Ce détour par la pratique du machizukuri au sein du laboratoire du professeur Satoh Shigeru à l’université de Waseda apporte un autre regard sur les compétences de l’architecte. Le machizukuri s’inscrit dans le contexte particulier de la ville japonaise : sa morphologie, sa structure sociale et ses politiques urbaines. Le travail de « traduction » se poursuit par une histoire architecturale du machizukuri qui renseigne la formation d’outils et de pratiques spécifiques au sein du département d’architecture de l’université de Waseda. La thèse analyse la mobilisation de ces compétences au sein des exercices de préparation à la reconstruction dans l’arrondissement de Shinjuku conduits par le laboratoire de Satoh Shigeru et la manière dont l’architecte se positionne au sein d’un réseau d’acteurs.La thèse a été menée au sein du laboratoire les Métiers de l’Histoire de l’Architecture, édifices-villes-territoires, ENSA de Grenoble. / This detour through the practice of machizukuri in the laboratory Satoh Shigeru at Waseda University provides a different perspective on the skills of the architect. The machizukuri takes place within the particular context of the Japanese city: its morphology, its social structure and its urban policies. The work of "translation" continues with an architectural history of machizukuri that informs the formation of specific tools and practices within the Waseda University architecture department. The thesis analyzes the mobilization of these skills within preparedness exercises reconstruction in the district of Shinjuku led by Satoh Shigeru laboratory and how the architect positioned himself inside a network of actors. The thesis was conducted in the laboratory les Métiers de l’Histoire de l’Architecture, édifices-villes-territoires, ENSA de Grenoble.

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

Sustainable urban mobility calls for well-informed design of neighborhoods. Although many studies have been conducted in the field, there is little evidence about the relationships between design elements, urban quality and behavior. Little is also known about residents’ valuation of design and urban quality in this context. This study uses a multidisciplinary approach to deal with these issues. The focus is on children’s leisure activities, their travel mode and independence of adult escort in trips to school. Logistic regression models were used to analyze connections between neighborhood design, parents’ satisfaction with urban qualities and children’s behavior. The study included socioeconomic factors, parents’ stated importance of qualities and travel mode to work. It was conducted in a suburban district in the Stockholm region, in three different modernist neighborhoods and one traditional villa area. The results support the hypothesis that environmental and social qualities, and proximity to school, can influence children’s trips to school, and the location and frequency of children’s leisure activities. The results confirm and extend earlier research. Two separate lifestyles were identified across neighborhoods with differencesin housing type and socioeconomic characteristics. They related to parents’ preferences for and priorities of public versus private urban qualities, and location of children’s leisure activity and travel mode to school. The results suggest that schools should be located in neighborhoods, close to both homes and transit, that neighborhoods are car-free or traffic separated and that the outdoor environment is stimulating and cycling-friendly. They further suggest that a higher quality of children’s environment would be achieved if parents’ preferences had greater impact on urban developments, whereas current professional design ideals of mixed traffic and high density can be unsupportive ofthese qualities and can increase car escorts. Altogether, the results point to that design at the neighborhood scale has significance in relation to mobility requirements; and that new priorities are needed in planning and design as part of a comprehensive urban and transportation policy.

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.

La hipótesis de este trabajo es que la obra americana del arquitecto Josep Lluis Sert (1902-1983) aparentemente homogénea, tiene tres etapas distintas, caracterizadas por la evolución de los intereses formales de su autor.La primera es la de atención predominante al envoltorio o superficie del edificio, con dos periodos denominados, respectivamente, "la piel gruesa" y "la piel delgada". La segunda es la de utilización extensiva de la fragmentación del volumen del edificio para lograr valores de escala humana. La tercera es la de una búsqueda de control de la configuración de los espacios con utilización de trazados proporcionales y geometrías puras para los espacios más singulares.El estudio parte del inventario de unos 30 edificios proyectados entre 1955 y 1980 en la oficina de Sert en Cambridge, Massachusetts. Analiza, a lo largo de 4 capítulos, 417 páginas escritas y más de 240 ilustraciones, los más significativos de aquellos edificios, situándolos en contexto y justificando en cada caso su pertenencia a una etapa determinada. Además de los capítulos, reúne en cuatro apéndices una reseña diacrónica de temas complementarios: contexto americano, clientes, colaboradores y, finalmente, ideas. Ello permite la lectura del contenido a dos velocidades. La fuente principal de documentación la constituye la propia experiencia del autor, colaborador durante más de doce años del maestro Sert, a la cual se une material original elaborado a partir de 1983.

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.