Urban Villages are a specific phenomenon raised in modern China due to the high-speed economic development and urbanization in recent three decades. And there are social, economic, cultural and architectural transformations happened in these villages during these years. They appear on both the outskirts and the downtown segments of major cities, and surrounded by skyscrapers, transportation infrastructures, and other modern urban constructions. They are commonly inhabited by the poor and transient. Most of Urban Villages are heavily populated, overdeveloped, and lack of basic infrastructure. Some villages' building density is higher than 70%. They are composed of overcrowded multi-story buildings from three to five (or more) floors, also with narrow alleys, which are difficult for vehicles to pass through. Inside these villages, it is dark and damp year round and the lights have to be kept on during daytime. However, they are also among the liveliest areas in some cities and are notable for affording economic opportunity for newcomers to the city. However, Urban Villages are rejected by the governor and face demolition–redevelopment programs in order to replace them with formal urban neighborhoods. But the demolition-redevelopment approach would be devastating not only for the rural migrants, but also for the city’s economy which is largely based on labor-intensive sectors. In my study, I take Gangsha Village, a typical urban village in Shenzhen City, as a study case, to explore an appropriate reformation approach that combines urban design and architectural strategy to solve social, economic and cultural problems in Urban Village. To provide them a better living condition, and make the village better serves the city.

This research puts forth an examination of the relationship between municipal planning and short line freight railroads. Methodologically, it employs a content analysis framework that explores local master plans and zoning bylaws for the presence of concepts relevant to short line railroads. A historically omitted topic, the railroads are found to be frequently omitted from plans, often conflicting with civic and recreational interests despite their increasingly efficient ability, economic and environmental, to service numerous industries. Zoning bylaws show a disfavor to these entities, and at times may exceed their authority. Moreover, they may create physical and legal limitations to new, rail-sustained industry, as well as the rehabilitation of former industrial clusters. Findings related to regulatory preemption, transportation and land use policy, corridor conversion, and shifting land use patterns are presented. Consequentially, daunting implications may resonate for both the railroad and municipalities. Recommendations encompass municipal, regional, and state policy, as well as opportunities for multi-agency collaboration, economic development initiatives, and revised regulatory structures.

Incrementalism is a growing movement within multiple design disciplines that approaches design with sustainable, social, and resilient aims structured around participatory, infrastructural, and phased approaches to design. Carefully considered structural and independent infrastructural frameworks allow infill and accretion according to the demands and needs of individuals and communities. This paper outlines the theories, case studies, and conditions driving incrementalism. My research has informed my project proposal for an incremental upgrade of a slum located in Jakarta using a phased, soft infrastructural, resident facilitated upgrade and development strategy creating new housing units, productive landscapes, and urban form. Incremental development will foster the social aims of my project, while affordably, equitably, and efficiently upgrading the standards of living for slum dwellers within the Waduk Pluit community.

California is headed into its fifth consecutive year of drought, and climate change is expected to bring more frequent and severe droughts to the state. The state’s water supply is susceptible to drought as seen from the effects of the current dry period. Besides the clear impacts of drought, there are less obvious environmental, economic, and social costs, such as land subsidence from groundwater overdraft, and the consequences of urban tree and green space loss. As a uniquely climate-independent source, desalinated water can stabilize California’s water supply and lessen some of these drought-related impacts. Although seawater desalination is touted as the most costly and energy-intensive method for augmenting water supply, if implemented in a feasible manner, the technology provides a range of positive benefits for drought-prone California in the long term. This thesis analyzes the economic and environmental costs of using desalination to mitigate the effects of drought in California. The thesis explores both Australian and Californian desalination facilities as case studies for evaluating the benefits and impacts of using different methods of desalination, in an effort to determine which method would be the most beneficial for securing California’s water supply. It concludes that lower-capacity, flexible desalination facilities would be useful along California’s coast, under some conditions. By generating a supply of desalinated water for coastal communities, more water from the state and federal water projects could be redirected to agricultural regions and inland communities that suffer the most from dry spells, and thereby lessen a number of drought-related environmental, economic, and social consequences.

As interior designers, we strive to design everything for our clients, from complex environments to the joinery of a chair. We rarely consider inviting our clients or the users to join us in finishing the space. Read-In workshop is not a school, but a kind of home, a home belonging to children, which provides the possibilities for children to play, to learn, to occupy, to personalize, and to share. An emotional space that will not limit the user, but keep inspiring them. It helps children notice, think, and grow. Half of the interior space will be a fixed design, designed and fabricated during the first construction phase. The other Half will be designed as a flexible and changeable “framework” space, which allow the users to reorganize, repaint, and refinish, depending on their evolving educational needs and aesthetic tastes. Therefore, this “incomplete” workshop will share control with children. The contents of the framework will be continuously updated by the children who participate in the Read-In arts programs.

This thesis highlights the role of urban planners in the revitalization of historic seafronts as creative and attractive places for people and a key factor in the regeneration of the urban economy in the historic seafront areas. The Saudi Arabia historic seafront areas along the North Red Sea have been neglected and are suffering because of slow development and changes to industrial uses. This thesis will focus on the urban design principles that make historic seafronts more attractive and successful, and will use a case study approach of several American waterfront cities such as Baltimore, Maryland; San Francisco, California; and Charleston, South Carolina. These American cities and the urban design principles applied for their successful revitalization were selected for analysis because of their similarities with the Yanbu Al-Bahr's historic seafront. The results of this analysis will enable planners to apply the best of these urban waterfront design models to assist in the revitalization of historic seafronts along the North Red Sea in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

This thesis examines the ways in which Frank Gehry’s architectural contributions to Los Angeles’ social and built environment have shaped the region’s “postmodern geographies” throughout the 20th and 21st century. Through a focused exploration of three of Gehry’s postmodernist structures in Greater Los Angeles—a house, a library, and a concert hall—this thesis analyses how Gehry and his designs reflected and affected the artistic and socio-spatial development of Los Angeles’ “decidedly postmodern landscape.”

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) in downtown areas is a distinct form of new development, creating walkable districts and 24-hour neighborhoods. A new streetcar on Loyola Avenue in the New Orleans Central Business District was planned to encourage new development in the area. By analyzing the current land uses and values, projections of future change predict over $500 million in added value. For this development to become a successful TOD, policies must encourage uses that generate ridership and increase walkability. Although the Loyola corridor has many historic attributes of a transit-oriented downtown, it currently lacks neighborhood identity. The new development associated with the Loyola streetcar has the potential to become a downtown TOD.

In the beginning of the 2000s, Israeli policies in the West Bank shifted from policies of control to policies of separation, which in turn led to the Transformation of West Bank communities into isolated urban islands. Current plans prepared for Palestinian localities by Palestinian planning institutions most often address these isolated islands without taking into account the Israeli-controlled areas surrounding these localities. Palestinians envision the entire West Bank as a contiguous area that will eventually form part of the Palestinian national state. However, most Palestinian plans take the boundaries imposed by Israel as a given and plan only for areas within the Israeli-controlled areas. This dissertation is about the Palestinian planning processes in the West Bank in an attempt to assess whether these processes are or could counteract Israeli plans of separation. Upon extensive research, it was found that Palestinian planning institutions have a very limited impact in countering Israeli plans. The only counter-planning activity that can be observed is the Palestinian National Authority’s latest orientation to plan in Palestinian areas classified as Area C (found in areas under complete Israeli Control). The aforementioned lack of counter-planning activities can be attributed to the inefficiency of a legal framework, lack of vision, lack of coordination, and deficiencies within Palestinian planning institutions.

The transit shelter, the space where riders make the transition from open space to more controlled buses and trains, is in many cases the site of a public-private transaction. Here, government agencies contract private companies to build and maintain shelters in exchange for governmental allowance of advertising in these locations. This dual purpose—the shelter serves concurrently as protection for transit users and as a moneymaker—means the space is contested, with economic and social needs often at odds. Bus shelter advertising contracts (BSACs), increasingly operated by large corporations, have resulted in widespread networks of bus shelters; observing these renders processes of globalization—generally not visible at the street level—more legible. Drawing from case studies of Lyon, France, and Los Angeles and New Orleans, United States, this thesis describes successes and failures both in the implementation of bus shelter contracts and in the provision of public amenities via shelters.