According to incomplete statistics, human desertification has become a huge risk of social problems and also a new focus of today’s social life. The government and residential gave efforts to find a way to solve that to avoid exacerbating the problem. According to the fact, back to earth, back to humanity, these always meet the demands of people. On this land, we have lost lot memories, and a lot about to be lost. Facing that, we could just chase it, make up, observe, and discover, till we pick up some pieces from the broken memories. Combine them on a piece of weathered gouache on paper, and then use the green to add vital principle, orange to outline the curves of memories, use balanced color to form the public space to make up the dimly face, create a new “Long Tang”. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

Thesis (M. U. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Also available in print.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

Ngan Yuk Kei. / "Architecture Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Master of Architecture Programme 2009-2010, design report." / "May 2010." / Includes bibliographical references. / Chapter 01 --- background & objective / Chapter 02 --- Street Life Research / Chapter 03 --- Streetscape Parameters Identification / Chapter 04 --- Billboard to Billbox / Chapter 05 --- Activity Field Implication / Chapter 06 --- Parametric Exploration on hybrid potential / Chapter 07 --- Adapting Method in Micro Scale / Chapter 08 --- Exploration & Adapting Process / Chapter 09 --- From Micro to Urban Scale / Chapter 10 --- Evaluation / Chapter 11 --- Appendix

published_or_final_version / abstract / Urban Design / Master / Master of Urban Design

There are huge demands of limited lands in Hong Kong. It is an increasing trend for Hong Kong Government to develop open space for the use of recreation activities as they found out that it is very important to the individual as well as the community. Other than recreation use, those open spaces can also served to allow air ventilation, penetration of sunlight and also act as a place for amenity and visual relief in Hong Kong. Although, these functions are very important in the high rise building environment, high density city like Hong Kong, there are many small public open spaces in urban area which are not in a good quality. They cannot function well in responsive to the context of the area, enhancing the quality of the neighborhoods and suited for the public need in the community which they turns out become not as popular as they are expected. The pocket open space in urban area is relatively small, surrounded by commercial buildings or residential buildings. They usually have a simple setting with planters and street furniture. Different activities involvement by different users in these small open spaces create a small community in the urban area and supposingly can enhance the interaction within people in the area. Considering that there are complaints from the Artists that there are not enough outdoor arts space in Hong Kong and public arts is the trend of some of the cities in other countries to enhancing the identity and culture of the urban areas, such as the King Williams ArtWalk in Otario in Canada. However, It is not popular in the urban dense space in Hong Kong. It is good to exploring a possible new way to sustain the unique culture by applying public arts platform in the urban area. The site is located around the Aberdeen Street in Central. It is an old district with new culture style but lack of solid identity and energy throughout the space. Although there are different organic developments, the streetscape is without strong characters. The following pilot project is aim to use art platform as a tools to revealing the missing link in urban context and also adding a possible new function to the open space in urban dense area as a “outdoor showroom” of arts in the city in order to vibrate the city and raise the awareness of public arts to the publics. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture

Norra Sorgenfri är ett gammalt industriområde i östra Malmö som står inför en gedigen omvandlingsprocess för att bli en del av Malmös innerstad. Utvecklingen ska ske successivt under ett antal år och drivas av Malmö stad i samverkan med områdets privata fastighetsägare och verksamma aktörer, vilket gör processen väldigt komplex. Malmö stad har storslagna visioner för området och vill i ett tidigt skede utveckla Industrigatan, områdets “ryggrad”, till ett intressant och attraktivt stråk. Med detta vill Malmö stad föregå med gott exempel och inspirera till den vidare utvecklingen av hela Norra Sorgenfri. Utmaningen är att skapa ett attraktivt gaturum som inte blir en barriär och att dessutom lyckas genomföra omvandlingen tillsammans med aktörerna. Denna studie avser därför identifiera viktiga aspekter och kvaliteter som skapar attraktiva urbana gaturum. Vidare avser studien ge förslag på hur Gatukontoret i Malmö stad kan planera och skapa förutsättningar för att göra Industrigatan till ett sådant attraktivt urbant rum för att gynna den fortsatta utvecklingen av Norra Sorgenfri. Sedan genomfördes en hållbarhetsanalys av de olika styrdokumenten för Industrigatans omvandling. Resultaten visar att den fysiska utformningen av gatan är hållbar och har goda förutsättningar att bli ett attraktivt gaturum. Vad som dock kan utvecklas är samverkans- och deltagandemetoder samt vilka typer av arrangemang, attraktioner och aktiviteter som ska ge gatan ett rikt folkliv. Studien föreslår att Gatukontoret bör arbeta med metoder som “cultural planning”, “sensemaking” och “open-ended infrastructuring”. Som en del i detta arbete leder denna studie till en projektidé bestående av en serie workshops som avser behandla frågan “hur lockar vi folk till Industrigatan redan idag?”. / Norra Sorgenfri is an old industrial area located in the eastern parts of Malmö that are the subject for an extensive transformation process to become a part of the city center. The development should be done gradually and be operated by the City of Malmö in cooperation with the private property owners and stakeholders in the area. The City of Malmö has grand visions for Norra Sorgenfri and plans to develop Industrigatan, the “backbone” in the area, in an early stage to be an interesting and attractive linear space. By doing this the City of Malmö wish to inspire the rest of the development process. The challenge is to create an attractive street space, not a barrier, and furthermore to successfully complete the transformation together with the stakeholders. This study aims to identify important aspects and qualities that make attractive urban street spaces. Further, this study aims to give suggestions about how the Traffic Department in the City of Malmö can plan and create the conditions to make Industrigatan an attractive urban space to promote the continuing development of Norra Sorgenfri. After that, a sustainability analysis was conducted of the policy documents concerning the transformation of Industrigatan. The result shows that the physical design of the street is sustainable and has good potential to become an attractive streetscape. However, what can be developed is the methods for cooperation and participation and what types of arrangements, attractions and activities that will contribute to a rich street life. The study therefore suggests that the Traffic Department should work with methods like cultural planning, sensemaking and open-ended infrastructuring. As a part of this work the study leads to a project concept consisting of a series of workshops that should address the issue “how do we attract people to Industrigatan today?”.

The cities of Africa and Asia are projected to account for 80 % of the future urban growth. Challenges brought forward by motorization and lack of accessibility; urban streets take a central position in the discussion of the sustainable city. This offers a considerable challenge in shaping cities while addressing climate change. Meanwhile there is lack of theorizations stemming from global South research. Planning models used for street planning comes from contexts far removed from the urban realities of the South. Sub-Saharan Africa has relatively low road network densities while experiencing a strong urban growth. The object of the study is Addis Ababa, a future megacity where street development is one of the central topics in the city’s planning.This thesis investigates the rationalities expressed by experts around street planning in Addis Ababa and how that shapes the planning discourse in the city. Methods employed are semi- structured interviews, desktop study and participant observations. The study uses conceptual tools from a wide range of literature on rationalities, research in the global South, extraversion, acting and action space of professionals.The results show how rationalities expressed can be understood as four rationality groupings 1) rationalities expressed regarding visions of the city, 2) rationalities expressed regarding the functions of streets, 3) rationalities expressed how to process a project and 4) rationalities expressed regarding relationship and power dynamics. Through the interplay between the rationality groupings a perceived space of action emerges. The rationalities influence what actors see as possible and desirable courses of action. The study concludes that all rationality groupings are not equal, instead visions of the city and relational rationalities seem to hold larger influence on shaping the streetscapes of Addis Ababa. Further, less rigid formulations of what constitutes the formal action space, allows third sector actors to influence and diffuse their rationalities into the city’s street planning process.

In urban areas, trees are often planted in bare soil sidewalk openings (tree pits) which recently are being covered with permeable pavements. Pavements are known to alter soil moisture and temperature, and may have implications for tree growth, root development and depth, drought resilience, and sidewalk lifting. Furthermore, tree pits are often the only unsealed soil surface and are important for water exchange between soil and atmosphere. Therefore, covering tree pits with pavement, even permeable, may have implications for the urban water balance and stormwater management. A better understanding of permeable pavement on tree pavement soil system functioning can inform improved tree pit and street design for greater sustainability of urban environments. We conducted experiments at two sites in Virginia, USA (Mountains and Coastal Plain) with different climate and soil. At each location, we constructed 24 tree pits in a completely randomized experiment with two factors: paved with resin-bound porous-permeable pavement versus unpaved, and planted with Platanus x acerifolia 'Bloodgood' versus unplanted (n = 6). We measured tree stem diameter, root growth and depth, and soil water content and temperature over two growing seasons. We also monitored tree sap flow one week in June 2017 at the Mountains. In addition, we calibrated and validated a soil water flow model, HYDRUS-1D, to predict soil water distribution for different rooting depths, soil textures and pavement thicknesses. Trees in paved tree pits grew larger, with stem diameters 29% (Mountains) and 51% (Coastal Plain) greater. Roots developed faster under pavement, possibly due to the increased soil water content and the extended root growing season (14 more days). Tree transpiration was 33% of unpaved and planted pit water outputs, while it was 64% for paved and planted pits. In June 2016, planted pits had decreased root-zone water storage, while unplanted pits showed increased storage. A water balance of the entire experimental site showed overall decreased soil water storage due to tree water extraction becoming the dominant factor. HYDRUS-1D provided overall best results for model validation at 10 cm depth from soil surface (NSE = 0.447 for planted and paved tree pits), compared to 30- and 60 cm depths. HYDRUS-1D simulations with greater pavement thickness resulted in changes in predicted soil water content at the Coastal Plain, with higher values at 10- and 30-cm depths, but lower values at 60-cm depth. At the Mountains, virtually no difference was observed, possibly due to different soil texture (sandy vs clayey). Tree pits with permeable pavement accelerated tree establishment, but promoted shallower roots, possibly increasing root-pavement conflicts and tree drought susceptibility. Paved tree pits resulted in larger trees, increasing tree transpiration, but reduced soil evaporation compared to unpaved pits. Larger bare soil pits surrounded by permeable pavement might yield the best results to improve urban stormwater retention. Also, HYDRUS 1D was successful at simulating soil water content at 10-cm depth and may be valuable to inform streetscape design and planning. / PHD / Trees in cities are often planted in pavement cutouts (tree pits) that are usually the only available area for water exchange between soil and atmosphere. Tree pits are typically covered with a variety of materials, including permeable pavement. Pavements are known to modify soil water distribution and temperature, affecting tree growth, rooting depth, drought resilience, and sidewalk lifting. A better understanding of this system can inform tree pit and street design for greater sustainability. We constructed 24 tree pits at each of two regions in Virginia, USA (Mountains and Coastal Plain). These tree pits were paved with permeable pavement or unpaved, and planted with London Plane or unplanted. We measured stem diameter, root growth, and soil water content and temperature over two years and tree sap flow for one week in summer (Mountains only). We also used a soil water flow model, HYDRUS-1D, to predict water distribution for different rooting depths, soil textures and pavement thicknesses. After the first growing season trees in pavement were larger, with stem diameters 29% (Mountains) and 51% (Coastal Plain) greater. Roots developed faster under pavement, possibly due to increased soil water content and a 14-day increase in root growing season. Also, in June 2017, tree transpiration was 33% of unpaved-and-planted pit water outputs, and 64% of paved-and-planted pits. In June 2016, root-zone water storage decreased in planted pits but increased in unplanted pits. When considering the entire experimental site, soil water storage decreased, with tree water extraction being the dominant factor. HYDRUS-1D performed better at 10-cm soil depth than at 30- and 60-cm depths. At the Coastal Plain, HYDRUS-1D predicted higher soil water content at 10- and 30-cm depths with increased pavement thickness, but lower values at 60-cm depth. At the Mountains, there was no effect, possibly due to higher clay content. Permeable pavement accelerated tree establishment, but promoted shallower roots, increasing drought susceptibility and risk for root-pavement conflicts. Pavement resulted in larger trees and greater transpiration, but reduced soil evaporation. Larger bare-soil pits surrounded by permeable pavement might optimize stormwater retention.