Hasil untuk "Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying"

Junjie Luo, Pengyuan Liu, Wenhui Xu et al.

Vasileios Milias, Stefanos Tsigdinos, Panagiotis G. Tzouras et al.

There is a growing emphasis on active transport, prompting cities to be redesigned as more pedestrian-friendly environments. This shift has fueled interest in proximity-based planning models, such as the X-minute city, which are increasingly promoted for their potential public health and environmental benefits. However, equity considerations in the assessment of such models are often neglected or rely on local datasets that limit broader applicability. In response, we introduce a method for evaluating equity under the X-minute city paradigm using open data and established accessibility metrics and grounded in the ethical frameworks of egalitarianism and sufficientarianism. Applying our method to Athens, Stockholm, and Amsterdam, we assess equitable access to essential services and amenities, including supermarkets, playgrounds, and public transport stations. Our findings demonstrate that the choice of ethical framework plays a critical role in shaping equity assessments, and that disaggregating by destination type reveals distinct spatial patterns of accessibility, shedding light on both the strengths and limitations of different urban areas. The application of our method also surfaces unexpected insights: Athens—despite its car-dependent image—emerges as the most aligned with the X-minute city model, while Stockholm’s decentralized form underscores the need to adapt time thresholds to local urban structure and behavior. Overall, the method’s reproducibility and use of open-data support cross-city comparisons and contribute to the evolving methodological toolkit for evaluating proximity-based planning.

Shabnam Varzeshi, John Fien, Leila Irajifar

Cities increasingly utilise digital technologies to tackle climate risks and urban shocks, yet their real impact on resilience remains uncertain. This paper systematically reviews 115 peer-reviewed studies (2012–2024) to explore how smart city technologies engage with planning instruments, governance arrangements, and social processes, following PRISMA 2020 and combining bibliometric co-occurrence mapping with a qualitative synthesis of full texts. Three themes organise the findings: (i) urban planning and design, (ii) smart technologies in resilience, and (iii) strategic planning and policy integration. Across these themes, Internet of Things (IoT) and geographic information system (GIS) applications have the strongest empirical support for enhancing absorptive and adaptive capacities through risk mapping, early warning systems, and infrastructure operations, while artificial intelligence, digital twins, and blockchain remain largely at pilot or conceptual stages. The review also highlights significant geographical and hazard biases: most cases come from high-income cities and concentrate on floods and earthquakes, while slow stresses (such as heat, housing insecurity, and inequality) and cities in the Global South are under-represented. Overall, the study promotes a “smart–resilience co-production” perspective, demonstrating that resilience improvements rely less on technology alone and more on how digital systems are integrated into governance and participatory practices.

Alejandro Mendoza Jaramillo

Este artículo presenta un ejercicio de historia colectiva a través de prácticas de memoria colectiva en los lavaderos comunitarios del barrio Antigua Fábrica de Loza, localizados en el centro histórico de Bogotá. El objetivo es reconocer aspectos como la construcción de los lavaderos, las condiciones actuales de la infraestructura, la administración del espacio y las actividades que allí se desarrollan. Se toma como base teórica la propuesta de Maurice Halbwachs sobre la historia colectiva y se adopta un enfoque cualitativo que permite abordar las voces y comprensiones de las usuarias de los lavaderos. Asimismo, se incluye un breve recuento histórico de la lavandería tradicional en Bogotá como contexto general, que permite ubicar el caso específico en una trayectoria más amplia de prácticas comunitarias de lavado. El texto concluye con una serie de reflexiones derivadas del ejercicio investigativo, que ponen en valor los vínculos entre memoria, territorio e infraestructura social.

Eva María Luque García, Luz Fernández-Valderrama Aparicio

En un contexto de crisis ecosistémica y social, este artículo presenta una investigación situada que explora el potencial de las prácticas performativas como metodología pedagógica en la enseñanza de la arquitectura. La experiencia, desarrollada en la asignatura Proyectos Arquitectónicos I de la Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Sevilla (curso 2023–2024), consistió en un laboratorio de tres semanas en el que el estudiantado trabajó con dinámicas de observación situada, intervención performativa y documentación reflexiva en escenarios urbanos reales. El objetivo fue ensayar una pedagogía del cuidado capaz de activar una lectura crítica del espacio público y de fomentar competencias proyectuales sensibles al contexto, lo común y lo afectivo. Las intervenciones —concebidas como acciones mínimas, gestos corporales o desplazamientos de objetos— operaron como dispositivos de resignificación simbólica, desestabilizando usos hegemónicos y abriendo grietas poéticas en la normatividad urbana. Más allá de su escala, la experiencia demostró su capacidad para funcionar como estrategia replicable en distintos niveles formativos, articulando puentes entre la enseñanza universitaria, la práctica profesional y el activismo urbano. En este sentido, la formación arquitectónica se concibe no solo como transmisión de conocimientos técnicos, sino como preparación para la práctica en un mundo atravesado por la fragilidad, la interdependencia y la necesidad de hospitalidad.

Mona A. Eltokhy, Hisham S. Gabr, Mohamed A. Zayed

Fabio Parascandolo, Rossano Pazzagli, Daniela Poli

This article reads the technological management of complex and global events, including SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, as part of the transition of European democracies towards control and surveillance models imposed by normal emergencies following one another with increasing frequency. The text reflects on pandemics along history, on the technocratic and digital trajectory of contemporary societies, and concludes by outlining local-based forms of self-government.

Guadalupe Granero Realini

Un número creciente de agentes financieros globales encuentra en la producción urbana un ámbito de reproducción de capitales cada vez más seguro, eficiente y redituable. El proceso de financierización inmobiliaria está promoviendo cambios en las tipologías arquitectónicas que transforman las formas de habitar desde una lógica económica dominante. Así, las nuevas tipologías no son solo un mero producto de cambios culturales y sociales en las formas de habitar, sino que están atravesadas por procesos macroeconómicos, de escala global, donde la lógica financiera opera un nuevo nivel de mercantilización de la producción urbano-habitacional. La presente investigación se inserta en desarrollos contemporáneos que procuran hacer lecturas transversales entre el circuito de las finanzas y el de la producción edilicia, en el sentido de lo que algunos autores definen como complejo inmobiliario-financiero. Dentro de la creciente producción teórica que analiza las dinámicas de la financierización en las ciudades, este estudio busca explorar posibles relaciones desde las transformaciones espaciales y los impactos sociales que de ellas derivan.

Lorenzo Navone

The article provides a first attempt to draw a phenomenology of holes by highlighting their significant social dimension. Understood in their metaphorical and practical meaning, holes interestingly recall geographer Edward Soja’s concept of thirdspace.

Jorge Enrique Osorio Velásquez, Jaime Montoya Ferrer

Este artículo se propone responder a la pregunta: cual fue la influencia de la economía cafetera en la expansión urbana y en la transformación arquitectónica de Pereira entre los años 1910 y 1930? Este periodo es claramente identificado como uno de los más importantes en el fenómeno de expansión urbana que experimenta la ciudad durante la primera mitad del siglo XX; Pereira pasa de ser un pequeño poblado con limitadas actividades económicas en ganadería y agricultura de pan coger, a ser una dinámica poblacional comprometida con la economía cafetera, que tuvo efectos multiplicadores en otros reglones de la economía como el comercio y la industria, y en forma muy notable en los servicios públicos, los cuales debieron experimentar significativas transformaciones para responder a las nacientes demandas diferentes a las de la vivienda. El desarrollo de la actividad cafetera permite comprender los conceptos de expansión urbana y transformación arquitectónica, en la medida en que el poblado se constituye en un centro de acopio, vital para la compra y distribución del grano en el ámbito regional, al igual que para el proceso de trilla necesario para su venta a las grandes firmas de comercialización internacional de café, dinámicas que se reflejan en la alta demanda de vivienda y servicios públicos, de educación y de salud por parte de una creciente población que se duplico entre 1910 y 1925.

Fabrizia Berlingieri

From an epistemological point of view, research in Architecture still suffers a difficult position between applied sciences and humanities. The emergent area of Research by Design opens up new perspectives on design as a form of scientific knowledge and on methods and techniques for generative thinking. Among these, the analogical process plays a central role. By first delimiting the topic of analogy and its heteronomous character, the contribution focuses on its interpretation within the design discipline, particularly by placing the positions of Aldo Rossi, Oswald Mathias Ungers and John Hejduk vis-à-vis, and by reflecting on its relevance within contemporary architectural research.

Fabrizio Tucci, Serena Baiani, Paola Altamura et al.

In the processes of urban regeneration, in a circular transition perspective, a multiscalar, integrated and systemic approach allows intervention scenarios to be defined, based on a renewed conception of environmental-economic-social sustainability characterised by circular flows of material and non-material resources. Research results translate these demands into a methodological model at the district scale, trialled in two public housing neighbourhoods in Rome, to turn them into “circular districts”. It is demonstrated that, by applying a circular model of ecological transition to urban districts, the 2050 goal of climate neutrality may be attained, while at the same time improving ecosystemic quality, environmental performance and bioclimatic adaptivity in a wide vision of green cities.

Klaas Johannes de Jong

Water accessibility in Israel and the Palestinian Territories is part of the politics in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and contributes to the feeling of mistrust and misunderstanding between Israelis and Palestinians. This article explores the implications of access to water. It proposes an architectural design for a Temple of Water as a catalyst for dialogue and understanding between Israelis and Palestinians in the water-stressed region of Hebron on the southern West Bank. It aims to create a water space for social and communal practices as a vehicle for social interaction. Opportunities for peaceful coexistence are needed in conflict areas. The Temple of Water makes a statement about water’s power, meaning and influence. The research highlights the potential of spatial planning and design to promote either conflict or peaceful coexistence. Key specifications for architectural projects in water-stressed and conflict-ridden spaces have been defined with a theoretical framework concerning the value and implications of water in Israel and Palestine. The research takes a step towards understanding the power, meaning and influence that water can have through its physical embodiment in an architectural artefact.

Alex Tickell

Roberto D’Autilia, Marco Spada

The ideal Renaissance city is designed as a star-shaped fortress, where the streets and squares are organized to speed the movement of people and soldiers. Symmetry and accessibility represent the key features for the organization of the urban space. The resulting city is hierarchized and does not always guarantee an optimal degree of connectivity. Starting from the space syntax definition, we suggest a method to compute urban graphs from the Euclidean representation, the corresponding line graph and the contraction of nodes with the same urban function. We analyze the urban graphs of five historic cities and compare the analysis with the corresponding results from space syntax. Analysis of the spectral gap and the relative asymmetry distribution show a similar structure for these cities. The irregular or reticular housing structure seems to ensure connectivity and accessibility more than the regular grids. However, connectivity is ensured by the most peripheral streets, which in the space syntax representation play a marginal role.

Revista Ciudades, Estados y Política

Alexander Hollberg, Guillaume Habert, Philipp Schwan et al.

The built environment has a very high impact on the environment. Architects can largely define the environmental impact a building will cause throughout its lifetime through its design. Especially the choice of material and the type of construction can be influenced in early design stages. To quantify the environmental impact, tools for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are used. This paper discusses the results of four case studies of applying four different novel LCA tools in four different academic courses at different universities. The results show that the success of applying LCA tools highly depends on the point of time during the design process and the design strategy the student pursues. If the right tool is used at the right moment and matches the design strategy, it can help to improve the architectural quality and reduce environmental impacts. In most cases however, the time of application did not fit, resulting in additional effort for applying the LCA tool. In consequence, the architectural elaboration of the design and the improvement of environmental performance compete against each other. Either the architectural quality suffers or the tool is employed late and the environmental performance cannot be improved. Even if the point in time of the tool application is right, the success depends highly on the design strategy. The number of tools is growing and there is an adequate tool available for each design stage. The design strategy has to match the tool and this requires a willingness to adapt the design approach. The issue of environmental design shifted from a lack of adequate tools to the lack of adequate design approaches. Tools can be easily taught in seminars. Environmental design strategies, however, have to be included in design studios and developed throughout the entire design phase to become part of architectural education.

Mariana Abrunhosa Pereira

Apesar da independência administrativa e da sua especificidade territorial, os centros históricos de Porto e de Vila Nova de Gaia apresentam uma contiguidade e inter-relação. Este artigo pretende realizar uma leitura das dinâmicas urbanas e das transformações nos últimos doze anos no centro histórico de Gaia, incluindo as que foram operadas nos armazéns de vinho do Porto, que ocupam cerca de 60% do centro histórico. Esta leitura permitirá uma compreensão da especificidade deste território que deve ser lido atendendo à sua continuidade com o centro histórico do Porto. A abertura num curto período de um grande número de alojamentos, restaurantes e outros espaços de consumo está a conduzir a uma nova monofuncionalidade do Entreposto. Também em termos estruturais as intervenções recentes merecem uma reflexão. Se, por um lado, as acções de salvaguarda e de reabilitação aumentaram, por outro lado, acentuaram-se os casos de descaracterização e de demolição do edificado ligado ao vinho, com efeitos irreversíveis para o interesse patrimonial de conjunto do edificado e para a perda da identidade do lugar.

Kwi-Gon Kim

Klára Frolíková Palánová, Jan Kovář, Tomáš Babor et al.

Burials of the deceased were always part of life of each society and that remain forever. In Middle European culture based mostly on Christian tradition, it was common place, till the end of 19th Century, for burials in a grave. On the beginning of 20s Century gradually began to apply also cremation. Its supporters pointed on its hygienic superiority compared to classical disposal with deceased. This led to established and gradual development of a new building type – the crematorium. Supporters also promote high quality farewell ceremonies and this resulted in quality burial and cemetery culture during whole 20s Century. The aim is to approach this new building type to the professional public and specify organization and typology for promote high ethic, ceremony, aesthetic and respect.