The illicit consumption of military uniforms in Britain, 1914–1918

Focusing on the British home front during the First World War, this article explores civilians’ motives for acquiring and wearing military garments and accoutrements to which they were not entitled. It suggests that uniforms could be donned either to avoid the attentions of recruiting sergeants, or to perpetrate criminal deceptions. That said, individuals did not always wear illicit uniforms in order to ‘disguise’ their civilian identity. Rather, many men claimed a sense of entitlement to such items, either on the basis of previous war service, or, more often, on the basis of their contributions to the war effort on the home front. The acquisition of military items could also reflect men's roles as consumers: for many civilians, acquiring and wearing the newly glamorous uniforms was a consumer choice that could also open the door to further leisure and consumer opportunities. Overall, illicitly wearing military items undermined the uniform's link with service and sacrifice on the battle fronts: it allowed individuals to assume the appearance of combatants or to assert their patriotic identities without actually exposing themselves to military duties or dangers. It also reflected (some) men's continued perception of themselves as consumers, keen, even in wartime, to adopt what they saw as the most desirable sartorial option.     

From urban to regional planning in Latin America, 1920–50

Focusing upon a period during which the planning discipline emerged and was consolidated in Latin America from the 1920s through the 1950s, this article aims to identify some of the impulses behind the widening of the scope of planning activities undertaken by planners of capital cities, from the local and urban to the regional and territorial. The author uses a comparative perspective to analyze this tendency toward the enlargement of the territorial extent of the plan, interpreting it as part of the process through which Latin America’s urban modernization proceeded while also relating it to the epistemological and professional shift from urbanismo towards planificación and planejamento. While factors such as the emergence of planning offices in some capital cities and the emergence of the first courses in planning in university curricula are considered, the article focuses mainly on the the approaches of pioneers in Latin American planning to this transition, in particular Carlos Contreras and Hannes Meyer in Mexico City, Carlos della Paolera in Buenos Aires, Karl Brunner in Bogotá and Santiago de Chile, and Maurice Rotival in Caracas.     

A case study in early urban design: Toronto, 1966–1978

ABSTRACT

This is a study in the practice of postwar urban design in Toronto, Canada, based on archival documents and interviews with participants. The narrative begins with the hiring of one British-trained architect/urban designer, Raymond Spaxman, by the City of Toronto Planning Board in 1966. Spaxman then set up a new division of staff that he filled with five or six other architect/urban designers of various national and institutional origins. The study describes the work carried out by these urban designers, identifies the principle themes apparent in it, and relates this to published literature on the founding principles of postwar urban design. In most ways, the study's findings fit the current understanding of the early discipline – concern for pedestrians, sympathy for historical preservation – but in others not – it was different from but not antagonistic towards planning. The findings are then considered as an example of the international transfer of postwar planning ideas. The process of idea transfer in this case looks to have been more chaotic, and less definable, than existing paradigms suggest, but this might have been fairly common in second-rank, immigrant-receiving cities.     

Change trumps tradition: the Atlantis project of Léon Krier, 1986–1992

In 1986, Hans-Jürgen Müller commissioned Léon Krier to design the Atlantis project. Müller, the owner of an art gallery in Germany, planned to host think-tanks at a remote location in Tenerife. His plan was to foster the preservation of European culture, one that for Müller sets standards for proper manners and good behaviour through art and cultural activities. The artistic and architectural setting mediated and cultivated these standards, the demise of which caused the crisis Müller saw in the world. For Krier the project was affiliated with the Rational Architecture exhibition of 1973 and the Reconstruction of the European City Movement.

The reception of the Atlantis project is coloured by three factors. First, from the beginning of the 1970s to the early 1990s, Krier went from being included in a select group of teachers at the AA School, London, to becoming an outsider to that same group and its intellectual sphere. Second, the client for the project wanted to be a pioneer in the cultural sector and use its larger socio-political influence for ideological purposes. And finally, in the specialised press and popular media, Krier, the clients, the project, the ideological statements, and a diffuse mixture of all of this, were often negatively received.

The Atlantis project came at a decisive moment in Krier's career. At the same time, the project's history is emblematic of a crucial turn in architectural discourse. The oppositional narratives within post-modernism had gone from possible rapprochement to complete antipathy. The Atlantis project itself was never constructed, and with it the idea that a renewed traditional discourse could belong to one unified architectural agenda emerged and also evaporated.     

From deficient planning to “incapable tenants”. Changing discourses on housing problems in Sweden

Since the mid 1970s, discourses on housing problems and problem tenants in Sweden have changed significantly. This article, which is based on official reports and an urban case study, accounts for this transformation at the national, the urban, as well as the work‐practice level of discourse from a constructivist perspective.

The government's understanding of high vacancy rates were, in the 1970s, associated with deficient planning and building. However, in the 1980s, focus was diverted to a crisis in the public housing sector, which in turn highlighted the “noisy neighbour” as the source of their negative image. At the urban level the shifting discourse is signified by the municipal housing companies’ more selective policy in the 1980s, and the local social authorities’ growing role in housing for homeless clients. Contradictory demands from the role as landlords and as social workers, at the level of work‐practice, resulted in a redefinition and revaluation of homeless clients. In the beginning of the 1990s, these new practices at urban and street‐levels were sanctioned at the national level, thereby completing the shift from structural to individual accounts for housing problems.     

The organicists: planners,planning, and the environment in Czechoslovakia (1914–1949)

This article takes a brief look at the history of modern Central European planning, especially spatial planning in Czechoslovakia. It is primarily focused on urban and regional planners, planning ideas, concepts, and projects that can be considered ‘organic’. Several important planners (all males) who kept pace with the most current European and US trends (e.g. Vladimír Zákrejs, Jind?ich Kumpo?t, Bohuslav Fuchs, Alois Miku?kovic, Ladislav ?ák, Karel Honzík, and Emanuel Hru?ka) are discussed. The text also mentions some of the driving forces of the time, which had a fundamental impact on organic approaches in planning, including the institutionalization of urban and regional planning. Attention is also given to various international influences and the transfer of ideas that have not yet been adequately analysed. In conclusion, there are some reflections on the significance of organic modernity that succinctly express the atmosphere of that time as well as the efforts of the mentioned planners and thinkers. The main message is to show the close connection between early modern urban planning and the phenomenon of organicism, or rather, organic modernity.     

From shikumen to new-style: a rereading of lilong housing in modern Shanghai

This paper provides a rereading of a particular dwelling form under the general name of lilong that has constituted the primary living space in the inner city of Shanghai, where ordinary Shanghainese have conducted their everyday life for more than a century (1870s–1990s). Attention is given to two types of lilong neighbourhoods, in which two housing types are involved respectively: one is the so-called shikumen neighbourhood, including its early multi-bay model and a later double- to single-bay model, which are believed to derive from a more native dwelling concept and value system; the other is the so-called new-style neighbourhood, which is believed to have its origin in western dwelling culture brought in by foreign sojourners and welcomed by locals. Based on a combined historical and typo-morphological reading, changes in both types can be identified at housing unit level and neighbourhood level. In terms of the neighbourhood structure in relation to a larger urban block, a dual structure of ‘outside shops and inside neighbourhoods (waipu-neili)’ was commonly adopted in shikumen neighbourhoods that helped to integrate those pocket-like houses into the fast-modernising urban environment through a mixed land-use pattern, while a more pure residential environment was created in the new-style housing neighbourhood where very few or none shop houses were to be found as ‘mediators’ between the neighbourhood and the urban. Differences in their unit plans also revealed a shift from a more metaphoric layout to a more functional layout, from the clan/family-based courtyard-centred living to the community-based alley-centred living, from a self-contained traditional living style towards a more open, more independent modern urban living style. Nevertheless, under the general name of lilong, these dwelling forms as a whole shared much of the experience of ‘alley-living’ that was due to simultaneous densification – the inhabitants turned this transitional space into a shared living room and multifunctional space, through which a particular local dwelling culture was created. As the first kind of mass commodity housing produced and consumed in the dynamic of local/foreign interactions within a market mechanism, lilong dwelling played a transitional role in Chinese urban history by challenging age-old values in the traditional dwelling system and bringing it further towards its modern version.     

Changing conceptions of “mandala” in tang china: ritual and the role of images

ABSTRACT

“Changing Conceptions of ‘Mandala’ in Tang China: Ritual and the Role of Images” is concerned with the intersection of visionary experience with visual forms. The focus of the study is a Buddhist incantation, or Dhāranī, titled the Revered and Victorious Dhāranī of the Buddha's Usnīsa. This particular dhāranī was widely circulated in China during the Tang dynasty (618–907); for this reason, it may be approached as an important case study for studying the conceptualization of mandalas in China prior to their transmission to Japan in the early ninth century. Through a detailed examination of successive translations and ritual manuals associated with the Revered and Victorious Dhāranī of the Buddha's Usnīsa, different conceptions of mandalas and the roles that were played by images may be observed. This, in turn, responds to larger questions in East Asian Buddhism and studies of Buddhist art regarding the functions of painted mandalas during Buddhist rituals. Lastly, this article seeks to shed light on lesser-known aspects of esoteric Buddhist art in Asia, as the scholarship to date on Buddhist mandalas has primarily focused upon studies of Japanese and Himalayan works.     

Healthy Urbanization:From Quantitative Growth to Qualitative Promotion–Adjustment on Emphasis of Urbanization Strategy

China is currently experiencing the dramatic process of rapid urbanization,and the issue of how to realize a healthy urbanization is such a hot topic that it attracts attention at various levels from the Central Government to the local governments,as well as in many fields from academic community to political circles.Around this issue,this article provides several related point of views from seven experts and scholars,in order to inspire the thoughts on the future of China’s urbanization.     

Loan‐to‐value ratios in Sweden. The impact of financial deregulation

We ask how financial deregulation in Sweden during the 1980s affected housing finance by studying data on loan‐to‐value (LTV) ratios for home owners who moved recently. Accounting for the impact of demographic and economic determinants we find that LTV ratios were higher between 1985 and 1987 than in earlier and later years. This time pattern suggests that the deregulation of the mortgage institutions and the removal of the loan rate ceiling on banks in 1983 and 1984 were more important than abolishment of the bank loan ceiling in late 1985. They also indicate a decrease in loan demand and/or supply as early as 1988, i.e., well before the banking crisis.     

Something Else,Something Raw: From ProtoHouse to Blokhut – The Aesthetics of Computational Assemblage

London-based architect Gilles Retsin is seeking out a new spatial experience. Enough of refined and carefully articulated surfaces and volumes. As demonstrated by these projects from his own practice and from the Softkill Design team – of which he is also a member – new digital techniques make it possible to devise environments that are infused with raw atmosphere. Here, the boundaries between interior and exterior, or between classic elements such as wall, floor and ceiling, are blurred to the point of nonexistence.     

Diversity of new uses in post-industrial landscapes: diverging ideals and outcomes in the post-industrial landscapes of Lowell,Massachusetts and Norrköping,Sweden

This paper presents an inventory and an analytical model regarding the diversity of current uses found in the post-industrial landscapes of the former textile cities of Lowell, Massachusetts and Norrköping, Sweden. The model relates the diversity of current uses found in these regenerated, post-industrial landscapes to the priorities emphasized in their redevelopment process, which is relevant because opposing ideals such as regeneration and diversity may collide with those of preservation and conservation. Empirical data gathered primarily by observations and theories relating to the importance of diversity/multi-functionality in urban settings form the basis of the paper’s analysis.     

From pragmatic to politicized? The future of water remunicipalization in the United States

The United States has experienced swings of public and private operation of its water services for more than 150 years. This paper examines the most recent swing, that of remunicipalization. We argue that much of this remunicipalization is taking place for ‘pragmatic’ reasons related to cost savings and service quality, but there are also signs of more ‘politicized’ forms of water remunicipalization taking place, similar to efforts elsewhere in the world where the process has often involved heated ideological debates and mass mobilizations. Combined with a growing politicization of other social, economic, and environmental issues in the US, water remunicipalization could become more politicized in the future, but a fragmented ‘pro-public’ movement, combined with ongoing efforts to outsource water services and growing resistance to remunicipalization from private water companies, may constrain this potential.     

Environmental and individual exposure to secondhand aerosol of electronic cigarettes in confined spaces: Results from the TackSHS Project†

Secondhand electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) aerosol (SHA) might impair indoor air quality and expose bystanders. This study aims to investigate exposure to SHA in controlled conditions of enclosed settings simulating real-world scenario. An experiment was performed in a car and in a room, in which SHA was generated during a 30-minute ad libitum use of an e-cigarette. The experiment was replicated on five consecutive days in each setting. We measured PM_2.5, airborne nicotine concentrations, and biomarkers of exposure to SHA, such as nicotine metabolites, tobacco-specific nitrosamines, propylene glycol, and glycerol in bystanders’ saliva samples before, during, and after the exposure period. Self-reported health symptoms related to exposure to SHA were also recorded. The results showed that the highest median PM_2.5 concentration was recorded during the exposure period, being 21 µg/m³ in the room setting and 16 µg/m³ in the car setting—about twofold increase compared to the baseline. Most concentrations of the airborne nicotine and all biomarkers were below the limit of quantification in both settings. Bystanders in both settings experienced some short-term irritation symptoms, expressed as dry throat, nose, eyes, and phlegm. In conclusion, short-term use of an e-cigarette in confined spaces increased indoor PM_2.5 level and caused some irritation symptoms in bystanders.     

From Greater London to Greater Valencia: a case of British influence on regional planning and neighbourhood units in Spain (1939–1952)

Starting in 1945, Pedro Bidagor, the National Chief of Urban Planning in Spain, attempted to replicate the British regional urban model based on Abercrombie’s proposals of the County of London Plan and the Greater London Plan. The Greater Valencia Administrative Corporation, with its supramunicipal approach, was the principal representative of this urbanistic transposition. This article analyses the transmission of British planning ideas and practices in the years following the Spanish post-war period, and the important role that the architect Pedro Muguruza – key figure in early Francoism – played in it. The study also demonstrates the influence that the contemporary British urban models based on neighbourhood units had for the satellite town centres projected in Valencia (Burjasot and Manises, 1952).     

From “Three Olds” Reconstruction to Urban Renewal:Reflections on Establishment of Urban Renewal Bureau in Guangzhou

With the establishment of Guangzhou Urban Renewal Bureau,the first of its kind in China,as the background and the starting point,the paper reviews relevant experiences in the UK,Singapore,and Hong Kong,summarizes the features,responsibilities,and rights of such institutions.Through analyzing three statuses of redevelopment,which are increased,reduced,and retained construction,the paper points out that urban renewal is a process orienting at promoting the comprehensive capacity of the built-up environment.Then the paper summarizes the strength and weakness of the "three olds" reconstruction policy making and implementation in Guangzhou,holding that the strength lies in the effective land consolidation and socially collaboration experiences,while the weakness includes the unclear rights and responsibilities,unsystematic target,and imbalanced interests distribution.It concludes that the goal of urban renewal is to improve the existing built-up environment without damaging the benefits of original stakeholders,to emphasize both fairness and efficiency,and to seek for sustainable city redevelopment with optimized comprehensive capacity.Moreover,the paper clarifies that the primary responsibility of urban renewal is to well maintain the built-up environment and the extended responsibility is to properly coordinate the city redevelopment.Considering that urban renewal is a kind of public administration with distinctive social and processing features,urban renewal should be empowered the necessary implementation priority and administrative permission power via local legislation measures.In addition,an effective social collaboration platform should be established to actively support the urban renewal and to reflect the "new normal" of city redevelopment.     

From urban beautification to a holistic approach: the discourses of ‘landscape’ in the Arab Middle East

The English word and Western idea of landscape was introduced during the colonial restructuring of Arab cities in the early decades of the twentieth century. Thereafter, landscape came to be understood predominantly in the context of urban modernity, associated with the Western picturesque tradition adopted in landscaping municipal parks and public urban spaces. The formal conception that prevails today precludes a broader appreciation of landscape as a source of livelihood, the fabric of lived-in experiences and collective identities, just as it reduces the scope of landscape architecture, an emerging profession in the Arab Middle East, to urban beautification. Inspired by the integrative and community-centred conception advanced by the European Landscape Convention, this paper argues for a holistic landscape approach that contributes to development while responding to regional environmental and ecological constraints. The methodology of ecological landscape design is applied to secure a holistic reading of people and place and to engender integrative solutions that address socio-economic, environmental and heritage concerns. A selection of projects are cited to demonstrate the potential of a holistic approach in changing current limited perceptions of landscape and in expanding the discourse of landscape in the region beyond the current focus on appearance and beautification.     

Citizen dialogue for whom? Competing rationalities in urban planning,the case of Gothenburg,Sweden

This paper analyses citizen dialogue in urban planning from a governmentality perspective. We focus on (1) how motives and goals connected to ‘citizen dialogue’ and the activities and practices initiated to accomplish these can be understood in light of competing rationalities and (2) how public officials and other actors involved in organising citizen dialogues understand and manage the tensions between competing rationalities. The analysis draws on a case study of urban development in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden. We suggest a critical approach to the use of citizen dialogue as a technology of government, an approach enabling an analysis of various functions and implications of citizen dialogues.