Architecture, Building and Planning - Research Publications
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 10 of 25
-
ItemNo Preview AvailableExtremes of mixed-use architecture: a spatial analysis of vertical functional mix in Dhaka(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2022)The concept of mixed-use is now well-established as an urban design and planning principle that adds to the vitality, walkability and productivity of the city at neighbourhood scale. There is much less research on the dense and complex vertical mix of functions within buildings. This paper investigates the extremes of informal vertical mixing of functions within buildings in Dhaka, where commercial and retail functions often penetrate to upper floors and where access routes are often mixed with residential functions. A modified form of space syntax analysis is used to analyse and critique the mix of circulation patterns and functions in 15 complex mixed-use buildings. The plans and relational diagrams reveal how different functions are mixed or separated, and the relative spatial depth they penetrate from the street. Five primary circulation diagrams emerge with different degrees of informality in different districts of the city. Under conditions of informal adaptation, vertical functional mix produces benefits in the form of synergies but also problems of privacy and security. To engage effectively planners need a complex understanding of the interrelated spatial, social and economic logics involved.
-
ItemNo Preview AvailableForced Eviction by Another Name: Neoliberal Urban Development in Manila(ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2021-10-20)
-
ItemNo Preview AvailableIncremental housing: harnessing informality at Villa Verde(EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LTD, 2020-09-21)Purpose This paper analyses the incremental housing process developed at Villa Verde, a housing project designed by the Chilean architecture firm Elemental, whose director Alejandro Aravena received the Pritzker Prize in 2016. This project is conceived within a social housing framework and designed as an affordable “half-house” to be incrementally extended by the owners. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on research undertaken in August 2017 with data obtained through site surveys, trace analysis, interviews with 32 residents and photographic surveys. The researchers mapped the modifications made by all households at Villa Verde in the four years after occupation. Findings The strategy of designing a formal framework for informal additions has generally been successful with most houses undergoing substantial expansion to a high standard of construction. The paper raises concerns regarding the settlement's urban design, response to local climate and the quality of shared open space. We also find evidence of over-development as informal additions extend across front and rear yards that are in some cases fully enclosed. Originality/value This project is critiqued within the context of a long series of architectural attempts to harness the productive capacities of self-help housing. Villa Verde engages the freedom to build in a self-organised manner within a formal framework. But what will stop these additions from escalating into a “slum”?
-
ItemInformal Settlement as a Mode of Production(Routledge, 2019-05-29)The essays in this volume are organized in three parts: Part I: Comparative Urbanism; Part II: Challenges; and Part III: Opportunities.
-
ItemIncremental production of urban space: A typology of informal design(PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2020-04-01)Informal settlement is a form of incremental urban design and planning that seems set to remain a primary mode of urban development in cities of the global South. Yet, we know very little about how incremental urbanism works. In this paper, we suggest a typology of increments as a conceptual lens for understanding the emergence of informal settlement morphologies. We consider the ways residents extend and renovate buildings at micro-spatial scales and identify typical increments of 'extend', 'attach', 'replace', 'divide', 'connect' and 'infill'. We also explore the informal rights and codes that govern the ways in which some increments encroach on public space – ‘rights of way’, ‘air-rights’ and ‘the right to light and ventilation’. We engage with the paradox that while every increment is a form of upgrading, informal settlements often produce slum conditions. We suggest that the most effective knowledge base for slum upgrading practices lies in a better understanding of informal settlement as a mode of spatial production.
-
ItemIncremental urbanisms(Routledge, 2017-01-01)Those who have studied the micro-morphology include Arefi (2011), Bhatt and Rybczynski (2003) and Ribeiro (1997). Informal settlements are mostly undocumented (Patel and Baptist 2012; Robinson 2002), yet documentation is critical for any kind of integration with the formal city.
-
ItemIncremental Urban Intensification: Transit-oriented Re-development of Small-lot Corridors(ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2017)The imperative to transform car-dependent cities for a low-carbon future requires that we engage with the challenge of increasing densities along existing road-based transit corridors - within the constraints of existing morphologies. Such corridors are often lined with small lots that are valued for their functional mix and urban character. This paper explores the degree to which small and narrow lots constrain urban intensification through a study of tram corridors in Melbourne. We examine the impact of site area, shape and access conditions as constraints on re-development and increased density. We find that small and narrow lots have not prevented intensification that is substantial in its accumulated effect and contributes more to urban character than large lot re-development. The paper discusses the relations of urban morphology to questions of car-dependency, development capacity and resident resistance.
-
ItemPlace as Multiplicity(ROUTLEDGE, 2016)
-
ItemThe science of urban design?(PALGRAVE MACMILLAN LTD, 2016-01-01)In a provocative paper Marshall (2012) suggests that a range of seminal urban design theories stemming from the 1960s – Jacobs, Alexander, Lynch and Cullen – can be construed as pseudo-science because they have not been tested empirically. Adding Sitte and Cerdá, we take this provocation as a chance to raise some questions about the nature of urban design knowledge, theory and practice. We suggest that this work is not and cannot be empirical science but is based in the detailed observation of cities using multiple logics. While there is an emerging science of cities, urban design knowledge is much broader, spanning both natural and social sciences as well as the arts and humanities. We also argue that it is a particular form of diagrammatic socio-spatial knowledge that cannot be reduced to either words or numbers. These thinkers remain seminal more for the questions they open than the answers they provide.
-
ItemOn learning urban design(ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2016)