Experiments in Associative Urbanism

‘There has never been a more crucial time to challenge, reassess and propose alternatives to conventional urban masterplanning and its associated conventions, types and standards.’ Tom Verebes describes how the Design Research Laboratory (DRL) at the Architectural Association in London has employed a parametric approach to urbanism that investigates how associative design systems can control local dynamic information flows through interactive systems, spaces and interfaces. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP)

A new generation of architects, urban designers and planners are rethinking the city. Bill Menking describes how the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) has orchestrated a number of art-based collaborations in the New York boroughs that enable the community to participate in the reimagining of urban space. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Story of An Intersection,or How Early Chicago Became an Urban Laboratory

This essay unravels the history of Chicago as an urban laboratory and the way crisis was utilised and even staged in order to project alternative scenarios. It centres on a single photograph of an intersection from 1909, which shows the location saturated with a shocking amount of traffic brought to a standstill. To make visible what commonly remained hidden (the flows and intensities of urban movement), city officials had administered an urban experiment that suspended police presence and regulation in an effort to test if the metropolis could still self-regulate. Using the city as a stage for experimentation that at times pushed it to the brink of collapse, Chicago’s officials perceived their town as an urban test-bed. Injecting this reading into our established historiography reconfigures some of its most prominent narratives: from Sullivan’s Kindergarten Chats, and Burnham and Bennett’s Plan for the city, to the Chicago school of sociology.     

Cultivating Smartcities

On 9 April 2009, Michelle Obama planted the first seedlings of onion, lettuce, peas and peppers in the 102-square-metre (1,100-square-foot) White House Kitchen Garden. She may have planted the green shoots for a smartcity. CJ Lim , author of Smartcities + Eco-warriors (Routledge, 2010), describes sustainable urban developments in the form of smartcities – a new urban exuberance reintegrating cultivated land within an urban economic and ecological context system. These verdant edible edifices of urban spatial theatre are aesthetically and culturally engaging. Soliciting an emotional as well as intellectual response they have the potential to connect with the public and involve them in the architectural possibilities of the city. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New Patterns in Urban Design

Brian McGrath and VictoriaMarshall discern the newly resilient urban patterns that are emerging in the meta-city, shifting and adjusting to changing local and global conditions. Based on smart infrastructure, self-sufficiency and hybrid local models, highly adaptive design patterns take the form of responsive micropatches rather than overarching masterplans. As demonstrated by the featured projects, ‘pattern recognition’, sensory mapping techniques and sensitivity to a city's ecosystem are becoming essential tools to the urban designer. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于客运交通流的长江三角洲功能多中心结构研究

选取长江三角洲城市间每日公路长途客运班次和高速铁路每日经停班次作为城市间客运交通流的替代数据,从联系强度和节点关系两个方面对长三角城市区域功能多中心结构的特征及演化趋势进行解析。认为在长三角城市区域层面,南北两翼的城市间联系网络相对独立,两翼城市与上海的联系以及两翼内部城市间的联系均呈现出北强南弱的现象,这一现象与南、北两翼产业发展的总体特征和升级路径具有较强的相关性。上海作为长三角的核心枢纽,南京、杭州、宁波作为长三角次级枢纽的格局较为清晰,苏州、南通和无锡作为上海大都市区的直接腹地甚至通勤区的态势进一步显现。随着高速铁路的发展完善,长三角城市区域"等级+网络"的演化趋势日益明显,一方面上海的极化趋势进一步增强,与此同时整个区域产业发展与基础设施的发展将呈现出进一步均衡的态势。     

New Malacovia

In his 2009 award-winning design thesis project for the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL), Pascal Bronner evokes the imaginary land of New Malacovia. Using an existing text as a catalyst, and graphite as the sole medium, Bronner transforms the inventions and urban ideas of an original fictionalised city afresh into a speculative environmental programme: a potato-fuelled miniature city is laid out on foundations of bottle corks.     

Urban Villages

Is the Village in the City (ViC) potentially an urban scar or a vibrant community? Meng Yan , principal of urban design think tank and architectural firm URBANUS, advocates a design approach to the urban village phenomena that recognises the vitality of the social conditions they provide and how they might, with some intervention from designers, prove a ready-made solution to China's housing problem. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

建设长三角智慧区域的初步思考

信息技术的发展促进了城市与区域发展模式及空间结构的变化。智慧城市作为信息城市的高级形态,是一个全新的城市发展模式及城市形态,智慧城市战略也在国内许多城市纷纷展开。长江三角洲地区具备建设智慧区域的优越条件,有潜力建设成为国家首个智慧区域。在智慧区域的建设和发展中,应重点考虑加快产业转型与升级,知识与创新网络的建设;通过流动空间加速区域一体化建设;科学规划、有序推动智慧城市建设。     

Metabolism-modelling approaches to long-term sustainability assessment of urban water services

There is a discernible need for a holistic, long-term and sustainability approach in decision-making in water and wastewater utilities around the world. Metabolism-based modelling, which can quantify various flows within an urban water system (UWS), has shown its effective usability for a more comprehensive understanding of the impacts of intervention strategies and can be used by any water utility for future planning of UWS. This study presents the main principles of a holistic Sustainability Assessment Framework which can be simulated by using two analytical, conceptual, mass-balance-based models to quantify relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) associated with the metabolic flows of the urban water cycle. These two models are WaterMet² (WM2) and dynamic metabolism model (DMM), developed recently under the aegis of the EU TRUST (Transitions to the Urban Water Services of Tomorrow) project. There are clear differences between the two models which make them useful in different contexts and circumstantial situations. DMM is a mass-balance consistent model which quantifies and presents annually-aggregated performance values for system wide energy consumption, emissions, environmental impacts and costs for the entire UWS though it is also possible to derive corresponding indicators for individual sub-systems (e.g. water distribution and wastewater transport). WM2 is the opposite of this, it is a distributed metabolism model which simulates water related and other resource flows throughout the UWS components with a higher resolution both spatially (e.g. multiple water resources and service reservoirs) and temporally (e.g. daily and monthly), and thereby is useful in contexts where utilities would like to focus on further details of the UWS metabolism with the aim to understand and solve specific problems. Overall, these two complementary metabolism-based approaches enable any water utility to quantitatively explore and understand the influences of different external drivers and intervention strategies on future performance profiles linked to any physical, environmental and economic criteria.     

利用扩展的城市代谢框架来设想未来的能源景观

气候变化与资源枯竭一块正在促发一场由化石燃料向可再生能源的转型。这一转变通过重新配置地方和区域资源流动以及相应的废物管理系统,来为创造多功能性能源景观提供机会。为此,本人通过引入"城市新陈代谢"和"修复性设计"两个框架来阐明一种能源景观设计方法,该方法基于具有多重社会和生态效益的循环代谢流动。本文将随后讨论一个当代设计项目,以举例说明设计未来能源景观需要在地方和区域尺度之间、在提供近期和长期解决方案之间、在操纵资源流动与其相关物理景观之间、在解决社会和生态需求之间进行转换。     

Distructuring Utopias

In order to meet the challenges of fast-paced urban transformations, Laurent-Paul Robert and Dr Vesna Petresin Robert of Rubedo call for a rethinking of the perennial Utopian model of urban design. They espouse a design strategy that is both able ‘to reflect the dynamics of urban growth and decay’, while meeting the needs of a ‘post-capitalist economy’ - a condition in which change is the only constant. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Morphogenetic Urbanism

Peter Trummer pursues a morphogenetic model of urban design in which matter and form are placed in a dynamic rather than a fixed relationship. He demonstrates its application with a neighbourhood model that he has developed for the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, with the Second-Year Research Programme at the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Regardless if it is comedy,action, thriller,or biography: A review of urban crime in the 1980s cinema of Chicago

This study investigates the cinematic representation of city crime transactions in Chicago in the 1980s. The narrative nature of cinema provides an imaginative context for interpreting the physical and nonphysical dimensions of urban crimes. From a critical interpretive position, based on Peirce's semiotics, this study uses “urban cinesemiotics” as the method to select image signs, identify their associated Chicagoan objects, and interpret their design-oriented meaning. The theoretical roots of crime prevention through environmental design constitute the basis for the interpretation of movies. A total of 27 crime-related scenes from 9 Chicagoan movies made in the 1980s illustrate that most urban settings suffer from the lack of crime-preventive environmental design. In particular, natural surveillance (eyes on the street), encounter and enclosure, and border vacuums are major environmental factors that affect urban crimes in Chicago. Some crime scenes also depict why environmental design cannot influence individuals' criminal intentions necessarily nor can they solve urban safety single-handedly.     

Systemic Diagramming: An Approach to Decoding Urban Ecologies

For many students, sustainability has become an obligatory add-on for any project. Here Ulysses Sengupta and Deljana Iossifova explain how they have sought to address this in their teaching at the University of Nottingham through a ‘systemic diagramming’ approach. This provides essential tools for understanding how resource flows and environmental concerns are embedded in physical urban transformation, socioeconomic fault lines and underlying power relations.     

Lighting Up

Through the work of London practice Cinimod Studio, led by Dominic Harris, Valentina Croci explores the potential that lighting design offers for interactive work, whether it is transforming unwelcoming urban spaces or enhancing the public's experience of the city. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

51% Studios

Howard Watson profiles a London-based studio whose practice results from the interplay of a wide range of influences spanning contemporary culture, history, nature, landscape and the ephemeral. Working at a variety of scales from the domestic to the urban, partners Peter Thomas and Catherine du Toit demonstrate a natural bent for the arts-related in undertaking collaborations with artists and exhibition installations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial and temporal patterns of surface water quality and ichthyotoxicity in urban and rural river basins in Texas

The Double Mountain Fork Brazos River (Texas, USA) consists of North (NF) and South Forks (SF). The NF receives urban runoff and twice-reclaimed wastewater effluent, whereas the SF flows through primarily rural areas. The objective of this study was to determine and compare associations between standard water quality variables and ichthyotoxicity at a landscape scale that included urban (NF) and rural (SF) sites. Five NF and three SF sites were sampled quarterly from March 2008 to March 2009 for specific conductance, salinity, hardness, pH, temperature, and turbidity; and a zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryo bioassay was used to determine ichthyotoxicity. Metal and nutrient concentrations at all sites were also measured in addition to standard water quality variables in spring 2009. Principal component analyses identified hardness, specific conductance, and salinity as the water variables that best differentiate the urban NF (higher levels) from rural SF habitat. Nutrient levels were also higher in the NF, but no landscape scale patterns in metal concentrations were observed. Ichthyotoxicity was generally higher in NF water especially in winter, and multiple regression analyses suggested a positive association between water hardness and ichthyotoxicity. To test for the potential influence of the toxic golden alga (Prymnesium parvum) on overall ichthyotoxicity, a cofactor known to enhance golden alga toxin activity was used in the bioassays. Golden alga ichthyotoxicity was detected in the NF but not the SF, suggesting golden alga may have contributed to overall ichthyotoxicity in the urban but not in the rural system. In conclusion, the physicochemistry of the urban-influenced NF water was conducive to the expression of ichthyotoxicity and also point to water hardness as a novel factor influencing golden alga ichthyotoxicity in surface waters.     

Perfluorinated compounds in surface waters and WWTPs in Shenyang, China: mass flows and source analysis

Concentrations of 10 perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) were investigated in the Hun River (HR), four canals, ten lakes, and influents and effluents from four main municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Shenyang, China. Mass flows of four main PFCs were calculated to elucidate the contribution from different sections of the HR. Overall, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA) were the major PFCs in the HR, with ranges of 2.68-9.13 ng/L, and 2.12-11.3 ng/L, respectively, while perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) was detected at lower levels, ranging from 0.40 to 3.32 ng/L. The PFC concentrations in the HR increased after the river passes through two cities (Shenyang and Fushun), indicating cities are an important contributor for PFCs. Mass flow analysis in the HR revealed that PFC mass flows from Fushun are 1.65-5.50 kg/year for C6-C8 perfluorinated acids (PFCAs) and 1.29 kg/year for PFOS, while Shenyang contributed 2.83-5.18 kg C6-C8 PFCAs/year, and 3.65 kg PFOS/year. The concentrations of PFCs in four urban canals were higher than those in the HR, with the maximum total PFCs of 240 ng/L. PFOA and PFOS showed different trends along these canals, suggesting different sources for the two PFCs. Total PFCs in ten lakes from Shenyang were at low levels, with the greatest concentration (56.2 ng/L) detected in a heavily industrialized area. The PFC levels in WWTP effluents were higher than those in surface waters with concentrations ranging from 18.4 to 41.1 ng/L for PFOA, and 1.69-3.85 ng/L for PFOS. Similar PFC profiles between effluents from WWTPs and urban surface waters were found. These results indicate that WWTPs are an important PFC source in surface water. Finally, we found that the composition profiles of PFCs in surface waters were similar to those in tap water, but not consistent with those in adult blood from Shenyang. The calculation on total daily intake of PFOS by adults from Shenyang showed that the contribution of drinking water to human exposure was minor.     

Long-term trends in hydro-climatology of a major Scottish mountain river

The River Dee, in North East Scotland, is a mountainous river strongly influenced by patterns of snow accumulation and melt from the Cairngorm Mountains. Analysis of this river's flow record from 1929-2004, the longest in Scotland, supports anecdotal evidence that river extreme flows are increasing. There was no detectable change in the overall annual flow patterns. However, an analysis of seasonal data suggested a shift towards increased flows in spring (March-May) and decreased flows in summer (June-August) over the 75 years of the record. Flows in spring exceeded 29 m³ s^− 1 for 50% of the time over the earliest part of the record (1930 to 1954), whereas in the last 25 years of the record (1979 to 2004) 50% of the flows exceeded 35 m³ s^− 1. Precipitation is increasing in the spring and decreasing in July and August. If these trends continue they have important implications for water management in the Dee, with a potential increase in flood risk in spring and the increased possibility of drought in summer. Combined with this increase in flows the river appears to be more responsive to precipitation events in the catchment. In large heterogeneous catchments with a marginal alpine/high latitude climate it is difficult to assess the amount of precipitation falling as snow and its relative accumulation and ablation dynamics on daily to seasonal time scales. Changes in the temporal pattern of coherence between flow and precipitation are thought to be linked to changing snow patterns in the upland part of the catchment. A decreased amount of precipitation occurring as snow has led to higher coherence. We also show that in responsive systems it is important to record river flows at an hourly rather than daily time step in order to characterise peak flow events.