Gated and packaged suburbia: Packaging and branding Chinese suburban residential development

Chinese suburban residential developments have recently seen the emergence of ostentatious, decorative and ‘western’-style built forms. Many are built into gated communities. The existing perspectives on these developments from the Western context, such as the ‘club of consumption’ and the ‘discourse of fear’, are not adequate to explain the development of these residential forms in China. This paper emphasizes that the essential feature of these residential forms is their attempt to create an aesthetically appealing environment. Various packaging and branding practices are discussed, including creating magnificent gates, using foreign place names, borrowing western architectural motifs, and inventing a discourse of community. These practices are essentially a branding exercise to signify otherwise nameless suburban green fields. There are two reasons: branding is a status symbol for these residential areas in a competitive real estate market, while localized, imagined and hybrid ‘western’ forms are invented and adopted to exploit the common social mentality that treats the western style as equivalent to a modern and high-quality environment.     

City branding and the Olympic effect: A case study of Beijing

City branding is a common practice adopted by many cities in the context of intensified urban competition for mobile resources, markets, opportunities and attention. This paper examines the effectiveness of efforts to brand Beijing, the capital city of China. Based on an analysis of official branding strategies through the Olympics, and an attitudinal survey of peoples’ understanding of Beijing, the paper investigates to what extent the current campaign has caught the city’s good attributes. The paper finds a mismatch between the identity and core values as branded by the city government, and the realities as experienced by visitors and residents. The paper argues that the Beijing Olympics could only have limited impacts on the city’s brand.     

Social media: A new vehicle for city marketing in China

Following global trends, cities, like companies, across the world are under fierce competitive pressure. To compete and promote city brands, various levels of Chinese governments have begun to integrate multiple marketing tactics to promote cities. Social media has gained global popularity since 2008. Utilizing social media for city marketing is being applied in the Chinese cities. This paper introduces the application of social media for city marketing in Chinese cities. Based on several cases of social media use for city marketing in major Chinese cities (e.g., Guangzhou, Chengdu and Nanjing), this paper suggests that using social media is an appropriate tactic to promote cities because of the participative, interactive, open and transparent nature of social media.     

A copy is (not a simple) copy: Role of urban landmarks in branding Seoul as a global city

This paper examines the role of urban landmark designin Seoul, after the structural adjustment in the late 1990s, in branding Seoul's image as a global city. The topic of urban branding through the use of works of well-known architects has generated much debate, with many arguing that this practice involves a mere culture of the copy, or a thin veneer for a neoliberal urban redevelopment agenda. The case study sites examined in this paper—Some Sevit (Floating Island), Dongdaemun Design Plaza, and Seoullo 7017—are examples of the “free-form” architecture commissioned by the Seoul city government in the hope of generating a “Bilbao Effect,” and thereby promoting tourism in the area. This paper argues that although contemporary urban landmarks in Seoul have the potential to become brandscapes, they do not all stop short at becoming mere copies or a temporary fad. Rather, the conditions under which each landmark is reproduced are deeply situated, and the gap between aspiration and reality brings in different results.     

基于社会网络分析法的技术标准网络实证研究 ——以消防行业国家、行业标准为例

文章以消防行业国家和行业标准为研究对象,选择社会网络分析法,运用Ucinet 6.0软件了构建消防行业引用标准矩阵,选取全国消防标准化技术委员会(SAC/TC113)标准网络结构和节点两个维度,通过成分、网络密度、孤点率、凝聚力指数、点度中心度、中间中心度等观测指标进行实证比较分析。研究结果表明,SAC/TC113?的标准网络形成了一个整体,运行良好;但其SAC/TC113/SC?的标准网络运行良莠不齐。文章通过分析找到了标准网络的关键节点标准和孤点标准,并给出了相关建议,此方法为标准化管理部门和标准化技术委员会的管理和评价提供了科学依据。     

三个逻辑--河北教育出版社设计

河北教育出版社是一个功能极端混杂的项目。该设计在空间组织上尝试把单个的结构分解为一组相对独立的微型建筑．出版社在顶部而出租办公楼和商业用房在建筑的底部。微型建筑之间的空间因此得以对公共空间开放成为垂直的城市花园。     

Night and day at the beach: Relating social life to location and infrastructure in a Brazilian city

Brazilian city beaches are public spaces favoring citizens well-being. Urban studies relate built form and infrastructure with urban vitality and coastal studies underline uses as important for beach management, yet few researches relate form and infrastructure with beach uses. Understanding daily life as essential for public spaces and that spatial form relates with uses, this paper assesses time-based relationships between built and natural physical attributes and social life on the beaches of João Pessoa, a coastal city in North-east Brazil. Physical attributes are investigated at city scale - beach type, street network centrality and topography - and seafront scale - land uses, public/private interfaces, public infrastructure, beach sections and water quality. Beach social life was surveyed online, enquiring peoples' beach choice, visiting time and place, activities and evaluation. Infrastructure and street network follow topography and help configure shore and promenade for different landscapes. More central beaches have diverse land uses, well-equipped promenades and lighting and were popular night and day, while less central beaches had less infrastructure and were visited only by day. Findings highlight how physical attributes facilitate uses and, together with peoples’ evaluation, can inform urban beach design and planning.     

Urban regeneration through cultural creativity and social inclusion: Rethinking creative city theory through a Japanese case study

This paper aims to rethink creative city theory by analyzing urban regeneration processes in Japan through cultural creativity and social inclusion. The impact of Florida’s theory has led to the common misperception that cities prosper as people of the creative class, such as artists and gays, gather. However, attracting people of the creative class does not automatically make a creative city. Empirical analyses of Kanazawa City, clarify that the creative city needs a ‘culture-based production system’, a well-balanced system of cultural production and cultural consumption that takes advantage of accumulated cultural capital. This paper also examines Osaka City, where creative city policies failed to produce adequate results because they did not take root as a comprehensive urban strategy. However, in spite of these failures, a lively and inclusive grassroots movement has emerged around the creative city. This movement brings Osaka towards being a socially-inclusive creative city.     

Dimension and formation of placeness ofcommercial public space in city center: Acase study of Deji Plaza in Nanjing

This study examines the notion of placeness of city center commercial plazas within the context of globalization. Contemporary improvements of commercial public spaces aim to globalize the city image at the expense of local identity and regional characteristics. Although recognized as a major landmark that reflects the globalized image of Nanjing City, Deji Plaza cannot establish a unique sense of place and identity for the community. By adopting a humanist perspective, this study emphasizes people’s experience, perception, and emotional needs of the place as crucial dimensions for improving the relationship between people and commercial spaces. A structural equation model is used to develop a measurement system that evaluates the interaction between the different dimensions of placeness. Findings indicate that optimized locations and environmental characteristics of city center commercial plazas may enhance their image but transform them into consumption spaces for tourists rather than public places for the local community. The results of this study deepen the current understanding and assessment tools of placeness in city commercial public spaces, which are relevant to Nanjing City and similar contexts.     

Cross-city spillovers in Chinese housing markets: From a city network perspective

Cross-city spillovers among housing markets are usually modelled by the classical spatial autoregressive models, which usually suffer from identification problems in practice. This paper investigates the cross-city house price spillovers arising from city network externalities wherein a city's connections with other cities in the urban network create the external house price premium through productivity and amenity gains. Using a cross-sectional data set for an urban system in eastern China, we present significant evidence for positive network spillovers by the application of spatial lag of X model and spatial Durbin error model. Besides, common shocks are also proved to be responsible for cross-city dependence of house prices.     

垂直城市--上海摩天楼的发展历程及现象解读

“垂直城市”是对新的上海城市肌理的概括。摩天楼的存在与发展是形成这种肌理的主要原因,20余年来,上海的巨大变迁与摩天楼的建设有着极为密切的联系,文章通过对上海摩天楼发展历程与现状的解读,剖析其对上海城市形象,城市空间以及社会生活的影响。     

城市边缘与区域规划--以北京地区为例

本文提出了北京空间发展存在的问题,并指出解决这些问题必须对北京的城市功能及其空间结构进行调整和整合,提出从城市蔓延到区域发展、从相对独立的新城到相互联系的区域城市等观点.     

Understanding project interdependencies: The role of visual representation,culture and process

Project portfolio management is central to many organizations' strategic processes and requires consideration of multiple factors and the ability to envision alternative future consequences to support strategic project portfolio decision making. Complex project portfolios with multiple project interdependencies are characteristic of many project environments, yet existing methods do not provide the clear understanding of project interdependencies that is required.     

From SIF to City Fund: a new direction for urban policy in Flanders,Belgium

For years, analysts have wondered about the exceptional place that Belgium, and in particular Flanders, has taken in the urban policy landscape. Contrary to neighbouring, equally strongly urbanised Western European countries, Flanders maintained a tradition of neglect towards its urban centres, linked to the hegemony of a rural-based Christian-democratic party. In the 1990’s, this tradition was converted into an urban policy approach which, equally at odds with developments towards urban entrepreneurialism in other Western European countries, remained strongly oriented towards social policy. Only in 1999, when, for the first time in 50 years Christian-democrats resigned from government, the Flemish discourse took a more pro-urban and entrepreneurial approach. This paper shows how this discursive shift at the regional scale is reflected in local urban policy-making practices and warns against the detrimental social effects it might have on the field.

Analysing construction project coalitions: exploring the application of social network analysis

The construction industry is currently in transition as a result of innovations in procurement and project management approaches, in particular, the utilization of supply chain management, and technology or work clusters in the context of partnering relationships between project coalition actors and the client organization. These new strategies require an analytical method that deals with actor interdependence and provides an appropriate level of detail and quantitative data in relation to the non‐linear, complex, iterative and interactive process that construction projects comprise. The construction project is conceptualized as a number information exchange networks, classified according to the principal project functions and supported by performance incentive and contractual relationship networks. The point centrality of the project actors within these various networks provides quantitative data and graphical representation of the governance of construction projects and the changes brought about by innovations in procurement and project management techniques. Social network analysis (SNA) provides an important new quantitative approach in the comparative analysis of procurement and project management of construction projects. SNA enables traditional project coalition management approaches to be compared with those associated with innovative management approaches. Quantitative analysis relates to the appropriateness and effectiveness of both financial incentives and contractual conditions involved in the governance of construction projects.     

大事件--作为都市发展的新战略工具--从世博会对城市与社会的影响谈起

作为城市活力的指示器和调节器,“事件”正成为当今城市发展战略的一个重要手段。为说明事件和城市发展之间的相互关系 我们试图以欧洲的几届世博会为例,首先具体说明事件对城市建设的影响,其次强调城市战略在组织事件中的重要性。最后,我们简要地说明事件在社会建设中可能发挥的作用。     

城市记忆规划研究——以北京市宣武区为例

城市记忆规划是一种新的规划理念,在传统空间形态规划的基础上,加入时间和主体认知维度。它基于环境认知和城市有机生长理论,研究记忆的主体和客体在时间中的作用过程,为古城风貌保护、旧城更新改造、记忆活化解说提供新思路。因此,本文对与城市记忆规划相关的时间规划理论、主体认知理论和空间规划理论进行综述,并以宣武区域市记忆规划为例,分析规划思路．     

The Limits of Housing Investment as a Neighborhood Revitalization Tool: Crime in New York City

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Local residents often oppose place-based affordable housing on the grounds that such housing will increase crime and decrease property values. New York City has actually used affordable housing investment as a neighborhood revitalization tool, leading to a positive impact on neighborhood property values. Households in distressed neighborhoods consistently cite crime as a problem, but we know little about the impact of housing investments on crime. Using a unique set of point-specific data on affordable housing and crime locations between 2002 and 2008 in New York City, I estimate a set of regression models to identify the effect that affordable housing investments have on crime on the block where they are situated. I find little evidence that affordable housing investments either reduce or increase crime on New York City blocks, suggesting there are limits to the revitalization effects of these subsidies and that crime fears about subsidized housing are unwarranted.

Takeaway for practice: Cities with tight rental markets such as New York should continue to invest in affordable housing construction. However, these cities need to find ways to expand housing options in higher-income, less-distressed neighborhoods, or they risk exacerbating concentrated poverty and further subjecting low-income households to unsafe living environments.     

Art as a new urban norm: Between normalization of the City through art and normalization of art through the City in Montreal and Johannesburg

In a context of increased urban competition, art and culture are often used by cities world-wide as tools to improve their image and make urban spaces attractive. In that process, art is – as we will argue – becoming a new urban norm, which is normalizing not only urban space and experience, but also art itself. By contributing to the pacification or securization of public spaces, art could encourage some behaviors or, on the contrary, discourage others. Reversely, this normative dimension of urban art could impact art itself, especially by redefining the limit between artistic forms that are either inclusive or exclusive, dominant or subversive. Through examples found during PhD fieldwork in Montreal and Johannesburg, we will demonstrate that this normalization of the city through art and of art through the city takes place in various urban contexts, that it questions the distinction between Northern and Southern cities, and the definition of a (global) city itself.