Urban Open Space Design

Footbridges as landscape design. p 214, 215 Fabrizia Zorzenon For almost thirty years now footbridge design has been acquiring the worth and importance which for a long time has been characteristic of architectural works. For most of the twentieth century , the quality of a bridge was judged only on the basis of its size and length. This view gave footbridges such secondary importance that they were often reduced to simple structures with beams. However, at the turn of the new millennium, a radical change of thinking caused the footbridge to be rediscovered as a " vessel of metaphors ". Starting with authors like Calatrava, Mimram and Schlaich, at the beginning of the 1990s, an increasing number of architects and new design engineers began to see the potential behind the design of these structures so that in a short time a new generation of pedestrian bridges was born. So different from what had gone before, these structures embody the cultural revolution that in little more than twenty years has

Urban public open spaces are an important part of the urban environment, creating the framework for public life. The transformation of open space into successful public places is crucial in this regard. In the context of target-driven performance it is essential to identify the value of successful public open places, along with characteristics that define them. This research evaluated three case studies in Belgium (Namur, Wavre and La Louviere) which successfully transformed spaces into lively public open places. The transformation was captured by means of before-and-after imagery and analyses, and evaluated in terms of space-usage prior to, and after redesign, along with the experience and added value that the redesign brought to the area.

To transform a space into a better livable and sustainable zone, United Nations Summit in New York 2015, has decided upon 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) that approach directly to achieve inclusive, people-centric, sustainable developments. Though sustainability has been majorly constructed by four pillars, namely, Ecological, Economic, Social and Cultural, but it is essentially reduced to economic and ecological consideration in the context of developing countries. Therefore, in most cases planning has reduced its ambit to concentrate around the tangible infrastructure, ignoring the fundamentals of socio-cultural heritage. With the accentuating hype of infrastructural augmentation, lack of emphasis of traditional concerns like ethnicity and social connection have further diluted the situation, disintegrating cultural continuity. As cultural continuity lacks its cohesion, it’s growing absence increasingly acts as a catalyst to degrade the heritage structures, spaces around and linking these structures, and the ability of stakeholders in identifying themselves rooted in that particular space. Hence, this paper will argue that sustainability depends on the people and their interaction with their surroundings, their culture and livelihood. The interaction between people and their surroundings strengthen community building and social interaction that abides by stakeholders reverting back to their roots. To assess the socio-cultural sustainability of the city of Kolkata, two study areas are selected, namely, an old settlement from the northern part of the city of Kolkata (KMA), imbued with social connection, age-old cultural and ethnic bonding and, another cluster of new high-rises coming up in the Newtown area having portions of planned city extension on the eastern side of the city itself. Whereas, Newtown prioritizes the surging post-industrial trends of economic aspiration and ecological aspects of urban sustainability; the former settlements of northern Kolkata still continue to represent the earliest community settlement of the British-colonial-cum native era and even the pre-colonial era, permeated with socio-cultural reciprocation. Thus, to compare and assess the inlayed organizational structure of both the spaces in the two cases, selected areas have been surveyed to portray their current imageability.
The argument of this paper is structured in 5parts. First, an introduction of the idea has been forwarded, Secondly, a literature review has been conducted to ground the proposed ideas, Thirdly, methodology has been discussed and appropriate case study areas have been selected, Fourthly, surveys and analyses has been forwarded and lastly, the paper has arrived at a set of conclusions by suggesting a threefold development to create happy, healthy and sustainable community.

Keywords—Art innovation, current scenario assessment, heritage, imageability, socio-cultural sustainability.

Ein großer Teil der europäischen Bevölkerung lebt in Städten. Diese sind einem ständigen Anpassungsdruck an gesellschaftliche und ökonomische Prozesse ausgesetzt.
Gegenwärtig durchleben viele europäische Städte einen tief greifenden demographischen, ökonomischen und soziokulturellen Freiraum- bzw. Grünflächenentwicklung auswirkt.

"Na PARTE II da DEFINIÇÃO DA FORMA URBANA NO PLANEAMENTO descrevemos um exercício de análise do tecido urbano através da qual se pretende, a partir da caracterização física da proposta do Plano Urbanístico, deduzir a ideia de cidade que lhe está subjacente e, consequentemente, prever as características gerais e mais significativas dos outros elementos do mesmo sistema: actividades, incluindo a circulação de pessoas e bens, formas de apropriação e comportamentos da população, ambiente urbano e ainda aspectos relacionados com a gestão da apropriação, conservação e renovação do tecido.

Physical aspects of the urban built environment are known to have significant influence on the pedestrian experience. Walkability researchers have studied this relationship focusing on physical aspects of the urban built environment in various scales. Besides the larger and commonly accepted indicators such as density, diversity, destination accessibility and distance to transit, smaller scale attributes grouped under the design indicator have also been subject of study. This paper seeks to explore the effect of building façade colours on the walkability of urban streets, which have been considered to affect the perceived complexity of the streetscape and thus make it more interesting and attractive to pedestrians. Online surveys were utilized within our study to understand people’s attitudes to varying cases of façade colour combinations in the Lapa neighbourhood of Lisbon. The results of the study indicate that the diversity and perceived pleasantness of façade colours on an urban street has a very close association with walking preferences.

The growth of the city and the urban reconfigurations have contributed to the redistribution and evolution of social and social practices in the urban public space in mass housing quarters, research on inhabited persons in the Constantine public space must therefore contribute to an upstream reflection on the process question of the modes of production, and downstream on changes in daily practices of the social groups that make and live the city. Confronting public policies and social intentions contained in the desired project participates in generating knowledge on the complex question of inhabiting it, and interactions between spaces designed-products and is received-delivered by users. This research is attempting to take a fresh look at nature's relationship between spatial reconfigurations and new socio-spatial practices in urban public spaces in mass housing quarters, considered as articulated and meaningful symbolic systems. It is a question of observing and understanding these two processes, and interpreting practices of appropriation and use of public spaces, with a particular interest given to the mode of inhabiting, with a view to optimal and adequate anticipation of the use by the planners, and designer in order to reduce the gap between designed and lived space.

Koordinatör: Doç. Dr. Emine Köseoğlu /
Poster Design by Emine Köseoğlu

Çalışma Alanı: Kadıköy Yeldeğirmeni
Çalışma iki temel ölçekte şekillenir. Modül 1 çalışmaları Yeldeğirmeni'nin tamamı için yapılırken, Modül 2 ve Modül 3 çalışmaları Yeldeğirmeni'nde verilen rotalar için gerçekleşir.

Bu dönem, “Kentsel Tasarım Çalışması” için yönlendirici olması amacıyla

“İNSAN ODAKLI YAŞANABİLİR KENTSEL MEKAN TASARIMI” başlığı seçilmiştir. 

Bu başlık, öğrencilere, kentsel tasarım stratejilerini oluşturma ve fonksiyonel adımlar kurma noktasında yönlendirici olması amacıyla verilmiştir. Her başlık, tasarımı, sonunda mekânsal önerilere götürecek kavramsal ipuçları sağlamaktadır. Bu ipuçlarını toplamaya çalışarak, her grup, aşağıda verilen temalardan birini seçebilecek ve kentsel tasarım çalışmalarının düşünsel arkaplanı olarak işleyecektir: 

Yürünebilirlik                      Okunabilirlik                  İnsan Ölçeği                      Erişilebilirlik                  Yön Bulma                               
        Ulaşılabilirlik        Duyusal Konfor            Güvenlik              Kamusallık                      Fiziksel Altyapı

* Seçilen temanın kentsel tasarım çalışması olarak ele alınışında her üç modülde yapılan analiz çalışmalarının tasarım düşüncesi ve çözümleri geliştirmede kullanılması istenecektir. Fonksiyonel önerilere zemin oluşturacak olan kavramsal başlıklar üzerine düşünürken ve kavramlar çözümlenirken bir yandan da bu kavramsal başlıkların kentsel mekanda realize olabilmesi adına gerekli olan mekânsal stratejiler düşünülmelidir.

“Kent bağlamı içinde deneyim tasarımı”nın kurulması sürecinde başvurulabilecek mekânsal stratejiler, çeşitli ölçekler için şöyle sıralanabilir:

Süreklilik Kurma, Geçirgenlik Kurma, Odak Oluşturma, Toplama, Dağıtma, Yoğunlaştırma, Seyrekleştirme, Çevreleme, Açma, Revitalize Etme, Retrofit, Yenilenme (recreation), Boşluk Doldurma (infill), Yeniden Kullanım, İşlev Değiştirme, Ekim (implant), Geçici Mimarlıklar (temporary architecture), …

The aim of this article is to understand whether the physical attributes of streetscapes affect the livability of Kuala Lumpur streets. Traffic management has been stressed as the main determinant of livable streets, but physical features have been merely pointed out. Yet, does physical quality deterioration of streetscapes affect the livability degradation of urban spaces? To answer this question, people’s perception towards the physical quality of multifunctional streets, have been examined in this study. Identification of fourteen streetscape’s physical attributes was fulfilled based on a comprehensive literature review. Through structured observations and questionnaire surveys, the physical attributes of each case study was evaluated and the physical problems were discovered. Additionally, users’ perception on the identified problems and their effects on livability of the studied areas were found and defined. The result revealed that physical problems like improper walkway paving, inadequate public services and  maintenance, besides traffic congestion are deteriorating the livability of streets.

This essay examines tensions emerging around public spaces in a mixed-income development built to replace a distressed public housing project on Chicago's West Side. It argues that the disorienting experiences of moving through these spaces prodded new and long-term residents of the area to examine the practices of sociability they subscribed to. Specifically, it prodded them to examine what it would take to become more or less vulnerable to each other, and in the process, better able to care for themselves and those in their immediate vicinity. I show that scholarly attention to the reconfiguration of sociability in such places helps us better understand post-Welfare social collectivities and the conditions of belonging to them. [housing projects, public space, welfare, race and class, Chicago] " Another public space "

This book is elaborate the concept of Photography according to Roland Barthes, he defined photography as an image that repeats what could be never repeated, and it's never distinguished from its referent. In photograph there can be a signifier however it needs deeper observation and reflection. This book take "Death“ as the idea of the photograph and "The Return of Death" as the essence of the photograph. The book consists of two parts, the first part mostly Barthes elaborate the concept of photography and taking some his favorite public photograph he likes as an object to be analyzed meanwhile at the second part he mostly express his emotion to his mother photograph and found the essence of photograph within. Barthes put his position as a spectator in value the photograph, he found that the photograph is a message without a code, its certification of presence; tools to experience time as a singular and repeatable event. He also distinguished the photograph into two elements, studium and punctum and through this two elements he started his journey to analyze and value his favorite photograph. In this review i also added the short description about Barthes photograph concept to Urbanism by finding the essence through urban element forming urban semiologics and deliver the example through photograph of urban space.

Public space, community and social interaction are current buzzwords within the professions of architecture and urbanism. Why is sociability so important? What do we as humans gain from it? And why is it in the interest of our cities to promote it? Our cities are in a constant state of change; continuously facing new, unprecedented challenges. Does sociability have the potential to provide much needed consistency, and can it give individuals and communities the ability to adapt to our ever-changing environment? What effect does the urban form of our cities have on sociability, and moreover, why does it matter? Does urban form alone shape the way we interact with others, or are there more prevalent forces at work? Taking the city centre of Rotterdam as an example, where and when does sociability currently exist? What lessons can we learn through analysis, comparison and critical observation of varying spaces in the city? To answer these questions, a Modernist, a Revisionist, a Postmodern and a Traditional space have been identified within the city. An analysis of these spaces will be made, with participant observation, photographs and locals’ insights all being used as qualitative ways of gathering data and forming conclusions.

It is necessary to explore the scale of urban planning with the subject matter of architecture, which does not stop at building designs. Neither does it become urban just because architects design blocks of buildings and the outdoors space between.
The urban space must be a pre-existence with respect to building projects, which shall successively interpret and carry it out. Knowledge and means at our disposal must also be determined in terms of physical planning as to define, establish, and/or issue standards for an urban space.
The creation of this architectural object - urban space - requires a reformulation of understanding methods and transmitting the outdoors space’s form independently from the building project, which shall interpret the latter and carry it out.
Those subjects send us to different kinds of problems:

To clarify the town concepts of designers and citizens;
To know the relation between the town concept and its physical expression;
To define the formal expression of urban planning;
To discuss the morphology characteristics that translate the town concept to be implemented;
To adapt professional practices to new architectonic responsibilities.

In this paper we develop an approach to the relation between the town concept and its physical expression, as well as the form characteristics that will be established in urban plans.

This research, conducted by the author when a Senior Researcher at Newcastle University, UK, was funded by a UK governance organisation to help them assess, integrate and improve their understanding of the governed population.

ABSTRACT: Governance organisations have been urged to develop more holistic evidence-based approaches with partners to better deal with issues affecting the governed population. This presupposes an understanding of the population, yet there has been little research work addressing how governance organisations come to understand their governed population, nor how this understanding can be improved upon within such organisations.

This case study examined in-depth how understanding of a governed population was developed within one UK local governance organisation and it explored how such understanding might be developed and improved through more holistic and evidence-based organisational learning within the organisation and its governance partnerships.

The research methodology involved placement within the governance organisation, participant observations on several projects and innovative initiatives, observations within, across, and outside the organisation, and also interviews with varied key stakeholders.

The study examined:

- stakeholder engagement and networks
- current and varied understandings of the population
- mechanisms actually used for developing understandings
- the influence of context on organisational learning

and analysed these to arrive at a recommendations to improve organisational understanding of the governed population.

In the case studied, significant strengths were found: including innovative past learning trials for development, extensive ongoing networking activities, and many varied and accumulating quantitative datasets available across partnerships.

However, entrenched organisational approaches and practices constrained the development of holistic evidence-based understanding, for instance: the absence of systematic maintained collective learning processes; weak recording and forgetting of understandings; methodological exclusion of stakeholders from the development of understanding; the relative neglect of qualitative data, explanations, investigations, interpretations, and reflexivity; and also implicit organisational acceptance of such limitations and low aspirations.

Nonetheless, untapped opportunities existed to enable change including: latent practitioner knowledge and innovative management champions, the desire for improvement and raised aspirations within learning networks, and the development potential of alterative learning approaches.

It was concluded that more holistic evidence-based understanding was possible, but required new learning approaches beyond those then in use in both local government or academia.   

Recommendations are made to utilise and develop improved organisational learning approaches trialed and reported in the case study.

It is argued that the case study findings, conclusions, and recommendations may be applicable to other similar local governance organisations and partnerships that seek to better understand local populations, services and interventions.

The work was also submitted for, and awarded, an MPhil (at Newcastle University, supervised by Prof. Patsy Healy)

With the aim of diversifying its economy and developing itself as a tourist destination, in recent years, Qatar has hosted many international sports events and will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Doha, its capital city, is literally under construction, and is facing important changes in terms of transportation, infrastructure, and sports facilities. However, past experiences show that outcomes from staging major events are mostly harmful, and their legacies planned to last only for a short time. This trend is even stronger when considering how sports facilities and their surroundings are utilized after the event is over. Usually, sports venues are under-used and very costly to maintain, while their neighbourhoods are underutilized and abandoned pieces of cities. What will be left after the 2022 World Cup? How to leverage this event as a momentum of experimentation and sustainable growth of its capital city, Doha? Within this context, the aim of this research is to identify strategies to plan and maximize the post-event use of event sites and venues, and make their neighbourhoods more liveable and sustainable. The research has a specific focus on the city of Doha, which hosted the 2006 Asian Games and will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The study investigates firstly its public spaces, and then analyses the government’s legacy plans for the 2022 World Cup. The research aims at deriving some of the most recurrent mistakes and malpractices by hosting cities, by defining a ‘lowest common denominator’ of key factors to consider when planning mega sports events and their legacies.

Limitations of metropolitan cities encourage developing residential complexes instead of small houses and on the other hand, neglecting the importance of the private yard in the contemporary architecture. In addition of providing accessibility to the sun light and natural ventilation, Open space affords an opportunity of direct connection to nature and creates a place for social interaction. According to the limited size of dwelling units, and based on the history of Iranian life relayed on the private yard; Open space provides an opportunity to develop and connect the internal activities to the exterior open space. Investigating contemporary open space is a base of successful design of residential open scape in a future.
The aim of this research is exploring and making the typology of residential open space in order to increase concentration to the space between building and notice architects to design interior and exterior place simultaneously. Hence all residential complexes in the eight districts in the north of Tehran, allocated more than 65% of the site to the open space, were detected by satellite image and then were investigated by field survey. At the last stage, according to the block’s height, complexes’ scale and the style of open and close space arrangement, the dimensions of typology were molded.
Result show in Tehran designing open space do not have the priority in the design process, and main considerations are drawn toward interior space. In some cases open space is as a negative space between buildings. Due to existing intensive municipality law, designers have faced a lot of limitations to arrange residential blocks in the site. Therefore, creating a variety of open spaces and committing to the traditional courtyard are impossible.
Analytical results indicate that tree dominant types of arrangement are free standing, linear and centralized blocks. Free standing blocks are the common type in the Tehran macro scale residential complexes. This type allows designers to create different space quality, for instance, hierarchy of private and public space. Linear arrangement is a conservative method founded on the existing context of the city. The paper concludes with some suggestions for the future researchers to create guidelines in order to increase the quality of residential open space.

Komarock ward has the extraordinary opportunity to create a great and enviable riverfront along the Komarock canal (Silanga River). This may need to be sooner rather than later because of the noticeably high number of new housing units within the ward that is rapidly being constructed to accommodate the surging rise of population. There is urgent need to ensure that this population is well-catered for in terms of place liveability, recreation, entertainment and retail areas. The critical decisions that are likely to be made concerning the canal and its development will define the riverfront’s future while tapping into its potentials for recreation and economic development opportunities. Open spaces, walkable neighbourhoods and parks are believed to generate social benefits to the residents, environmental benefits to the area and its residents as well as economic benefits to the local governments, home-owners, developers and businesses since they bring about higher property values and significantly higher tax valuations. The availability of open spaces, recreational facilities and parks along Komarock Canal enhance the vision for a Non-Motorised Transport channel, an arboretum and riverfront physical developments. This is anticipated to accrue immense social, economic and environmental benefits to the local residents of Komarock as well as being an attractive facility to other visitors living within and beyond the immediate neighbourhood precincts. The approach for this planning development project is to synthesize reviews on various case studies on riverfront developments as the basis of drawing from good practices. The project focuses on individual benefits that accrue to nearby property holders and home-owners along with other users of the Komarock canal community park. This park is anticipated to generate benefits such as flood control, improved neighbourhood beauty and aesthetics, improved water quality of the canal, enabling healthy lifestyles, play areas for children, formal play areas for talent development, reducing air pollution and alleviating traffic congestion. This is because the proposed canal’s promenade will attract pedestrian traffic and at the same time it is anticipated to reduce overreliance on motor vehicles for short commuting distances within the neighbourhood. In this planning development project the park has been subjected to the tenets of sustainable design models of waterfronts and public open spaces. The park has been designed to enhance maximum public access to the riverfront park, to provide a recreational promenade along the river for pedestrians and cyclists and to promote healthy environmental benefits that include trees, botanical gardens, flowers and a landscaped greenway.

This article presents results from the first statistically significant study of cost escalation in transportation infrastructure projects. Based on a sample of 258 transportation infrastructure projects worth US$90 billion and representing different project types, geographical regions, and historical periods, it is found with overwhelming statistical significance that the cost estimates used to decide whether such projects should be built are highly and systematically misleading. Underestimation cannot be explained by error and is best explained by strategic misrepresentation, that is, lying. The policy implications are clear: legislators, administrators, investors, media representatives, and members of the public who value honest numbers should not trust cost estimates and cost-benefit analyses produced by project promoters and their analysts.

In this deliberately provocative paper, I argue that it is rather unfortunate that planning theorists have, with a few notable exceptions, tended to ignore the potential contributions that Henri Lefebvre’s spatial triad ideas regarding the production of space can make to planning theory. In particular, I argue that Lefebvre’s concept of differential space could provide a powerful focus for planners’ conceptual approaches to the creation and enhancement of public space. Rather than simply complaining about the privatisation, loss or corruption of ‘public’ space, we should appreciate the potentialities inherent in the production of differential space through the contestations that can occur in the creation of a more fair and just society in asserting ‘the right to the city’.
What might be called ‘strong’ differential space: the spaces of politicised appropriation and the assertion of rights to the city, insinuates itself to a constant dialectical struggle hrough elements of the spatial triad. This paper provides a snapshot of ongoing research based mainly on archival sources, interviews, visual data and observation.