Spatial-structural qualities of mixed-use main streets: two case studies from the Amsterdam metropolitan

Streets are where the needs and values of different users and activities come together. Main streets in the Netherlands were either planned in major urban expansions or developed over time in the shape of ribbons upon dykes—‘long lines’ of continuously active streets. This chapter presents two cases from the Amsterdam metropolitan region:...

The form and use of everyday streets

Everyday streets facilitate various activities and movements, both indoors and outdoors. The second section of this book addresses the following question: What is the relationship between the urban form of everyday streets and the activities that occur on them?

Introduction to Everyday Streets

Everyday streets are both the most used and the most undervalued of cities’ public spaces. They constitute the inclusive backbone of urban life – the chief civic amenity – though they are challenged by optimisation processes. Everyday streets are as profuse, rich and complex as the people who use them; they are places of social aggregation,...

Buurtschap fabricage: Toepassing van houten bouwsystemen bij transformatieprocesen van leegstand bedrijventerreinen. Deelresultaten fase 1

Deze publicatie is een presentatie van de resultaten van de eerste fase van een research by design project over het thema duurzame transformatie van industriële terreinen in Nederland. Het onderzoek wordt uitgevoerd naar aanleiding van de open oproep Anders Werken aan Wonen van het Stimuleringsfonds voor Creatieve Industrie. Het onderzoek wordt...

Urban Manufacturing for Circularity: Three Pathways to Move from Linear to Circular Cities

Urban manufacturing and manufacturers play a vital role in delivering circular economy ambitions through processing materials, providing skills and technology for repair or reconditioning goods and the capacity to deliver innovative technology. The transdisciplinary approach of Cities of Making (CoM) puts forward three ways of addressing...

Investigating functional mix in Europe's dispersed urban areas

A large proportion of European inhabitants live in dispersed urban settlements, much of which is labelled as sprawl, defined by monofunctional, low-density areas. However, there is increasing evidence that this may be an overly simplistic way of describing territories-in-between (TiB). This paper defines and maps functional mix in six...

Foundries of the Future: A Guide for 21st Century Cities of Making

Since the 1970s, cities world-wide have been witness to radical de-industrialisation. Manufacturing was considered incompatible with urban life and was actively pushed out. As economies have grown, public officials and developers have instinctively shifted their priorities to short-term, high-yielding land uses such as offices, retail space and...

Education for the resilient city – teaching and learning urban design and planning in COVID-19 times

This article describes the TU Delft's 2020 experiences during the pandemic in teaching and learning urban design and planning for (post-)COVID-19 times. The article presents the view why, that and how the themes of spatial resilience<br/>and governance resilience should be emphasized in urbanism curriculums. Additionally, it discusses the value...

Socio-Spatial Segregation and the Spatial Structure of ‘Ordinary’ Activities in the Global South

Planning practice in the Global South often defines a border between formal and informal developments ignoring the complex and nuanced reality of urban practices and, consequently, worsening segregation. This article proposes an alternative view of socio-spatial segregation that shifts the distinction between formal/informal towards one that...

The spatial distribution and frequency of street, plot and building types across five European cities

Typologies have always played an important role in urban planning and design practice and formal studies have been central to the field of urban morphology. These studies have predominantly been of a historical-qualitative nature and do not support quantitative comparisons between urban areas and between different cities, nor offer the precise...

Cities of Making: CityReport

Cities of making assesses the role and current state of manufacturing in three of Europe’s urban centres. Compiled by a consortium of partners in London, Brussels and Rotterdam it forms part of Cities of Making, a thirty-month programme exploring the future of urban based manufacturing in European cities. This report brings together insights...

Rotterdam The Hague, NL

The Cities of Making 'Cities Report', offers an insight into urban manufacturing in three global cities - Brussels, London and Rotterdam. Each city has had a distinctive industrial heritage and is interpreting the future of manufacturing in very different ways. This report exposes unique qualities of each and common trends that may be relevant...

Development of a configurational typology for micro-businesses integrating geometric and configurational variables

In cities manifold actors are continuously taking decisions and proposing interventions, which are driven by, but also change, spatial conditions and their performance on a variety of scales. Understanding how this interplay works is crucial for urban designers and planners. However, this complexity asks for new methods of analysis or...

Quantitative comparison of cities: Distribution of street and building types based on density and centrality measures

It has been argued that different urban configurations-planned vs. organic, treelike vs. grid like-perform differently when it comes to the intensity and distribution of pedestrian flows, built density and land uses. However, definitions of urban configurations are often rather abstract, ill-defined and at worse end in fixed stereotypes...

Kansen voor kleinschalige bedrijvigheid in Amsterdam

Redefining the border between public and private in ambiguous modernist areas: The case of Amsterdam Nieuw West

Modernist areas represent the ambivalent idea to live in a green city, which can provide light and air of open landscapes, and on the same time host facilities of an urban environment. Modernist areas as the Western Garden Cities in Amsterdam are also ambiguous spaces, their form shaped mainly by flowing open space. The ambiguity of space is...