Housing and Resilience – When,for Whom and for What? A Critical Agenda

ABSTRACT

As a concept resilience is proving remarkably…resilient. It has become a keyword used to describe the contemporary urban and environmental condition. However, unlike that other prolific keyword “sustainability”, it lacks both the ethical intent (if not practice) and international agreement of the Brundtland Report directive to seek to balance economic, social and environmental outcomes for the benefit of future generations. Resilience, like concepts such as flexibility, efficiency or social capital, can be highly politicized and often mean very different things to different people. Herein lies both the potential and pitfalls of such a term, especially when it has become such a powerful signifier for how best to respond to the conditions inherent in our climate of change. Within housing research scholarship and practice, the concept is both ubiquitous and under-theorized. This special issue seeks to draw critical attention to the use of the concept. Key questions for housing include: Resilience in housing how, when, for whom and for what?     

In Search for a Healthy,Civilized and Sustainable Development

World development always come to crossroads.Atpresent,people find the need for a sustainableaffordable and livable environment for developmentfrom the setbacks they have suffered in nature,this is on-ly too correct.But,due to the different stages of develop-ment reached by individual countries,there should bemore definite goals and more reliable measures for eachcountry.I shall emphasize two basic ideas:     

Testing diffuse luminous efficacy models for Florianópolis,Brazil

This work comprises two parts. The first part presents an evaluation of diverse luminous efficacy models of the solar diffuse radiation available in the international scientific literature. These models were used for the estimation of the luminous diffuse illuminance in Florianópolis, Brazil. This evaluation has taken into consideration not only the precision of the models but also the justification of the physical behavior of the luminous efficacy.The second part of this study presents the evaluation of the three specific diffuse luminous efficacy models developed for clear sky conditions, also available in the international literature. It also presents a new model that is reported for the first time in the present work. These models have not shown clear statistical balance differences among each other when estimating the diffuse illuminance, and except for one, all the studied models can perfectly explain the behavior of the diffuse luminous efficacy against the solar altitude.Furthermore, the evaluation has shown that the models specifically developed for clear skies show no better results than the general all sky models, analyzed in the first part of this work, when estimating the clear sky diffuse illuminance with them.These latter specific models do not show better results in the estimation of the diffuse illuminance for the clear sky conditions, than the ones obtained with some of the general models, analyzed in the first part of this work.     

Glenn Murcutt,Pritzker Prize Laureate for 2002:an introduction

The award of the Pritzker Prize for architecture to Glenn Murcutt recently may have come as a surprise to some architects internationally, but it was a decision received with some sense of inevitability in Australia. Australians constantly monitor their status worldwide, and have been conscious for some time that Murcutt has replaced Harry Seidler as our most visible architect internationally.     

Half-Full or Half-Empty? Planning for Women's Safety in Victoria,Australia

Over the past two decades there has been an emerging international consensus that locally coordinated efforts are effective in addressing violence and insecurity. Promoting “women's safety” has become a recognized international planning and governance strategy. There are, however, concerns about how the “women's safety” approach can address intimate partner violence, incorporate diversity between women from different cultures, and integrate a gender mainstreaming approach to male on male violence. Finally, there are challenges in evaluating these initiatives. The paper will use the Gender, Local Governance, and Violence Prevention (GLOVE) research project in Victoria, Australia as a case study to examine these tensions.     

Architecture for leisure in post-war Europe, 1945–1989: between experimentation,liberation and patronisation

In May, 1960, the Metabolist Group made a stunning debut at the World Design Conference held in Tokyo by presenting visionary proposals for future cities. Metabolism has long been understood within what Manfredo Tafuri and Francesco Dal Co have called an ‘international concept of utopia’ of the 1960s. Metabolism's vision of the future, however, does not neatly fit into a singular category of modernist utopia. For Japanese architects who witnessed the devastation of war in their teens, it seemed nearly impossible to imagine a technology-driven future without considering the mass destruction of the urban environment, the inevitable consequence of the very embrace of technology that post-war Japan sought as a means to brighten its future. This article situates Metabolism within Japan's specific post-war condition, which was closely tied to global Cold War geopolitics. The Cold War framework allows us to examine the dual sensibility of promise and peril inherent in Metabolism's theory and design.     

Citizen dialogue for whom? Competing rationalities in urban planning,the case of Gothenburg,Sweden

This paper analyses citizen dialogue in urban planning from a governmentality perspective. We focus on (1) how motives and goals connected to ‘citizen dialogue’ and the activities and practices initiated to accomplish these can be understood in light of competing rationalities and (2) how public officials and other actors involved in organising citizen dialogues understand and manage the tensions between competing rationalities. The analysis draws on a case study of urban development in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden. We suggest a critical approach to the use of citizen dialogue as a technology of government, an approach enabling an analysis of various functions and implications of citizen dialogues.     

What scope for integrating land management policies,land administration processes and data infrastructures for housing production in Nigeria?

Existing knowledge reveals that land as a resource is not currently managed efficiently and effectively in most countries of the world. One of the factors considered important in understanding the inefficiencies and ineffectiveness is the level of integration between agencies. The objective of this paper is to determine the level of this inefficiency in order to improve our understanding of the inter-relationship between agencies that perform land administration functions. The research methods include a synthesis of past studies and the use of case study approach. It uses as context, Lagos, in Nigeria. This approach involves a mixed method: interviews and online survey. The results revealed limited integration of processes and collaboration of agencies in the management of land for housing production. We conclude that policies are not sufficiently informed by data and there is a noticeable disconnection between agencies, and formulated policies.     

Supple Skins: Considering the Relevance,Scalability, and Design Strategies for Façade System Resilience

Resilience has become the umbrella term for the ability of the built environment to resist and respond to a broad range of natural and man-made disasters. Typically, these address a spectrum of issues in the built environment at the scale of urban habitat. Exploring the significance of resilience with respect to building systems and especially the building skin presents an opportunity to examine façade systems from a different perspective and reveals unexpected links between the physical scales that comprise buildings and urban habitat. Design considerations (principles, factors, and strategies) for resilient façades are then proposed.     

Informal democracy in Patras,Greece: A mechanism for improved planning?

Greek spatial planning reality faces the problems like sprawl and illegal settlements outside the building zones, underpinned by the conventional self-financed real estate development model under the patronage of the national government. In case of transportation congestion problems, the formal planning proved to be even more ineffective and unpopular. Therefore, non-institutionalized supplement to formal planning is considered highly effective: informal planning relies upon the principles of collaborative dialogue, networks and trustful relationships among the relevant players. The article describes the informal planning procedure – the test planning method – analyzed against the theoretical background of communicative rationality, on the one hand, and critically assessed through the practical implementation in the case of Peloponnesian city of Patras on the other. As a result, the article highlights the successful phases of the test planning, nevertheless pointing to its shortcomings, which could be expected in the societies with a dominant political cronyism.     

Correlation between Schmidt hardness,uniaxial compressive strength and Young’s modulus for andesites,basalts and tuffs

Volcanic rocks from the Bodrum Peninsula have been studied to establish a relationship between the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), Youngs modulus (E) and Schmidt hammer rebound number (N). Test results obtained on andesites, basalts and tuffs have been assessed statistically and the parameters obtained correlated. Regression equations were established between N, E and UCS.The study suggests the following empirical relationships: UCS=2.75 N–36.83, E=0.17 UCS+0.28 and E=0.47 N–6.25. The relationships are somewhat different from the correlations suggested by previous studies and should therefore be used only for andesites, basalts and tuffs with degrees of weathering and mineralogical structure similar to those used in the present study. The results obtained using solely the Schmidt hammer test for estimating mechanical properties of rocks are less accurate than when a full suite of laboratory tests is carried out but it is hoped that these empirical equations will help geotechnical engineers making practical decisions at a preliminary site investigation stage.     

Housing indicators in europe,a tool for housing research and housing policy?

Announcement

Housing indicators in europe, a tool for housing research and housing policy?     

Frameworks,Networks and the UK Regional Agenda: Nature planning for landscapes?

Planning at the landscape scale in Britain has had limited application. The origins, implementations and likely outcomes of new approaches to nature planning in Britain in which the spatial scale of planning could be 'landscape enabled' are traced. These approaches are termed 'framework' strategies, within which 'ecological networks' can be developed in order better to reflect species' behaviour and to overcome the restrictions of designation-based nature conservation. Currently, planning structures are subject to change and debate: published planning documents and other sources are examined for a case study of the North West of England, where experiments in ecological networks are underway. Evidence is sought for the incorporation into new planning structures of key concepts relevant to the achievement of network implementation. Evaluation is made of likely critical 'pinch points' in implementation using experience of network planning in the Netherlands for comparison. These include availability of data on habitats and species, the relationship of planning to agriculture, and the need for co-operation from stakeholders.     

Apotheosis and memory: Ishii jūji,a savior for our times

ABSTRACT

This article examines the relationship between history, sacred architecture, and the production of meaning. In particular, it discusses the way in which the historical figure of Ishii Jūji (1865–1914), a renowned child relief activist and religious utopianist of late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Japan, becomes constituted as a sacred symbol through the interplay of architecture, displays, and iconography at the Ishii Jūji Museum in the grounds of the Ishii Jūji Kinen Yūaisha (the Ishii Jūji Memorial Center of Loving Friendship; hereafter Yūaisha). Through its commemoration, the Yūaisha draws upon a complex historical legacy as the source of its present vision and attributes to Ishii a divine status through material representations in the form of texts, photographs, objects, and religious iconography. Moreover, the Yūaisha, propelled by Ishii as sacred symbol, has come to produce new material spaces, through the construction of buildings, fields, gardens, through which its vision of social care may be realized. As a result, history and material religion collide to produce new spaces of meaning in the present.     

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Planning for Mixed Use: Affordable for Whom?

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Mixed-use zoning is widely advocated to increase density; promote active transportation; encourage economic development; and create lively, diverse neighborhoods. We know little, however, about whether mixed-use developments affect housing affordability. We question the impact of mixed-use zoning on housing affordability in Toronto (Canada) between 1991 and 2006 in the face of waning government support for affordable housing and increasing income inequality due to the occupational restructuring accompanying a shift to a knowledge-based economy. We fi nd that housing in mixed-use zones remained less affordable than housing in the rest of the city and in the metropolitan region. High-income service occupations experienced improved affordability while lower wage service, trade, and manufacturing occupations experienced stagnant or worsening affordability. Housing in mixed-use zones is increasingly affordable only to workers already able to pay higher housing costs. Our findings are limited to Canada's largest city but have lessons for large North American cities with similar urban economies and housing markets.

Takeaway for practice: Mixed-use developments may reduce housing affordability in core areas and inadvertently reinforce the sociospatial inequality resulting from occupational polarization unless supported by appropriate affordable housing policies. Planners should consider a range of policy measures to offset the unintentional outcomes of mixed-use developments and ensure affordability within mixed-use zones: inclusionary zoning, density bonuses linked to affordable housing, affordable housing trusts, and other relevant methods.