Design investigation of the Lake Calumet Complex: improving water quality to regenerate local industrial, community, and ecosystem resources

This design thesis is an inquiry of the highly industrialized urban landscape of the Lake Calumet Complex on the South Side of the City of Chicago. It examines geologic and anthropogenic strata within this region as waste used for staging various social, industrial, and ecological systems. Today, these social, industrial, and ecological systems are not responsive to each other and certainly do not possess resilient attributes that would allow them to interact within the landscape in perpetuity. The resulting design strategy seeks to re-think the treatment of waste in the landscape into a new framework for future park design. This park will serve as grounds to interweave these complex systems in order to rehabilitate ecosystem functions and improve water quality. Additionally the park hybridizes many social and ecological functions to improve community recreational opportunities and gain public acceptance and appeal.

Imaginer l’Amérique : Québec à travers les vues d’optique des graveurs allemands Habermann et Leizelt

Publiées dans la Collection des prospects durant la guerre d’Indépendance américaine, les vues d’optique Vuë de la Place capitale dans la Ville basse a Quebec, Vuë de la haute ville a Quebeck, Vuë de la basse Ville a Quebec vers le fleuve St-Laurent, Vuë de la rue des recolets de Quebeck et Vuë de Quebeck gravées par les Allemands Franz Xaver Habermann (1721-1796) et Balthasar Frederich Leizelt (1755-1812) entretiennent des liens ténus avec la configuration réelle de la ville de Québec qu’elles représentent. L’escamotage du paradigme documentaire dans ces images est l’enjeu principal de ce mémoire. Il permet de mettre l’accent sur les contraintes formelles découlant du dispositif optique de lecture utilisé ainsi que sur les modèles culturels concernant la perception du territoire urbain américain ayant prévalu lors de la création et de la réception des cinq vues d’optique à l’étude. L’analyse de la vision fictionnelle du paysage donnera également des indices sur les orientations idéologiques et l’imaginaire du lieu, perçu comme un ailleurs lointain, par un ensemble politique qui n’exerce pas de domination directe sur la colonie installée sur le bord du fleuve Saint-Laurent.

Alfama : Análise da paisagem urbana como expressão do património subunidade de estudo: Zona Ribeirinha, da Rua da Alfândega a Rua do Jardim do Tabaco

Esta investigação tem como contexto o bairro de Alfama, centrando-se em uma área específica situada na zona ribeirinha com início na Rua da Alfândega e se estendendo até a Rua do Jardim do Tabaco. É uma zona com relevante potencial turístico, mas com pouco dinamismo apesar dos vários atrativos que lá existem. O trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a paisagem urbana na subunidade de estudo citada acima de forma a descobrirmos através da leitura do espaço urbano uma identidade patrimonial para desta maneira propormos a sua valorização. Para facilitar o estudo dividimos a área em cinco trechos e através da observação in loco esboçarmos sua situação ao nível de morfologia urbana, das características espaciais, dos usos e do modo de apropriação do espaço pelas pessoas e pelas atividades, o estado de conservação do edificado, o mobiliário urbano e todas as características do seu entorno. Para a análise da paisagem fizemos um levantamento fotográfico digital e uma avaliação visual do percurso procurando enquadrar-se na leitura da paisagem estudada pelos autores Kevin Lynch e Gordon Cullen. O estudo também passa por uma avaliação dos seus aspectos significativos, ou seja, os registres de memórias que são pontos fortes da paisagem urbana. São aspectos que identificam o local e definem a sua legibilidade. Em paralelo elaboramos uma análise SWOT que contribuiu para entendermos o complexo de desafios que se colocam ao nosso universo de estudo e justificar o contributo desta dissertação através de propostas concretas de valorização. ABSTRACT; The context of this research is Alfama district, focusing on a specific area located on the waterfront starting at Alfândega Street and extending until Jardim do Tabaco Street. lt is an area with a relevant tourism potential, however with a small dynamic despite its many attractions. The research aim to study the urban landscape in the sub-unit mentioned above in order to uncover, through an urban reading, a patrimonial identity seeking its recovery. To facilitate the research, the area was divided into five sections and, by in loco observation, we outlined its position into a urban morphology rank, space characteristics, uses and appropriation of space by individuals and activities, conservation condition of the building, urban furniture and all the features of its surroundings. With regards the landscape study, was done a digital inventory and a visual evaluation of the route in quest of to fit it in the landscape studies by the authors Kevin Lynch and Gordon Cullen. The research also goes through an appraisal of its significant aspects, in other words, the memories records that are the strengths of the urban landscape. These are aspects that identify the location and define its readability. ln parallel we had developed a SWOT analysis which helped to understand the complex challenges in this universe of studies and justify the contribution of this thesis with concrete recovery proposals.

Setor informal: um estudo sobre os camelôs do Shopping Popular em Cuiabá - MT/2003

The phenomenon of the informality has been common in the quarrels that involve Sciences Social and Human. First for not corresponding to a temporary and isolated phenomenon, and on the other hand for dealing with a presente situation in the majority of the Brazilian urban centers. In Cuiabá municipality, the alternative commerce appears as a social answer to the problems caused for the economic crisis of the country and seems to be deep-rooted to the urban landscape. This assignment angles was the street peddlers, in special that ones who develop their in a specific location on lowered of Cuiabá. Researches pretending to fill a blank of information about this subject involve theoritical and empirical levels. The theory searched to raise in a generalized manner given pertinent the informality and the pratical level through field research searched to analyze excellent aspects on the economic and occupational situation of a composed sample for two hundred and theree workers who develope the pratical one of the informal commerce in Shopping Popular in Cuiaba/MT. The analysis of gotten data alllowed to appreciate some excellent aspects with regard to the activity os the peddler, as: origni, formation, income, perspectives with regard to activity among others. In las analysis it still alllowed to verify the factors that condition the permanence these workers in this type of informal activity

A MORE COMPLETE STREET A STREET FOR EVERYONE TO ENJOY, NORTH EAST STREET, FREDERICK, MARYLAND – A DESIGN INVESTIGATION OF DIFFERENT STREET DESIGN THEORIES

This design-research thesis suggests that the improvement of North East Street performances by using Complete Streets, Green Street, Place Making and Context Sensitive Solution principles and practices. Heavily used by a variety of users, often conflicting with one another, University of Maryland Campus Drive would benefit from a major planning and design amelioration to meet the increasing demands of serving as a city main street. The goal of this thesis project is to prioritize the benefits for pedestrians in the right-of-way and improve the pedestrian experience. This goal also responds to the recent North East Street Extension Phrase I of economic renaissances. The goal of this design-research thesis will be achieved focusing on four aspects. First, the plans and designs will suggest to building mixed use blocks, increase the diversity of street economic types and convenience of people’s living. Second, design and plans will propose bike lanes, separate driving lanes from sidewalks and bike lanes by street tree planters, and narrow driving lanes to reduce vehicular traffic volume and speed in order to reduce pedestrian and vehicle conflicts. Third, plans and designs will introduce bioswales, living walls and raingardens to treat and reuse rain water. Finally, the plans and designs will seek to preserve local culture and history by adding murals and farmers market. The outcome of the design-research thesis project is expected to serve as an example of implementing Complete Streets, Green Street, Place Making and Context Sensitive Solution principles and practices in urban landscape, where transportation, environment and social needs interact with each other.

"Jazz is Back": Alternative Jazz Venues and Gentrification in Washington, D.C.

Gentrification has dramatically changed the urban landscape of Washington, D.C. Non-profit alternative jazz venues have become important sites for negotiating this complex process that is re-shaping the city. Each such venue aligns itself with one of the two primary factions of gentrification: new urban migrants or long-term residents. Westminster Presbyterian Church’s Jazz Night in Southwest fosters a community of repeat-attendees resisting social displacement. The Jazz and Cultural Society unabashedly foregrounds ties to long-term residents in highlighting a black identity and its local interconnectedness. CapitolBop’s Jazz Loft demonstrates the difficulties that come with trying to cater to a young audience, and at the same time, resist gentrification. These venues present three perspectives on gentrification and together bring light to the overlapping complexity of gentrification.

The Promise of Access: Hope and Inequality in the Information Economy

In 2013, a series of posters began appearing in Washington, DC’s Metro system. Each declared “The internet: Your future depends on it” next to a photo of a middle-aged black Washingtonian, and an advertisement for the municipal government’s digital training resources. This hopeful discourse is familiar but where exactly does it come from? And how are our public institutions reorganized to approach the problem of poverty as a problem of technology? The Clinton administration’s ‘digital divide’ policy program popularized this hopeful discourse about personal computing powering social mobility, positioned internet startups as the ‘right’ side of the divide, and charged institutions of social reproduction such as schools and libraries with closing the gap and upgrading themselves in the image of internet startups. After introducing the development regime that builds this idea into the urban landscape through what I call the ‘political economy of hope’, and tracing the origin of the digital divide frame, this dissertation draws on three years of comparative ethnographic fieldwork in startups, schools, and libraries to explore how this hope is reproduced in daily life, becoming the common sense that drives our understanding of and interaction with economic inequality and reproduces that inequality in turn. I show that the hope in personal computing to power social mobility becomes a method of securing legitimacy and resources for both white émigré technologists and institutions of social reproduction struggling to understand and manage the persistent poverty of the information economy. I track the movement of this common sense between institutions, showing how the political economy of hope transforms them as part of a larger development project. This dissertation models a new, relational direction for digital divide research that grounds the politics of economic inequality with an empirical focus on technologies of poverty management. It demands a conceptual shift that sees the digital divide not as a bug within the information economy, but a feature of it.

La participación ciudadana en la planificación urbana y los procedimientos derivados del reglamento del paisaje de la Comunidad Valenciana. ¿Una posibilidad para cambiar de modelo?

La aprobación del Reglamento del paisaje de la Comunidad Valenciana (D. 120/2006, de 11 de agosto de la Generalitat Valenciana) introdujo los estudios del paisaje en la planificación territorial. La base de los estudios del paisaje se asienta en la participación ciudadana, por lo que este hecho ha supuesto un nuevo planteamiento para abordar la planificación territorial a diversas escalas. En esta comunicación, el principal objetivo es mostrar las posibilidades y limitaciones de la gestión territorial participativa emanadas del Reglamento del Paisaje de la Comunidad Valenciana.

Arquitectura de espaços abertos

Dissertação para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Arquitectura, apresentada na Universidade de Lisboa - Faculdade de Arquitectura.

Uma cidade em transformação: a influência da atividade do crediário nas mudanças da paisagem urbana de Tenente Ananias-RN

Studies on the urban landscape and on the changes of the urban space are relevant, since they reveal the economic dynamics and the way of life in the cities. Research on small towns, in particular, can display particular aspects and by so doing broaden the comprehension of this theme. The purpose of this research is to analyze the changes in the urban landscape and in the way of life of the inhabitants of the town of Tenente Ananias-RN that have been taking place since the 1990s up to the present (2013) and which result mainly from the commercial activity of crediário. The study is, therefore, a reflection on the impact of crediário economy on the urban landscape and on the way of life of a small town located in the hinterland of the State of Rio Grande do Norte. For this reason, it was necessary to study the landscape and the way of life found in Tenente Ananias in two moments: a) before the rise of the crediário, a period of time ranging from the town‟s initial emergence until the beginning of the 1990s; b) during the progress of crediário activity, from the beginning of the 1990s, when it starts, up to the present (2013). For this research, primary data (interviews, local survey visits) and secondary data (books, articles, reports, census data) were used. As a result of this study, it was possible to conclude that crediário plays a fundamental role for the explanation of the changes taking place in Tenente Ananias-RN, especially in the urban landscape and in the way of life of people. We have attempted, through this research, to contribute to the studies of a historical, social and economic process related to the urban landscape and space of a small town in the State of Rio Grande do Norte

Proyecto de investigación la construcción irregular acercamiento a sus causas y efectos. Análisis en un determinado sector de la ciudad de Cuenca

El análisis de las construcciones irregulares en la ciudad de Cuenca es importante para entender el fenómeno entre lo que la norma urbanística permite en el ámbito de la construcción y la necesidad del propietario. Es necesario considerar dos panoramas: los asentamientos informales en zonas no permitidas, situación que no se ha visibilizado aún en gran magnitud; y las edificaciones que se han modificado incumpliendo las normas urbanísticas. Se analizarán construcciones en las que se establece que entre las posibles razones para su modificación están la necesidad de mejorar la funcionalidad de la misma o generar desarrollo económico familiar, originando probablemente afectaciones al paisaje urbano e inclusive el deterioro de la calidad de vida de los vecinos. El proyecto de investigación consiste en localizar las edificaciones en el área de actuación que infringen las ordenanzas vigentes en el Cantón Cuenca, con la finalidad de generar soluciones en busca de la homogeneidad del sector.

Entre o cartão-postal e a cidade real: um estudo sobre paisagem e produção imobiliária em Natal/RN

Recent studies concerning the landscape have investigated the most important activities that contribute for its modification and have tried to better understand the society through the marks left by its quotidian. It is understood that singular landscapes constitute the cultural patrimonies of the cities, once they are part of the daily life of the citizens and are present in their social representations. Some contemporary authors defend the preservation of the natural and urban landscape trying, specially, to keep its importance for the local population. Natal is a city where the ambient qualities are well defined and known by the beauty of the area where it is located. Situated just between a river and the sea, the city grew following its geographic characteristics. The Potengi River, the Atlantic Ocean and the vast dunes ecosystem represented natural limits to the urban expansion; at the same time they have favored the development of a landscape pattern marked by the dialectic between the natural elements and the human interventions. However, this relationship changed after the intensification of the high rising development process that took place since the 1960s. The urban legislation tried to preserve the features of the local landscape delimiting Areas for Controlling Building High , destined to protect the scenic value of some parts of the city. On the other hand, the civil construction sector has made constant pressure in sense to abolish or to modify this legal instrument, aiming profits that have increased, in the 1990s, because of the consumption and the qualification of the urban space for tourist activities. It is necessary the raising of new elements to stimulate the quarrel about the landscape preservation, the process of the urban space production and the best way for the legislation implementation. This work tries to raise elements about the subject at local level, in sense to use Natal City experience to contribute for the formulation of indicators to raise the question about the lack of measure for subjective values, for example the cultural and affective value of the landscape. The natural elements inserted in the urban profile, represent strong visual references and supply identity to the town; they are part of the collective imaginary and are detached in the social context of the city. Then, why the preservation of the landscape, that estimates the improvement in the quality of life, is not enough to justify the controlling building high already previewed as part of Natal City Legislation? These questions send us to the approach of the landscape, as a community patrimony, alerting that some of its significant esthetics attributes must be preserved as a legacy for the future generations

Natural Disasters and Comparative State-Formation and Nation-Building: Earthquakes in Argentina and Chile (1822-1939)

Natural disasters in Argentina and Chile played a significant role in the state-formation and nation-building process (1822-1939). This dissertation explores state and society responses to earthquakes by studying public and private relief efforts reconstruction plans, crime and disorder, religious interpretations of catastrophes, national and transnational cultures of disaster, science and technology, and popular politics. Although Argentina and Chile share a political border and geological boundary, the two countries provide contrasting examples of state formation. Most disaster relief and reconstruction efforts emanated from the centralized Chilean state in Santiago. In Argentina, provincial officials made the majority of decisions in a catastrophe’s aftermath. Patriotic citizens raised money and collected clothing for survivors that helped to weave divergent regions together into a nation. The shared experience of earthquakes in all regions of Chile created a national disaster culture. Similarly, common disaster experiences, reciprocal relief efforts, and aid commissions linked Chileans with Western Argentine societies and generated a transnational disaster culture. Political leaders viewed reconstruction as opportunities to implement their visions for the nation on the urban landscape. These rebuilding projects threatened existing social hierarchies and often failed to come to fruition. Rebuilding brought new technologies from Europe to the Southern Cone. New building materials and systems, however, had to be adapted to the South American economic and natural environment. In a catastrophe’s aftermath, newspapers projected images of disorder and the authorities feared lawlessness and social unrest. Judicial and criminal records, however, show that crime often decreased after a disaster. Finally, nineteenth-century earthquakes heightened antagonism and conflict between the Catholic Church and the state. Conservative clergy asserted that disasters were divine punishments for the state’s anti-clerical measures and later railed against scientific explanations of earthquakes.

Water sensitive urban design : landscape planning and design to improve water quality in Shijiazhaung and Yueyang

Water quality issues are heavily dependent on land development and management decisions within river and lake catchments or watersheds. Economic benefits of urbanisation may be short‐ lived without cleaner environmental outcomes. However, whole‐of‐catchment thinking is not, as yet, as frequent a consideration in urban planning and development in China as it is in many other countries. Water is predominantly seen as a resource to be ‘owned’ by different jurisdictions and allocated to numerous users, both within a catchment and between catchments. An alternative to this approach is to think of water in the same way as other commodities that must be kept moving through a complex transport system. Water must ultimately arrive at particular destinations in the biosphere, although it travels across a broad landscape and may be held up temporarily at certain places along the way. While water extraction can be heavily controlled, water pollution is far more difficult to regulate. Both have significant impacts on water availability and flows both now and in the future. As Chinese cities strive to improve economic conditions for their citizens, new centres are being rebuilt and environmental valued