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Publication Open Access 25 years after transformation: changes in spatial distribution of production activities in the case study of Wroclaw, Poland(AESOP, 2015) Barski, Jan; Barski, JacekIn the post-industrial, free-market economy, the ability of spatial planning to truly influence the location choices of business owners is limited, while the vast majority of means of production are in non-public hands. On top of that, coordinating spatial policies and decisions between administrative entities is a major challenge in numerous places in Europe. This paper offers a convenient case study of a medium-sized European city (Wroclaw, Poland) and an analysis of the spatial management complication which has observable consequences for the spatial structure and economic functioning of the city. The paper examines the situation through the lens of production and manufacturing activities (with a cautious approach to the term industry). The case is analysed in two inseparable ways: spatial and economic; parallel to that, the discussion is developed on the issue of the interconnection of policymaking in the metropolitan area (the city vs its surrounding rural communes). the changes in employment in subsequent sectors of the metropolitan area in the 25 years since the political transformation of Poland while keeping an eye on the physical, spatial changes of the aforementioned metropolitan area. The secondary output of the paper is outlining the suburbanisation processes of large Polish cities, however as seen not from the most frequently presented perspectives (such as housing or transportation), but from a more economy- and spatial responsibility-focused one.Item Open Access A design proposal for Place Anatole France(AESOP, 2014) Khawaja, HadeelDuring my studies in Polytech Tours for the Master Programme Planning and Sustainability, we were asked to deliver a conceptual design proposal of developing Place Anatole France- Tours. The project was supervised by Prof. Laura Verdelli under the unit of Heritage and Sustainable development. Each group - made up of four students - had worked on a different proposal, with altered approaches to analyse the project components. This article is devoted to briefly explaining how we understood the project and what is the suggested proposal for developing Place Anatole France. Our concept design proposal suggests: unifying the space and creating interactive nodes within the site boundary would add a new experience to Place Anatole France. The group members are: Abinaya Rajavelu (India), Manasvini Hariharan (India), Alice Frantz Schneider (Brazil) and myself Hadeel Khawaja (Jordan). The design proposal was divided into three main phases: –– Phase ‘A’ focused on understanding the project through thorough site analysis and divided into three divisions: 1) its urban fabric, 2) studying the previous proposals already made by the municipality/developers for the site area and 3) notes of the site users. –– Phase ‘B’ focused on coming up with observations influenced by the site analysis. –– Phase ‘C’ is the concept design proposal. Starting with Phase (A), the urban fabric had examined four components; the thoroughfares, the landscape and streetscape, the building types around the site, and the open public spaces.Item Open Access A different perspective on architectural design: bottom-up participative experiences(AESOP, 2013) Cimadomo, GuidoThe weight of the financial and real estate components in the present crisis, and their impact on millions of people give a renewed importance to the right to housing and the wider right to the city. The paper of architects in planning the city is also changing due to new social relations and the empowerment of citizens, and we have not to forget that scarcity is a great impulse for social and technical innovation, among them architecture. Henry Lefebvre’s “The right to the city” (Lefebvre 1968), can be considered the starting point for the understanding and reconnaissance of the right to urban life, transformed and renewed (Paquot 2012). At the present moment, the idea is growing that to change the life would be necessary to change the city, and the same concept of “right to the city” should be filled with new contents. The right to the city can be related with the right to freedom, to the individualization of sociability, the right to habitat and to live. The right to the work and to the appropriation, the right for inhabitants to meet, and also the right to reject be quitted from urban space by a social and economic organization moving to segregation and discrimination. It has been developing for almost 40 years, with a renewed interest at the beginning of this century, evolving to the more contemporary “right to configure the city”.Item Open Access A long view on the European Urban Summer School in Madrid in 2013(AESOP, 2013) Ryser, JudithTaking a long view from inception of the European Urban Summer Schools, EUSS in Madrid marked a natural progression along a steep learning curve. Initiated through AESOP - with Izabela Mironowicz as the creative driving force - EUSS took off in 2010 with very high goals. In Wroclaw Poland, nine projects on ‘Urban change’ were tackling the city as a whole, conceptually transforming specific districts and making fine grain urban design proposals. A state-of-the-art publication supported by UN Habitat put EUSS on the global professional map. The theme of ‘Urban change’ ran through all the subsequent summer schools. They all focused on concrete sites while relating to time- and location-specific, often complex planning issues. They addressed ‘quality of space – quality of life’ in Lisbon, ‘times of scarcity – reclaiming the possibility of making’ in London, and ‘strategies for the post-speculative city’ in Madrid. Each EUSS took place in a large city, often a capital. Each had selected sites as a challenge to current planning wisdom which stretched the imagination of the participant young professionals. They delivered, in the very short time available, also in Madrid. A purpose of the EUSS publication series is to document these very rich and original contributions to pressing urban issues by young professionals from all over the world. Madrid after the property market collapse was a great opportunity for young professionals to think about alternative urban futures while making concrete proposals for the given sites within realistic constraints. They came up with innovative ideas for acity unknown to most of them. The three adjacent sites, starting from the heart of Madrid and reaching the southeast fringe with progressively increasing scales confronted the participants with a large range of issues. They benefited from well balanced formal contributions from academics as well as practitioners and were tutored by academics with both practical experience and local knowledge.Item Open Access A Manifesto(SoftGrid in association with AESOP and IFHP, 2014) Maci, Giulia; Blust, Seppe de; Kustermans, ClennWe must re-evaluate traditional concepts of planning. As planners and human beings we are used to growth. Growth seems (or seemed) to be natural, because there is coherence with our own lives: you are born, you grow, you sustain, you shrink, you die. But in urban terms today de-growth or shrinking does not necessarily mean decline or dying. We need to accept the fact that cities cannot and will not grow like they used to do. Moreover, in times of scarcity and shrinkage we can (at last!) focus on the parts that already exist. We must react to rapid urban transformation. It seems necessary to go beyond theories and try practical actions to address concrete urban issues. It is time to get out our laid-backed offices and to leave our desks, digital aerial maps and other tools. Monitoring and evaluating real daily life are fundamental in our job to learn from the experiences and to readjust theories and strategies. An urban planner experiences local struggles personally. In East Germany, for example, a vast amount of cities is shrinking. Instead of trying to find ideas for new growth in the East, there is rather a need to fulfil local needs. And instead of building new suburban neighbourhoods (market-based thinking) and breaking down high-rise areas, planners could focus on reshaping the high-rise areas into positive and well-used places by new concepts. Enter the area, experience it melancholically and do something with it.Publication Open Access A Spatial Study on Creative Community around Tongji University in Shanghai Based on the Data Analysis of Professional Social Network(AESOP, 2015) Wang, Sicheng; Le, Keke; Lin, JiayingCreative city is the current hotspot in urban planning against the background of urbanization and economic transition in China The urban zone around Tongji University in Shanghai is a typical creative community, which has undergone more than 20 years of development, from the spontaneous clustering of creative industries to organized planning and managing led by local authorities This study focuses on the history and future trend of this community People element of a creative city for that University and Company would function University is the institution for educating people, while Company provide for the working of People. Consequently, the links among People, University Company reflect the creativity performance of a community This study visualizes this relevance with methods of data analysis The famous international professional social network LinkedIn is taken as the information of personal identity, education and employment of individuals in creative industries within Tongji Rim are collected from users homepages Through analysis of the intrinsic link between the research objects by data quantification and statistical distribution observation, characteristics and internal factors of development of a university-oriented creative industries area has been observed.Publication Open Access A tale of two cities: comparative studies of urban-rural cohesion development policies between chengdu and Chongqing in China(AESOP, 2015) Gan, Xinyue; Chen, JianbinSeparate developments of Chinese urban and rural areas were caused by urban-rural dualistic system, which seriously impeded urbanization process in China. Chengdu and Chongqing were two pioneer cities of promoting urban-rural cohesion. They have adjacent location and similar background, while their policies were not exactly the same. This article had a review of the urban-rural cohesion policies and their consequences in this two cities and pointed out the main features of them. Comparative analysis of the reasons for the different polices in Chengdu and Chongqing is presented in the end. According to the analysis, Chengdu adopted integrated management which put rural elements like the land, capital and the labor force into market to promote urban-rural cohesion. Market played a more significant role than the government in Chengdu case. However there was an opposite situation in Chongqing where the government relied on the power to dragged rural elements into market circulation. Government dominated the whole process in Chongqing case. The urbanization rate change indicated that polices in Chengdu which rested on market are more efficient and more sustainable than those in Chongqing. The conclusion is that although it will take a longtime to establish the order of the market, it will have a steadier, more reasonable, efficient and sustainable processes and results than a strong governmentled transformation which can get instant results. If there is no orderly market, once the pressure of government has been taken away, the transformation will cease. Therefor market should lead the urbanrural cohesion with the support of government’s authority. Both of them are indispensable.Item Open Access About the workshops(AESOP, 2013)Aiming to bring young professionals together to discuss and work on planning issues, the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) launched the European Urban Summer School (EUSS) in 2010. From a great variety of backgrounds and countries, encompassing North and South America as well as Europe, a total of 15 young professionals started their work in Madrid, Spain, on 8 September 2013. This was not a random day; it was a Sunday, which showed how motivated and interested the group was on this course. Getting to know about the programme and its purpose the students had to register themselves, following the instructions, which were clearly stated on the official AESOP website. The event consisted of field work, lectures and team work, which after 7 days was transformed into a presentation of clearly identified problems and solutions. After one site visit and the theoretical part, at which local problems were critically presented, together with some background requests, the professionals were divided into 3 groups of 5 students, which the organisers divided according to the professionals’ formation to create diverse as well as balanced teams. During the week, it was not just the comprehension about the topic that got clearer, but also its complexity and the necessity to link the sustainable triad: social, economic and environmental. The groups were expected to articulate their life experiences with each other. It required time and an open mind when seeking to fill the gap that existed between individuals and their approaches. (Extracted from Delicias Group final report) The selected working areas encompassed three different urban circumstances: the Delicias Axis, a void of 23 hectares located in the inner city, requiring new ideas for its proper inclusion in the existing urban fabric; the Vallecas neighbourhood, a large development built during the last decade, when the sustainable principles specified at the end of the past century were mandatory; and the areas encompassed in the Southeast Strategies, the largest urban expansion ever planned for the city of Madrid which were facing a new meaning in the present period of stagnation. After a week working on their respective sites and hours discussing the situation they were involved in, the three groups produced fresh, stimulating and innovative proposals which are presented in the following pages.Item Open Access Accessing quality of life through physical parameters(AESOP, 2013) Lourenço, Júlia M.As cities keep growing in size, it becomes more and more important that urban expansion takes place a planned way, so that cities can satisfy the needs of its population. Unplanned growth or planned growth with scarce implementation lead to environmental degradation, traffic jams, urban sprawl, pollution, low access to basic services and equipments, loss of identity, communities’ disintegration, pockets of poverty, etc. Urban planning is the set of tools through which interventions attempt to create urban spaces that contribute to the quality of life of citizens in the context of urban design. This can be defined as the relationship of inhabitants with the different elements that constitute urban space. Urban design determines, directly, the physical component of urban space, and indirectly, its socio-economic, political and cultural elements, influencing the relationship between the urban environment and its components.Item Open Access Acknowledging complexity and continuous urban change(SoftGrid in association with AESOP and IFHP, 2014) Sengupta, Ulysses; Cheung, EricCurrent practices of urban planning and spatial design have shown an inability to cope adequately with, and successfully intervene in the complex spatio-temporal nature of our cities. With current trends of urbanisation indicating increasing speed of change, the European Urban Summer School event was an opportunity to engage young planners with complex systems and digital tool based approaches aimed at the growing necessity to address temporal and morphological urban systems. Non-deterministic computational modelling techniques simulating complex urban territories in states of rapid change provide the potential to observe, comprehend and test the relative possibilities of spatial and policy based interventions while working with unknown futures and trans-scalar influences (Sengupta, U. 2011). In order to situate spatial design methodologies within current discourses in planning theory, the wide existing gap between theory and practice in urban planning, i.e. between rationale spatial implementation and communicative theoretical intention, must be addressed (De Roo et al. 2012). We believe the potential for bringing spatial and social issues back together, and thus addressing the space of action, lies in the ability to understand the forward projected impact of political, spatial and regulatory interventions on the identifiable trajectories and trends of existing socio-spatial evolutionary conditions.Publication Open Access Addressing fuzzy responsibilities with informal, flexible instruments: landscape parks and regional planning (DRAFT – not to be cited)(AESOP, 2015) Frank, Andrea I.Green belts, smart growth or minimum residential densities have been some of the planning policies and instruments employed to reduce low-density, fragmented urbanisation that is generally deemed unsustainable. However, success of such tools in metropolitan, geopolitically fragmented areas involving many different municipalities is often hampered by a combination of lack of political will and diffuse (or fuzzy ) responsibilities in multi-actor settings. Indeed many traditional planning instruments are inadequate at regional scales. This paper reviews the emerging concept of regional landscape parks in various European countries as a mostly informal instrument that nevertheless can shape settlement patterns at regional scale in multi-actor governance settings. While drawing on several examples throughout Europe the Stuttgart Region s Landscape Park is used as m study. The development of the landscape park is not a legally required activity within the planning system, yet there is evidence that the voluntary leadership of the regional planning association in developing the Regional Landscape Park complements traditional landscape management and nature preservation instruments. The policy language actively broadens the discourse around landscape conservation and urban development to supersede the traditional distinctions of urban and natural areas. This allows for the inclusion of economic, social, environmental and cultural arguments in decision making regarding landscape, land use and nature protection. The analysis suggests that by drawing flexibly on ideas and concepts from different disciplines a wide range of actors and agencies can proclaim benefit and in turn assume responsibility to help build a productive, healthy, and ecologically valuable urban regional landscape.Publication Open Access Advantages of self-organisation in urban planning – local lessons of urban development in Helsinki metropolitan region(AESOP, 2015) Wallin, SirkkuThe objective of urban planning has been to plan and design well-functioning urban environments. However, many urban problems are complicating this task (Christaller, 1933; Bettencourt and al., 2007) and the expanding scope and scale of problems have turned the latter into ´wicked` ones. Wicked problems are intricate by nature comprising several environmental and societal issues at the same time (Skaburskis, 2008; Weber and Khademian, 2008). There has been two ways to respond to wicked problems in urban planning. The first one has focused on the substance of planning, aiming at a better physical appearance and performance of urban functions. The second one has laid emphasis on the procedure; processes, their actors and the stages of planning. Unfortunately, the analysis of the current urban development of the Helsinki Metropolitan Region reveals severe defects in the application of both approaches. I will reflect in the following on the development of a Helsinki neighbourhood called Herttoniemi. As one of the oldest suburbs of the capital city, with a central location and good accessibility, it has followed the urban transformation of the Metropolitan Region and faced the problems and promises of urbanization: shortage of housing, required urban densification, and belt-tightening of public expenses which have transformed the neighbourhood. The population has increased up to 53 000 inhabitants during the past ten years, and the change will continue (Statistical Districts, 2014; Helsinki City Plan Draft, 2015). Herttoniemi can be regarded as the mirror of urban development in the Helsinki region in which the internal and external push and pull factors take turns, enabling and constraining one another.Item Open Access Alexandra Tisma : Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency(AESOP, 2011)Senior researcher at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, The Hague. Her research interest involves spatial planning, landscape development and policy evaluation, urban landscape design, and planning support systems. In 2005, she has been appointed associate professor at the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture in Novi Sad, Serbia, where she teaches landscape planning. Since 2009, she has been working as a tutor for the subject Paper Writing at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture, at the third year of master studies in Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape Architecture. Alexandra Tisma obtained her PhD and master’s degree at the Faculty of Architecture in Delft, Netherlands, and her bachelor’s degree at the Faculty of Agriculture in Novi Sad, former Yugoslavia. She is a member of the Netherlands Association for Landscape Architecture and Le-NOTRE network.Publication Open Access Ambiguous risks, fixed responsibilities : urban planning in Jerusalem(AESOP, 2015) Bar, RoniUrban resilience has been widely adopted by planning scholars and practitioners as a framework for managing complexity and contingency. However, the term is not only over-ambiguous, but is also frequently adopted a-critically into planning policies. Therefore, the paper uses the concept of risk (rather than resilience) in order to investigate the way planners, define, prioritize and respond to risks. This is explored as a normative decision (and action) with ethical implications, rather than a purely professional one. Acknowledging the need to investigate both the planning process and the physical environment, the paper focuses on the prioritization of risks, planners’ response concretization of risk perceptions in the urban environment through urban planning and design. These issues are investigated in Jerusalem’s city center, an area that has witnessed attacks and has been going through a process of densification and renewal. Findings reveal that planners assume a fixed responsibility and distinguish between two types of risk: (a) economic-demographic risks, which are seen as central, and (b) security risks, which are disregarded as irrelevant and were not considered in the plan. Despite this distinction, the analysis reveals correlations between economic and security interests, demonstrating the connection between security practices and neo-liberal urban regeneration. The last section of the paper acknowledges the importance to resist the fortification of urban spaces, yet warn that ignoring certain risks in a conflictual arena may reflect a dismissal of the conflict itself, as well as urban planning’s role in perpetuating unjust circumstancesItem Open Access An addicted view on the European Urban Summer Schools(AESOP, 2013) Lourenço, JúliaTaking an addicted view from a former participant in 1994 at a Young Planning Professional Workshop (YPP), to an organiser of a YPP in 2009, from a lecturer at European Urban Summer Schools (EUSS) in Wroclaw and Lisbon to a tutor at EUSS in Madrid, I can recall some memorable moments in all of these. Nevertheless, this last EUSS experience makes for one of the best. Reasons for this may lie, at the start, in the previous knowledge all tutors of Madrid had and the long-time connections they partially shared. For most tutors it was through being lecturers at CEU, for others through ISOCARP, where they shared joint meetings or creative happenings at least since the late nineties. Therefore, the tutors were at ease under the coordination of Teresa Franchini who made things even easier by allowing choices of the site where the tutors thought they could perform best. The same applied to the participants who chose the site they would work on, provided the right mix of specialities was guaranteed. Further reasons derive of course from the participants who shared an enthusiastic motivation that matched the vibes of central Madrid and the excitingly modern topic of post-speculative cities. Going through their specific personal motivations, for several of them EUSS came as a break-through in their studies and a turning point to decide on further avenues of expertise in their professional careers. For that reason they may have lacked some knowledge in urban planning, but they had an extra-abundant thirst for learning and understanding when this topic was the right choice to follow in their future careers.Item Open Access An example in Delicia’s axis, Madrid(AESOP, 2013) Perepichka, Anzhela; Villamor, Jose Miguel; Lihtmaa, Lauri; Mathews, Mary; Pletsch, Mikhaela A. J. S.; Ryser, Judith; Franchini, TeresaMeasuring approximately 23 hectares, the Delicias Axis is an area of Madrid with great potential. It is connected by metro and train stations, and is not far from the central museum district. Furthermore, several businesses, such as Repsol, Spain’s major oil company, are moving into the neighbourhood, and there are several attractions such as the Planetarium and the Train Museum on the site. People from Madrid use the park for flea markets and social activities like dance. However, the Delicias axis does not currently garner the attention it deserves. The Delicias working group of the 4th European Urban Summer School made several proposals to improve access and connectivity of the area into the larger fabric of Madrid. Improved urban design features were envisaged to revitalise the area and make it a real destination for locals and tourists. Through field work and discussions, the group produced a development plan focusing on the goals of attracting tertiary activities and linking the area with the adjacent Tierno Galván Park, the largest green open space in south Madrid.Publication Open Access An open game for dissent: towards critical tools for collaborative processes of production of space(AESOP, 2015) Silva, Ana Paula de AssisThis paper presents the conception and application of a game designed for and p teenagers living in a slum area in Brazil that is currently under structural inter large spatial transformation project. The conception of this game is based on the segregation of the city. Players have been invited to deconstruct such a propo encouraged to imagine other forms of occupation and enjoyment of their environment RanciŁre’s account of dissent will be discussed as a counterpoint to the cons current participatory policies in an attempt to reveal their limitations regard potential. Flosser’s concept of open game will also be discussed as an alternative of critical tools for collaborative processes of production of space. The outcome presented in order to discuss the capacity of games to overcome social obstaclesPublication Open Access Analysis for the Policy of Reorganizing Rural residential patches in China and the Dilemma of Ecological Niche in China’s Urban and Rural Areas(AESOP, 2015) Yue, Yufeng; Li, Weiqiang Wang JianWith the rapid economic development and significant urbanization in China, dual-structure phenomenon, caused by the great gap of development level in urban and rural areas, has become increasingly prominent. Compared with the urban areas, the development in terms of social, economic and cultural aspects in rural areas has encountered underlying dilemma. To narrow the gap between urban and rural development, the Ministry of Land and Resources has proposed planning policy for reorganizing rural lands, trying to achieve integration of the population and land resources in agricultural areas and construction of modern intensive rural residential areas to promote the overall development in urban and rural areas, and realize the modernization goals for the benefit of rural areas, agriculture industry and peasants there. This paper is aimed to adopt the research perspective and method of ecological niche theory, establish the ecological niche expansion model and analyse the theory essence of the Reorganization of rural residential patches to summarize the internal change mechanisms of the ecological niche in urban and rural areas during the process of consolidation. Combined with author’s planning and research in Henan Province, Chinese agricultural populous province, the empirical analysis could be conducted to determine the niche development trend in urban and rural areas during the course of the consolidation, so as to propose a value judgment orientation for China rural governance and planning policy development, as well as the discussions on the niche dilemma and path direction of the rural development in China.Publication Open Access Approaching a Polycentric and Compact Mode of Sustainable Urban Development: the Case of Shanghai(AESOP, 2015) Chen, Jianbin; Gan, XinyueThis paper discusses issues relating to the urban structure of contemporary megalopolises in China. As the urbanization rate is over 50% in China, the New Mode of Urbanization Planning (2014-2020) specifies new ways for Chinese cities to optimize their urban structure. Many Chinese megalopolises propose to focus future urban development plans on the polycentric and compact urban structure that would address sustainable development concerns. Shanghai is one of the cities taking the lead in adopting this mode. This paper also reviews theories about both urban polycentric structure and compact city in order to identify new ways to integrate them. To understand how this integrated mode of urban development might work, an urban concept model is established to analyze the relationships between inner city, suburbs, new districts and new towns. Taking Shanghai as an example and making reviews of its previous planning, this research explores the reasons and motivations for adopting the integrated mode and examines the effect of the spatial expansion of population and industry, as well as the role of the intervention and organization of government. This research also shows how Shanghai’s urban structure has trans monocentric system towards a polycentric structure with compact form. The paper’s final section presents a quantitative and qualitative analysis of stage of approaching the polycentric and compact urban structure. Preliminary findings indicates that, for China’s megalopolises, this development mode is both sustainable and particularly well suited national conditions.Item Open Access Approche historique de la Place Anatole France, un espace en contact permanent avec l’histoire A historical approach to the Anatole France Square: an urban space in permanent contact with history(AESOP, 2014) Durdevic, Jan; Lamirault, ValentinAnatole France Square is a public space in the oldest part of the city of Tours. Through the centuries it has undergone many changes, but its unique historical wealth and identity are inseparable from those of the city of Tours as a whole. The purpose of this short chapter is to briefly trace its history. During the Celtic era, the Tours region – called ‘Touraine’ - was occupied by the Gallic people of Turones, so Anatole France Square was probably an agricultural site with orchards. Tours was founded following the Roman annexation of Gaul in 52 BC. The area now covered by the Anatole France Square was not included in the first settlement, implanted in the present Saint-Gatien neighbourhood. In the medieval era, Tours, like many contemporary cities, was divided into two distinct urban centres: the Cité and the Châteauneuf. Even though the square did not belong to either of these neighbourhoods, an abbey dedicated to St. Julien was located on its perimeter and the successive enlargements of the abbey since 1240 are still partly visible. During the Hundred Years War, to defend Tours against the English, the ancient walls of the Cité and the Châteauneuf were replaced by a new wall which enveloped the area now known as Anatole France Square.