China's Macro-Planning Policies: Architectural Catalyst or Constraint?

China is undergoing one of the most intense and rapid processes of urbanisation in the world today. It also has one of the most centralised planning systems, which is driven by a Soviet-style, five-year plan. Edward Denison looks at the relationship between China's highly systematised planning process and the high-density, standardised form that urban development typically takes. Amidst this formal context, he locates a ‘whisper’ of change afoot for architects.     

Spatiotemporal Landscape Pattern Change in Response to Future Urbanisation in Maricopa County,Arizona, USA

Urban growth combined with increasing population modifies landscape structure and functions at various scales. Identifying the accumulated effects of urbanisation on landscape composition and configuration over time is crucial to anticipate the functional change of altered landscape and to gauge landscape sustainability. Focusing on critical ecosystems, this study aims to understand how landscape patterns will evolve in response to the proposed development plans in Maricopa County, Arizona. Two primary GIS data layers were developed including the urban ecosystem layer with different natural land cover types (e.g. desert shrub, grassland, green space, and agriculture) and the urbanisation layer with residential, commercial, and recreational land use. To examine the spatiotemporal pattern change, urbanisation scenarios were designed with a basis on development status and implementation certainty, along with landscape metrics calculation. The findings demonstrated how the landscape metrics behave differently across different urbanisation conditions and which type of landscape will be most likely sensitive to future urbanisation processes. The study provides significant implications for landscape planning and guides planners to seek more optimal alternatives among various policy decisions.     

近30年快速城镇化背景下城市规划理念的变迁

通过近30年我国城镇化历史的回顾,对快速城镇化背景下我国城市规划理念的发展历程做了简要回顾和分析,特别对城市规划的编制体制、技术内容、分析方法等方面做了概括和分析.     

A decision support tool for sustainable planning of urban water systems: Presenting the Dynamic Urban Water Simulation Model

Population growth, urbanisation and climate change represent significant pressures on urban water resources, requiring water managers to consider a wider array of management options that account for economic, social and environmental factors. The Dynamic Urban Water Simulation Model (DUWSiM) developed in this study links urban water balance concepts with the land use dynamics model MOLAND and the climate model LARS-WG, providing a platform for long term planning of urban water supply and water demand by analysing the effects of urbanisation scenarios and climatic changes on the urban water cycle. Based on potential urbanisation scenarios and their effects on a city's water cycle, DUWSiM provides the functionality for assessing the feasibility of centralised and decentralised water supply and water demand management options based on forecasted water demand, stormwater and wastewater generation, whole life cost and energy and potential for water recycling. DUWSiM has been tested using data from Dublin, the capital of Ireland, and it has been shown that the model is able to satisfactorily predict water demand and stormwater runoff.     

创新城乡生态规划与绿色建筑理论研究与技术实践——清华大学城乡生态规划与绿色建筑教育部重点实验室实践

在我国快速城镇化可持续发展及改善人居环境建设大背景下,如何加快发展我国城乡生态规划和绿色建筑理论及技术,成为重要的需求。本文介绍了清华大学为此成立的城乡生态规划和绿色建筑教育部重点实验室基于上述需求在五个方面开展了全面的理论和技术研究的建设情况,过去三年的部分研究成果,以及未来发展的思路。     

Selecting independent measures to quantify Melbourne's urban–rural gradient

As cities and towns increase in population and size around the world, there is a growing interest in the impact of urbanisation on humans and the environment. The use of urban–rural gradients has proven to be a useful tool for studying changes in ecological patterns and processes across urbanising landscapes. Currently, there are a wide range of measures being used to represent changes in human demographic patterns, physical structures and landscape composition and structure along urban–rural gradients. The aim of this paper was to identify a suite of measures that can be used to define an urban–rural gradient in Melbourne, Australia. Using principal components analysis, we assessed 17 commonly used measures of urbanisation that included demographic variables, physical variables and landscape metrics. Four measures captured most of the variability in the patterns of urbanisation: (1) Index_combined; (2) the ratio of people per unit urban land cover; (3) landscape shape index; (4) dominant land-cover. We used these four measures to quantify Melbourne's urban–rural gradient and then explored their use in representing urbanisation as an environmental space rather than a geographic space. This study provides an example of how to objectively select a subset of measures to quantify urbanisation, and illustrates a novel way of combining the measures to obtain a richer understanding of ecological responses to urbanisation.     

Self-organization in urban development: towards a new perspective on spatial planning

To date, participatory spatial planning has produced disappointing results. We argue that one reason is that time and again participatory planning proposals remain controlled by public government, and that public government seems not to be very adaptive to initiatives that emerge from the dynamics of civil society itself. To find out why and how citizens could and would be motivated to contribute out of their own motivation to urban development, we propose turning the focus outside-in, instead of inside-out. In this article, we therefore introduce the notion of self-organization, referring to initiatives that originate in civil society itself, via autonomous community-based networks of citizens outside government control which participate in developing the ‘urban fabric’ too. We discuss some examples of self-organization and draw preliminary conclusions of the concept's usefulness for the theory and practice of spatial planning.     

Investing in the Ground: Reflections on Scarcity,Remediation and Obdurate Form

Douglas Spencer develops David Harvey's notion of the ‘spatial fix’ in which material processes in the built environment and the ground itself are repeatedly used up for the purposes of capital investment. This can be to the detriment of the quality of the land itself, which is often abandoned after a period of time as polluted and unusable brownfield sites; while available resources are bled dry. It is a situation that has been worsened over the last few decades with the emphasis on entrepreneurial and intensive modes of urbanisation. Spencer indicates how this situation can be negated by landscape urbanism through critical interventions, such as those represented here in the work of the Architectural Association Landscape Urbanism (AALU) Masters programme in London and Groundlab, the practice associated with it.     

The Evolution of China's Rural Governance System and Its Influences on Rural Spatial Planning

This paper reviews the development process of China's rural governance system, indicating that the current system of "township governance based on village autonomy" is facing a new situation such as the weakening governance capacity of grass-roots authorities and the emergence of new governing bodies. Aiming at promoting practical rural planning, the paper conducts research about the rural governance system, public goods supply, and rural planning reform. It divides the rural governance mechanisms on public goods supply into three categories: government, community and market. The paper then focuses on how to achieve a community-based supply of public goods via emerging "rural organizations," as well as on how to transform the public service center allocation and spatial planning philosophy and methods in rural planning accordingly.     

Infrastructure networks and red–green patterns in city regions

Landscape ecology challenges the urbanisation processes and the activities of the infrastructure sectors. Infrastructure networks have a strong impact on the development of cities and landscapes. This impact is often positive in an economic sense but can be negative in respect of natural or recreational functions of city and countryside. The challenge for spatial planning is to locate infrastructure lines in order to safeguard the conditions for the less dynamic functions in and around the urban regions. This paper analyses the impact of network patterns on urban development patterns and on green patterns, taking the history of the Randstad Holland as an example. In history the central peat area of this region was hardly accessible. This fact has led over the course of time to a unique spatial pattern: the major infrastructure lines and the major urban settlements are situated on the rim of a Green Heart. This creates a high-quality setting for the economy and the urbanisation of more than 6 million people as well as for natural and agricultural functions. Such a combination of urban elements and infrastructure around a green core can also be found on other scale levels and in other regions. Constraints on access often correlate with restricted urbanisation and with a sustainable position for the green elements. In those cases that such a restraint is chosen deliberately, often five phenomena are visible: (1) Polarity: a spatial polarity between less dynamic and more dynamic functions. (2) Decentrality: a side position of the main infrastructure and urban centres and a central position for the green functions. (3) Equality: equilibrium in extension of urban and rural elements. (4) Continuity: the green areas are part of larger scale networks. (5) Formality: planning policies couple the planning of infrastructure and dynamic urban activities to the development of the less dynamic, green functions.Together, these five elements create a special approach of spatial planning that can be applied on various scales. It is possible to use these elements as a concept, a design tool to create sustainable conditions for the ‘green’ functions in and around city regions. Based on some examples, suggestions are made for a strategy for urban-rural (re-)development aiming at high-quality urban life and for the natural environment, in and around urban regions. Sustainable spatial patterns demand a planning approach that combines the planning of infrastructure and urban activities with the planning of their green counterpoint.     

The Institutional and Political Background to Chinese Urbanisation

Chinese cities have a very distinct history defined by their relationship to government and the land. Under imperial rule they served as administrative centres for rural agricultural areas that took precedence, economically and politically. Professor Sun Shiwen of Tongji University, Shanghai, describes how today’s urbanisation process is still informed by the city’s uniquely Chinese characteristics. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Visceral City and the Theatre of Fear

Over the last decade in India, intensive urbanisation, with the aid of the mass media, has unleashed a new culture of fear. Widespread access to TV, text messaging and the Internet have heightened and played upon individuals' anxieties. Ravi Sundaram describes how in Delhi, in particular, the media provided the catalyst for ‘mass hysteria’ and ‘psychosis’ during the summer of 2002. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Regional changes in the urban system and governance responses in Hungary

This article aims, first, to define the nature of regional changes in the Hungarian urban system over the past two decades and the mechanism of the processes responsible for these. Secondly, it examines how these changes affected urban governance and how they influenced the urbanisation processes, as well as conflicts arising from differences in the pace of urbanisation and changes in governance, the diverse nature and possible conflicts of interest of the actors bringing about these changes, and divergence arising from the changes. Thirdly, we compare our conclusions with the results of similar processes in other Central European countries.     

Appropriating,Reclaiming and Inventing Identity Through Architecture

Local received knowledge once ensured buildings had a strong connection with their environment and the surrounding community. With rapid urbanisation and the professionalisation of design and construction, architects working internationally with a finely attuned sensibility to place and context have been able to take up the baton and take the opportunity to develop notions of locality and identity. For the last two decades, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture has been recognising the contribution of design teams that have been responsible for producing exceptional architecture for Islamic communities worldwide. Here, the award scheme's director, Farrokh Derakshani , defines some key treatments of identity in architecture.     

中美社区规划之辨析——洛杉矶巴士乘客联盟交通公平运动对上海社区规划的启示

通过介绍1994年发起的洛杉矶“巴士乘客联盟”的交通公平运动,分析了美国社区规划的典型特征,并以上海社区规划为代表,对比了中美社区规划在社区性质、规划内容、公众参与和社区规划师等方面的显著差异,最终提出了相应的中国社区规划建议。     

Seoul

Seoul is a major global city with a history of over 600 years. Its development trajectory, current status in the world economy, and challenges faced in socio-spatial dynamics present an excellent case in the study of cities, especially of the Asia–Pacific region. This profile outlines Seoul’s historical development, recent changes and contemporary conditions (in terms of its territory, economy, land and housing market, urbanisation policy, infrastructure development, social impact and culture), metropolitan planning, and future development.     

Selecting independent measures to quantify Melbourne's urban–rural gradient

As cities and towns increase in population and size around the world, there is a growing interest in the impact of urbanisation on humans and the environment. The use of urban–rural gradients has proven to be a useful tool for studying changes in ecological patterns and processes across urbanising landscapes. Currently, there are a wide range of measures being used to represent changes in human demographic patterns, physical structures and landscape composition and structure along urban–rural gradients. The aim of this paper was to identify a suite of measures that can be used to define an urban–rural gradient in Melbourne, Australia. Using principal components analysis, we assessed 17 commonly used measures of urbanisation that included demographic variables, physical variables and landscape metrics. Four measures captured most of the variability in the patterns of urbanisation: (1) Index_combined; (2) the ratio of people per unit urban land cover; (3) landscape shape index; (4) dominant land-cover. We used these four measures to quantify Melbourne's urban–rural gradient and then explored their use in representing urbanisation as an environmental space rather than a geographic space. This study provides an example of how to objectively select a subset of measures to quantify urbanisation, and illustrates a novel way of combining the measures to obtain a richer understanding of ecological responses to urbanisation.     

Towards garden city wonderlands: new town planning in 1950s Taiwan

This article explores the historical context, process and result of introducing and implementing ‘new’ town planning in early post‐war Taiwan. The two so‐called ‘garden cities’ are examined: Jhong‐Sing New Village and Yonghe City, both of which were formulated in the mid‐1950s by the same group of local planners. It reveals that the assumed necessity of importing Western planning paradigms arose from the abrupt escalation of urban concentration caused by the late 1940s mass migrations from China. To cope with this unprecedented population growth, planning profession was swiftly established. The novice planners, in search of a reference for developing ‘new’ towns to decentralise excessive urbanisation, modelled their ‘new’ town planning on English suburban morphology. In the absence of an input of external expertise, the planners appeared to mistake aesthetic order and pastoral imagery of low‐density residential development in England as practically viable solutions to the pressing urban problems in Taiwan. In a false hope that adopting Western ideas and practices would quickly lead the island to a better world, Taiwan initiated the importation of planning paradigms. This planning transfer not only evidently manifests a mode of ‘borrowing’ in post‐colonial countries in international diffusion but also re‐articulates the disseminating nature of modern planning and the existence of one‐direction flows characterising the global dynamics of diffusion in the twentieth century.     

Chieftaincy and sustainable urban land use planning in Yendi,Ghana: Towards congruence

In Ghana, chieftaincy institutions act as custodians for about 80% of the total land area, and are responsible for leasing or allocating land while official planning institutions determine and manage its use. Yet, the extent to which chieftaincy institutions impede or contribute to sustainable urban land use planning in Ghana has received limited research attention. The scholarship on urban land use planning in Ghana has instead focused largely on rapid urbanisation, limited personnel and logistical capacity of planning institutions, and mainstream political interference. This paper addresses this gap by examining the chieftaincy-land use planning nexus in the Yendi municipality, Ghana. It explores the extent to which chieftaincy institutions limit or support sustainable urban land use planning in the municipality. Household and physical surveys, expert interviews, telephone conversations, and document reviews were used. Findings indicate that while chieftaincy's role as custodian of land is central to land development, it has assumed the role of planning institutions in terms of land use determination and management. Negative perception of planning officials among residents has also overshadowed the visibility of professional planning practice in the municipality, contributing to poor land use planning. Residents continue to use chieftaincy institutions and other traditional approaches rather than formal planning agencies because the former is convenient, more effective, and yields rapid decisions. Further research is needed to explore whether land use planning under chieftaincy institutions leads to positive social and environmental outcomes.     

Quasi-urban citizenship: the global village as ‘Nomos of the Modern’

The term global village, first coined by Marshall McLuhan in 1962, has come to signify a world peacefully united by electronic media. However, the term must be read in the context of McLuhan’s profound intellectual debt to the ethno-psychiatrist John Colin Carothers who was summoned to Kenya in the 1950s to advise on Britain’s war against the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA). Carothers recommended that villagisation—a system for detaining civilians in militarised camps—be reconceptualised as a psychiatric buffer, protecting Kenyan agriculturalists from the effects of modernisation and urbanisation. This article examines how villagisation worked as a device of quasi-urbanisation, and how its mechanisms of control were reflected in McLuhan’s concept of the global village.