (Marzot, 1998) il campo sperimentale più interessante nell’ambito della morfologia urbana. Il nostro oggetto di studio è la città e dovremmo pertanto applicare gli strumenti derivati dalle diverse teorie per verificare se queste siano confermate dai diversi casi e, infine, per affinare tali teorie. Il caso di Amida-Diyarbakir è stato selezionato per confrontare diverse analisi, appartenenti alla scuola Muratoriana e Conzeniana di morfologia urbana: l’analisi dell’orientamento, l’inversione ciclica di centro e limite, analisi dell’attrazione, l’individuazione delle fringe belts e la sintassi spaziale (space syntax).

CRRID, Chandigarh proposes to organize an International Conference on “Mountain Cities, Climate Change and Urban Sustainability” and 1st Chandigarh Climate Meet from November 6-8, 2017 and a two days Pre Conference Workshop on “Towards Achieving Green Growth, Eco-Efficiency & SDGs for Urban Sustainability” from November 4-5, 2017 in collaboration with the Asia Climate Change Education Center (ACCEC), Jeju, South Korea; the Department of Environment Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh and the Centre for Study of Administration of Relief (CSAR), New Delhi. The Working Group 05 of International Sociological Association (ISA) on Famine and Society; the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh; The Climate Reality Project India, New Delhi; the Centre for Urban Green Spaces (CUGS), New Delhi and the Association of Professional Social Workers and Development
Practitioners (APSWDP), Chandigarh are also likely to support the organization of events in various capacities.

The call for abstracts of the papers and applications for the pre-conference workshop are invited before September 10, 2017. The organisers will confirm the acceptance within a week of submission. Some grants will be available for the selected delegates who submit the full papers. There is a plan to bring out a publication after the conference and also publish some selected papers in the special issue of our quarterly Journal Man & Development.

Sino-Thai business/retail history in Bangkok; argues that Sino-Thai business families (like the founders of Central Department Store) developed the modern consumer economy in Thailand, decentering Europe in the history of modernity in Southeast Asia. Attention to gender, ethnicity, and sexuality.

Regional, national and global cities are disproportionately located on small islands and archipelagos. The ‘spatial turn’ within island and urban geography increasingly privileges abstract notions of space, yet the prevalence of big cities on small islands suggests that sensitivity to place-specific spatial factors is necessary if we are to understand both islands and the urban. Whereas previous studies of island cities have tended to underplay the effect of either the island or the urban, the present paper advocates an urban island studies that seeks to explain why islands and cities are so strongly associated. The paper argues that benefits of island spatiality encourage the establishment of seats of government and trading posts on small islands: Territoriality benefits assist political and economic elites in maintaining local authority and projecting power outwards, defence benefits help protect local powerholders from external military threat and transport benefits make strategically located small islands ideal sites for port industries. Land scarcity caused by island spatiality subsequently leads to urban densification and powerful agglomeration economies, resulting in the formation and growth of island cities. Examples from island cities and urban archipelagos such as Copenhagen, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Lagos, Macau, Mexico City, Mumbai, New York City, Paris, Tokyo and Zhoushan demonstrate that urbanisation and city formation occur in place as well as in space. Orienting toward urban island studies provides insight into both island and urban processes.

This short paper examines the population growth of selected  large cities (with over 5 million inhabitants) from across the world, and comes to some surprising (if the media are always to be believed) conclusions.  For instance London (which once led the way for giant cities in population contraction and decline) added the third largest number of people to it's population between 2000 and 2010 (Jakarta and Johannesburg were the top two respectively).  Indeed, London added just under twice the population growth of the period that Mumbai did. 
This paper shows that very rapid growth in municipal city growth (growth in municipal city areas) in the developing world, in both Asia and Latin America, has largely come to an end, and switched into reverse in many instances.

The  paper  focuses  on  briefly  examining  the  transportation  and  traffic  situation  in  Dhaka  with reference to the stresses it cause to the urban dwellers. In Dhaka, the tendency to regard traffic to that of fast vehicular, ignoring other modes led to the neglect of those groups in the settlement who either preferred those other  modes or  of  necessity  had to  use  them  as  the  case  with pedal  rickshaws and  boats.  This phenomenon
coupled with mismanagement in the traffic system, are identified as the pivotal factor effecting the safety of Dhaka’s urban environment. Urban environmental quality is dictated by the types and location of transportation facilities and distribution of density of land uses to control the pollution levels.  In this paper, an attempt has been made to co-relate physiological and psychological stresses caused on the urban dwellers due to the traffic congestion.  It  is  suggested  that  a  balanced  and  judicious  policy  regarding  traditional  and  modern  modes  of
transportation is likely to keep the environmental quality within acceptable limits.
Keywords: Urban; Environment; Dhaka; Safety; Traffic; Transportation

Edited by Bharat Dahiya, this Series focuses on the entire spectrum of human settlements – from rural to urban, in different regions of the world, with questions such as: What factors cause and guide the process of change in human settlements from rural to urban in character, from hamlets and villages to towns, cities and megacities? Is this process different across time and space, how and why? Is there a future for rural life? Is it possible or not to have industrial development in rural settlements, and how? Why does ‘urban shrinkage’ occur? Are the rural areas urbanizing or is that urban areas are undergoing ‘ruralisation’ (in form of underserviced slums)? What are the challenges faced by ‘mega urban regions’, and how they can be/are being addressed? What drives economic dynamism in human settlements? Is the urban-based economic growth paradigm the only answer to the quest for sustainable development, or is there an urgent need to balance between economic growth on one hand and ecosystem restoration and conservation on the other – for the future sustainability of human habitats? How and what new technology is helping to achieve sustainable development in human settlements? What sort of changes in the current planning, management and governance of human settlements are needed to face the changing environment including the climate and increasing disaster risks? What is the uniqueness of the new ‘socio-cultural spaces’ that emerge in human settlements, and how they change over time? As rural settlements become urban, are the new ‘urban spaces’ resulting in the loss of rural life and ‘socio-cultural spaces’? What is leading the preservation of rural ‘socio-cultural spaces’ within the urbanizing world, and how? What is the emerging nature of the rural-urban interface, and what factors influence it? What are the emerging perspectives that help understand the human-environment-culture complex through the study of human settlements and the related ecosystems, and how do they transform our understanding of cultural landscapes and ‘waterscapes’ in the 21st Century? What else is and/or likely to be new vis-à-vis human settlements – now and in the future? The Series, therefore, welcomes contributions with fresh cognitive perspectives to understand the new and emerging realities of the 21st Century human settlements. Such perspectives will include a multidisciplinary analysis, constituting of the demographic, spatio-economic, environmental, technological, and planning, management and governance lenses.

Does Architecture still matter?

Are traditional and vernacular values still important to be explored and can they be embodied into the modern architecture--driven by scientific and technological development--which has occupied modern Asian metropolis following post-colonialism, capitalism and globalization?

In this thesis, to re-thinking the meaning and values of traditional and vernacular, I propose phenomenology as point of departure, and mnemonic practice as design methodology. By analyzing the phenomenon of the modern and traditional environment, which I encountered in different polarity of Indonesian mythical traditional environment (Hindu Temple in Java and Bali) and Chinese historical and modern environment (Chinese Garden & Shanghai metropolis), I develop a theoretical proposition which is central to the dichotomy of formal dimension and transcendental dimension2. I believe, in order to restore our modern city and community within the corridor of critical regionalism, we have to look back again, and learn from the traditional built environment which is capable to integrate both dimensions. In this condition, place is experienced beyond merely physical perception, and ʻidentity ʼ and ʻsense of placeʼ is resonated and registered deep into our memory through different means and meanings.

To test out this theoretical proposition, I propose design thesis of Hybrid Urban Village. Itʼs a design intervention on urban village at the Suzhou Creek, Shanghai following the post-industrialization, by adopting the hybrid building typology.

Hybrid Urban Village is a new community which offers diversity to generic modern Shanghai urban environment. It is envisioned as a catalyst for Suzhou Creek Urban redevelopment. And finally, itʼs a reconstruction of my personal memory of places: a locus of tradition and modernity.

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KEYWORDS: Mnemonic Practice, Hybrid Buildings, Urban Village, Phenomenology, Critical Regionalism.
2 Refer to Husserl, who divided two dimensions from which every system derives its meaning.


建筑设计仍然重要吗?

随着科技发展，对于充斥着后殖民主义，资本主义和全球化特征的现代亚 洲城市建筑而言，传统和民间的建筑风格是否仍然有探究的重要性，它们能否 和谐融入到现代建筑中呢?

在这篇论文中，为了深入探讨传统和民间建筑意义和价值，本人运用现象 学作为引子，记忆实练作为设计方法。为了分析现代和传统建筑环境现象，本 人经历了印度尼西亚神秘传统的环境(爪哇岛和巴厘岛的印度庙宇)以及中国 历史和现代的环境(中国园林和上海城市化)，本人发展正空间和卓约空间 1 对分法的理论命题。为了保存现代城市和社区的地方性，我们必须追忆并且学 习传统的建筑环境，这样才能融合以上的两种空间。在此条件下，地方远远超 出只是实体物理的概念，通过不同的方法和意义，我们记忆中的地方具有特有 的身份识别并且赋予人们特有的归属感。

为了测试这个理论提议，本人提出复合城中村的设计论文。设计采用复合 建筑类型学，对处于后工业化时代的上海苏州河进行城中村的设计干预。
复合城中村是为普通现代上海城市环境提供多样性的社区新形式，也是构 想苏州河城市再开发的催化剂。最后，它是我的个人回忆地也是传统和现代所 在地的重建。

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关键词:记忆术实练，复合建筑物，城中村，现象学，关键地方性。
1 参考Husserl:对分每个系统的本身含义。

This report compares the three S-cities (Singapore, Shanghai, and Sydney) that form an urban corridor linking Australia to Asia. The three cities are important urban nodes in a city-based global system. Knowing their relationship informs:

Australia’s integration with the world through its leading gateway city;

Australia’s engagement in the Asian century;

Sydney’s learning from its Asian neighbour cities to improve global competitiveness.

The paper focuses on Soviet symbols in Inner Asian capitals and the conflicts around socialist legacy. We analyze Ulaanbaatar, Kyzyl, and Ulan-Ude as three different models of transformation of political symbols in urban space. All three capitals in their names contain the word “red” semiotically associated with communist ideology. Correspondingly, we see three different models of symbolic struggle for urban space. Theoretically, the paper is based upon the model of symbolic politics. Empirically, the research is based on materials of our own observations, discourse analysis of media, and official municipal documents. In general, the research is an analysis of symbolic practices of power in the conditions of a number of complex changes in Inner Asia.

Seemingly messy and chaotic, the landscapes and urban life of cities in Asia possess an order and hierarchy that often challenges understanding and appreciation. With contributions by a cross-disciplinary group of authors, Messy Urbanism: Understanding the “Other” Cities of Asia examines a range of cases in Asia to explore the social and institutional politics of urban informality and the contexts in which this “messiness” emerges or is constructed. The book brings a distinct perspective to the broader patterns of informal urban orders and processes as well as their interplay with formalized systems and mechanisms. It also raises questions about the production of cities, cityscapes, and citizenship. Messy Urbanism will appeal to professionals, students, and scholars in the fields of urban studies, architecture, landscape architecture, planning and policy, as well as Asian studies.

Perkembangan tipologi dan morfologi kota di Indonesia sangat rentan terhadap setiap perubahan yang terjadi. Kota-kota di Indonesia sangat ditentukan perkembangannya oleh perkembangan sosial dan politik. Dalam perkembangan sejarah peradaban di Indonesia, budaya merupakan produk dari suatu kehendak politik yang tercermin dalam kondisi sosial masyarakat. Demikian pula berbagai kota yang tumbuh dan berkembang di indonesia ditentukan oleh keputusan-keputusan politik. Kota Medan pada awal pembentukannya sangat dipengaruhi oleh keputusan-keputusan politik Belanda. Perusahaan industri pertanian dalam skala besar (company, ‘kumpeni’) yang dibentuk Belanda (Deli Company) merupakan penggerak awal pembangunan dan perkembangan kota Medan dengan memilih kampung ’Medan Putri’ (Land of Princess) sebagai tempat didirikan kantor pusat kegiatannya. Quarter system merupakan kebijakan politik Belanda saat itu dimana setiap kelompok populasi harus menetap dalam wilayah yang telah ditetapkan. Quarter system membuat kota Medan terstruktur dengan baik dan jelas. Medan meluas dengan cepat sejak tahun 1880 dengan 4 kelompok besar penduduk yang bermukim, Indonesia, Cina, India dan Eropah. Makalah ini menganalisis secara deskriptif morfologi kota Medan pada awal terbentuk dan pengaruh quarter system pada perkembangan struktur ruang kota Medan pada akhir masa Kolonial.

Lo sviluppo urbano dell’area collinare di Abbas Abad è da
sempre intimamente legato alle vicende storico-politiche
che hanno definito negli ultimi quarant’anni il volto
dell’odierno Iran. La zona è situata all’interno di uno dei
cinque valloni naturali che ne caratterizzano trasversalmente
l’orografia urbana e la sua particolare collocazione l’ha sempre
resa un fulcro fondamentale dei vari processi pianificatori
finalizzati allo sviluppo economico, sociale e culturale di
questa porzione della città, sede di numerose ed eterogenee
visioni progettuali.
Nel TCP, il grande piano di riorganizzazione urbanistica degli
anni Sessanta, Abbas Abad si configurava come il cuore di uno
dei dieci distretti urbani alla base della moderna Tehran e
come il luogo designato a ospitare un imponente urban
center, con il compito di testimoniare la grandezza della
dinastia Palhavi e sottolineare la linea di continuità identitaria
con i fasti dell’antico impero persiano.
Proprio per questi caratteri fortemente simbolici ed evocativi
l’incarico fu affidato a Louis Kahn, il cui interesse per il
rapporto tra storia e monumentalità ben si confaceva al
particolare contesto ideologico e culturale iraniano degli anni
Settanta. [...]

This dissertation explores children’s play and their spatial pattern in urban settings -- a research domain that has received little attention in urban studies and design in recent decades. Particularly, this dissertation i) explores the concepts of play and play space by delving into 7 to 14 years old children's every day play practices in Dhaka; ii) develops methods to study children’s location preference for play and configuration of urban physical environments; and building on the results from i. and ii., iii) explains the impact of the configuration of urban physical environments on children’s location preference for play in the urban spaces. It argues that understanding childhood play practices and their spatial pattern is important for advancing knowledge in urban morphology and children’s geographies.  Attention on these issue is vital for planning and designing of livable and inclusive urban spaces, particularly in rapidly urbanizing Global South.

Western China and the states of Central Asia are increasingly urbanized, and governments are investing large sums in founding and expanding cities. Rapid and spectacular hyperbuilding has led to the creation of unevenly developed urban districts and new tensions between unequally positioned residents. Xining City, the capital of China's Qinghai Province in western China, has drawn large numbers of Tibetan migrants since the " Open up the West " Campaign accelerated urban development there in the 21 st century. Tibetan migrants dwelling and working in Xining must find their place within the city as municipal authorities and developers continuously remake the urban landscape both materially and discursively. The current Chinese national project that promotes the " civilized city " is closely linked to this development; it is revaluing what counts as high-quality urban places and ideal urban behavior and contributing to the creation of new centers of monetary and cultural value as " civilization " is reimagined through spectacular new urban centers. Hyperbuilding is reshaping aspiring middle-class Tibetans' understandings of their place in Xining relative to other ethnic groups. This paper argues that urban hyperbuilding produces not only new spaces for state and market power but also puts economic and social pressure on already marginalized ethnic minorities.

BACKGROUND: The current study aimed to elucidate the protective role of combined fenugreek and a-tocopherol against cadmium induced histopathological changes in the testes. MATERIALS-METHODS: Thirty adult male albino rats divided into three equal groups 10 rats each. Group I is the control group. Group II received 5 mg/kg/ day cadmium chloride. Group III received 5 mg/kg/day cadmium chloride and 150 mg/kg/day fenugreek and 100 mg/kg/ day of a-tocopherol. The treatment of all groups was done by oral gavage for 60 consecutive days. The testes were removed and subjected to histopathological and ultrastructure study. RESULTS: Rats exposed to cadmium showed severe histopathological changes in the testicular spermatogenic series, many vacuoles and multinucleated giant cells. Treatment with fenugreek and a-tocopherol partially improved the morphological changes, reduced tissue damage and rebuilt of the spermatogonia layer. CONCLUSIONS: Fenugreek and a-tocopherol might represent a promising medicinal combination to ameliorate the toxic effects of cadmium exposure.

The unprecedented pace of urbanization and modernization of China in the last three decades has led to a huge restructuring of the pre-existent urban fabrics and the progressive reshaping of the city form, its inner structure and urban landscape, by promoting the growth of many new high-rise residential superblocks and suburban commercial, industrial, and business districts built around major Chinese cities. Famous for the UNESCO protected urban gardens, Suzhou has over 2,500 years of history. Like in many Chinese cities, the low-rise urban landscape of the old city clashes visually with the verticality of the contemporary built environment, especially evident in the new residential urban zones of Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP). Focusing on four selected case studies of large-scale housing projects in SIP, the paper explores how these new residential communities have engaged the themes of verticality and high-density living to create extensive constellations of modern but uniform high...

Continents are being reimagined and reconfigured economically and socially during these early years of the 21st century. This reimagining of the place of continents outside the Global North in a new world order is epitomised by Jim O'Neil's evocative BRIC acronym: Brazil, Russia, India, China. Africa too is being reimagined and problematised, seen less as a poor, war-ravaged postcolonial backwater and more as a significant player in the world economy and society. The realisation has dawned that South America, Africa, and above all, Asia are not simply sources of raw materials and markets for the Global North but powerful drivers of the world economy in their own right. Apart from their fabulous natural resources and market potential, the continents of the Global South are important because of their cities (Miraftab and Kudva 2014). Indeed they hold most of the world's mega-cities. Globally, cities are seen rightly as the driving forces of national and continental economies and societies, although their destructive capabilities are well recognised. For three decades the concepts of the global city and the postcolonial city in the context of planetary neoliberal capitalism, have been the subject of much academic debate and controversy. For continents and cities in the Global South, this is a challenging but exciting period indeed, so the book Asian Cities: Colonial to Global is certainly timely. Overall the book is a good read, incorporating a collection of empirically-centred chapters that present a wealth of contemporary and historical detail. Acknowledging the impact of colonial histories on the present is a notable feature of all the chapters. Bracken has assembled a highly knowledgeable, diverse range of authors, from highly-respected academics to emerging scholars. And he is to be commended for allowing what might be called the Asian voice to speak about Asian cities. Each chapter begins with an abstract that is useful and necessary in this kind of collection, where readers will dip in and want to know quickly, for a given chapter, whether they should read on. Over the last decade, there has been a growing academic focus on the cities of the Global South, especially Asia. This book will complement others such as Perera and Tang (2012) and Wong (2013). All the chapters are well researched and written, avoiding the use of convoluted language one sometimes encounters in postcolonial academic writing. There are some excellent empirically grounded chapters that are cognisant of local and global histories. Certainly, the contributions by Zhou and by Martin are the standout chapters in the book. Some of the prose is elegant and incisive, for example: New Songdo should be understood not only as a budding 'global city' or a straightforward real estate project, but also as a meaning-making project.

This paper aims to highlight the difference and similarities between the slums of two cities i.e. Allahabad and
Varanasi. Slums of Allahabad and Varanasi resembles certain common traits like, zonal location of slum, demographic
characteristics, occupational structure of slum, area occupied by slum, tenure, dwelling density, availability of
basic facilities etc. and also differs on some aspects like morphology of slums, notification status, ownership of
land, area surrounding slum etc. This study reveals existing gap in policy making and identifying the specific
needs of slums inboth cities

Informal urban practices in Asian cities are often neglected in global accounts of street art, which has tended to focus on North American and European settings. This paper notes some preliminary ways to approach the mapping of street art across Asia.

China’s massive capital accumulation, economic ascent and wealth production has largely been the result of their rapid urbanization effort.  While it is indisputable that the country has largely succeeded in its economic reform efforts given its status as the world’s second largest economy and in that process lifted hundreds of millions of its population out of poverty, it has also, in that process, created severe social inequality and friction.  This essay largely argues that Chinese cities are purpose-built financial instruments for capital accumulation, a result of the forces of globalization which could only have happened in sync with the time and space of a global economy.  Though highly successful, so far the process has marginalized the objective of social integration into its performative matrix indexing. In this regard China has pursued an exploitive model of market driven urbanization and the resultant morphological and spatial attributes of the Chinese cities, while having achieved spectacular results on many levels, are nevertheless disjunctive.  They are commodities of generic sameness that are mass-produced and exhibit the same anesthetizing effects of the spectacle that are ever prevalent in today’s global market production process, product and place.  Recognizing that globalization and capitalism are here to stay in the immediate future, it begs the question if China, while having already undertaken extreme economic reform experimentations allowing it to now bask in its temporal success, will be able to leverage its acquired market knowledge and wealth creation to prospectively overcome the incredibly complex challenge of creating equitable cities in the future – ones that balance the demands of capital production on the one hand and social equity on the other - or rather will it sink deeper into the ‘neoliberal modern society’ that it has already become.