This book focuses on the urban and regional planning systems under conditions of economic crisis and austerity, focusing in particular on the systems of Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Spatial Planning as Institutional Design examines the structure and legislation of these systems throughout the twentieth century as well as the decade before the 2008 economic and fiscal crisis and the years of recovery following it.
Instead of seeking theory to justify practical professional judgments this book describes how professionals can and should use theory to guide these judgments. Professional spatial planning in the US, and globally, continues to suffer from a weak conceptual grasp of its own practice. Practitioners routinely recognize the value and wisdom of practical judgment finely attuned to context, nuance and complexity; but later offer banal testimony and glib stories of ‘just so’ best-practice discrediting the ambiguity of their own experience. The chapters in this book provide a vocabulary tailored to the conventions of practical judgment, challenging students and practitioners to treat professional expertise as work in progress rather than ‘best’ practice. Instead of seeking theory to justify practical professional judgments, Hoch describes how professionals can and should use theory to guide these judgments. The pragmatist plan helps cope with complexity rather than control it, making it invaluable in the anyone’s pursuit of a planning career. This book will appeal to a wide cross section of students and scholars, especially those working in urban planning, public policy, and government.
As a result of the series of four research and debate symposia convened by ETH Zurich members with international academics and practitioners in the field of spatial planning, this book revolves around 'inspiring stories' that describe a wide variety of spatial problems as well as the planning mechanisms used to address these; in addition, 'fundamental topics' are provided to facilitate the understanding of certain planning processes illustrated by the practical cases.There are two main reasons behind choosing this method to introduce spatial planning. Firstly, the spatial planning profession is facing a great crisis. Experts are confronted with a quantum leap in the availability of information and the variety of visualisation and simulation instruments suitable for their analysis. While planners can certainly rely on the new technologies available to support the planning process, it seems to be that the nature of planning processes is being underestimated. A second motive for creating this book lies in the relationship between planners as experts and interested lay persons. The latter are usually fascinated with the physical interventions in space, whether these are great urban and architectural complexes or astonishing infrastructural projects. However, what seems to be forgotten, again, is the careful planning process that brought the interventions into being despite numerous problems of various kinds.Therefore, the key question is: How can planners bring this fascinating process and its results to the larger public and create a fuller understanding? This book intends to answer this question and create interest and curiosity for the field of spatial planning in a simple and clear manner. Introducing case descriptions of:• A new park in Milan• Storm water protection in Chicago• Redevelopment of an industrial brownfield in Attisholz etc.
Intends to clarify the enterprise of European spatial planning. This book places emphasis on the need for a understanding of the process of European integration in general. It points at the middle range theories that used concepts that were showing similarity to those that academics were accustomed to, such as networks, discourses and governance.
This ground-breaking Encyclopedia provides a nuanced overview of the key concepts of urban and regional planning and design. Embracing a broad understanding of planning and design within and beyond the professions, it examines what planners and designers can do in and for a community.
This book examines some of the evolving challenges faced by EU regional policy in light of enlargement and to assess some of the approaches and trends in terms of territorial development policy and practice that are emerging out of this process. Focusing on the experiences on Central and Eastern Europe, these chapters reflect on the diversity of approaches to spatial planning and the the politics of policy formation and multi-level governance operations – from local to trans-national agendas. Promoting increased awareness and understanding of these issues is the main purpose of the book, as well as harnessing the extensive capacity and ‘knowledge’ within these countries that can greatly enrich the discourse within an enlarged ‘epistemic community’ of European spatial planning academics, practitioners and policy-makers. The recently acquired CEE dimension provides a unique opportunity to examine the evolution of existing ‘epistemic communities’ as well as to explore the potential emergence of new ones..
The Routledge Handbook of Regional Design explores contemporary research, policy, and practice that highlight critical aspects of strategy-making, planning, and designing for contemporary regions—including city regions, bioregions, delta regions, and their hybrids. As accelerating urbanization and globalization combine with other forces such as the demand for increasing returns on investment capital, migration, and innovation, they yield cities that are expanding over ever-larger territories. Moreover, these polycentric city regions themselves are agglomerating with one another to create new territorial mega-regions. The processes that beget these novel regional forms produce numerous and significant effects, positive and negative, that call for new modes of design and management so that the urban places and the lives and well-being of their inhabitants and businesses thrive sustainably into the future. With international case studies from leading scholars and practitioners, this book is an important resource not just for students, researchers, and practitioners of urban planning, but also policy makers, developers, architects, engineers, and anyone interested in the broader issues of urbanism.
Current urban planning systems are not equipped to deal with the major urban challenges of the twenty-first century, including effects of climate change, resource depletion and economic instability, plus continued rapid urbanization with its negative consequences such as poverty, slums and urban informality. These planning systems have also, to a large extent, failed to meaningfully involve and accommodate the ways of life of communities and other stakeholders in the planning of urban areas, thus contributing to the problems of spatial marginalization and exclusion. It is clear that urban planning needs to be reconsidered and revitalized for a sustainable urban future. Planning Sustainable Cities reviews the major challenges currently facing cities and towns all over the world, the emergence and spread of modern urban planning and the effectiveness of current approaches. More importantly, it identifies innovative urban planning approaches and practices that are more responsive to current and future challenges of urbanization. The Global Report on Human Settlements is the most authoritative and up-to-date global assessment of human settlements conditions and trends. It is an essential reference for researchers, academics, public authorities and civil society organizations all over the world. Preceding issues of the report have addressed such topics as Cities in a Globalizing World, The Challenge of Slums, Financing Urban Shelter and Enhancing Urban Safety and Security.
The Virtual and the Real in Planning and Urban Design: Perspectives, Practices and Applications explores the merging relationship between physical and virtual spaces in planning and urban design. Technological advances such as smart sensors, interactive screens, locative media and evolving computation software have impacted the ways in which people experience, explore, interact with and create these complex spaces. This book draws together a broad range of interdisciplinary researchers in areas such as architecture, urban design, spatial planning, geoinformation science, computer science and psychology to introduce the theories, models, opportunities and uncertainties involved in the interplay between virtual and physical spaces. Using a wide range of international contributors, from the UK, USA, Germany, France, Switzerland, Netherlands and Japan, it provides a framework for assessing how new technology alters our perception of physical space.
