International Planning History Society Proceedings
The International Planning History Society (IPHS) is dedicated to the enhancement of interdisciplinary studies in urban and regional planning history worldwide.
A Typo-Morphological Analysis to Trace the Historical Transformation of Urban Blocks Around Ramna Race Course Between 1947-200
Due to negligence in planning and deficient urban governance, Dhaka city ranks very low in various liveability indexes and global surveys carried out annually. Unlike Chandigarh or Islamabad, the city was not developed with the guidance of renowned and established city planners. And yet, its physical characteristics have been gradually transforming over the past 400 years. This raises the question, how is that transformation happening over the course of time, and what are the causes? To understand this, this paper aims to look at the transformation of Ramna, one of the historically and politically significant neighbourhoods of Dhaka. The paper focuses on typo morphological analysis of urban blocks in and surrounding the area formerly known as Ramna Race Course, between the time period 1947 and 2000. Using typo morphological analysis, this study identified the main reasons for the transformation of some selected parts of the area in and surrounding the Ramna Race Course area. The results show that power play by political parties, development to support institutional needs of University of Dhaka and encroachment by newer buildings are the primary reasons for the transformation of the six selected study areas.
Copyright (c) 2024 Farhat Afzal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This study aims to reveal how an original sequence of syncretism characterizes the development of architecture and urbanism in Asunción, capital city of Paraguay, unique in the mainstream urban history of Latin America. This investigation focuses on how a series of cultural syncretism mediate through time the tensions between endogenous and exogenous practices: vernacular material ecologies related to the cultural techniques of the Guarani, and colonial urban models introduced by the Spanish monarchy and the Jesuit missions. Articulated through an ecological, socio-cultural, and spatial understanding of Tereré and its tea rituals. It lies at the navel of every single spiral of syncretism: in its materials, symbols, and forms. As they mutate, so do its territories, urbanisms, and architectures. Even though it shares a history of Spanish colonialism with other capital cities, the grids of the Laws of Indies and the Jesuit castrum organization of space could not completely subdue the environmental logic of the Guaraní nation. Thus, the project aims to highlight the cultural values imprinted within an accretion of syncretism which offers a wealth of spatial expression in Asunción as it stands today.
Copyright (c) 2024 Juan Marcos Guareschi http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The urbanization process in the largest metropolitan area of minas gerais through the rivers and railways paths
This paper examines the urbanization process of the largest metropolitan region in Minas Gerais, Brazil, situated between mountainous terrain and the Velhas River Valley. Historically significant, this area links key urban centers from Brazil's colonial gold era and the 19th-century industrial period. The research delves into the historical importance of the Velhas River Valley as a crucial route through the Iron Quadrangle, rich in gold, iron ore, and water. The later establishment of the railroad along this valley cemented its role as a developmental axis. This study highlights the significant influence of waterways and railways in forming the primary metropolitan area of Minas Gerais, currently the third largest in Brazil with a population exceeding 5 million. The paper begins with the colonization and territorial expansion in Minas Gerais, emphasizing the natural river routes and strategic railway placements that determined the locations of main urban centers. It then transitions to the era of Brazilian development driven by road systems, noting the decline of railroads, which once underpinned transportation and growth. This shift not only altered urbanization but also negatively impacted the region's socio-environmental quality. The paper critically evaluates the transition from rail to road, noting the deterioration of socio-environmental cohesion and the resulting fragmentation and territorial disorder in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte.
Copyright (c) 2024 Marcelo Maia, Marcela Marajó, Vitória Murata, Matheus Cintra, Nickolas Garcia http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Innovations in Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Brazil and China
Currently, Brazil and China are at the forefront with the largest Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) networks globally. Since the 1970s, Brazil has been building its expertise, spearheading the creation of an industry focused on designing and manufacturing vehicles specifically for the BRT system. These vehicles have undergone continuous innovation in both Brazil and China. This development has occurred alongside enhancements in BRT stations and the adoption of inclusive urban designs, which have transformed the public spaces surrounding the terminals. This transformation has not only introduced new methodologies in urban design but has also elevated the architectural significance of terminal buildings. The innovations span from vehicle and terminal architecture design to specific urban planning, all augmented by the advent of cutting-edge technologies. These technologies facilitate intelligent traffic management within BRT corridors and automate fare collection, marking a significant step toward transforming transportation into a smarter system. This study aims to compare the significant advancements made in Brazil and China, focusing on the synergy between vehicle design, terminal architecture, accessible urban planning, and smart management and ticketing systems. The goal is to underscore how these advancements are propelling public transport towards greater efficiency, sustainability, and intelligence.
Copyright (c) 2024 Marcelo Maia, Liang Guo, Davi Carneiro, Yihe Jia, Nickolas Garcia, Fengqian Dong http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Urban planning as political experimentation
China's economic rise has engendered fresh inquiries about new possible development models. The Reform and Opening policy, initiated in 1978, has allowed China to explore market strategies that align with its socialist planned economy. This exploration has primarily occurred within designated areas known as Special Economic Zones (SEZs), which serve as experimental grounds for innovative policies. These SEZs are not only seen as urban endeavours but also as the vanguard of a political agenda geared towards modernising and innovating institutions. The concept of SEZs has arisen from the common interests of local, national, and international stakeholders, all aiming for mutually advantageous outcomes. This political endeavour has empowered China to address not only political conflicts with resistant regions and post-Cold War Western powers but also to cultivate a competitive political landscape that consistently enhances its institutions. As a result, the experimental urban developments incorporated by SEZs have evolved into a unique and efficient territorial development model. For nations in the Global South, China's SEZ provides valuable insights into an alternative route towards collaborative and integrated development. This investigation seeks to delineate the fundamental economic and political insights gleaned from China's SEZ initiative.
Copyright (c) 2024 Natacha Rena, João Paulo Souto, Elias Jabbour http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Research on spatial characteristics and planning patterns of settlements in the Jingjiang River Flood Diversion Area, China
In the context of the shortage of land resources in China, there are some human settlements built in the flood diversion areas. These settlements are planned and constructed in conjunction with water conservancy projects arranged by the state, and assume the function of resettlement and flood control. Taking Jingjiang River Flood Diversion Area, an important large-scale water conservancy project constructed in China's Changjiang River Basin in the 1950s, as the research area, this study aims to reveal the planning pattern of the settlement spaces built in this special area in the early period of New China. In this article, the development of its hydraulic environment and human settlements is sorted out. Based on this, the location, scale, form and layout of the 19 refuge areas are analysed, and their formation logic is explored. The results show that the refuge areas in the Jingjiang River Flood Diversion Area have developed unique spatial characteristics driven by flood diversion, resettlement and agricultural production needs. Their physical space is closely related to the water conservancy facilities, developing a specific pattern highly adapted to flood diversion, which has the effect of improving the security of residents' life and production, and reflects the planning ideas of "coexisting with the water and integrating as a whole". The research findings contribute to the recognition of the value characteristics of settlements in flood diversion areas, and provide a reference for the understanding of the national governance during the early period of New China.
Copyright (c) 2024 Yan Zhou, Hong Jiang, Tianyang Lu http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Technopolitics of 'Urban Water' in Colonial India
This paper employs the analytical framework of Technopolitics to engage in a nuanced examination of the Hesaraghatta Water Works project, a notable infrastructure initiative in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century colonial Bangalore. In place of ascribing mere scientific import to this water supply system, our inquiry discerns its pivotal role in the establishment of a distinctive technopolitical regime. This transformative regime is notably characterized by the realignment of power dynamics inherent to water governance, stringent regulatory oversight over urban space and its denizens, and the emergence of previously unexplored facets of urban inequalities. By comprehensively mapping the societal and political repercussions of the Hesaraghatta project, we argue that it introduced a novel and far-reaching technopolitical construct – ‘Urban Water’. This construct, far from being a mere hydrological abstraction, significantly reframed collective conceptualizations of water in the urban context and offered a fertile terrain for the exercise of intricate political and governmental rationality inherent to colonial rule. Our meticulous examination of the Hesaraghatta initiative, situated among several concurrent infrastructural endeavors by the colonial government in India's burgeoning cities, elucidates a pivotal ‘technopolitical turn’ characterizing the colonial regime during the early twentieth century.
Copyright (c) 2024 Akash Jash http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Since the time it became the new de-facto capital of Japan with the name of Edo in early XVII century, modern Tokyo has kept a special relationship with its waterfronts and on several occasions the expansion of the city has been pursued by looking at the sea as potential new habitat for growth and development. At the dawn of 20th Century, and especially in the aftermath of the end of the Pacific War, bold architectural ideas and city planning schemes were proposed and enacted to convey a phase of unprecedented economic resurgence and urban sprawl articulated by an impressive process of infrastructure build-up and industrial modernization. Looking at the different stages of city development in the 70 years from 1950 to 2020s, the paper will shed light on several aspects of the process of urban development of the waterfronts of Tokyo during this period. It will provide a critical account of the transformation of the city and the various innovative visions, ideas and projects from the initial stage of economic boom of the 1960s and 1980s, to the end of the “Bubble” in the 1990s, and the phase of relative decline at the start of the New Millennium, until the current new phase of urban regeneration and new wave of large-scale urban development projects driven by new national ambitions in the context of the competition with other East Asian megacities.
Copyright (c) 2024 Raffaele Pernice, Alice Covatta, Leonardo Zuccaro Marchi http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Long term transformation of building locations in 8 villages along the Sanriku coast, tsunami-prone area
The Sanriku coastal region of Iwate Prefecture was severely damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011. The area has been repeatedly hit by tsunamis since the 1896 Meiji Sanriku Tsunami, the 1933 Showa Sanriku Tsunami, and the 1960 Chile Earthquake Tsunami, and is therefore called a "tsunami prone area" in prior research. However, this discourse has not been verified. In this study, we quantitatively analysed spatial changes in representative 8 villages along the Sanriku coast from the 1960s to 2022. Firstly, we traced aerial photographs taken since the 1960s on GIS, and created data on infrastructure such as roads and the location of all buildings in the villages. Secondly, all residential areas in the villages were categorized into 10 types according to their formation process and whether or not they were inundated by the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the number of buildings, building density, distance to fishing ports, and elevation were calculated to reveal spatial transformations. As a result, it became clear the eight villages can be roughly classified into two groups: those absorbed the increase in the number of buildings in the district from the 60s to the 00s through gentle slope sprawl and planned residential development, and those suffered significant damage from the Great East Japan Earthquake as residential areas spread within past flooded areas. On the other hand, even within the latter, changes contributed to the reduction of damage were identified, such as the concentration around stations and along national roads, and the relocation to higher ground was planned after the Showa Sanriku tsunami. These results support the discourse tsunami prone areas have been learning from past tsunamis. The study also succeeded in extracting a desirable change, sprawl on gentle slopes during the inter-disaster period, which had not been clearly visualized previously.
Copyright (c) 2024 Kento Tawada, Shin Aiba http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Tolerance in City Planning as a central element for understanding the transformation of the urban fabric of a historic city
The Plan Cort was applied in the city of Valladolid during the first years of Franco’s dictatorship. This urban plan was characterized by the application of the classical rules of city planning at that time. It was a plan to reform the street alignments in the historic centre alongside the construction of working class suburbs on the outskirts and new-build areas beyond the city limits. Actions in the years that followed focused on reforming the historic centre, elevating the permitted heights and increasing the authorized buildable depths. By analysing the licenses of the time, we can conclude that a system of concessions for licenses had been established that openly breached the regulations of the Plan, violating numerous legal requirements. Perhaps the most important violations involved the permitted heights, which were frequently over the maximum authorized. The most important proposals were gradually diluted through a long series of reforms and modifications. It was those who approved the Plan who, in the end, transformed it until it was practically unrecognisable. The Plan was in fact a decoy, a false image of modernity behind which a distracted, self-interested administration hid. As a result of the said flexibility, in several streets of the city of Valladolid, it is currently possible to see the different scales, the typological rupture and the stark contrast between modern and traditional buildings side by side, which have given rise to an urban landscape with a great dissonance.
Copyright (c) 2024 José Luis Sainz Guerra, Alicia Sainz Esteban, Rosario Del Caz Enjuto http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Milano and the role of parks in shaping its recent urban development
In the last decades, Milano has reinvented itself from industrial city to advanced tertiary global capital, more attentive to sustainable development, with a progressive change in the role and nature of planning tools and a controversial redefinition of the balance between public and private sectors in determining urban development through regeneration projects. Parks have a crucial role in this process, and landscape design has increased its importance in urban transformation projects, on the edge between fashionable greenification and the progressive affirmation of an ecological approach that interprets the landscape as a primary and structuring element of the urban and metropolitan sustainable development. A decisive milestone in this planning history, the project “Nine Parks for Milano”, envisaged in 1995 the launch of a broad strategy to restructure the city shape, starting from the configuration of nine urban parks. Moving from a historical overview on park-making in the city, the paper investigates some of the projects that were directly or indirectly generated by the “Nine Parks” vision, discussing planning tools, negotiation processes, design actions, and effective results, reflecting on the combined role of urban and landscape design and planning in shaping more sustainable and resilient metropolitan systems.
Copyright (c) 2024 Alessandro Frigerio http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Investigating the Urban Response to Border Closure in a Transnational Metropolitan System
Border regions tend to be the cradle of dense metropolitan areas shaped by the (socio- economic, governance, and planning) differentials intrinsic to borders. However, the border permeability variations have historically exposed such systems’ fragility. The paper aims to investigate the spatial repercussions of border closures in cross-border metropolitan regions characterised by strong socio-spatial inequalities. It takes the Bay of Gibraltar/Algeciras cross-border area as an analytical framework, focusing on two instances of abrupt border closure. The first is historical (1969-85) and was caused by the Francoist dictatorship’s expansionist policies, while the second is recent, caused by the overlap of the Brexit process and the Covid-19 pandemic. These crises shed light on the vulnerability of strongly asymmetrical cross-border urban agglomerations. They act as cautionary tales and testing grounds, proving the necessity of a robust endogenous collaboration on the local cross-border level to create a more resilient, equitable, and polycentric socio-spatial development.
Copyright (c) 2024 Alice Buoli, Alessandro Frigerio, Laura Montedoro, Isabella Traeger http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Resignification of the Garden Suburb as International Heritage
The garden suburbs, developed around the turn of the 20th century, are often defined as the inferior version of the Garden City model created by E. Howard in 1898, England, mainly due to their overlapping design principles. However, this definition appears to be a perfunctory conclusion as the story behind the garden suburb is rather complex, and the origin predates the Garden City creation. Understanding the term and its design principles is essentially the initial step to be taken towards designing successful preservation strategies for these endangered garden suburbs. With only scattered mentions in the literature, there is still no consensus on the definition and concepts of the garden suburb, leading to the undervaluation of its potential role in future urban developments. This research aims to take the first steps towards envisioning a new future scenario for the garden suburbs. The study contributes, through literature studies, to the still ongoing debate by unravelling (mis-) conceptions behind the garden suburb. This results in a comprehensive taxonomy used as a base for discussion on the origin, definition, concept, and migration of the garden suburbs. In addition, the research redefines the significance of preserving the garden suburbs, and recognises its international relevance.
Copyright (c) 2024 Hannah Jeanne Baghuis http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A Study on the Construction Model of Ancient Vietnamese Capital Cities
China’s urban planning theories originated from the ‘harmonious relationship between humans and nature’ perspective of ancient environmental culture, which was disseminated through the process of ‘Mutual Understanding of Civilisations’. Vietnam is geographically adjacent to China, and has the closest relationship with China in the Southeast Asian region. Numerous cultural artefacts and symbolic elements dating back to the Stone Age have demonstrated the cultural origins of the two countries. The northern region of Vietnam has been under the control of the Chinese Feudal Dynasties from the third century B.C.E. until the early tenth century. After gaining independence, Vietnam continued to have a suzerain-vassal connection with China for about nine centuries. Vietnam is a significant research subject in the "Han Cultural Circle" because of the aforementioned variables that have contributed to a high degree of cultural resemblance between China and Vietnam. In order to determine the genetic relationship between the original mode and localised innovation from the perspective of urban planning history, this study will compare and contrast the construction models of ancient Vietnamese and Chinese capital cities. Additionally, it will show how Chinese urban planning theories have influenced Southeast Asian urban construction activities, either directly or indirectly.
Copyright (c) 2024 Congcong Yao, Yan Wang http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Rethinking the reproduction and innovation of modernism in China through Kunio Maekawa’s residential district planning in Shanghai
This paper investigates Kunio Maekawa's contributions to urban construction through two residential projects in Shanghai, initiated by different clients and yielding varied outcomes. The planning of the Oriental Development Company residential district showcased the designer's avant-garde understanding of modernist urban planning theory and reflected his aspirations for Shanghai's urban development at the time. The Hua-Hsing Commercial Bank residential district, which was successfully realized, demonstrated Maekawa's skill in adapting modernist principles to meet the local context and urban planning needs of Shanghai. The analysis focuses on the realized Hua-Hsing Commercial Bank residential district, exploring how Maekawa's designs fostered community interaction and social cohesion. The project underscored his innovative integration of public spaces within residential districts, which not only enhanced the residents' quality of life but also strengthened community bonds. These spaces were thoughtfully designed to balance high- density housing with accessible communal green areas, reflecting a sophisticated understanding of the interplay between architecture and urban living dynamics. By examining these projects, the paper highlights Maekawa's significant impact on urban development and modernist architecture in Asia, particularly through his thoughtful approach to designing community-oriented living spaces in rapidly expanding urban environments.
Copyright (c) 2024 Shao Shuai http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Heritage Regeneration, Planning, and Resistance
This paper examines the evolution of urban heritage regeneration approaches in the Bell and Drum Towers (BDT) area in the past one and a half decades. At the heart of Beijing’s historic centre and the north end of its historic Central Axis, the BDT area is one of the most iconic landmarks of the metropolis. The BDT area comprises some of the historic city centre’s most intact and lively neighbourhoods. However, it has had its share of controversies, particularly during the regeneration project from 2010-2014. The square between the two towers and surrounding neighbourhoods became a stage of political tension, urban activism, and grassroots resistance, which were then ‘wiped clean’ nearly overnight. Although the noises have faded in the last decade, more subtle changes have picked up pace in preparation for the 2024 World Heritage inscription application of Beijing’s Central Axis. Through critically examining the planning framework governing the BDT area’s heritage management, the projects and controversies over the past 15 years, this paper highlights how heritage has been used in the somewhat fluid narratives for urban heritage regeneration in Beijing. It argues that some of these issues are emblematic of the low-rise and high-density historic urban areas with high land value, which remain sources of tension in the metropolis.
Copyright (c) 2024 Lui Tam http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Challenges of Heritage Conservation on a High-Density Island Port Hamlet Mitarai town, Hiroshima, Japan
Seto Inland Sea has been functioning maritime transportation and fishery since ancient age. The urban history of Mitarai town has well reflect development process of regional maritime transportation and entertainment sectors for transit passengers. The town is well remained and representing glory of regional maritime legacy and architectural heritages which known as the highest population density of the region. Since the diffusion of new transportation modes, the town faces serious social shrinkage which significantly appeared social ageing and depopulation. Recent hope in Mitarai town where included nation’s 36th preservation district in 1994, however, community faces significant social changes which endangered to sustain substance of local living culture. A number of issues are yet to be addressed to secure residents’ contemporary living needs, which includes: maintaining sustainable tourism demands; prevention measures for natural disasters; appropriate community engagements; and encourage local entrepreneurs. In this paper, author firstly collect and analyse the periodical development discourse on the Seto Inland Sea region, particularly historic transformation of the Mitarai town and the region. Secondly, to analyses development / preservation discourses in Mitarai town.
Copyright (c) 2024 Yushi Utaka http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Comprehensive Survey and Heritage Value Evaluation of Weiyuan Settlement Remains on China’s Jianghan Plain
The Jianghan Plain in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River was covered mainly by the ancient Yunmeng Marsh for an extended period. Many primitive residential forms related to water, such as Ganlan (elevated sheds), Haopai (wormwood rafts), and Weiyuan (circular embankments), emerged as early humans developed this vast region. They used Ganlan to settle at the lake edges, Haopai to explore deeper waters, and eventually mastered Weiyuan construction techniques. They discovered that building Weiyuan embankments could permanently secure parts of the swamp, leading to the creation of early Weiyuan settlements. Over millennia, Weiyuan evolved from water conservancy structures in prehistoric settlements into complex residential units during the Ming and Qing dynasties. These units formed water conservancy commonwealths, developing into micro-hydraulic societies. Recent urbanisation has severely damaged Weiyuan, posing a risk of complete disappearance, necessitating urgent surveys and protection. The vast Jianghan Plain makes it challenging to discover Weiyuan remains. This study employed machine vision to identify 210 villages (towns) with potential Weiyuan remains. After comparing them with historical maps, 136 Weiyuan settlement samples were selected and classified into 4 grades (A, B, C, and D) based on their integrity. Field investigations identified six towns and seven villages with well-conserved Weiyuan remains. Specific measures for protecting and optimising contemporary Jianghan Plain villages and towns centred on “Yuan” are proposed.
Copyright (c) 2024 Xiaohu Liu, Dian Lei, Gangyi Tan, Zheyu Wang, Bing Zhao, Guojun Chen, Xing Peng, Luana Oliveira, Natacha Rena http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Perspective of Integrated Protection of Industrial Heritage
This article will emphasis on a special kind of industrial heritage, the alcohol-drink industry heritage. Currently, there are 163 sites of the Chinese industrial heritage, most of them are established after 1900s. however, the liquor industry heritages are different with most of industrial heritage that this kind of heritage inherited long history of brewing traditional industry. Meanwhile, the liquor producing mode was transited from manual workshop to modern industry during the modernization upgrades after the founding of New China, and continuing to this day. therefore, the alcohol-drink industry heritage is a witness for development of traditional Chinese industries and represent the characteristics of living heritage. Additionally, due to geographical constraints on alcohol-drink producing, there is used to a close relationship between distilleries and the towns they are located in. This relationship demonstrates how towns promote the clustering of the alcohol industry, and how the distilleries influence on the economic and spatial development of these towns. However, currently, the protection practices of industrial heritage mainly focus on the conservation and utilization of the core items of the heritage, and lack of attention on the relationship between industrial heritage and the surrounding factory towns. In December 2023, the Jiangsu provincial government announced Yanghe town and Shuanggou town as Jiangsu Historical Towns. It shows a perspective of industrial heritage protection extent towards the urban-rural relationships on which these heritages based on, and a discission to protect that kind relationship. Therefore, this article based on the application work for the Jiangsu Historical Town of Shuanggou, and it revaluates the value of the Shuanggou alcohol-drink industry for the development of the town from the perspectives of geographical factors, industrial development transition and distiller-town relationships. And the framework for town protection was constructed by the value.
Copyright (c) 2024 Xie Chen, Xiaoyu Ding http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A cultural city is represented by its iconic cultural architecture, often attributed to the capacity for urban transformation vis-à-vis the legacy of Bilbao. However, cultural landmarks were conceived in urban development plans long before emerging on the architect’s drawing board. Meanwhile, advocacy in cultural support argues for the intrinsic value of culture, which has a greater social impact that cannot be measured by economic utility alone. This paper will discuss the planning of cultural facilities within the context of Hong Kong’s pronounced urban planning for economic growth, to unpack the sometimes-conflicting objectives between urban and cultural development. It will be done by mapping out key cultural projects since the post-war period and its intricate relationship with the major urban development plan. Although Hong Kong has never had a well-defined cultural policy, the piecemeal development of both landmark and district cultural facilities over the past decades has nonetheless constructed a rich depository of cultural resources. The establishment of the Culture, Sports, and Tourism Bureau (CSTB) in 2022 provides a timely occasion to review the trajectory of Hong Kong’s cultural development, from which this paper proposes to reconsider future cultural planning other than the mega-project developmental approach.
Copyright (c) 2024 Melody Hoi-lam Yiu http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Previous narratives suggested that Sha Tin New Town was the model New Town in Hong Kong. This study looks at its formation process from the perspective of planning politics, and unravels that how colonial power dynamic between multiple politico-economic interests exerted influence towards planning ideas and built environment of Sha Tin and its later New Town. After examining archival documents and other materials, it unmasks the shifting rationales of urbanising Sha Tin from socioeconomic-oriented to political-oriented. The drivers of landscape transformation evolved from local-led, ad-hoc government-led to mainly government-led. Based on various contextual and temporal constraints, planning officials skilfully shaped a high-density urban form of Sha Tin New Town and attempted to evolve the nature of New Town to achieve strategic objectives of colonial government. Meanwhile, exploring shifting priorities of land use within New Town could unmask official priorities of New Town development and urbanisation strategies. Additionally, this study based on declassified archival material could offer a historical and narrative-driven account to fill research gap of New Town formation in post-war Hong Kong.
Copyright (c) 2024 Ka Lok Chan http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Which ideas shaped the town planning practice in Brazil after the construction of Brasilia? To answer this question, four important facts in the country’s planning history are explored: the establishment of the Municipal Institute of Research and Town Planning in Curitiba in the mid-1960s; the creation new towns along the Transamazonian Highway in the early 1970s; the Seminars on Urban Design held in Brasilia in the early 1980s; and the construction of Palmas in 1989, the last capital city planned in 20th century Brazil. Brasilia (1957-1960) was planned during the democratic period, but its initial development is strongly linked to the dictatorial regime (1964-1986). The new towns later implemented in the Amazon by the federal government, adopted the rationalist urban layout, again endorsing the national- building discourse. In contrast, the pragmatic urban proposals implemented in Curitiba were in line with the postmodernist rationale. The criticism of the modernist town planning was more emphatically expressed when the first of the Seminars on Urban Design was held. Nevertheless, the layout of Palmas, a city planned in the re-democratization, postmodernist period, still emulated features of Brasilia. The framing of this ambivalent panorama is a much-needed contribution to the country’s recent planning history.
Copyright (c) 2024 Renato Leão Rego http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Urban reform can be understood as a Latin American political agenda that inspired (and still inspires) many of the continent’s countries to deal with their poor and segregated cities. Far from being a technical tool or a closed system of planning, it opens incisively a political dimension of struggle for the transformation of cities, particularly regarding urban land tenure and right to housing. In a very polarized geopolitical context, the Urban Reform Law was conceived in Cuba just after the 1959’ Revolution. Approved in 1960, it states that “every family has the right to a decent home”. Several measures were formulated to solve the problem, confronting real estate and land speculation, transforming tenants into owners, establishing strategies to produce social housing. In Brazil, in a short period of time (1960-1964), a field of Urban Reform was constructed, concomitant to huge urbanization, planning promises and an insurgent context. Through analysis of different sources, the study highlights progressive political perspectives on urban reform, mobilizing various political and professional alliances, as well as the disappearance of its problematization with the military coup of 1964. This agenda will re-emerge in the 1980s, within the process of democratization.
Copyright (c) 2024 Ana Fernades http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This paper challenges the prevailing belief that informal settlements lack effective zoning and building regulations by presenting an ethnographic study on self-built practices in multiple peri-urban villages in the Guangzhou metropolis, Southern China, from 2012 to 2019. Under China’s urban-rural divided system, not only do formal urban zoning codes and building regulations not apply to these locales, but the emerging village regulatory frameworks are also often sites of contestation between the local state and residents. The research highlights how three distinct social groups within these villages have formulated their own informal self-built rules, akin to zoning and building codes. Local villagers have negotiated with their neighbours to establish rules on setbacks and patio arrangements to reduce overcrowding, enhance ventilation and natural lighting, and be competitive in the rental market. Peasant-workers, who fulfil dual roles as both builders and tenants, have improved housing standards by making on-site ad hoc adjustments to building elements like windows, balconies, patios, entrances, and staircases. Small businesspeople have established bottom-up guidelines to preserve and renovate traditional houses that are excluded from official preservation lists. This paper argues that these self-help settlements are not devoid of zoning and building regulations; rather, these communities develop their own sets of rules, albeit informally. Despite facing various limitations, these informal rules are crucial for grassroots empowerment. They use these rules to enhance their living conditions, establish collective actions, and leverage their economic and social interests. By revealing the rationales, mechanisms, and outcomes of these self-initiated rules, this study calls for a deeper reflection on how zoning and building codes could be made more effective and just in informal settlements.
Copyright (c) 2024 Jiong Wu http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The present paper focuses into socio-economic and architectural aspects of minimum space living format in Macau, Hong Kong, and Singapore’s urban landscapes, during the early 1960s, looking to the ground of research of emerging forms of inhabiting spaces in contemporary urban territories. The main analysis encompasses the historical contexts, considering influence of colonial legacies and public policies on housing practices, presenting a set of case studies, aiming to unravel similarities and differences within their spatial constraints. The achievement of such goals is to be developed through a comparative analysis, in order to derives, in one hand, an amplitude equation of adopted theoretical matrix; and, in the other hand, to identify variations between housing typologies, collective spaces, spatial distributions and technical systems. This proposal examines architectural behaviours shedding light on the evolution of high-density living conditions and public awareness regarding housing standards. Drawing on archival documents, photographic survey, and architectural records, this reflection investigates insights from first statements of architectural modernity in the field of modern housing in tropical climate conditions. Moreover, it provides a nuanced understanding of the complex interplay of architectural innovations in shaping Macau, Hong Kong, and Singapore’s built environments during a pivotal period of their developmental history.
Copyright (c) 2024 Niccolò Arnaldo Galliano, Daniela Arnaut, Ana Tostões http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This paper examines the interface between politics and urban planning in the creation of high density public housing in Hong Kong. The history of Hong Kong public housing in Hong Kong is often presented as a linear progression: from the spartan resettlement blocks, communal low-cost housing, finally towards modern tower blocks – a triumph of government planners and architects alike. Less known was the involvement of the councillors in the Urban Council. Until 1973, Hong Kong Urban Council was the government arm in executing housing projects in Hong Kong through its control of the former Housing Authority and their oversight power to the Commissioner for Resettlement. As the council was the only public body with direct election in Hong Kong until 1983, it brought a rare taste of citizen participation and accountability into the housing project. They were pivotal in the management of the estates, from the rent policy, public space, zoning, to receiving complaints, and even filling the applications forms for the estates. They were the force that transformed the high-raising estates into the most well-sought accommodation for Hong Kong residents. With their political clout, councillors acted as a counterweight against critics of the public housing project, such as neo-liberals like John Cowperthwaithe, ensuring the celebrated continuity of the project. This paper challenges the technocratic or government-centred narrative about public housing in Hong Kong by bringing council politics to the centre of discussion.
Copyright (c) 2024 Will Wu http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploration of Marxist Humanism in 20th Century Global New Town Planning
Massive new town construction activities unfolded globally in the 20th century, demonstrating the desire to embody the idealistic and democratic spirit of a new world order. Amidst a world torn apart at the time, new town construction became a window of opportunity to explore, consolidate, and showcase ideologies. In the 1930s, influenced by Marxism, the Swedish Social Democratic Party emerged from the working class and came to power. Faced with insecurity caused by the Great Depression, the party proposed to bridge the gap between the opposing American free-market economy and the Soviet socialist system by attempting to combine socialist programs, democratic politics and capitalist enterprise, advocating for a relatively moderate middle path. As a result, rooted in Marxist humanism, the goal concept of People's Home emerged and was embodied in the country’s new town development backed by spatial planning and public policies, with Vällingby being the most representative. The paper examines the innovative ABC-Town theoretical model derived from new town planning practices under the People's Home initiative. Using the planning of Vällingby as an example, the study summarizes five key aspects of the planning model, and proposes thoughts and insights for current new town planning.
Copyright (c) 2024 Jingyuan Wang, Songtao Wu http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
As Kuching, Sarawak expanded in the 20th century, Malay fishing villages on the edge of Kuching's rivers faced challenges due to congested waters and disruptions caused by sectoral planning policies. The villages' growth trajectories were determined by economic activities in their vicinity, such as industrial estates, trading ports, educational institutions, or eco-tourism in rainforest parks. Situated in various locations, they have undergone significant changes that are directly linked to the expansion of Kuching and the emergence of new infrastructure. The replacement of rivers with roads has gradually severed their historic connection to the river, leading to a fundamental reshaping of their built environment, livelihoods, and sense of community. This study examines the transformation of four Kuching fishing villages from the 20th century to the present day. Drawing on in-depth semi-structured interviews with villagers, preliminary fieldwork, studies of settlement morphology, and analysis of planning documents, this research uncovers the often-overlooked human costs of sectoral planning and offers valuable lessons for planners facing similar challenges in Southeast Asia and beyond. Through the lens of four fishing villages in Kuching, we reveal the complex interplay between infrastructure growth, social resilience, and economic viability in the face of rapid development and call for a nuanced approach to planning that prioritises the well-being of peripheral rural communities.
Copyright (c) 2024 Azmah Arzmi http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Anthonie Thomas Lubertus Rouwenhorst Mulder is a Dutch civil engineer involved in the design of port cities in 19th-century Japan. In 1879, as part of Japan’s modernization efforts, Mulder was employed as a foreign expert under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Over his approximately eleven-year stay, Mulder contributed to the planning and design of various projects, including rivers, reclamation, and port cities. Notably, his designs for Moji and Misumi ports exemplify his work and the transplantation of European technology and ideas into Japanese port cities. This paper analysed multiple reports on Japan submitted by Mulder, aiming to clarify his perspective as an engineer. Given the absence of engineers in Japan who met European standards at the time, Mulder found it challenging to implement modern technologies such as concrete, leading him to predominantly utilize natural materials like fascines and stone. His designs not only focused on immediate engineering needs but also included comprehensive urban planning elements such as the expansion of port facilities, improvement of land transportation, and enlargement of residential areas through reclamation. These contributions highlight Mulder’s role that extended beyond that of a civil engineer to that of an urban planner, significantly impacting the design of Japanese port cities.
Copyright (c) 2024 Kazumasa Iwamoto http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Yokohama was not a colonial port city, but foreign forces seized the city for decades after the Japan’s defeat in the war. The author clarifies the historical background of the process of derequisition and its redevelopment. Since opening its port in 1859, Yokohama has developed as an international trading city. The city was destroyed by a major earthquake in 1923. Although it recovered as a modern city in the 1930s, it was again devastated in air raids during the war. After the US military seized the city in 1945, the state government had to lease land from landowners and provide it to the US, which continued to be stationed in Japan under the US–Japan Security Treaty. The city government continued to request the land’s release to the original owners. The Honmoku District was seized as a residential area for US families. Due to the prolonged requisition, landowners sold their land to the state to pay taxes, and half of the district became state property. The city planned to use the state property for civic purposes. Intense negotiations between the state and the city dragged on for a long time, finally concluding in 1982.
Copyright (c) 2024 Toshio Taguchi http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Singapore’s Old Kallang Airport was once Southeast Asia’s finest commercial airport in the late 1930s, when international travel was at its height before the Second World War. The British identified this to be their first purpose-built civil airport and a testament of the prospects of air travel, with Singapore as a gateway between England and Australia. Within a kilometre radius from the main terminal, most adjacent buildings and sites like the open-air theme park Happy World, have been demolished and redeveloped to cope with pressures of the urban centre alongside key infrastructural works. The conservation of the buildings within Old Kallang Airport, against a slate of tabula rasa in context, questions the prospect of urban redevelopment and intensification where the site is read through the built and barren landscape, a tussle of land rights over time and space. Today, Old Kallang Airport is hoarded up and rehabilitated for posterity, while the Singapore Land Authority attempts to seek complementing interim uses to sustainably rejuvenate this urban vacuum. This paper investigates the architectural permutations in urban density, programmatic use through urban morphology and historical synapses to inform possible urban planning and design outcomes.
Copyright (c) 2024 Shawn Teo, Wen Huan Jiang http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The development of the port of Nagoya as the timber complex hub and the formation of its waterfront zone
The purpose of this study is to clarify how the Port of Nagoya waterfront zone was formed focusing on the relationship between the connection of global trading networks and the formation of waterfront zone by timber industry. In the process of the Japanese modernization, the timber market expanded due to demand for the construction of industrial infrastructure. The area around Nagoya has had a thriving timber industry since the early modern period, and timber was transported from mountains through rivers by rafts until the 1910s. However, Once the first stage of modern port construction completed, large volumes of timber began to be imported from East Asia and North America. It led to the rapid construction of lumberyards until 1920s, and simultaneously oversea shipping routes have increased. Some timber merchants established land development companies to operate huge marine lumberyards and develop lands around there as an offshoot of the major spatial changes in waterfront zone. After all, the general form of the Port of Nagoya and principles for the use of the port area were defined by the timber transportation. Capturing these relationships gives an exogenous perspective to explain the formation process of the Port of Nagoya.
Copyright (c) 2024 Taichi Fujii, Yoshifumi Demura http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Women’s Expectations of Imperial Reconstruction Planning at Tokyo
This paper critically reevaluates the predominant male-centric and planner-centric narrative in urban planning history in Japan through a gender historical lens. It delves into the aftermath of the Great Kanto Earthquake (1923), examining the interplay between the women’s movement and urban planning, explaining their subsequent divergence. Initially, it investigates how Mary Beard introduced urban planning issues to the Japanese women’s movement post-earthquake, as evidenced by women’s magazines. The paper then analyses the treatment of brothel, sangyōchi and nigyōchi (red-light district) locations as urban planning concerns within the women’s movement, highlighting the public prostitution system. It scrutinizes the response of male-dominated urban planning authorities to women’s movement demands, revealing a reluctance to intervene despite acknowledging the link between prostitution and urban planning. The analysis shows the alignment of interests between the women’s movement and urban planning during protests sangyōchi and nigyōchi. However, the women’s movement gradually shifted focus towards viewing the prostitution issue as a humanitarian concern, moving away from urban planning solutions. Finally, this paper illustrates how the convergence between the women’s movement and urban planning, observed briefly after the Great Kanto Earthquake, was disrupted by political inaction from authorities and the abolitionist movement’s ideology.
Copyright (c) 2024 Yudai Nakagawa http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Towards the "Democratization of Urban Planning"
Urban reconstruction after W.W. II was a common experience for war-torn European and Asian cities. However, as a defeated country, Japan's urban planning had to do more than just physically rebuild its cities; it had to update the character of urban planning for postwar society. The central idea behind the transformation of Japan's postwar society was "democratization”. This paper aims to clarify what the "democratization of urban planning" was in Japan's postwar reconstruction period. First, mainly based on articles in the magazine Fukkō Jōhō, published by the War Damage Reconstruction Agency, it is confirmed that the main issues of "democratization of urban planning" were criticism of bureaucratic self- righteousness in prewar urban planning and private sector participation in urban planning. The practice of "democratization of urban planning" in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's war reconstruction plan is summarized. Finally, the content and reality of the Urban Reconstruction Exhibition, which was toured major cities nationwide is mentioned. In the conclusion, however, it is pointed out that while these attempts were made, there was no institutionalization of citizen participation, no mechanism for utilizing private sector urban planning proposals, and in general, the "democratization of urban planning" remained an ideology.
Copyright (c) 2024 Naoto Nakajima http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This article delves into the primary factors leading to the closure of Puerto Colombia's Seaport, shifting international port activity to the city of Barranquilla. As the construction of the western breakwater progressed to stabilize the mouth of the Magdalena River, the closure of the pier became a logical consequence, facilitating direct access for deep-draft vessels to Barranquilla's river port. The reasons behind the pier closure seem to be political, social, and economic. The national government, aiming to establish a secure route between the Caribbean Sea and the country's interior, leveraged direct access to the Magdalena River, prompting the relocation of commerce to Barranquilla. Additionally, concerns about the rising incidents of cargo theft during railway transportation and the significant investment in the construction of the western breakwater of the Magdalena River also played a role in the decision. This inquiry sheds light on the discourse emphasizing the advantages of relocating operations to Barranquilla, inadvertently overlooking the history and consequences of such a decision on the urban and social development of Puerto Colombia. To conduct this study, primary sources and relevant texts were employed, enabling an insightful historiographical analysis of documents and narratives. This approach successfully reconstructed the perspective on the issues in Puerto Colombia and Barranquilla. The findings obtained provide a solid foundation for future research related to the impact of infrastructure on urban and social configuration, the manipulation of historical discourse, and the study of coastal populations in their relationship with the environment.
Copyright (c) 2024 Pedro Romero, Mark Michael Betts Alvear http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Public toilets have always been an intensely politicised site. Focusing on the colonial discourses of a ‘contaminated city’ and its implications for public health, this paper explores the politics surrounding the construction of public toilets in colonial Bombay City. The paper relies extensively on the Standing Committee and Corporation Committee debates to examine the complex dynamics of the public space, infrastructure, governance, and urban politics. Firstly, the paper traces the development of sanitation policy in the city and highlights how offensive odours, inadequate sanitary infrastructure and urban contamination were identified as the key factors in the spread of diseases at the turn of the twentieth century. Secondly, this paper delves into the protests of city elites against the construction of public toilets in their neighbourhoods, exploring how their concerns over the economic value of their land and the perception of public toilets as 'insanitary' spaces led them to utilize their social standing to influence urban planning and hinder the implementation of essential sanitation infrastructure. Finally, the paper investigates the contentious interplay between religious sentiments and the construction of public toilets in their vicinity, revealing how conflicts arising from the perception of sacrilege and religious sensitivities hindered effective sanitation infrastructure development and public health initiatives.
Copyright (c) 2024 Mrunmayee Satam http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Suburban Housing Planning History for Hanoi Capital Region 1980s-2020s
Suburbs, defined as the areas bordering cities, play a crucial role in providing greenbelt spaces for agricultural production, cultural-recreational activities, and environmental protection. Over the past 40 years, urban planning in Ha Noi has focused on developing housing outside the city center to alleviate pressure on urban areas. Initially, there was a push for "building by people and the state," but this approach faced challenges due to limited resources. Subsequently, the state experimented with supply planning and housing management for employees, gradually integrating market economic mechanisms. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the state continued to play a dominant role in providing housing for priority groups. However, the early 21st century saw increased participation from various economic entities, leading to positive shifts in both quantity and quality of housing projects. Ha Noi is now committed to constructing modern, sustainable housing models with integrated social infrastructure and synchronized technological development, while preserving cultural heritage and historical sites. This approach aims to stimulate economic development, promote the knowledge economy, and ensure environmental protection and national security, while fostering regional, national, and international linkages. Through fieldwork and comparative assessment methods, this article explores and proposes policies for suburban housing development that integrate green spaces and technology, with the goal of creating an attractive and sustainable model for the future capital - Ha Noi.
Copyright (c) 2024 Hoai Duc Vu, Kieu Trang Nguyen, Thanh Thao Nguyen, Van Tien Dinh http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Open-space districts in the city planning act of Manchukuo
Manchukuo was a Japanese puppet state that existed in northeastern China before World War II. In Manchukuo, city planning was legislated through the Town and Country Planning Act, which was drafted based on the Japanese City Planning Act of 1919 but included ‘open-space districts’ (later ‘open-space areas’), which did not exist in Japanese law at that time. Open- space districts were the first land-use regulations for open space in Japan and its colonies. The current Japanese City Planning Act of 1968 divides city planning areas into urbanisation promotion areas and urbanisation control areas. Many studies in Japan have observed that Japanese city planning techniques and methods were almost complete in the 1930s based on the similarity of the text of open-space areas and urbanisation promotion areas. This study examined the validity of this claim through a comparative analysis of open-space areas in the Manchukuo Town and Country Planning Act and urbanisation control areas in the Japanese City Planning Act of 1968. In terms of dealing with sprawl, open-space areas and urbanisation promotion areas have the same purpose; however, the former was a spatial blockade, while the latter was a land-use guideline based on the assumption that the area would be developed in a planned manner. The latter was also a new technology that compensated for the shortcomings of the former. This paper refutes the widespread claim that Japanese urban planning techniques and methods were largely perfected in the 1930s.
Copyright (c) 2024 Yasushi Goto http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
How metropolis impact the Tourism-Residence Relationship of its suburb
Metropolis can influence populations, industries, physical space, living environment, and more of its suburbs. Suburbs serve as a buffer space between urban and towns, carrying a series of problems in urban development. Kyoto is one of the metropolises in Japan which is famous for its long history. Uji, located on the outskirts of Kyoto, has also prospered in tourism because of its long history and the World Heritage Byodoin Temple. Through historical data, ancient map surveys, and statistics, this research concludes that metropolis plays a decisive role in the tourism development of their surrounding suburbs and that their policies about the tourism development will affect the tourism activities in its suburban and then impact on the number, layout, use of buildings and living environment in the suburbs.
Copyright (c) 2024 Shuailing Cui, Naoto Nakajima http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Study on the resilience of historical blocks under the process of high-speed urbanization
As the largest existing mixed historical block in Shenzhen, Shajing Ancient Fair is a mixture of historical and modern living styles. By studying the theory of urban resilience and taking the transformation of the Longjin River in Shajing Ancient Fair as the starting point, this paper analyzes the vulnerability and resilience characteristics of historical block in the process of high-speed urbanization and provides ideas for the protection and development of cultural heritage in the process of urbanization. In the process of Shenzhen's urbanization, Shajing Ancient Fair is faced with problems such as mass migration of population, changes in land power, transformation in the economic modes, deterioration of living conditions, etc., which reflects the vulnerability of historical blocks. To avoid the resilience fatigue of ancient fairs and repair the vulnerability of historical blocks, river channel transformation is used as an opportunity to improve spatial resilience, ecological resilience, economic resilience, and institutional resilience of mixed historical block in the process of urbanization. This paper focuses on the measures to improve spatial and ecological resilience in the transformation of Shajing Ancient Fairs. Specific approaches include: 1) To improve spatial resilience, use the "acupuncture" renewal method to revitalize the main public space along the river; 2) to improve ecological resilience, divert rain and pollution and rebuild non-motor vehicle parking lots. By summarizing the impact of Longjin River micro-renewal, this study provides a systematic mechanism from the perspective of urban resilience for the beautification of the environment, industrial value-added, and infrastructure optimization of historical blocks.
Copyright (c) 2024 Ziwei Zhou, Lingzhen Ding, Yuqi Fu http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Nowadays, the resilience of the Earth, humanity, environment and ecosystems are still under severe pressure. The philosophy of “making no one lag behind” in the “The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” should be the target for universal participation across regions. This study selects Tuocheng ancient town, which is founded in 214 BC and known as the “Millennium Ancient Town”, as our research object. Being located in the water sources for major metropolitan cities, such as Hong Kong and Shenzhen, Tuocheng ancient town has long been an underdeveloped region due to its backward structure of industries. Meanwhile, currently, the ancient dwellings, ancestral halls and temples in Tuocheng ancient town are facing the problems of space declining and cultural elements’ losing. In the context of China’ Rural Revitalization and “Typical Town Construction” initiated by Guangdong Province, with multiple problems and obstacles, what are the futures plans for Tuocheng ancient town? With little prior research support, firstly, based on the five comprehensive local field surveys, we released the “Tuocheng Creation Plan” originally from the community empowerment perspective. This plan emphasizes the dominant role of the local residents and aims at the development of regional diversity. Secondly, through continuous field surveys, we made efforts to excavate and utilize the original regional resources of Tuocheng ancient town, including the local people, culture, land, industry and scenery. And we also carried out some community empowerment practices on the basis of these resources of Tuocheng ancient town. Finally, we proposed three fundamental pathways for improvement in line with the contemporary development of Tuocheng ancient town: (1) Talent cultivation, aiming at nurturing the local new generation of youth; (2)Community co-construction, aiming at promoting the sustainable development of the town; (3) Civil participation, aiming at boosting the implementation of “The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. In summary, this practical research significantly sheds light on the development of underdeveloped ancient towns in China.
Copyright (c) 2024 Xiaochun Yang, Jianming Wang, Mengxi Niu, Ke Li, Yerui Yin http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Urban green space management in ancient Chinese capitals
Urban green spaces are crucial for the sustainable development of cities, not only in terms of planning and construction, but also in terms of management frameworks. This exists not only in modern cities, but also in ancient cities, especially in ancient Chinese capitals with high density. However, existing research on green spaces in ancient Chinese cities focuses predominantly on their spatial distribution and morphology as results of planning and construction, while neglecting the underlying and ongoing process of management. This research adopts an integrative case study methodology, selecting three representative high- density ancient Chinese capitals: Chang’an in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Lin’an in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), and Beijing in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It systematically examines their green space management, including developmental contexts, institutional frameworks, focal objects, leading forces, and management effectiveness. Through comprehensive analysis and comparison, it is revealed that while ancient Chinese capitals consistently prioritised and institutionalised urban green space management, their distinct historical contexts shaped specific focuses within management practices. Moreover, the nature of administrative agencies and the degree of public participation significantly influenced the long-term efficacy of urban green space management.
Copyright (c) 2024 Haoran Zhang http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
From the City to the Shopping Mall and Back Again:
Victor Gruen viewed the shopping centre as a perfected form of the city, one which brought together commercial, civic, and social activities without the undesirable aspects of the downtown central business district. The privately owned shopping centre offered an alternative to congestion and scarce parking, its highly regulated spaces omitted panhandlers, protestors and unruly youth. In response to the loss of business effected by suburban shopping malls, cities across America transformed their downtowns by installing pedestrian malls that closed streets to vehicular traffic and instead provided landscaping, fountains, and benches to create a more pleasant shopping environment. While the urban designers of pedestrian malls often cite historic European cities as their dominant influence, this paper investigates the extent to which their design and regulation was in fact shaped by the suburban shopping mall itself. Examining the Memphis Mid-America Mall designed by Gassner, Nathan and Browne and constructed in the mid-1970s, I reveal how the city sought to impose the spatial order, aesthetic regulation, and behavioural restrictions first developed in the shopping mall on the urban pedestrian mall in an attempt to curtail the freedoms associated with public space in favour of the restrictions of what legal scholars describe as quasi- or pseudo-public space.
Copyright (c) 2024 Elizabeth M. Keslacy http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In June 1962, Hershey, Pennsylvania hosted the conference "Freeways in the Urban Setting." The gathering occurred only six years after the enactment of the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act, which laid the financial groundwork for the Interstate Highway System. Amidst mounting public discontent and a series of contentious debates, the conference convened with a singular aim: to address the challenges posed by urban expressways in isolation from the broader highway network. Central to the conference's discourse were two primary objectives: the strategic design and placement of urban expressways within city landscapes. These deliberations were underpinned by three critical factors shaping urban evolution: land use patterns, aesthetic considerations, and the integration of multimodal transportation networks. The Hershey Conference was not merely a gathering; it served as a harbinger of change. It served as the hopeful prelude of a new Federal-Aid Highway Act, signed into law by President John F. Kennedy on October 23rd of the same year. This legislative milestone marked the climax of a tumultuous period characterized by widespread protests, accusations of corruption, and entrenched bureaucratic resistance, which had eroded the initial public consensus in favor of the expressway projects. This paper aims to delve into the substance of the Hershey Conference within the broader context of urban planning history. Specifically, it will analyze the conference proceedings against the backdrop of two pivotal events, the 1959 45-49 Resolution in San Francisco and the implementation of the 3C Planning Process, an executive procedure stemming from the 1962 legislation signed by President Kennedy. By contextualizing the Hershey Conference within the larger narrative of urban planning evolution in American cities, this study seeks to shed light on its legacy and contribute to the broader discourse on urban development strategies.
Copyright (c) 2024 Romina Canna http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The City Plan of Nanking announced by the National Government of the Republic of China in 1929 was an epochal urban planning practice, whether in terms of planning content, structure or expression. It demonstrated a new goal-oriented, design-driven planning thought. The plan played an important role in the exploration of modern urban planning practice in China. The City Plan of Nanking as a construction standard was learnt and imitated by municipal governments all over the country, which greatly changed the direction of the preparation and development of urban planning in China. The provisions of relevant systems and laws in the planning content laid the foundation of the urban planning system and regime. The compilation and implementation of the capital plan in 1929 was the beginning of the road towards "scientific rationality" in modern Chinese urban planning practice. The concept of urban spatial planning, which combines nationalism, scientific rationality and the integration of China and the West, constructed in the plan, was the best expression of the spatial concept and planning technology of the times.
Copyright (c) 2024 Zhao Li, Mengfei Ton http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Based on ongoing postgraduate (MPhil) research, the conference presentation discusses features of modernization, identity, and nationhood within the narrative of Nanjing’s urban planning during China's Republican Era（1927-1949）. It accomplishes this through attention to native architect-planners, e.g. Lu Yanchi （呂彥直）, Doon Dayu （董大酉）, and Robert Fan （范文照）. They were assistants of Henry Murphy, the chief consultant of the Capital Plan. The presentation will utilize primary Chinese sources such as newspapers, manuscripts, archives, documents, and old photographs, and so intends to analyze the works of the young Chinese architect-planners together with the political intentions and intellectual influences upon how the built fabric was shaped and meant. As the capital city of Republican China, Nanjing was to become the symbol of ‘the modern country’. Its form and density were to be affected by considerations about the nature of the citizenry, the contemporary political atmosphere, Chinese traditional and modern culture, and financial funding. Collectively, these elements affected the development of Nanjing during the Republican Era and contributed in different way to its plan's successes and failures.
Copyright (c) 2024 Shu Wang http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The concept of the company town, once a key driver of urban development and vehicle for progressive town planning ideas, has been studied for its utopian and dystopian outcomes, and economic and social vulnerabilities. Given its dense population and post-colonial background, Hong Kong has a legacy of company town development that spurred its initial economic growth as a manufacturing hub, followed by property developer-driven urbanization in later stages. Presently, the city is actively striving to diversify its economy and develop its technology industry and is planning several new industry-driven New Town developments. In this context, it is helpful to re-examine the company town model and explore sustainable employment-driven urban planning for future Hong Kong. This research study has begun with categorizing and classifying historic company towns’ operational models and types through a critical literature review. It then analysed the development of the company town in Hong Kong through three cases that represent different historical periods. It examined land use, urban morphology, and live-work patterns at the district scale. By investigating the historical context and challenges of company town development, the study contributes to understanding the role of industry-based urban planning in shaping Hong Kong. It offers valuable insights for the design and planning of future Hong Kong, particularly in creating balanced living-working environments and promoting sustainable development.
Copyright (c) 2024 Hengzhi Song, Yanlai Zhou, Yujia Zhang, Jiaxiu Cai, Jeroen van Ameijde http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Garden City as a Techno-Spatial Assemblage under Wartime Urban Regime
Based on the 1950s-history of East Asian Cold War geopolitics, this paper illustrates how the idea of Western Garden City was techno-spatially reassembled by the Republic of China (R.O.C.) Government exiled to Taiwan to assist its wartime urban regime for enforcing air defence-evacuation strategy. We use Jhongsing New Village (JNV) – the seating of Taiwan Provincial Government – as a case owing to its status as not only the earliest detail new town plan in postwar Taiwan, but also a specific local (re)assemblage of hybrid planning legacies, new planning technology, and martial spatial politics – the Britian Garden City utopia, air raid experience and revanchist deployment of the Nationalist technocrats, and Japanese planning legacy in Taiwan – to shape a regional warfare evacuation town. JNV provided a place for experimenting cold war city through spatial components with variegated modernity threads, planning culture genealogies, and national contexts. Integrating the 1950s-historical materials of Taiwan’s spatial planning with the viewpoints of urban policy transfer and regime theory, we propose the concept of “wartime urban regime” (WUR) to scrutinize the influence of the Martial Law on Taiwan’s municipal governance. Connecting the Japanese colonial planning legacy and modernity imagination inherited by the planning technocrats, we explore the planning concepts, geo-strategic intentions, and institutional reassembling process of JNV and argue that, as a spatial device projecting WUR, JNV is a remixed product of cold war spatial planning providing a contested lab for multiple planning ideas – fulfilling air defence evacuation, compromising Japanese legacies and technocrat ideals, and learning new planning knowledges.
Copyright (c) 2024 Cassidy I-Chih Lan, Jinn-Yuh Hsu http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Historical Change of the Perception of Greater Colonial Seoul (1920-1935)
A century ago, Colonial Seoul's (Keijo in Japanese) population surpassed 250,000, resulting in rapid urbanization exceeding 5,000 people per square kilometers. This led to challenges related to housing, hygiene, and traffic congestion. This study examines how Colonial Seoul residents' perception of the city's extent changed in the 1920s-30s and how authorities responded through urban planning based on newspaper articles and official urban planning documents. Through this investigation, the following implications can be derived: First, just a decade after Japan's annexation, colonial Seoul's expansion was accepted by residents as an imminent future, corroborated by the Keijo Urban Planning Research Group's activities, although led mainly by Japanese capitalists and bureaucrats with limited Korean input. This transformation to Greater Keijo provided an opportunity to address not only the positive metropolis vision but also urban problems like poverty, insufficient utilities, and transportation. Secondly, through chronological analysis, the purpose and underlying demands supporting expansion gradually changed. Discussions until around 1930 aimed to resolve urban problems and promote growth. But after 1931's Manchurian Incident, the emphasis shifted to strengthening the war effort and enabling better functioning within the Japanese economic bloc.
Copyright (c) 2024 Youngjoon Kim, Naoto Nakajima http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Adaptive reuse of the industrial built heritage in the Merchant City, Glasgow
Industrial built heritage adaptation in the Merchant City of Glasgow from the 1980s interwoven the development of conservation-based planning history. However, this assemblage conservation approach has been subject to criticism for the legislation ossification and material authenticity of the built heritage. The research investigates the paradoxical situation of industrial-built heritage adaptation based on existing preservation policies, and archive files, with site investigation. The analysis mingles the adaptation theories, urban physical regeneration, and planning history. The existing morphological conservation approach was influenced by a series of historical factors, processes, and decisions: the transformation from comprehensive redevelopment to urban rehabilitation; the revitalizing inner city with the embrace of the private sector; the re-evaluation of industrial built heritage from the 1980s; the shifting of city images after deindustrialisation that transformed the heavy industries core into a services centre; and with the neoliberal planning concept, the shifting from urban managerialism to urban entrepreneurialism. To illustrate these consequences related to building heritage conservation in Glasgow, this paper draws on evidence from the adaptation of existing Victorian industrial buildings. Furthermore, this paper examines value-based preservation policies and how to preserve the authenticity of the built heritage due to the inevitable morphological shifting.
Copyright (c) 2024 Xiaohan Lu http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Survival of Rituals and Traditional Culture
This paper explores the challenges and innovative approaches to preserving traditional cultural heritage with rapid urbanization, through a comparative analysis of temple management and urban planning in Singapore and coastal cities in China such as Putian and Macau. Singapore's model of united temples demonstrates the potential for effectively protecting heritage within urban planning frameworks, while coastal cities in China face evolving urban landscapes and challenges in heritage preservation. The concept of "roof-top temples" emerging in Putian reflects dynamic responses to urbanization pressures, integrating traditional culture with contemporary urban functions. Community engagement and government policies play crucial roles in safeguarding cultural heritage and promoting sustainable urban development. By drawing on best practices from Singapore and coastal cities in China, pathways toward inclusive and sustainable urban development can be formulated for cities like Putian, ensuring the flourishing of rich cultural heritage amidst changing urban landscapes.
Copyright (c) 2024 Jie Li http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Planning history research and urban heritage conservation
It is argued that the planning history field has existed since the 1970s1, and research in planning history mainly encompasses thoughts, regulations, and ideas of urban planning. Research in planning history not only enriches an understanding of the influence that urban planning exerts on places that we live in, but also provides a basis and direction for future planning practices. From a planning perspective, urban heritage conservation can be seen as the process of maintaining and transmission of cultural heritage assets in a way that causes significant messages to remain intact and accessible to future generations. Therefore, close linkages between respective theoretical explorations are discerned. It is mainly because urban heritage conservation can be achieved through planning practice, and academic research in planning history lays some theoretical basis for heritage planning work. However, planning history research is rarely conducted nowadays, and mostly by higher-education academics; and the significance of planning history research is not widely recognised by heritage planning and conservation practitioners. This paper aims to explore the interrelations between planning history research and urban heritage conservation practice, and suggest the approaches to better integrating them.
Copyright (c) 2024 Nan Li http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Research on the Protection and Utilization of Urban and Rural Heritage in the Plateau Valley Area of the Yellow River Basin
In the eastern valley of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, there exist numerous historical towns and settlement heritages. Over time, they have been enriched and evolved against the backdrop of the compact natural landscape of the valley, creating a unique, dense living space where nature meets humanity and history merges with modernity. Herein, taking the Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture as example, this study presents a comprehensive solution to the challenges of urban-rural development and heritage preservation in the region. At the macro level, GIS technology is employed to analyze the historical evolution of spatial distribution patterns of settlements. This helps elucidate the historical factors contributing to the coexistence of modern settlements with ancient sites. At the intermediate level, a segmented approach to development is proposed, taking into account both natural environments and human settlements. At a micro scale, based on the interplay between contemporary living spaces and heritage sites, urban-rural settlements are categorized into nested, overlaying, overlapping, adjacent, and distant types, and distinct developmental trajectories for heritage preservation and utilization are delved into. Furthermore, a coordinated development strategy is mapped out for the Yellow River source area, which includes both the safeguarding of cultural heritage and the development of urban and rural construction.
Copyright (c) 2024 Bolun Xia, Wang Yan http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
From Capital to Metropolis: Urbanization and the Transformation of Market Spaces in Late Ming Nanjing
The transformation of Nanjing from a political capital to an economic and cultural center in the 14th and 16-17th centuries is well recognized. However, there has been limited focus on the changes in market spaces that were closely linked to urbanization and economic activities during this period. This article first examines the historical development of markets in Nanjing before the Ming Dynasty, analyzing the characteristics of market formation under the influence of urban layout. It then delves into the markets under state management and construction in the early Ming Dynasty, highlighting that the distribution and form of early Ming street markets were consistent with the government's political intentions. Finally, it explores how urbanization in the later Ming Dynasty led to the reorganization of market spaces, reshaping the cityscape of street markets and infusing them with greater urban significance.
Copyright (c) 2024 Wantian Yang http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Research on the Interactive Relationship between the Spatial Evolution of Handicraft Production and the State Form in the Pre-Qin Capital
The period from pre-Qin to Han Dynasty in ancient China was an important stage of the transformation from “kingdom” to “empire”. The research on the productive space that served and supplied the power subjects in the capital cities of ancient China with the theocratic system was a part of the previous capital research which was less noticed. Meanwhile, the research value of the handicraft workshop space in the economic archaeology has not been taken into account. In this study, 16 major capital cities with relatively abundant archaeological data from the Three Dynasties to the Qin and Han Dynasties were selected, and the layout, location, attributes and spatial form of the handicraft workshops in these cities were compared and summarized by using the published archaeological reports and other materials related to handicraft workshops through the classification and time-sharing analyses of the relic information. It was found that, as time passed, the evolution of the handicraft workshops space in the pre-Qin capital city showed several features, such as the marginalization of the spatial location, the hierarchization of the industrial categories, and the scalization of production areas. (1) The handicraft production space expanded to the outer region of the capital city, which was gradually far away from the palace area space over time. (2) Craft production space area was gradually scaled up, with the emergence of a centralized handicraft production area. (3) There were hierarchical differences in handicraft industry categories, manifesting the spatial distribution differences between ceremonial and practical handicraft locations. During the Three Dynasties, the demand for the spatial production of ceremonial articles represented by bronzes was higher than the practical demand, and after the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the demand for practicality gradually began to increase over that for ceremonial products. The change of the state form was a decisive factor in the spatial layout of handicraft production. In the early capital cities, the important government-run handicraft production space was part of the “state apparatus” and belonged to the power space. The military ideology and the way of war were the secondary most important factors affecting the spatial layout of the production, especially in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods. Generally speaking, the status of productive space is declining with the enhancement of state power.
Copyright (c) 2024 Zhang Yidan http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Changes of Geopolitical Landscape of Fujian Coastal Cities in Ming and Qing Dynasties under the Comparison between Chouhaitubian and Fujianhaianquantu
The change of geopolitical landscape in Fujian is a vital topic for understanding the ideas of coastal urban planning in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The study compares two ancient maps, Chouhaitubian (an illustrated book on coastal defence) in the late Ming Dynasty and Fujianhaianquantu (a coastal map of Fujian) in the early Qing Dynasty. It combines them with ArcGIS software for visual analysis to obtain the status of geopolitical landscape changes in the coastal cities of Fujian during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The comparison of the two maps reveals that: Finding 1. The Wei-Suo system of the Qing Dynasty tended to be demilitarised and gradually disintegrated, and a new defence system based on the Folk Fortress was formed. Finding 2. Under the influence of the Seafaring Prohibition Policy, the coastal defence system was moved inward along the ancient postal route. Finding 3. Due to Zheng’s rule of Xiamen and Jinmen, new port clusters were formed in the coastal areas of southern Fujian. Changes in the geopolitical landscape of the Ming and Qing Dynasties were closely related to the above events and policy changes, resulting in changes in the economic and trade patterns of Fujian.
Copyright (c) 2024 Wen Xu Chen, Shu Ming Zhang http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Research on the High-Quality Development of Contracted Urban Spaces along the Middle East Railway under the Governance Model of Symbiosis Concept
Exploring a high-quality development model of symbiotic governance that effectively balances and mutually promotes green ecology, societal humanities, and economic industries is a fundamental concern for ensuring sustainable urban development over extended periods and in expansive spatial contexts. Consequently, this has become a topic of considerable scholarly interest in the field of urban and rural planning theories and methodologies. With the continuous intensification of reform and opening-up policies by the Chinese government, coupled with the proactive promotion of rapid market economic development, the municipalities along the Chinese Eastern Railway, previously reliant on heavy industries, are now experiencing a deceleration or even stagnation in their developmental pace. These regions are currently undergoing evident urban contraction, exacerbated by geographical marginalization and a sharp decrease in population, rendering this trend increasingly severe. This study, leveraging advanced unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing technology and comprehensive multi-source, multi-dimensional spatial big data support, precisely measures the overall contraction status of the municipalities along the Chinese Eastern Railway. Furthermore, it conducts an in-depth analysis of the changing patterns in urban contraction spaces and the key influencing factors behind them. Employing scientific methodologies, such as the rational allocation of production factors and adjustments to urban spatial layouts, the research aims to construct a targeted and intelligent high-quality urban spatial development control strategy. This endeavor provides robust theoretical and practical support for the revitalization of the Northeast region and the high-quality development of similar municipalities nationwide.
Copyright (c) 2024 Yipeng Zhang, Zhiqing Zhao, Bingrui Yang http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Modernization from Road-building and Transport Planning
The urban spatial structure of the modern Hankow British Concession is vastly different from that of the adjoining Old Town. Its mode of urban planning and construction had a profound impact on the modern transformation and urban development of modern Wuhan. Previous studies have discussed the concepts of Roadism with Guangzhou as an example, but there is insufficient knowledge related to other treaty ports cities in modern China. This study uses the research methodology of urban morphology to analyse historical evidence from primary archives to investigate the "top-down" process of road-building and transport planning in the Hankow British Concession. As also, the paper discusses the evolution of road networks, block plots and architectural spaces in the Concession under the influence of the construction administration system. Road-building and transport planning was the main way in which the British colonial authorities organised the basic framework of the spatial form of the Concession, as well as an important means of governing the social space and improving the lives of the residents. The construction and development process of the road system in the Concession implies the causes, explicit characteristics and hidden order of the modern development of Hankow and Wuhan city in modern times.
Copyright (c) 2024 Jierui Lyu; Gangyi Tan; Guodong Chen http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Bauhaus Graduates’ Urban Planning in the 1950s
Graduates from the Bauhaus implemented urban planning in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia during the 1950s. We clarified their urban planning activities by analysing their designs using published reports and books. Our study reveals the following four points. First, the German Building Academy led urban planning in East Germany, and urban planners, including Edmund Collein (1906–92) and Selman Selmanagic (1905–86), held important positions, and designed new cities in East Germany. Second, in Hungary, Tibor Weiner (1906–65) designed the Sztálinváros. Weiner was involved in constructing the new socialist city of Orsk in the USSR in the 1930s. Third, Arieh Sharon (1900–84) designed 15 new cities in Israel. Fourth, graduate Konrad Püschel (1907–97) was involved in the post-war reconstruction of the North Korean city of Hamhung. All held government or academic positions and led new urban planning in East Germany, Hungary, and Israel. Bauhaus graduates commonly conducted thorough research on the nature, history, culture, and settlement of the area before urban planning using the results of their urban planning. These characteristics were influenced by the general urban planning methods of the 1950s and the analytically oriented education in Bauhaus.
Copyright (c) 2024 Hideo Tomita http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
‘Everyone knows what a first-class town should comprise’
Australian architect-planner Grahame Shaw (1928-1985) is perhaps best remembered in Melbourne as co-author of the notorious ‘Shaw-Davey’ report (1960), which consigned 410 hectares (1000 acres) of inner city housing for demolition purely on the basis of an apparently slapdash ‘windscreen survey’. These buildings were to make way for an intensive program of high rise tower blocks constructed by the state to house both extant locals and new migrants. However, even while he was working as Chief Architect for the Housing Commission of Victoria (HCV), Shaw was much more than a mere bean counter in the thrall of modernist planning. This paper examines Shaw’s involvement in two important early 1960s projects for the HCV: the rollout of the new industrial town of Churchill, 160km east of Melbourne, and the creation of the new high-rise Hotham Gardens housing estate, 3km from Melbourne’s centre. In both projects Shaw was interested in creating social spaces for new communities and eager to synthesise a global best-practice environment for community building. He brought a strong interest in high-rise housing (using London models such as Radiation House in Neasden and the proposals for a new town at Hook) to his HCV work, but also aspired to temper these with a ‘human touch’. The 1960s projects are contrasted with a later design from his private practice: the briefly notorious ‘Island City’, planned for construction adjacent to Port Melbourne. This paper is therefore an examination of international influence on, and the political and economic context for, Australian urban design in the early 1960s. It is also a study of Shaw’s particular approach. Additionally, it looks at the legacy of the Churchill and North Melbourne examples now in their seventh decade, with commentary on the future of these spaces in the 2020s.
Copyright (c) 2024 David Nichols, Ka Ling Cheung http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Influence of Educational Institutions on Early Modern Development in Suburban Tokyo, Japan
The first modern suburban development in Tokyo, Japan, is Shinmachi Residential Area in Sakura-shinmachi (1913). However, development in the same period was limited and increased in the 1920s. The background of the early development of Shinmachi Residential Area, etc., is still unclear. Therefore, this study aims to clarify the details and characteristics of this area’s modern urban planning history, thereby contributing to the inheritance of a favorable regional environment formed in the modern era. After the Jesuits began selecting lands to establish a school in Japan in 1908, there was a movement to consolidate larger lands in more suburban areas. Specifically, these were Komazawa Village and Kichijoji Village. Finally, Jesuit schools did not come there and were established in Yotsuya, Central Tokyo, as Sophia University. Later, the land in Komazawa Village was developed as Shinmachi Residential Area, and the land in Kichijoji Village was developed as a school town by Seikei Gakuen educational institution, as pioneers in suburban development. Thus, the Jesuit’s international educational involvement partially characterized early modern suburban development in the Tokyo area.
Copyright (c) 2024 Yuta Genda, Masayoshi Nagano, Naoto Nakajima http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Earliest Residential Area Planning Based on the Neighbourhood Unit Concept in Postwar Japan
The neighbourhood unit concept, proposed in the USA in 1923, was applied in city planning across the world. In Japan, it was introduced in the late 1930s, and current urban planning also uses neighbourhood unit concept as a basic theory for residential area planning. However, the advanced practice of neighbourhood unit concept, which was attempted immediately after the World War II, has not been clarified. This paper clarifies what experiments were made between standardisation studies from before the end of the war and the large-scale application of neighbourhood unit, represented by the Senri New Town development after 1960. three planning proposals were published in journals in the late 1940s and 1950s for actual suburban areas of Japanese metropolises. All were proposed by urban planners and architects, and each had a diverse and highly planned level of spatial design that reflected their own ideas. When collated against the six principles of the neighbourhood unit concept, a certain trend of principles that were faithfully followed and those that were not was apparent. The above has revealed a part of the advanced practice of the neighbourhood unit concept in post-war Japan.
Copyright (c) 2024 Joonyoung Kim, Shigeo Nakano http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A Study by Shiro Fujimura on the Planning Intentions for the Construction of Civic Center in the Castle Town City of Kofu, Japan
In Japan, as the social system underwent a transformation from the feudalistic period to the Meiji period, government office districts with a concentration of government facilities were formed in castle towns, which had been the main cities during the feudalistic period. In Kofu city, Yamanashi Prefecture, a civic center with quasi-Western-style architecture was formed by Shiro Fujimura, who was appointed as prefectural governor in 1873. The purpose of this study is to clarify the actual situation of the formation of the civic center by focusing on the Kofu civic center, which was planned by Shiro Fujimura in the early Meiji period, as well as how the spatial configuration of the castle town was read to construct public office facilities. Specifically, this study aims to 1) clarify Fujimura’s urban planning intentions based on the layout of planned and constructed government facilities, and 2) clarify the uniqueness of the Kofu civic center by comparing it with Yamagata and Utsunomiya, where planned civic centers were established by prefectural governor Michitune Mishima. The findings are as follows: 1) an L-shaped civic center was formed in front of Ote-gomon and along Tokiwa- dori in the former samurai district near the castle, with the prefectural office facing east; 2) the urban space in the civic center showed modern landscaping with street trees, waterways, road maintenance, fire prevention measures, and shared open spaces; and 3) Mishima developed a symmetrical civic center centering on the prefectural government office as a symbol of the authority of the Meiji government, while Fujimura was the first to construct a silk mill, placing importance on the development of industry, and subsequently the civic center, which was centered on the silk mill .
Copyright (c) 2024 Kenjiro Matsuura http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Study on the Evolution of Public Space in Historic Cities from the Perspective of Changing Needs of Users
As a witness and carrier of urban history, the evolution of public spaces is of significant importance for the study of urban historical and cultural preservation. Harbin, a representative historical city in Northeast China, emerged gradually in 1898 due to the construction of the Middle East Railway. During this period, Chinese and foreign nationals coexisted and jointly built the city, marking a unique historical period.This paper presents an in-depth study of the evolution of public spaces in Harbin's historical urban areas from 1898 to 1945, with a focus on changes in user needs. The paper analyses the urban construction background of Harbin, explores the changes and characteristics of user needs in public spaces, and details the evolution of Harbin's public spaces from 1898 to 1945. This encompasses the initial foundation period, functional evolution period, and cultural reshaping period. This demonstrates the construction of the public space framework, the diverse development of functions, and the integration of multifunctionality. This study not only reveals the patterns of evolution in Harbin's public spaces, but also provides valuable references for the study of public spaces in other historical cities.
Copyright (c) 2024 Zhongyang Wu, Zhiqing Zhao http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A GIS-based Study on the Distribution of Religious Buildings in Lhasa and its Historical Urban Spatial Pattern
This study examines the pivotal role of religious architecture in shaping Lhasa’s urban landscape, emphasizing Buddhism’s profound impact on the rise, development, and spatial organization of Tibetan cities. Religious architectures serve as essential nodes for public engagement with Buddhism and are central to the city’s socio-cultural fabric. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the research quantitatively and qualitatively analyzes the distribution, density, and architectural characteristics of Lhasa’s religious edifices. This approach offers a comprehensive understanding of the spatial interplay between these religious sites and the broader urban matrix. By integrating Lhasa’s natural topography and socio-historical context, the study provides insights into how geographical and cultural factors influence urban planning and architecture. The objective is to delineate the spatial symbiosis between religious architecture and Lhasa’s urban form, revealing how these structures have shaped the city’s physical and cultural landscape. Through this multidisciplinary lens, the paper aims to contribute to the broader discourse on the intersection of religion, architecture, and urban development, particularly in historically and religiously significant cities.
Copyright (c) 2024 Mengjie Chi, Yinghao Xu, Yan Wang http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
GIS-based Historical and Cultural Value Sorting and Spatial Construction
The Taihu Lake Basin is rich in historical and cultural resources, its water network pattern and settlement texture showing the historical and cultural changes of urban and rural units. This paper takes the Taihu Lake Basin as the research object, excavates historical and cultural resources, and classifies their value elements and carriers. With GIS, we identify the main natural ecological patches, cultural value points and cultural routes to form a historical and cultural spatial system based on nature and humanities, then establish a systematic global historical and cultural spatial database. Firstly, we translate the geographic data of Taihu Lake Basin through ancient texts and ancient maps, locate the elements and carriers of cultural value on the historical and cultural spatial base map, and present the formation mechanism and value connotation in the form of spatial information, so as to facilitate more intuitive knowledge and understanding of the cultural distribution and evolution law in different periods, and provide historical thinking and future development suggestions for the historical and cultural spatial construction of Taihu Lake Basin.
Copyright (c) 2024 Zuyue Liu, Yan Wang http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
From the world porcelain capital to tourist attraction
Ceramics are extremely important in Chinese culture, this craft has been present throughout chinese history since the Palaeolithic era and especially during the Ming and Qing dynasties when Chinese porcelain became popular all over the world, and, since the 13th century, Jingdezhen, a city in Jiangxi province, has been considered the porcelain capital of the world and the main production site. This article aims to analyse the strategies used in the city to revitalise historic areas and use the region's cultural heritage and creative potential as a vector for economic and urban development. Therefore, it is also essential to study Jingdezhen's current master plan, as these were the factors that enabled the success of this case. The Jingdezhen City Master Plan follows the premisses of creating an urban space guided by the ceramics, aviation and tourism industries, supported by manufacturing industries such as automobiles, machinery, home appliances, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, and with modern service industries and modern agriculture as new growth poles. This study aims to analyse the case of Jingdezhen and its practicality to be introduced in other similar cities around the world.
Copyright (c) 2024 Natacha Rena, Sara Bicalho, Vitória Murata, Dong Zhe http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Title Processes and planning of peri-urban landscapes in Spanish cities
The phenomenon of suburbanisation is as old as cities themselves, as urban history shows. However, the ways in which cities have colonised new spaces have changed over the course of time. Contemporary urban landscapes show a widespread decentralisation of tertiary activities, whereas the industrial era witnessed the exponential growth of residential and industrial peripheries. The spread of various infrastructures, particularly roads and rail, has contributed to the formation of what is now commonly called "new peripheries" or "peri-urban zones." Existing in a transitional state between the purely rural and the urban, these areas have a distinct character. The paper seeks to identify and evaluate strategies implemented in six Spanish cities in recent decades, with a view to highlighting their importance in requalifying, preserving, or revitalising heritage and eco-cultural values within twelve case studies. The analysis relies on the identification of risks and opportunities for the 12 areas studied, which were derived from a previous study. We have analysed the transformation of these areas over the last 50 years (1970-2020) from different perspectives: land use, urbanisation processes, changes in the road and rail systems, use of buildings, green and blue infrastructures, etc. This is followed by a critical examination of the existing and emerging urban planning and landscape strategies and instruments in the cities under study, particularly concerning the selected areas. The study shows that the proliferation of planning instruments alone does not guarantee the conservation or revitalisation of these peri-urban landscapes. We focus on those strategies that seek to maintain and enhance environmental and landscape quality. Open space management, sectoral policies, comprehensive interventions such as soft infrastructure, river parks or green corridors have also been analysed in landscape plans and projects. The aim is also to identify the most effective ones, which can help guide future interventions.
Copyright (c) 2024 Javier Monclús, Carmen Díez-Medina http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The evolution of Green Belt concepts in Hanoi's regional planning, 1960-2023
This article analyses the evolution of Green Belt concepts in Hanoi from a historical perspective. Through the comparison between international concepts and the practical planning local during 1960 - 2023, this paper aims to answer three main questions related to the Green Belt: First, when was the Green Belt theory introduced to Vietnam? Second, what lessons were there in the process of being introduced into Hanoi? Third, why has the Green Belt theory not been successful in practical planning? This article uses fieldwork methods and comprehensive analysis and divides three different periods: the first period (1960-1998), the second period (1998-2011), and the third period (2011-2023). The planners have found many ways to enhance Greenbelt’s role, from changing perception to changing form toward flexibility, but Greenbelt theory still can not be put into practical planning. This article adopts a comparative historical planning perspective to examine the adaptability of planning applications across diverse contexts, with a specific focus on the paradigm in the UK where this theory originated and has successfully adapted through numerous policy and institutional changes. Hanoi’s green belt had faced various challenges arising from ambiguity in green belt identification; the development of appropriate frameworks tailored to local conditions for managing the green belt as a cohesive entity, and consideration of the overall urban development layout with a long-term perspective.
Copyright (c) 2024 Theanh Dinh, Ngoc Huyen Hoang, Quynh Duong Nguyen, Thuy Trang Le http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Wind Energy in Planning Visions and Practices in Contemporary China
China is the leading player in the wind energy market, with nearly half of the current global installed wind energy capacity. Literature on wind energy development is dominated by the energy policy and engineering sciences domains and focuses on the economic and decarbonization potential of wind turbines. This paper aims to bring the actual resource (the wind) and the land on which the turbines are placed to the forefront of discussion and explore how these three components relate to each other. While wind as a natural resource is atmospheric and aterritorial, the technology that facilitates conversion into electricity is rooted in the ground. Wind energy in China was able to grow rapidly not only by way of strong state support, but also because regulations on natural reserve preservation were not strictly enforced, and wind farms were aestheticized as fitting into ecological landscapes. The paper concludes by looking forward to shifts in configurations of the resource, land, and technology prompting new path in wind energy development: turbines situated on nature reserves are mandated to be decommissioned under the concept of ecological civilisation, and various cultural meanings of wind continue to be used to rationalize the siting of wind turbines.
Copyright (c) 2024 Yuan He http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Japanese Architect Yoshikazu Uchida’s Planning Techniques for Blocks and Plots
Japanese architect Yoshikazu Uchida (1885–1972) is known for his creation of large-scale urban plans for suburban residential areas in Japan and overseas colonial settlements. This study aimed to better understand Uchida’s planning techniques for blocks and plots, and sought to clarify the formation of these techniques based on domestic and international case studies during the pre-WWII period. Using a literature survey research method, this study analysed “block and plot” materials preserved in Uchida’s collections, including a notebook in which he hand-copied from Japanese and foreign literature. Firstly, the author mainly utilized the Garden City plan (1919–1922) and a residential area plan (1933) for agricultural migrants to Manchuria to gain a better understanding of the characteristics of the blocks and plots planned by Uchida. Next, the author identified the original of his handwritten notes to show that Uchida collected examples from Japan and abroad in the pre-WWII period and compared the size and layout of blocks and plots. This study reveals that Uchida was open to overseas influences and that he developed his own planning techniques. The findings hold significance regarding the establishment of the neighbourhood unit and land readjustment in Japan.
Copyright (c) 2024 Takaaki Nakagawa http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Landscape Evolution of Historic Campuses from the Perspective of Historic Layering: A Case Study of Three University Campuses in Nanjing, China
As China's social development enters a new stage of connotative progression, campus heritage is attracting attention as an essential part of the cultural landscape in historic cities. Historic campuses are the spatial carriers of campus heritage, a superimposed collage of campus landscapes from multiple historical periods with outstanding value. Campus space presents the development history of campus planning and construction concepts, showing the unique cultural connotation. Related research has expanded from studying "points" of historic buildings to the holistic study of "surfaces" such as spatial patterns and landscape environments.With the support of "Historic Layering" and "Anchoring-Layering" in the theory of historic urban landscape (HUL), this article takes the three cases of Southeast University (Sipailou Campus), Nanjing University (Gulou Campus), and Nanjing Normal University (Suiyuan Campus) to interpret landscape evolution of historic campuses in Nanjing. Combining the technical support of campus planning and construction drawings from different decades with historical photos, documents, and on-site surveys, the dynamic process characteristics and layering rules of campus landscape are investigated under the constant collision and compromise between planning ideals and social reality.The study found that the historic campuses show the evolutionary characteristics of the hybridization and collage of multiple landscapes and the spatial and temporal correlation between architecture and environmental elements in landscape shaping from the early architectural dominance to the late architectural and environmental co-action. Moreover, different campuses have unique landscape characters, especially the pre-1949 campuses dominated by Western classicism or the Chinese-Western fusion, which has become an essential cultural gene of the campus.This can serve as a reference for cultural interpretation of the historic campus landscape's dynamic evolution and characterizing the contemporary campus space.
Copyright (c) 2024 Tingjin Wu, Jinxiu Wu, Yizhi Liu http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Planting Angsana tree, integral to Singapore's "Garden City" vision in the 1960s, provided immediate lushness, ample roadside shade, and transformed Singapore into desirable urban areas. However, as political and aesthetic visions evolved, the tree's prominence waned due to misalignment with new urban ideals and recurring disease. This paper explores this rise and fall of Angsana tree’s history along the urbanization of Singapore, intersecting the domains of nature (with a focus on plants), politics (urban planning), and space (the physical realm), and questioning how urban studies can overlook the intricate relationships between human and more-than-humans as the formation of the city is not only purely led by human's intentions but also plants' story. This study advocates for a more mobile positioning analytical framework that acknowledges the agency of more-than-human subjects and their contributions to urban transformation. It first argues that planting is a joint practice, process and a close interaction between human and more-than-humans, which helps us to go beyond the universal and simply statement of urban greening. Second, this study embodies the botanical study with historical analysis of planting Angsana, by examining how the Angsana tree's lifecycle—growth, adaptation, and eventual decay aligns with and resists human urbanization goals. This goes further shift from the traditional understanding of nature by either scientific or social constructed to contextualizing more-than-humans within the social and ecological fabric of the city.
Copyright (c) 2024 Tiantong Gu http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Urban expansion planning plays a pivotal role in orchestrating the potential development of urban spaces while accommodating the increasing population demands and fostering sustainable urban development. This paper focuses on Hanoi’s urban expansion planning practice from 1960-2020, dividing into three different stages with seven proposals: 1) the first stage(1960-1975), the planner uses a monocentric urban model in the Finger Plan; 2) the second stage(1975-1986) reflects two different planning approaches, one was inspired by planning techniques employed in the Soviet Union to develop a new center which located 30-50km away from the existing city, the other was inherited proposals from the 1960s; 3) the third stage(1986-2020) evolves a comprehensive model which combined polycentric urban model with green belts and new towns. The paper particularly analyzes the location, function, and boundaries of urban expansion areas of Hanoi by using primary and secondary materials from the Vietnam Institute for Urban and Rural Planning, the Ministry of Construction,etc. It reveals that urban expansion proposals in Hanoi are politically driven, and lack science due to relying on inaccurate population and economic forecasts.
Copyright (c) 2024 Hoai Duc Vu, Thi Huong Lan Do, Thi Thanh Thuy Hoang http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The history of urban green space system planning in the capital city of Hanoi, Vietnam (1886 - 2011)
Urban green spaces have gained increasing recognition due to industrialization, modernization, and the negative impacts of climate change. This article examines the history of urban green space system planning in Vietnam’s capital city, Hanoi, focusing on its theoretical prototype and practical planning situations from an international perspective. Aiming to alleviate the crowded and residential conditions caused by the high construction density of the central urban area in Hanoi, the Vietnamese policymakers, planners and investors proposed and formulated planning versions of urban green space to improve its urban congestion and environmental issues. Using the case of urban green space system planning of Hanoi during the French modern planning influence period (1886 - 1954), the Soviet Union planning influence period (1954 - 1991), and the globalization period (1991 - 2011), this article examines urban green space system planning which authorities developed for the capital city of Hanoi in three different periods. By analyzing planning concepts, planning policy, and implementation situations of planning, this article argues that urban green space system planning aims to improve the urban environment quality and create green and leisure spaces for residents. Throughout this trajectory, urban green space planning in Vietnam has undergone continuous transformations. However, in terms of the actual construction and implementation, green space projects in Hanoi city are difficult to succeed due to the issues of urban land using policies, misconceptions arising from diverse perceptions, and the absence of long-term vision.
Copyright (c) 2024 Xiaogeng Ren, Thi Hoa Ly Le, Thu Trang Doan http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0