Planning Practices of Greening : Challenges for Public Urban Green Space

Public urban green spaces are crucial parts of cities due to the many connections existing between urban greenery and well-being. Additionally, public urban green space represents a wide range of spatial concepts, such as parks, urban forests, commons, in-between-spaces, and gardens. This study explores challenges for contemporary public urban green space in an increasingly urban world, with high demands on urban growth, and simultaneously the need for more sustainable societies and cities. The aim is to problematize the complex reality for contemporary public urban green space from an urban planning perspective in times of urban densification strategies, global competitiveness between cities and trends of ‘re-naturing’.   The scope of this thesis is based on four high profile case studies. The Green Walkable City in Stockholm and The Green Living Spaces in Birmingham constitute planning strategies with a holistic approach to urban green space, including a strong focus on well-being. The High Line in New York and Parklets in San Francisco represent urban green space concepts, influential both at the local level and in the larger urban planning debate. The results point to a need to acknowledge the complexity inherent to urban green space provision, design, and management. This study contributes with insights of direct connections between narratives of nature, materialized urban greenery projects and conceptualizations of functionality of nature in urban planning projects. From the post-industrial, pristine flirting, crafted wilderness of the High Line; a symbolic but cosmetic scrambling with planters and narratives of parks of parklets; dualistic argumentations of natural values connected to quality over quantity of nature in a densifying and growing Stockholm; to pragmatic yet emotional and ambitious conceptualizations of human nature in biohilic urbanism and green space planning in Birmingham. Gentrification, publicness and production of public space and densification strategies are central themes in urban studies – and public urban green space can play an active role in these processes.QC 20160518</p

Perspectives on rural development in the Nordic countries : - Policies, governance, development initiatives

Based on discussions and presentations at seminars held by the Nordic working group 1b: Future rural areas. As part of the work of the Nordic working group Future rural areas (appointed by the Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers), a series of seminars were held during 2009 and 2010. All in all four seminars were organised &#8211; one in each of the continental Nordic countries. The seminars focused on service provision, governance and business development in rural areas. This report functions as a documentation of the presentations given and the discussions held during the seminars. It is designed to provide an overview of Nordic rural development policies, to highlight the work of the various actors and initiatives at the centre of rural development work and to present ideas for future Nordic cooperation in the field of rural development. Four of the Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden constitute the geographical focus of the work as these countries provided the active members of the working group and the venues for the seminars

Urban form and human behavior in context of livable cities and their public realms

In what ways are cities things that happen to us, and in what ways are cities things we do together, with more or less art and purpose? How do we understand both the geometries of cities and the ways that form might be connected-or not-to their social organization and politics? These are some of the reasons and potential lacunas in research which need for a cross-disciplinary approach related to urban form and social behavior and a revamped effort at uniting the disciplines of the built environment and behavioral sciences. The remarkable link between intrinsic human qualities such as behavior, conduct, and demeanor, and the external environment has been recognized for years. However, this link has not been given much consideration in the design of our built environment. This needs to change as architecture, urban planning & design are crucial for achieving true urban sustainability in our cities. Environmental psychology applies social science methods and theories to real world questions about human experience in everyday physical environments. Unlike the normative approach, it seeks to describe the world the way it is-how we use it and, in turn, how it affects our behavior-to build a knowledge base for urban design. Through a multilevel, multidisciplinary, social and spatial environmental approach we will examine relationships between characteristics of the physical environment, humans, context and human responses. It will be an evolving knowledge base for urban design decisions. There are significant reasons why planning and designing the city is so important today, maybe more than ever before. The most crucial one is that current urban development and urban living patterns are characterized by fast flows of capital, media, transport and multitasking. These are time-technology patterns are today regarded by many as ultimately unsustainable because of the destructive burden they place on the environment. One of the causes for this destructive influence is believed to be the contemporary city’s very form and structure, which urgently requires improvement. This in turn highlights the vital role of urban planning and urban design. It is therefore essential to spell out the significant contribution urban planning and design can and should make towards sustainable urban development and social life by fully understanding the consequences if and improving the city’s form and structure.The city’s most important advantages are often said to be that it offers choice, an exciting lifestyle; it provides access to services and facilities; it has stimulating features and represents an intellectual challenge; and it offers workplaces. However, all cities are different and some offer their citizens more advantages than do others. It is the main objective of good urban planning and design to create new advantages or enhance the existing advantages a ‘good’ city and ‘good urbanity’ has to offer