Urban transformation has been a rather recent phenomenon which a number of nations are facing. Istanbul is among them. Its aims are to improve the lives of the citizens through improving the built environment of the cities. Discussions on Urban Transformation have gamed a legal status in Turkey, with a Law: ‘The Transformation of the Areas under Disaster Risk’. It aims at generating a healthy, secure environment forming the principles of improvement, removal and renewal in those risky lands. Accordingly, In Turkey, in 10 provinces, 24 regions have been declared as risky areas. Some of these areas have been identified as risky by the municipalities, some by the people, and some by the Ministry. This research underlining the paper is empirically based on structured interviews in over 1000 household in Istanbul, as well in-depth interviews and focus interviews with the quarter headmen, realtors, and other social leaders in the community. The questionnaire has been conducted in three quarters of one of the major and largest transformation (sub-municipal) regions of Istanbul, namely Kagithane [1]. The preliminary results show that major issues include lack of knowledge and participation on behalf of the community members; lack of a holistic master plan for the sub-municipal region; and sacrificing for short-term goals of rent/profit, with the long term goals of sustainable cities. The socio-cultural, economic and spatial aspects Qf transformation at the end will be assessed in view of the dwellers whose houses have been in the transformation zone and who are either leaving their neighborhoods for good to the formal authorities; or selling their houses quickly by making agreements with the contractors instead.
The Egyptian New Communities development experience started in the mid-Nineteen Seventies, as part of a general strategy to tackle the complex problems challenging Egyptian settlements and context; mostly surrounded by invaluable agricultural land. New Communities were thought as an effective solution to the problems of rapid encroachment of agricultural land, deteriorating urban fabric, and low-quality living. It represented a serious endeavour and a heavy undertaking in a developing context burdened by challenging priorities and limited resources. The New Communities drive and partial realization continued in full vigour for almost two decades. The authors were involved in many of the studies of New Communities during the said period, and followed the fortunes and lapses of the experience since. The New Communities present scene, points-out their limited success in achieving underlying objectives and meeting declared development programs, in terms of: securing effective ‘resident’ population, accommodating a balanced socio-economic mix, enabling lower income groups, achieving relative independence and autonomy, and providing sustainable living and quality settings. The political upheaval in the wake of January 20II uprising in Egypt transformed the political and socio-economic setting; allowed extensive informal physical interventions and hosted hastily formulated development strategies that ignored previous policies and products, slowed and stifled development (New Communities included). The present work critically re-examines Egyptian New Communities, advocating the importance of continuous monitoring and critical assessment of earlier development plans and implemented policies, and in turn deployment of the related findings in formulating new development strategies and future planning scenarios. Supported by recorded satellite images and a limited pilot research, it reviews the New Communities recent changes and current status, pointing out means of revitalizing its role in the country’s development drive and future planning policies. The paper falls into three closely related sections, namely: Recalling Conception and Realization, Recent Transformations and the Present Scene, and Propositions for Revitalization ‘ and Development.
Building industry as the principal sector to contribute to environmental burdens is accounted for production of the substantial amount of greenhouse or acidifying gasses, as well as is responsible for consumption of massive share of energy. Although the operation of buildings is liable for almost 80-90% of life-cycle energy consumed in buildings, the other phases of life cycle also require some special attention. Even if embodied material energy in the majority of buildings represents at about 10-20%, it may be a very significant fraction especially in modem energy efficient buildings. Demands on higher standard and comfort of living has recently caused that building design has become more complicated and requires interdisciplinary cooperation of specialists from technical as well as non-technical disciplines. Selection of building materials is an important step which may influence not only amount of embodied energy or embodied CO2 and S02 emission, but also future operation (usage stage) in terms of consumed energy and released emissions of C02 and S02. In this paper, two alternatives of design of the same residential building were compared in terms of environmental performance of building materials used for building structures. Summarizing the results of the environmental evaluation the possibility to reach the reduction of embodied energy (by 16.2%), embodied C02 (by 24.6%) and S02 emissions (by 14.5%) has been proved through a simple change of material basis.
Optimal Control is a big opportunity for energy efficiency since it involves much smaller investments than those usually applied to technological building elements integration, by providing new ways for sustainable energy saving solutions. Nevertheless optimal management requires the development of a new class of predictive control logics, behaving consistently in changing environments. This class of control systems embed advanced predictive models, directly coupled with an environment monitoring sensor network, that are capable of interpreting sensed data (both indoor and environmental) and of forecasting future states. The design of the monitoring system is a critical passage as it is subjected to a number of operational and cost constraints, but also has to guarantee a reliable interpretation of the environmental behaviour of the building. This paper discusses this issue and presents the engineering framework and a methodology developed for supporting the design of monitoring networks integrated in optimal control system of large and complex environments. The application of the methodology to the case of a subway station is briefly presented too. This research is part of the European Research Project SEAM4US (Sustainable Energy Management for Underground Stations). The proposed solution is based on the definition and development of the set of models needed for both supporting the definition of the monitoring sensor network and being embedded in the final control system implementation. The development of this class of environmental models for large underground environments such as subway stations involves the elaboration and the integration of different simulation models. The simulation results constitute the knowledge that can support an efficient design of sensor networks even in large buildings.
Traditional design and planning tools seem everyday less adequate to deal with the complexity of contemporary cities. Istanbul is a striking example of these contradictions [1]: indeed, the recent urban developments are eroding the informal settlements, commonly called Gecekondu, that during the last century shaped large part of the city. The development of neoliberal policies is threatening the future of these lively communities, while at the same time encouraging an increase in phenomena of social segregation and urban fragmentation [2], This paper wants to propose an alternative method for the intervention in these areas, based on the application of computational techniques to understand, foresee and drive the growth of more sustainable and integrated settlements. The method is articulated in four phases: analysis, model creation, scenario planning and implementation. The analytical phase allows both for the understanding of the relational rules of the urban form of these areas and of the social and economical mechanisms that led to this kind of urban structure. This will inform the creation of a model, allowing in this way to create the background and keep the study linked to the current area, while at the same time allowing for a generalization of the assumptions [3]. The set of rules extracted in this way can be encoded successively in a complex computational model, where a set of generic algorithms of urban development [4] is coupled with the structural relationship of the neighbourhood analysed. The model is developed by interlinking different rules of urban development with social and economical simulation processes, allowing for the simulation of complex dynamics of change The model built allows then for the creation of different scenarios of development, based on a combination of bottom-up processed driven by citizens decisions and top-down policies implemented by the municipalities. The scenarios can be tested and evaluated, allowing for the definition of alternative policies of intervention. The implementation phase can then be carried out in different ways, but, by maintaining a continuous process of feedback with the computational model and the reality of change, maintain a degree of control without imposing a rigid development.
Researchers refer to it as an oxymoron. However, a stark reality is, Delhi has 135 urban villages as per latest reports. With rapid urbanization, Delhi stood at 17 million (2011), a growth rate of 55% (1991-2011). Earlier, there were scattered settlements (‘abadi’-deh) with farmlands (khet-khalihan). These farmlands were acquired for construction of planned colonies. The village settlements were left and its inhabitants were exempted from development control regulations. This unguided freedom led to unplanned construction and haphazard growth. The first part of the paper researches on the genesis of urban villages. The first master plan of Delhi only acquired agricultural land. The ‘abadi’ areas were left and the rural built forms were protected by a boundary called ‘Lal Dora’ (Red Chord). Within these boundaries the ‘urban villages’ emerged over time. These villages were not subject to any developmental control nor were they connected to the urban infrastructure networks resulting in uncontrolled growth. The second part of the paper presents status and major issues of urban villages; viz. high density, inhabited by lower income groups and in-migrants aspiring for a livelihood, unplanned, lacking water supply and sanitation with narrow streets. The study highlights these conditions from urban villages in Hauz Khas, Kotla Mubarakpur, and Mohammadpur. The third part of the paper highlights the reasons behind the present scenario. It identifies major fallacies from policy makers, the response of the users as well as, the builders. An expert report identifies, the major slip was the way land acquisition and compensation package was worked out. Villagers were deprived of their agricultural land and space for their cattle. Moreover, the compensation at government rates got over soon. Inhabitants were forced to seek alternative livelihood like small business, shops. The pace of land acquisition outweighed speed of development and authorities could not protect these unused lands. Large scale encroachment, even unauthorised colonies grew, ftirther compounding the problem. The last part of the paper does a comparative analysis of three urban villages, examines some of the development approaches and user preferences and tries to identify different stages of transformation of urban villages. An approach to improve mobility and accessibility in one of the urban villages is proposed.
An important challenge of urban regeneration lies in the development of sustainable programs improving housing and living conditions. In the Netherlands, since 1990s, creating lasting solutions is one of the basic concerns that have become part of strategies for urban regeneration. The other basic concern is an integrated approach of physical, environmental, social and economic programmes. Urban renewal and regeneration needs to respond to new conditions and adapt ever-present societal and economic changes in neighbourhoods. Based on research of regeneration programmes in the Netherlands and referring to the international debate, the paper will provide criteria for sustainability on features of urban regeneration. In this paper the main focus will be on urban design and planning, the social structure and economic structure. Following the changes in the social fabric important issues are reduction of inequalities, avoiding exclusion and displacement of disadvantaged groups as well as the safety issue. The economic features that will be considered are related to the development of economic property values due to regeneration. Evaluations of urban regeneration and renewal policies show that, partly due to physical efforts, cities have improved in the Netherlands.
