This book is set in Karachi, Pakistan and investigates the possibility of achieving localness through identifying urban process and their impact on built form, addressing how locals associate with the urban spaces and how they value it. Thus, the investigation, using the local terminology maqamiat, goes beyond the physicality of space and develops a framework that helps to understand the social, ethnic, economic, ecological and other the non-physical aspects of space, which are of value to the locals. The aim is to investigate the possibility of achieving localness through identifying urban design elements that can be incorporated into the process of designing new built forms that acknowledges what is valued by the locals instead of superimposing imported designs, negating the contextual realties, both physical and social. For this purpose, the book includes three case studies from Karachi. The book questions the aspiration of many cities in the South Asian context to imitate the built forms of Western cities (increasingly, Singapore and Shanghai) which are viewed as modern and represents future. The book will make a theoretical contribution to the existing literature on postcolonial urbanism and explore space from a local vantage point for understanding how to look inwards for aspiration.

An in-depth history of the Stalinist skyscraper In the early years of the Cold War, the skyline of Moscow was forever transformed by a citywide skyscraper building project. As the steel girders of the monumental towers went up, the centuries-old metropolis was reinvented to embody the greatness of Stalinist society. Moscow Monumental explores how the quintessential architectural works of the late Stalin era fundamentally reshaped daily life in the Soviet capital. Drawing on a wealth of original archival research, Katherine Zubovich examines the decisions and actions of Soviet elites-from top leaders to master architects-and describes the experiences of ordinary Muscovites who found their lives uprooted by the ambitious skyscraper project. She shows how the Stalin-era quest for monumentalism was rooted in the Soviet Union's engagement with Western trends in architecture and planning, and how the skyscrapers required the creation of a vast and complex infrastructure. As laborers flooded into the city, authorities evicted and rehoused tens of thousands of city residents living on the plots selected for development. When completed in the mid-1950s, these seven ornate neoclassical buildings served as elite apartment complexes, luxury hotels, and ministry and university headquarters. Moscow Monumental tells a story that is both local and broadly transnational, taking readers from the streets of interwar Moscow and New York to the marble-clad halls of the bombastic postwar structures that continue to define the Russian capital today.

Lee Kuan Yew once described the opportunity to remake Singapore as 'a chance of a lifetime'. This book explores Lee's pivotal role in Singapore's urban development during his years as prime minister from 1959 to 1990. A Chance of a Lifetime recognizes Lee's achievements from the standpoint of Singapore's 50th anniversary of independence and looks forward to challenges that the city-state might encounter over the next 50 years. The book is broken up into the four main components of Singapore's urban development: planning, housing, greening and water management. Each of these factors has been key in helping create modern Singapore. There is also a chapter that discusses the transformational challenges for Singapore, and the world, over the next 50 years. Singapore's small land size and lack of hinterland meant that it had to strategize to solve issues that other countries are only starting to face now, making Singapore a leader in areas such as vertical greenery and water reclamation. Featuring the Centre for Liveable Cities 2012 interview with Lee and rarely seen archival images of Singapore's transformation from mudflat to metropolis, A Chance of a Lifetime opens with an introduction by former president S R Nathan and closes with an epilogue by Ambassador Tommy Koh.

Features thirteen essays by the influential late architect, philosopher and teacher Dalibor Vesely (1934-2015). For the first time his full range of writing is presented in one volume, including new and hard-to-access material. Edited and introduced by Vesely's teaching partner at Cambridge Peter Carl and former student Alexandra Stara and includes over 80 illustrations.

This book offers an ethnographic exploration of the role that atmosphere plays in work processes undertaken within an urban design studio. It provides understandings of how architectural practices are fuelled with atmosphere in various configurations throughout different design phases of selected projects for construction. From the outside architectural practices commonly appear well-ordered and carefully considered, established by proof and rationally justified. This book though poaches on architects' preserves in order to draw attention to features of unpredictability and uncertainty within the design phases. By opening up into the 'machinery room' of urban designers, the goal is not to spoil the plaster saint cover of a 'starchitect' business, but to remind about the crucial value that pockets of doubt issuing questions rather than answers, open-mindedness instead of single-mindedness, play to the processes of design production and creativity. The book identifies these pockets as atmospheres enveloping the architectural practice.

In this superbly illustrated book Xiaofei Chen presents the first analysis in English of a ubiquitous East Asian urban phenomenon: the supergrid and superblock urban structure. The book opens with an introductory essay by Barrie Shelton in which he sets the scene for what is to follow, emphasizing how alien this structure was to Western urban design culture where radial patterns of development were the norm. Then, in her first chapter, Chen explains the make-up of the supergrid and superblock urban structure and its contrasting Chinese and Japanese forms. In the following three chapters she digs deep into the history, cultural origins, and underlying design philosophy of the supergrid and superblock to show how, under different cultural influences, the model has developed into two distinct forms. Two further chapters (5 and 6) provide detailed analysis of two sample superblocks in China (in Xi'an and Nanjing) and two in Japan (in Kyoto and Osaka) to reveal the relative advantages and disadvantages of how the structure is manifest in the two countries. In her conclusion she discusses her findings to show how and why the supergrid and superblock structure is a valuable urban design model which, with regional adjustments, can be used effectively in cities other than those of East Asia.

First published in 1984, this book addresses key questions about the pattern of urban development in Southern Europe and the mechanisms employed to control and regulate this development in individual countries. It examines five countries - Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Turkey - that have experienced different scales and rates of urbanization and industrialization. It identifies common problems arising from these processes, as well as the successes and failures of the planning policies employed to regulate development. This book will be of great value to geographers interested in Southern Europe and urban and regional planners interested in comparative patterns of development.

Shopping malls in China create a new pseudo-public urban space which is under the control of private or quasi-public power structure. As they are open for public use, mediated by the co-mingling of private property rights and public meanings of urban space, the rise, publicness and consequences of the boom in the construction of shopping malls raises major questions in spatial political economy and magnifies existing theoretical debates between the natural and conventional schools of property rights. In examining these issues this book develops a theoretical framework starting with a critique of the socio-spatial debate between two influential bodies of work represented by the work of Henri Lefebvre and David Harvey. Drawing on the framework, the book examines why pseudo-public spaces have been growing so rapidly in China since the 1980s; assesses to what degree pseudo-public spaces are public, and how they affect the publicness of Chinese cities; and explores the consequences of their rise. Findings of this book provide insights that can help to better understand Chinese urbanism and also have the potential to inform urban policy in China. This book will be of interest to academics and researchers in both Chinese studies and urban studies.

Around the world, researchers, policy makers, and practitioners are working to ensure cities and communities are prepared for the challenges and opportunities of aged and highly urbanised populations. Bringing together stakeholders from Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America, this book presents new evidence and critical reviews of current knowledge to promote ongoing discussions on: affordable and accessible housing to support ageing in place; built environment supports for health-enhancing physical activity and mobility; and planning and design strategies and approaches to promote healthy and active ageing in cities and communities. The book content is framed by socio-ecological models of ageing and well-being that emphasise the dynamic interconnections between people and environment. Contributions in this edited volume stem from the International Ageing Urbanism Colloquium, 2017, Singapore University of Technology and Design.

Increasing urbanization and increasing urban density put enormous pressure on the relationships between people and place in cities. Built environment professionals must pay attention to the impact of people-place relationships in small- to large-scale urban initiatives. A small playground in a neighborhood pocket park is an example of a small-scale urban development; a national environmental policy that influences energy sources is an example of a large-scale initiative. All scales of decision-making have implications for the people-place relationships present in cities. This book presents new research in contemporary, interdisciplinary urban challenges, and opportunities, and aims to keep the people-place relationship debate in focus in the policies and practices of built environment professionals and city managers. Most urban planning and design decisions, even those on a small scale, will remain in the urban built form for many decades, conditioning people's experience of their city. It is important that these decisions are made using the best available knowledge. This book contains an interdisciplinary discussion of contemporary urban movements and issues influencing the relationship between people and place in urban environments around the world which have major implications for both the processes and products of urban planning, design, and management. The main purpose of the book is to consolidate contemporary thinking among experts from a range of disciplines including anthropology, environmental psychology, cultural geography, urban design and planning, architecture and landscape architecture, and the arts, on how to conceptualize and promote healthy people and place relationships in the 21st-century city. Within each of the chapters, the authors focus on their specific areas of expertise which enable readers to understand key issues for urban environments, urban populations, and the links between them.

Urban landscapes are usually thought of first and foremost as engineered formations designed for functionality. It is quite clear, however, that cities and towns are sites of social structure, scenes of diversity, and hotbeds of transgressions. They are also sources of satisfying social relationships, settings for actions negotiated on an everyday basis, and opportunities for kinesthetic and aesthetic experiences. Within these processes, the senses mediate engagement with the optimism of urban growth, the comfort of urban traditions, and a consciousness of the diverse relationships that embellish urban living, but also with the repellent sights and sounds that invade zones of comfort. This book examines how qualities of place and their sensuous reorganisation elucidate particular sociocultural expressions and practices in urban life. The collection illuminates how urban environments are distinguished, valued, or reconfigured with the senses as media for evaluating authentic spaces and places that endure and change over time.

Originally published in 1995, this book unravels the history of the 'temporary bungalow' and shows that perhaps it was more a question of providing a new peace-time product for factories than a means of providing accommodation for the homeless. Built in a period of housing history which remains fascinating for architects and planners and admired by some of their first occupants but berated by others, those prefabs remaining today are subject to preservation orders but also perhaps offer a solution to the ongoing housing crisis in the UK. The book includes chapters on the development of the prefab house in the UK; comparisons with temporary housing programmes in the USA, Sweden and Germany; political and economic considerations to the UK Temporary Housing Programme and a discussion of the design of the Arcon, Uni-Seco, Tarran and Aluminium Temporary Bungalows.

This book positions Ulaanbaatar as a unique case and one that allows us to view our urban world differently. Operating as a primordial soup of emerging conditions, Ulaanbaatar is conceived as an incubator for alternative urban concepts. The book rejects the agency of the masterplan as an effective tool in emerging urban conditions and instead positions the framework as a tool for incremental urbanism. Although specific to the Ger districts of Mongolia, the story of how people, communities, planners, and politicians are grappling with the effects of becoming urban remains one of the critical issues facing the 21st century. How this process will be materialised and organised spatially, and by whom, will have profound ramifications on the climate and the social and economic make-up of our future cities.

The book wants to analyse and integrate landscape, urbanism and architecture going from large to small scales, from macro to micro areas and from micro to macro, making a complete analysis. The topics keywords are: land-form, sensitive limits, urban geographies, land- marks, reuse and living machine; always highlighting both the natural landscape and anthropogenic. The reuse theme is pivotal, not only for the current feedback which includes preservation and recovery both of buildings and landscapes; but also because it is an opportunity to overlay, ideally, more stories, reading and traces of time, past and present. The reuse, with its targeted and specific interventions, faces memory themes and the new building or landscape life, energy, configuration and sometimes new features.

This book provides the tools to maintain and rebuild the interaction between architecture and public space. Despite the best intentions of designers and planners, interactive frontages have dwindled over the past century in Europe and North America. This book demonstrates why even our best intentions for interactive frontages are currently unable to turn a swelling tide of economic and technological evolution, land consolidation, introversion, stratification, and contagious decline. It uses these lessons to offer concrete locational, programming, design, and management strategies to maximize street-level interaction and trust between street-level architecture, its inhabitants, and the city. This book demonstrates that designers, developers, planners, and managers ultimately have to create the right preconditions for inhabitants and passersby to bring frontages to life. These preconditions connect architecture to its urban, social, economical, and technological context. Only the right frontage in the right context, with the right design, the right inhabitation, and the right attitude to the city will become part of the ecosystem of trust and interaction that supports public life. This book empowers the many participants in this ecosystem to build, inhabit, and enjoy truly urbane architecture.

The Routledge Handbook of Institutions and Planning in Action contains a selection of 25 chapters prepared by specialized international scholars of urban planning and urban studies focusing on the question of how institutional innovation occurs in practices of action. The contributors share expertise on institutional innovation and philosophical pragmatism. They discuss the different facets of these two conceptual frameworks and explore the alternative combinations through which they can be approached. The relevance of these conceptual lines of thought will be exemplified in exploring the contemporary practices of sustainable (climate-proof) urban transition. The aim of the handbook is to give a boost to the turn of institutional analysis in the context of action in changing cities. Both philosophical pragmatism and institutional innovation rest on wide international uses in social sciences and planning studies, and may be considered as complementary for many reasons. However, the combination of these different approaches is all but evident and creates a number of dilemmas. After an encompassing introductory section entitled Institutions in Action, the handbook is further divided into the following sections: Institutional innovation Pragmatism: The Dimension of Action On Justification Cultural and Political Institutions in Action Institutions and Urban Transition

Cognition and the Built Environment argues that interacting with our built environment, as users and as architects, is a cognitive process. It claims that architecture, in its form and meaning, is a basic, embodied level of human cognition. The assumption is that we and our built environment together form an intelligent system, a cognitive feedback loop between us and the world of which we are part. With this as a vantage point, the book discusses the meaning and intelligence of concrete architectural environments as well as the agency of the architect, of his client and of the user. The inquiry oscillates between abstract thought, topological models and cognitive semiotics, between pragmatist philosophy and the professional practice of planning cities, developing projects and using objects. Architecture serves more complex purposes than our caves, paths and landmarks did. Written for students and academics of urban design, urban planning and architectural theory, Cognition and the Built Environment argues that human cognition feeds on the interaction between thought, agency and built environment, and that architecture is the spatial form of this interaction.

Envisioning Networked Urban Mobilities brings together scientific reflections on the relations of art and urban mobilities and artistic research on the topic. The editors open the book by setting out the concept grounded in the exhibition curated by Aslak Aamot Kjaerulff and refers to earlier work on mobilities and art generated by the Cosmobilities Network. This third volume has two sections, both consisting of short papers and illustrations. The first section is based on artists who were part of the conferences' art exhibition, and the second part is based on theoretical reflections on art and artists.

Urban planning, regeneration and design is an essentially cultural practice with the outcomes often depending upon an understanding of and engagement with the past. As cities in China strive to be competitive and attractive on the world stage, their decaying historical urban fabrics are being transformed into vibrant places through historical-cultural led urban regeneration, however, the impact of their rapid development has escaped serious scrutiny. Heritage-led Urban Regeneration in China presents the detailed evolution of three well-known historic streets in China: the Southern Song Imperial Street in Hangzhou; the residential Pingjiang Street in Suzhou; and the commercial Tunxi Old Street in Huangshan. From their original formation to their more recent regeneration, this book offers a critical evaluation of historical-cultural led urban regeneration projects in China and provides theoretical guidelines for contemporary practice in relation to its tangible and intangible urban heritage. Using interdisciplinary research in architecture, urban design, history and cultural studies, Jing Xie and Tim Heath provide a detailed analysis of the conservation and regeneration efforts of China as an emerging and pivotal world power. An invaluable resource for urban designers, urban planners and architects interested in and working in China, Heritage-led Urban Regeneration in China helps its readers to engage with the essential and invisible factors that produce these revitalised places while forming a critical view towards these projects.

Set within a wider British and international context of post-war reconstruction, The Everyday Experiences of Reconstruction and Regeneration focuses on such debates and experiences in Birmingham and Coventry as they recovered from Second World War bombings and post-war industrial collapse. Including numerous images, Adams and Larkham explore the initial development of the post-Second World War reconstruction projects, which so substantially changed the face of the cities and provided radical new identities. Exploring these cities throughout the post-war period brings into sharp focus the duality of contemporary approaches to regeneration, which often criticise mid-twentieth century 'poorly-conceived' planning and architectural projects for producing inhuman and unsympathetic schemes, while proposing exactly the type of large-scale regeneration that may potentially create similar issues in the future. This book would be beneficial for academics and students of planning and urban design, particularly those with an interest in post-catastrophe or large-scale reconstruction projects within cities.

Windtower offers a unique insight into a past way of life, exploring Dubai's rich and storied past and heritage. This new and extended edition celebrates the 50th anniversary of the formation of the United Arab Emirates, diving deeper into the merchant community's central role in Dubai's pre-oil economy and social life. This new edition also considers the lessons to be learned from Dubai's traditional windtowers at a time of global warming and climate crisis, and how this knowledge might benefit contemporary urban design. The title features a foreword from His Highness, Charles, Prince of Wales, who writes: "I do hope this book will enable other people to join in appreciating the unique nature of these buildings and that it will encourage an awareness of how relevant many of their distinctive features are to the modern challenges of building sustainable communities in a way that maximizes the use of renewable energy." With exclusive archival photography, custom maps, as well as original architectural plans and diagrams, Windtower is a must-have book for anyone interested in Dubai's architecture, culture and fascinating historical development.

The concept of the neoliberal city has become a key structuring analytical framework in the field of urban studies. It explains both the ongoing transformation of urban policies and the socio-spatial effects of these policies within cities and highlights the prominent role of cities in the new geography of capitalism. Bringing together a team of leading scholars, this book challenges the neoliberal city thesis. It argues that the definition of neoliberalization may be more complex than it seems, resulting in over-simplified explanations of some processes, such as the rise of metropolitan governments or the importance given to urban economic development policies or gentrification. As a structuralist and macro-level theory, the "neoliberal city" does not shed light upon micro-level processes or identify and analyze actors' logics and practices. Finally, the concept is profoundly influenced by the historical trajectories of the United Kingdom and the United States, and the generalization of this experience to other contexts often leads to a kind of academic ethnocentrism. This book argues that, on its own, the current conceptualizations of neoliberalization are insufficient. Instead, it should be analyzed alongside other transformative processes in order to provide an analytical framework to explain the variety of processes of change, motivations and justifications too easily labelled as urban neoliberalism. This unique and critical contribution will be essential reading for students and scholars alike working in Human Geography, Urban Studies, Economics, Sociology and Public Policy.

Set within a wider British and international context of post-war reconstruction, The Everyday Experiences of Reconstruction and Regeneration focuses on such debates and experiences in Birmingham and Coventry as they recovered from Second World War bombings and post-war industrial collapse. Including numerous images, Adams and Larkham explore the initial development of the post-Second World War reconstruction projects, which so substantially changed the face of the cities and provided radical new identities. Exploring these cities throughout the post-war period brings into sharp focus the duality of contemporary approaches to regeneration, which often criticise mid-twentieth century 'poorly-conceived' planning and architectural projects for producing inhuman and unsympathetic schemes, while proposing exactly the type of large-scale regeneration that may potentially create similar issues in the future. This book would be beneficial for academics and students of planning and urban design, particularly those with an interest in post-catastrophe or large-scale reconstruction projects within cities.

The Metaphysical City examines the metaphorical existence of the city as an entity to further understand its significance on urban planning and geography. It encourages an open-minded approach when studying cities so as to uncover broader connecting themes that may otherwise be missed. Case studies of New York, Paris, Cairo, Mumbai, Tokyo, and Los Angeles explore a metaphor specific to each city. This multidisciplinary analysis uses philosophical treatises, geographical analysis, and comparative literature to uncover how each city corresponds to the metaphor. As such, it allows the reader to understand the city from six differing points of view. This book would be beneficial to students and academics of urban planning, geography, and comparative literature, in particular those with an interest in a metaphysical examination of cities.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of current housing practices across Asian cities based on facts and trends in the market. For many countries in Asia, the future of housing is now. This future is closely linked to successful theoretical advancement and policy practice in housing studies. This volume brings together twelve chapters divided across four thematic parts that sum up the concept and conditionality of housing in Asian cities. It studies housing through conceptual perspectives and empirical studies to explore established notions, cultures and practices relevant to the 21st-century post-reform context in Asia. Housing and property have long been economic drivers, leading many individual households towards better lives and associated social and community benefits, while also collectively improving the economic base of a city or country. This book examines the nature of the interplay of both state and market in the housing outcomes of these cities. With its extensive geographic coverage across South East Asia, South Asia, and the Far East and a cross section of different income groups, the book will interest reseachers and scholars in urban studies, architecture, development studies, public policy, political studies, sociology, policymakers in local and central governments, housing and planning professionals and commercial firms engaged in property markets or real estate in Asia. It will also provide ideas, tools and good practices for institutional enablement, stakeholders involved in these interventions, private sector organisations and NGOs.