Central Micro-Peripheries: Temporary Uses of Central Residual Spaces as Urban Development Catalysts (?)

New “urban wastelands” are continually developing in European cities as side effects of economic, technological and political changes. These abandoned industrial zones or former traffic nodes (railways, harbours) have typically been built in the late 19th or in the early 20th century to the fringe of the old city centres. The combination of low estate values with high potential land rents have turned these areas to important scenes of urban transformation since 1980’s. Especially locations close to waterfront have attracted investments and resulted rapid changes and new housing and commercial exploitations. There are though exceptions: some areas remain residual or vacant for years. These areas turn to potential places for temporary “lower secondary uses” since no “primary higher uses” are attracted of them. The contextual factors creating “gaps” for temporary uses are weak demand in the local estate market, delays in the political decision making and planning processes, unclear ownership or exceptionally high construction costs caused by soil contamination and massive old infrastructures. This paper examines the nature of temporary uses and users in the central micro-peripheries, the role of temporary uses in the urban development processes as well as their impact on urban cultures and urban economies in five European metropolitan areas. The research has been done as part of the research project “Urban Catalysts. Strategies for Temporary Uses – Potential for Development of Urban Residual Areas in European Metropolises” (duration 2001-2003), funded by the Fifth R&D Framework Programme of European Community and its key action programme "City of Tomorrow and Cultural Heritage". In this project local case studies have taken place in Amsterdam, Berlin, Helsinki, Naples and Vienna. The research methods have included interviews with local key actors (temporary users, estate owners, planners and other authorities, politicians) and examination of planning and other development documents as well as site documentation with spatial analyses of the patterns of temporary usage of urban space. The research results show that the areas containing temporary uses have succeeded to foster extremely dynamic and mixed uses (art, culture, education, leisure, sports, residences, production, commerce) and to attract heterogeneous user groups (established and start up companies, migrants, system refugees, drop-outs, part time activists, associations). Many of the sites have also attracted user groups working in the same branch, sharing a common production network or co-operating in flexible ways. The spatial analysis proved temporary uses to mean adaptive reuse of urban spaces, being in most cases part of industrial heritage. The residual spaces seemed also to offer a possibility also for weak social groups to take risks and do various experiments with relatively modest economic investments. They created synergy and arenas for collective learning. The results include further strategies, instruments and methods that have been used in some cities to integrate temporary uses into city management and urban design. The most successful best practice examples show that the temporary uses have had clear catalytic effects on local urban culture and economies. It could be stated that temporary uses are an underused resource in activating residual areas and in improving both social stabilization and competition capacity of urban regions.

Sustainable construction: construction and demolition waste reconsidered

Although the construction sector has suffered a great increase and development in later decades acting as the main economic leading force in many European countries, it has produced, nevertheless, a great problem regarding the increase in the generation of construction and demolition waste (C&DW). This, together with the fact that in many European countries the amount of recycled and reused C&DW is still quite low has engendered a serious environmental problem and an urge to develop strategies and management plans to solve it. As it is well known, demolition waste has quite a potential for reuse, although a correct and available development within the construction industry is, to a great extend, still missing due to the lack of sustainable and practical mechanisms provided. This article summarizes the different applications that are presently prospering in the elaboration of alternative uses for C&DW and proposes various measures and strategies to improve the processing of this waste. In order to be environmentally more effective, a conscious and thoughtful management plan needs to be implemented. More precisely, this study unfolds a holistic approach towards waste, in which ethical, and environmental as well as new applications in construction issues interact in order to improve the situation in an attempt to come closer to the future goal of achieving a sustainable growth

Transition UGent: a bottom-up initiative towards a more sustainable university

The vibrant think-tank ‘Transition UGent’ engaged over 250 academics, students and people from the university management in suggesting objectives and actions for the Sustainability Policy of Ghent University (Belgium). Founded in 2012, this bottom-up initiative succeeded to place sustainability high on the policy agenda of our university. Through discussions within 9 working groups and using the transition management method, Transition UGent developed system analyses, sustainability visions and transition paths on 9 fields of Ghent University: mobility, energy, food, waste, nature and green, water, art, education and research. At the moment, many visions and ideas find their way into concrete actions and policies. In our presentation we focused on the broad participative process, on the most remarkable structural results (e.g. a formal and ambitious Sustainability Vision and a student-led Sustainability Office) and on recent actions and experiments (e.g. a sustainability assessment on food supply in student restaurants, artistic COP21 activities, ambitious mobility plans, food leftovers projects, an education network on sustainability controversies, a transdisciplinary platform on Sustainable Cities). We concluded with some recommendations and reflections on this transition approach, on the important role of ‘policy entrepreneurs’ and student involvement, on lock-ins and bottlenecks, and on convincing skeptical leaders

Nudging and other behaviourally based policies as enablers for environmental sustainability

Recent years have shown that traditional regulatory techniques alone are not effective in achieving behaviour change in important fields such as environmental sustainability. Governments all over the world have been progressively including behaviourally informed considerations in policy and law making with the aim of improving the acceptance and impact of sustainability-oriented measures. This led to the arrival of alternative regulatory tools, such as nudges. The effectiveness of nudges for environmental sustainability (green nudges) has been widely reported, but the practical and ethical implications are still largely neglected by academic research. In this contribution, “nudges” are conceptually distinguished from “boosts” and their ethics are briefly explained. The analysis is made in light of European and US American academic literature

“Unmapping” the Ural Playscapes: An Analysis of Playgrounds and Child Play under the Post-Soviet Urban Transition of Yekaterinburg, Russia

This study examines playgrounds as lenses on urban transitions to explain the link between urban transformations and changes in the discourse of play and childhood. Specifically, it compares Soviet public playgrounds and post-Soviet privatized playscapes in the city of Yekaterinburg, Russia, through primary observation and secondary data analysis. Using the framework of social reproduction developed by Cindy Katz and Saskia Sassen to explain how the local forces affect cities, my analysis shows that the shift in the discourse of play and childhood in the post-Soviet period is hinged on global influences combined with local transformations, from the abandonment of Soviet ideals of communal play spaces to the embracement of today’s consumerist play places. Whereas the old Soviet playgrounds have uncertain purposes, in contemporary Yekaterinburg private playgrounds offer a narrative of play in terms of leisure, love, and convenience for parents. Children turn into consumers of private play, leaving most of the Soviet playgrounds as idle spaces in the city. This article argues that Yekaterinburg’s shift toward participating in the globalized economy combined with its transition from the Soviet ideals maintains social relations and reproduces social inequalities in childhood, as this condition favors consumerist narratives of play. I conclude that the playgrounds in Yekaterinburg are bystanders of new global ecologies whereby social, political, and economic transformations become an impetus to reproduce new ways of seeing the social importance and meaning of play and playgrounds

Operative Public Space for Rural Brazil. Strategies for starting up Economic, Social and Environmental Development of Rural Communities in Emerging Countries: The Goiabeira Case

This article stands in the context of rural communities in Brazil, where, like many others emerging countries, the overwhelming increasing markets and the overcrowded cities are leaving behind informal settlements based on obsolete agricultural economies and techniques. The pilot project for the community of Goiabeira, reflects the attempt to imagine a development model that privileges the actual improvement of living conditions, the education and training, the social inclusion and participation of the dwellers of rural communities. Through the inclusion of operative public space, the aim is for them to become self-sustaining, encouraging the use of local resources for appropriate architectural, ecological and energy technologies and devices, that are efficient, affordable and foster community participation, in the respect of the surrounding environment

Reports of the AAAI 2019 spring symposium series

Applications of machine learning combined with AI algorithms have propelled unprecedented economic disruptions across diverse fields in industry, military, medicine, finance, and others. With the forecast for even larger impacts, the present economic impact of machine learning is estimated in the trillions of dollars. But as autonomous machines become ubiquitous, recent problems have surfaced. Early on, and again in 2018, Judea Pearl warned AI scientists they must "build machines that make sense of what goes on in their environment," a warning still unheeded that may impede future development. For example, self-driving vehicles often rely on sparse data; self-driving cars have already been involved in fatalities, including a pedestrian; and yet machine learning is unable to explain the contexts within which it operates

SciTech News Volume 71, No. 2 (2017)

Columns and Reports From the Editor 3 Division News Science-Technology Division 5 Chemistry Division 8 Engineering Division 9 Aerospace Section of the Engineering Division 12 Architecture, Building Engineering, Construction and Design Section of the Engineering Division 14 Reviews Sci-Tech Book News Reviews 16 Advertisements IEEE