Das SMOTIES-Netzwerk ist eine Partnerschaft von zehn Designhochschulen, Forschungszentren, Kreativagenturen und nationalen Verbänden. Jeder Partner wählte einen kleinen, abgelegenen Ort in seinem Land aus, der von der Gestaltung kultureller und kreativer Regeneration im öffentlichen Raum und in Zusammenarbeit mit lokalen Akteuren profitieren soll. Das Projekt ist Teil des Human-Cities-Netzwerks, einer Plattform für den interdisziplinären Austausch, die sich mit der Verbesserung der Lebensqualität öffentlicher Innen- und Außenräume befasst und durch partizipatives Design innovative Prozesse für den sozialen Zusammenhalt anstößt. Mit Beiträgen von: Michael Dumiak, Independent reporter and editor Valentina Auricchio PhD, associate professor, Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano Elisa Bertolotti PhD, assistant professor of Communication Design, Art and Design Department, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Madeira Beatriz Bonilla Berrocal, PhD candidate, Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano Helen Charoupia Researcher, Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering within Complex Systems and Service Design Lab, University of the Aegean Alexandra Coutsoucos, Research fellow, Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano Annalinda De Rosa PhD, researcher, Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano Davide Fassi PhD, full professor, Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano Susana Gonzaga PhD, assistant professor, Art and Design Department, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Madeira Nina Gorsič, Architect and researcher, urban renewal, cultural heritage and accessibility, Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia Frank van Hasselt, Chief executive, Clear Village Astrid Lelarge, Historian of urban planning, Alternance Architecture and Urban Planning, assistant professor, Faculty of Planning and Design, Agricultural University of Iceland Vanessa Monna, Post-doc research fellow, Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano Chiara Nifosì, PhD, assistant professor of Urban Planning, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano Matej Niksič, Architect, urban planner, lecturer in urban design, Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia Cristina Renzoni, PhD, associate professor of Urban Planning, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano Anwar Samara, Student of Urban Planning, Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana Noemi Satta, Independent consultant and expert in cultural innovation and strategic and participatory planning Isabelle Vérilhac, Strategic designer, founder of Design With Isabelle

Despite developments in urban design during the last few decades, architects, urban planners and designers often continue to produce areas of bland, commercially led urban fabric that deliver the basic functional requirements of shelter, work and leisure but are socially unsustainable and likely generators of future problems. Convivial Urban Spaces demonstrates that successful urban public spaces are an essential part of a sustainable built environment. Without them we are likely to drift into an increasingly private and polarized society, with all the problems that would imply. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, this book draws on research, and the literature and theory of environmental psychology and urban design, to advance our understanding of what makes effective public spaces. Practical guidance is illustrated with case studies from the UK, Spain, Germany and Italy. The result is a practical and clearly presented guide to urban public space for planners, architects and students of the urban environment.

Das SMOTIES-Netzwerk ist eine Partnerschaft von zehn Designhochschulen, Forschungszentren, Kreativagenturen und nationalen Verbänden. Jeder Partner wählte einen kleinen, abgelegenen Ort in seinem Land aus, der von der Gestaltung kultureller und kreativer Regeneration im öffentlichen Raum und in Zusammenarbeit mit lokalen Akteuren profitieren soll. Das Projekt ist Teil des Human-Cities-Netzwerks, einer Plattform für den interdisziplinären Austausch, die sich mit der Verbesserung der Lebensqualität öffentlicher Innen- und Außenräume befasst und durch partizipatives Design innovative Prozesse für den sozialen Zusammenhalt anstößt.

Discover magical, remote locations around the world, from Africa to the Arctic, that will help you disconnect from modern life and enter a state of wonder. Silence. Calm. Open spaces. These are the new luxuries. In this turbulent era it has become ever more crucial to disconnect and slow down. Remote Places to Stay shares 22 out-of-the-way places where you can get off the grid and reconnect to the essentials, surrounded by raw pristine nature. Some of these remote places are only accessible by foot, others by train, small boat, or bush plane--but they are all places with a very strong sense of space. From lavish to spare architecture, from the Arctic to the desert landscapes of Africa, from a peaceful retreat in the Himalayas to a secret convent in the south of Italy, each exceptional retreat has been carefully selected to inspire and spark a state of wonder. Exploring the pages of Remote Places to Stay is a visual journey you will never forget.

The interplay of psychology, design, and politics in experiments with urban open space As suburbanization, racial conflict, and the consequences of urban renewal threatened New York City with “urban crisis,” the administration of Mayor John V. Lindsay (1966–1973) experimented with a broad array of projects in open spaces to affirm the value of city life. Mariana Mogilevich provides a fascinating history of a watershed moment when designers, government administrators, and residents sought to remake the city in the image of a diverse, free, and democratic society. New pedestrian malls, residential plazas, playgrounds in vacant lots, and parks on postindustrial waterfronts promised everyday spaces for play, social interaction, and participation in the life of the city. Whereas designers had long created urban spaces for a broad amorphous public, Mogilevich demonstrates how political pressures and the influence of the psychological sciences led them to a new conception of public space that included diverse publics and encouraged individual flourishing. Drawing on extensive archival research, site work, interviews, and the analysis of film and photographs, The Invention of Public Space considers familiar figures, such as William H. Whyte and Jane Jacobs, in a new light and foregrounds the important work of landscape architects Paul Friedberg and Lawrence Halprin and the architects of New York City’s Urban Design Group. The Invention of Public Space brings together psychology, politics, and design to uncover a critical moment of transformation in our understanding of city life and reveals the emergence of a concept of public space that remains today a powerful, if unrealized, aspiration.

Public space and street design in commercial districts can dictate the success or failure of walkable community centers. Instead of focusing our efforts on designing new “compact town centers,” many of which are located in the suburbs, we should instead be revitalizing existing authentic town centers. This informative, practical book describes methods for restoring the health and vibrancy of the streets and public spaces of our existing commercial districts in ways that will make them positive alternatives to suburban sprawl while respecting their historic character. Clearly written and with numerous photos to enhance the text, Creating Vibrant Public Spaces uses examples from communities across the United States to illustrate the potential for restoring the balance provided by older urban centers between automobile access and “walkability.” In advice that can be applied to a variety of settings and scales, Crankshaw describes the tenets of contemporary design theory, how to understand the physical evolution of towns, how to analyze existing conditions, and how to evaluate the feasibility of design recommendations. Good design in commercial centers, Crankshaw contends, facilitates movement and access, creates dynamic social spaces, and contributes to the sense of a “center”—a place where social, commercial, and institutional interaction is more vibrant than in surrounding districts. For all the talk of creating new “green” urban spaces, the ingredients of environmentally aware design, he points out, can often be found in the deteriorating cores and neighborhoods of towns and cities across the United States. With creativity, planning, and commitment, these centers can thrive again, adding to the quality of local life and contributing to the local economy, too.

Urban sprawl is omnipresent in America and has left many citizens questioning their ability to stop it. In Distant Publics, Jenny Rice examines patterns of public discourse that have evolved in response to development in urban and suburban environments. Centering her study on Austin, Texas, Rice finds a city that has simultaneously celebrated and despised development. Rice outlines three distinct ways that the rhetoric of publics counteracts development: through injury claims, memory claims, and equivalence claims. In injury claims, rhetors frame themselves as victims in a dispute. Memory claims allow rhetors to anchor themselves to an older, deliberative space, rather than to a newly evolving one. Equivalence claims see the benefits on both sides of an issue, and here rhetors effectively become nonactors. Rice provides case studies of development disputes that place the reader in the middle of real-life controversies and evidence her theories of claims-based public rhetorics. She finds that these methods comprise the most common (though not exclusive) vernacular surrounding development and shows how each is often counterproductive to its own goals. Rice further demonstrates that these claims create a particular role or public subjectivity grounded in one's own feelings, which serves to distance publics from each other and the issues at hand. Rice argues that rhetoricians have a duty to transform current patterns of public development discourse so that all individuals may engage in matters of crisis. She articulates its sustainability as both a goal and future disciplinary challenge of rhetorical studies and offers tools and methodologies toward that end.