There is need for change in our currently unsustainable cities. Carefully outlining paths towards better, sustainable ways of urban living, this book proposes a radical change in the ways we conceive and live our urban environments.

Bringing together diverse cultural and disciplinary views on urban sustainability, eighteen leading academics and practitioners in sustainable architecture and urbanism explore global concerns of sustainability and urbanity.

This broad range of issues are clearly articulated and linked to concrete places and projects, merging research and cutting-edge design investigations to promote environmentally and culturally sensitive urban futures.

The book investigates the development of community gardens with self-built structures, which have existed as a shared public open space land use form in New York City's low-come neighborhoods like the South Bronx since the 1970s. These gardens have continued to be part of the urban landscape until today, despite conflicting land use interests, changing residents groups and contradictory city planning. Both community gardens and self-built structures are created in a participatory design and self-built effort by urban residents and are an expression of the individual gardeners' preferences, their cultural background and the decisions made by the managing residents' group in regards to the needs of their neighborhood. Ultimately community gardens with self-built structures are an expression of the people's will to commonly use this land for open and enclosed structures next to their homes in the city and need to be included in future urban planning.

This book provides an up-to-date, critical review of theoretical concepts connecting artists and urban development. It focuses on the multidimensionality of potential and actually observed interactions between artists and cities and their impacts on urban space, its form, functions and perceptions. Departing from the viewpoint that a more nuanced geography of artists is still needed to fully conceptualise the diversity of roles artistic creatives play in urban transformations, the book presents contributions with a common denominator of distinguishing artists as a unique professional and social group. The essays focus on the complexity of the artists' spatial preferences and analyse a myriad of expressions of artists' presence in urban centres in different geographic, political, economic, social, and spatial contexts drawing on experiences from 16 cities across Europe. The book presents several case studies ranging from Spain to Russia and from Scandinavia to Slovenia, and offers new pathways into understanding the implications of artists' residence and activities in contemporary cities. Apart from presenting less obvious expressions of artists' involvement in urban transformations such as their participation in urban planning or grass root urban movements, the volume explores the ambivalence of artists' interactions with cities. Particular chapters test several divergent narratives of artistic creatives as inspirers and instigators of urban changes, pioneers of gentrification, contesters and resisters of neoliberal urban policies or mere indicators of transformations inspired by other actors, instrumentalized by public and private stakeholders.

The book describes a development concept called abulecentrism. The Yoruba word abule (pronounced: a-boo-lay) literarily means "the village". abulecentrism seeks to achieve rapid and sustainable development of a given society by the strategic execution of projects and the provision of critical services at the local community level. The village has always been the traditional unit of communal living in many societies around the world. The typical village is small, comprising close-knit social groups and individuals that number in the tens, or at most, low hundreds. In a village, people live close to one another, and derive strength in their communal methods of living, working and protecting their society. Furthermore, the management and governance of the community is simpler than in urban areas because the village requires smaller administrative systems. abulecentrism is built on the philosophy of using small, modular systems, such as a village, as building blocks for developing the greater society. The ultimate goal of abulecentrism is for the larger society to be significantly impacted by the dividends of the aggregated development attained within the different communities. Development projects will typically be executed by starting with a few local communities and progressing organically until all the communities that make up the larger society have been impacted.

Heat islands are urban and suburban areas that are significantly warmer than their surroundings. Traditional, highly absorptive construction materials and a lack of effective landscaping are their main causes. Heat island problems, in terms of increased energy consumption, reduced air quality and effects on human health and mortality, are becoming more pressing as cities continue to grow and sprawl. This comprehensive book brings together the latest information about heat islands and their mitigation. The book describes how heat islands are formed, what problems they cause, which technologies mitigate heat island effects and what policies and actions can be taken to cool communities. Internationally renowned expert Lisa Gartland offers a comprehensive source of information for turning heat islands into cool communities. The author includes sections on cool roofing and cool paving, explains their benefits in detail and provides practical guidelines for their selection and installation. The book also reviews how and why to incorporate trees and vegetation around buildings, in parking lots and on green roofs.

What has happened to cities after the global economic recession? Sustaining Cities answers this question by explaining how failed governmental policies contributed to urban problems and offering best practices for solving them. From social scientists and urban planners to architects and literary and film critics, the authors of this unique collection suggest real responses to this crisis. Could the drastic declines in housing markets have been avoided? Yes, if we reframe our housing values. Do you want to attract corporate investment to your town? You might want to think twice about doing so. The extinction of the "Celtic Tiger" may be charted in statistics, but the response in popular Irish mystery novels is much more compelling. China, while not immune to market vicissitudes, still booms, but at a considerable cost to its urban identities. Whether constructing a sustainable social framework for Mexican mega-cities or a neighborhood in London, these nine essays consider some strikingly similar strategies. And perhaps, as the contributors suggest, it's time to look beyond the usual boundaries of urban, suburban, and exurban to forge new links among these communities that will benefit all citizens. Accessible to anyone with an interest in how cities cope today, Sustaining Cities presents a cautionary tale with a hopeful ending. |What has happened to cities after the global economic recession? Sustaining Cities answers this question by explaining how failed governmental policies contributed to urban problems and offering best practices for solving them. From social scientists and urban planners to architects and literary and film critics, the authors of this unique collection suggest real responses to this crisis. Could the drastic declines in housing markets have been avoided? Yes, if we reframe our housing values. Do you want to attract corporate investment to your town? You might want to think twice about doing so. The extinction of the "Celtic Tiger" may be charted in statistics, but the response in popular Irish mystery novels is much more compelling. China, while not immune to market vicissitudes, still booms, but at a considerable cost to its urban identities. Whether constructing a sustainable social framework for Mexican mega-cities or a neighborhood in London, these nine essays consider some strikingly similar strategies. And perhaps, as the contributors suggest, it's time to look beyond the usual boundaries of urban, suburban, and exurban to forge new links among these communities that will benefit all citizens. Accessible to anyone with an interest in how cities cope today, Sustaining Cities presents a cautionary tale with a hopeful ending.

Mark Hinshaw has a proposition for Americans: Come out of the bunker, throw open the gates, and meet the neighborhood. In this passionate appeal, he introduces those who have already done just that and explains what cities can do to make true urbanism possible. He rejoices in the growing number of people rejecting sterile, paint-by-numbers subdivisions in favor of vibrant and unpredictable urban neighborhoods. This vivid account of cities small and large emerging from the cobwebs of late 20th century development will show communities with lingering antiurban tendencies how to embrace density as destiny. A must-read urban design book for anyone who cares about cities.

Highly visual and containing contributions from leading names in landscape, architecture and design, this volume provides a rare insight into people's engagement with the outdoor environment; looking at the ways in which the design of spaces and places meets people's needs and desires in the twenty-first century. Embracing issues of social inclusion, recreation, and environmental quality, the editors explore innovative ways to develop an understanding of how the landscape, urban or rural, can contribute to health and quality of life. Open Space: People Space examines the nature and value of people's access to outdoor environments. Led by Edinburgh's OPENspace research centre, the debate focuses on current research to support good design for open space and brings expertise from a range of disciplines to look at: an analysis of policy and planning issues and challenges understanding the nature and experience of exclusion the development of evidence-based inclusive design innovative research approaches which focus on people's access to open space and the implications of that experience. Invaluable to policy makers, researchers, urban designers, landscape architects, planners, managers and students, it is also essential reading for those working in child development, health care and community development.

Edited by thought leaders in the fields of urban informatics and urban interaction design, this book brings together case studies and examples from around the world to discuss the role that urban interfaces, citizen action, and city making play in the quest to create and maintain not only secure and resilient, but productive, sustainable and viable urban environments. The book debates the impact of these trends on theory, policy and practice. The individual chapters are based on blind peer reviewed contributions by leading researchers working at the intersection of the social / cultural, technical / digital, and physical / spatial domains of urbanism scholarship. The book will appeal not only to researchers and students, but also to a vast number of practitioners in the private and public sector interested in accessible content that clearly and rigorously analyses the potential offered by urban interfaces, mobile technology, and location-based services in the context of engaging people with open, smart and participatory urban environments.

Temporary and Tactical Urbanism examines a key set of urban design strategies that have emerged in the twenty-first century. Such projects range from guerrilla gardens and bike lanes to more formalised temporary beaches and swimming pools, parklets, pop-up plazas and buildings and container towns. These practices enable diverse forms of economic, social and artistic life that are usually repressed by the fixities of urban form and its management. This book takes a thematic approach to explore what the scope of this practice is, and understand why it has risen to prominence, how it works, who is involved, and what its implications are for the future of city design and planning. It critically examines the material, social, economic and political complexities that surround and enable these small, ephemeral urban interventions. It identifies their short-term and long-term implications for urban intensity, diversity, creativity and adaptability. The book's insights into temporary and tactical urbanism have particular relevance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has highlighted both the need and the possibility of quickly transforming urban spaces worldwide. They also reveal significant lessons for the long-term planning and design of buildings, landscapes and cities.

Assembling papers originally presented at the Resilient Cities 2011 Congress in Bonn, Germany (June 2011), the second global forum on cities and adaptation to climate change, this volume is the second in a series resulting from this annual event. These cutting-edge papers represent the latest research on the topic and reflect the intensification of the debate on the meaning of and interaction between climate adaptation, risk reduction and broader resilience. Thus, contributors offer more material related to resilience, such as water, energy and food security; green infrastructure; the role of renewables and ecosystem services; vulnerable communities and urban poor; and responsive financing for adaptation and multi-level governance. Overall, the book brings a number of different perspectives to bear on the most pressing issues and controversies surrounding climate change adaptation in cities. These papers will prove invaluable to anyone interested in deepening their understanding of urban resilience and contributing to tackling climate change at the local level.

Radically reoriented under market reform, Chinese cities are playing an important role in China's economic development. The creation of housing and land markets is rapidly changing the face of Chinese cities. Mushrooming skyscrapers in the newly established central business district contrast shapely with the nearby old urban areas and unruly migrant settlements in urban fringes. Chinese cities present both the landscapes of the first and third world. Yet, radical marketization co-exists with ever-presence of state control. "Urban Development in" "Post-Reform" "China" explores the interaction of China's market development, state regulation and the resulting transformation and creation of new urban spaces. It provides the first integrated treatment of China's urban development in the dynamic market transition. Focusing on land and housing development, the authors show how the market has been "created" under post-reform urban conditions, which in turn challenges state regulation. Urban space constitutes a critical component of China's new growth strategies. Through the reconfiguration of urban space, market-oriented land development has been launched by the Chinese version of local boosterism. The authors examine "the state in action" and highlight how changing urban governance towards local entrepreneurial state facilitates market formation. City planning has been transformed from allocating state resources to place promotion; and municipal government formulated various competitive urban strategies through place-making. The resulting changes in urban internal structure are manifested in the renewal of the city center and urban sprawl at the periphery, creating "novel" urban landscape ofredeveloped central districts, university towns, science parks, and "urban villages."China has been very successful in using urban land development as an economic growth engine. The authors examine complex interactions between the market and state in creating China's new urbanism. State power is unlikely to wane and will persist. Despite more market orientation, the state is still playing an important role in urban development, especially in making the cities more competitive in the era of globalization and the development of service industries.

Power and Party in an English City provides an account of how decisions are taken by the state at the level of locality. More specifically, it is an account of the private policy-making activities of a ruling Labour group of councillors in the major English city of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Despite the fact that local government in most of the towns and cities of England is one-party government, very little is known abotu the private behaviour of ruling party groups. In this book David Green provides a penetrating empirical study of the realities of local government. The author seeks to examine and analyse the importance of party discipline, the relationship between the Labour group of councillors and the party outside the council, the power of the committee chairmen, the role of local patronage and the openness of the local policy-making process. The government of Newcastle is perhaps the most closely association in the public mind with T. Dan Smith, the corrupt local politician. In fact, Smith had left local politics in Newcastle in teh mid-1960s. How was the city being run a decade or so later? This study is however much more than an inside view of the affairs of a single authority. The last part of the book is devoted to a discussion of aspects of some traditional and modern theories of democracy and specifically to what author sees as the inadequate advocacy of participatory democracy in recent years. Green makes a major contribution to our thinking about the kind of democracy that is possible in modern large-scale societies, explores weaknesses of moder theories and puts forward some original modifications to modern democratic theory, in the light of a theory of knowledge which is seen as more appropriate for modern natural and social scientific activity. This book was first published in 1981.

Jack Rose examines the social, economic and political forces which have shaped the towns and cities of the UK since the Industrial Revolution. The unrestricted and largely unplanned development which followed the Industrial Revolution created unacceptable living and working conditions for which a century of legislation failed to provide a remedy. In the last fifty years of economic, political and legal changes have all affected the shape and speed of development through rent control, taxation, planning directives and other mechanisms. The interplay of political changes and economic circumstances which produces the 'dynamics' of development is covered here from the unique standpoint of the author's long and successful career in the property industry. This book was first published in 1985

Developed form a major research report for the Department of the Environment, this book presents a comprehensive analysis of the problems experienced when the the green belt restraint was implemented around London. Attitudes to land-use planning changed rapidly: planning powers devolved from counties to districts: and regional planning was largely dismantled. This book fills a major gap in the literature by critically examinig the Metropolitan Green Belt. This book was first published in 1983.

This book presents a selection of readings to present varied opinions, approaches and reports from various international professional journals. Among the journals represented are: Regional Science Association Journal, The Canadian Geographer, The Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Economic Geography, Landscape, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation and Land Economics. This book was first published in 1970.

Caught between the twin pressures of rising public expectations and falling resources, public services have become the subject of intense academic scrutiny and public debate. Much of this controversy has been fuelled by a growing realisation that where people live has an important influence upon their access to services. The so-called 'postcode lottery.' The first part of this book considers what is meant by the term 'collective consumption' and discusses the main differences between the British and American loyal government systems. It examines various geographical schools of analysis which focus on jurisdictional partitioning, locational efficiency, externalities and locational conflict. Subsequent chapters explore the relevance of public choice, neo-Weberian and neo-Marxist theories for an understanding of collective consumption. The final section looks at ways in which spatial perspectives can be linked with broader theoretical approaches in the context of modern developments. This book was first published in it's current form in 1985.

Urbanization, everywhere, is of pressing concern to society. It is now appreciated that politicies for urban growth cannot be confined to the cities themselves, but mus extend outwards to include both the city and its surrounding areas. Britain, with the help of North American experience, has since 1965 pioneered new approacheds to the city in its regional dimension. These contributions are examined in this book. Its essential merit is that it shows how planners think, and describes assumptions and the nature of arguments used when determining the form and characteristics of future urban environment in England. This book was first published in 1972.

Slums and Slum Clearance in Victorian London was first published in 1986.

Throughout the world there is an increasing movement of populations into urban areas and cities. As a result the demographic, economic, social and cultural characteristics of urban areas are changing, particularly in countries undergoing rapid urbanization. This book explores the different approaches to this internationally within the fields of housing and urban planning with a particular focus on developing countries. Concepts such as "informal settlements,""shelter" and "housing deficit" are explained. The impact of rapid urbanization and associated globalization on land use and housing is described and analyzed with reference to the related issues of poverty, health and the environment.
The authors examine the evolving relationship between development strategies and urban planning using a series of international case studies of planning and housing in Latin America; Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Particular consideration is given to how the discourse of "sustainability" is used within thecontext of continuing urbanization, policy and practice. The theoretical issues underpinning "sustainability" as a concept are outlined, and their implications for urban development in terms of both the "green" and "brown" agendas are described.
"Planning and Housing in Developing Countries "provides an accessible introduction to the issues as well as enhancing current theoretical debates. It explores the theories in the fields of housing and planning and examines how this relates to the practical application with a focus on developing countries. The book includes an annotated bibliography as a useful study tool for students in this area.

In this book, the author provides a critical examination and evaluation of a number of the central political questions currently being posed in urban studies. The book is divided into two interrelated sections. Part One critically discussed the theoretical problems raised by recent work in Britain, Europe and the United States and covers such issues as 'non-decision making' and the mobilisation of bias in political systems, the significance of owner-occupation as a basis for political action, the potential importance of 'urban social movements', and the nature of the relationship between urban management, the state and private capital. Throughout these chapters, the author attempts to develop a theoretical position which avoids the weaknesses of contemporary pluralist, Weberian and Marxist formations. Part Two systematically relates this theoretical discussion to an analysis of empirical material generated in a case study of an Outer London Borough. Thus, in addition to a chapter on local government policy making and the operation of strategies of political exclusion, this section contains analysis of political struggles involving suburban owner-occupiers, council tenants and large town centre business enterprises in a town which has undergone massive urban development over the last few years. Taken as a whole, the book constitutes an original and challenging contribution, both theoretical and empirical, to the contemporary analysis of urban politics. This book was first published in 1979.

This book covers all the main aspects of government policy and practice in British inner city regeneration. Chapters deal with the development of policy, agencies for regeneration, housing, social issues. The UK edxperience is compared with that of other countries, particularly the USA, and past achievements and future prospects are considered. This book was first published in 1982.

Since the 1960s, public attention has been drawn increasingly towards the thematic link between historic preservation and urban planning. Nowadays, the organized historic preservation movement in the USA is more than a mere "yearning for history": it represents an active and integral part of urban planning in US cities. In order to approach these planning, economic, and social issues in the field of historic preservation, this book analyzes a variety of interdisciplinary methods, focusing on four selected historic districts within the central business districts of Philadelphia and Boston (in the north) and Charleston and Savannah (in the south).

In order to develop and exercise their skills urban planners need to draw upon a wide variety of methods relating to plan and policy making, urban research and policy analysis. More than ever, planners need to be able to adapt their methods to contemporary needs and circumstances. This introductory textbook focuses on the need to combine traditional research methods with policy analysis in order to understand the true nature of urban planning processes. It describes both planning methods and their underlying concepts and principles, illustrating applications by reference to the daily activities of planning, including the assessment of needs and preferences of the population, the generation and implementation of plans and policies, and the need to take decisions related to the allocation of land, population change, employment, housing and retailing. Ian Bracken also provides a comprehensive guide to the more specialized research literature and case studies of contemporary urban planning practice. This book was first published in 1981.

The expansion of the European Union in 2004 has had significant consequences for both existing and new members of the Union. New member states are assimilating into a new institutional and policy framework, while the changing geography of Europe provides a different context for policy development in pre-2004 member states. One of the more important fields in which these changes are impacting is regional development. The admission of the new countries changes patterns of economic and social disparities across the territory of the European Union, which in turn demands that existing approaches to regional development are reconsidered. An approach which has proved to be one of the most innovative is spatial planning. This book brings together a team of academics and policy makers from across the new Europe involved in regional development and spatial planning. Providing insights into different approaches, it offers a valuable opportunity to compare experiences across European borders.