De offentliga rummen utgör en viktig del av våra städer - det är där vi förflyttar oss, möts och integrerar med andra människor. Men de offentliga rummens grundläggande funktion som öppna och demokratiska platser hotas idag av förändringar i tillgänglighet och funktion. Dagens kommersialisering och privatisering gör att de offentliga ytorna krymper både fysiskt och mentalt. Privatiseringen tar offentlig mark i anspråk och hindrar människor från att vara medskapare av staden då rummen inte längre är öppna, samtidigt som kommersialiseringen skapar en stark dominans över innerstadens rum vilket försvårar platsskapande och omprövningar av platsers identitet. Innerstadens offentliga rum får en allt mer ensidig funktion som plats för handel, restaurangbesök och kulturupplevelser. Dessutom genomgår rummen en stark estetisering då de fungerar som stadens ansikte utåt i viljan att attrahera nya boende, besökande och företagande till staden. Kandidatarbetet visar att tillgängligheten till innerstadens offentliga rum inte är jämt fördelad över stadens invånare. Mentala föreställningar kring rum skapar sociala barriärer som verkar utestängande och exkluderande. Mindre bemedlade samhällsklasser blir undanträngda från innerstadens offentliga rum genom att de allt mer definieras utifrån konsumtionsmöjligheter, och rätten till staden undertrycks genom de offentliga rummens dominering av kapitalistiska strukturer. I arbetet identifieras tre designprinciper som konkretiserar hur tillgängligheten till innerstaden kan förbättras och hur de offentliga rummen kan bli mer inkluderande för alla medborgare. Designprinciperna fokuserar på att skapa goda mötesplatser och flexibla stadsrum som möjliggör medskapande och ökar medborgarnas rätt till staden. Designprinciperna omsätts i praktiken genom ett utvecklingsförslag för Gamla Torget i Uppsala, där en variation av funktioner på torget attraherar människor med olika behov under olika tider på dygnet. Torget blir genom utvecklingsförslaget en mer levande plats och det offentliga rummets inkluderande förmåga stärks, vilket främjar en socialt hållbar utveckling. De identifierade designprinciperna kan således användas av planerare och andra verksamma inom stadsutveckling, för att utveckla offentliga rum i innerstaden till mer öppna och demokratiska platser för alla medborgare.

As cities across the world have grown and continue to grow in many ways and for many reasons, it is anticipated that the growth of population will come from all over the world. In turn, it will influence on our urban environment economically, socially, culturally, and ecologically. Like other cities, London is making a plan -creating 326,000 new homes and 776,000 jobs - to tackle issues of the city. A series of new emerging developments across London will contribute to the changing face of the city. A lot of interventions spreading through the city are focused on the economic forces and to take advantages of real estate of London by projecting offices, apartment which is mostly market-housing, and hotels. They swept away existing contexts and replaced with higher density buildings obtaining large profits, building high rise, filling gaps between buildings with gated car parks on the ground floors, and building over open spaces. Ground floors remain blind, and tall office blocks make the overshadowed open square inhospitable and wind turbulence. Most initiatives do not seem to contribute to urban life, but may possibly become the slums of tomorrow. Now, it is time to think about how to make sense of an environment which is safe, pleasant and healthy with a sense of identity, and how to contribute to neighborhoods, visitors and new comers. In dense inner city area, since place is an invitation where neighborhood meets city, urban design must meet needs of commuters, visitors, travelers, and residents equally by combining place, amenity, and movement. Therefore, this study is to investigate ‘How city’s agenda combine with, and support local neighborhood needs’, and to redefine the quality of city life through qualities of comfort, accessibility, amenity, education, experience, and nature. / text

Detta kandidatarbete behandlar rumsbegreppet och dess komplexa uppbyggnad, bestående av både den fysiska och sociala dimensionen. Tidigare forskning visar att det råder en mångtydig uppfattning om vad som definierar ett rum. Det innebär att det offentliga rummet behöver defineras för varje sammanhang det förekommer i för att det ska kunna förstås. Det offentliga rummet har historiskt sett alltid haft en betydelsefull roll i samhället. Det har utgjort en arena för politik, handel och vardagliga händelser, och verkat som en central mötesplats i staden. Under 1900-talet har samhällsförändringar skett som inneburit att ifrågasättandet av det offentliga rummet väckts. Konkurrerande arenor för möten har uppstått, och trenden för de offentliga rummen är att användningen har minskat. Problematiken återspeglas i Västerviks stadskärna, där Stora torget  idag snarare fungerar som en passage för förbipasserande och utgör inte ett offentligt rum som människor väljer att uppehålla sig i.   Med utgångspunkt i det socio-spatiala perspektivet problematiseras förhållandet mellan de offentliga rummens fysiska utformning och de sociala relationer som tar plats i rummet, och till vilken grad fysiska medel kan påverka den rumsliga användningen. Forskning visar att det inte går att fastställa med säkerhet till vilken grad  den fysiska gestaltningen kan bestämma användningen, eftersom den fysiska planeringen enbart kan möjliggöra för användning av offentliga rum, inte styra den.  Studien utgår ifrån urbanteoretiska gestaltningsprinciper då förändringar av stadsstrukturen med skiftande paradigm och stadsbyggnadsideal påvisat behovet av urban design. Utifrån verk publicerade av Camillo Sitte, Gordon Cullen, Jane Jacobs och Jan Gehl konkretiseras faktorer som möjliggör för ett mer användbart rum. Dessa har gett upphov till fyra operativa begrepp: rumslig identitet, rumslig användning, rumslig tillgänglighet och rumslig trygghet, som verkar som ett analysverktyg för fallstudien av Stora torget.  Utifrån de identifierade operativa begreppen har en platsanalys genomförts av Stora torget. Genom observationer och intervjuer har det offentliga rummet analyserats. Ett gestaltningsförslag har därefter utarbetats för torget med syfte att öka dess fyra rumsliga egenskaper: identitet, användning, tillgänglighet och trygghet.

I conducted a case study analysis of Dubai, exploring multiple urban design tactics for a more sustainable development approach to Dubai’s pattern of development. Particularly, this dissertation identifies sustainable urban form design principles and strategies for a Dubai neighborhood. The research addresses the question: which form-based urban design strategies effectively deliver greater environmental, social, and economic coherence in Dubai’s neighborhood development? In addition, this research addresses the question of whether certain urban form design principles contribute comparatively more than others to sustainability. I used two rounds of the Delphi technique, a structured communication technique utilizing multiple rounds of questioning, to obtain experts’ knowledge and opinions to redefine urbanism in Dubai towards more ecological and social responsive practices. My analysis of the Delphi reveal that in Dubai, the most sustainable neighborhoods are those emphasizing more public participation in the initial planning process, i.e., connectivity and multiple transportation options; adequate diversity; green, open, and social nodes in the urban fabric; culturally-relevant urbanism and architecture; climate-sensitive urbanism and architecture; eco-balanced design applications; and adaptability, all integrated with one another in the compactly arranged urban fabric. Approaches to sustainable development must stress elements other than just design itself, such as grasping the nuances of the cultural traditions, politics, and implementation constraints. Therefore, this research also involved collecting survey responses from local and expatiate residents in Dubai and interviewing Dubai government officials in order to identify and to understand the relevant political and cultural aspects as well as obstacles associated with the experts’ design recommendations. In particular, survey responses were used to: (1) identify the public opinion surrounding some of the Dubai neighborhood design ideas suggested by an international and local panel of experts; and (2) understand how the public value and prioritize the suitability of the proposed design strategies to Dubai’s cultural environment. Interviews with the local authorities in Dubai facilitated (1) the determination of troublesome challenges and constraints for implementing some of the urban design strategies defined by experts in the Delphi; and (2) identification of implementation opportunities and possible policy initiatives that might support the implementation of the proposed strategies. I also synthesized all research data to identify areas of overlap and disagreement among research participants (the experts, public, and government officials). Finally, the last chapter discusses two major obstacles challenging different aspects of sustainability. I also detail a potential solution to prevail over the challenges, and introduce potential areas of future research. / text

The students of PLAN 587B Introductory Urban Design Studio, under the instruction of Dr. Maged Senbel, worked in collaboration with developer Wayne Allen to create 3 sustainable designs for the redevelopment of an amalgamated site in the Big Bend area of Burnaby BC adjacent to Willard Park. Concurrently, through a research-based directed study project Jeca Glor-Bell conducted research on green design principles and technologies to aid the design students in achieving a high level of sustainability in design. This book brings together the research on green design principles and application of green technologies with the final designs. The purpose of this effort is to offer a resource for the developer, other urban planning students as well as interested practitioners seeking to apply green design principles and technologies to future sites. The book begins by explaining the green principles and features which have informed and influenced these designs and then presents the three completed site designs. The first site design, Fenwick Village, was created by Jennifer Fix, Bronwyn Jarvis and Chani Joseph. The second design, Willard’s Eco-Village, was created by Brian Gregg, Lang Lang and Sawngjai Manityakul, and finally the Sprout: The City is the Country Design which was created by Kaitlin Kazmierowski, Jeff Deby and Andrew Merrill. Each of these designs sought to combine three elements: the client’s vision, ecological development principles, and green design features. Finally the book includes several appendices with greater detail on the application of green energy technologies, including calculations for the capacity of different green technologies.

In a context of rapid urbanization and increasingly standardized built environments, urbanism must find new methods of creating appropriate conditions for the variability of contemporary urban life. The city, understood as a system of interconnected processes in constant change, offers a relational way of thinking about urban design. This thesis explores the concept of Relational Urbanism through a strategic design approach that engages the complexity of the site to create variability in the built environment by relating built form to landscape elements. This relational approach has particular potential in post-industrial sites, where challenging existing conditions and processes of remediation resist conventional methods of redevelopment. The thesis focuses on the Toronto Port Lands as a testing ground for this design approach, drawing on the site's industrial heritage to develop a landscape framework and a set of relational rules that will guide the emergence of a diverse urban environment able to change over time. A series of design strategies—remediation parks, urban delta, adapted industry, and differentiated fabric—rethink the challenges of the site as opportunities for public benefit, creating a variegated landscape for built form to respond to. In contrast to a singular static master plan, this method favours multiple flexible strategies that can be deployed incrementally, breaking down the scale of development and allowing it to be realized by a wide variety of stakeholders. Through this approach the thesis seeks to enable the city to intentionally but subtly guide its urban landscape toward diversity and allow its citizens to participate in its continued adaptation.

This thesis looks to techno music, and subsequently to the DJ, as models for a way of understanding urban spatial ecology. In its compositional use of rhythm to create a sense of musical space punctuated by time, the DJ’s act of mixing audio in performance is akin to the design process: architects similarly do well to observe and acknowledge the rhythm of city life, history, climate, geology, and to mould their dynamic into an appropriate spatial interface. By aligning aspects of documentation and process with DJ methods, the thesis translates the city’s various rhythms to produce responsive, intuitive architecture. A proposal for a built intervention on a former rail yard in central Halifax, Canada, the architectural response seeks to mix aspects of the city into the site, creating a multivalent graft between military facilities and civilian neighborhoods.

The current food system relies on global industrial agriculture and undermines food security partly by destroying the economic underpinnings of a localised food system. The potential efficiency of ecologically-integrated local agriculture addresses the economic and environmental implications of climate change associated with the food chain. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare existing North American models of commercially successful UA from northern climates and to create sample designs of an urban agricultural (UA) enterprise for sites in Guelph, Ontario. A case study approach and literature review was used to elicit key components of successful UA. Results indicate that profitable small scale, ecologically integrated agri-enterprises require a high degree of technical and business skills. Two site-specific designs provide examples of how a commercial urban farm can be incorporated into the city matrix of Guelph, Ontario. / Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE)

City design has long been recognized as predicated on power. Planners have the power to regulate the use and form of privately owned land—an enormous task. Zoning is the foundation of city planning. The caliber of cities' future development hinges on zoning. Over the last fifteen years, communities have been divesting themselves of their historic Euclidean zoning in favor of the newer concept of form-based code. However, changing an entire zoning code is an immense project that requires a massive investment of motivation, time, perseverance and money. Does changing code provide an answer to undesirable consequences of Euclidean zoning, or are the claims of form-based code advocates correct and their code the panacea for everything wrong with planning and development? This is a sweeping question and one that is asked in hundreds of planning offices by planners, urban designers, politicians and their communities. The primary question is why and how communities change from conventional Euclidean zoning to form-based code. This research examines the state of practice and the impact of form-based code on zoning. Issues critical to an examination of the theory and practice aspects of this investigation includes key questions: What motivates change? What difference does it make? Who are the primary motivators for change? What is the comparative analysis and the basis for change and the impact of form-based code? Two protocols, including online surveys of planning practitioners and case studies of Cincinnati, Denver and Miami, are used to investigate the intended, and often unintended, outcomes and consequences that emerge with a zoning change within an established community.

Processes of industry and economic exchange have significantly and continually defined the underlying structure and formal characteristics of the American city. Contemporary ‘distributed’ systems of economy and industry rely on the movement of goods produced in distant locations (often overseas) to their eventual point of consumption. This has created a fundamental spatial disconnect between production, manufacturing, and consumption within the city; where local economies often have no relationship with the production or subsequent economic benefit of the goods they consume. As these contemporary systems of industrial production are often reliant on Just-In-Time operational models, the speed and turnover of consumption have become the dominant metrics of economic success. Productive industrial entities and territory, once ingrained in the inhabited city fabric have gradually disappeared; leaving behind smooth, frictionless surfaces of retail, logistics, and service, lacking a social viscosity, and consideration for the public dimension of the city. This thesis argues that Walmart, the archetypal big-box retailer, forms today’s dominant industrial actor; significantly influencing the socio-economic, cultural, and physical configurations of the American city. First, Walmart’s current distributed operational model is analyzed to better understand and contextualize the connections between industry, production, consumption, and urbanization. The next sections speculate upon the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of Walmart’s strategy; while examining the links between social interaction, idea exchange, innovation, and physical proximity within the city. As a result of many factors, including rising energy costs, this project predicts, and then explores a future where distributed operational models are no longer viable. This thesis predicts a subsequent transformation in manufacturing and consumption within the United States; linked to a resurgence in domestic production, by emerging micro-production formats. This scenario, coupled with a stated goal or mandate by Walmart to reduce overall supply chain energy expenditure, presents a unique opportunity for a speculative, opportunistic architecture within the American city. Walmart 2.0 radically reconsiders Walmart’s existing operational model and related built infrastructures, in the creation of a new industrial system that seeks to re-inject systems of consumption, production, and exchange, back into the urban fabric. Walmart becomes an ‘open’, ‘for-hire’ underlying facilitator for the production, consumption, and movement of goods between local nodes of economy, using their existing expertise in logistical, territorial, and data management. As such, Walmart 2.0 acts as a physical and systemic platform for self-organising production and market exchanges that are facilitated, but not controlled by Walmart. A redevelopment of the generic Walmart Supercenter creates a system of participation; where local communities of Walmart 2.0 users both create and consume the content flowing through the Walmart 2.0 system; allowing these communities to engage in the economies of their own locale. Broadly, Walmart 2.0 seeks to provoke the emergence of an urban fabric with an engrained sensitivity towards human interactions in relation to systems of production, consumption and exchange. Further, the project seeks to illustrate a method of operation, through which architects may gain an increased agency within the powerful industrial systems shaping the underlying structure of the contemporary city; a method based on the analysis of existing industrial actors, and speculating upon their future transformations with a heightened social consideration.