Pervious pavements in car parks and driveways reduce peak discharge and the volume of runoff flowing in to urban drains and improve the water quality by trapping the sediments in the infiltrated water. This reduces the risk of pollutants such as suspended solids and particle bound chemicals such as phosphorous, nitrogen, heavy metals and oils and hydrocarbons entering receiving waters. The key objectives of the study are to establish relationships between rainfall and pervious pavement runoff and quantify improvements to infiltrated stormwater quality through the pervious pavement. The field experimental results were used to calibrate the PCSWMMPP model and to develop water flow and quality improvement transfer functions of the MUSIC model for concrete block and turf cell pavements. The research reported herein has demonstrated that pervious pavements can be introduced as a sustainable stormwater management initiative and as a key Water Sensitive Urban Design feature to deliver numerous benefits to the environment. The outcomes from the study will be useful in designing environmentally friendly car parks, pedestrian paths, light traffic drive ways, sporting grounds and public areas in the future. Land developers and local government authorities will be major beneficiaries of the study which has increased the understanding of the use of pervious pavements and explored a number of issues that previously inhibited the wider use of pervious pavements in practice.

Twentieth century urbanization has left a tremendous footprint on the globe. It is generally speaking a spread out fragmented suburban and exurban landscape continuously growing according to what has been called sprawl-like development, increasing energy and automobile dependency, challenging urban sustainability. Recently urban growth has also turned inwards because of economic and political change. Thus one of the main challenges for future urban design will be to ‘compact sprawl’. This thesis, set in the field of urban morphology, explores the spatial conditions for suburban densification by looking at administrative and user-related measures of density, public open space, and pedestrian accessibility. If we consider useful open space, it would not decrease density, but rather increase spatial compactness. So would also a well-connected street network, if we consider accessibility as part of density. The thesis’ first four papers explore new measures that contradict ordinary notions of density and the last three papers examine densification scenarios on different urban scales in collaboration with urban planners in practice. The paper Place syntax explores a possibility to combine the space syntax description of cognitive accessibility, axial line distance, with place attraction into a combined attraction-accessibility analysis model. Empirical investigation shows that place syntax analysis captures pedestrian movement and can be used for new types of location density analyses. Sociotope mapping describes the theoretical body of a new urban planning tool called the “sociotope map” (sociotopkarta) developed in Stockholm planning practice. The map emphasizes that the same public open space can have different direct use values for different people and thereby assesses qualitative open space area. Exploring Ambiterritory investigates the notion of (sub)urban no-man’s-land. Densification most often means increased open space use, which naturally leads to an increase of potential conflicting territorial interests. However, the reduction of vague user space and unclear legal territories by densification can increase the size of useful open space. More green space in a denser city investigates whether little public green space means low accessibility. User questionnaires and GIS-analyses in ten city districts in Stockholm correlate and show that it is possible to have more accessible green space in a denser city. Strategic exurban landscape densification investigates different municipal location strategies and development rates in the municipality of Kungälv. Results show that location strategies create the biggest landscape impact and not development rates. Greening metropolitan growth analyzes the density landscape in Stockholm county region and finds some correlations with health and socioeconomic variables. Growth scenarios in the regional plan for 2030 show decreasing compactness and spaciousness in inner suburbia. Compact sprawl experiments use the measures developed in the former papers on four densification scenarios in two suburbs in Stockholm. The results show how it is possible to efficiently compact modernist sprawl, particularly the inner suburbs. It is likely that we will be more dependent on walking, bicycling, and public transportation in the future. Street networks and public open spaces are then key issues today just as they were at the end of the nineteenthcentury, creating compact, sustainable, liveable, equitable, and more competitive cities. In fact, many compact urban cores such as in Stockholm, London, and Manhattan have through the 20th century persistently stood up to the competition against more sprawling cities. The thesis shows that compacting inner suburbia seems to be the new frontier many cities and planners are facing. In fact, this is a vast unexplored field that needs further attention in urban studies and urban morphology in particular. / QC 20100913 / Stadsform och hållbar utveckling

A case study of Vancouver’s West End neighbourhood examines the cultural, structural, economic and political impacts of a glbtt (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and two-spirited) community and a gay urban village on its city. This work also queries the role of municipal government in the regulation and maintenance of the social composition and identity of a neighbourhood. Finally, the future of gay urban villages is discussed as their role in promoting solidarity and safety transitions toward a commercial and nodal one. This research involved three local key informant interviews and nine community residents who participated as photographers in a community visual analysis. Results unveiled a neighbourhood intrinsically well suited to serving a transient gay male community with an increasing dispersion of the identifying demographic. For the foreseeable future the significance of the Davie Village in the socio-sexual landscape of Vancouver appears secure through the nodal nature of gay retail, bars and services, reinforced by business interests. As an urban typology supporting a comparatively young glbtt culture, the gay urban village plays a unique role in the city, providing spaces of experimentation and invention — a stage for new systems of cultural (ex)change to emerge. / October 2007

Ett torg är ett bra exempel på en traditionell mötesplats. Ofta har den en historisk bakgrund där funktion och placering var anpassad för kommersiella, politiska, eller religiösa syften. Idag när fler och fler människor flyttar in till staden korsas våra vägar allt oftare. Oavsett var vi stöter på varandra så har alla platser där vi möts något gemensamt, att rymma människor, att utgöra en yta där samtal kan uppstå. Möten mellan människor sker precis hela tiden, det finns inga regler på hur ett möte kan uppstå. De flesta är planerade men många sker också slumpmässigt. Det har länge varit känt att miljön runt omkring oss påverkar beteendet hos en individ, det kan handla om en naturlig miljö likaså en byggd miljö. En annan påverkan som visar på skillnader i beteende är de kulturella differenser bland samhällets innevånare. Stora städer utvecklas dagligen av det mångkulturella klimatet. Svenska storstäder växer i en allt snabbare takt, med ökad urbanisering och en allt glesare landsbygd till följd. Nya stadsdelar byggs upp, äldre renoveras. Politiker, byggnadsbolag och stadsplanerare är några av de stora aktörer som dagligen försöker göra staden så attraktiv och funktionell som möjligt. Staden förändras och detta ger oss ett gyllene tillfälle att fokusera på de platser där innevånarna möts, i de utrymmen som uppstår mellan fasaderna, mellan människor. Genom att bygga in mening till mötesplatser och förstå potentialen av att implementera digitala kommunikationsmedel, som vi kan skapa fler intressanta mötesplatser som lockar människor till samtal. Det är genom större medvetenhet och kunskap kring hur människor fungerar, i olika kulturer, städer och som sociala varelser som det går att skapa mötesplatser som också fungerar som samtalsplatser. Rapporten resulterar i två skilda förslag på en ny typ av mötesplats som är anpassade till stadsmiljöer. / A square is a good example of a traditional meeting place. It has often a historicalbackground in which the function and location was suitable for commercial, politicalor religious purpose. As more and more people move in to the city, more urban spacewas used for meetings. Whatever surface people uses the thing they all have incommon is to fit the people, and become a place for communication. Meetings between people happen all the time, and there are no rules on how ameeting might happen. Most are planned, but many are also random. It has longbeen known that the environment around us affects the human behaviour; it mayrelate to the natural environment as well a built environment. Anothereffect that shows the differences in behaviour is the cultural differences amongcommunity residents. Large cities developed a daily basis by the multi-culturalenvironment. Swedish cities are growing at an ever-faster rate, with increasedurbanization and decreased rural population as results. New neighbourhoods arebuilt up, older renovated. Politicians, construction companiesand urban designers are the working force trying to make the city attractive andfunctional. The city is changing and this gives us a golden opportunity to focus on theplaces where people meet, in the spaces created between the facades, between people. By embedding context to meeting places and understanding the potential ofimplementing the digital communication methods, we can create a more interestingenvironment that is more responsive to communication. It is through greaterawareness and knowledge about how people function in different cultures,cities and as social beings that it is possible to create new interesting places whofunction as a forum for communication and social life. The report results in two different proposals for a new type of meeting place designedto fit urban areas.

Detroit continues to stand out as emblematic of failing urban economies, infrastructure, density, and form. But its spatially dominant urban relationships also provide the opportunity required to transform unsustainable, expanding megalopolises. Taking lead from the recently established Detroit Works Project, De-Center transforms existing urban conditions to propose a network of urban islands that respond to the extreme conditions created through modern planning. It demands that architecture and urbanism act as a single project.

Suburban Centres were established in the Toronto region as the population dispersed beyond the city’s borders. Intended as a set of delivery points for municipal services and concentrations of commercial and social program serving local suburban residents, government policy and market forces are now encouraging these centres to accumulate a greater range of program, and absorb a significant share of population growth. They have a mandate to orient new residents toward improved public transit routes as a relief for overburdened road infrastructure, but their fundamental role as a suburban downtown requires continued accessibility by car. The structure of the suburbs is fixed, dominated by the car as the primary element of an extensive mobility system that has generated its own spatial protocols and building typologies. The morphology of older urban areas was developed in response to the parameters of streetcar service and human abilities, and also shows a resistance to change. The two mobility systems co-exist, each with their own associated territories, creating an intermodal metropolis. In suburban centres, the intensive urban mobility extends into the reach of the suburban territory, creating a threshold condition that requires a hybrid morphology to serve both. The design adopts Scarborough Centre as a test site, proposing a morphology that accommodates urban and suburban mobility by embracing the suburban planning paradigm that separates vehicle traffic from public space. The interaction between the two networks is managed to create variations in accessibility characteristics that determine programmatic distribution. The public realm is compartmentalized into differentiated spaces that support a highly permeable pedestrian network integrated with the central transit station. The proposal allows Scarborough Centre to expand its public space network without compromising its function as a highly accessible suburban downtown.

The surface parking lot was a key element in the destruction of traditional public space. It fragmented the fabric of traditional cities, prompting the sprawl of twentieth century cities and suburbs. The automobile permitted the average individual, for the first time in history, to move through public space insulated in a private shell, shielded from strangers and protected from undesirables. Consequently, the role of the sidewalk dwindled. The automobile and the parking lot dominated the pedestrian and the sidewalk, whose diminished vitality further encouraged widespread automobile use. As a result, the parking lot became one of the defining features of the American city. In the United States parking lots are expected to be utilitarian, prevalent and free. Even as traditional public spaces disappeared, there was little demand for new public spaces, particularly not in the parking lot. Through investigations of parking history and public space, this thesis argues that parking lots, by virtue of their visual and physical accessibility, are contemporary public space. Although they are singular in their use, in contrast to the multifaceted street, parking lots are the settings for modern public life. This thesis further asserts that the simple landscape of the utilitarian parking lot can be transformed into complex public space, thereby enlivening the public realm.

This thesis analyzes the changing design and planning strategies in the contemporary urban design area. The rapid improvements during the 20th century in complexity sciences and computer technologies have directly affected all the branches of design. In architecture, as in urban design, generative models, evolutionary design attitudes and computer based simulation tools have taken a significant role during the last few decades. In urban design, emerged in a period starting form the second half of the century, non-determinist, dynamic and self-organized design attitudes depending on naturalistic models have emerged as an alternative to determinist, static and reductionist approaches based on linear solutions. In this study, it is aimed to define and evaluate these emerging contemporary approaches with respect to their antecedents and precedents. The study also searches for the conceptual and technical developments and background which support this process. With an analysis of case studies, the paradigm shift is examined in practice. The study intends to clarify whether contemporary urban design approaches, especially naturalistic models could be an alternative to deterministic stances.

The important positions and proposals of the thesis are firstly the framework posited for a socially sustainable urban environment, and secondly a proposal for the parameters of place formation for sustainable urban design. Research into social sustainability has provided a variety of approaches among which Castells&amp / #8217 / model for urban movements have been adapted as a matrix for social organization in terms of placemaking, highlighting the goals of an urban movement, in this case of a place, with the citizen as urban actor, against its adversary the historical actor. As for the parameters of place formation a matrix of place is developed as a tool for urban design and for measuring urban sustainability. The matrix delineates the six dimensions of place in terms of the three sustainabilities most strongly involved in each / to be measured by the indicators of sustainability which are to be achieved by applying various strategies for urban design. As a result of the study of the underlying dynamics of the paradigms of sustainability, place, and place-making, and the shifting role of urban design necessitated by problems of urbaproposed within a discourse that prefers to see the three sustainabilities in conjunction and, believes socially sustainable communities to be also environmentally and economically sustainable- the issue becomes how to facilitate a place process through urban design. Place as a social product, and place as an experiential, cognitive construct, place as object and subject of place-making, and place as a geographically specific, historical materialist formation are the four vantage points from which to inspect the juxtapositions and differences of the concept / and may be arrive at a theory of place. The predilection that sustainability and urbanization can be evaluated via placemaking stems, on one hand, from a study of the city/urbanization through the works of Harvey, Castells, Lefebvre and Bookchin who emphasize social space/process in the face of physical/geometric space / and an architectural background/disposition which finds place congenial on the other hand. The paradigm of sustainability and place, and place-making as urban design is applied to the case of Temelli, Ankara for a critique of sustainable/unsustainable urbanization. As a geographic, social, economic and historical location within the Greater Municipality of Ankara, Temelli has been a region of attraction for investors since the 1990s. What was once a small village planned for settling Balkan immigrants, became a municipality in 1994 / the land within the municipal boundaries were increased tenfold, and the region was earmarked for an overspill of 650,000 people from Ankara Metropolitan Area in the next 20 years. Four residential areas in the region have been assessed comparatively in terms of sustainable urban forms / and an evaluation of everyday lives have been conducted through surveys and interviews with residents to observe how and if place as social product evolved / how the conceived, perceived and lived spaces interacted.

The buildings of a city such as shopping malls, plazas, world trade centers, hotels or even residential complexes are not only alternative urban building typologies but they represent power in social, economical, political and even religious terms. In this sense buildings should not be seen as specific design and research areas limited with single building scale but rather should be seen as urban statements in city scale. However the eclectic existence of these buildings in urban fabric causes a series of unexpected transformations in a larger scale. The impact of a building in urban scale takes a very important place in the modern city &ndash / their architectural expression is not limited with their individual scale but rather it becomes an integrated part of the whole city which is open to transform function, infrastructure, architectural meaning, image ability and other social problems. This building behaves as a cultural and social symbol and it is inevitable to consider the design process as an urban experience. However many of the contemporary examples are designed as individual architectural buildings&hellip / The integration of Turkey, but especially the city of Ankara to the global economic network providing new cultural identities presents a transformation of the city which natures could be seen &ldquo / in terms of rent theory&rdquo / and makes this city &ldquo / a place of competition for profit.&rdquo / To better present these transformations one of the most important regions EskiSehir Highway will be analyzed for the power it reflects as the buildings are set on the two sides of the highway as a new type of urban architecture proceeding spontaneously and reconfiguring boundaries based on the limits of the capital. The limits economic power decides about social, economic and physical order of places shapes the city as an urban product to be sold.