News from the field: ‘Town and townscape: the work and life of Thomas Sharp’

The New South Wales Environmental Planning and Assessment Act, 1979, came into effect on 1 September 1980. It was Australia's first planning legislation where the objects of the Act explicitly included a balance between economic, social and environmental outcomes. The Act also facilitated public participation at all stages of plan-making and land-use decision-making. While the Act continues to promote such aims, it has also undergone significant amendment, particularly in the last 5 years. This has seen a distinct move away from the spirit of the original objects of the Act to more centralized and less participatory decision-making. This paper examines the evolution of the Act and of the New South Wales planning system. The NSW Planning Department considers that the state's planning system is still world standard. This review concludes otherwise. Rather, the evidence strongly indicates that a review of the planning system and legislative framework is warranted in order to achieve better land management.     

Numerical simulations of the failure process of anaclinal slope physical model and control mechanism of negative Poisson’s ratio cable

Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment - Occurrence of toppling failure has been prominent due to the increasing of infrastructure construction, such as road slopes, dams, and...     

Renewal of housing from the 1940s and 1950s from the tenants’ point of view

Taking the ideal of free play in a creative environment as a point of departure, the author examines how this ideal is met in Swedish homes and neighbourhoods. Children's indoor and outdoor activities are described as well as general environmental qualities in different types of housing developments. Housing requirements, neighbourhood improvement programmes and planning practice are outlined. Differences in housing conditions and play patterns according to class are pointed out. The conclusion is that rather than growing up in creative environments, children live on adult premises, meaning environments that are formed and designed according to adult concepts of use, form and content of space. Finally, some ways out of this dilemma are pointed at.     

Hans Scharoun’s ‘Dwelling Cells’ and the autonomy of architecture

This article traces a genealogy of three Berlin housing projects: Hans Scharoun’s housing estate Charlottenburg Nord (1956–1961); the Siedlung Siemensstadt (1929–1931), planned with Martin Wagner; the pre-modern reform block of Nonnendamm, designed by Johnson and Josef Feldhuber (1910–1912). Whilst for Scharoun the inversion of the figure of the perimeter block of Nonnendamm through the Zeilenbau organisation of Siemensstadt exemplifies modernism’s radical break from the past, it is the variegated form or Gestalt of Charlottenburg Nord that verifies the essential nature of a dwelling cell, or neighbourhood.

By contrast, this paper argues that Scharoun’s dwelling cell is the result of a continuous trajectory of typological reasoning. Each of the key spatial components of Nonnendamm—the figure of the block, the façade, the ground and the void—are taken up, hyper-articulated and re-configured, all in the service of the coherence and differentiation of a segment of the urban population. This trajectory exemplifies how modern architecture’s impetus for experimentation is taken into the service of and propels the broader reflection across disciplines regarding how to house and group the urban population.     

Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall and the invention of the post-modern city

The Royal Concert Hall, designed by Leslie Martin, occupies a pivotal space in central Glasgow. Its opening in 1990 concluded a thirty-year war over modern and post-modern urban form. At the time, Glasgow's city centre looked very different than three decades earlier, and the changes from a modern to a ‘post-modern’ environment were paradigmatic for the shifts in many de-industrialising cities in Europe and North America. In this context the Royal Concert Hall is an example of how a single building catalysed a wide-ranging paradigm change.

This article retraces the design debates on the basis of newspaper articles, interviews and documents, in particular from the City Council and other public agencies. It will show that the struggle that eventually defined the shape and use of Glasgow's largest music venue as well as those of the entire city centre related to Glasgow's post-modern ‘reinvention’. At the same time it shows that the new urban form was not a mandatory consequence of the economic shift but conditioned by several social and cultural specificities.     

Landscape and the cultural politics of China’s anticipatory urbanism

China has seen a proliferation of monumental urban projects in recent years extending to lower tier cities. This paper examines the production of new urban landscapes in the Kangbashi New District of Ordos Municipality to assess the political economy and cultural logics of China’s current-day city-making programmes. The concept of ‘anticipatory urbanism’ is developed to interpret how monumentality in the built environment is aimed at foretelling new developmental futures promising to deliver power to the local state and prosperity to residents. The analysis assesses public responses to landscape transformations and discusses how speculation in the production of new city spaces generates conflict and crisis for the local state. Anticipatory urbanism is found to feed off government ambition and undermines sustainable urban growth.     

European urban culture,Javier de Mesones-Cabello’s planning practice and its legacy in city of Valladolid

Javier de Mesones-Cabello was an influential and active planner of the 1960s and 1970s in Spain, who passed away in December, 2016. His professional career as a self-taught urban planner was extensively linked to his academic and institutional activities. These connections supported the establishment of relationships with prestigious professionals working in urban planning practice. In planning the 1969 masterplan for the city of Valladolid, in Spain, de Mesones-Cabello made several intellectual references to the Greek urban planner Doxiadis. This masterplan covers a relatively unknown example of directional city growth in a European context. My findings elucidate the extent to which de Mesones-Cabello was influenced by Doxiadis, and the circumstances in which these ideas have continued to dominate thinking about Valladolid's urban development.     

Urban Tourism and the De-gaying of Cape Town’s De Waterkant

This investigation is set against the observation that analysis of South African neighbourhood development and evolution is very uneven, with limited reflection on historically white neighbourhoods in close proximity to former White CBDs. The study focuses on the intersection between neighbourhood change in this type of setting and urban tourism and sexuality. Consideration is given to the role of sexual identity, as well as urban tourism and leisure seeking, in contributing towards the changing geographies of De Waterkant. It is suggested that this nexus has been central to dramatically altering the physical character and symbolic meaning of De Waterkant. Questions are posed as to why De Waterkant developed in the manner it has and issues that arise from such neighbourhood change. A central conclusion is that this neighbourhood has undergone dramatic changes which exclude a broad spectrum of urban dwellers.     

Street Life and the ‘People’s City’

Could large-scale urban development and an erosion of rights to public space prove the death knoll for China’s vibrant street life? Shi Jian , Planning Director of ISreading Culture in Beijing, looks at the tradition of Chinese street culture and how it is currently shifting and reinventing itself for new urban contexts. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Futurescapes of urban regeneration: ten years of design for the unfolding urban legacy of London’s Olympic Games, 2008–2018

ABSTRACT

Much of the literature on the urban legacy of the 2012 Olympics Games emerging in recent years has emphasized the form that development has taken and the ways in which this aligns (or not) with specific promises made in terms of regeneration before the Games. Though plenty of discussion of planning procedure has occurred in this context, less emphasis has been placed on how the process, rather than the products, of urban change has been envisioned through legacy planning and urban design, and the significance of this for regeneration. Given that London’s much-heralded ‘regeneration legacy’ was, from the early days of the Olympic bid, portrayed as a long-term process aimed at addressing historical issues of socio-economic disparity in East London, and that planning and urban design would play key roles in anticipating it, this contribution to the literature is timely. The paper focuses on the period from 2008 to 2018, beginning with the launch of the what was called the Legacy Masterplan Framework. Drawing on empirical analysis of documents describing the main stages of legacy planning and design between these years, it then examines how regeneration as a ‘futurescape’ encompassing numerous aspects of timing and temporality has been anticipated, planned and evolved.     

Bangladesh’s diverse and complex physical geography: implications for agricultural development

Bangladesh’s physical geography is much more diverse and complex than is generally recognised. The landscapes of piedmont, river, tidal and estuarine floodplains, uplifted blocks and hill areas are described together with the associated environmental hazards that currently constrain crop production in specific regions. Practical measures to increase crop production in parallel with the projected increase in the country’s population in the next 20–30 years are reviewed, including measures to increase the efficiency of fertiliser use and irrigation, and structural measures to reduce the hazards of salinity incursion, sea-level rise and seasonal flooding.     

Deformation of the foundation and structure of Tomioka Silk Mill’s East Cocoon Warehouse

The East Cocoon Warehouse of the Tomioka Silk Mill was constructed in Japan in the Meiji era using technology introduced from abroad. Deformation of its foundation stones and the building as a whole was measured as part of a civil heritage geotechnical study. The maximum differential settlement among the 92 foundation stones of the warehouse spanning a total wall length of 233.4 m was 44 mm. The distance between the foundation stones of the eastern and western walls was 12.5 m, and the maximum differential settlement among the four foundation stones along the southern and northern walls was 13 and 19 mm, respectively. The measurement results indicate that the inclinations of the pillars were not influenced by changes in the elevation of the foundation stones or the presence of gaps in the continuous stone rows. The difference between the maximum and minimum elevations in the silk reeling mill was 33 mm for the 71 foundation stones along the total 325-m wall length. These results illustrate that the level of geotechnology at the beginning of the Meiji era was similar to that of recent technology, and the East Cocoon Warehouse has remained in its original state and location, standing on its simply and suitably built foundation for 145 years.     

What happened to Abu Dhabi’s urbanism? The question of regional integration

Neighbourhoods designed for Emirati citizens form more than 50% of Abu Dhabi’s urbanized land. As a result of planning strategies that neglect regionalism, these percentages are likely to grow in an unsustainable manner. This study traces these neighbourhoods’ morphological evolution towards the goal of identifying urban attributes that encourage cohesive growth. The analysis identifies three periods in Abu Dhabi’s neighbourhood morphology: the Inception Period (1967–1975), characterized by diversity, close-knit neighbourhoods, environmentally sensitive planning and integration with adjacent neighbourhoods and the city fabric; the Dispersion Period (1975–2007), characterized by fragmentation, massive expansion, parcel inflation and restricted integration with existing fabrics; and the Redemption Period (2007–present), characterized by nostalgic historicism, densification, parcel deflation and sparse regional integration. Neighbourhood typologies developed after the 1980s failed to conceive of physical planning at different scales. This failure led to a lack of environmental stewardship in efforts to meet citizens’ housing needs. Future development must take into account both cultural affinities and environmental effects and create effective compromises between these two priorities. Instead of relying on foreign experts, Abu Dhabi must involve local planners and academics in the construction of a new policy agenda that promotes the integration of different planning scales.     

XXI. Century’s challenges for the regeneration of port cities – and for the regeneration of the Havana Bay and waterfront

Based on presentations and discussions during a one-week workshop at Havana, Cuba, in June 2017, the article gives an overview of conditions and options for the regeneration of the Havana Bay and the City of Havana. Although the City of Havana seems to be an excellent location for all kinds of international businesses and tourism because of its favourable geographic and climate conditions as well as its outstanding cultural heritage, many big problems must be solved in an ambitious regeneration process. In order to significantly enhance economic growth and development, it is required to remove some political and legal barriers, but even more it is needed to restore environmental and living conditions around the Havana Bay.