On the Role of Digital Consultation Tools in Public Space Design: A Case Study

AbstractThere is a growing scholarly consensus over the transformation of the urban public place from a challenging, conflicting and negotiated one to a festive and convivial place. Decades of gentrification, renewals and city branding have fostered an urban form made of well-regulated and controlled islands of publicness in a sea of privatopias. Beyond structural forces, urban policies and the action of households and citizens, a key role has been played by global architecture and design. With this chapter, we will address this issue looking precisely at the practices of conceiving and designing the public places by urban designers. How the ideals of a cosmopolis, urban and democratic, is put in place by professionals dealing with neoliberal constraints, post-democratic states and refined middle-class users? What is the contemporary meaning of cosmopolitanism, when related to the urban core? Cosmopolitanism for whom, under which conditions? The chapter will provide a case-study detailed analysis of the perspective of urban designers towards projects and urbanism, with a specific attention to public space design.

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Wander of life: An agora to facilitate elderly's autonomous and connected life in Johnsonville

10.26686/wgtn.17019641.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Yuqi Kong

Keyword(s):

Public Space ◽

The Elderly ◽

Point Of View ◽

Transitional Period ◽

Community Members ◽

Space Design ◽

Current Design ◽

Environmental Gerontology ◽

Public Space Design

New Zealand is experiencing a demographic transitional period when there is increasing percentage of the elder population out of the total. Researches and scholars overseas have investigated in architecture’s role of improving environments for the elderly, primarily from the perspective of disability. However, these considerations which solely come from the physicality point of view and can be easily treated just as after thoughts, sometimes still leaving the elderly in dilemmas. As an attempt to response to such an issue, this thesis asks if accessible architecture can enable the elderly to be included in public space as community members rather than an isolated group. It aims to explore possibilities of creating accessible public space for elderly, which is also thoughtful towards other community members’ interactions. These explorations are set on the intersection of environmental gerontology* and phenomenology, focus on making space accessibly to the elderly physically, sensorially and psychologically. To re-introduce the elderly as community members who are as significant as others, the diversity and complexity of their conditions and needs should be considered, which requires the design explorations to be site-specific to avoid over-generalization. To contextualise the question, Johnsonville is chosen as the site for study, thus, the character of local elderly can be considered for appropriate design iterations. To extend current design discourse about the role of architecture in the context of environmental gerontology, the theory of phenomenology and relevant case studies will be investigated. To highlight implications and limitations for elderly-accessible public space design, reflection will be made regarding the design explorations against the broader discursive arguments. One of the primary implications of this design-led thesis is for the discourse on elderly-friendly environments. The other implication is an advocacy for designing public space for a wider public interaction. It means taking everyone in the community into equal consideration and creating public space that is equal for every user.

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Wander of life: An agora to facilitate elderly's autonomous and connected life in Johnsonville

10.26686/wgtn.17019641 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Yuqi Kong

Keyword(s):

Public Space ◽

The Elderly ◽

Point Of View ◽

Transitional Period ◽

Community Members ◽

Space Design ◽

Current Design ◽

Environmental Gerontology ◽

Public Space Design

New Zealand is experiencing a demographic transitional period when there is increasing percentage of the elder population out of the total. Researches and scholars overseas have investigated in architecture’s role of improving environments for the elderly, primarily from the perspective of disability. However, these considerations which solely come from the physicality point of view and can be easily treated just as after thoughts, sometimes still leaving the elderly in dilemmas. As an attempt to response to such an issue, this thesis asks if accessible architecture can enable the elderly to be included in public space as community members rather than an isolated group. It aims to explore possibilities of creating accessible public space for elderly, which is also thoughtful towards other community members’ interactions. These explorations are set on the intersection of environmental gerontology* and phenomenology, focus on making space accessibly to the elderly physically, sensorially and psychologically. To re-introduce the elderly as community members who are as significant as others, the diversity and complexity of their conditions and needs should be considered, which requires the design explorations to be site-specific to avoid over-generalization. To contextualise the question, Johnsonville is chosen as the site for study, thus, the character of local elderly can be considered for appropriate design iterations. To extend current design discourse about the role of architecture in the context of environmental gerontology, the theory of phenomenology and relevant case studies will be investigated. To highlight implications and limitations for elderly-accessible public space design, reflection will be made regarding the design explorations against the broader discursive arguments. One of the primary implications of this design-led thesis is for the discourse on elderly-friendly environments. The other implication is an advocacy for designing public space for a wider public interaction. It means taking everyone in the community into equal consideration and creating public space that is equal for every user.

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A public space project on grammar, poetics and management

The Journal of Public Space ◽

10.5204/jps.v2i2.96 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 99

Author(s):

Daniela Corsini

Keyword(s):

Public Space ◽

Public Spaces ◽

Design Quality ◽

Ordinary Space ◽

Space Design ◽

Research Activities ◽

Space Project ◽

Management Functions ◽

Public Space Design

This article is a result of my PhD research activities. The main goal of the research was to understand the key factors of success and failure in public space design and management. Accordingly, the first part of the article investigates what a public space is and what makes it successful. The term "success" is ambiguous since it refers to multiple different views on public space. A less uncertain area is that of the design quality of public spaces: many authors have treated this subject more or less explicitly, including aspects such as accessibility, the perception of space and its use. The second part of the article presents the methodology used for the study of public spaces, explaining why Zaragoza has been chosen as a case study and describes the stages of research. The third part of the article presents the case of the public spaces of the city of Zaragoza, Spain. This case study is used in order to find correspondences and discrepancies with the conclusions previously made in the literature and eventually to identify other qualities of public space design. The analysis aims to identify which factors are essentially insignificant for the success of the project (such as the available budget or the design process), and which elements, by contrast, strongly affect the attendance and the appreciation of public spaces by the population. In particular, three elements were singled out that have the potential to become the drivers of the project: "grammar" (distributive features of spaces and buildings, microclimate, etc.), poetics (identity, recognisability of the space, etc.) and management (functions performed within the area and at its borders). The fourth part of the article examines these three elements (grammar, poetics, management) and the way they may be present within different projects. In some cases, the project succeeds in creating an optimal balance between all three elements, in other cases one element prevails over the other two; sometimes there is only one element, but it is so powerful that it compensates for the others (e.g. the entertainment activities on-site can animate even an ordinary space exposed to the elements). In conclusion, some reflections are offered regarding grammar, poetry and management, and their interrelationship.

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Pop-Up Planning

10.1093/oso/9780190691332.003.0006 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Gordon C.C. Douglas

Keyword(s):

Public Space ◽

Aesthetic Experience ◽

Public Spaces ◽

Economic Benefits ◽

Cultural Value ◽

Space Design ◽

Creative Placemaking ◽

Tactical Urbanism ◽

Social Environmental ◽

Public Space Design

Chapter 6 looks at the world of official urban planning and placemaking, providing different perspectives on its relationship to DIY urbanism. Through the voices of professional planners, the chapter explores their conflicted opinions on DIY approaches: criticizing their informality and emphasizing the importance of regulations and accountability for everything from basic functionality to social equity, yet sympathetic to do-it-yourselfers’ frustrations and often excited to adopt their tactics, harness their energy, and exploit their cultural value. The chapter then describes how some DIY projects have found pathways to formal adoption and inspired popular “tactical urbanism” and “creative placemaking” approaches to public space design. Many such interventions can result in innovative public spaces with social, environmental, and economic benefits. But the reproduction of an aesthetic experience selectively inspired by a hip grassroots trend and combined with “creative class” values can mark the resulting spaces themselves as elite and exclusionary.

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