Urban Morphology versus Urban Redevelopment and Revitalisation

Table of Contents

1. Social and Cultural Determinants of Spatial Redevelopment and Regeneration

   1. Frontmatter

   2. Chapter 16. Urban Regions Under Stress: The Case of Madrid After the Lockdown

      • Open Access

      J. Barros-Guerton, J. M. Ezquiaga-Domínguez

      Abstract

      Urban density, mobility, and revenue disparity are relevant factors in terms of urban analysis and project. The COVID-19 pandemic declared in March 2020 has meant a stress test for urban regions, as the alteration of mobility patterns led to changes in social dynamics. This paper investigates the correlations between the evolution of the disease and these three factors. The analysis focuses on the Madrid Urban Region, in Spain, and uses open data available from cadastral, census, and health-related official websites. This use of public information also provides a test on how such inputs could fit in a regional digital twin and can help replication. The analysis shows that overall, the basic structure of regional urban centralities, those with more people at day than at night, keeps stable in the central city and relevant economic areas. There are signs of temporary relocations to low-density areas, to holiday homes, which decreased in 2021. And there is no mathematical correlation between density and disease at the end of the period; figures show, however, of significative correlation during the initial stages, so density, at the household level (housing overcrowding) more than at the neighborhood level (dwellings per hectare), appears as an initial driver for disease expansion whose influence has been dampened progressively over time.

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   3. Chapter 17. Residential Community Renewal Performance Assessment Based on Social Network Analysis—Taking Jialingqiao Xicun Community, Chongqing Municipality, for Example

      • Open Access

      Simai Pang, Bo Yan

      Abstract

      Restricted by the times and economic conditions, public spaces of old residential communities have problems, such as low utilization and uneven resource distribution. Because of these problems, resident activities and communication are limited and residents lack the sense of belonging. This necessitates the establishment of activity spaces suitable for communication through the renewal of old residential communities. Activity spaces of this kind can help re-establish residents’ social connections. This paper aims at assessing the performance of residential community renewal. Social network analysis is used to build the community public space network and the resident daily behavior and activity network, respectively. Meanwhile, the aforesaid two networks are comparatively analyzed from the perspective of the network structure and influence of node, and considering four parameters (density, small world density, node betweenness centrality, and structural hole) as well as its derivative indexes. Taking existing residential community for a case analysis, this paper quantitatively assesses and compares the public spaces of the residential community, finding that the inconsistency between the public space network and the resident activity network is attributable to elements, such as quality of space, space accessibility, and node combination. On that basis, strategies for optimization of spatial design are proposed.

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   4. Chapter 18. Urban Morphological Transformation in Modern Ningbo: Social Change and Street System

      • Open Access

      Panpan Jin, Naoto Nakajima

      Abstract

      This paper explores the early modernization of a medium-sized Chinese city, Ningbo. Based on the remapping of the street system in modern Ningbo by every 10 years from 1844 to 1936, the whole process of the late Qing and Republican eras was divided into two periods, with the port opening and the establishment of the municipal system as the critical junctures. The transformation and re-structuring of the street system limited to the walled city in the late Qing to a systematic one covering the whole urbanized area in the 1930s was explored. This transformation was driven by the construction of the Foreign Settlement in the Jiangbei area and then the introduction of municipal ideas by the local gentle and commercial group class.

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   5. Chapter 19. Chinatown’s Key, Built Form Elements of Sense of Place: Findings from an Immersive Visual Survey

      • Open Access

      Francisco Alaniz Uribe, Nathan Stelfox, Emily Kaing

      Abstract

      Cities are made up of multiple diverse cultural areas that are rooted in heritage. These areas evolve over time experiencing pressures for change and redevelopment that can erode their sense of place and perpetuate their marginalization. Chinatown in Calgary is one of those areas with strong historical roots and under redevelopment pressure. An immersive, web-based public engagement process using 360-degree photography was used to measure the community’s perception of the importance and impact of built form elements on Chinatown’s sense of place. The built form elements prioritized included streetscape design and programming with a preference for pedestrian over vehicular traffic reflecting its historical use; the buildings’ architectural language with a complexity of motifs, and the use of traditional materials and construction technics that evoke its original culture; buildings respecting human scale; street-wall permeability; and signage as a visible reminder of the original languages. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of how the built environment contributes to the sense of place in ethnic and heritage areas. They form the basis for urban design guidelines and contribute to more appropriate redevelopment proposals. Helps build inclusivity and a degree of certainty for the future of marginalized ethnic areas of our cities.

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2. Theoretical Concepts for Understanding the Redevelopment and Revitalisation of Spatial Structures and Directions of Changes in Historic Urban Structures

   1. Frontmatter

   2. Chapter 20. Christopher Alexander’s Challenge for Implementation: Report from an ESRG Symposium

      • Open Access

      Michael W. Mehaffy

      Abstract

      The architect Christopher Alexander was one of the most influential figures of late twentieth-century urban and architectural theory. His books Notes on the Synthesis of Form, A Pattern Language, and The Nature of Order have been influential across a surprising variety of fields. Yet Alexander struggled with implementation over his own career, and in advising others on how to take forward his ideas. One offshoot of this effort has been the Environmental Structure Research Group (ESRG), a research coordination network convened by his student Michael Mehaffy (the author). This paper reports on the proceedings of the group, including its meeting in Krakow, Poland and over Zoom in September of 2022.

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   3. Chapter 21. Urban Form and Sustainability. New Adaptive and Resilient Tools and Strategies for the Regeneration of Territories of Unauthorized Production

      • Open Access

      Francesco Crupi

      Abstract

      The prefiguration of new strategies and tools for the regeneration of the territories of unauthorized production constitutes a field of research full of perspectives for the purpose of building new physical and intangible assets and configurations, capable of raising the levels of settlement and environmental quality, inclusion of social and economic growth. In the current phase characterized by the increase in environmental fragility, by fragmentation and territorial dispersion, by the risks due to global climate change, and by the economic and socio-health crisis caused by the pandemic, these objectives require the implementation of a unified strategy, integrated and inter-scalar, capable of promoting new planning tools based on adaptive and resilient strategies, aimed at recomposing the morphological-functional characteristics of fabrics and the construction of spaces and infrastructures of the public city. A perspective in which we play a fundamental role interventions capable of increasing the complexity of the urban structure, increasing the relationship between the parts, finalizing the design of the voids to the demands of sustainability, investigating the relationships between plan and project, between architecture, city, and territory, at the search for new urban morphologies and settlement models. In this frame of reference, the paper intends to outline the characteristics of the “Roman case”, particularly characterized from a historical, morphogenetic, and dimensional point of view, highlighting not only the procedural, methodological and operational approaches, the limits, and criticalities, but also the evolutionary paths that could affect the overall process of urban regeneration and territorial rebalancing.

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   4. Chapter 22. Historic Neighborhoods’ Preservation: Applicability of Morphological Regions as a Tool to Protect the Urban Memory and Urban Space of a Black Community Neighborhood in Uberlândia, Brazil

      • Open Access

      Glauco Cocozza

      Abstract

      The article relates morphological aspects with the preservation of urban space, architectural heritage, and social and cultural memory of a historic neighborhood in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil, applying a morphological analysis in the neighborhood originally known as Nossa Senhora da Aparecida, current Patrimônio, a black community built at the end of the nineteenth century, after the end of slavery. The article presents the urban formation of this small area isolated of the urban fabric, its urban evolution, the constructive aspects, and how the current urbanization processes of the city de-characterizes the neighborhood and erases an important urban memory. The research uses the methodology of morphological regions identification to distinguish the different areas of the neighborhood, differentiated through their building elements and typological patterns. The work ends by presenting simulations of possible scenarios to occur, if urban laws adopt morphological parameters, proposing new urban restrictions that would guarantee the preservation of the historical characteristics.

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   5. Chapter 23. Multiscale and Multi-Temporal Simulation of Change of Urban Structures in the Subarctic East Siberian Metropolis of Yakutsk

      • Open Access

      Sébastien Gadal, Mounir Oukhattar, Jūratė Kamičaitytė, Moisei Zakharov, Walid Ouerghemmi, Ismaguil Hanadé Houmma

      Abstract

      In the last twenty years, the Metropolis of Yakutsk has experienced significant changes characterised by intense urban growth, densification, and urban structure changes in a complex geographical environment: extremely low temperature during six to seven months, impacts of permafrost dynamics and relative melting, seasonal exposure to ice breakup on the suburban areas. The urban structure and land-use changes conditioned by the urban growth and environmental impacts are analysed at two geographic scales: the meso-urban level with the use of the Landsat-5 TM, Landsat-8 OLI, and Sentinel-2 MSI satellites images covering the period from 2010 to 2020; and at the regional level with the DMSP-OLS PL (1995–2013) and VIIRS-DNB (2015–2020) sensors. The recognition of the urban structures and land use transformations at both scales are based on the use of the combined machine learning data processing. The simulations of the urban structures and land use evolutions to 2030 at the meso-urban and regional scales by Markov chain cellular automata give comparable results of the future trends of the Yakutsk metropolis: reduction of vegetation, forests areas (due to forest fires) and agriculture zones; the increase of bare soil, water surfaces and new urban areas.

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   6. Chapter 24. The Invention of the Old City. A Didactic Experiment: Three Projects for Lübeck

      • Open Access

      Michele Caja, Pierfrancesco Sacerdoti

      Abstract

      The rebirth of the urban image of German cities built up over the centuries—cancelled by the war, later demolitions and modern reconstructions—raises crucial issues in the discussion about strategies to adopt in historical contexts. The small-sized structure of the urban plots, which was often replaced by larger buildings, is the common element present in some German city centers. Different strategies adopt two different kind of interventions: “pilot buildings”, which reconstruct the original buildings as copies; new buildings which reinterpret the original houses in a contemporary way. According to the principles of critical reconstruction, introduced in the European debate starting from the 1970s, the recent transformations of some urban blocks inside the medieval Gründungsviertel (Founders District) in Lübeck has become a positive example for a didactic experiment in the master’s degree at the Politecnico di Milano (2020–2021, with Prof. Annegret Burg). After an in-depth analysis of the historical morphological structure of the urban form of one of the oldest Hanseatic cities of northern Germany, the research work led to design proposals for the blocks around the Marktplatz and the so-called Buddenbrookhaus, aimed at replacing out-of-scale or poor-quality buildings from the post-war reconstruction period with new morphological structures, based on the original form, still legible today thanks to historical maps.

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   7. Chapter 25. Adaptation to Climate Change—A Challenge for Small Towns

      • Open Access

      Bartłomiej Olczak, Małgorzata Hanzl

      Abstract

      A compact city is one of the leading solutions to counteract the negative impact of climate change. It is also considered a node in the Transit-Oriented Development network. However, while a higher urban density can, on the one hand, positively influence public infrastructure, transport and economics, on the other hand, as we learn from the analysis of Berghauser Pont et al., it can have negative environmental, social and health impacts. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to look for the trade-offs, including density and provision of open green areas that will serve climate change adaptation. While climate change adaptation has been explored through extensive literature, there is still much to research, especially when dealing with small towns as an element of the region. Therefore, this paper focuses on a small town—Zgierz (less than 60.000 inhabitants) post-industrial town in central Poland near Lodz. The study presents the quantitative analyses of the urban form of Zgierz town centre, prepared using GIS using open-source data. First, we estimated the current residential densities and calculated population densities by applying the morphological types’ framework. Then we examined the provision and the actual distances to green areas. Moreover, the results were compared with local urban development documents. In conclusion, this paper presents the recommendations for balancing the density and amount of open green areas for the town centre of Zgierz and the scenarios for densifying urban lots in the heritage part of the town.

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   8. Chapter 26. Public Open Spaces and Water: Urban Design in Response to Climate Change

      • Open Access

      Carlo Berizzi, Marta Mazurkiewicz, Gaia Nerea Terlicher

      Abstract

      The phenomenon is visible: nature today is at a critical point, and cities are vulnerable. One of the leading causes is the ever-increasing process of soil sealing that has involved cities from the twentieth century onwards. Climate change and soil sealing have weakened the cities that can no longer control natural events. Today, the increasingly prosperous and ever-growing cities must face an issue as crucial as it is urgent: the relationship between ecology and nature, between built and nature. If, on the one hand, water represents a threat to the city, on the other, one of the main resources to deal with climate change effect within urban voids. Starting from the assumption that ever-growing urbanization negatively affects all ecosystem services, and that water is a fundamental resource for ecological restoration and mitigation of the effects of climate change, four European case studies of urban regeneration through the rethinking of public spaces through nature-based solutions are highlighted. The case studies have a recognized architectural quality, belong to the European cultural context of open spaces, and are in metropolitan areas; they are selected following defined variables: reduce heat island effect, improve air/soil/water quality, increase biodiversity, and reuse of urban water.

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   9. Chapter 27. Developments in Urban Design Practice in Kadıköy Region of Istanbul: A Morphological Perspective

      • Open Access

      Ayşe Sema Kubat, Şebnem Çebi, Mehmet Ronael

      Abstract

      The Italian school of morphology remarks on the importance of the historical background of a settlement as a guide for the urban design process in addition to the French school that focuses on history as it gives the main character that shapes the current physical structure of a settlement area. Thus, it is aimed to investigate how an urban design can be guided concerning the history of a settlement, regarding the knowledge of these two schools of urban morphology. This paper considers how new ideas may be integrated into the urban form of a city that has been powerfully shaped by a long history. Since the typo-morphological interpretation of settlements; understanding physical form, formation, and transformation using types and typologies; can represent an essential reference point for urban planning and design, this study also aims to investigate past traces and to find clues that can be a reference for the future, and determine the design principles. Haydarpaşa in the Kadıköy district, a focal point welcoming visitor to Istanbul in the past but is an inactive space with potential based on the old Train Station and archaeological excavations of Chalcedon, is selected as the study area. In this scope, typo-morphological analyses in the neighboring Yeldeğirmeni settlement area guided the urban design process in Kadıköy to preserve the historical identity as a transportation hub and a commercial area; on the other hand, assuming a new role of being a recreational area that responds to the requirements of Yeldeğirmeni neighborhood.

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3. Practical Architectural and Urban Solutions

   1. Frontmatter

   2. Chapter 28. Invigorate Urban Public Vitality Based on Spatial Characteristic Analysis: A Case Study of Lujiazui Central District

      • Open Access

      Ying Yang, Kun Liu, Shuling Liao, Yong Liu

      Abstract

      The planning and construction of Lujiazui Central District were essentially completed in the 1990s, and since then, this area has become an important financial central district in China. However, as the public center of the city, Lujiazui Financial District currently struggles to provide daily public activity space for citizens, highlighted by the presence of single-function, insufficient public buildings and the inaccessibility of open spaces. We conducted an analysis of the characteristics of Lujiazui Central District space and carried out a relevant case study to explore the strategies of adding a dimensional function to the mixing degree, creating public spaces in high-rise buildings, improving transport links, and using other methods to reconstruct the built environment. We also proposed related public policy suggestions, so as to stimulate the vitality of people in Lujiazui and create better services for public life.

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   3. Chapter 29. Urban Form of Settlements on Water: A Morphometric Comparison Between Makoko and Venice

      • Open Access

      Alessandro Venerandi, Johan Mottelson, Sergio Porta

      Abstract

      Recent studies highlight morphological similarities between centrally located informal settlements and historical cities, suggesting that, despite infrastructural deficiencies, the former possess valuable urban form features, e.g., human-scale design, compactness, and walkability, that are also characteristics of the latter. This research challenges the negative connotations often associated with informal settlements, advancing advocacy for the prevention of evictions and the support of legalisation. In line with these works, we compare the urban form of two aquatic settlements: Makoko, an informal settlement in Lagos, Nigeria, and the Italian city of Venice. Both are analyzed through statistical and visual comparisons of nine metrics of urban form. Since Venice is historical and Makoko was only recently established, the most consolidated part of the latter is also included in the analysis. The outcomes show similarities between Makoko and Venice in terms of building elongation, alignment to streets/canals, diversity of building footprints, and coverage area ratio. Importantly, these similarities are more pronounced in the most consolidated part of Makoko, suggesting that if the settlement continues to develop along its current patterns of change, the similarities to Venice will likely increase. Accordingly, policymakers should reconsider the current eviction approach and facilitate the adaptive development of the settlement.

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   4. Chapter 30. Interface Regeneration and Place-Making Spatial Revitalisation of Shapowei Historical Environment in Xiamen

      • Open Access

      Biao Yin, Lijun Wang

      Abstract

      Urban regeneration plays a significant role in optimizing the existing urban infrastructure. With the rise of the digital age, the phenomenon of instant online celebrities has influenced the approach to urban regeneration. A trend has emerged towards focusing on single-space renovations and attracting capital, neglecting the historical context that has shaped the city and the importance of interface regeneration and place-making. This paper takes Shapowei in Xiamen as a case study and examines the special historical elements that have contributed to its spatial evolution, with a particular focus on interface regeneration and place-making. Through literature review and field research, the paper explores the relationship between interface regeneration and place-making in the revitalisation of Shapowei's historical environment, aiming to offer new insights into urban regeneration and the preservation of historical culture.

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   5. Chapter 31. Urban Form, Plans and Procedures in Serbia: Recent Transformations of Urban Tissue and Its Inherited Values

      • Open Access

      Ana Niković, Božidar Manić

      Abstract

      This paper attempts to determine the relationship between the theory of urban morphology and the practice of urban conservation and urban planning based on the example of modernist and postmodernist open residential blocks created in Belgrade and other cities in Serbia in the second half of the twentieth century. The starting point of the paper was based on the fact that these configurations represent both urbanistic and cultural and historical heritage. It examines the values/criteria based on which the two Belgrade urban units have been categorized as cultural heritage. Furthermore, it demonstrates that these criteria can be generalized and applied to numerous examples of urban blocks and units that are still not institutionally protected but are recognized through the work of organizations, researchers, and experts studying the relevant era in the development of architecture and urbanism. The paper indicates the current urban planning and building practices that ignore the values of these units and analyzes relevant literature and documents in order to find out the cause of this problem. It points out the missing elements in the planning and protection systems that would potentially mitigate the effects and prevent further damage to these units. The forms and reasons for endangering these urban units can be viewed in relation to the issues of identification and protection of spatial values, i.e., valuable elements of the urban and physical structure; the key concept/scale at which the plans are developed and implemented; instruments for the spatial value protection at the urban block/groups of blocks level; and implementation/control of the planning solutions. Combining protection and planning practices identifies urban morphology as a common platform for consolidating knowledge about this type of urban heritage and integrating it into practice.

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   6. Chapter 32. Regenerative Learning Architecture. The School Campus of Vimercate as a Unit of Urban Morphology

      • Open Access

      Laura Anna Pezzetti, Helen Khanamiryan

      Abstract

      Over the past decade, the need for innovation in school buildings has emerged globally. While schools are supposedly seen as pivots of districts’ fabric and community life, insufficient theoretical explorations and design strategies have been devoted to learning architecture and its urban role. Innovation focusses merely on indoor environment in terms of learning zoning, modular furniture and flexible classroom settings in relation to new teaching forms and digital technologies. Rooted in the tradition of Italian urban studies, the paper discusses one research by design reframing innovation challenges from the indeterminate concept of environment to the language and themes of architectural space in the framework of the comprehensive concepts of learning and regenerative architecture. The case of the dilapidated Vimercate High Schools Campus, Italy, is a far-sighted take on the crucial theme of the redevelopment of a 1970s school campus that constitutes an extra-urban morphological region as wide as the town’s medieval centre. Under the conceptual instrumentation of regenerative architecture, the research has inverted the traditional idea of the school as a self-contained citadel making the complex a potential cultural pole strategically located at the intersection between historical and rural landscape circuits. By defining precise themes and techniques of rewriting, learning spaces have been reshaped in analogy with urban form types and landscape, establishing porosity degrees with the surrounding urban structure, introducing functional promiscuity of activities between the town and the educational enclosure, reshaping learning environments as architectural space-places and finally designing new spatial concepts to guide the actions of the public administration.

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   7. Chapter 33. Study on a Paradigm of Micro-Regeneration of Urban Community—Taking Three Cases of House Upgrading in Xiaoxihu Traditional Block, Nanjing

      • Open Access

      Li Bao, Yichang Sun, Han Wang, Zixuan Liu

      Abstract

      The large-scale urbanisation experienced by Chinese and other Asian cities over the past few decades has fragmented and demolished urban fabric, functional structures, spatial environments, and even social relations. Various urban-associated diseases have emerged consequently, and urban transformation is required to achieve more sustainable development. The micro-regeneration of urban community orientated on residents’ demands can be an approach to balance the urban development and preservation, to seek harmony between historical heritage, cultural revitalisation, urban distinctiveness, market profits, and local lives. As a positive intervention during the urban transition, it is argued that the elaborate micro-regeneration has turned into one of the significant subjects for both professional and educational fields of architecture towards future urbanism. This paper takes three research-based projects of housing upgrading in Xiaoxihu Community in the traditional quarter of Nanjing as examples of such micro-regeneration. In the interactive mode of “Learn- Research-Practice”, the authors have focussed on value fostering, multilateral cooperation, and an integrated multidisciplinary system, with equal attention to history, culture, space, and social ecology. These projects have further explored inclusive institutions and mechanisms that take both urban regeneration and community revitalisation into account, with nuanced integration of top-down planning and bottom-up self-regulation. Taking a small-scale, incremental approach, it has further investigated the characteristics of diversity and the role of universities, as a producer of knowledge in the urban regeneration process. With a pedagogical and pragmatic paradigm formed, this paper can be a reference to architecture education and practice in other cities facing similar challenges.

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