Regenerating a coastal town through art: Dismaland and the (l)imitations of antagonistic art practice in the city

Coastal cities have increasingly welcomed initiatives for producing temporary urban art spaces to lure tourists and revitalize the local economy. This article examines the under-explored contested relationships between a major temporary art event and social (dis)engagement in the context of coastal urban regeneration. During the pop-up art event Dismaland (2015), led by the reputed graffiti artist Banksy and company, the coastal resort of Weston-super-Mare in England experienced an upsurge of international visitors. Banksy envisaged this “Bemusement Park”, situated in an abandoned lido, as an antagonist twist of Disneyland and the commercial modus operandus of theme parks. Drawing on discourse analysis of expert and public perspectives and auto-ethnographic experience, this article challenges the experienced extent of antagonistic art practice in juxtaposition to the formal discourse of creators and urban policymakers. The examination of the event's artistic, behavioral, spatial and temporal frameworks shows how it ambiguously navigated between authentic and engineered trajectories of involving its target audiences. The creators' anarchist plea for radical change was ambivalently met with appreciation of an urban art space for serious contemplation as well as a perceived lack of local community investment – the latter rendering Dismaland an urban ‘art colony’ that fostered an elitist global art market rather than urban-citizen-led participation. The in-depth case study concludes that greater attention, both in urban policy and scholarship, is needed to the implications of the production of temporary urban art spaces for immediate inclusive engagement with end users as well as sustained community development. The study particularly calls for caution in assuming inclusive community benefits of art-led regeneration as abundantly ascribed in creative city theories and urban policies.     

High-rise Dubai urban entrepreneurialism and the technology of symbolic power

Twenty-first century metropolises are often engaged in a rivalry for primacy in many different geographical scales. Dubai, a relatively new urban settlement, is not immune from such endeavor. The Emirate has undertaken an impressive urban revolution in a rather explicit attempt to become a novel New York.This viewpoint explores the present evolution of the city, illustrating how a centralized and hyper-entrepreneurial approach has characterized Dubai’s attempt to ascend in the ‘world urban hierarchy’ and establish itself as the image of the 21st century metropolis. Contrary to much of the eulogistic take that often features in city rankings, an analysis of this venture through the city’s contemporary urban restructuring unveils the problematic social effects of Dubai’s quest for “symbolic power” – that technique of ‘worldmaking’ that confers influence by constituting the given by stating and mediating it. The compulsive sprawl of ‘icons’ and ‘vertical cities’ associated with this practice might set the Emirate on a perilous course with disastrous social consequences. In this view, the article draws upon some of the most astonishing works-in-progress of this city – and the Burj Dubai in primis – to explain the complexity of this power, and the many contradictions that can arise with it as quickly as Dubai’s skyscrapers.     

Art and Ecology at the Edge of Osaka,Japan

City as Nature is an ecological art and media studio based primarily in Kitakagaya, a former shipbuilding district on the outskirts of Osaka, Japan. Working with local and international practitioners, and public and private organizations across multiple disciplines and sectors, they produce ecological art projects that re-connect people, process, and place with the ecosystems in which we dwell. Two narrative project studies in Kitakagaya are presented here: 1) The Branch Osaka, a physical ecological space built inside a typical wood-and-earth row house in an 80-year-old marketplace—rebuilt by City as Nature, using locally recycled materials, it now serves as a residence and ecological art space, with a natural garden and donation-based programming; 2) City as Nature Festival, an ecological neighborhood “happening,” taking place in multiple local public and privately-owned spaces. The festival explores urban relationships with the nature through art-driven dialogs between practitioners, the general public, and the urban space itself. From these projects, City as Nature hopes to explore approaches to cultivating relationships—individual, meaningful relationships between designers, executives, civic leaders, citizens, and the communities of ecosystems in and around our cities. Through an ongoing, truthful dialog with the environment, people might just discover the possible city, an equitable place for all beings.     

Can art breach boundaries? Segregation and hierarchy at a fringe theatre festival in the Israeli mixed city of Acre

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between art and urban boundaries using the case study of a fringe theatre festival in the Israeli mixed-city of Acre. While mixed cities today are understood as agglomerations of enclaves, maintained and reinforced by boundaries, urban designers and artists have used art as a culture-led regeneration strategy through which these boundaries may be breached. This study undermines the shared assumption of both fields: that art has the power to breach boundaries, by juxtaposing a city’s artistic activity with its segregation patterns and boundaries. Using super-positioning, the findings of two research methods have been integrated: urban research and ethnographic field work. The article shows that although the artistic activity in question is rooted in an avant-garde radical desire to subvert socioeconomic structures, it actually produces new versions and interpretations of the same segregations and boundaries in both space and society.     

Retrofitting cities: Local governance in Sydney,Australia

Transforming cities to a lower carbon future is one of the key challenges of contemporary urban governance. Retrofitting the city – or modifying existing urban infrastructures, buildings and daily life to suit different energy sources and different expectations of energy consumption – is essential to this transformation. In urban studies, little focus has yet been applied to the shape and character of urban governance frameworks and mechanisms required to successfully retrofit cities. In this paper we address this lacuna by exploring the logics, practices and dynamics of retrofitting governance in the Australian city. Using a governmentality perspective, the paper identifies the involvements of different scales of government in retrofitting policies and mechanisms and connections between them. Based on a unique survey of carbon reduction initiatives involving government, business and community actors across Australia’s capital cities, we outline the types of retrofitting solutions being proposed and enacted. Using a focus on local initiatives from Sydney, Australia’s largest city, the paper documents four key techniques through which retrofitting is being governed – self-governing, holistic, facilitative and educative. The findings suggest that governance gaps remain in attending to the daily life of technologies and the materiality of daily life.     

The Public Space and the Monuments of the City

The relationship between the public spaces of a city and those buildings which represent the significant institutions of the community—the monuments of the city—reflects both the values and the power structure of that community. It epitomises the urban design process as intrinsically both hermeneutic in nature and driven by the dominant cultural values of a society.The preamble provides a framework which contrasts the typical outcomes of democratic and autocratic decision-making processes Four case studies of major new or proposed public spaces in the two largest Australian cities are discussed. Inadequacy of consultative processes in three of these cases may in some measure account for the critical interface between the monument and the public space being reminiscent of the products of autocratic regimes, whilst the fourth is more characteristic of the outcomes expected of a democratic society.     

Two versions of heterotopia: The role of art practices in participative urban renewal processes

The purpose of this paper is to take part in the debate about power relationships in contemporary cities between the agents of urban renewal and the local communities, as mediated by cultural and artistic interventions and projects. Our study proposes a new conceptual frame, focused on the comparison between two notions of heterotopia as theoretical alternatives for the interpretation of cities as social and participatory spaces. The notions we consider may be traced to two key thinkers such as Michel Foucault and Henri Lefebvre, and lay the foundation for alternative analytical paradigms of the contemporary urban condition, in relation to artistic and cultural practices in the public space. We draw upon these two alternative readings of heterotopia to explore the implications of the interaction of artistic practices with the urban space as a contested terrain from the viewpoint of power relationships. In our analysis, we find that Foucault's notion of heterotopia is potentially conducive to top-down planning processes and to gentrification. Lefebvre's notion is instead possibly more suited to participatory practices as strategies of reactivation of the right to the city.     

信息流视角下长三角城市群空间组织辨析及其规划启示——基于百度指数的城市网络辨析

通过统计长三角江浙沪皖26城市彼此间互联网用户对其他城市搜索的"百度指数",模拟测度城市间以民众关注度为主的信息流强度.基于此构建"长三角"地区的城市网络模型,结合企业组织视角的城市网络对比分析其结构特征,并在分析结果的基础上,解析和探讨《长江三角洲城市群发展规划 (2016--2020)》中"一核五圈"的空间格局,得出以下规划启示:首先,相比企业组织的城市网络,信息流视角下的城市网络结构与城市行政等级结构的关联性更低;其次,城市群的外部范围、内部组织等虽有清晰的界限划定,其各城市的实际功能联系却是紧密交织并不断拓展的,将逐渐演化为动态、开放的网络体系;再次,"长三角城市群"规划范围内部发展不平衡、不充分的问题仍存在,需针对不同外围后发城市提供相应对策支持,加强其与核心城市的互动联系,从而进一步提升城市群的整体竞争力.研究提出,随着网络大数据的广泛应用,基于信息流的城市网络研究将更加全面和准确,可为宏观层面的城市区域规划提供一定的科学依据,引导城市与城市群以更加开放的思维做规划、谋发展.     

The plan as a colonization project: the medina of Tlemcen under French rule, 1842–1920

In the nineteenth century, Algerian cities were the first medinas in the Arab world to be colonized by a European power. Tlemcen, a medieval medina involved in this historical event, was marked by a relentless struggle on the part of the French administration to transform it into a city conforming to modern standards. The antagonism between two urban systems – the ‘Islamic city’ and the modern city – takes a problematic form when confronted with urban interventions that had colonizing aims. This paper will argue that the plan of the colonial city introduced a new order, subjecting the medieval medina within a set/subset relationship. Through urban subordination, the French military–civil administration used the plan layout as an instrument to control and dominate the medina of Tlemcen. In order to verify this hypothesis, a thorough study of documents dating from the early years of the French occupation was undertaken; thus, this paper is constructed as an urban study, based on a historico-morphological approach.     

城市的非正规性：我国旧城更新研究中的盲点

当前,我国城市的开发和改造一般都是在正规性的规划方案引导下进行。但是,城市中仍然存在着大量如“城中村”那样自发建设的区域,即非正规性城市．由于目前社会对此类环境的理解极其片面,将它看作是脏、乱、差的同义词而常以单一的大拆大建方式进行改造,这彻底摧毁了原有的城市肌理和社区生命力。事实上．非正规性城市具有丰富的意义,正规性城市与非正规性城市也不是截然对立的两个世界,两者的界限正趋于模糊。规划必须尊重城市固有的自发秩序,在正规性与非正规性之间维持一个健康平衡。     

城市与建筑之间的庭院——意大利城市的中介空间探究

本文通过对分布在意大利城市的几个不同时期的中介空间案例进行考察和分析,讨论庭院在城市空间中的运用,利用其中介的特征和过渡的作用,来处理城市与建筑之间的轴线对位、尺度缩放、空间转化及过渡等问题。     

智慧城市技术对未来城市空间发展的影响

大数据、人工智能、移动网络、云 计算等新技术的发展,正在引发一场全球新 一轮的技术革命。智能技术的发展不仅成 为国家经济、社会发展的创新动力,而且也 对城市的运作和发展产生了深刻的影响。智 慧城市在这样的大背景下,正以比我们想象 得更快的速度在城市的各个领域展开,如智 慧交通、智慧能源、智能通讯、智慧政务、智 慧医疗等等几乎涉及了城市运作的各个层面 和各个方面,这些智慧技术的应用已经对城 市生活产生了巨大影响,那么它将对未来城 市空间格局产生什么影响,对城市设计带来 怎么样的机遇和挑战,或者反过来说,我们 可以利用智慧技术在城市设计领域做些什 么,值得我们进一步思考。本文将通过对国 内外智慧城市研究领域前沿研究的分析,揭 示智慧城市技术对城市各个方面产生的影响 和潜在机遇,并提出未来城市设计利用智慧 技术将面临的新的课题和值得关注的研究 方向。     

Using locative social media and urban cartographies to identify and locate successful urban plazas

Locative social media networks as open sources of data allow researchers and professionals to acknowledge which city places are preferred, used and livable. Following this hypothesis, this paper proposes a methodology to identify successful public spaces – plazas – through the location-based social media network Foursquare and to analyze their urban position using morphological and historical cartographies.The overall methodology comprises three stages. First, the most important cities of the province of Alicante were selected. Second, the most relevant plaza of each city was identified using data retrieved from the social network Foursquare. Finally, the location of each plaza is analyzed in relation to the historic center and the main axes of the city. Possible correlations between their urban location and their vibrant character were subsequently identified.Two findings have emerged from this study: (a) a strong spatial relationship exists between the most successful plazas and the historic city center, which reinforces their traditional social character; and (b) all plazas share two similar traits, their location within the urban network and their proximity to the main axes of the city.     

The effect of Urban Heat Island mitigation strategies on outdoor human thermal comfort in the city of Baghdad

Todays, most Iraqi cities suffer from extremely hot-dry climate for long periods throughout the year. However, most urban patterns that exist inside these cities are not suitable for this harsh conditions and lead to an increase in the value of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) index. Consequently, this will increase outdoor human thermal discomfort as well as energy consumption and air pollution in cities. This study attempts to evaluate the effect of UHI mitigation strategies on outdoor human thermal comfort in three different common types of urban patterns in the biggest and most populated city in Iraq, Baghdad. Three different mitigation strategies are used here – vegetation, cool materials, and urban geometry – to build 18 different scenarios. Three-dimensional numerical software ENVI-met 4.2 is utilised to analyse and assess the studied parameters. The input data for simulations process are based on two meteorological stations in Baghdad: Iraqi Meteorological Organization & Seismology, and Iraqi Agrometeorological Network. All measurements are taken in a pedestrian walkway. The results of different scenarios are compared based on their effect on human thermal comfort. Outdoor thermal comfort is assessed according to Predicted Mean Vote index, as mentioned in ISO 7730 standard. This study provides a better understanding of the role of UHI mitigation strategies on human thermal comfort in the outdoor spaces of Baghdad's residential neighbourhoods. This can help generate guidelines of urban design and planning practices for better thermal performance in hot and dry cities.     

Idealizing Brazilian cities: Their master plans from 1960 through 2015

This article discusses the Brazilian city through the perspective of its written idealisation, both in the format of Master Plans and their resulting legislations. The analysis reflects ideas expressed by local society, legislators and urban planners, recognizing that a myriad of intermediate agents play specific roles and confirming the main features in the way the city is understood. The discussion is based on a selection of 26 Master Plans for the ten largest cities in Brazil between 1960 and 2015. This timeframe reveals distinct phases constructed with different priorities and ways of idealising Brazilian cities and, by extension, those on the Latin American continent. The study suggests an increase in legal complexity, expansion of municipal responsibilities and the maintenance of physical-territorial priorities as the main instruments of urban management. Many of the themes observed in the selected Plans also indicate an overlapping symbiosis between the comprehensive Master Plans themselves and the laws for urban land use they encompass. The impressive expansion of responsibilities adopted by local governments, as well as holistic aspirations, has made achievement of the ideal city more difficult than ever. Efforts to democratise urban land access and appropriate use have gained importance in the composition of the ideal city; however, the access of the low-income population to proper land and basic infrastructure and services still relies on controversial and structural changes. Analysis of the desired city – here considered as the idealised city – during the selected period reveals a strategic absence of emergent features and points to both optimistic and pessimistic approaches.     

Public space and the challenge of urban transformation in cities of emerging economies: Jeddah case study

Urban planning, design guidelines and new management practices have radically transformed public spaces in many countries. With fresh development decisions, urban spaces change spatially. This may improve places, increasing prosperity and extending expectations of modernization in many cities. However, widespread public disillusion and failures to produce environments reflecting local values can collectively shape public areas. This article contributes to debate about dynamism in such spaces. It explores how modernist approaches to planning and design alongside fractures in management practices in emerging cities have shaped the quality urban space. We use Jeddah as a radically re-planned city in a rapidly developing economy, but one where largely unusable public spaces have failed to meet people's everyday needs and aspirations. Our investigation – based on extensive literature reviews, documentary analyses, morphological survey, photographic and qualitative surveys – provides a better understanding of the role of a proactive urban design for promoting environmental quality. This helps resolve the multiple challenges confronting public space provision.     

Turning brownfields into green space in the City of Toronto

Since the mid-1980s, policy makers and planners in North America and Europe have been paying significantly more attention to measures designed to foster sustainable development and improve the quality of life in urban areas. One issue that has received widespread political support has been the cleanup and redevelopment of under-utilized brownfield sites in urban areas. In Canada and the US, the focus of policy-making and redevelopment efforts has been on redeveloping brownfield sites for industrial, commercial, or residential uses that provide economic benefits through tax revenues and/or jobs. However, there has been a growing recognition among community groups and environmental organizations that brownfields hold enormous potential for “greening” city environments, through the implementation of parks, playgrounds, trails, greenways, and other open spaces. The objectives of the current research are to examine the issues, obstacles and processes involved in remediating potentially contaminated urban brownfield sites and converting them into green spaces, to identify the benefits that these green spaces can bring to the community and culture, and to understand the specific planning processes that it involves. Data for this study were collected through a review of 10 pertinent “greening” case studies and personal interviews with relevant stakeholders. Toronto’s brownfield-to-green space redevelopment experience has implications for cities across North America undergoing brownfield planning and seeking to enhance urban quality of life.     

城市：重大事件与事件空间

文章通过重大事件与事件空间的关系,讨论由重大事件所催生的城市形象、身份、生活与变迁的话题。经济作为普遍的动力催生了现代城市的“事件制造”、“图像制造”、甚至“故事制造”,在这个基础上,人对城市空间的理解转化为一种图像经验。事件空间,作为重大事件所遗留下的痕迹,可以看作是事件后续效应的起点,它源于事件,又引发新的事件。然而,重大事件的效应也有时被过高估计,“溢出效应”以及邻近城市之间的竞争或事件空间效率不高的后续利用,都在整体上削弱了重大事件对城市的正面影响。在这样的背景之下,事件空间,这一现代“场所”,随着图像、事件以及故事正被快速而大量地制造着。它们作为重大事件的见证者或是背景被留存下来,成为了城市整体结构中的重要环节。     

Voices in the city. On the role of arts,artists and urban space for a just city

This paper highlights artists' role in creating a just city. Drawing on Jane Jacobs' insights on the importance of design for a diverse city and her analysis of the visual order of cities, I argue that artistic interventions are prime examples of the constant negotiation processes that take place in cities. These negotiation processes affect the power relations of the urban society and contribute to constituting urban public spheres. In addition, by shedding light on the processes of producing urban public spaces at locations, for example through artistic interventions, the article emphasises the non-fixity of the city as socio-material entity. The article proposes to understand these negotiation processes and the city's dynamic nature as central to ‘making the just city’ and to allow for equity, democracy and diversity, the key elements of a just city.