The informal city is configured and articulated as a spontaneous, sprawling or illegal city. Each of them present recurring and distinctive characteristics also in relation to specific territorial contexts. After outlining the scientific background of informal and illegal cities, and summarising the Italian specificities of the last ones, the paper focuses on the dualism between the informal and the illegal city found in the analysis of the technical literature on the subject regarding spatial planning. The aim is to bring out affinities and differences between the two city models to contribute to the formulation of the correct contents of urban planning tools for their redevelopment and/or regeneration to transform especially Italian illegal cities into liveable neighbourhoods.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
Objective“Habitat garden” is an urban green space that integrates “habitat” and “garden”, and is a garden with habitat function, and auxiliary functions such as landscape beautification, leisure and recreation, communication and interaction, public education, health and healing, or improvement of living environment. It is a practical carrier to achieve the core goal of a garden city featuring “harmonious coexistence between man and nature”, and it is also an innovative model for urban biodiversity conservation. Clarifying the scientific construction approaches is key to promote the large-scale and standardized construction of habitat gardens in garden cities. MethodsBased on an in-depth examination of the definition and status of habitat gardens within the context of garden city construction, this research discusses in combination with practice, the feasible approach for habitat garden construction.ResultsThe habitat garden construction approaches consist of the following 4 steps. Firstly, select a habitat garden site in combination with multi-scale site analysis, while investigating local and surrounding biotic and abiotic environments. Secondly, evaluate environmental potential and further identify the target species to be restored. Thirdly, implement the project of habitat restoration and landscape creation according to the habitat characteristics and local function positioning of those target species. Finally, carry out ecological monitoring and nature-based habitat management in the project. As for the site selection for habitat garden, a multi-scale feasibility analysis should be conducted first, involving the ecological analysis of landscape connectivity index and ecological sources, and the feasibility analysis of land management. Then a site investigation should be conducted, including the investigation of nonbiological environment aiming to reveal the habitat characteristics of the selected site and clarify prominent environmental issues of the site, accompanied by a species, population, or community investigation for existing and former plants, insects, birds, small mammals, amphibians and reptile, soil and surface arthropods, soil microorganisms, and other biological groups within and around the site in an effort to understand the current and potential distribution levels of biodiversity in the site. The evaluation of environmental potential encompasses four key analytical components: biological distribution potential analysis for evaluating local spatial distribution and local habitat suitability of dominant species, populations, and ecological communities; interspecific interaction potential analysis for examining trophic relationships, competitive interactions, and symbiotic associations among organisms; community succession potential analysis for investigating ecosystem succession trajectories, developmental rates, and potential equilibrium states; migration potential analysis for assessing dispersal capabilities and movement patterns of flora and fauna. The project entails habitat restoration and landscape recreation for target species and populations comprising two integral components: One is that habitat construction strategy should be based on habitat and feeding preferences of the target species and populations, and optimize conditions to support organisms’ survival, reproduction, and adaptive capacity against stressors by replenishing native vegetation and food resources, creating sheltered microhabitats with optimal perching conditions, and restoring natural refuges; the other is to set up artificial overwintering sites for natural enemies within the site. The nature-based habitat management encompasses two key aspects: One is to emphasize the “self sustain” of the ecosystem by minimizing artificial interference, such as night protection, noise isolation, and volunteer plant protection, and the other is to provide necessary artificial regulation that conforms to nature, such as the removal or cutting of malignant weeds. The ecological monitoring is to realize the sustainable development and dynamic regulation of habitat gardens. The monitoring results show that the richness and abundance of natural enemies (including natural enemy insects, aphidophagus natural enemies, and aphidophagus ladybugs) in a habitat garden after one year of construction of the garden, along with the abundance of lacewings, are significantly higher than in ordinary green spaces. Conversely, the average pest density per branch in ordinary green spaces is 3.91 times higher than in the habitat garden. The construction of habitat gardens has achieved the goals of restoring local food chains and repairing nutrient relationships, while significantly advancing sustainable pest control and biodiversity enhancement. The vegetation richness has increased from over 30 to over 130, as well as the diversity of birds. Mammals such as the Northeast Hedgehog (Erinaceus amurensis) and Weasel (Mustela sibirica) have also built burrows here as habitat.ConclusionThis research proposes that the fundamental prerequisite for the construction of habitat gardens is the joint participation of multiple fields throughout the entire process, the key link for the construction of habitat gardens is the evaluation of environmental potential, and the basic guarantees for the sustainable development of habitat garden are ecological monitoring and habitat management in alignment with nature.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
ObjectiveAgainst the backdrop of high-density urban development, residents’ mental health problems have become increasingly severe. Access to urban green spaces is widely regarded as an important approach to improving residents’ mental health. Exploring the impact of green space characteristics on mental health benefits can provide a theoretical basis for urban green space planning and design from the perspective of healthy city. This research aims to clarify the internal relationships between objective and subjective green space characteristics and different mental health benefits (emotional restoration, cognitive enhancement, and stress relief) through explainable machine learning models.MethodsA mental health perception restoration experiment was carried out in two green spaces (Yanziji Park and Xiamafang Park) in Nanjing, with 56 participants engaged in two-hour free activities in the green spaces. During this period, GPS trajectories, data on objective green space characteristics, data on perception assessment of subjective green space characteristics, and data on self-assessment of mental health benefits were collected. Objective green space characteristics include the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), green view index, canopy density, actual noise dB (A), and spatial attractiveness, which are measured by remote sensing, semantic segmentation, and acoustic instruments. Subjective green space characteristics, such as perceived greenness, perceived noise, and perceived attractiveness, are evaluated by means of a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. Mental health benefits are divided into the three types of emotional restoration, cognitive enhancement, and stress relief, and are assessed using the Restorative Outcomes Scale (ROS). To analyze and clarify the relationships between objective and subjective green space characteristics and different types of mental health benefits, the research adopts the Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM) model, combined with SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) to measure and explain the importance of green space characteristics for mental health benefits. Based on the SHAP values, the non-linear relationships between them are further clarified.ResultsThrough the analysis of 3 types of mental health benefits and 5 models, the LightGBM model outperforms other algorithms (such as Random Forest and XGBoost) in terms of prediction accuracy (R 2: 0.523 – 0.642), with its robustness in capturing complex feature interactions being verified. The SHAP value analysis shows that subjective green space characteristics have a stronger relative impact on mental health outcomes than objective indicators. Specifically, perceived attractiveness is the most important contributing factor, followed by perceived greenness and perceived noise. Notably, the positive impact of perceived greenness on mental health is greater than that of objective indicators such as green visibility and NDVI. In addition, in terms of noise, excessive actual noise could inhibit cognitive enhancement and stress relief. However, moderate perceived noise could promote emotional restoration and stress relief. For example, when the actual noise exceeds 53.88 decibels in the cognitive enhancement model and 52.73 decibels in the stress relief model, negative effects would occur. While in the emotional restoration model, when the perceived noise is within a certain range (less than 2.58 points), it is beneficial for emotional restoration.ConclusionThe results of this research provide empirical evidence for the internal relationship between urban green spaces and residents’ mental health. Firstly, this research constructs an indicator system covering both objective and subjective characteristics. By combining field measurements, questionnaire surveys, and advanced machine learning algorithms, the research explores the impact of green space characteristics on emotional restoration, cognitive enhancement, and stress relief. Secondly, subjective green space characteristics play a prominent role in influencing mental health benefits. The combined influence of perceived attractiveness and perceived greenness is the most significant. The results of non-linear regression show that actual noise has an inhibitory effect on cognitive enhancement and stress relief, while moderate perceived noise can promote emotional restoration and stress relief. Finally, this research provides a direction for further exploring the in-depth association mechanism between green spaces and mental health, and also offers data support for urban green space planning and design aimed at promoting residents’ mental health.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
This essay argues that the act of making forces one to simultaneously care about oneself, the places within which we exist, and the other people that we share ourselves and our places with. We find ourselves working and living within a social, economic and cultural condition that is fearful of ideas and agency, and where the general public have been conditioned to consider and believe acts of making are either lifestyle or spectacle, or something done by others to create things for us to con- sume out of either need or desire. Even acts of care and repair – acts that are essential to sustaining ourselves emotionally, physically and mentally and essential to the sustenance of collective life – are more often consumed as services or products from others rather than generated by oneself.
Architecture, Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying
O objetivo central do trabalho é problematizar as novas formas urbanas que se consolidaram no âmbito regional, no Brasil, a partir das políticas públicas federais das últimas três décadas. Teoricamente o texto demonstra a disputa no campo conceitual entre os modelos de lugar central e cidade-região e suas reverberações no debate nacional. Metodologicamente as análises estão baseadas nos resultados das pesquisas sobre investimentos em infraestrutura urbana (saneamento, mobilidade e habitação) e em desenvolvimento regional ocorridos entre 1990 e 2019, na escala nacional. Os objetos de análise são os centros e concentrações urbanas, os eixos de circulação e os arranjos sub-regionais proporcionados pelo planejamento federal desse período. Os resultados apontam para tendências de reestruturação territorial em curso que sem abandonar os polos como formas urbanas do desenvolvimento, avançam para nós urbanos, faixas urbanizadas e tessitura territorial como as novas formas urbanas que buscam responder à reestruturação produtiva global por funções inseridas num processo de urbanização regional. Conclusivamente, o texto retoma essas funções da cidade contemporânea consolidando a discussão sobre centralidade, circulação e integração por uma visão epistemológica e histórica. E comprova a importância em reconhecer as materialidades do território para tensionar os atuais paradigmas do campo urbano.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Urban groups. The city. Urban sociology
Se ogni attività progettuale presuppone un quadro di riferimento -stabile o di previsione e visione- nel quale inscrivere ogni prefigurazione, lo stato di conoscenze e mutazioni sul futuro post-pandemico non è chiaro, né lo sono le necessità e i processi utili per affrontarle. Anche rispetto al ruolo del progetto di paesaggio è possibile organizzare solo risposte parziali e transitorie, che sono forse più prese di coscienza che figurazioni, o che possono essere parte di un ragionamento che pone nuovi e diversi elementi di orientamento. Nella convinzione che questa fase non possa essere trattata né con strumenti consolidati, né con un processo unitario, questo scritto è volutamente frammentario. È quasi una raccolta non ordinata di riflessioni su alcuni aspetti che pongono in relazione il lavoro sul progetto di paesaggio con l’attuale condizione. Qui paesaggio e giardino sono visti come condizioni di prospettiva e rifugio, secondo la teoria di Jay Appleton sull’esperienza del paesaggio, che ci è utile come riferimento.
Architecture, Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying
Raquel Moraes Vitor Cortez, Newton Celio Becker de Moura, Clara de Oliveira Jucá Machado
A Avenida Aguanambi, situada na cidade de Fortaleza, CE, é conhecida pela suscetibilidade a alagamentos em períodos chuvosos. A infraestrutura verde é uma importante alternativa para complementar a convencional e consolidar a resiliência urbana nas vias. Com o objetivo principal de propor a implantação de corredores verdes no sistema viário de Fortaleza, CE, foi desenvolvido um método de análise do desempenho das melhores práticas de manejo em corredores de mobilidade. As técnicas de manejo foram distribuídas com base na hierarquia viária estabelecida pela Lei de Parcelamento, Uso e Ocupação do Solo. A precipitação admitida para a cidade foi de 65,2mm/h com tempo de retorno de dez anos. As biovaletas apresentaram melhor desempenho em vias expressas e arteriais, de maior porte; os jardins de chuva e canteiros pluviais responderam melhor em vias coletoras e locais, consideradas de menor porte.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying
The contribution proposes a reflection on the role of typological and technological innovation in the design and implementation of vertical architectures through the analysis of technological scenarios of 2050. In the Anthropocene era, where the effects of human action shape the terrestrial environment, it is necessary to ask ourselves how we can implement the design and constructive processes to give life to architectural performative models that can positively influence the technosphere. Hence the need to study innovative methods through which to define new design paradigms. About that, the focus of the research is placed on the relationship that exists between computation, digital fabrication and the implementation of existing vertical models of development.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
Christian churches are the subject of continuous updating and adaptation processes, which only cease when communities are moving or disappearing. The study of abandoned, redundant and under-utilized ecclesiastical complexes therefore requires a historical analysis of extensive chronological arches, with specific attention to institutional dynamics and cultural values underlying the dynamics of capitalization. The contribution - after highlighting some specificities of the Church’s architectural agency and the formation of its cultural heritage (matter / action, transformation / conservation, use / memory, construction / reuse) - proposes four reflections of historiographical nature relating to the plurality of Ecclesial subjects active on the territory, the relationship between community life and institutional protection, the building of public opinion and the participation of communities.
Architectural drawing and design, Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying
Ana Cláudia Duarte Cardoso, Ana Carolina de Melo, Taynara do Vale Gomes
Este texto procura situar a cidade no contexto de transformações da Amazônia Oriental e identificar padrões morfológicos relacionados à concorrência de trajetórias de estruturação do espaço urbano: a urbano-industrial e a tradicional, destacando o potencial dos legados da última para a inovação no desenho e planejamento urbano. Padrões de ocupação e evolução de seis cidades localizadas em regiões sob intensas transformações após os anos 1970 são comparados para explicitar correspondências entre padrões morfológicos e processos socioeconômicos. A base de dados adotada foi gerada em pesquisas de campo realizadas entre 2012 e 2014, nas seis cidades em estudo no âmbito do projeto UrbisAmazônia. Os procedimentos metodológicos abrangem uma breve análise histórica, caracterização da estruturação espacial da cidade e principais eventos associados à expansão urbana nestas cidades, com destaque para a atuação dos setores público e privado. Nossa hipótese é a da configuração de um novo tipo de urbanização polinucleada nesta região, em um momento de encruzilhada, em que, ou problemas históricos podem ser agravados através da imposição de racionalidades homogeneizadoras ou superados, com a transição do padrão urbano-industrial para uma nova etapa, portadora de possibilidades verdadeiras de inovação, capaz de reconhecer uma relação equilibrada entre a natureza e o direito das pessoas, representativa de diferentes racionalidades, para compartilhar um território.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Urban groups. The city. Urban sociology
Me complace presentar el tercer número de la Revista Electrónica “Vivienda & Ciudad” del Instituto de Investigación de Vivienda y Hábitat –INVIHAB-. En esta nueva edición de nuestra revista buscamos dar continuidad y difundir la reflexión sobre los debates actuales en materia de vivienda, ciudad y ambiente, incorporando las dinámicas sociales en el territorio. Sus contenidos se definen por una política editorial que prioriza la calidad de las colaboraciones a partir de su originalidad, pertinencia
temática, sistematización y rigor científico, valorando especialmente aquellas derivadas de investigaciones. Para su tercera edición, la convocatoria se realizó con temática libre y fue abierta a otros países de la región, por lo que se receptaron diversos trabajos cuyo abordaje fuese pertinente a la línea editorial.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Architectural drawing and design
The paper is about some influences have led to the transformation of a liner landscape along the ancient via Postumia from Genua to the Adriatic sea, taking into account the great contribution Emilio Sereni gave the history of rural Italian landscape. Comparing archeological and literary sources, maps and plans, the aim is understanding how and how much the features of the road are still alive along the landscape it crosses.
Architecture, Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying
Trangkil Housing Welfare and the New Trangkil - Sukorejo Village, District Gunungpati Semarang experiencing heavy rains triggered landslide Continuous Semarang City area since Wednesday (22/01/2014) until Thursday (01/23/2014). Successive landslides occurred early Thursday until 07.30. For 15 years Trangkil Sejahtera housing residents live, the worst avalanche of new events happening this time. Seven houses in Trangkil Sejahtera RT 3 RW 10 damaged by the landslide that occurred. While in New Trangkil Housing RT 6 RW 10, 32 houses were severely damaged and even some of them to the ground. The sliding slope in Housing Trangkil Sejahtera and Trangkil New - Village Sukorejo, District Gunungpati Semarang on January 23, 2014 is one of many landslide in a residential area in the district Gunungpati Semarang declared as landslide prone areas by the Directorate of Environmental Geology, Bandung. It is necessary for geotechnical evaluation to support the effectiveness of the slope reinforcement design selection, the necessary understanding of the physical and mechanical properties of soil based on soil test series. Barrow unfavorable, changes in land use, drainage systems are poorly integrated and rain triggered avalanches are the main factors causing the landslide. These four factors are interrelated core is Trangkil Sejahtera Housing Gunungpati Semarang infrastructure is not well prepared to anticipate landslides.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying, Building construction