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Understanding the socio-psychological impact of living in high-rise, densely populated urban areas is essential for evaluating the quality of interior urban spaces within vertical urbanism, a field commonly known as ‘Urbanology’. This area combines urban psychology, anthropology and social science, often utilizing empirical methods such as surveys and interviews. This research offers scientific research methods that utilize electroencephalogram (EEG) and an artificial intelligence (AI) generator to establish a system and formula for accessing neuroscientific datasets. The goal is to establish a connection between emotions and the spatial conditions of urban environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An appropriate urban density is a vital part of a sustainable urban fabric. However, when it comes to measuring the built urban fabric and how people walk through it and use, a difficulty has been observed in defining applicable measurement tools. With the intention of identifying the variables that will allow the best characterization of this fabric and movement, a multi-variable analysis methodology from the field of artificial intelligence (AI) is proposed. The main objective of this paper is to prove the capacity of AI as an evolving research method in urban morphology and specifically to evaluate the capacity of such a methodology to measure the way in which people travel through defined multi-levels of typologies of public urban space. The research uses the case of Hong Kong as a dense city that is three-dimensionally activated in terms of its public realm, not just at street level, but also via below ground subways and upper-level walkways, public and quasipublic spaces. This includes the three-dimensional volumetric assessment of public and quasi-public space typologies within a highly dense city. For the purpose of the study, a characterization and term definition of these spaces has been further developed: "Junctions", "Landmarks", "Intersections", "Districts", "Passages" and "Lobbies" (both outdoor and indoor) based on Lynch's 5 main key elements (District, landmark, path, edges, node). The results obtained using AI prove to be more robust and rational than those based on a more limited range of tools, evidencing that using AI can offer operational opportunities for better understanding of morphological and typological evolution within the vertical and volumetric built urban fabric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have shown that the emotional wellbeing of urban populations is influenced by various aspects of urban development, such as social factors and the presence of walkable areas and green spaces. However, there is a lack of research that closely integrates urban design and cognition, particularly in the context of vertical and volumetric urbanism. This disconnect between design and science disciplines is evident when reviewing the limited research on emotional and spatial cognition in this specific urban context. This paper seeks to address that disconnect by proposing a comprehensive framework for the cognitive measurement and modelling of the built environment. This will involve exploring and measuring neural mechanisms, employing electroencephalogram (EEG) equipment to measure user responses in vertical and volumetric public spaces. The aim is to create a foundation for further studies in this field that is consistent and rigorous and can facilitate collaboration with cognitive neuroscientists by establishing a shared conceptual basis. The goal of this research is to develop a human-centric approach for urban design that is scientific and measurable, producing a set of urban design guidelines that incorporate cognitive measurement and modelling, with the broader intention to prioritize human needs and wellbeing within urban environments to make them more liveable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asian urbanization is characterized by complex processes of extensive densification. Fuelled by rapid economic growth, Asian cities’ size, scale, and physical dimensions remain incomparable to any Western setting. During the past thirty years alone, various concepts have attempted to define hyperdensity, layering, and intensity as core principles of Asian urban development. Although these concepts explore the physical properties of development, few examples provide insights into the behavioural and social dimensions of such complex morphological settings. This paper examines the effects of urban compaction and volumetric urbanism on liveability in East Asian cities. Hong Kong exemplifies an extreme scale and rate of densification. Podium developments – commercial plinths elevated above street level that connect large residential towers to commercial complexes – are one of the city’s most common development types. The hypothesis is that the combination of different types of podium development results in the interiorization of the urban realm, which compresses public services, social engagements, and behavioural conditions into diverse privatized and fragmented ‘public interiors’. To explore these conditions, this paper first outlines the conceptual premise of reading urban sett ings through the lens of volumetric urban compaction. This framework combines urban compaction and volumetric urbanism. Second, the paper discusses theories that deal with the links between spatial settings and behavioural traits. Privatization is of particular interest here, including those processes in which the private and the public become interchangeable conditions or where the temporary occupation of functions occurs. The different concepts – volumetric urban compaction and interiority – are studied within Olympian City, a podium development in Kowloon (Hong Kong). Through fieldwork, the case is investigated in terms of the elements that make up Olympian City’s spatial configuration and how different groups use space at different times of the day and week. The case study shows that Hong Kong’s development follows an economically driven model of volumetric urban compaction; it supports a larger privatization strategy that depends on the interiorization of the city to the extent that makes the overall structure highly exclusive, static, and controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Workers in Hong Kong made plastic flowers, incense before that, and consumer goods throughout the city's provincial, Imperial, and colonial periods. Kowloon Peninsula's deep harbour and proximity to shipping lanes gave rise to exportoriented industries long before imperialistic conflicts changed their ownership from Chinese to British, and back again. Making things in this context served to define self-motivated enterprise. Hong Kong Chinese people made most of their export goods following a low material investment, labour-intensive model. Workers hand-painted ceramics and toys more often than their employers invested in better plant to replace their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue including the renewal of urban citizenry, the urban commoning as complex process, and the institutionalisation.