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Recent Submissions
Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
(AESOP, 2016) Randolph, Rainer
We are publishing here the extended abstracts presented at the IV WPSC. Those which were discussed in the Track Sessions, as well as a considerable number of contributions in Plenary and Special Sessions and Roundtables. Farnak Miraftab´s Opening Keynote “Insurgency, planning and the prospect of a humane urbanism” was published (in portuguese) in ANPUR´s journal Revista Brasileira de Estudos Urbanos e Regionais (Brazilian Journal of Urban and Regional Studies), v.18, n. 3 (2016), p. 363-377 (http://rbeur.anpur.org.br/rbeur/article/view/5499).
It is our conviction that these texts reflect an important panorama of ideas, thoughts, experiences and practices of the nearly 600 researchers, scientists, students and practioneers who attended the congress in Rio de Janeiro with the aim to have an unique opportunity to discuss the matter of planning with colleagues from all over the world.
As it puts our colleague Carlos Balsas in the conclusions he wrote about his experiences by participating the discussions at the congress: “Attention was directed at the need to look forward to more planning not less, more planning research not less, and more educational opportunities to strengthen urban and regional planning. … Alternative paradigms based on the radical deconstruction of prevailing knowledge sets and philosophies by some of those living in southern and northern hemispheres are making positive strides and can be confidently further developed”
Winner of the 2024 AESOP Excellence In Teaching Award - The city and the environment
(AESOP, 2024) Román López, Emilia; Hernández Córdoba, Rafael
‘The city and the environment’ is a compulsory urban planning course taught in the 3rd year of the Foundation Degree in Architecture at the School of Architecture of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. It deals with the relationship between the city and its physical-climatic environment through the study, analysis, diagnosis, and proposals at the territorial and urban scale. It is organised based on a practical workshop but considering the need for a concrete and exhaustive knowledge of the basic concepts and relationships established between urban centres and the physical environment in which they are located.
In the first part of the workshop, an approach to the city and its territory will be made at different scales, carrying out different analysis exercises: physical and climatic environment, environmental aspects, landscape, etc., to end with a synthesis and territorial diagnosis to obtain the suitability of the land for certain uses (urban, agricultural-livestock and protection). This part will be supported by an instrumental block, which will help to know the analysis tools used in practice, based on the Geographic Information System (GIS).
In the second part of the workshop, an environmental assessment of a specific urban area will be carried out with the aim of proposing microclimatic improvements, focusing on healthy urban design, in its outdoor public spaces (streets, squares, urban edges, facilities, etc.)
During the workshop classes, a debate will be established between all the working groups, which will constitute the main scenario for the development of the practical work and for its follow-up by the teachers.
How do creative sectors relate to the historical city center: the case of Grand Bazaar in Istanbul
(AESOP, 2016) Çetin, Reycan
At the end of the 20th century, the manufacturing sector was removed from the cities, and instead the services sector that produces intangible assets such as information technology and knowledge was recommended for development. In addition, these new development policies defined culture as an economic variable, as well. Information, culture and creativity became key words for economic policies. The attempt to define culture and creativity as economically important factors has led to economic studies of creativity. UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) asserts that creative economy is important for economic development, not only in developed countries but also in developing countries. UNCTAD also publishes Creative Economy Report to help countries plot their own road maps by emphasizing their unique strengths.
Creative sectors are defined differently by different social scientists, but the importance of city life appears to be the common denominator for all of them. The city exhibits not only a physical infrastructure, but also an intellectual infrastructure, in the form of cultural diversity, research resources, meeting places, and tolerance to alternative life styles. Cultural accumulation from the past, traditions and different lifestyles of the city offer an appropriate milieu for creativity. Landry (2000), a pioneer scientist in creative studies, argues that cities that have an ancient history and are able to transfer this history to current generations, have a great advantage in being creative.
Artistic urban interventions, informality and public sphere: research insights from ephemeral urban appropriations on a cultural district
(AESOP, 2016) Costa, Pedro; Lopes, Ricardo
Artistic intervention in cultural districts can be an outstanding viewpoint to understand the multiple layers of uses and segregations that bring everyday life vitality to the complex organisms cities are. Urban informality contexts can be fundamental for the expression of this diversity and to liminality strategies, particularly interesting in the case of artistic intervention, as artistic creativity is often about transgression, differentiation, and, therefore, conflict. Small initiatives that develop in an informal and ephemeral way by artists who choose the city as stage for their work, exploring the ambiguous and flexible boundaries between public and private spaces are particular interesting, evidencing the usual conflicts verified on creative milieus but being also important to keep these places as vernacular as possible and to avoid gentrification processes.
In this perspective, this paper aims to discuss this relation between urban interventions, informality and public sphere appropriation, analyzing the way informal artistic dynamics can contribute to urban re-vitalization and to the enhancement of real creative milieus. Drawing on a research-action based methodology the authors explore the results and impacts of three experiences of urban intervention that they developed in three consecutive years in informal urban contexts in Bairro Alto, the main cultural quarter of Lisbon, Portugal. These ephemeral artistic interventions introduced in the city new spaces of public use, performing different public and private spaces, and bringing them to the public sphere, creating also “new” zones that re-gain a utility in the city, contributing to the vitality and symbolic centrality of this area.
Cappadocia: the current issues in planning a World Heritage Site
(AESOP, 2016) Dincer, Hamza Yuksel
The cultural heritage landscapes are facing many threats. These threats can be focused on the human effects simultaneously on the nature. In special cases the threats due to the nature’s and human’s effects, can be together and simultaneous. The effects of threats is widening; the problems of protection are becoming increasingly complex. Cappadocia is a significant example for this situation.
Cappadocia in terms of natural and cultural values, with transcultural continuity of daily life, say semi-troglodyte, in cave houses, is a unique masterpiece of nature. The permanent contributions of humanity throughout history have transformed Cappadocia, from a natural area of the simple rural life troglodyte, to a World Heritage Site of UNESCO. The fairy chimneys with their structure easy to dig and shape, are good protectors for cultural continuity created in the natural landscape.
The most essential natural threat that Cappadocia is facing today is the erosion. The life of hoodoos that begins with the birth followed by improving ends with a slow process of disappearance, the cycle of nature. The idea to keep or maintain their shape is synonymous to stop the time.
Moreover, cultural works created in these hoodoos are the most important values and prestigious in the world and certainly their protection is a humanitarian obligation. The tourism potential of World Heritage sites is very important for local people. But the extreme increase in tourism sector oriented cultural values has become a destructive threat. Development plans and regional planning were shaped by decisions and policies that contribute to this development. The trend is to offer cave houses to tourism demands, transforming them to "boutique hotels". Small traditional institutions lose their vernacular habitat, gradually transforming to holiday villages.