Urban Space Station

Urban Space Station, investigación llevada al cabo en colaboración con X Clinic de la Universidad de Nueva York, que ha tenido como resultado la producción de un prototipo a escala 40% instalado en el Museo Reina Sofia durante la exposición Almas y Maquinas

Urbanization patterns and their impacts on social restructuring of urban space in Chilean mid-cities: The case of Los Angeles, Central Chile

El artículo analiza las relaciones entre los cambios de uso en el territorio rural de la región del Biobío y sus efectos en el crecimiento urbano y demográfico de una ciudad de tamaño medio. En forma específica se estudia el desarrollo de la industria forestal y sus efectos sobre el proceso urbano de Los Angeles.

Jerash: The landscape, urban space, and architecture

The peculiarities of Roman architecture, town planning, and landscape architecture are visible in many of the empire's remaining cities. However, evaluation of the landscapes; and analysis of the urban fabric, spatial compositions, and the concepts and characteristics of its open spaces are missing for Jerash (Gerasa in antiquity) in Jordan. Those missing elements will be discussed in this work, as an example of an urban arrangement that survived through different civilizations in history.^ To address the characteristics of the exterior spaces in Jerash, a study of the major concepts of planning in Classical Antiquity will be conducted, followed by a comparative analysis of the quality of space and architectural composition in Jerash. Through intensive investigation of data available for the area under study, the historical method used in this paper illustrates the uniqueness of the site's urban morphology and architectural disposition.^ An analysis will be performed to compare the design composition of the landscape, urban fabric, and open space of Jerash as a provincial Roman city with its existing excavated remains. Such an analysis will provide new information about the roles these factors and their relationships played in determining the design layout of the city. Information, such as the relationship between void and solid, space shaping, the ground and ceiling, the composition of city elements, the ancient landscapes, and the relationship between the land and architecture, will be acquired.^ A computer simulation for a portion of the city will be developed to enable researchers, students and citizens interested in Jordan's past to visualize more clearly what the city looked like in its prime. Such a simulation could result in the revival of the old city of Jerash and help promote its tourism. ^

The role of neighborhood organizations in the production of gentrifiable urban space: The case of Wynwood, Miami's Puerto Rican barrio

Partnerships between government and community-based actors and organizations are considered the hallmark of contemporary governance arrangements for the revitalization and gentrification of economically distressed, inner city areas. This dissertation uses historical, narrative analysis and ethnographic methods to examine the formation, evolution and operation of community-based governance partnerships in the production of gentrifiable urban space in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, FL between 1970 and 2010. This research is based on more than four years of participant observation, 60 in-depth interviews with respondents recruited through a purposive snowball sample, review of secondary and archival sources, and descriptive, statistical and GIS analysis. This study examines how different organizations formed in the neighborhood since the 1970s have facilitated the recent gentrification of Wynwood. It reveals specifically how partnerships between neighborhood-based government agencies, nonprofit organizations and real estate developers were constructed to be exclusionary and lead to inequitable economic development outcomes for Wynwood residents. The key factors conditioning these inequalities include both the rationalities of action of the organizations involved and the historical contexts in which their leaders’ thinking and actions were shaped. The historical contexts included the ethnic politics of organizational funding in the 1970s and the “entrepreneurial” turn of community-based economic development and Miami urban politics since the 1980s. Over time neighborhood organizations adopted highly pragmatic rationalities and repertoires of action. By the 2000s when Wynwood experienced unprecedented investment and redevelopment, the pragmatism of community-based organizations led them to become junior partners in governance arrangements and neighborhood activists were unable to directly challenge the inequitable processes and outcomes of gentrification.

Recomposing the City: New Directions in Urban Sound Art

The editorial introduces the invited edition of the journal based around our International Symposium for Recomposing the City, an interdisciplinary group which asks how the sound of urban spaces might be considered in new ways.

Recomposing the City: New Directions in Urban Sound Art

This special edition, which we were invited by the journal editors to edit, highlights the proceedings of our International Symposium on sound art and urban architecture. We selected these and other authors from multiple disciplines and practices, including sound art, planning, architecture, and anthropology to analyze how sound might be better understood in urban environments.

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Understanding Recreational Services of Urban Riverfront Space for Planning Purposes

In the process of urbanization, natural and semi-natural landscapes are increasingly cherished as open space and recreational resource. Urban rivers are part of this kind of resource and thus play an important role in managing urban resilience and health. Employing the example of Tianjin, this doctoral dissertation research aims at learning to understand how to plan and design for the interface zones between urban water courses and for the land areas adjacent to such water courses. This research also aims at learning how to link waterfront space with other urban space in order to make a recreational space system for the benefit of people. Five questions of this dissertation are: 1) what is the role of rivers in spatial and open space planning? 2) What are the human needs regarding outdoor open space? 3) How do river and water front spatial structures affect people's recreational activities? 4) How to define the recreational service of urban river and waterfront open space? 5) How might answering these question change planning and design of urban open space? Quantitative and qualitative empirical approaches were combined in this study for which literature review and theoretical explorations provide the basis. Empirical investigations were conducted in the city of Tianjin. The quantitative approach includes conducting 267 quantitative interviews, and the qualitative approach includes carrying out field observations and mappings. GIS served to support analysis and visualization of empirical information that was generated through this study. By responding to the five research questions, findings and lessons include the following: 1) In the course of time rivers have gained importance in all levels and scales of spatial planning and decision making. Regarding the development of ecological networks, mainly at national scale, rivers are considered significant linear elements. Regarding regional and comprehensive development, river basins and watersheds are often considered as the structural link for strategic ecological, economic, social and recreational planning. For purposes of urban planning, particularly regarding recreational services in cities, the distribution of urban open spaces often follows the structure of river systems. 2) For the purpose of classifying human recreational needs that relate to outdoor open space Maslow's hierarchy of human needs serves as theoretical basis. The classes include geographical, safety, physiological, social and aesthetic need. These classes serve as references while analyzing river and waterfront open space and other kinds of open space. 3) Regarding the question how river and waterfront spatial structures might affect people's recreational activities, eight different landscape units were identified and compared in the case study area. Considering the thermal conditions of Tianjin, one of these landscape units was identified as affording the optimal spatial arrangement which mostly meets recreational needs. The size and the shape of open space, and the plants present in an open space have been observed as being most relevant regarding recreational activities. 4) Regarding the recreational service of urban river and waterfront open space the results of this research suggest that the recreational service is felt less intensively as the distances between water 183 front and open space user’s places of residence are increasing. As a method for estimating this ‘Service Distance Effect’ the following formula may be used: Y = a*ebx. In this equation Y means the ‘Service Distance’ between homes and open space, and X means the percentage of the people who live within this service distance. Coefficient "a" represents the distance of the residential area nearest to the water front. The coefficient "b" is a comprehensive capability index that refers to the size of the available and suitable recreational area. 5) Answers found to the questions above have implications for the planning and design of urban open space. The results from the quantitative study of recreational services of waterfront open space were applied to the assessment of river-based open space systems. It is recommended that such assessments might be done employing the network analysis function available with any GIS. In addition, several practical planning and designing suggestions are made that would help remedy any insufficient base for satisfying recreational needs. The understanding of recreational need is considered helpful for the proposing planning and designing ideas and for the changing of urban landscapes. In the course of time Tianjin's urban water system has shrunk considerably. At the same time rivers and water courses have shaped Tianjin's urban structure in noticeable ways. In the process of urbanization water has become increasingly important to the citizens and their everyday recreations. Much needs to be changed in order to improve recreational opportunities and to better provide for a livable city, most importantly when considering the increasing number of old people. Suggestions made that are based on results of this study, might be implemented in Tianjin. They are 1) to promote the quality of the waterfront open space and to make all linear waterfront area accessible recreational spaces. Then, 2), it is advisable to advocate the concept of green streets and to combine green streets with river open space in order to form an everyday recreational network. And 3) any sound urban everyday recreational service made cannot rely on only urban rivers; the whole urban structure needs to be improved, including adding small open space and optimize the form of urban communities, finally producing a multi-functional urban recreational network.

Quantifying urban attractiveness from the distribution and density of digital footprints

In the past, sensors networks in cities have been limited to fixed sensors, embedded in particular locations, under centralised control. Today, new applications can leverage wireless devices and use them as sensors to create aggregated information. In this paper, we show that the emerging patterns unveiled through the analysis of large sets of aggregated digital footprints can provide novel insights into how people experience the city and into some of the drivers behind these emerging patterns. We particularly explore the capacity to quantify the evolution of the attractiveness of urban space with a case study of in the area of the New York City Waterfalls, a public art project of four man-made waterfalls rising from the New York Harbor. Methods to study the impact of an event of this nature are traditionally based on the collection of static information such as surveys and ticket-based people counts, which allow to generate estimates about visitors’ presence in specific areas over time. In contrast, our contribution makes use of the dynamic data that visitors generate, such as the density and distribution of aggregate phone calls and photos taken in different areas of interest and over time. Our analysis provides novel ways to quantify the impact of a public event on the distribution of visitors and on the evolution of the attractiveness of the points of interest in proximity. This information has potential uses for local authorities, researchers, as well as service providers such as mobile network operators.

Public Art. Timeline of the XXth Century Evolution

The concept of public art is a polysemic term, and the dispersion of its meaning is reflected in the different ways of working during the XXth Century. It cross the fields of sculpture, monument, visual arts and urban space, defined from a civic perspective. This timeline had been constructed after the publications of my PhD: http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1549

Women, rights and the city: notes for the construction of a state of art from the feminist thought and theory

The modern citieshave been born of the processes of industrialization, urbanization, which have been characterized by violence, resulting in social inequality, spatial segregation, the struggle for survival, the authoritarianism of the government and the establishment of exclusive orders genre, which has  prevented the enjoyment of the rights differential. In order to understand these complexities and  transform power relations that develop and reproduce it, this article analyzes the main theoretical  contributions and methodological approaches that feminist and gender studies have been conducted on the city, urban space and the right to city, which are valuable contributions to the definition of  the right to the city of women as a collective right to universal construction

Local space for local people? Trends in the provision and management of urban outdoor recreation in the UK

This paper examines the growing trend in the UK towards the effective privatisation of formerly public open space and the relationship of this trend to the recent shifts in public sector management. A case study of Reading, England, illustrates the growing cultural and spatial dysfunction, particularly in terms of the declining knowledge and use of the town's urban gardens by the local population. Where once the gardens were a focus of social activity, therefore, they are now a largely irrelevant site of urban decline. In contrast to central urban space, it is clear that other types of open space in other areas can still assume a significance in peoples' lives. In many cases the use of these areas illustrates a counter cultural position in which the consumerism of the city management is actively being resisted. The paper concludes that while there appear to be ways in which local space could be reclaimed for local people, the power to achieve this lies predominantly in the same hands as those responsible for appropriating central space to the imperative of the market in the first instance

COST Action Urban Agriculture Europe Training School «Urban agriculture inside the city:alternatives for vacant lots and public space»

The third Training School of the Action took place in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Basque country, Spain) from 24th to 26th September 2014. Vitoria-Gateiz has experimented an important urban outgrowth in the last decade, mainly through the planning and development of two new neighborhoods, Zabalgana and Salburúa, situated at the eastern and western border of the city, by the Greenbelt. These new development are well-equipped and designed according to sustainability principles. Nevertheless, among the main problems they present is their over-dimensioned public space, which creates some areas lacking enough density and mix of uses. On the other hand it is very expensive for the municipality to maintain these public space with the high Vitorian urban standards for public space. The proposed solution for this problem is a strategy of "re-densification" through the insertion of new uses The debate has arisen about which are the most adequate uses to insert in order to get an increasing of urban vitality, specially considering that housing has reached its peak and that Vitoria-Gasteiz is well served with social and sport amenities. The main goal of the TS was to offer an opportunity for the reflection about how urban agriculture might be an optimal alternative for the re-qualifying of this over-dimensioned public space in the new neighbourhoods, especially considering it synergic potential as a tool for production, leisure and landscaping, including the possibility of energy crops within the limits of urban space. Continuity with rural and natural surrounding area through alternatives for urban fringe at the small scale is a relevant issue to be considered as well within the reflection. Taking Zabalgana neighbourhood as a practical field for experiment, the Training School is conceived as a practical and intensive design charrette to be held during a whole day after two days of local knowledge-deepening through field visits and presentations.