Precedents reconceived: Urban design learning catalysed through data rich 3-D digital models
Design Studies, 2013
ABSTRACT Design students are increasingly seeking precedent information through web-based digital... more ABSTRACT Design students are increasingly seeking precedent information through web-based digital archives of design cases. Little is known, however, about the use, relative merits or opportunities of digital cases as a knowledge source for design students. This paper uses a study of web-based urban design reference tools to examine new opportunities for using precedents in urban design. The research includes focus groups, content analysis of student work and an auto-ethnography by one of the authors to examine student use of the reference tools in 3 urban design studios in planning and landscape architecture. Students used 3-D digital models of precedents to review, replicate, revise, reshape and recreate elements of urban design in an environment of accelerated learning. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, 2020
What is the nature of the dispute around an Israeli law that proposes restricting how Muslim foll... more What is the nature of the dispute around an Israeli law that proposes restricting how Muslim followers are called for prayer? And, why does the nature of this dispute hold any importance? LeBaron and Senbel have developed a theory differentiating conflicts with religious dimensions (CRDs) from other types of conflicts. The importance of this distinction stems from and highlights the unique role that religion plays in conflicts, which liberal, rational, and individualistic orientations to conflict management fail to address. This article offers a trial run of LeBaron and Senbel's innovative theoretical framework. We apply CRD theory to conduct an analysis of a legislative attempt to amend an environmental law in Israel. The proposed amendment would limit the use of public address (PA) systems to amplify the Muezzins’ calls for prayer. Across the Islamic world, Muezzins’ amplified voices ring out from the minarets of every mosque, calling their congregants for prayer. Proposed lim...
Recently developed analytical tools provide opportunities for revisiting old questions of scarcit... more Recently developed analytical tools provide opportunities for revisiting old questions of scarcity and ecological limits. This research combines ecological footprint analysis with integrated assessment modeling. It sets out to reveal which of the factors of human consumption and ecological productivity have the most significant effect on the ecological budget of North America over the next century. Three choice variables were used to project four possible future scenarios. Under these scenarios North America is likely to experience an exponentially increasing ecological deficit. Only one scenario, which assumes considerable reductions in consumption, is likely to yield an ecological surplus through the next century. Among the different consumption categories, food is by far the most significant. Integrated Assessment of the Ecological Footprint of North America T A B L E OF C O N T E N T S ABSTRACT II TABLE OF CONTENTS ffl LIST OF FIGURES . V LIST OF TABLES.... V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS VI...
The research presented here examines how a web-based urban design reference tool called elementsd... more The research presented here examines how a web-based urban design reference tool called elementsdb was used in four landscape architecture, urban planning, and environmental design courses. Using a sequence of questionnaires, focus groups, interviews and content analysis, the research tested the hypothesis that interactive use of the database would enhance student learning by providing students with spatial data-rich precedents of welldesigned buildings, streets and sites. This paper introduces elementsdb, which provides high quality project specific urban design precedents, presents its structure and contents, and illustrates how students utilized it. The findings reveal that many of the students acquired some basic urban design knowledge, and we found three categories of student use: i) as a passive reference medium to look up information; ii) as a mechanism to assist with critically evaluating existing urban development; iii) in the a form-making process to assist in the creation...
Utopian thinking and the intercultural co-creation of urban futures
As cities face environmental and social pressures related to climate change, they require rapid t... more As cities face environmental and social pressures related to climate change, they require rapid transformation. Global environmental and social systems are stretched under the strain of highly consumptive middle class lifestyles, particularly in North America. Continued growth and consumption make matters worse. Utopian thinking allows us to focus on hope, rather than conflict and despair. It allows us to consider physical changes in the form localized ecologically integrated urban systems and social changes in the form of a participatory eco-social utopia. Using a capabilities approach we can transform the challenges of difference and diversity into opportunities for emphasizing inclusion, and cultural and religious pluralism, in co-created, mutually beneficial visions of urban futures.
A collaborative multi-touch, multi-display, urban futures tool
Recent technological advances in multi-touch, multi-display computing interfaces and networking s... more Recent technological advances in multi-touch, multi-display computing interfaces and networking software have enabled the integration of all three roles into a single collaborative work space. This paper describes the development of one such application focused at carrying out complex urban design exercises through simple, transparent, and interactive means. Constructed through a federated system architecture, the system connects three independent applications: Google Earth, a Building Information Model (BIM) database, and an Indicators Dashboard (ID). The goal of this work is to provide a diverse group of stakeholders with a better understanding of the environmental impact and tradeoffs associated with a range in potential urban futures.
Restrictions on the use of public space and physical distancing have been key policy measures to ... more Restrictions on the use of public space and physical distancing have been key policy measures to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 and protect public health. At the time of writing, one half of the world's population has been asked to stay home and avoid many public places. What will be the long term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on public space once the restrictions have been lifted? The depth and extent of transformation is unclear, especially as it relates to the future design, use and perceptions of public space. This article aims to highlight emerging questions at the interface of COVID-19 and city design. It is possible that the COVID-19 crisis may fundamentally change our relationship with public space. In the ensuing months and years, it will be critical to study and measure these changes in order to inform urban planning and design in a post-COVID world.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Public Space: A Review of the Emerging Questions
Restrictions on the use of public space and social distancing have been key policy measures to re... more Restrictions on the use of public space and social distancing have been key policy measures to reduce the transmission of SAR-CoV-2 and protect public health. At the time of writing, one half of the world's population has been asked to stay home and avoid many public places. What will be the long term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on public space once the restrictions have been lifted? The depth and extent of transformation is unclear, especially as it relates to the future design, use and perceptions of public space. This article aims to highlight emerging questions at the interface of COVID-19 and city design. It is possible that the COVID-19 crisis may fundamentally change our relationship with public space. In the ensuing months and years, it will be critical to study and measure these changes in order to inform urban planning and design in a post-COVID-19 world.
What Happens When Municipalities Set Targets to Reduce Their Greenhouse Gas Emissions?
Journal of Planning Education and Research
We study the process of setting targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in municipalities with... more We study the process of setting targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in municipalities within the Canadian province of British Columbia. Our findings are based on a survey of municipal planners and administrators regarding different features of the process their municipality followed to set targets. We find that the type of process a municipality follows has potential implications for both the ambitiousness of their targets and the likelihood of targets being achieved. Future research can monitor and evaluate which types of targets and target-setting processes prove more effective for fostering actual reductions in municipal emissions.
Are municipal land use plans keeping pace with global climate change?
Land Use Policy
Abstract Published research on municipal climate change plans to date has been strictly cross-sec... more Abstract Published research on municipal climate change plans to date has been strictly cross-sectional: it reveals the status of plans at particular points in time, but does not examine whether and how plans are evolving over time to keep pace with our understanding of climate change. We build on a 2011 study of plans in the Canadian province of British Columbia by examining updated versions of those plans as of 2015. We find that the climate change content in the plans did not change much from 2011-2015 and that there is much room for improvement. Our findings suggest that municipalities can possibly strengthen their plans by: (1) investing resources into creating and maintaining a detailed inventory of factual information regarding local climate risk and vulnerability, and (2) fostering political support among elected officials and residents for developing climate change planning goals and implementation mechanisms to help achieve the goals.
Current policies and norms to reconcile human demands for resources with the Earth's ability to s... more Current policies and norms to reconcile human demands for resources with the Earth's ability to supply them have resulted in practices that mainly treat the symptoms of unsustainability rather than their underlying causes. Moreover, the increase in our knowledge about humankind's role in ecosystems is not keeping pace with our understanding of the consequences of our actions, resulting in a deepening inability to address sustainability issues. The extreme complexity and intricate workings of the world require the expansion of our mental models in a systems-thinking framework if we are to realize a sustainable place for humans in it. The challenge of the emerging transdiscipline of sustainability science lies in developing specific tools and processes, including curriculum development and a new generation of systems models, to help us better understand complexity-uncertainty and surprise, scale, hierarchy, and feedback loops-and to educate a new generation of sustainability scientists to design better policies, to facilitate social learning, and to catalyze the technical, economic, social, political, and personal changes needed to create a sustainable world.
Guidelines for Community Based Research Partnerships
Brown, Barbara and Bennett , Rosemary and Christiansen, Carleton and Garciaz, Maria and Hollister... more Brown, Barbara and Bennett , Rosemary and Christiansen, Carleton and Garciaz, Maria and Hollister, Lynn and Hunter, Rosemarie and Juarez, Maricruz and Maturana, Roberto and Mohammed, Abdi and Mori, Vicki and Munro, Sarah and Prospero, Moises and Schmit, ...
Facilitating Mutually Beneficial Community Based Research
University Neighborhood Partners (UNP) has chosen to refl ect upon its past eff orts and set a goal... more University Neighborhood Partners (UNP) has chosen to refl ect upon its past eff orts and set a goal to defi ne and encourage high quality Community-Based Research (CBR). h is document refl ects UNP's eff orts, in conjunction with Dr. Barbara Brown's Community ...
Global Environmental Change-human and Policy Dimensions, 2003
This paper employs ecological footprint analysis as a potential non-monetary metric of human cons... more This paper employs ecological footprint analysis as a potential non-monetary metric of human consumption and ecological productivity in a simulation-modeling framework, applied to North America. The ecological footprint provides an indirect basis for considering the long-term ecological risk and sustainability of human settlements, regions or, in this case, a continent. We examine several scenarios for human consumption, ecological productivity and material efficiency, to explore which variables have influence on the ecological budget of North America over the coming century. Only one scenario, which assumes considerable reductions in human consumption, is likely to yield an ecological surplus. Unlike monetary measures of societal well-being, ecological footprint analysis shows that increased economic activity and consumption creates deficits in terms of the balance of ecological productivity and consumption in a region, and may reduce long-term ecological sustainability. Several advantages and disadvantages of this metric are discussed. r
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