Ourtopias: Cities and the Role of Design (original) (raw)

Retheorizing the City Past the Edge of the Twenty-First Century

Journal of Urban History, 2014

One decade into the twenty-first century, the present and future of the city is a great concern for scholars, policy makers, and citizens alike. The planet's urban condition evokes both anxiety and promise. Will the city of the future be an engine of deepening democracy and prosperity or marked by stark poverty and exclusion? With over 50 percent of the earth's population now living in cities, returning to the question of how best to understand, manage, and reimagine urban areas seems to be long in the making.

DESIGNING FOR THE FUTURE OF THE CITY

A rapid acceleration in urbanization has appeared as an important by-product of the world's globalization process, with the result that cities have now become man's primary habitat. This development is both forcing urban environments to embrace increasing numbers of inhabitants, despite their often limited resources, and requiring 21st century architects and urban planners to quickly develop new ideas and new forms on how to direct the futures of global cities. Faced as they are by the challenges of sustainability, these architects and planners are exploring ways both to rehabilitate existing urban centers and come up with new modes of space production. This study concentrates on the concept of the smart city and explores these new approaches by considering the findings achieved by the IAAC Global Summer School, which was conducted at the ITU Faculty of Architecture in 2013. This summer school was conducted as a means in the investigation of new strategies for urban development and city production by focusing on such different aspects as the production of knowledge, production of food, production of objects, and the production of energy. In order to enhance the discussion of this development, this work looks at the method of exploration utilized and the ideas set forth by the architectural student participants and considers their suggestions for adaptive and reactive spatial infrastructures. The aim of this study is to the enable architects to enhance their spatial awareness while generating new ideas for the future of the city.

A Critical Review on The Current Thought and Practice of Urban Design: New Roles in the Future

2016

Though urban design is historically rooted in development of cities, urban design, as a contemporary discipline, is relatively new compared to associated disciplines of architecture, urban planning, and landscape architecture. Urban design’s close connection with these allied disciplines has also been the reason for its ambiguous nature, and its muddled definition. Accordingly, it is claimed here that a reexamination of the definition, status, and role of urban design is essential for the future directions of urban design as a discipline and cities as sustainable environments. In line with this, this article provides a critical framework regarding the current understanding of the discipline of urban design which is based on form, policy and efficiency, and highlights the need for place oriented approaches performed in an interdisciplinary working framework. The paper first focuses on the meaning and significance of urban design, and discusses the problems with the manner in which ur...

REQUIEM OF A NEW ERA IN URBAN DESIGN CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

AbdelWahab Shalaby, 2024

Urban planning is revolutionizing. Sustainable, equitable, and innovative city design are now the norm. This paper explores this new period's basic principles, challenges, and opportunities. This trend promotes sustainable design. Urban areas are implementing green infrastructure, renewable energy, and sustainable transportation to lessen their environmental impact. This strategy reduces pollutants and improves public health, making city life better for residents. Technology-data convergence drives urban redevelopment. Sensors and other digital technology are creating "smart cities," which are changing urban life. Cities may improve their systems and services by collecting and analyzing data on traffic patterns and air quality. This new century requires diversity and inclusiveness. To create cities for all ethnicities and socioeconomic classes. This mission includes providing affordable homes, accessible public spaces, and universal healthcare and education. Despite these gains, modern urban planning faces several challenges. Rapid urbanization has left cities unable to meet the needs of their growing populations. This might increase traffic and demand for water and power. Climate change poses another issue. Climate change threatens cities worldwide. Climate-resilient infrastructure and environmental planning are needed in cities.Resource scarcity affects areas without water or power. Reusing rainwater and using renewable energy are imaginative solutions.Urban planners struggle with societal inequality. Basic city services and public amenities should be available to all city residents, regardless of income. Therefore, public transit, low-cost housing, and social support services are crucial.Urban design is changing city planning, development, and management. There is a huge possibility for sustainable, equitable, and forward-thinking urban growth, notwithstanding challenges. Sustainable design, data, and social justice may improve city life.As climate change continues to threaten the world's cities, it is crucial that sustainable design, data, and social justice become a priority. By focusing on these three areas, we can ensure that our cities are equipped to withstand the coming challenges.However, in order to promote the well-being of all citizens and address issues of inequality, it is vital that the cities prioritize sustainability, data, and social justice.By embracing these principles, cities can ensure that all residents have access to the same resources and opportunities, allowing them to thrive and prosper.

Introduction: Urban Design Kaleidoscope 2017

2017

With this anniversary publication we celebrate 20 years of urban design at Aalborg University. The contributors to the publication are students, graduates, and faculty members, who have generously sharpened their pens and minds for this diverse collection of essays and accompanying illustrations. The resulting collaborative catalogue celebrates urban design teaching and research at AAU, and the urban design practice by graduates from this program. Authors have been invited to contribute with a brief essay, focused on a pertinent urban design issue of their own selection. Together they form a rich collection of subjects, concepts, objects, projects, and questions, which have been-and still are-on our minds in urban design throughout the past 20 years. The richness and variation demonstrated by the catalogue is in keeping with urban design's orientation towards diverse considerations when addressing contemporary urban challenges. The past years of AAU urban design endeavours have demonstrated that urban design is about acting within networks of multiple interests, concerns, stakeholders, and other actors. Urban design is perhaps well conceived of as a sensibility of the 'urban-minded', as Harvard GSD dean José Luis Sert suggested at the world's first Urban Design conference in 1956. This somewhat indefinite inception for urban design still persists, and clarity of definition seems to be defied. Rather, in the engaged attempts to operate with synthesis in the ever-changing complexity of the urban condition, urban design's elusive mandate and purpose remains in debate. If attempting to stir up this hornet's nest of urban design's contemporary raison d'etre and scope, multiple co-existing positions impose themselves. Just some of these include: Koolhaas' radical Fuck Context and push to leave architectural delusions of potency and splendor, next to Gehl's human-friendly 'let's meet between the buildings' agenda, next to Mostafavi's optimistic call for a cross-disciplinary sensibility to respond to the ecological crisis, next to Harvey's sturdy emphasis on power, justice, and the right to the city, next to Jacobs' and Appleyard's manifesto of e.g., livability, community, and public life as normative goals of urban design. This multiplicity suggests that to be an urban designer demands skillful and flexible navigation across complex issues of cities and countrysides. Urban designers must work with many elements with meticulousness and readiness. We must strive to continuously adapt to situations and to even be at the forefront of change. This also applies to urban design teaching and research at AAU, as well as to the practices of graduates. For these reasons, this publication offers its modest space for engaged professionals and students to address the diversity and variation of urban design through what they determine to be pertinent urban design matters. Thus, the contemporary versatility of urban design is reflected in this kaleidoscopic catalogue, addressing such diverse issues as urban design's social ambitions; affective encounters of urban space; the conceptualisation of spaces, landscapes, and buildings; relationships between local sites and global change; ecology; events and culture in the city; urban design's role in a complex field of interests and actors driving urban development and planning; dreams of the future; technologies; continuous urban change; experimental methods; and disputed concepts. We are proud to present these voices, and we invite you to dive into them. Thanks to all the contributors for sharing! Last but not least, thanks to the Spar Nord Foundation for its generous funding of this publication, as well as to the Study Board of Architecture & Design and to the Section of Architecture & Urban Design at the

Re-imagine, Re-load, Re-cycle: New Urbanism for the City of Future

Metamorphosis is the new and powerful keyword in the actual age of crisis. We are not undergoing a mere -even though dramatic -passing situation, but we are living in a crisis which requires a metamorphosis of the ecological, cultural, economic, social and political systems to get out of it other than we were when entering it. The metamorphosis will have to be mainly urban, because we live in the Urban Age in which more than half the population live, work (and dream the future) in cities, dense or sprawled, capital or reticular, local or global (Burdett and Sudjic, eds., 2007). The city, as the predominant form of inhabiting, is invested with the "responsibility" of producing innovative, more sustainable, intelligent and creative life styles, able of generating the innovative propelling force which can make us emerge from the quagmire of decline.

City Catalyst: Architecture in the Age of Extreme Urbanization

City Catalyst, 2012

This issue of AD proposes a new architecture–city relationship beyond outright resistance or unconditional embrace. It suggests rethinking the city as a catalytic realm of invention and a space of possibilities. Contributors include: Kunlé Adeyemi/NLE, Edward Denison, Sarah Dunn and Martin Felsen/UrbanLab, Keller Easterling, Daniela Fabricius, Adriaan Geuze/West 8, Sean Lally/Weathers, Jesse LeCavalier, Jürgen Mayer H, Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss/Normal Architecture Office, OMA, Kyong Park, Albert Pope, Michelle Provoost and Wouter Vanstiphout/Crimson, Robert Somol, Ron Witte/WW, Yoshiharu Tsukamoto/Atelier Bow-Wow, and Bernard Tschumi (interview by Alexander Eisenschmidt). Including my contributions: “Stranger the Fiction: A Mission Statement” (introduction), “The City’s Architectural Project: From Formless City to Forms of Architecture,” and “Importing the City into Architecture: A Conversation with Bernard Tschumi” (interview).

The technopolis: exploring the urban environment and technological change in the discourse of urban design

2014

A thesis submitted to the faculty of Architecture University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the degree Master of Urban Design. Johannesburg Nov. 1998 DECLARATION I declare that this dissertation is my own, unaided work. It is being submitted for the degree of Master of Urban Design in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It has not been submitted before for any degree or examination in any other university. Zeky A. Adous 26 November i998. • To lain and Monica, for their inspiration and direction • To Yaseera, for her encouragement and standing by me a To my colleagues, Sintayehu, Wossen and Marcelle, tor being there for me • To Johan Olivier and Mldrand MLC, for helping me get information .. To my family, friends and all who helped me through the difficult three years ABSTRACT The intention of this exercise is to investigate a specific area in the growing field of urban design. while learning in the process. As urban design is one of the practices trrat are directly affected by the pressures resulting from the current fast changes in our environments, it will be useful and fascinating to explore this dimension in the dtscourse. The theme of the discourse is therefore to reflect on the different thoughts and deal with the continual change in the Urban Environment that i~.resulting from technological advancements. Technology is generally discussed as the human mastery in perfecting the tools by which humans attempt to control their environments. Therefore the Urban Environment is presented to be the reflection of human level of technological success. The thesis hence revises the understanding of the Urban Environment. It emphasizes the fact that the Urban Environment is a continually transfoiming entity, whereby urban designers are expected to continually come to terms with the emerging new lifestyles, due to changing technology and its irnpaots on the structures of urban environments. While sharing the view that respects the values of the past (that have continued to shape human urban environments), this study advocates the maintenance 01some sort of balance in design approaches, to also allow the accommodation of new technological environments. The study includes experimenting on reasonably bold but plausible design ideas. In doing so the exercice hopes to provide a stage for discussions and provoke innovative thinking by urban designers, that will be useful to the discourse of urban design. Contents Broad outline: i.o INTRODUCTION PART ONE: IriI::ORET1CAL INVESTIGATIC"j 2.0 HISTORICt~L PERSPECTIVES OF THE Uf-~8AN ENVIRONMENT AND TECHNOLOGY 3.0 THE PRESENT REALITIES AND THE FUTUFtf OF URBAN LIFE 4.0 THE DIFFEnENT SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT 5.0 THE NOTION o-CHANGE IN THE URBAN E~VIRONMENT 6.0 SHPPING THE CHANGING URBAN ENVI80NM._)\jT 7.0 THE ROLE OF URBAN DESIGN

Aesthetic Values of the Future Cities

The aesthetic value of the city is one of the most important elements of its urban identity which distinguishes it from other cities; cities that are made in their growth stages which combine the different ingredients of beauty. Contemporary architects and urban designers search for concepts and aesthetic values for contemporary and future cities, which are characterized by being sustainable cities. This research raises the question of what are the designing and planning characteristics that achieve aesthetic values for future cities, and what are the urban and architectural vocabularies that enhance the aesthetic values in the contemporary urban developments. In order to answer this question the research adopted an analytical approach to previous studies in order to extrapolate indicators of aesthetic values for future cities (sustainable cities). A theoretical framework for a comprehensive vocabulary that describes formats is designed. Formulas are clarified to achieve aesthetic values in the future sustainable cities.

Now Urbanism: The Future City is Here

2015

After more than a century of heroic urban visions, city dwellers today live in suburban subdivisions, gated communities, edge cities, apartment towers, and slums. The contemporary cities we know are more often the embodiment of unexpected outcomes and unintended consequences rather than visionary planning. As an alternative approach for rethinking and remaking today’s cities and regions, this book explores the intersections of critical inquiry and immediate, substantive actions. The contributions inside recognize the rich complexities of the present city not as barriers or obstacles but as grounds for uncovering opportunity and unleashing potential. Now Urbanism asserts that the future city is already here. It views city making as grounded in the imperfect, messy, yet rich reality of the existing city and the everyday purposeful agency of its dwellers. Through a framework of situating, grounding, performing, distributing, instigating, and enduring, these contributions written by a multidisciplinary group of practitioners and scholars illustrate specificity, context, agency, and networks of actors and actions in the re-making of the contemporary city.