Peri‐urban informal housing development in Victorian England: the contribution of freehold land societies

Self‐help housing in peri‐urban areas (usually outside municipal boundaries) is a feature, not only of rapidly urbanizing countries now in the South, but was also in Victorian England, where it was often initiated by freehold land societies, created by the Chartist movement in order to expand the franchise. These bodies bought and subdivided land for sale to their members, and laid out roads, using legal powers conferred upon the building societies. The societies made a significant contribution to housing for the urban working class, and preceded the garden city and town planning movement promoted by Liberal politicians. A case study is presented of one successful provincial society, the Ipswich and Suffolk Freehold Land Society.     

Reprint of “The production of segregated urban landscapes: A critical analysis of gated communities in Sofia”

Gated communities represent a rather new trend in housing in Sofia. Besides very few secluded and privately governed neighbourhoods of the nomenclature they were little known in Bulgaria before 1989. This has changed profoundly over the last 15 years. Indeed, similar to other Central and Eastern European cities (CEE) one can speak of a boom in closed-type settlements in Sofia and its outskirts with approximately 50–60 newly constructed gated and guarded housing estates which in some cases accommodate several hundred inhabitants. While this growth of enclosed high-income neighbourhoods has mostly been studied in terms of architectural design, representation, residential structure and behaviour as well as public–private dichotomy little attention has been paid to the politico-economic processes underlying this radical restructuring of urban space in Central and Eastern Europe. Additionally the role of the key stakeholders (local business people, international developers, public authorities) has hardly been questioned. Therefore, this article tries to uncover the interplay of different stakeholders that have shaped this production of space. By applying a relational approach the article attempts to elaborate on why, by whom and by what kind of practices gated communities are produced and how they function. Beyond that the article also takes a closer look at the neo-liberal urban policy environment that has influenced the rise in gated communities. The article aims not only to extend the research by adding just another case study, but rather to provide a critical reading of gated communities in Central and Eastern Europe. Furthermore by discussing three examples of gated communities in Sofia, each representing a specific type with its specific causalities and socio-spatial outcomes, the article will also highlight what we can learn from our post-socialist Bulgarian case regarding gated communities in general.     

State intervention in urban housing markets: A case study of public housing development and change in Melbourne, 1945–1980

Abstract

The paper analyses the three major public housing programmes which have been operating within Melbourne since 1945 within the framework of the theory of the state. The paper also reviews the functions and causes of state intervention and assesses the utility of the theory of the state.     

Grindsamhälle: the rise of urban gating and gated housing in Sweden

Sweden does not have gated communities, but this paper argues that processes of gating and the associated consequences are apparent in Sweden, particularly in metropolitan regions. Based on interviews, observations and analysis of previous research, the article identifies the rise of urban gating and gated housing. Urban gating restricts access to previously public land through material gating and results in a loss of the right to use-value of urban land. The rise of a new and exclusive form of gated housing associated with the lifestyles of the mobile middle class, referred to here, as the residential hotel, is spotlighted, prompting questions about the concentration of affluence in already privileged areas and the reinforcing effect of gating on existing patterns of socio-spatial polarization.     

Contention for urban state space and the rise of society in China: A case study of “housing planting” in Hohhot

Existing literature has overemphasized the power of state in the theorization of China's urbanization and transition, and after the reform and opening-up, substantial attention has been given to the interaction between state and market. Comparatively, the role of society has been vastly underestimated. The paper selects housing planting in Hohhot to explain how local villagers contended actively with local states for and over space to increase compensation for land requisition. The contention has caused severe social conflicts, high compensation cost, and forced demolition, thereby threatening local states' land finance and development. Essentially, space has become a useful tool for citizens to preserve their interests. This implies that with the rise of society, China's urbanization is transitioning from a high-speed and low-cost stage to a high-quality and high-cost stage. Due to the changing relation between state, capital, and society, many pertinent institutions need to be adjusted as well. The paper calls for additional attention to the state-society-relation perspective when theorizing China's urban development.     

The “neighborhood unit” on trial: a case study in the impacts of urban morphology

The organization of modern city planning into “neighborhood units” – most commonly associated with the Clarence Perry proposal of 1929 – has been enormously influential in the evolution of modern city form, and at the same time has also been the subject of intense controversy and debate that continues to the present day. New issues under debate include social and economic diversity, maintenance of viable pedestrian and public transit modes, viability of internalized community service hubs, and efficient use of energy and natural resources, including greenhouse gas emissions. We trace the history of this controversy up to the present day, and we discuss new developments that may point the way to needed reforms of best practice.     

Macmillan’s martyr: the Pilgrim case,the ‘land grab’ and the Tory housing drive, 1951–9

The suicide of Edward Pilgrim in 1954 prompted a public furore over the easy terms on which public authorities could compulsorily purchase privately owned land for development. This article argues that Harold Macmillan, as Conservative Housing Minister after 1951, consciously prolonged the statist purchase provisions of the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act even as a reviving market in development land in the early 1950s made them unrealistic and inequitable. The Tories’ twin aims of abolishing the 1947 development charge and making good the ambitious 1951 election pledge to build 300,000 houses per year created an immensely complex set of problems which Macmillan negotiated with much skill. The result, though, was that local authorities – mostly Labour ones – eager to build houses benefited and many individual small owners like Pilgrim suffered from this policy. The Tory pledge was therefore realised in part by means of a hidden subsidy to municipal socialism and at the expense of many natural Conservative supporters.     

Reprint of “The production of urban vacant land: Relational placemaking in Boston,MA neighborhoods”

The persistence of vacant land in urban areas exhibits geographic unevenness. While central cities have experienced waves of reinvestment over the past decades, vacant lands often persist in adjacent low-income neighborhoods. Thus a networked local-scale perspective is integral for understanding metropolitan areas. Local scale analyses require an understanding of informal decision-makers and institutions and the ways that they connect more broadly with other actors. Drawing on focus groups with civil society organizations (CSOs) and a neighborhood design/build case study, this paper characterizes “on the ground” perceptions of and responses to vacant lots in urban neighborhoods in order to provide insight into their analysis and management. The fieldwork extends insights from studies of community gardens to suggest that access to and potential ownership of vacant parcels, in addition to the political economic forces driving land-use change, are critical factors that drive vacant land governance at the neighborhood-scale. Public–civic partnerships in weak market areas have the potential to strengthen this access and ownership in a way that improves vacant lot management.     

‘They took the land,now we’re fighting for a house’: Aboriginal perspectives about urban housing disadvantage

Aboriginal Australians experience substantial housing disadvantage on a range of measures, yet relatively little is known about how urban Aboriginal people perceive their housing circumstances. While most Aboriginal people live in urban or suburban areas, research and policy attention has tended to focus on remote housing issues. This paper draws on focus groups conducted with Aboriginal people at an Aboriginal Medical Service in Western Sydney (n = 38) about their housing experiences and beliefs about why many Aboriginal people experience the housing disadvantage they described. Participants described a landscape in which their housing experiences were materially affected by their Aboriginality and inextricably linked to racial discrimination, poverty, marginalization, the lack of social and affordable housing and disempowerment, all with negative implications for their psychosocial well-being. Participant views aligned with critical race theory, with race described as a fundamental structural force that created and deepened housing disadvantage beyond economic hardship alone.     

Implementing ‘Site BIM’: A case study of ICT innovation on a large hospital project

Numerous Building Information Modelling (BIM) tools are well established and potentially beneficial in certain uses. However, issues of adoption and implementation persist, particularly for on-site use of BIM tools in the construction phase. We describe an empirical case-study of the implementation of an innovative ‘Site BIM’ system on a major hospital construction project. The main contractor on the project developed BIM-enabled tools to allow site workers using mobile tablet personal computers to access design information and to capture work quality and progress data on-site. Accounts show that ‘Site BIM’, while judged to be successful and actively supporting users, was delivered through an exploratory and emergent development process of informal prototyping. Technical IT skills were adopted into the construction project through personal relationships and arrangements rather than formal processes. Implementation was driven by construction project employees rather than controlled centrally by the corporate IT function.     

How does the community resilience of urban village response to the government-led redevelopment? A case study of Tangjialing village in Beijing

Building on the critical resilience literature, this study aims at analyzing how the community resilience (CR) of urban village (UV), which is challenged by multiple natural and socio-economic disturbances such as climate change, land occupation, and industrialization, responses to the government-led redevelopment (GLR) and its hidden mechanism. A conceptual framework incorporating social, economic, institutional/governmental, material domains and community capital was established with reference to the work of Cutter, Burton, and Emrich (2010), and was applied as the conceptual springboard to assess the resilience of Tangjialing village. The results suggested that the GLR in Tangjialing village was generally a successful practice for enhancing CR, which was tightly associated with the economic empowerment for local residents and formalization of informal economic activities and negatively affected by insufficient public engagement. Accordingly, policy implications about enhancing the resilience such as protecting the farmers' “private rights” as landowners, providing employment guidance and assistance and implementing cooperative planning were proposed.     

An ecological study of families in transitional housing – ‘housed but not homed’

This article discusses the sense of homelessness among nine homeless families who are in transitional housing in Singapore, where homelessness is minimal and mostly out of the public eye. This study is significant as it investigates homelessness experienced by married couples with children in Singapore, unlike most other research which has examined homelessness among singles or single-parent families, and which is based in Australia, Europe, and the US. The sense of homelessness was shaped by the ecological environment that comprised systemic elements such as kin support, housing policies, and non-housing policies like citizenship, education, welfare, and so forth. Homelessness was seen as (i) a loss of complete autonomy, control, privacy, and comfort; (ii) the lack of physical, practical, and emotional support from kin; (iii) a compromised ‘sense of family’ and family decisions; and (iv) hope and endurance while interacting with the ecological system.     

From informal housing to apartment housing: exploring the ‘new social’ in a gecekondu rehousing project,Turkey

This article engages with the question of the ‘new social’ that emerges in the relocation of the poor in slum renewal projects. Drawing upon both Lefebvre’s theorization of abstract space of capital and social space of people, and the neoliberal framework in which the economic dominates the social, the complex relationship between the spatial and the social embedded in political economy is demonstrated. In the Turkish context, the ‘new social’ is situated at the intersection of spatial transformations, housing representations, neoliberalism and Islam. In the housing estate of the case study, the abstract space was challenged by the bottom-up responses of some residents who tried to create their social space rooted in their previous experiences in the gecekondu; it was reacted by other residents who embraced the higher status of apartment living. The void produced by destroying the gecekondu habitus was filled by religious activities and consumption-inspired everyday practices.     

A study on air circulation: the case of House VI of “Vila” 37 with the application of wind-catch

The continuous process of urban transformation, as well as the changes that take place within the built environments themselves, interfere in the ventilation dynamic. This happened to Vila 37 - in Rio de Janeiro city - where the houses had to grow vertically, and were consequently swallowed by other urban volumes. Aiming to analyze the changes that took place in these confined ventilation spaces, house number VI was evaluated. Simulations using wind-capture was carried out in an attempt to increase and promote better ventilation. The analysis starts by solving the air circulation problem to determine the wind fields by using a mixed stabilized finite element method that is applied to the full Navier-Stokes equations. The computational simulation results of the original situation were compared with the results of the new scenario. The computational results suggest that the use of these strategies presents a good potential to provide ventilation with low environmental and economic costs.     

A microcosm of design control in post‐war Britain: A case study of office development in central Bristol 1940–90

The city centre of Bristol provides a microcosm of post‐war British experience with design control. Four eras of control are identified: the immediate post‐war redevelopment using the principles of segregation and open planning; the modernist era dominated by free‐flow road systems and tower blocks on pedestrian decks; the conservation era with its emphasis upon contextual design; and the contemporary era where the emphasis is switching from buildings to spaces in a climate where design control is under retreat. It is argued that since 1975 design control has become more participative, more skilled and more responsive to the locality, but that such an approach has only been defended from central government antipathy by the extended use of conservation designations.

The lessons of Bristol's experience are that local authorities need to give priority to design quality and skills in their planning and estates functions, and to retain full control over design in sensitive areas. They need to harness public participation into design control, to respond carefully to the historic context and continuity in a city, and to focus particularly upon developing a lively, diverse and attractive public realm. Ultimately, however, the realities of the speculative development process pose significant limits on the extent to which design control can achieve architectural or environmental quality.     

Around Madrid: the continuing influence of historical urban development plans on today’s periphery

This paper describes the peripheral development that has occurred in Madrid over the last 16 years (2000–2016), a period split by the economic crash that occurred in 2008. The paper argues that the relationship between economic development and infrastructure corridors witnessed in this peripheral development is intrinsically connected to the nineteenth and twentieth-century plans for urban growth. While these corridors have some similarities to the Strip model for an automobile city discussed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown in their seminal book Learning from Las Vegas, the Madrid peripheries enjoy a long genealogy that complicates any easy link to the Strip, particularly around issues of economic speculation, typology and image-making or imagining, which will be introduced using the work of Michael Neuman and others. The research design adopted examines the treatment of the periphery in a number of historical plans, particularly their attitudes towards infrastructure and economic development, in order to establish connections between those historical plans and the city’s planned and (partially) realized peripheral development today.     

Revealing the relationship of human convergence–divergence patterns and land use: A case study on Shenzhen City,China

Understanding the relationship between human mobility and land use has been a longstanding topic in multiple disciplines, including transport geography and urban planning. Recently, urban collective mobility patterns have become a hot research direction and has been explored at an unprecedented space–time scale due to the emerging big human tracking datasets (e.g., mobile phone data). However, only a few studies have comprehensively quantified the effects of land use on human mobility patterns while considering the influence of the scale of spatial analysis units. This study attempts to reinforce this knowledge by investigating urban human convergence–divergence patterns and their relationship with land use distribution characteristics at three popular types of spatial analysis units of human mobility studies (voronoi polygons, grid cells, and traffic analysis zones) using mobile phone data. A case study on Shenzhen, China is implemented, and results indicate that eight distinct convergence–divergence patterns could be extracted to describe urban collective mobility patterns despite the use of different types of spatial analysis unit. Moreover, the scale of spatial analysis units exerts a few effects on the quantification of the influence of land use distribution on human convergence–divergence patterns, but some common characteristics could be summarized from these discrepant results. The findings can help policy makers understand urban human mobility and can serve as a guide for urban management and planning.     

Assessing the impact of international development policies on the process of civil society participation in urban development in the countries of the South: the case of Syria, 2005–2010

This paper seeks to explore the effect of the international development policies promoted by the United Nations Development Programme on civil society participation in urban development process in the countries of the South. More specifically, the case of Syria during the period 2005–2010 was examined. An institutional analysis was conducted in order to investigate the question of whether development institutions in particular contexts, in terms of both the mental models and the organizational forms of development, permitted the space needed to apply this principle in practice. In this, the paper argues the need to promote a proactive approach to enable civil society participation in the countries of the South rather than a normative internationally accepted approach developed in isolation from the given political and institutional context.     

Contemporary tendencies in Colombian urban planning: the case of the ‘Planes Parciales’ in Medellín

After decades of internal conflict, Colombia is experiencing economic growth and urbanization. It remains, however, one of the most socially unequal countries in Latin America. Medellín, acclaimed the most innovative city, implemented large-scale transport infrastructures to link socially excluded areas to the city; new educational and cultural facilities; new public spaces and housing projects, rooted in the Barcelona model. This so-called ‘social urbanism’ has shifted local perceptions, though its socio-economic impact has been questioned. This paper focuses on the less analysed transformations in planning policy and management through two instruments: the Land Use Plan (Plan de Ordenamiento Territorial – POT) and the ‘Plan Parcial’. The research, based on a desktop review, interviews and site visits, examines the application of these instruments in Medellín, reflecting on how they contribute to achieving the aims of ‘social urbanism’. The paper explores the differences between ‘rhetoric’ and practice that are reflected in those between the city’s overarching plan (POT) and the implementation of ‘planes parciales’, focusing on redevelopment, urban renewal and urban expansion. Such differences mirror the deficiencies in the adaptation of the ‘urban project’ Barcelona model in Medellín, and provide the basis for a call to develop ‘social urbanism’ that is genuinely more socially, territorially comprehensive and inclusive.