Reclaiming spaces: family inclusive urban design

Book of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017Following the current trend of global urbanisation and the growing attraction of cities for families with children, urban environments are becoming principal contexts wherein new generation of children will thrive and grow. Though cities were traditionally designed for adults and cars and not children, Zukin (2010) observes an ongoing shift in her book ‘The Naked City’. She notes that through gentrification Western cities are experiencing a revaluation of streetscapes through commercial and cultural activities. Boterman and Karsten (2015) have titled this ongoing urban transition as ‘the march of city families worldwide’. Examples can be found world-over, in European cities like Paris, Berlin, the Scandinavian capitals and London (Authier & Lehman-Frisch, 2012; Butler, 2003; Karsten, 2013; Lilius, 2014). Not restricted to the west, examples can also be found in countries that are on the rise like India where 41.2 million children under the age of six live in urban spaces. An increase of children in cities comes with rising analytical and policy interest for families with children in urban environments through child friendly cities, and in children’s geographies.Published versio

The Heerlen confluence : porosity, integration and separation

Historically the river Rhine and the Meuse have acted not just as frontiers of separation between Germany to the east with Belgium and the Netherlands to the west, but over the centuries has also developed into a core-region of central Europe. The spatial, cultural and political landscape of where the Rhine and the Meuse merge forms a delta that is a melting pot of oral and architectural histories, cultures, people, and ways of life. Heerlen, located within this geography, experienced its heyday in the late nineteenth and twentieth century, at the peak of its mining past. The urban morphology of the city is reminiscent of a mining town facing inherent shrinkage, with attempts to challenge this phenomenon. Heerlen is currently facing serious socio-economic challenges, and to respond to these challenges the authors of this paper dissect the morphology of the city to discern the causes of its current predicaments, dynamism and its future potentials. By looking at the city and region as a mosaic of borders and languages, uniqueness of geography, industrial and mining activity, agriculture and people, the paper explores the inherent quality of place, and possibilities for active engagement of residents with their city. With economic developments being one of the key drivers of effective planning, the authors through this paper put forward planning and design ideas that can improve urban aesthetics and social cohesion of a shrinking city. The authors envision that shifts in traditional planning tools through small incremental changes such as urban agriculture and bottom-up initiatives of re-use are needed to examine the new realities and challenges facing the city of Heerlen, especially on issues of central city retail vacancy. This research acts as a platform where the authors approach the landscape surrounding Heerlen as a confluence of various structural, historic and cultural changes that are rooted in what we call as “porous lines of separation and integration”

Het woonlabyrint: een quickscan van het beleid en de praktijk van de huisvesting voor jongeren

Om te kunnen werken aan het terugdringen van dak- en thuisloosheid onder jongeren is een overzicht nodig van het huidige systeem rondom de preventie en aanpak van dakloosheid. Welke knelpunten kunnen we identificeren binnen het huidige systeem, en waar liggen kansen? Maar ook: hoe zien de paden eruit die jongeren moeten bewandelen binnen dit systeem, als ze op jonge leeftijd dakloos dreigen te raken? Stichting Zwerfjongeren Nederland en het TU/e Urban Labs voeren een verkenning uit naar het huidige beleid en de praktijk van de huisvesting voor (kwestbare) jongeren. We gaan op zoek naar een uitgang in het woonlabyrint