Participatory design,temporary structures and the appropriation of urban space by marginalized youth: the problem of the Odd Triangle

This paper discusses the design and construction of a temporary structure in a neglected urban space. Researchers consulted and worked with members of a youth club in a deprived area of an English city to try to enable spatial appropriation through participatory design. It was found that age- and class-based relationships greatly constrained participants’ sense of appropriation. Participants did, however, appropriate the co-design process in enthusiastic ways centred on the transgression of adult norms. The paper concludes with reflections on how constraints on marginalized youth agency can inhibit participatory approaches.     

Rethinking design for social housing: space appropriation at the periphery of Rome

This paper investigates practices of space appropriation, their rationales and the distinctive forms of community they create in Primavalle, a low‐income public project on the periphery of Rome. Space appropriation is relevant for design practice because it indicates the possibility to learn from the residents in order to envision a progressive design practice. By addressing shortcomings in the literature of New Urbanism and Everyday Urbanism, this research corrects both the normative approach of the former and the anti‐planning sentiment of the latter. The objective was met through examining: (a) setting‐specific forms of space appropriation in the neighborhood; (b) their idealization as personal and community places; and (c) how they occasion and support regular daily routines. I have used three strands of fieldwork: a multi‐block observation of contrasting types of space appropriation, short ethnographies, literature and archival research. The findings of the research support the proposition for a design philosophy lodged between everyday practice and long‐term policy action.     

非正规城市绿地”概念辨析及规划 策略研究

非正规城市绿地在建成环境中具有良好适应性,能填补正规城市绿地服务盲区,在高密度城市中有巨大发展价值和潜力。但非正规城市绿地空间和功能属性均与正规城市绿地存在差异,很难直接在规划中照搬套用常规城市绿地规划调控范式。为此,基于相关研究和实践,对非正规城市绿地概念内涵及其空间和功能属性展开辨析,与之对应并结合中国现实条件,从开发“预置化”、用地“长储化”及运营“开放化”研究非正规城市绿地的用地保障策略,并围绕潜力用地甄别、体系化统筹、精细化指引研究其调控支持策略,为相关政策制定和规划实践提供参考。     

Towards a framework of public space governance

Public spaces are the loci of complex interactions among multiple stakeholders whose decisions and activities affect places' qualities. The paper builds upon governance theory to provide a holistic in-depth approach in understanding the complexity and quality of the place-shaping processes in public spaces. In the absence of adequate conception of governance in urban design and public spaces, the paper introduces a framework for analysing governance capacity of public spaces and applies the framework to a flagship but highly contested public space in Brisbane, Australia namely South Bank Parklands. The proposed framework encompasses four major components of 1) actors and stakeholders, 2) governance structure, 3) governing tools, and 4) governing tasks. The framework puts special emphasis on the contextual factors, the way public spaces are shaped and governed, and political economy of the space. The case study application showcases the applicability of the PSGF which helps holistically analyse the trends in public space governance structure accounting for the diversity and complexity of all elements involved. The findings reveal that South Bank Parklands governance is mix-structured, hierarchical, and highly political. It is, however, a likeable public space for which civic engagement in the decision-making processes is notably limited.     

The (in)formal,the (il)legal and the (il)licit. Roma informal settlements and institutional pragmatics of compromise and compassion in a Roman periphery

Using the lens of informal Roma settlements in the southwestern periphery of Rome, this article explores Romani approaches to urban space, showing how these are informed by heterogeneous understandings of non-Roma conceptions and practices of (in)formality, (il)legality and (il)licitness. The article also highlights complex and ambivalent attitudes concerning Roma and their informal settlements on the part of non-Roma residents of the neighboring district. Finally, it frames the existence of the informal settlements within the authorities' juggling of formal rejection and informal calculated acceptance of urban informality. The grey spaces that emerge from the convergence of institutional pragmatics of compromise and compassion are connected to governmental discourses that frame informal Roma settlements as dangerous and polluting spaces, and treat their inhabitants as exploitable labor force and politically expendable subjects. Urban (in)formality is also the space that Roma, like many non-Roma, navigate to cope with vulnerability and express their right to the city. Informal Roma settlements thus appear fully embedded in the political, socio-economic and cultural fabric of Rome, which embraces them precisely by treating them as separate polluting spaces.     

Accessible and Inclusive Public Space: The Regeneration of Waterfront in Informal Areas

Public open spaces play an important role in achieving equity and inclusion in cities. They are vital elements that shape the urban life and public realm in communities. This paper deals with waterfronts as key spaces in the urban, social, and economic structure of the city, with reference to informal areas where accessibility poses a severe challenge. The paper discusses the interactions between water front uses, potential interventions and the local community’s aspirations, while tackling land properties, and participation issues during the decision-making process for regenerating inclusive public spaces.

Within this context, the authors present, debate, and analyze the case of Al Warrak Cornish project in the Northern Sector of Giza Governorate in Egypt. They discuss three main aspects in water frontage urban development including: water front as an accessible public space, regeneration as a process, and participation as a tool. This is emphasized through the application of an international policy, namely the three – legged approach that was adopted by the ASUD program in UN Habitat since 2013 (Achieving Sustainable Urban Development) including: Design, regulations, and finance to support developing contexts, aiming at regenerating the waterfront urban area, with the presence of informal urbanization, through the methodology of collaborative and participatory planning.

The findings of this research present a methodological decision-making approach for the formalization of the local spatial development framework for waterfronts in informal areas with a focus on the participatory approach. This approach aims at achieving sustainability, and maximizing the economic valorization resulting from the regeneration of informal water frontage areas, balanced with the existing and neighboring community socioeconomic needs. It further highlights the process of reaching common objectives among all stakeholders, especially if they are from different social strata.

The paper concludes that this emblematic project possesses significant implications regarding issues of spatial justice, combining conventional road infrastructure with urban regeneration and community energizing as critical aspects of mediating and articulating success in such contexts.     

The utopia of order versus chaos: A conceptual framework for governance,organizational design and governmentality in projects

Images of utopia of order and chaos can serve to depict paradoxes observed in projects by illustrating the ongoing challenges presented by formal organization and informal social structure at the interface of temporary/permanent organizing. This paper develops a conceptual framework that shows that governance, organizational design and governmentality are all essential to an understanding of projects. We seek to clarify these concepts and to consider temporalities in the organizational project management context. This implies examining temporary/permanent organizing interaction at macro-meso-micro levels and challenging the traditional categorization of the formal and the informal aspects into two different and isolated streams of research. The paper offers a theoretical contribution to project studies by creating a bridge between process theory, the sensemaking perspective and the study of organizational project management. It also contributes to practice through the framework's analytical potential and improved understanding of the relationship between governance and organizational design.     

空间再生产视角下的上海黄浦江工业水岸转型研究

工业水岸转型现有研究集中在后工业美学、生态修复、产业转型等议题,但未能揭示去产业化后转型成公共开放水岸过程中,物理空间营造与城市日常生活重塑的相互关系及变化趋势。基于列斐伏尔空间生产的理论,通过实践参与以及对上海黄浦江两岸地区自2002年起4个关键性事件中非正式规划手段及正式规划机制等相关规划设计方案、准则及报道的收集分析,探讨工业遗存取舍及诠释的价值取向、开放场址边界融合的设计策略。进而总结黄浦江工业水岸转型可以被视为景观都市主义的实践操作,其对应工业遗产转型显示出非等级化的设计取向,表达了由上而下、由下而上的交互影响,是促进城市水岸日常生活多元化的重要因素。     

An integrated model of formal and informal housing sectors

Many cities in developing countries are characterized by a striking juxtaposition of formal and informal housing, where these sectors coexist in close proximity. This paper develops a model of urban land markets where both the formal and informal sectors are endogenously and mutually determined. More specifically, the informal market arises as a kind of residual effect of decisions made in the formal sector. The model posits a fixed number of rich and of poor households, all of whom are competing in the marketplace for a place to live. Rich households enact formal land use regulations in the form of minimum lot size requirements that directly reflect their preferences. The impacts of these regulations on the informal sector depend upon relative incomes and populations of poor and rich households, as well as on housing preferences. In order to assess these impacts empirically, the paper formulates a set of stylized case studies. The model results illustrate that the formal and informal sectors do not exist independently from one another, but are instead dual aspects of a single market phenomenon. In particular, an insufficient absorptive capacity of the formal sector results directly in informality.     

The myth of informal place-making: stitching and unstitching Atarim Square in Tel Aviv

The metaphor of stitching/unstitching can be applied to the mechanism employed by authorities, professionals and users alike—each for a different purpose and under different circumstances—for appropriating the urban space. It views the urban space as a socio-political arena that involves ongoing negotiation. The metaphor is used in this paper to debate some basic premises of architectural discourse of the everyday. Analysis of Atarim Square on Tel Aviv's shoreline—focusing on three periods: the 1930s, 1960s and the 1990s—reveals ongoing and often simultaneous processes of 'stitching and unstitching'. The key contention here is that formal (official and professional) spatial processes are not necessarily limiting, just as informal processes (personal and communal) are not always liberating, and that both are endemic to the socio-political construct of the everyday.     

The myth of informal place-making: stitching and unstitching Atarim Square in Tel Aviv

The metaphor of stitching/unstitching can be applied to the mechanism employed by authorities, professionals and users alike—each for a different purpose and under different circumstances—for appropriating the urban space. It views the urban space as a socio-political arena that involves ongoing negotiation. The metaphor is used in this paper to debate some basic premises of architectural discourse of the everyday. Analysis of Atarim Square on Tel Aviv's shoreline—focusing on three periods: the 1930s, 1960s and the 1990s—reveals ongoing and often simultaneous processes of ‘stitching and unstitching’. The key contention here is that formal (official and professional) spatial processes are not necessarily limiting, just as informal processes (personal and communal) are not always liberating, and that both are endemic to the socio-political construct of the everyday.     

Urban Design,Public Space and the Dynamics of Creative Milieux: A Photographic Approach to Bairro Alto (Lisbon), Gràcia (Barcelona) and Vila Madalena (São Paulo)

Drawing on some results of a broader research project, this paper aims to discuss the relation between urban design and creative dynamics in cultural districts. Appropriation and production of public spaces in three ‘creative quarters’ are analyzed, through a photographic approach, covering material aspects, human appropriation and symbolic dimensions in these areas. Discussing the boundaries of public spaces and their relevance for creative activity (through the conviviality and sociability they promote), it is argued that urban design characteristics and specific place morphologies significantly influence the appropriation of these areas and the development of specific creative dynamics.     

Limits and potentials to deliberative engagement in highly regulated planning systems: Norm development within fixed rules

Planning practice requires ongoing interaction between regulatory “facts” and deliberative “norms”. Played out in local and strategic developments, “norms” are the agreed values and positions developed by advancing deliberative engagement of residents; while “facts” are the more rigid statutory procedures through which planning decisions are typically made. However, conflict arises between residents' groups and local government decision-makers when deliberative norms, now a key tenet of strategic planning processes, struggle to gain traction in the factual spaces provided by statutory planning regulations. A contentious planning process in St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia (concerning the redevelopment of a car park into a commercial and public space) highlights the challenges to deliberative engagement in highly-regulatory planning systems. Drawing on this contested case, this paper examines how the broader formal and relatively fixed framework of regulatory-based decision-making fails to support participatory principles, undermining both the desired communicative ethos and enduring collaborative outcomes and norm development. Specifically, the paper problematises tensions between residents' growing expectations for greater transparency and participation in planning, arising from a growing regard for deliberation in strategic planning, and the hegemonic nature of statutory planning that preserves planning control within the formal domain of government and the private sector.     

Build as you earn and learn: informal urbanism and incremental housing financing in Kumasi,Ghana

The continuous evolution, proliferation and resilience of informal housing in cities of developing countries defy all attempts by their formal planning processes to marginalise and relegate them to the periphery. In most instances, their rapid and uncontrolled growth has overwhelmed city planning authorities. More importantly, strategies for financing these informal housing units present complex networks of sources not clearly discussed in the housing literature. Using two informal communities—Ayigya-Zongo and Dakodwom—in Kumasi, Ghana, this paper explores the nature and characteristics of these non-conventional housing financing strategies. The study reveals an evolving and enduring non-conventional informal housing financing system effective for providing convenient and affordable housing for the urban poor; but this system is continuously sidelined by the conventional urban planning and housing financing systems. We argue against these attitudes of formal institutions towards these non-conventional housing financing strategies, and submit that these strategies are the gradual, incremental, and collective responses of residents in informal communities to a hostile formal urban planning and housing environment. Hence the dynamics of these non-conventional housing financing schemes point to a complex and fluid network of informal housing financial sources and structures, which are co-evolving with the processes of informal urbanisation and social learning among residents in informal settlements.     

Walls,enclaves and the (counter) politics of design

This paper focuses on the political role of urban design in the transformation of urban and rural, central and peripheral, formal and informal landscapes in Israel. Based on design anthropology methodology, the political role of urban design in the production of aesthetic objects and landscapes that signify the control over individuals and communities will be explored. As this paper suggests, such a new form of political influence is hidden beneath an aesthetic and user-oriented façade, making it even more dangerous than previous more direct actions, such as gated communities separated from public space by stone walls. The paper’s interdisciplinary approach that is rooted in anthropology, design, architecture and politics will also point out some similarities between specific sites that are often considered different, namely Tel Aviv’s global and privatized gated communities on the one hand and the unrecognized Bedouin villages in the peripheral Negev region on the other. It will be argued that these similarities are the product of the politics of militarization, privatization and social fragmentation that are translated into urban design practices from ‘above’ via state and municipal planning policy as well as formal design, and from ‘below’ through informal and often unauthorized construction initiated by marginalized communities.     

Inside the System, Outside the Law: Operating the Matatu Sector in Nairobi

This paper investigates the politics of public transportation in Nairobi by looking at the matatu sector. Focusing on the illegal Mungiki movement??s control of matatu routes, the paper provides an understanding of how the relationship between the state and the non-state plays out on the ground. The paper argues that the gaps in the state??s provision of services not only open up space for non-state interventions, but also invite mediation and brokerage between formal procedures and practical informal arrangements. It is argued that we can understand the ability to connect people and areas in the city??and how this helps make the city work??by looking at how everyday operations and practices constantly transgress notions of the formal and informal. This is best captured in the emic characterisation of the matatu sector as being inside the system, but outside the law.     

中国城市老旧社区非正式绿地改造及其公众感知研究

Existing large-scale urban green spaces in a low distribution density can hardly meet citizens’ diverse and growing needs for convenient access and sharing modes, especially to those living in old communities. Compared with formal green spaces, informal green space (IGS) is a new urban green infrastructure contributing to the city’s coconstruction, co-governance, and co-sharing. This study was conducted based on a typical old residential community in the historic city center of Beijing, namely Beitaipingzhuang Neighborhood, acquired residents’ opinions, evaluation, and willing to participate in IGS governance, and investigated their preference of IGS renovation, activity, and the positive / negative perception of IGS scenarios through virtual renovation proposals upon the real scenes. According to the survey result, most residents have been aware of the existing IGS in communities as well as the advantages and disadvantages, and shown their support to IGS cogovernance; residents’ preference of IGS renovation scenarios is significantly affected by environmental factors—residents prefer the green spaces with a higher plant richness, a larger crown size, and a more complete leisure facility system. Therefore, residents’ positive perception can be enhanced through enriching plant species, adjusting green space ratio, and introducing proper planting patterns and facility types. Finally, the authors put forward several research interests for following up so as to provide targeted guidelines for the optimization of urban living environment.     

Exploring the Interface Between Formal and Informal Real Estate Markets in Facilitating Legally Binding Transactions in Zambian Cities

Informality is the order of the day in most cities in the Global South. This paper explored the puzzle whereby informal activities result in legally binding real estate transactions in the city of Kitwe in Zambia. The paper conceptualises the “market” from an institutional economics perspective as a system to coordinate human activities and not merely as the interaction of supply and demand. Using evidence from Chimwemwe, a formal municipal township in the city of Kitwe, and a questionnaire survey amongst registered and unregistered real estate agents, the study found that most “market transactions” in low-cost formal settlements are facilitated through social networks of friends, relatives, and neighbours and through informal agents, and minimally through formal agents. These transactions are then legally registered at the Council Deeds Registry for legal transfer. Despite the existence of the Estate Agents Act of 2000, and the establishment of the Zambia Institute of Estate Agents (ZIEA), the study found that most informal agents have problems complying with the registration provision, thus leaving them to operate illegally. Nonetheless, these informal agents provide a service in low-income settlements through procedures which mirror formal ones, resulting in legally recognised and binding transactions and at cost commensurate to the incomes of their clients. However, the negative traits exhibited by some informal agents cannot be overlooked, thus it is necessary to re-examine the law to understand what is preventing informal agents from complying with this provision on registration.     

建筑企业内部知识共享影响因素的实证研究

通过建立结构方程模型,对工程项目环境下影响建筑企业内部知识共享的因素进行实证研究。研究表明,项目经理支持及同事关系对促进组织内部正式和非正式知识共享均具有显著作用;共享机制能够显著促进正式知识共享,但对非正式知识共享的直接影响作用并不明显,需通过同事关系间接影响非正式知识共享;组织激励虽然能够显著促进正式知识共享,但对非正式知识共享却有一定的抑制作用。     

Housing and health in an informal settlement upgrade in Cape Town, South Africa

Taking a socio-ecological perspective the World Health Organisation recognizes that housing comprises four interrelated dimensions—the physical structure of the house, the home, the neighbourhood infrastructure and the community. Housing related health vulnerability arises when residents are exposed to poor conditions in any one of these dimensions and augmented when two or more co-exists. Regardless the relationship between housing and health in the global south remains largely under explored; in particular there has been little focus on health outcomes resulting from upgrading of informal settlements. Applying this framework we report from an in situ upgrading of the informal settlement of Imizamo Yethu in Cape Town, South Africa. Data gathered from surveys are used to determine whether differences in each of these dimensions exist between housing type; both formal upgrades and shacks. Results show that whilst no significant differences exist in self-reported physical health, residents of formal housing are less likely to report mental health issues, have a stronger sense of belonging and report greater satisfaction with both neighbourhood and home than shack residents. However, these contested spaces are not easily interpreted and community tension, exclusion and disadvantage highlight the complex interactions between each of the interrelated dimensions and policies regarding housing intervention. The paper highlights the complex relationship between housing and health that is often lost in simplistic measures of housing when outcomes related to the indoor environment alone are considered.