Articles

On the antifragility of cities and of their buildings

We discuss the relevance of the concept of antifragility, introduced by Nassim Taleb, to the theory and practice of urban planning and design. We further contrast the antifragility of cities with that of their...

Authors: Ivan Blečić and Arnaldo Cecchini

The swinging cities of the eternal present

How many furnitures, or houses, or urban districts, that where designed and made in the 80s are still relevant today? What clothes or shoes that period can be worn without appearing old or out of time? Everybo...

Authors: Mosè Ricci

Management tools for the sustainable reclaiming of historical neighbourhoods

The sustainable reclaiming of historical neighbourhoods can be achieved only by projects able to allow to all the public and private involved subjects to receive benefits (not necessarily only the economic one...

Authors: Nicola Costantino

Territory matters. Production and space in Europe

Rather than becoming entangled in the dreadful European crisis, contemporary forms of production could redefine the role of territory. The hypothesis discussed in this paper is that an acute gaze at contempora...

Authors: Cristina Bianchetti and Michele Cerruti But

Activism and urban politics to come: escaping the acceptability trap

The economic and political changes characterising contemporary urbanisation have generated unjust conceptions and configurations of urban space that, in turn, have sparked off unusual forms of activism. All ov...

Authors: Valeria Monno

Hypsometric demography of Kosovo: the distribution of Kosovo population by altitude

This paper attempt to analyze how population dynamics changed in Kosovo through altitude and time. Altitude is one of the fundamental physiographic factor that determine the vertical distribution of human acti...

Authors: Rizah Murseli and Hazer Dana

Seven challenges for the study of urban movements

The article explores the difficulties and opportunities derived from the study of contemporary urban movements through the discussion of seven questions: definition of urban movements; understanding of their s...

Authors: Oriol Nel·lo

The future of sustainable urbanism: a redefinition

In this article the future of sustainable urbanism is discussed. In current times a complex of uncertainties demands sustainable environments. Three uncertainties are distinguished. Firstly, the city needs to ...

Authors: Rob Roggema

Metaphor and urban studies-a crossover, theory and a case study of SS Rotterdam

Metaphors are used in various ways; at the surface for framing a message (systems of language) and below the surface metaphors are related to the ways we think and act. In this paper we will explore, below the...

Authors: Peter Nientied

In-formalised urban space design. Rethinking the relationship between formal and informal

This paper investigates the relationship between the formal and informal spheres of urban life and explores the change in the relation between them. Starting with a study of the evolution and different interpr...

Authors: Laura Lutzoni

Urban conditions impacting on the perception of security. A few Italian case studies

Insecurity has always been linked to the fear of violent action against life and property, and the dangers of natural and anthropic catastrophes. To this we must now add the fear induced by a zero-interest eco...

Authors: Maria Cristina Treu

Urban disorder and vitality

The concepts of order and disorder applied to urban and territorial issues involve complex definitions. Why do cities, in spite of the effort made to give them order, even though from time to time this order has ...

Authors: Francesco Indovina

Security, city and democracy

This article analyses the relations between security, urban governance and democratic quality in the light of the fundamental theoretical trends and principal empirical researches present in the socio-politica...

Authors: Mauro Tebaldi

Disquieting presences: the ambiguity and indeterminacy of Maurice Nio’s architecture

In recent years, Dutch architect Maurice Nio has built an array of projects in the Netherlands, which have generally been considered within the spectrum of the Superdutch phenomenon, and more broadly, within I...

Authors: Silvio Carta

Peri-urban agriculture as key driver to sustainability. A planning project in an Alpine city

There is a general agreement on the role that peri-urban agriculture can play in achieving sustainable cities. This role is particularly crucial in the Alps, which are now the scene of relevant changes, involv...

Authors: Corrado Diamantini

A chronological exploration of the evolution of housing typologies in Gulf cities

This paper traces the evolution of housing typologies in four major cities in the Gulf region, namely Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Manama. The study reviews the formation and historical events in the region, whi...

Authors: Adel M. Remali, Ashraf M. Salama, Florian Wiedmann and Hatem G. Ibrahim

Urban density after Jane Jacobs: the crucial role of diversity and emergence

In the early part of the twentieth century, planning theory and practice always voiced strong opposition to density. The error of this insistence was persuasively argued by Jane Jacobs in the 1960s. Subsequent...

Authors: Stefano Moroni

Adaptation actions for integrated climate risk management into urban planning: a new framework from urban typologies to build resilience capacity in Santos (SP)

Many coastal cities have recently recognized the need to adapt to climate change, given the increased frequency of disasters cause by severe weather events. Based on concepts about vulnerability and resilience...

Authors: Andrea Ferraz Young

Erratum to: Formal ontologies and strategic environmental assessment. A case study: the municipal land use plan of Genoa

Authors: Giampiero Lombardini

Optimization of adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system based urban growth model

Global urban population has increased from 22.9 % in 1985 to 47 % in 2010. In Iran, population living in urban areas has consistently increased from about 31 % in 1956 to 68.4 % in 2006. Urban growth as one of...

Authors: Sassan Mohammady

Navigating in multi-level buildings: the effect of rotation

The existence of the complexity in layout and physical parameters are still under investigation in urban architecture in cognitive science. Current research seems to pay more attention to wayfinding in two-dim...

Authors: Giulia Mastrodonato, Domenico Camarda, Dino Borri and Caterina De Lucia

Formal ontologies and strategic environmental assessment. A case study: the municipal land use plan of Genoa

In the field of environmental assessment methods and tools, the space-based information systems have increasing importance, due to their capacity to organize knowledge according both to the representation of t...

Authors: Giampiero Lombardini

Translating text into space for mapping the past territory of a city: a study on spatial development of Dhaka during Mughal period

There is no established methodology for mapping the past territory of cities from text based historic information. As a result, the past territories of cities often remain obscure due to lack of spatial repres...

Authors: Mashrur Rahman, Kawser Bin Zaman and Roxana Hafiz

Developing terminology for side facades and side setback areas in Japanese neighborhoods: a study on utility and perception

The contribution of front or back yards to sociability has been the subject of several studies. No such finding however is evident for side setback areas, short distances kept between adjacent buildings, which...

Authors: Amir Shojai, Suguru Mori and Rie Nomura

The impractical supremacy of local identity on the worthless soils of Mappano

Soil is under pressure worldwide. In Italy, in the last two decades, land consumption has reached an average rate of 8 m², demonstrating the failure of urban planning in controlling these phenomena. Despite the r...

Authors: Paolo Pileri and Riccardo Scalenghe

Evidence for prospect-refuge theory: a meta-analysis of the findings of environmental preference research

Researchers in the field of spatial psychology and environmental preference theory have tested a range of claims about the capacity of certain spatial configurations to evoke a positive sense of wellbeing in o...

Authors: Annemarie S. Dosen and Michael J. Ostwald

Plan and project as resistance strategies. Didactics, planning and designing in a continuous changing era

The transformation of physical spaces by means of plans and projects requires knowledge and understanding of what needs to be transformed. In this sense, project work is influenced by the way we get to know th...

Authors: Paola Pittaluga

Urban tribalism: negotiating form, function and social milieu in Bedouin towns, Israel

Historically, the tribe was a central pillar of Bedouin society. Recently, the forcibly resettled-Bedouin of Israel’s Negev Desert have experienced profound socio-economic transition and change in addition to ...

Authors: Shlomit Tamari, Rachel Katoshevski, Yuval Karplus and Steven C. Dinero

Rivers as integration devices in cities

As dynamic systems rivers and cities have been in interaction under changing relations over time, and the morphology of many cities has risen through a long and steady struggle between the city functions and t...

Authors: Ehsan Abshirini and Daniel Koch

“Democra-city”: bringing the city back into democratic theory for the 21st century?

Almost 50 years ago Robert Dahl maintained “we can […] reasonably hope 1 day to achieve great democratic cities. As the optimum unit for democracy in the 21st century, the city has a greater claim, I think, th...

Authors: Mauro Tebaldi and Marco Calaresu

Technological city and cultural criticism: challenges, limits, politics

Technology has become a ‘life companion’ in our cities. Thanks to its fascinating power and the huge economic interest behind it, technology has recently reached an ‘epic’ role in our expectations for exiting ...

Authors: Paolo Pileri

Water in Las Vegas: coping with scarcity, financial and cultural constraints

Las Vegas has often been described as offering the paradox of wasting large amounts of water for the tourism industry, whereas it is located in an arid desert area. However, a closer examination shows that it ...

Authors: Frederic Lasserre

Eliante in Sardinia: problematic contextualisation

The paper deals with the complex relationship between tradition and modernity inspired by a fundamental essay by Cesare Brandi, Eliante or On architecture? The dialectic between tradition, supported in the Italia...

Authors: Placido Cherchi

A lifeline and a reason to be: the future of sustainable architecture in Spain and its European context

Architecture and construction in Europe have felt, like few other sectors, the consequences of the financial crisis that set in during 2008. This is only a logical result of their enormous dependency on differ...

Authors: Ir Sander Laudy

Troublesome trade-offs: balancing urban activities and values when securing a city-centre governmental quarter

Homeland security measures increasingly affect urban life and activities. Standoff distance, which prevents unscreened vehicles from approaching within a certain distance of a building, is a widely applied mea...

Authors: Sunniva F Meyer, Sissel H Jore and Kjell W Johansen

Strategic planning as the intentional production of a “Trading Zone”

For a long period of time there has been a kind of mirroring between the development of decision making models in Political science and the concepts and paradigms used in Planning theory. The dialogue has bee...

Authors: Alessandro Balducci

Perceived restoration scale method turned into (used as the) evaluation tool for parks and open green spaces, using Tartu city parks as an example

Estonian parks are well known for their history and dendrology. Usually, city maps show no nuances of the green areas, they could be for example abandoned areas, parks, green squares, usable/non-usable areas f...

Authors: Piret Rennit and Kadri Maikov

Designing the future cities: trends and issues from the interaction design perspective

The design of future cities is a challenging endeavour, to which interaction design can contribute by applying its well-established principles and methods. Interaction design methods aim at optimising interact...

Authors: Simone Pozzi and Sebastiano Bagnara

Analysis of land use and land cover spatial pattern based on Markov chains modelling

Population growth and the expansion of cities together with an increase in environmental pollution from human activity create non-principled changes in vegetative cover and land use in forestland built-up area...

Authors: Jafar Mirkatouli, Ali Hosseini and Abdolhamid Neshat

The challenge of rural life nostalgia: barriers in redevelopment of Malay Reserve Land (MRL) in Klang Valley

The development of Malay reserve land is a nationwide issue which can be overcome through better understanding of the existing barriers. While many barriers have been examined, the challenges relating to land ...

Authors: Noor-Rosly Hanif, Wan Nor Azriyati, Hamzah Abdul-Rahman, Chen Wang and Lincoln C Wood

Gambling on land fill and infrastructure to reposition Macao in the Pearl River Delta

Emerging regions worldwide increasingly involve cross-border relations. The Pearl River Delta (PRD) in south China in particular has been the focus of investigation in the recent literature on multiple jurisdi...

Authors: John Zacharias

Local security policies and the protection of territory: an analysis of the Italian experience (2007-2009)

This paper explores the territorial dimension of local security policies, with reference to the “Security Pacts” signed in Italy between 2007 and 2009. These Security Pacts are an innovative instrument introdu...

Authors: Marco Calaresu and Mauro Tebaldi

An activity theory of research methods in architecture and urbanism

Using activity theory this article argues that intentional activities are central to knowledge-production and may be compared to methods in research, and the worldview within which these activities are perceiv...

Authors: Michael AR Biggs

Urban public space between fragmentation, control and conflict

The article is focused on the different tendencies affecting urban public space in contemporary cities. It is based on a reflexion on some emerging themes in the recent debate in urban studies, paying particul...

Authors: Alfredo Mela

Ecological planning as an inner-city revitalisation agenda for Harare, Zimbabwe

This article examines approaches for integrating ecological thought in inner-city revitalisation with a special focus on the inner-city of Harare. It is an exploration and possible (re-)framing of the garden s...

Authors: Abraham Matamanda and Innocent Chirisa

A spatial strategy for the production of place in two German cities - Urban design interventions as a driver for spatial transformation

The paper introduces a new methodological perspective to the process of urban design, which reacts to the increasing interdependence of multipe scales in almost all facets of life. The production of place in t...

Authors: Anne Wiese, Agnes Förster, Lukas Gilliard and Alain Thierstein

Towards a polyphonic urban score

By drawing on literature from various disciplinary fields, in particular branches of geography, philosophy, urban design and planning, the article investigates the deep spatial transformations affecting cities...

Authors: Lidia Decandia

Stratigraphies: archaeology as a threshold and passage

Authors: Antonello Marotta

Rethinking waste as a resource: insights from a low-income community in Accra, Ghana

Conventional solid waste management protocols and thinking generally tend to assume that waste already exits and therefore needs to be managed. Consequently, most models of solid waste management, especially i...

Authors: Martin Oteng-Ababio

Municipal regulations and the use of public space: local ordinances in Italy

The article discusses the regulation of public space with specific reference to municipal by-laws. It focuses on the case of municipal “ordinances” in Italy. The basic features of the municipal by-laws will be...

Authors: Stefano Moroni and Francesco Chiodelli