The Future of the City Centre

The Future of the City Centre

Author: Bob Giddings

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-12-30

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 1000821056

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The Future of the City Centre: Global Perspectives debates future directions. It looks beyond the post-industrial, post-commercial, and post-retail city centres to examine differing visions of the future form and function of the urban core. This theme and the related sub-topics will assist the development of future city models and help to contextualise urban change. The in-depth research covers not only urban form and the re-use of the built heritage but also the provision for cultural events and different forms of entertainment that will offer vitality, together with visitors and responsible tourism. City authorities are starting to realise that structural changes are happening in city centres, as their influence is declining, and therefore new forms of governance will be needed. The book is based on an international research network hosting four symposia over 24 months. They took place in four cities in four different continents to encompass a world view of developed and developing countries. This book offers theoretical and practical perspectives from leading thinkers, academics, and practitioners, drawing on thematic issues explored across four international cities: Newcastle, UK; Newcastle, Australia; Pretoria-Tshwane, South Africa; and João Pessoa, Brazil. It draws on a wider set of global examples to reveal the shared issues and pressures being brought to bear on city centres and the diversity of responses being undertaken to ensure their long-term future. The book includes illustrations from cities around the world, and it is directed at academics, students, and professionals in architecture, planning, urban design, the built environment, geography, economics, sociology, and cultural studies.


The Uncertain Future of the Urban Core

The Uncertain Future of the Urban Core

Author: Christopher M. Law

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-12

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 1351600680

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Originally published in 1988. Inner city problems in advanced countries are being exacerbated by the decentralisation of economic activities and higher income groups. Only offices and tourism offer some prospects of growth, but these vary in their potential from one city to another. This book assesses changes in the structure of urban areas, concentrating on the process of decentralisation and the consequences for the inner city and city centre. It examines and evaluates policies and makes suggestions for the future management of the city.


The Future of Religious Heritage

The Future of Religious Heritage

Author: Ferdinand de Jong

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-03-28

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 1000855279

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The Future of Religious Heritage examines the resurgence of religious heritage in a secular age and frames such heritage as both legacy from the past and promise for the future. Drawing on case studies from across Europe, this volume addresses the intersection of three well-defined areas of research: secularism, religious heritage and the question of renewal. Considering the heritagisation of religion and the sacralisation of heritage, contributions to the book consider to what extent the idea of renewal, so pivotal to religious and secular ontologies, is present in heritage formations. Thinking about the temporalities of re-enactment and reconstruction, this volume examines whether heritage practices incorporate religious time into secular practice. Problematising such temporalities of the sacred in our post-secular age, the volume explores how these intersections of religious and secular time in heritage practices inform constructions of the future. The Future of Religious Heritage addresses the paradox of the secularisation of religion and the sacralisation of heritage in a post-secular age. It will appeal to academics and students with an interest in critical heritage studies, religion, and (post)secularism, and will also be of interest to those studying re-enactment, regeneration and renewal.


Inventing Future Cities

Inventing Future Cities

Author: Michael Batty

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2018-12-11

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 0262349906

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How we can invent—but not predict—the future of cities. We cannot predict future cities, but we can invent them. Cities are largely unpredictable because they are complex systems that are more like organisms than machines. Neither the laws of economics nor the laws of mechanics apply; cities are the product of countless individual and collective decisions that do not conform to any grand plan. They are the product of our inventions; they evolve. In Inventing Future Cities, Michael Batty explores what we need to understand about cities in order to invent their future. Batty outlines certain themes—principles—that apply to all cities. He investigates not the invention of artifacts but inventive processes. Today form is becoming ever more divorced from function; information networks now shape the traditional functions of cities as places of exchange and innovation. By the end of this century, most of the world's population will live in cities, large or small, sometimes contiguous, and always connected; in an urbanized world, it will be increasingly difficult to define a city by its physical boundaries. Batty discusses the coming great transition from a world with few cities to a world of all cities; argues that future cities will be defined as clusters in a hierarchy; describes the future “high-frequency,” real-time streaming city; considers urban sprawl and urban renewal; and maps the waves of technological change, which grow ever more intense and lead to continuous innovation—an unending process of creative destruction out of which future cities will emerge.


Imagining the Future City

Imagining the Future City

Author: Sarah Bell

Publisher: Ubiquity Press

Published: 2013-11-18

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1909188204

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London is one of the world’s leading cities. It is home to an extraordinary concentration and diversity of people, industries, politics, religions and ideas, and plays an important role in our highly globalised and tightly networked modern world. What does the future hold for London? Investigating any aspect of the city’s future reveals a complex picture of interrelations and dependencies. The London 2062 Programme from University College London brings a new, cross-disciplinary and highly collaborative approach to investigating this complexity. The programme crosses departmental boundaries within the university, and promotes active collaboration between leading academics and those who shape London through policy and practice. This book approaches the question of London’s future by considering the city in terms of Connections, Things, Power and Dreams.


The Sustainable City

The Sustainable City

Author: Steven Cohen

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2021-06-15

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 0231551703

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Living sustainably is not just about preserving the wilderness or keeping nature pristine. The transition to a green economy depends on cities. Economic, technological, and cultural forces are moving people out of rural areas and into urban areas. If we are to avert climate catastrophe, we will need our cities to coexist with nature without destroying it. Urbanization holds the key to long-term sustainability, reducing per capita environmental impacts while improving economic prosperity and social inclusion for current and future generations. The Sustainable City provides a broad and engaging overview of the urban systems of the twenty-first century. It approaches urban sustainability from the perspectives of behavioral change, organizational management, and public policy, looking at case studies of existing legislation, programs, and public-private partnerships that strive to align modern urban life and sustainability. The book synthesizes the disparate strands of sustainable city planning in an approachable and applicable guide that highlights how these issues touch our lives on a daily basis, including the transportation we take, the public health systems that protect us, where our energy comes from, and what becomes of our food waste. This second edition of The Sustainable City dives deeper into the financing of sustainable infrastructure and initiatives and puts additional emphasis on the roles that individual citizens and varied stakeholders can play. It also reviews current trends in urban inequality and discusses whether a model of sustainability that embraces a multidimensional approach to development and a multistakeholder approach to decision making can foster social inclusion. It features many more examples and new international case studies spanning the globe.


Future Transport in Cities

Future Transport in Cities

Author: Brian Richards

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2012-09-10

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 1135159645

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Cities around the world are being wrecked by the ever-increasing burden of traffic. A significant part of the problem is the enduring popularity of the private car - still an attractive and convenient option to many, who turn a blind eye to the environmental and public health impact. Public transport has always seemed to take second place to the car, and yet alternative ways of moving around cities are possible. Measures to improve public transport, as well as initiatives to encourage walking and cycling, have been introduced in many large cities to decrease car use, or at least persuade people to use their cars in different ways. This book explores many of the measures being tried. It takes the best examples from around the world, and illustrates the work of those architects and urban planners who have produced some of the most significant models of "transport architecture" and city planning. The book examines the ways in which new systems are evolving, and how these are being integrated into the urban environment. It suggests a future where it could be mandatory to provide systems of horizontal movement within large-scale development, using the analogy of the lift, upon which every high-rise building depends. In so doing, future cities could evolve without dependence on the private car.


The Future of Cities and Regions

The Future of Cities and Regions

Author: Liliana Bazzanella

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-03-22

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 9400725175

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This guide for tomorrow’s urban practitioner systematically explains fifteen best practices across three continents; it explores questions of broad interest for designing and planning the future of cities and regions. Key questions addressed are: Is simulation useful to explore the effects of different design, policy and planning strategies? Which approach will help manage the uncertainties of metropolitan areas both today and tomorrow ? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the different simulation practices for city leadership, public and private partnership, and citizen involvement? The book reviews computer models and media, socio-political initiatives, professional practices which help communicating the future effects of different design, political and planning strategies with a wide range of aims: from information, through consultation, towards active participation. These world best practices are considered according to four leading issues for urban and regional development, respectively Simulation, Scenario and Visioning, Government and Governance, and Scale. The book examines the approaches adopted technically and procedurally. The selected knowledge and the innovative tools used in each case study are among the most advanced and up-to-date in the professional and research fields. This volume successfully illustrates these innovative practices and methodologies in a straightforward and accessible way.


The Future of Urban Form

The Future of Urban Form

Author: John Brotchie

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-12

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 1351675982

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This book, first published in 1985, explores the ways in which the editors and contributors predicted the urban system, shaped by emerging technologies, would look like, both nationally and internationally. The technological changes covered include automation in the secondary sector, the effects of energy price rises and threats of shortage, and substitution effects in the energy and vehicle technology areas. Social and economic factors discussed include unemployment patterns, urban activities and lifestyles and their interactions. This title will be of interest to students of urban studies.


City

City

Author: William H. Whyte

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2012-09-10

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 081220834X

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Named by Newsweek magazine to its list of "Fifty Books for Our Time." For sixteen years William Whyte walked the streets of New York and other major cities. With a group of young observers, camera and notebook in hand, he conducted pioneering studies of street life, pedestrian behavior, and city dynamics. City: Rediscovering the Center is the result of that research, a humane, often amusing view of what is staggeringly obvious about the urban environment but seemingly invisible to those responsible for planning it. Whyte uses time-lapse photography to chart the anatomy of metropolitan congestion. Why is traffic so badly distributed on city streets? Why do New Yorkers walk so fast—and jaywalk so incorrigibly? Why aren't there more collisions on the busiest walkways? Why do people who stop to talk gravitate to the center of the pedestrian traffic stream? Why do places designed primarily for security actually worsen it? Why are public restrooms disappearing? "The city is full of vexations," Whyte avers: "Steps too steep; doors too tough to open; ledges you cannot sit on. . . . It is difficult to design an urban space so maladroitly that people will not use it, but there are many such spaces." Yet Whyte finds encouragement in the widespread rediscovery of the city center. The future is not in the suburbs, he believes, but in that center. Like a Greek agora, the city must reassert its most ancient function as a place where people come together face-to-face.