Under Construction: Logics of Urbanism in the Gulf Region

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317005287
Total Pages : 367 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis Under Construction: Logics of Urbanism in the Gulf Region by : Steffen Wippel

Download or read book Under Construction: Logics of Urbanism in the Gulf Region written by Steffen Wippel and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-02-17 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interdisciplinary in approach, this volume explores and deciphers the symbolic value and iconicity of the built environment in the Arab Gulf Region, its aesthetics, language and performative characteristics. Bringing together a range of studies by artists, curators and scholars, it demonstrates how Dubai appeared - at least until the financial crisis - to be leading the construction race and has already completed a large number of its landmark architecture and strategic facilities. In contrast, cities like the Qatari capital Doha still appear to be heavily ’under construction’ and in countries like the Sultanate of Oman, ultra-luxury tourism projects were started only recently. While the construction of artificial islands, theme parks and prestige sport facilities has attracted considerable attention, much less is known about the region’s widespread implementation of innovative infrastructure such as global container ports, free zones, inter-island causeways and metro lines. This volume argues that these endeavours are not simply part of a strategy to prepare for the post-oil era for future economic survival and prosperity in the Lower Gulf region, but that they are also aiming to strengthen identitarian patterns and specific national brands. In doing so, they exhibit similar, yet remarkably diverse modes of engaging with certain global trends and present - questionably - distinct ideas for putting themselves on the global map. Each country aims to grab attention with regard to the world-wide flow of goods and capital and thus provide its own citizens with a socially acceptable trajectory for the future. By doing that, the countries in the Gulf are articulating a new semiotic and paradigm of urban development. For the first time, this volume maps these trends in their relation to architecture and infrastructure, in particular by treating them as semiotics in their own right. It suggests that recent developments in this region of the world not only represen

Under Construction

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Author :
Publisher : Lund Humphries Publishers
ISBN 13 : 9781472412898
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (128 download)

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Book Synopsis Under Construction by : Katrin Bromber

Download or read book Under Construction written by Katrin Bromber and published by Lund Humphries Publishers. This book was released on 2014-10-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interdisciplinary in approach, this volume explores and deciphers the symbolic value and iconicity of the built environment in the Arab Gulf Region, its aesthetics, language and performative characteristics. It suggests that recent developments in this region of the world not only represent a showcase of extraordinary initiatives by which these desert states have transformed, but also that the commodification of local 'traditions' acts as an essential element in the countries' effort to design an Arab version of (hyper-)modernity and to position themselves as a regional and global archetype, which has frequently been adopted elsewhere.

Under Construction: Logics of Urbanism in the Gulf Region

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317005295
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis Under Construction: Logics of Urbanism in the Gulf Region by : Steffen Wippel

Download or read book Under Construction: Logics of Urbanism in the Gulf Region written by Steffen Wippel and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-02-17 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interdisciplinary in approach, this volume explores and deciphers the symbolic value and iconicity of the built environment in the Arab Gulf Region, its aesthetics, language and performative characteristics. Bringing together a range of studies by artists, curators and scholars, it demonstrates how Dubai appeared - at least until the financial crisis - to be leading the construction race and has already completed a large number of its landmark architecture and strategic facilities. In contrast, cities like the Qatari capital Doha still appear to be heavily ’under construction’ and in countries like the Sultanate of Oman, ultra-luxury tourism projects were started only recently. While the construction of artificial islands, theme parks and prestige sport facilities has attracted considerable attention, much less is known about the region’s widespread implementation of innovative infrastructure such as global container ports, free zones, inter-island causeways and metro lines. This volume argues that these endeavours are not simply part of a strategy to prepare for the post-oil era for future economic survival and prosperity in the Lower Gulf region, but that they are also aiming to strengthen identitarian patterns and specific national brands. In doing so, they exhibit similar, yet remarkably diverse modes of engaging with certain global trends and present - questionably - distinct ideas for putting themselves on the global map. Each country aims to grab attention with regard to the world-wide flow of goods and capital and thus provide its own citizens with a socially acceptable trajectory for the future. By doing that, the countries in the Gulf are articulating a new semiotic and paradigm of urban development. For the first time, this volume maps these trends in their relation to architecture and infrastructure, in particular by treating them as semiotics in their own right. It suggests that recent developments in this region of the world not only represen

Claiming and Making Muslim Worlds

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Author :
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110727110
Total Pages : 484 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis Claiming and Making Muslim Worlds by : Jeanine Elif Dağyeli

Download or read book Claiming and Making Muslim Worlds written by Jeanine Elif Dağyeli and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2021-07-05 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To what extent can Islam be localized in an increasingly interconnected world? The contributions to this volume investigate different facets of Muslim lives in the context of increasingly dense transregional connections, highlighting how the circulation of ideas about ‘Muslimness’ contributed to the shaping of specific ideas about what constitutes Islam and its role in society and politics. Infrastructural changes have prompted the intensification of scholarly and trade networks, prompted the circulation of new literary genres or shaped stereotypical images of Muslims. This, in turn, had consequences in widely differing fields such as self-representation and governance of Muslims. The contributions in this volume explore this issue in geographical contexts ranging from South Asia to Europe and the US. Coming from the disciplines of history, anthropology, religious studies, literary studies and political science, the authors collectively demonstrate the need to combine a translocal perspective with very specific local and historical constellations. The book complicates conventional academic divisions and invites to think in historically specific translocal contexts.

The New Arab Urban

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Author :
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 1479897256
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (798 download)

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Book Synopsis The New Arab Urban by : Harvey Molotch

Download or read book The New Arab Urban written by Harvey Molotch and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2019-02-05 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cities of the Arabian Peninsula reveal contradictions of contemporary urbanization The fast-growing cities of the Persian Gulf are, whatever else they may be, indisputably sensational. The world’s tallest building is in Dubai; the 2022 World Cup in soccer will be played in fantastic Qatar facilities; Saudi Arabia is building five new cities from scratch; the Louvre, the Guggenheim and the Sorbonne, as well as many American and European universities, all have handsome outposts and campuses in the region. Such initiatives bespeak strategies to diversify economies and pursue grand ambitions across the Earth. Shining special light on Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha—where the dynamics of extreme urbanization are so strongly evident—the authors of The New Arab Urban trace what happens when money is plentiful, regulation weak, and labor conditions severe. Just how do authorities in such settings reconcile goals of oft-claimed civic betterment with hyper-segregation and radical inequality? How do they align cosmopolitan sensibilities with authoritarian rule? How do these elite custodians arrange tactical alliances to protect particular forms of social stratification and political control? What sense can be made of their massive investment for environmental breakthrough in the midst of world-class ecological mayhem? To address such questions, this book’s contributors place the new Arab urban in wider contexts of trade, technology, and design. Drawn from across disciplines and diverse home countries, they investigate how these cities import projects, plans and structures from the outside, but also how, increasingly, Gulf-originated initiatives disseminate to cities far afield. Brought together by noted scholars, sociologist Harvey Molotch and urban analyst Davide Ponzini, this timely volume adds to our understanding of the modern Arab metropolis—as well as of cities more generally. Gulf cities display development patterns that, however unanticipated in the standard paradigms of urban scholarship, now impact the world.

Branding the Middle East

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Author :
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110741156
Total Pages : 468 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis Branding the Middle East by : Steffen Wippel

Download or read book Branding the Middle East written by Steffen Wippel and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2023-10-02 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Knowledge-Based Urban Development in the Middle East

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Author :
Publisher : IGI Global
ISBN 13 : 152253735X
Total Pages : 310 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (225 download)

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Book Synopsis Knowledge-Based Urban Development in the Middle East by : Alraouf, Ali A.

Download or read book Knowledge-Based Urban Development in the Middle East written by Alraouf, Ali A. and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2018-03-02 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The knowledge economy has become an important part of contemporary development for cities in a time of globalization and expansion. Examining theories of knowledge transfer and urban advancement allows for better adaptation in a changing global society. Knowledge-Based Urban Development in the Middle East provides emerging research on the contemporary practices of architecture, urban design, and implementation in contemporary Middle Eastern cities. Highlighting a range of pertinent topics, such as creative economy, knowledge development, and learning communities, this book is an important resource for academics, researchers, practitioners, and decision makers seeking current research on the issues and challenges of implementing knowledge-based urban development in Middle Eastern cities.

The Transnational Middle East

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1315535637
Total Pages : 295 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (155 download)

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Book Synopsis The Transnational Middle East by : Leïla Vignal

Download or read book The Transnational Middle East written by Leïla Vignal and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Middle East has been undergoing new crises since the powerful socio-political uprisings known as the Arab Spring took place in several countries in 2011. Some countries are experiencing a long-term collapse of their political and social structures out of internal conflicts and external interventions. The Transnational Middle East posits that, in the Middle East, the development of regional dynamics, of processes and circulations of all kinds, can be documented. In this regard, the approaches it develops — ‘bottom-up’ regionalisation, ‘globalisation from below’ — allow for a better understanding of the ways in which the Middle East is part of global transformations. The book analyses how, through their practices, Middle East societies elaborate a regional space which is not institutionalised. Based on fieldwork in the Middle East, the book provides venues for further theoretical elaboration on globalisation and contemporary societies, as well as on processes of regionalisation. It draws on the emergence of genuine regional spaces of culture, art, economic activity, human circulation — which supplement and do not contradict other infra-national, national, or global social processes. As in other areas of the world, these transformations are to a large extent the mode of the Middle East’s insertion into globalisation. In this respect, they go against standard narratives of the supposed ‘exceptionalism’ of the region. This book will be a great contribution to comparative politics, Middle Eastern studies, globalisation and international relations.

Sustainable Development and Planning IX

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Publisher : WIT Press
ISBN 13 : 1784662313
Total Pages : 863 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (846 download)

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Book Synopsis Sustainable Development and Planning IX by : C.A. Brebbia

Download or read book Sustainable Development and Planning IX written by C.A. Brebbia and published by WIT Press. This book was released on 2017-10-11 with total page 863 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Containing papers presented at the 9th International Conference on Sustainable Development and Planning this volume brings together the work of academics, policy makers, practitioners and other international stakeholders and discusses new academic findings and their application in planning and development strategies, assessment tools and decision making processes. Problems related to development and planning are present in all areas and regions of the world. Accelerated urbanisation has resulted in both the deterioration of the environment and quality of life. Taking into consideration the interaction between different regions and developing new methodologies for monitoring, planning and implementation, new strategies can offer solutions mitigating environmental pollution and non-sustainable use of available resources. Energy saving and eco-friendly buildings have become an important part of modern day progress with emphasis on resource optimisation. Planning is a key part in ensuring that these solutions along with new materials and processes are efficiently incorporated. Planners, environmentalists, architects, engineers and economists have to work collectively to ensure that present and future needs are met. The papers in the book cover a number of topics, including: City planning; Regional planning; Rural developments; Sustainability and the built environment; Sustainability supply chain; Resilience; Environmental management; Energy resources; Cultural heritage; Quality of life; Sustainable solutions in emerging countries; Sustainable tourism; Learning from nature; Transportation; Social and political issues; Community planning; UN Sustainable Development Goals and Timber Structures.

The Speculative City

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Publisher : University of Toronto Press
ISBN 13 : 1487535767
Total Pages : 233 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (875 download)

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Book Synopsis The Speculative City by : Cecilia L. Chu

Download or read book The Speculative City written by Cecilia L. Chu and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2022-01-27 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Speculative City explores property speculation as a key aspect of financialization and its role in reshaping the contemporary built environment. The book offers a series of case studies that encompass a range of cities whose urban fabrics have undergone significant transformation in recent years. While the forms of these developments shared many similarities, their trajectories and social outcomes were contingent upon existing planning and policy frameworks and the historical roles assumed by the state and the private sector in housing and welfare provision. By paying close attention to the forces and actors involved in property development, this book underscores that the built environment has played an integral part in the shaping of new values and collective aspirations while facilitating the spread of financial logics in urban governance. It also shows that these dynamics represent a larger shift of politics and culture in the ongoing production of urban space and prompts reflections on future trajectories of finance-led property speculation.

Temporary Cities

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429855915
Total Pages : 552 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (298 download)

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Book Synopsis Temporary Cities by : Yasser Elsheshtawy

Download or read book Temporary Cities written by Yasser Elsheshtawy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-03-28 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are Arab Gulf cities, the likes of Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Doha, on their way to extinction? Is their fate obsolescence? Or, are they the model for our urban future? Can a city whose very existence is predicated on an imported labour force who build and operate these gleaming urban centres remain a viable urban entity? Could the transient nature of this urban model, its temporariness and precariousness, also be its doom? In this wide-ranging book Yasser Elsheshtawy takes on these tough, but necessary, questions aiming to examine the very nature of the Arab Gulf city and whether it can sustain its existence throughout the twenty-first century. Having lived in the region for more than two decades he researched its marginalized and forgotten urban settings, trying to understand how a temporary people can live in a place that inherently refuses to give them the possibility of becoming citizens. By being embedded in these spaces and reconciling their presence with his own personal encounters with transience, he discovered a resilience and defiance against the forces of the hegemonic city. Using subtle acts of resistance, these temporary inhabitants have found a way to sustain and create a home, to set down roots in the midst of a fast changing and transient urbanity. Their stories, recounted in this book through case studies and in-depth analysis, give hope to cities everywhere. Transience is not a fait accompli: rather the actions of citizens, residents and migrants – even in the highly restrictive spaces of the Gulf – show us that the future metropolis may very well not turn out to be a ‘utopia of the few and a dystopia of the many’. This could be an illusion, but it is a necessary illusion because the alternative is irrelevance.

The Geopolitics of Spectacle

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Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 1501720937
Total Pages : 262 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis The Geopolitics of Spectacle by : Natalie Koch

Download or read book The Geopolitics of Spectacle written by Natalie Koch and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-15 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do autocrats build spectacular new capital cities? In The Geopolitics of Spectacle, Natalie Koch considers how autocratic rulers use "spectacular" projects to shape state-society relations, but rather than focus on the standard approach—on the project itself—she considers the unspectacular "others." The contrasting views of those from the poorest regions toward these new national capitals help her develop a geographic approach to spectacle. Koch uses Astana in Kazakhstan to exemplify her argument, comparing that spectacular city with others from resource-rich, nondemocratic nations in central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Southeast Asia. The Geopolitics of Spectacle draws new political-geographic lessons and shows that these spectacles can be understood only from multiple viewpoints, sites, and temporalities. Koch explicitly theorizes spectacle geographically and in so doing extends the analysis of governmentality into new empirical and theoretical terrain. With cases ranging from Azerbaijan to Qatar and Myanmar, and an intriguing account of reactions to the new capital of Astana from the poverty-stricken Aral Sea region of Kazakhstan, Koch’s book provides food for thought for readers in human geography, anthropology, sociology, urban studies, political science, international affairs, and post-Soviet and central Asian studies.

Urban Oman

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Publisher : LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN 13 : 3643907141
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (439 download)

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Book Synopsis Urban Oman by : Sonja Nebel

Download or read book Urban Oman written by Sonja Nebel and published by LIT Verlag Münster. This book was released on 2016 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book traces urbanisation patterns in Oman looking at the coastal strip of Muscat Capital Area. This metropolitan region emerged within the last 50 years almost out of nowhere and is now home of the majority of the national and expatriate population of Oman. Urbanisation, and the socio-political, economic and environmental aspects attached to it, become an index of the radical spatial transformation of the Sultanate. This process, if managed well, also holds the key to sustainable urban development. Urban Oman invites geographers, planners, urban designers, architects, decision-makers and scholars of Gulf Studies to rethink the emergence of Muscat Capital Area and to embrace the urban Oman. Sonja Nebel, architect and urban planner, is researcher and consultant with focus on international urban development, rehabilitation and urban management, affiliated to TU Berlin and GUtech, Oman. Aurel von Richthofen, architect and urbanist, is working on urban renewal and spatial planning strategies, and is currently researcher at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore affiliated to the ETH Zurich, Switzerland.

Urban Challenges in the Globalizing Middle-East

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Author :
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030697959
Total Pages : 211 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (36 download)

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Book Synopsis Urban Challenges in the Globalizing Middle-East by : Simona Azzali

Download or read book Urban Challenges in the Globalizing Middle-East written by Simona Azzali and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication aims to investigate the nature of social life in public and urban spaces in the cities of the Middle East, considering the value of environmental approaches. It aims to develop a better understanding of the patterns of social interactions and activities in public places, which have been influenced by cultural heritage values. Sustainable and livable open spaces can help in improving living conditions in cities. Public spaces are relevant as they satisfy many human needs. In public spaces, people interact and meet; people with different cultures and social backgrounds can communicate and learn from each other in social and spontaneous ways. However, decision-makers tend to forget the value of public spaces, especially in the absence of a national regulatory framework in emerging globalized cities. The book provides a multi-disciplinary approach in reading the characteristics and values of public spaces in the emerging cities of the Middle East.

Globalization and Dynamics of Urban Production

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Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1789451388
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (894 download)

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Book Synopsis Globalization and Dynamics of Urban Production by : Natacha Aveline-Dubach

Download or read book Globalization and Dynamics of Urban Production written by Natacha Aveline-Dubach and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2024-01-11 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last 20 years, urbanization processes have undergone profound transformations under the growing influence of private actors, particularly in the financial sector. This has exposed the physical environment of various cities to global capital flows, which has generated an overall rise in real estate values on a global scale. This is often disconnected from the financial capacities of local actors – primarily households – which then increases the inequalities and vulnerabilities of societies regarding financial and environmental risks. This book offers the keys to understanding these new dynamics of capital accumulation in the general built-up environment of cities by taking into account the diversity of their configurations, their intensity and their urban effects according to national contexts. Beyond the cases involving the major Western countries, the initial centers of the financial industry and the theorizations on the urban, this book addresses the particular contexts of real estate production in four major regions: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and West Africa.

The New Companion to Urban Design

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351400614
Total Pages : 894 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (514 download)

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Book Synopsis The New Companion to Urban Design by : Tridib Banerjee

Download or read book The New Companion to Urban Design written by Tridib Banerjee and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-06-19 with total page 894 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New Companion to Urban Design continues the assemblage of rich and critical ideas about urban form and design that began with the Companion to Urban Design (Routledge, 2011). With chapters from a new set of contributors, this sequel offers a more comparative perspective representing multiple voices and perspectives from the Global South. The essays in this volume are organized in three parts: Part I: Comparative Urbanism; Part II: Challenges; and Part III: Opportunities. Each part contains distinct sections designed to address specific themes, and includes a list of annotated suggested further readings at the end of each chapter. Part I: Comparative Urbanism examines different variants of urbanism in the Global North and the Global South, produced by a new economic order characterized by the mobility of labor, capital, information, and technology. Part II: Challenges discusses some of the contemporary challenges that cities of the Global North and the Global South are facing and the possible role of urban design. This part discusses spatial claims and conflicts, challenges generated by urban informality, explosive growth or dramatic shrinkage of the urban settlement, gentrification and displacement, and mimesis, simulacra and lack of authenticity. Part III: Aspirations discusses some normative goals that urban design interventions aspire to bring about in cities of the Global North and the Global South. These include resilience and sustainability, health, conservation/restoration, justice, intelligence, access and mobility, and arts and culture. The New Companion to Urban Design is primarily intended for scholars and graduate students interested in cities and their built environment. It offers an invaluable and up-to-date guide to current thinking across a range of disciplines including urban design, planning, urban studies, and geography.

Data-driven Multivalence in the Built Environment

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Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3030121801
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (31 download)

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Book Synopsis Data-driven Multivalence in the Built Environment by : Nimish Biloria

Download or read book Data-driven Multivalence in the Built Environment written by Nimish Biloria and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-07-01 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book sets the stage for understanding how the exponential escalation of digital ubiquity in the contemporary environment is being absorbed, modulated, processed and actively used for enhancing the performance of our built environment. S.M.A.R.T., in this context, is thus used as an acronym for Systems & Materials in Architectural Research and Technology, with a specific focus on interrogating the intricate relationship between information systems and associative material, cultural and socioeconomic formations within the built environment. This interrogation is deeply rooted in exploring inter-disciplinary research and design strategies involving nonlinear processes for developing meta-design systems, evidence based design solutions and methodological frameworks, some of which, are presented in this issue. Urban health and wellbeing, urban mobility and infrastructure, smart manufacturing, Interaction Design, Urban Design & Planning as well as Data Science, as prominent symbiotic domains constituting the Built Environment are represented in this first book in the S.M.A.R.T. series. The spectrum of chapters included in this volume helps in understanding the multivalence of data from a socio-technical perspective and provides insight into the methodological nuances involved in capturing, analysing and improving urban life via data driven technologies.