Search Results (33)

The aim of this paper is to analyse ways to upgrade the existing urban and architectural features in the built environment by incorporating and enhancing the use of nature-based solutions (NbSs) in relation to the city of Bucharest, which lacks green spaces mapping and quality studies and literature. The paper draws a comparison between the design elements used in other cities, namely Lisbon, Vienna and Rome. These are also analysed and compared in relation to the integration in a mixed urban development plan for a research-to-business neighbourhood design competition in Măgurele, situated near Bucharest. A matrix of five criteria is used for the analysis: historical context, urban context, nature versus design, use and climate context. In Lisbon, examples range from new green walls, modern green Mediterranean courtyards, NbS in scaffolding and temporary walls, the placing of Miradores around the city to green-and-healthy marketing tools for restaurants. For Vienna, a street is being remodelled in an innovative way using independent green infrastructure designs in existing retrofitted parking units, hotels and residential constructions. For Bucharest, emergent pop-up, small scale, bottom-up solutions push the city’s urban fabric beyond the greyish look of socialist-communist background and eclectic late 19th, early 20th century built heritage. For Măgurele, different versions of a modern neighbourhood and street profile design issues are analysed, using 3D renderings that incorporate NbS at various insertion scales. Existing example cases showcase new dimensions and toolsets of the adaptation of the urban fabric based on a more ecosystem-based approach of architectural-urban research by design, as possible instruments that facilitate a Green Transition in urban settings. Covering more cities in the future would add to the impact and contribution of this study. Full article

In densely built-up urban areas, green spaces such as gardens, parks, forests and water bodies can greatly enhance the quality of life for local residents and promote human health. These areas mitigate heat stress and the urban heat island effect to create a balanced local climate. To quantify the ecosystem service of “urban climate regulation” provided by urban green infrastructure, we developed a national indicator for specific measurement and monitoring. This indicator captures both the supply of climate-regulating services by urban green spaces and the demand for this service from the residential population. Using nationwide geodata, a cooling capacity value can be calculated that reflects the tree canopy, soil cover, sizes of green area and site characteristics. This cooling capacity value is then related to the affected residential population in the neighbourhood. Our analysis indicates that 76% of the population in the 165 case cities in Germany enjoy high or very high cooling capacities in their immediate living environment. In 37 cities, over 85% of the population benefits from good or very good cooling capacity provided by green space. The proposed indicator enables a comparison of the cooling service of urban green infrastructure and offers a sound basis for spatial planning and decision-making in urban areas. Full article

Urban parks have been proven to effectively reduce mental fatigue among city residents; however, there has been less focus on the mental health benefits offered by pocket parks in densely populated areas from a field experiment perspective. Additionally, there is insufficient evidence providing information on the environmental characteristics that support recovery from mental fatigue. This study was based on 80 young adults aged 19–25 years. Three types of pocket parks were selected: street corners, interblock spaces, and intrablock spaces. Through a field experiment with questionnaire collection, physiological (BP, HR, and LF/HF) and psychological indicators (FS-14 and VAS) were used to explore the relationship between various pocket park features and respondents’ mental fatigue recovery. This study investigated the restorative effects of 10 environmental features by collecting questionnaires. The results suggested that different types of pocket parks have the recovery effect of pocket parks. Four environmental factors, namely, vegetation colour (β = −0.472, p = 0.002), vegetation coverage (β = 0.298, p = 0.046), resting facility comfort (β = −0.336, p = 0.028), and plant species (β = −0.437, p = 0.003), were more predictive of mental fatigue recoverability. However, factors such as neighbourhood hygiene and spatial privacy did not show significant predictive effects. Our findings provide robust evidence for urban park planning and design. In the future landscape design of high-density urban areas, greater emphasis can be placed on the construction of pocket parks. The rational selection and configuration of environmental factors that contribute to recovery effects in pocket parks will contribute to meeting the psychological health service needs of high-density urban populations. Full article

Master-Planned Residential Estate (MPRE) is an integrated housing development form in Australia. MPREs are aimed to build a sense of place attachment and community via the provision of environmental and social infrastructure. Neighbourhood parks are regarded as a significant built environmental factor linked to residents’ place attachment and well-being in the literature. Understanding place attachment is crucial for promoting residents’ well-being in neighbourhoods and enhancing the attractiveness of real estates in the housing market. However, we know little about how place attachment is facilitated for park users in neighbourhoods. The psychological process of place attachment in MPREs is unclear in the literature, with a particular lack of qualitative studies in this area. This study explored the psychological process of place attachment and its associations with neighbourhood parks in MPREs in Sydney via a qualitative case study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 residents residing in two selected MPREs in Sydney during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022. Interviews found three themes and several subthemes regarding the process of place attachment for park users in MPREs: affect (emotional bonds), behaviour (place-related fulfilment of needs, place-related social bonds, and community participation), and cognition (membership of the community, place-related memory, and cultural significance). This study contributes to understanding place attachment and human-environment relations in sustainable neighbourhoods by adding new items into place attachment models from the perspective of MPREs in Sydney. It provides valuable qualitative evidence gathered during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings furnish empirical insights for policymakers, developers, and urban planners involved in sustainable neighbourhoods’ development and housing management in Sydney and global regions. Full article

The importance of urban parks was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when a number of restrictions on social gatherings were in place and people’s movements were often restricted to their local neighbourhood. This study examined the changes in patterns of park use before and during COVID-19 to understand how the pandemic influenced such use. The methods involved behaviour observation and mapping, to offer a comparison of the use of parks in Edinburgh, Scotland, before and in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings show an overall increase in use of urban parks during COVID-19, as expected, with significantly higher use in social areas, sports and fitness areas, and playground areas. However, while there was an overall increase in people visiting parks with others during COVID, in woodland areas there was an increase in lone visitors. This study shows the importance of parks for socialisation, exercise and children’s play, but also for spending time alone in natural areas during COVID-19. The value of urban parks at a time of social disruption, such as the pandemic, is highlighted, and their role in supporting a variety of urban dwellers’ needs points to priorities for future park planning, design and management. Full article

Space syntax is a set of theories and techniques for analysing urban settlements and buildings. Here, we propose a new approach to perform syntactic analyses that requires only the declaration in a computer program of the connections between axial lines or convex spaces using Prolog, a logic programming language concerned with artificial intelligence. With this new tool, we found that the deep tree nature of modern estates can be mitigated with a concentric structure similar to the famous Bororo village. In fact, Portela, a high-rise settlement near Lisbon (Portugal), is structured around a central open space (green park) equipped with noninterchangeable facilities (mall, sports centre and church), which are highly synchronised with the surrounding buildings (towers and blocks). The transpatial relations between housing estates and the central zone are maximised either by a distributive ringy network or by a smart grid of pedestrian paths. The result is a compact and integrated settlement with a strong identity and sense of belonging. Nevertheless, this kind of concentric dual system is potentially unstable, a problem that was minimised by forcing a clear opposition with a popular neighbourhood at Portela’s vicinity. With this case study, we show how logic programming is a useful tool to describe the patterns of discrete systems as social knowables due to its declarative nature. In fact, a Prolog program represents a certain amount of knowledge, namely, concerned with the structure of an urban settlement (or building), which could be used to answer queries about the social and economic consequences of certain spatial designs. Full article

As the world’s third-largest oil and natural gas producer, Iran consumed enormous amounts of non-renewable energy during the last twenty years. There are many obsolete buildings in the Iranian building stock, which required energy renovation. Many studies in the literature proposed energy retrofitting strategies to increase the efficiency of buildings, but few of them involve an energy network for the entire neighbourhood (such as district heating). Moreover, energy renovation is not sufficient to improve the smartness level of a community; in fact, it is essential to evaluate sustainable and social aspects. In this direction, this study aims to develop a comprehensive analysis of the current criticalities of a district in Tehran (District 5), proposing strategies to face the pollution of the city, provide a healthy environment for the citizens, and renovate the old buildings. The application of a decision support method is presented to set a priority ranking, pointing out the positive and negative impacts of each evaluated scenario. The energy renovation solution involved the installation of two storage tanks and solar collectors in each building and the connection with the district heating powered by waste to the energy plant. A multi-level car parking system and a noise mapping application were evaluated to solve mobility and pollution problems. Moving to the results, the priority ranking assesses that the most affordable action is the installation of a Solar Water Heater since energy and environmental indicators demonstrate its efficacy compared to the other solutions. Full article

Public green spaces (PGSs) have a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of urban residents. However, their accessibility can be limited due to high urbanisation pressures and inadequate or insufficient regulatory provisions. This problem has been recognised for Central European cities, of which Wrocław is an example, where the provision of PGS accessibility has not received major attention in recent decades, and the planning system has been in constant transformation since the transition from a centrally planned to a free-market economy. This study therefore aimed to examine the distribution and accessibility of PGSs in the expanding area of Wrocław today and upon implementation of the plans under the proposed standards. These analyses were performed using the QGIS application, network analysis, and the ISO-Area as polygon algorithm. The findings revealed a conspicuous lack of available PGSs, which includes areas above 2 ha, such as district and neighbourhood parks. New PGSs are now being planned, but even so, part of the residential areas will remain outside their catchment zone. The results obtained provide strong evidence that it is essential that standards should be a tool implemented in urban planning, and that the adopted procedure can be transferred to other cities. Full article

Background: Play Streets are community-led initiatives that provide opportunities for outdoor play and recreation when parks or other facilities may not be easily accessible. This pragmatic evaluation aims to determine the feasibility and acceptability of a pilot Play Street in Inner West Sydney. Methods: We used a post-only mixed methods design. Brief intercept surveys with pilot Play Street visitors assessed their reasons for attending the event and perceptions thereof. Semi-structured interviews explored stakeholders’ experiences related to planning and implementing Play Streets. Results: Approximately 60 adults and children attended the pilot Play Street. The majority of survey respondents (n = 32) were female, aged 35–54, lived in the Play Street’s postcode, and visited in groups consisting of adults and children. Overall respondents rated the pilot positively in enjoyment (100%), safety (97%), and organisation (81%), although there were significant differences between certain demographic subgroups in the perception of organisation and the children’s enjoyment of the pilot Play Street. Stakeholder interviews (n = 2) highlighted the importance of community consultation and reaching compromises, noting concerns about safety and insurance costs, and emphasised the role of Council as a facilitator to help residents take ownership of Play Streets. Delays due to community concerns, poor air quality arising from bushfires, heavy rain on the event day, and COVID-19 lockdowns hindered pilot Play Street implementation and evaluation. Conclusion: This pilot demonstrated that Play Streets are a feasible and acceptable way to use streets as outdoor recreation spaces in Sydney’s Inner West. The evaluation highlights two elements for future sustainability: managing neighbourhood opposition and adapting to climate change. Full article

This paper is situated at the interface of a growing urban studies literature concerned with ‘masterplanning’ practices in urban planning and another, hitherto relatively discrete, body of research concerned with age-friendly cities and communities. The authors are interested in exploring a gap in aging in place literature around how neighbourhoods and residential settings developed with aging in place principles in mind are experienced and perceived by residents. To explore this research gap, the authors analyse qualitative (primarily interview and focus group) data collected in Park Central, a masterplanned development located in the Campbelltown suburb in the southwest region of the Sydney metropolitan area, Australia. This development was delivered in response to a need identified by the state’s land and property development agency, Landcom, for more diverse and affordable medium-density housing in Campbelltown. In particular, a need was identified for housing developments that would be able to sustainably accommodate the changing lifestyle needs of a maturing population in the region. Drawing on our thematic analysis of our data, we discern three key themes in research participants’ experiences of Park Central as a place for aging. These themes are elaborated via recourse to excerpts from our data and discussed with a view to informing how the conception, development and practice of further age-friendly communities is approached. Full article

In Latin American cities, the built environment is facing crucial challenges in the 21st century, not only in terms of the redesign of the physical environment, but also how to remodel public spaces as healthier places for walking and social interaction. The objective of this article is to evaluate the effects of the built environment on walking perceptions in a central neighbourhood in the intermediate city of Valdivia, Chile. The methodology integrates quantitative and qualitative methods to explore which elements of the physical built environment ease and hinder walkability. Depthmap software and Simpson’s Diversity Index are used to evaluate connectivity and diversity of land uses at street level. Additionally, the People Following method and 26 walking interviews are conducted using the Natural Go-Along technique to analyse pedestrians’ perceptions about their mobility environment. The results show that the factors that promote walkability mainly include streets with high connectivity values, wide pavements, diversity of greening, and facade characteristics of buildings with architectural heritage causing tranquillity, longing, and happiness. On the contrary, factors that inhibit walkability are related to poor-quality and narrow sidewalks, cars parked on sidewalks, dirty streets, and motorized traffic and vehicular noise causing negative emotions in walking perceptions such as tiredness, anger, disgust, discomfort, and insecurity, with negative effects on the well-being of residents that vary according to age and gender. Finally, recommendations are oriented to improve public spaces in central areas in southern Chile, to address moving towards more liveable and inclusive environments and support well-being through urban design in these types of context. Full article

With the signing of the Belfast Agreement, Belfast (Northern Ireland, UK) entered a new phase of urban development. Moving away from notions of division, Belfast City Council envisaged an inclusive and accessible city. Over a 20-year period, there have been significant changes in Belfast’s physical, socio-cultural, and political structure, reframing the city as a post-conflict space. However, there has been limited analysis of the role of parks in this process. This paper examines perceptions of parks, asking whether the promotion of a “shared spaces” policy aligns with local use. Through a mixed-methods approach, park users were surveyed to reflect on the meanings of parks in the city. We argue that although residual interpretations associated with historical socio-cultural divisions remain, parks are predominately multi-community amenities. The analysis illustrates that although destination parks attract greater patronage, there is visible clustering around ‘anchor’ sites at the local scale, especially in neighbourhoods with significant Catholic or Protestant identities. Full article

Studies have identified individuals’ motives and barriers as main predictors of physical-activity behaviour, while other studies found physical-activity behaviour to be related to characteristics of the built environment. However, studies that have a combined focus on motives and barriers and the built environment are less common. This scoping review aims to provide knowledge about motives and barriers related to physical activity within different types of built environments to mitigate this knowledge gap. A systematic literature search was performed in four scientific databases and yielded 2734 articles, of which 31 articles met the inclusion criteria. The review identified four types of built environments within which motives and barriers were studied, including walkability, cyclist infrastructure, neighbourhood parks and open spaces and sports facilities. Several common motives recur across all four types of built environments, especially easy accessibility and good facility conditions. Conversely, poor accessibility and inadequate facility conditions are common barriers. Our review also showed how some motives and barriers seem to be more context-specific because they were only identified within a few types of built environments. This knowledge may help target future health-promotion initiatives in relation to urban planning and the importance of the environment on physical activity. Full article

Healthy development in the early years lays the foundations for children’s ongoing physical, emotional, and social development. Children develop in multiple contexts, including their local neighbourhood. Neighbourhood-built environment characteristics, such as housing, walkability, traffic exposure, availability of services, facilities, and parks, are associated with a range of health and wellbeing outcomes across the life course, but evidence with early years’ outcomes is still emerging. Data linkage techniques were used to assemble a dataset of spatial (objectively-measured) neighbourhood-built environment (BE) measures linked to participant addresses in the 2015 Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) for children living in the 21 most populous urban and regional Australian cities (n = 235,655) to help address this gap. This paper describes the methods used to develop this dataset. This linked dataset (AEDC-BE) is the first of its kind worldwide, enabling opportunities for identifying which features of the built environment are associated with ECD across Australia at scale, allow comparisons between diverse contexts, and the identification of where best to intervene. National data coverage provides statistical power to model real-world complexities, such as differences by city, state/territory, and remoteness. The neighbourhood-built environment can be modified by policy and practice at scale, and has been identified as a way to help reduce inequitable early childhood development outcomes. Full article

Cycling is a sustainable transportation mode that provides many health, economic and environmental benefits to society. Cities with high rates of cycling are better placed to address modern challenges of densification, carbon-neutral and connected 20-min neighbourhood goals. Despite the known benefits of cycling, participation rates in Australian cities are critically low and declining. Frequently, this low participation rate is attributed to the dangers of Australian cycle infrastructure that often necessitates the mixing of cyclists with car traffic. In addition, residents of car-dependent Australian suburbs can be resistant to the installation of cycle infrastructure where threats to traffic flow, or decreased on-street parking availability are perceived and the prohibitive cost of reconfiguration of other infrastructure maintained by the local councils to retrofit safe bike paths. This study investigates the effects on traffic behaviour of retrofitting safe, separate cycling lanes into existing residential streets in a Melbourne suburb suitable for accessing the primary neighbourhood destinations. We utilise only the widths available on the existing roadway of these streets, with minimal incursion on other facilities, such as the vehicle network and parking. Using only the existing roadway reflects the common need for municipal asset managers to minimise disruption and costs associated with street redesign. Using a traffic simulation approach, we modelled travel demand that suits suburban trips to services and shops, and we selectively applied separate cycling lanes to suitable residential streets and varied the effect of lowering speed limits. Simulations show that the selective inclusion of safe cycling lanes in some streets leads to a mere 7% increase in the average car travel times in the worst case, while requiring cyclists to increase their travel distance only marginally to avoid streets without dedicated cycling lanes. These results demonstrate that reasonable compromises are possible to make suburbs safer for cyclists and bring them closer to the 20-min neighbourhood goal. There is significant potential to enhance the result by including more street types and alternative designs. The results can inform councils in their cycle path infrastructure decisions and disprove assumptions about the influence of cyclists on car infrastructure. Full article