Climate adaptation in informal areas in hot arid climates

This conceptual and exploratory research study investigates, systematically and holistically, climate-adaptive spatial design interventions for high-density informal urban areas in hot arid climates, which remain understudied despite their vulnerability to heat stress and the heat-vulnerable groups populating them. Five streetscape design...

Exploring Critical Urbanities: A Knowledge Co-Transfer Approach for Fragmented Cities in Water Landscapes

The urban conditions of many metropolitan regions in the Global South are marked by growing informal settlements, growing inequalities, and socio-spatial fragmentation. They face alterations of their natural-spatial context imposed by climate change and new hydrological patterns. Knowledge is needed to direct their transformation toward more...

Understanding urban leisure walking behavior: Correlations between neighborhood features and fitness tracking data

Leisure walking (including running) is the easiest way to combat the lack of physical activity of urban residents. Hence, understanding what drives people to take a leisurely walk is vital for the design and planning of healthy and vibrant neighborhoods. In this chapter, we investigate and identify which (urban) features can define the...

An adaptive strategic framework: Exploration of new upgrading strategies in Bogotá, Colombia

The rising poverty rates, internal displacement, market-oriented development, and social inequalities are some of the many factors that shaped the binary configuration of the so-called formal and informal urban fabric of Bogotá. Urban informality emerges as the answer to a lack of opportunities and spatial offers, evidencing the inability of the...

Permeable Borders: Addressing multidimensional conflicts between polarized communities in Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro has become a ’broken city’ (Ventura, 1994): rapid urbanization processes, wealth concentration, market-oriented development, governmental neglect and socio-spatial segregation have been enlarging the societal gap between rich and poor in Brazil. Those processes have shaped the fragmentation of the city, where multidimensional...

People's commune 2.0 reconfiguration-developing a participatory strategy for upgrading Chinese post-Danwei community

A major feature of China’s urban transformation was the breakdown of the danwei system and the consequent efforts at community development and community building. Chinese post-danwei community has become a meeting ground for citizen activities, business organization involvement and party-state intervention. No longer just a supplementary...