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The article examines developments in urban architecture in China. The changes in urban architecture include the shift to hypermodernity from traditionalism, a growing initiative to conserve and preserve historic buildings, and the rise of Third Stream architectural projects sponsored by the government and successful corporations. The cultural authenticity and the interaction of urban landmarks and novice Chinese architects' use of the countryside to explore their new designs are also described.

COVID-19 calls for a new understanding of urban landscape and associated living. As an emerging topic, lockdown urbanism involves an unpredictable future where lockdown or quarantine may be a come and go new normal for everyday practice, but the topic itself seems to have escaped historical inquiry. This paper attempts to answer why the strict lockdown is suitable for China by revealing a long and complex history of urbanization and its social and administrative organization. The urban fabric is characterized by a system of urban patterns: enclosed communities, the spatial layout and service distribution of the neighborhood, and the formation of the center. It was also animated by daily ritualistic practices, such as the control of time, quotidian lockdown practice (yejin), and individual ties within the enclosed neighborhood. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the deep history of urban form and the order and logic behind lockdown urbanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can a liberal commons emerge in an authoritarian regime? Based on an in-depth investigation of the ongoing self-governance movement among hundreds of millions of homeowners in China, this Article examines the tension between authoritarianism and liberal commons for the first time. Empirically, this Article reveals a striking contrast: in Shanghai, 94% of condominium complexes have established homeowners' associations, a kind of liberal commons, compared with 41% in Shenzhen, and only 12% in Beijing. It is posited in this Article that the authoritarian commons (i.e., the dynamic interactions between the authoritarian state and homeowners' efforts to create a liberal commons in their neighborhoods) features multiple equilibria that depend on the state capacity and the risks posed by the self-governance movement. A highly capable state facing an intermediate degree of risk can make the institutional reforms necessary to accommodate the grassroots democracy. This research of the authoritarian commons brings the state back to the economic theories of property rights, and brings property, and more specifically, space and territorial control to the study of authoritarianism. It also deepens our understanding of authoritarianism and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'gridded management' system is officially highlighted as playing a key role in China's combat against COVID-19. Relying largely on the Maoist ideology of the 'Mass Line,' this system appears to effectively mobilize the people at the most grassroots level in the 'war against COVID-19.' This article, drawing upon a critical examination of this 'People's War' from a Foucauldian governmentality perspective, discusses the violation of human rights and dignity and argues that the violations are inherent in the binary and utilitarian ideology of the 'Mass Line' deployed by the mobilizational party. As this methodology is embedded in China's social management agenda raised by Xi Jinping in 2017, this article sheds crucial light on the 'Chinese vision of human rights' and China's governance model today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of small open spaces between houses is a common feature in existing Japanese neighborhoods. The redefinition of these spaces through architectural design can contribute to the regeneration of the urban fabric. This study is focused on the significance of open spaces within architectural territory, not as negative leftover spaces, but rather as positively designed units. In this regard, architecturally designed open space that connects the building site to the surrounding urban fabric is referred to as urban void. This article aims to discuss three contemporary theories, by Japanese architects, on architectural approaches that are based on the formation of urban voids. These theories are "Tokyo Metabolizing," "Site Determined," and "Group Form." Three levels for positivity of urban void are defined and their related factors are extrapolated, based on which the theories and their representative collective housing projects are analyzed and compared. Also, the position of urban void in the process model of each theory is clarified. Finally, it is shown that an urban void has a double identity--it belongs to the internal order of an architectural composition, while also being a part of the external order of the urban fabric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aging in place is a policy goal for many governments and a personal goal for numerous older people. But what does it mean? Drawing on both scholarly and gray literature, this article outlines seven themes underlying definitions of aging in place. Some are descriptive: never moving, staying put for as long as possible, or remaining in the same vicinity. Two are related to care: staying out of a nursing home or receiving progressively higher levels of care in the same residential care facility without moving. Others are more normative approaches: aging in place as a policy ideal or as an exercise of choice. Definitions have implications for policy debates, urban planning activities, development approaches, and personal decisions. Recognizing that the term has many different definitions and nuances will help clarify policy, planning, and development options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What audit tools are available to assess neighborhood suitability for aging in place? Drawing on theories from environmental gerontology, the article outlines physical and social environmental characteristics influencing aging. Eight research audit tools and three community/practitioner tools were identified using a Boolean search strategy. They emphasize walkability and the physical attributes of places. Areas for further development include addressing specific features related to aging, a wider range of environments, additional physical and social dimensions, and conducting audits using technologies and participatory processes to better incorporate aging experiences. For planners, these audit tools raise awareness of how environments can better support aging populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of older people who need help with daily tasks will increase during the next century. Currently preferences and policies aim to help older people to stay in their existing homes, to age in place, even as they become less able to care for themselves and, increasingly, live alone. However, the majority of homes in the U.S. and many other countries are not designed to support advanced old age or are not located to easily provide support and services. The paper explores the needs of older people experiencing frailty. It examines the existing range of innovations to make neighbourhoods and homes more supportive, physically, socially, and in terms of services. These include: enriching neighbourhoods, providing collective services, building all-age neighbourhoods, creating purpose-built supportive housing, developing smallscale intergenerational models, and engaging mobility, delivery, and communications innovations. Some will allow people to remain in their current dwelling but others focus on people remaining in a local community. Few are widely available at present. Urban designers can more fully engage with the multiple challenges of those who have physical, sensory, and cognitive impairments and living in solo households by becoming champions for a more comprehensive set of public realm improvements and linkages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In February 2016, China’s State Council released a set of guidelines representing a change in the country’s approach toward neighbourhood design: to move away from superblock neighbourhoods and create a finer network of urban blocks and streets. The paper traces the circumstances that prompted this change, drawing on a comparative review of international literature and practice, and explores the opportunities and challenges for urban design. While modifications of the superblock are somewhat overdue, this current mode of organization should not be entirely abandoned. The suggestions and overall blueprint warrant a more circumspect approach and should be adopted with discretion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of urban development intensification, public space often faces typological and programmatic contest and negotiations among the increasing number of diverse users, resulting in the emergence of new urban space typologies. This paper highlights the key considerations and trends in the development of new urban spaces in the context of high-density, high-intensity residential urban environments in Asia. It employs a comparative analysis of critical parameters and challenges of urban space design in three exemplary case studies from Singapore, Beijing and Tokyo, assessing their capacity to become models for quality-intensified housing development in future high-density environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1684, during the Edo period (1603–1868), the imperial court of Japan passed a reform act that resulted in a new almanac called the Jôkyô almanac. This was the first reform in more than eight hundred years, and marked a departure from the past practice of adopting almanacs from China. Yet, the reform was complicated, and it was achieved after decades through the efforts of Shibukawa Harumi (1639–1715). How was the reform accomplished, and why was it significant? In this study, I will focus on Harumi's role in the reform. I propose to examine the reform as the culmination of a process deeply linked to Harumi's political connections and his intellectual growth especially in the field of calendrical sciences. I will show that this approach of looking at the reform by analyzing different aspects of Harumi's life has implications for understanding trends in society in seventeenth-century Japan. First, despite the ban on Christianity, intellectuals like Harumi assimilated European sciences in unique ways. Second, Harumi's activities exemplified how intellectual ties were increasingly embedded within political networks. Overall, I will argue that the reform of the almanac, viewed as a process surrounding the core figure of Harumi, was driven by scientific goals and personal ambitions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers information on the Society for the History of Technology's fifty-fourth annual meeting, which took place from October 4-7, 2012 at the Copenhagen Business School in Copenhagen, Denmark. The article provides descriptions of various sessions held at the meeting on topics related to the history of technology including personal computing, technopolitics, and popular music.

Outward expansion of urban lands in the developing nations is often associated with a substantial loss of environmental resources such as forests, wetlands, freshwater and cash crop fields. Yet, determining how different aspects of urbanisation – such as city population size and spread pattern of built-up lands – contribute to the cumulative loss of resources remains controversial. In this study, data sets were constructed describing changes to land cover across 65,200 grid cells at 1 km2 spatial resolution for China's Changjiang Delta Region over the past 60 years. The results showed that the region lost 12.2% of total resource sites. The distribution of resource degradation showed a highly dispersed pattern and was not confined to a few intense areas associated with large cities. No empirical evidence was found that city population size alone accurately predicts the distribution of resource loss. Very large cities (N = 4) contributed 35% to the total loss, demonstrating impacts similar to those of much more scattered towns (N = 230). Urban expansion of large cities may lead to extensive resource loss; however, a set of non-linear mechanisms, such as the diminishing effects of per-unit area urban spread on resources and interactions between urban patterns and the size of urban spread, can also play a significant role in downsizing the negative effects of large cities on resource sites. Thus, effective urban policies should carefully weigh the cumulative urban spread mechanisms of both large and small cities responsible for spatially dispersed degradation of environmental resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several topics discussed at the 53rd annual meeting for the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), which took place in Cleveland, Ohio from November 3-5, 2011, is presented. Participants and topics of the various sessions that took place throughout the conference are described, which included sessions on themes including the relationship between science and technology, visual culture, and superconductivity.