Urban Spaces

Resumen
Este artículo presenta un análisis sobre las formas a partir de las cuales un grupo de jóvenes se vincula con su barrio en el centro-sur de Bogotá. Se parte de una comprensión del habitar como un proceso central en la construcción de subjetividades, según la cual se revisa críticamente el contexto contemporáneo marcado por la individualización y el desarraigo a través de las maneras en que estos sujetos han introyectado dichos discursos en su experiencia cotidiana. Con ello queda planteada una serie de retos para pensar la cohesión y la apropiación del espacio urbano en medio de una época caracterizada por la fragmentación social. La metodología de la investigación se sustentó en una perspectiva cualitativa que permitió conocer los relatos de las y los jóvenes y a partir de allí, comprender sus principales encuentros, desencuentros y configuraciones simbólicas sobre su contexto espacial.

Palabras clave: Juventud, desintegración, barrio, identidad, espacio urbano

Abstract
This paper presents the analysis about the ways in which a group of youngsters builds a relationship with the neighborhood in the Central-South area of Bogota. By understanding that dwelling is a central process on subjectivities construction, it critically goes over the current context which is characterized by individualization and uprooting, taking as a basis the ways in which these subjects have introjected these discourses in their daily life experience. This situation supposes a series of challenges to think cohesion and space appropriation in a time that is characterized by social fragmentation. The methodology of the research was based on a qualitative perspective that allowed to know the narrations of the youngsters in order to understand their main encounters and symbolic configurations about their spatial context. 

Key Words: Youth, disintegration, neighborhood, identity, urban spaces


Resumo
O artigo visa apresentar a análise dos vínculos de um grupo de jovens com seus bairros, localizados na zona centro-sul de Bogotá, capital da Colômbia. O habitar, como um processo central na construção de subjetividades, entende criticamente o contexto contemporâneo marcado pela individualização e desenraizamento das maneiras pelas quais os sujeitos introduziram aqueles discursos em sua experiência cotidiana. Coloca-se uma série de desafios para pensar a coesão e apropriação do espaço urbano no meio de uma época caracterizada pela fragmentação social. A metodologia da pesquisa baseou-se numa perspectiva qualitativa que permitiu conhecer as histórias dos jovens e daí, compreender seus principais encontros, discordâncias e configurações simbólicas com seu contexto espacial.

Palavras chave: Juventude, desintegração, bairro, identidade, espaço urbano


Résumé
Cet article présente l'analyse des relations entre un groupe de jeunes et leur quartier du Centre-Sud de Bogotá. En comprenant la vie comme un processus central dans la construction des subjectivités, le contexte contemporain marqué par l'individualisation et le déracinement est revu de manière critique à partir de la façon dont ces sujets ont introjecté ces discours dans leur expérience quotidienne. Avec cela, une série de défis sont posés pour réfléchir à la cohésion et l'appropriation de l'espace urbain au milieu d'une ère caractérisée par la fragmentation sociale. La méthodologie de recherche a basé sur une perspective qualitative qui a permis de connaître les histoires des jeunes et, de là, comprendre leurs principales rencontres, désaccords et configurations symboliques sur leur contexte spatial.

Mots-clés : Jeunesse, désintégration, quartier, identité, espace urbain

This paper focuses on the urban graffiti painted with a political message by different
movements of the Italian political radicalism in the cities of Rome, Florence, Massa,
Carrara, Verona and Udine. For the purpose of this article, during the period from June
2011 to June 2012, a total of 165 graffiti have been photographed, of which 83 painted by
neo-fascist groups, 72 by extreme left groups and 10 by anarchist groups. These three
macro communities, made of different subgroups, emerged as the most active in expressing
their antagonism towards the parliamentary parties with their graffiti that combine semantic
(words) and semiotic (images) elements. An analysis of the collected graffiti’s language
form, meaning and context allows for the identification of the variety of styles of
communication adopted by the different political antagonisms and the different contents of
their communication through graffiti as well as the key elements of their political identities.
Key words: political radicalism, graffiti, linguistics

The reputation of Agha Shahid Ali, the Kashmiri-American poet, as a poet of exile is well established. Much of his poetry deals with themes of loss, lamentation, and longing where he speaks in a powerful voice about the plight of people of Kashmir. Shahid’s personal memories are not only of Kashmir but also of Delhi, the city where he was born, studied, taught, and published his first collection of poems. In his poems about Delhi he revisits both old Delhi and New Delhi: he roams around the city, listens to Qawwali at Saint Nizamuddin’s mausoleum, meets Muslim butchers, remembers his parents, remembers Shahjahan, and recites Bahadur Shah Zafar’s poem. This article investigates the representations and recollections of Delhi in Agha Shahid Ali’s poems and explores the city’s centrality in understanding socio-cultural history, the importance of particular individuals, and spatial specificity. It studies how the poet explores the city in relation to its languages, histories (the Rebellion of 1857, Partition, post-Partition), and cultures (Mughal and modern). I further investigate how Ali’s literary cartography of Delhi is influenced both by indigenous genres such as Shehr Ashob and the modern English poetic tradition, and how certain Indo-Islamic tropes become central to the poet’s literary memorialization of India’s capital city.

The discourse of untouchability has received much academic attention in post-colonial India from sociologists like M.N. Srinivas to Gopal Guru in the recent past. Guru, unlike his predecessors, has tried to develop a space for interrogation of different theoretical concepts from the viewpoint of the category ‗dalit‘. In one of his works, he proposes the need for the development of an archaeological framework for the study of the phenomenon of untouchability. Saying that, he mentions that such a study can only take place where untouchability is not openly practiced (unlike in rural areas where untouchables have to mark their body and spaces they inhabit). Following Guru‘s initial steps, I shall try to formulate the archaeology of untouchability in a modern urban space like Calcutta.

Taking a look at two contemporary TV series, The Walking Dead and Survivors, this article argues that the recent revival of post-apocalyptic fiction relies on the appropriation of empty and fragmented spaces, which function as subtle vehicles of ideologies such as discourses of security, bodily integrity and the neoliberal politics of late capitalism in Western societies. The visual representation of abandoned spaces and the rebuilding of a spatial order that has the characters following a nomad-like existence both historicise and renormalize the moral dilemmas of the post-apocalypse not only by offering a powerful social commentary of what it means to (re-)connect with a changed environment but also through seemingly rendering the catastrophe a familiar phenomenon.

""Along with the development and widespread access to mobile technologies - smartphones, tablets, notebooks, GPS, Wi-Fi, RFID technologies as well as the growing number and diversity of media located in the city, such as urban screens and façades, interactive billboards and installations, media users’ relationships with urban spaces has become more sophisticated. Converging media spaces emerge from the complex relations between devices, content, as well as business and users’ daily activities in urban spaces. These spaces conceptualized as processes or rather events based on users’ experiences allow to indicate the emerging multiplied loci. Converging media spaces emerge  in multilaterally mediatized cities and mobile media urbanization – of which the interactive maps are the best example. All of these processes take place in the context of blurring boundaries and the merging of daily activities. The analyzes presented below was based on materials gathered in New York City in November 2010 by the researcher as a foreign observer and were supplemented by materials from different internet sources collected after the visit (articles, films, photos). The analysis includes the characteristics of physical (material), virtual (digital), and augmented spaces. Furthermore, it pays attention to the meaning of emerging in-betweens. The cultural implications of widgets, switching  and overlaying are also introduced.
Keywords
new media, urban media, media convergence, media space""

Konwergujące przestrzenie medialne : wprowadzenie do wyłaniającego się pola badawczego

Wraz z rozwojem i upowszechnieniem dostępu do technologii mobilnych: smartfonów, tabletów, notebooków, GPS, Wi-Fi, RFID, jak i rosnącą rolą wielu zróżnicowanych mediów zlokalizowanych w mieście, jak ekrany miejskie, fasady, interaktywne billboardy, instalacje, relacje użytkowników mediów z przestrzeniami miejskimi stały się bardziej wyszukane. Konwergujące przestrzenie medialne wyłaniają się ze złożonych relacji między mobilnymi urządzeniami, zawartością mediów, jak i instytucjami komercyjnymi oraz codziennymi aktywnościami użytkowników w przestrzeni miejskiej. Przestrzenie te, konceptualizowane jako procesy lub raczej wydarzenia oparte na doświadczeniach użytkowników, pozwalają wskazać wyłaniające się „miejsca zwielokrotnione". Konwergujące przestrzenie miejskie wyłaniają się z wielostronnie mediatyzowanych miast i urbanizacji mediów mobilnych, a ich najlepszym przykładem są interaktywne mapy. Wszystkie procesy zachodzą w kontekście zacierania granic i łączenia codziennych aktywności. Prezentowane w artykule analizy zostały oparte na materiałach pozyskanych przez badacza jako zewnętrznego obserwatora w Nowym Jorku w listopadzie 2010 roku i zostały następnie uzupełnione materiałami pochodzącymi z różnych źródeł internetowych (artykułów, filmów, zdjęć). Analizy zawierają charakterystykę fizycznych (materialnych) i wirtualnych (cyfrowych) przestrzeni. Ponadto zwracają uwagę na znaczenie wyłaniających się „elementów pomiędzy" (in-betweens). Ponadto wprowadzono koncepcje „kultury widżetu", „przełączania" i „nakładania".

Resumo

A construção do habitat social apoia-se numa visão ampla que compreende não somente o lugar de moradia, como tudo o que contribui para o habitar do cidadão. Este artigo coloca em evidência o conflito que se revela quando o déficit habitacional empurra parcelas da população a ocupar áreas sob proteção restritiva, seja ela ambiental ou sociocultural. É o caso do Parque Armando de Holanda Cavalcanti, em Pernambuco, no qual o conflito entre residentes e gestores públicos decorre da ocupação da área e da necessidade de sua conservação ambiental e cultural do lugar. As ações de conservação resultam das formas como residentes e técnicos julgam os bens patrimoniais conforme suas necessidades e interesses. Com base na análise do processo de tombamento do Parque, busca-se identificar seus valores patrimoniais e, confrontando-os com narrativas de residentes, compreender os conflitos. Os resultados parciais demonstram que, enquanto técnicos e gestores enfatizam valores relacionados à essência dos bens, os residentes desejam explorá-los com vistas ao desenvolvimento local. Portanto, a conservação depara-se com o desafio de conciliar interesses e encontrar equilíbrio entre proteção e instrumentalização dos bens culturais.

Palavras-chave: conservação do patrimônio cultural, espaço urbano, patrimônio cultural

Resumen

La construcción del hábitat social se basa en una visión amplia que incluye no solo la vivienda, sino todo lo que contribuye al vivir del ciudadano. Este artículo destaca el conflicto que se revela cuando el déficit de vivienda empuja a porciones de la población a ocupar áreas bajo protección restrictiva, ya sea ambiental o sociocultural. Este es el caso del Parque Armando de Holanda Cavalcanti, en Pernambuco, en el cual el conflicto entre residentes y gestores públicos resulta de la ocupación del área y de la necesidad de conservación ambiental y cultural del lugar. Las acciones de conservación resultan de las formas como residentes y técnicos juzgan los bienes patrimoniales en conformidad con sus necesidades e intereses. Basado en el análisis del proceso de reconocimiento del Parque, se busca a identificar los valores patrimoniales y, confrontándolos con las narrativas de los residentes, comprender los conflictos. Los resultados parciales demuestran que, mientras técnicos y gestores enfatizan valores relacionados con la esencia de los bienes, los residentes desean explorarlos con vistas al desarrollo local. Luego, la conservación tiene el desafío de conciliar intereses y encontrar el equilibrio entre la protección y la instrumentalización de los bienes culturales.

Palabras clave: conservación del patrimonio cultural, espacio urbano, patrimonio cultural

Abstract

The construction of the social habitat is based on a broader vision that includes not only the place of residence, but everything that will contribute to the citizen’s life. This article highlights the conflict that occurs when the housing deficit pushes portions of the population to occupy areas under restrictive protection, whether environmental or socio-cultural. This is the case of the Armando de Holanda Cavalcanti Park, in Pernambuco, where the conflict between residents and public managers is due to the occupation of the area and the need for conservation of the environmental aspects and historical-cultural testimonies. The conservation actions result from the way that residents and specialists consider the cultural heritage according to their needs and interests. Based on the analysis of the Park’s listing process, this paper seeks to identify the cultural heritage values for the Park and, confronting them with residents’ narratives, to understand the conflicts. Partial results demonstrate that, while technicians and managers emphasize values related to the essence of the heritage, residents want to explore it with a view to local development. Therefore, conservation is faced with the challenge of reconciling interests and finding a balance between protection and instrumentalization of cultural assets.

Keywords: cultural heritage preservation; urban spaces; cultural heritage


Résumé

La construction de l’habitat social inclut non seulement le lieu de résidence, mais aussi tout ce qui contribue à la vie du citoyen. Cet article met en évidence le conflit qui se révèle lorsque le déficit de logements pousse des franges de la population à occuper des zones sous protection restrictive, qu’elle soit environnementale ou socioculturelle. C’est le cas du parc Armando de Holanda Cavalcanti, dans lequel le conflit entre habitants et gestionnaires publics découle du fait de l’occupation de la zone et de la nécessité de la préserver. Les actions de conservation résultent de la manière dont les résidents et les techniciens jugent les biens culturels en fonction de leurs besoins et intérêts. Appuyé sur l’analyse du processus d’inscription du Parc, cet article cherche à identifier ses valeurs patrimoniales et, en les confrontant aux récits des habitants, à comprendre les conflits. Les résultats partiels démontrent que les techniciens et les managers mettent l’accent sur des valeurs liées à l’essence des biens, tandis que les habitants souhaitent les exploiter dans une perspective de développement local. Par conséquent, la conservation est confrontée au défi de concilier les intérêts et de trouver un équilibre entre la protection et l’instrumentalisation des biens culturels.

Mots-clés: conservation du patrimoine culturel, espace urbain, patrimoine culturel

This chapter focuses on the potential of the multilingual city to create spaces in which monolingual hegemonies may be challenged, inclusive, intercultural values may be nurtured, and plurilingualism may be valorized. Following a contextualisation of linguistic diversity in theories of globalisation and superdiversity, the chapter addresses discourses of deficit and power, arguing that the problematisation of multilingualism and pathologisation of plurilingualism reflect a monolingual habitus. Bringing about a shift towards a plurilingual habitus requires a Deep Approach, as it involves a critical revaluing of deep-seated dispositions. It suggests that the city offers spaces, which can engender interlinguality, a construct that includes interculturality, criticality and a commitment to creative and flexible use of other languages in shared, pluralistic spaces. It then proposes critical, participatory and ethnographic research in three multidimensional spaces: the urban school and a potential interlingual curriculum; networks, lobbying for inclusive policy and organising celebratory events in public spaces; and grassroots-level local spaces, some created by linguistic communities to exercise agency and maintain their languages and cultures, and some emerging as linguistically hybrid spaces for convivial encounter.

This draft section from the book:

Exploring the Production of Urban Space: Differential Space in Three Post-Industrial Cities

explores Henri Lefebvre's concept of the right to the city. Many Anglo-American researchers, activists and social movements
encounter right to the city ideas first through the English translation of
a Lefebvre essay in Lefebvre (1996). This provides a brief but powerful
explication of facets of the concept. Lefebvre always saw urban life
and urban space through a neo-Marxian practico-theoretical lens.
Importantly, his right to the city ideas have two aspects: first, abstract,
theoretical or strategic rights; and second, concrete, practical rights
(Aalbers and Gibb 2014: 208). They stress that chief among the abstract
rights is the ‘priority of use value’ in the production of space, that is, in
general terms cities should satisfy primarily the range of human needs
of city dwellers rather than create excess profit through neo-capitalist
accumulation. It is significant, but rarely remarked, that Lefebvre saw
the right to the city being asserted in the context of the struggle for
differential space.

The presence of pedestrians in urban spaces creates social life and character. Today, the number of these pedestrians has decreased because most people do not use walkways. They instead use motorcars as an alternative to commute. This new trend have diminished walkway's activity and blighted urban life quality. Urban planners endeavor to find out the best way to eliminate roadway and convert to walkway, in order to recreate this livelihood to the city center. It becomes necessary to have this urban character that able to attract people to use pedestrian walkways as an indication to successful urban place. The case study of this paper is at Imam Bazaar located at Ahwaz city, Iran. The problem of this case study is that the number of pedestrians has decreased, and less people use the walkways. The use of pedestrian walkways is now limited to shopping activity and passerby. Based on attributive and field data, a survey is made on considering users' requirement and behavior to improve the quality of pedestrian walkways. The analysis relies on descriptive and experimental methodology. In conclusion, this research findings and contributions of the study will be used to improve the role of pedestrian walkways.

Urban Spaces had played an important role in the individuals' psychological life and in their integration with their environment as it's considered as the mediator through which the interactions between people with each other and with their natural environment, they can exchange their cultures and spread activities. Despite its importance, many communities suffer from the absence of positive communication between individuals and place they belong to or lack of happiness while being in it. The reason for that is the ignorance of some urban designer to the role of the humanity in the process of the design and its impact on the formation of the urban spaces, though through urban design the complexities of the place can be managed and a general framework for change can be created by designing a compatible and sustainable space for users depending on the events and activities located in it that show political, social and economic transformations that occurs to the communities and affect the social development for individuals. Although there are social diversity among members of the same community but it was observed that there is a similarity in their behaviors towards certain positions, which expresses their culture. Social celebrations (Festivals) are considered the most effective patronize for social formats impact on the spatial formation, as it helps in supporting the idea of individuals' belonging to the place since the human there is the main sponsor for forming the spaces that contain all the activities and events that may be specific or temporary with a time or an event, and thus it was essential to show physical and non-physical components for space formation in order to gain access to identify the reciprocal relationship between the individual and the place and highlight the most important and successful spatial expressions that help boost the spirit of communication between individuals and develop a sense of belonging to the place. The paper examines how the dynamics of social life at the local scale are shaped by the special spatial arrangements created for urban festival events by the observation of the social changes impact on the resulting urban transformations during festival and its role in individuals' sense of belonging substation.

The age of Urbanization is pushing built environment of cities in countries like India to the limit. Cities and urban spaces have more users than ever. The quality of existing urban spaces has declined. New urban spaces often fail to resonate with the scale of city or only limited to certain buildings like malls, losing their association with all classes of city. It is essential that urban spaces are associated with the city's regional patterns and scales to avoid alienation, over or under scaling of spaces. Pulsating urban spaces are existing urban spaces in a city where physical qualities, activities, elements and users have evolved and they still seem to positively respond the activities, element, users and infrastructure requirement to certain extent. These spaces essentially have supported public life for many years and continue to do so. The study examines the significance of the existing pulsating urban spaces of the city, traditional and contemporary; which later aims comprehensive understanding of the scale in the instrumentation of the urban spaces along with the influence of the regional spatial identities experienced, interpreted and documented in the research process. The research is divided in four stages. Stage one considers Pulsating Urban Spaces, their characters, types while stating their significance in the City. Second stage is an attempt to develop method to map such spaces. The third stage evaluates their spatial significance in the region. The final stage includes a case of Pulsating Urban space with possible mapping of such spaces in the same city. The study focuses the factors of improvisation of newer spaces. The study specifically considers Pulsating Urban spaces from Indian context only. The surveys included in the study are entirely qualitative and subjective.

Urban spaces are the place of social life of the community, based on rational thinking values, civic participation of the community and social behavior based on human values. Urban spaces are the context of the formation and strengthening of social communication in order to establish a sense of security and trust in the public space, on the other hand, public places are important for the formation of ritual events, which help to establish social interaction in these spaces. Space and behavior, due to factors affecting each other, they affect the presence of individuals and the occurrence of social activities. Urban design can be done in a way to occur easy communication and greater trust between acquaintances and strangers. Urban spaces have an important role to create a happy city. These spaces can provide different variety of opportunities for citizens to experience joy and happiness. There is a close relationship between personal happiness, social happiness, and a happy city. Considering the importance and emphasis on social interaction in happy urban spaces, this paper seeks to achieve the qualitative criteria, which can influence on promotion of social interaction in happy urban spaces. Regarding to the subject of this study, descriptive-analytic research method has been used for this article. This research recognizes the relationship between happy urban spaces and social interaction, it is based on a theoretical framework that will be useful for measuring the indicators of a happy city to promote social interaction in urban spaces.

Cairo is considered one of the main growing cities in the Arab world today. Conventional planning has failed to direct this growth towards creating sustainable urban environments for all, and has instead encouraged lopsided development that caters only to the affluent sections. This trend has affected public urban spaces as well, which are now centered on consumption and dependant on heavy investment in real estate and technology. This has a considerable impact on the spectrum of socio-economic groups that are able to access and use them. Taking as a starting point the principles and concept of Green Urbanism, the paper questions the prevalent situation, and focuses on three aspects that have been ignored in recent approaches in recent development plans. The first (Green Urbanism) is explored as a main principles to revitalize the second (Public Spaces), in order to achieve the third (Sustainable Model) as a long term goal. This is done using analysis and design in parallel, and results in a proposal for a new design process and through it, scale specific design solutions for Cairo public spaces that will create a high quality of life for the people of the heavily populated, demographically diverse and socio-economically fragmented city.

Abstract
Much attention has been paid to Naples as the setting of Elena Ferrante’s novels. But her tetralogy "My Brilliant Friend" (2011-2014) features a narrative frame set in the city of Turin. Turin is also the topographic background of her second novel, "The Days of Abandonment" (I giorni dell’abbandono, 2002). In this article, I examine Ferrante’s spatial poetics by charting the walking routes of Olga, the narrator of "The Days of Abandonment." I approach "The Days of Abandonment" as a spatial story, a narrative contingent on the protagonist’s walking in the city, on her body’s negotiating a hostile urban cityscape. I traverse the novel’s urban text punctuated by concrete sites––fountains and street intersections, urban signs and graffiti, public urinals and bronze monuments—to locate the novel’s narrative events on Turin’s map. The itineraries that I trace position Olga in a real-life topography that oppresses her body and psyche. This plotting of her body onto Turin’s map offers a topographic lens through which to explore urban space and culture as they inform the feminine physical and psychic landscapes in a contemporary Italian cityscape. Read through its itineraries and urban sites, The Days of Abandonment constitutes a feminine walking tour of Turin, mapping the intersections of women’s bodies and cityscapes.

Keywords: Elena Ferrante, Turin, The Days of Abandonment, spatial story, walking, city map, topography, feminine psyche

In order of creating a sustainable urbanisation process, maintaining the unique identity and the evolution of local places is among other, very fundamental. Meanwhile, the notion that enframing architecture is a must, in order of producing an appearance of order and identity must be reconsidered. This study aims at investigating local and place identities of historic Cairo in terms of the visual impact of prominent buildings on central spaces, the visual dynamic and static qualities of their spatial context. Prominent buildings and central spaces are gathered from historic maps, indexes and historic literature analysed and described according to their relationship to spatial identity and visual impact. The inventory presented a clear tendency for adapting intimate and soft visual impacts for prominent buildings. The wide use of both the trapezoid and the rectangle shapes presented a dynamic identity which helps in softening the visual impact of prominent buildings. The citadel area presents a clear power-demonstration identity. While a significant portion of prominent buildings in historic Cairo showed a tendency for creating celebrative and monumental visual impacts, their physical and spatial context played a significant role in softening such impacts or even eliminating some of them.

This paper is an attempt to present the role of environmental graphics in the outdoor life and it provides general information about the environment and the graphics of that area and it also expresses the existing problems in the society. The main purpose of this paper is to lead city authorities to beautify the city with the easiest method and using fundamental forms, designs and coordinating them all together and the surrounding areas. Besides, the paper aims at analyzing certain problems associated with urban spaces. The beautification effort can elevate social culture in the form of commercial, cultural, and advertising purposes. It also identifies items in urban space like: benches, recycle bins, squares, transportation stations, and monuments and statues as part of improving urban environment and it tries to find a coordination among all possible designs

Sulla città nella condizione Covid-19, sono stati mossi argomenti diversi e di grande interesse. C'è chi ha scelto di guardare indietro, ricordando quello che la pandemia ci ha sottratto e potremmo non rivedere più; chi ha deciso di osservare il presente, segnalando ciò che della vita urbana permane malgrado tutto, qualcosa che dovremmo difendere e riqualificare; chi ha preferito allestire previsioni, gettando lo sguardo sul futuro, formulando vaticini e scenari attesi. Io propongo un esercizio un po' diverso. Assumo un'ipotesi: la città è un oggetto tenace, capace di resistere agli shock. La sua tenacia è una dotazione, tanto più ricca ed estesa, quanto maggiore è l'attenzione che mettiamo nella sua cura e riproduzione. Leggere la città in questo modo consente di discernere, tra le interpretazioni su ciò che avremmo perso, quelle rilevanti da quelle che mi paiono un abbaglio; affermare con maggiore fondamento ciò che oggi, a mio avviso, è opportuno trattenere; indicare la prospettiva sulla quale varrebbe la pena investire. Dichiaro un prestito sul titolo: lo prendo da un saggio di Melvin Webber del 1996, Tenacious Cities. Il punto di partenza è che, malgrado il continuo avanzamento tecnologico renda la comunicazione a distanza sempre più facile ed economica, le relazioni basate sulla prossimità fisica continuano a rappresentare una parte importante della nostra vita. Ciò che conta più di tutto per noi è l'accessibilità al lavoro, alle scuole, agli ambulatori, alle attività ricreative, agli amici e ai parenti. Seguendo Webber, considero dunque l’accessibilità la principale dotazione dell’urbano, oggi investita e ridefinita nel profondo da Covid-19. A partire da questo punto, provo ad articolare il mio contributo.

Scholarly discussions about bottom-up urban design have tended to gloss over the issue of unsanctioned spaces used for the production of insurgent urban aesthetics. Part of the reason for this is that any discussion about fostering or even acknowledging impromptu and unplanned art spaces is an oxymoron. Nevertheless, I argue that the production of insurgent artscapes should be discussed as a necessary part of theorizing a free and civil society that thrives on variants of informality ( Mukhija and Loukaitou-Sideris 2014 ) and the creative efforts of do-it-yourself place-makers ( Iveson 2013 ; Douglas 2018 ; Heim LaFrombois 2018 ). There is a need for a critical discussion about the existence of unsanctioned, uncommissioned, and unfunded art, and how its producers actively occupy and transform public space.

This paper is submitted as the final assignment of the Urban Design Strategies course, which is focused in the strategic characteristics of the urban project. The course is part of the Master of Urbanism and Strategic Planning at KU Leuven.

The essay situates the Hongqiao Central Business District in Shanghai, designed by MVRDV, in the contemporary discussion on architecture and Urbanism. In the manuscript is presented the general information of the project and the identification of the design challenges and themes MVRDV is addressing in the design and development of the urban project. Based on the description and graphic analysis of these
challenges and themes developed in the project, it is elucidated the concepts and strategies of the project and the way in which the design theme is addressed.

As a complementary analysis the Hongqiao Central Business District in Shanghai as a study case is compared with two projects of reference and two key texts which addressed the same theme and urban design strategies. The exploration and analysis about the Hongqiao Central Business District in Shanghai evaluates the relevance and pertinence of the design theme, addressed by the project, in relation to the contemporary design discussion on architecture and urbanism.

This paper aims to reflect the problem of gangs and their relationship with urban space in the urban wars scenery that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s in densely populated cities, as well as discuss the adequacy of explanations on the phenomenon of violence and delinquency, in some contexts, from the concept of subculture. Starts with the conceptualization and characterization of gangs, presenting them as one of the central figures in the new type of violent conflict that erupts in the urban centers around the world and relate their institutionalization in neighbourhood with the idea of ‘Retreat of the State’in poorest urban zones, as well as presenting the position of some families in relation to their activities.

International Meetings of the Middle Ages in Nájera have been proposed as an international congress in the field of study and dissemination of Medieval History since 2003.

This NEIM 2021 edition will take place in an offsite virtual environment, due to COVID'19.

Social theory and historical research about the use of space in towns has shown that the production of space was a gradual process. Urban space is not simply a demarcated arena, bound perhaps by something substantial like a wall and shaped by a built environment, but it was also the result of an on-going process of production. The memory of a physical border, cultural traditions of citizens, and social practices taking place within the city shaped urban space. The key to understanding this ordering powerlines in the concept of relational space, which is fundamental to understanding cultural transfers. Space is not a rigid container, but rather the result of construction processes and thus relational. Relational space emerges through connections between various objects, people, concepts, rules and places, which is also a fundamental concept to understanding cultural transfers. Thus, it has physical and social or cultural components. Furthermore, it was born of customs and laws but also driven by the demands of the streets. Space was 'lived' and produced by the people living in towns.

In this conference we will focus on the social use of urban space in the late medieval period, an era in which (the spatial centre of) many of the present-day European towns was shaped. It wants to study how urban space was produced, constrained, and defined between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries with a comparative European perspective. In this period, citizens challenged the power of territorial and ecclesiastical lords, and therefore urban communities acquired authority within certain spatial boundaries. But also within city walls space was highly contested. Spaces there became highly differentiated, laden with specific, if multiple meanings that could both signal and confer identity, status, and authority. Political contest, social change, and cultural constructions not only took place 'in urban space', but also produced space and emerged from prior spatial productions or constructions. The performance of rituals, prestigious building activities, the public punishment of citizens, etc. were the symbolic and spatial expression of the urban community, both acquiring power from its location and at the same time conferring power on that space.

Much of this has been studied from a top-down perspective: royal and ecclesiastical authorities, regional lords, or mighty urban families have defined urban space. Yet, recent research has shown that the bottom-up perspective is a valid one as well: ordinary citizens gave meaning to the places in which they lived, they created market space for economic activities, and they constructed houses or organized the cleaning and safety control of neighborhoods. This conference wants to combine both perspectives. Sometimes the interests of commoners collided with those of the authorities (for instance when military needs forced them to undertake important building activities), on other occasions social conflict arose about the use of space (for instance when citizens appropriated space during political or religious conflicts). As a result, this conference is not so much about how the urban space looked like, but more about how it was shaped, used and lived by citizens, both the governors of towns as well as their inhabitants.

We want to study

-how spatial constructions are appropriated by people;
-how social and economic practices confer rights on the users of space;
-how people acquire power through the ritual use of space;
-how urban communities define and defend themselves with building activities;
-how urban elites and ordinary citizens governed and organized urban neighborhoods;
-how existing spatial configurations determine the course of political contests, and vice versa;
-how institutions and governance processes influenced and modified waterfronts in port cities;
-how were the social uses of port spaces.
-how cultural manifestations change the meaning of space;
-how gendered the use of space could be.

Abstract— Rapid growth of world tourism like an industry has caused that governments consider the world tourism as an important factor in growth and development of local and national economy. According to the special importance of city, city is the fundamental part of tourism development in many developed countries in this industry. It is obvious that creation and expansion of suitable urban spaces as well as reconstructing ruined places and apparently dead ones are some of the effects of urban spatial –skeletal development. Geographical areas have got their own features based on the natural and world-tourism activity field, so their organization seems necessary because of their roles and touristic functions with spatial – skeletal outlook. In other words, human beings have been engaged in creation and formation and they create various shapes of urban spaces. In this research, it has been tried to analyze and investigate the features, characteristics and generally the physical and skeletal situation of old and new parts of Sar`ein from different aspects and according to accessible and extractable information. Additionally, mass entrance of tourists to the city which is more than the current city capacities has caused some problems such as urban traffic, crowds and inappropriate social interactions, increasing in prices of goods and service which dissatisfy the dwellers and tourists. Therefore, in this research, description and arranging the urban spaces and reconstructing the touristic and non-touristic spaces, determining the above spaces, along with appropriate solutions, keeping the urban spaces with regard to historical identity and presenting suitable development patterns in order to assess the urban space –skeletal expansion according to its touristic role have been investigated and studied.

Keywords— Tourism Development, Urban Spaces, Spatial Development, Economic Development, City of Sar`ein

Weiss and Manfredi close the talk by discussing the Seattle Art Museum, which was a complex and dynamic re-crafting of three disconnected sites (industrial site at the water’s edge) through a process of folding back and forth down to the waterfront. The journey through the landscape stitches the fragmented sites together to provide the experience of sculptural art. What comes through very clearly in the presentation of their body of work is the blurring of disciplinary boundaries. Their work is committed to simultaneous agendas of ecology, infrastructure planning, urban design, landscape, architecture, and interior. It is not a box ticking exercise, as all these commitments are filtered through community, identity, and local history, which gives the projects their civic orientation. The experiential dimension of their projects, notes Manfredi, is underpinned by a cinematic quality. This highlights not only the element of surprise and discovery, but also the dynamic, layered, and grafted quality of urban experience. Composed entirely a monochrome palette and forms that hark back to High Modernism, Weiss/Manfredi’s projects are perhaps deliberately low on visual delight, as they provide the backdrop as well as the terrain for the performance of civic life, which is what animates their architecture.

For Lefebvre, the state and its constituent institutions call for urban spaces but they do not act alone or with impunity in the production of space and their specific requirements are often contested. This was certainly the case in Lowell as the city entered a critical phase of post-industrial reimagining and transformation in the late 1960s. If we are to take seriously Lefebvre’s invocation to scrutinise the histories of the production of urban space, then of course the context in which the concept of the Lowell National Historical Park (LNHP) emerges in the 1970s becomes a critical historical moment requiring investigation. I argue in this chapter that this history was not an inevitable linear procession but rather involved a series of precursor projects and initiatives involving struggles of different spatial coalitions with greater or lesser support from the public sector. After explaining the emergence of Model Cities, in this chapter archival and interview data are used to dig beneath the surface of Model Cities to examine the importance of two neglected production of public space projects: the Western Canal beautification and Ecumenical Plaza. Lowell city council (LCC) has been criticised for its complicity in the destruction of significant historic buildings through the urban renewal programmes of the 1960s, particularly the loss of the Merrimack Mills Company factories and the boarding houses at Dutton Street. This chapter examines a positive contribution of LCC to post-industrial reimagining; the establishment of the Lowell Historic District Commission, an idea rejected initially.

The project is an attempt on radical imagination. The current social, political and economic climates sometimes make one feel like the future has been cancelled, but can an alternative be imagined?
The project is based on three motivational questions:  (How) do we address the complexity and the future?; (How) do we rise from the collapse of collective imagination?; (How) do we address the rise of temporalities of urgencies, the “anthropomeme” and posthuman condition? By exploring these questions in theory studies and case analyses, a theoretical framework and a socio-spatial strategy are established. These narratives are implemented in the project site - Brussels North Quarter.
The theory study is focused on six core themes: systems and networks, commons, radical imagination, alternative practices, humans and other users, and post-capitalism. Three of these themes form the core of the theoretical framework and address the motivational questions. Commons systems, radical imagination and users.  Commons are approached with a systematic perspective, Specifically through theorisation of commons as systems by Massimo de Angelis. In commons systems theory three essential elements of the system are outlined:  Commons as in goods, or commonwealth; Community - a plurality of commoners; and the act of commoning itself. Radical imagination becomes the overarching concept. It is seen here as a collective action in imagining alternative futures. The subject user is approached through a post-anthropocentric perspective. In the future, the human is no longer the dominant subject. Different biological and technological species form strong ties through significant otherness and thus create companion species. To explore the motivational questions further radical imaginations of the '60s were investigated.
In Socio-spatial imagination strategy grounds are established for imagining the future of the North Quarter. First, the abstract timeframe of the project is established through Future history, which is a set of events that outline important developments concerning social units (actors, users) and conception of space, which form two sides of the new imagined socio-spatial arrangement. Second, new socio-spatial units are defined: free radicals, commons systems, symbiotic commons systems and meta-commonality systems. With these strategies, 4 symbiotic commons systems in the context of the focus site of the North Quarter are imagined, as well as meta-commonality infrastructure which connects different commons systems.
As the imagination of the future, 6 different perspectives of the alternative vision for Brussels North Quarter are explored. Starting with a broad view of the four World Trade Center blocks, followed by 4 explorations of 4 different ministries and finishing with the exploration of the infrastructure that connects them.