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Dutch policy-making has been framed by simultaneous efforts aimed at reforming the social care system and initiating an ambitious sustainable retrofitting programme of housing. In these processes, the willingness and ability of older people, living in owner-occupied housing, to adapt and improve their home or move to a suitable dwelling are crucial. However, our understanding of how and why older people undertake home improvements, and how these practices intersect with policy agendas is still limited. In this paper we draw on a qualitative study with 33 older Dutch homeowner households, to understand how older people conceive home improvements and investments, and their motivations for pursuing them (or not). We find that home improvement as well as moves through and into homeownership are usually deeply connected with ideas of a good life. That may involve adapting to decreasing mobility and cognitive functions, closer relations with children and grandchildren, traveling and hobbies, comfort, and even luxury. However, these practices often lack the coherence implied by policymakers and include intricate considerations of physical, mental, social, and financial well-being.

The UNESCO label of World Heritage can attract a high number of tourists to heritage properties for their Outstanding Universal Values (OUV). Although international studies have demonstrated the World Heritage system can contribute to stimulating cultural tourism and boosting the local economy, how this heritage-led development process promotes urban conservation and morphological changes in cities is yet to be explored adequately. This paper aims to explore the urban morphology of a historic Chinese city after its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List, taking the Old Town of Lijiang as case. The methods of spatial plan analysis and discourse analysis are used to analyse the data. The research findings have demonstrated that, theoretically, the Conzenian approach of urban morphology can be an effective framework for World Heritage OUV-monitoring. Methodologically, the analysis of spatial plans and multi-stakeholder interviews can reveal local urban morphology from macro to micro levels. Case-specifically in Lijiang, urban physical characteristics and building structures have been well maintained while traditional social fabric and neighbourhood networks have almost vanished. This research has incorporated the urban morphology approach into (world) heritage management in China, as well as worldwide, in order to maintain the balance between urban conservation and economic growth.

One of the under-represented groups in participatory urban research is very young children (0–3 years old). Very young children from disadvantaged neighbourhoods, particularly in global cities, such as Istanbul, often have to negotiate unfriendly urban spaces in their daily routines. These routines consist of intertwined events of caregivers and children, as care duties of caregivers frame their joint daily lives. Based on questionnaires and participatory mapping with full-time mothers from Istanbul, we argue that a compact design of neighbourhoods, which merges public spaces relevant to families with young children in combined destinations, is critical towards creating inclusive urban environments.

This study provides a unique long-term investigation of regional travel demand that addresses several gaps in the existing longitudinal literature. Firstly, it investigates the development of travel demand in terms of both vehicle kilometres travelled (VKT) and passenger kilometres travelled (PKT), based on actual demand, congestion and equilibrium distances, using road and multi-modal transit networks in the Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area (GTHA). Secondly, it identifies influential travel demand determinants after testing an extensive set of variables including longitudinal gravity-based transport accessibility measures. Thirdly, it investigates to what extent the determinants’ influence changes over time and various locations within the study area, providing new insights into the temporal and intra-regional variations of travel demand and its determinants. The findings show that VKT and PKT have grown in absolute and per trip terms, mainly due to substantial population growth, especially in the suburban areas. Whilst average potential travel times by transit have decreased, they are substantially longer than auto travel times. Furthermore, travel demand determinants vary significantly across space by degrees of urbanity, especially for VKT. The findings call for area- and population segment-specific land use and transportation policies across the GTHA.

Research into the relationship between innovative physical learning environments (PLEs) and innovative psychosocial learning environments (PSLEs) indicates that it must be understood as a network of relationships between multiple psychosocial and physical aspects. Actors shape this network by attaching meanings to these aspects and their relationships in a continuous process of gaining and exchanging experiences. This study used a psychosocial-physical, relational approach for exploring teachers’ and students’ experiences with six innovative PLEs in a higher educational institute, with the application of a psychosocial-physical relationship (PPR) framework. This framework, which brings together the multitude of PLE and PSLE aspects, was used to map and analyse teachers’ and students’ experiences that were gathered in focus group interviews. The PPR framework proved useful in analysing the results and comparing them with previous research. Previously-identified relationships were confirmed, clarified, and nuanced. The results underline the importance of the attunement of system aspects to pedagogical and spatial changes, and of a psychosocial-physical relational approach in designing and implementing new learning environments, including the involvement of actors in the discourse within and between the different system levels. Interventions can be less invasive, resistance to processes could be reduced, and innovative PLEs could be used more effectively.

In recent years, designers around the world have developed a number of interactive play systems to stimulate children's outdoor play. This paper provides a framework for the design principles used by designers of interactive play systems. In addition, the mechanisms by which these design principles could potentially contribute to stimulating children's outdoor play are discussed based on the COM-B model of behaviour change. The COM-B model is adopted to elaborate the design principles and their mechanisms of action. This model provides a basis for designing healthy behaviour change interventions. It defines behaviour as the result of an interaction between three components that generate behaviour: Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation. The contribution of this paper is to identify the design principles and link them to the underlying factors of children's outdoor play in terms of the components of the COM-B model. Clarifying this link elaborates the mechanisms of action of design principles to stimulate children's outdoor play. An in-depth interview approach is used to explore the designers’ perspectives. The findings of this research contribute to the theory of behaviour change and are beneficial for practitioners, and in particular, interactive designers who develop systems that stimulate children's outdoor play.

The adaptive reuse of cultural heritage can contribute to sustainable development and circular economy, preventing waste production and resource depletion by extending the heritage lifespan. This reuse is limited by challenges mostly identified at the case study level. However, further theorising these challenges could enrich the related body of knowledge and contribute to their mitigation. By defining a theoretical framework, this research builds on the cross-sectional analysis of adaptive reuse undertaken in three European cities: Amsterdam, Rijeka, and Salerno. The challenges were identified by representatives of the public, private, knowledge, and non-profit sectors through stakeholder engagement workshops. Examples of challenges common to the three cities are shortcomings in existing approaches; lack of awareness and capacity; cultural heritage interpretation and management; data management; costs; conflicting interests; lack of knowledge; lack of participatory processes; and compliance with regulations and policies. Being identified in diverse European cities, these challenges can be representative within the European region. Arguably, some of these challenges also apply to other regions since they were reported in case studies from Asia, North America, and Oceania. Addressing these challenges could contribute to sustainable development by potentially contributing towards efforts to achieve ten of the Sustainable Development Goals, as some challenges align with some of these goals.

There has been a growing interest in understanding the interdependencies between urbanisation and mental health. Although transportation in cities is complex and of foremost importance to support the mobility of goods and passengers, little is known about how it relates to individual psychological distress. This review aims to provide an up-to-date synthesis of research evidence about the influence of transport infrastructure and operational performance (congestion, delays and reliability) on mental health/wellbeing. It is structured around three main interacting concepts that determined the search/selection of articles: identification of the above-mentioned transport-related exposures; use of psychological and physiological validated instruments; and the outcome on mental health/wellbeing. Ultimately, 69 studies were identified involving an empirical quantitative focus that met the inclusion criteria. We summarise the instruments most reported in these studies and the findings linking transport indicators and psychological and physiological outcomes. Across the review, we identified evidence of the contribution of key transport infrastructure, congestion and delay indicators on negative affective states and psychophysiological distress. Regarding transport reliability, the scarce number of studies identified did not allow for drawing similar firm conclusions. We conclude by discussing some limitations and providing recommendations for future research and policy-making agendas.

The concept of community design has evolved with the advancement of technology. City information models (CIM), urban digital twin (UDT), and the proliferation of communication technologies have transformed the way society operates and has led to the modernisation of traditional methods of inclusive decision-makings. However, creating a CIM that effectively aligns the diverse interests and capabilities of (non-expert) users like local inhabitants for active participation can be challenging. In this study, we aim to develop a virtual CIM and explore the immersive behaviours of (non-expert) users in the context of community design and policy decision-making. To do this, we use a combination of multi-objective programming and mixed-media prototyping to create the CIM, which includes LOD 300 spatial representation, what-if scenario implementation, geo-tagging feedback, and easy communication and exploration by stakeholders. The virtual CIM was tested in a real-life urban community design exercise in The Netherlands, the Blue Zone Malvalaan, in two phases by both expert and non-expert stakeholders. We evaluated the user experience through quantitative and qualitative data analysis, focusing on ease-of-use, usefulness, immersion, mental and physical comfort, and satisfaction. Our research shows how the virtual CIM can help local stakeholders contribute to community design optimisation and strengthen policy decision-making outcomes.

There has been a growing interest in land value capture as a means of funding investments in transport infrastructure (TI), as reported in a vast literature analyzing the relationship between property values and accessibility provided by TI in general and transit specifically. There has, however, been limited research on the role of network-level regional transport accessibility and the intra-regional spatial heterogeneity of the price effects. Furthermore, studies usually focus on one transport mode, disregarding the multi-modal competition, and are mostly (pooled) cross-sectional analyses which do not reflect the dynamic nature of developments in TI and housing markets. To address these gaps, this paper empirically investigates the roles of local and regional transport accessibility by car and transit on the evolution of sales prices of single-family homes from 2001 to 2016, across different geographical contexts while controlling for various determinants in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). The spatial panel models’ results confirm that regional transport accessibility does indeed play a significant role in property values over and above the local proximity to TI, with variations between transit and car and over the spectrum of low–high density areas, which needs to be accounted for in land value capture policies.

It is increasingly recognized that community-based interventions for active ageing are more lasting and effective, yet the tools and methods for developing these interventions are lacking. This study investigates how to co-design community-based active ageing with older adults via the development of a toolkit to support this goal. Rapid reviews were conducted to understand (i) the effective behavioural change techniques for older adults, (ii) how to co-design with older adults for community-based interventions, and (iii) how to design tools for behaviour change that are easy to use. These reviews served as the foundation for developing a toolkit to support the co-design of community-based active ageing, which was evaluated during an interdisciplinary hackathon with older adults. Quantitative data from the surveys suggested that the confidence levels of students in developing interventions for health behaviour change and in co-designing with older adults increased after the hackathon, and the enjoyment of participating in the hackathon and of using the toolkit were statistically significant factors influencing this increase. Qualitative data from interviews and observations revealed how the toolkit was (un)used by the participants and what aspects of the toolkit can be improved. We encourage future researchers and practitioners to apply and adapt our research findings to the communities of older adults that they are working with.

High-speed railway (HSR) station areas are expected to benefit urban environments, not simply as transportation or economic hubs but also as urban places contributing to living quality. However, the relationship between HSR and place quality has not received systematic attention, despite the evolution of urban planning paradigms toward a clearer focus on quality of life. We have reviewed 44 academic articles written between 1996 and 2019 and analyzed concepts of place quality spanning the disciplines of urban design, urban planning, and urban economics. We identified three dimensions commonly associated with quality of place: a spatial dimension associated with aesthetic qualities of urban spaces; a socio-cultural dimension associated with experienced “sense of place”; and an economic dimension associated with the agglomeration of economic activities. Then we worked out these three dimensions in the context of HSR station areas and attributed features accordingly. We concluded that the economic dimension far outweighs the others in academic debates, with dominant theories being primarily concerned with land use, accessibility, and economic performance. Studies from the urban design field have tackled the spatial elements of place quality and showed a strong correlation with economic dimension. However, the literature remains insufficiently developed when it comes to addressing user experience and “sense of place.”

Urban planning and design offer opportunities to nudge people towards more active behavior. This is a popular topic among urbanists and health professionals, with several guidelines and best practices already developed. However, a gap exists between theory and practice and the complex realization process of such active environments is rarely documented. In this study, we investigated the process of designing, implementing, and evaluating active urban environments through semi-structured interviews with 11 European practitioner experts in the field of active environment design and development. We additionally analyzed 51 examples of active environments they provided. We discuss definitions of active environments and their added value to encourage active behavior and provide an overview of the spectrum of design strategies, elements and boundaries used to create them. We also describe typical steps in the design and realization process, including types of stakeholders, main gaps, and points of friction in this practice.

The findings of this Ph.D. research contribute to understanding children’s unique capabilities, the equalizing role of policies in enabling children’s participation, and the informative role of caregivers in the representation of very young children in participatory urban planning processes, and also enhance methodologies in urban planning research with children. Supporting children and caregivers in creating child-focused urban environments in Istanbul through participatory planning first and foremost requires legislative change that liberates children from preconditions towards their citizenship. Also, a specialized child-centered approach that supports inclusivity, encouraging caregivers’ participation when needed for the representation of all children, and equity between all stakeholders by supporting children’s capabilities with methods relevant to children and approaches leading to shared leadership are critical. Research on children’s participation in urban planning in Turkey has yet to reach sufficient knowledge creation to inform urban planning approach and practice. More research with different age groups and caregiver profiles is needed first to introduce participation as a right and pave the way towards creating cities for children through enhancing the participatory urban planning approach and practice.

In empirical research there is an increasing interest in the role of visualization techniques combined with conjoint experiments to measure perceptions of walkability at neighbourhood and street levels. However, existing studies still mainly use traditional visualization methods (e.g., images and photos), which cannot provide respondents with a holistic perspective to evaluate the built environment accurately. Virtual reality technology could fill this gap. In this study, we conducted a conjoint experiment using videos of virtual environments to investigate how certain groups of people perceive walkability differently. The experiment was conducted on-line conjoint experiment involving a sample of 295 respondents. The hypothetical virtual environments were presented using a dynamic 3D virtual video to visualize different street block designs from the viewpoint of a moving pedestrian. Participants were asked to rate each environment viewed based on the feelings evoked during watching the video. We used a latent class regression model and discrete choice analysis to understand how groups of individuals perceive walkability differently, and what emotions of individuals are associated with walkability. Our results confirmed earlier findings from empirical studies that land use mix, connectivity, road size, open space, and green have an influence on individuals' perception of walkability. We further found that perceived walkability is mainly associated with feelings of comfort and feelings of security.

The UNESCO 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) states community participation is an essential tool to elicit values attributed by diverse stakeholders in built heritage, to better prioritise actions based on public interests and needs. Traditional value elicitation often takes place in an expert-driven process following value typology frameworks, which is, however, widely criticised under the self-examination and reflection within built heritage protection and management. Therefore, it is still not adequately explored how values of built heritage can be identified through a process-led methodology of inclusive public participation. Using the method of a systematic literature review, this paper collected and analysed documents published between 2010 and 2020, from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. The findings show that process-led value elicitation has been widely discussed and applied within the international practices of built heritage management, as five main themes are synthesised in this paper. This review could be inspiring and pioneering in the field of international built heritage management, pushing methodological changes to focus more on the use and significance of heritage in local residents and their living experiences.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) aims to provide a near full accounting of impacts from the complete life of a product, to avoid burden shifting between different parts of the life cycle. However, this is exceptionally difficult with transport infrastructure because important parts of their impact lie outside the widely-applied industrial-product-oriented LCA life stages: production, manufacturing, use, and end of life. To account for those missing impacts, we propose a new framework for assessing the life cycle impacts of transport infrastructure. This framework takes account of the differences between transport infrastructure and the industrial product system to which LCA is most attuned. First, rather than a linear process from material extraction to disposal, this LCA framework accommodates the multiple iterations of transport infrastructure through circular life stages. These reflect the long-life times, durability, persistence and feedback loops of transport infrastructure. Second, this framework recognizes the impact at the start of the life cycle created by demolition of previous infrastructure or land clearing. Third, the tightly linked external impacts that transport infrastructure induces, including influences on travel behaviour, local land use, land use, land use change and forestry, and network effects. Fourth, this framework recharacterizes “end of life” as “partial end of life”, in reflection of the widespread reconstruction, major refurbishment of and persistence of indirect impacts from transport infrastructure.

In many places, streets are still primarily designed for the convenience of motorists, considering mobility function as the principal design goal. There is a scarcity of empirical evidence on the relationship between the design of a street and how it is experienced by pedestrians who use it. This work focuses on quantifying pedestrians’ perception of walkability through a stated preference survey using a dynamic 3D representation of various street designs in Toronto, Canada. The stated preference scenarios are generated through a rule-based 3D environment (Esri’s CityEngine) and animated using a gaming engine (Unity). A random sample of 600 Torontonians is used for the empirical investigation by estimating a mixed multinomial logit model. The results indicate that there is a high preference for (i) streets that include transit lanes as opposed to car-exclusive lanes, (ii) the presence of trees on the sidewalk, and (iii) two-way cycle paths on the curb lane. Furthermore, pedestrians are willing to trade sidewalk width for the presence of trees and outdoor dining. The survey’s innovative presentation mode and its findings can contribute to the development of much-needed evidence-based design tools to assess the trade-offs required between the many possible uses of roadway space, while focusing on the overlooked role of the pedestrian experience.

In order to construct a shared body of knowledge, research involving the relationship between the psychosocial learning environment (PSLE) and the physical learning environment (PLE) needs a commonly-accepted conceptual framework. By means of a thematic literature review, we collected the main aspects of the PSLE and PLE, their definitions and their relations as identified by earlier research. These findings led to a conceptual framework that structures the dimension of the PSLE into the sub-dimensions of personal development, relationships, and system maintenance and change, and the dimension of the PLE into the sub-dimensions of naturalness, individualisation, and stimulation. For each of these sub-dimensions, the framework distinguishes an intended, implemented and attained representation. A conceptual PSLE-PLE Relationship (PPR) model enables relations to be visualised. The review confirms that PSLE and PLE are interrelated in interactions between different sub-dimensions and their representations. However, evidence regarding these relationships is still weak because of the limited number of studies and their methodological limitations.

Cargo bikes—bicycles made to carry both goods and people—are becoming increasingly common as an alternative to automobiles in urban areas. With a wider and heavier body, cargo bikes often face problems even in the presence of cycling infrastructure, thus limiting their possibilities of route choice. Infrastructure quality and the route choices of cyclists have been well studied, but often solely based on a quantitative approach, leading to tools such as BLOS (bicycle level of service). With various designs of cargo bikes being used for a wide range of purposes, the route choice of cargo bike users is difficult to generalize. This study combines quantitative and qualitative approaches in order to explore what is important for cargo bike users’ route choice, and how this knowledge can be effectively used for planning. Our results suggest that while some general preferences exist, route choice involves complex dynamics that cannot be fully explained by quantitative measures alone: in addition to understanding “what” is important for cargo bike users, we need to understand “why” it is important. Furthermore, route choice is also influenced by the city context, making a study tailored to the local context essential.

In the digital age, time spent outdoor in green areas is significantly decreasing for children living in cities. With the advent of digital technology, a series of digital tools are gradually integrated into children’s lives and act as a double-edged sword: on the one hand, an increasing number of children tend to stay at home and play digital games instead of interacting with nature; on the other hand, new digital technology is increasingly being used to engage children with outdoor activities. A host of studies have investigated children’s behaviour in the natural environment. However, a systematic literature review of children’s interaction with the urban green infrastructure (UGI) and the respective role of digital environment, based on a theoretical framework that explicitly takes the multi-level determinants and individual-level mechanism of behaviour change into account does not exist yet. This work provides a conceptual framework that covers various determinants, such as motivation, capability, and opportunity related factors of children’s behaviour in terms of their UGI interaction at the city and neighbourhood levels, while taking into account the individual-level mechanism of behavioural change and the role of the digital environment. The framework is used to systematically review recent international empirical evidence on the determinants of children–UGI interaction. The results are useful for laying the theoretical foundation for future empirical research on children–UGI interaction, specifically in the presence of digital interventions. They also provide urban/digital intervention designers and policymakers with theory-based design and policy guidelines for the creation of child-friendly UGI.

Om te kunnen werken aan het terugdringen van dak- en thuisloosheid onder jongeren is een overzicht nodig van het huidige systeem rondom de preventie en aanpak van dakloosheid. Welke knelpunten kunnen we identificeren binnen het huidige systeem, en waar liggen kansen? Maar ook: hoe zien de paden eruit die jongeren moeten bewandelen binnen dit systeem, als ze op jonge leeftijd dakloos dreigen te raken? Stichting Zwerfjongeren Nederland en het TU/e Urban Labs voeren een verkenning uit naar het huidige beleid en de praktijk van de huisvesting voor (kwestbare) jongeren. We gaan op zoek naar een uitgang in het woonlabyrint.

Incorporating users’ experiences in transport hub (re)development has become paramount, especially in the case of (high-speed) railway stations located in central urban locations. Designing “quality” according to users’ perspectives requires that we rethink about the dimensions to be prioritized, but also consider the variegated perspectives of users. Drawing on data from a survey of 452 users of the Amsterdam Central station area in the Netherlands, the relative importance of three value perspectives (node, place, and experience) on place quality were assessed through exploratory factor analysis. Seven quality factors were identified. Furthermore, relationships between socio-demographic characteristics and quality perceptions were simultaneously analyzed using a path analysis. The outcome showed that age and gender play a key role in explaining different quality perceptions. Senior citizens attach a higher importance to basic needs and safety and advanced services, while women also find wayfinding important. Moreover, education and visiting purpose influence other aspects of place quality perception, such as shopping or transfer. These findings provide a better understanding of place quality considerations in railway station areas in general and can serve as guidelines for the improvement of Amsterdam Central station, in particular.

Following the need to promote physical activity as a part of a healthy lifestyle, in this study we focus on encouraging more physical activity by improving the experience, with running as an example of a popular outdoor activity. Running in nature is often described as more pleasant and relaxing than running in the city, yet in urban environments it is difficult to integrate true nature in one's running route. To bridge this gap we designed Sensation, a sonified running track that provides sensations of nature using audio feedback. Sensation senses the footsteps of runners and produces synced sounds of footsteps in several nature environments to augment the urban landscape. This way, Sensation aims to enhance the environmental factors that contribute to the positive feelings people experience during a run. We report on insights gathered during our Research-through-Design process, as well as a preliminary user test of this sonified running track. © 2021 Owner/Author.

The ageing of the population in developed countries asks for smart solutions to promote seniors' inclusion in society. Therefore, how to shape a place that is both smart and encourages healthy ageing is a key question in the field of shaping smart and inclusive living environments. Smart placemaking, i.e. the augmentation of physical place with location-specific digital services, offers a range of powerful opportunities to add value to public spaces in ways which can translate into health promotion in society and improved living environments for all. In order to successfully shape a healthy ageing living environment through smart placemaking, one could learn from the experience of successful practices of existing healthy communities. An example of such communities can be Blue Zones which are home for the world's longest-lived populations[1]. This paper aims to integrate the process of smart placemaking with learnings from socio-spatial characteristics of Blue Zones in a neighbourhood-scale environment, i.e. Malvalaan, in The Netherlands. This integration will be presented in the form of proposing urban and architectural design interventions. The process of integration will be experimented in an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) environment. This paper reports on the feedback received from the participants (inhabitants of the Malvalaan) of the experiment which can lead to a better understanding of the proposed design interventions and, consequently, can help to provide better place-based architectural and urban design guidelines.

In the context of mounting housing market pressures and an international swell in the formation of non-family households, especially among younger-adults, this paper examines share house (shea-hausu), an increasingly popular form of shared private rental housing in Tokyo. We frame our study in relation to shifting socioeconomic and demographic conditions affecting single, young Japanese adults, their aspirations and life-courses, as well as forms and practices in Japanese housing. We elaborate on the way shea-hausu are provided, and discuss three sets of techniques that together configure shea-hausu as a product distinct from other forms of renting, but also re-script sharing as a particular kind of ‘desirable living’ among single young adults. Furthermore, we show how shea-hausu both enables the pursuit of new experiences of ‘home’ and further entrenches traditionalist views of the needs and wants of solo dwellers.RÉSUMÉDans un contexte comprenant les pressions croissantes dans le marché immobilier et l’augmentation globale des ménages non familiaux, surtout chez les jeunes adultes, cette communication étudie les shea-hausu (logements partagés), une forme de colocation privée de plus en plus populaire à Tokyo. Nous construisons cette étude par rapport aux conditions socio-économiques et démographiques changeantes qui affectent non seulement les jeunes adultes célibataires au Japon, leurs aspirations et leurs vies, mais aussi les formes et pratiques du logement au Japon. Nous expliquons les manières dont les shea-hausu sont offerts, et présentons trois méthodes qui, combinées, en font un produit différent d’autres types de location, mais aussi réinventent la colocation comme un genre particulier de « vie désirable » pour les jeunes adultes célibataires. En outre, nous démontrons la manière dont les shea-hausu permettent à la fois la recherche de nouvelles expériences de « foyer » et le renforcement des vues traditionnelles sur les besoins et les aspirations des citadins célibataires.RESUMENEn el contexto de las crecientes presiones del mercado de la vivienda y de una expansión internacional en la formación de hogares no familiares, especialmente entre los adultos más jóvenes, este artículo examina la vivienda compartida (shea-hausu), una forma cada vez más popular de vivienda privada de alquiler compartido en Tokio. Enmarcamos nuestro estudio en relación con las cambiantes condiciones socioeconómicas y demográficas que afectan a los jóvenes japoneses solteros, sus aspiraciones y cursos de vida, así como las formas y prácticas en la vivienda japonesa. Desarrollamos la forma en que se provee shea-hausu, y discutimos tres conjuntos de técnicas que juntas configuran shea-hausu como un producto distinto de otras formas de alquiler, pero que también reescriben el compartir como un tipo particular de ‘vida deseable’ entre solteros adultos jóvenes. Además, mostramos cómo shea-hausu permite la búsqueda de nuevas experiencias de ‘hogar’ y afianza aún más los puntos de vista tradicionalistas de las necesidades y deseos de habitantes solos.

With this commentary, we share our reflections at the end of a five-year interdisciplinary research project (from 2016 to 2020) on cycling innovations in living labs across the Netherlands. The commentary is the product of a collective writing effort of the researchers. It combines reflections on both the content of our research project (cycling through the lens of innovations) from various disciplinary perspectives – including socio-technical transitions, mobilities, urban design, transport planning and history – and reflections on the transdisciplinary approach (living labs) underpinning our research. We hope that our reflections can benefit other researchers concerned with similar topics and approaches. Our research project, Smart Cycling Futures (SCF), began as a proposal within the Smart Urban Regions of the Future (SURF) program, funded by the Dutch Council for Academic Research (NWO). This call of €16.5 million was co-financed by the Dutch Ministries of Infrastructure & Environment and Internal Affairs. As one of the five winning consortia – the other consortia focused on self-driving cars, influencing travel behaviour, demand-oriented public transport, and small-scale experiments – our group of mobility-oriented researchers played an active role in shaping the evolving landscape of smart mobility innovation in the Netherlands.

To better face the challenges of rapid urbanisation, it is recommended urban heritage management is carried out through community participation. In the Chinese context of state centralisation, however, inclusive participatory governance for urban heritage has remained limited, and effective ways of engaging residents in decision-making have yet to be explored adequately. This paper aims to explore community participation within Chinese urban heritage management, taking the Old Town of Lijiang as a case study. During fieldwork, in-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out with both native and migrant residents as well as administrators. Based on a community participation assessment framework, the interview guide was developed and then built on four aspects: community participation in decision-making; the competence of participants; the right to social justice and confidence of participants; and community empowerment and equity. This paper reveals the current state of participatory practices in the Old Town of Lijiang and, specifically, discusses the roles of residents, elites and community-based organisations in decision-making concerning urban heritage management, in the contexts of state-centralisation. Chinese urban heritage management needs to raise public awareness and willingness as well as give residents more responsibilities and power to face the challenges of rapid urbanisation, but currently, the degree of participation is still minimal, only between informing and consulting.

In many regions, governments are motivating increased bicycle ridership by designing new and improving existing bicycle infrastructure. Cycle highways are an effective and cost-efficient type of bicycle-specific infrastructure that are designed to provide a functional connection between places where people work, go to school and live. One important element of developing high quality cycle highways is the development of an effective wayfinding system which allows current, potential, and new users to clearly identify and navigate a bicycle network. The wayfinding design standards used for conventional bicycle infrastructure may not be compatible for cycle highways, which encourage cyclists to travel at relatively higher speeds. This may warrant introducing specific wayfinding signage compatible for this new type of bicycle infrastructure. This study uses qualitative analysis including field observations, ride-along videos, and semi-structured interviews, to assess electrically assisted pedal bicycle (e-bike) users' opinions and experiences with wayfinding signage along a pilot cycle highway route located between Tilburg and Waalwijk in the Netherlands. In the summer of 2018, base-line observations and interviews were administered with twelve e-bike users who were unfamiliar with the route to assess their experiences with conventional signage for cyclists before changes were made to the wayfinding system. Follow-up observations were held in the fall, after the installation of two new pilot wayfinding systems that were specifically designed to accommodate cycle highway users. Initial findings suggest that the changes made to the location, size and clarity of the signage improve cyclists' overall experiences, and that cyclists' perceptions of the built environment are important. Specifically, it became easier for users to navigate the route, their overall travel related stress decreased, and several participants perceived shorter travel times. Policy makers and transportation planners are likely to be interested in the results of this study as they reveal how specific improvements to wayfinding along cycle highways not only help improve navigation, but also positively influence cyclists' overall comfort and stress.

In urban planning and transportation research, indices have been developed to measure the walkability of neighborhoods based on land-use and transportation characteristics. Despite the extensive work on the development of walkability measures, the empirical validation of the measures has received only limited attention. The aim of this study is to test assumptions made in existing walkability indices. Based on a national neighborhood data set combined with three years of national travel survey data from the Netherlands, the relationships between physical neighborhood characteristics and walking frequency are identified through regression analysis. In the regression model, distance to supermarket, number of daily goods stores within 1 km, number of cafeterias within 1 km, total inland water, land use for residential buildings, and high urban density were found to be significant. Our analysis indicates that existing indices only partly capture variation in walkability. We find that mismatches emerge on the level of both the selection and weighting of variables. Based on the results we identify ways to improve existing indices to measure walkability.

The effects of transit ridership determinants can be quantified as demand elasticities which are often used to inform transit planning and policy making. This study seeks to determine the impacts of transit service supply, fare, and gas prices on ridership by quantifying the short-run and long-run demand elasticities, as well as test whether transit ridership exhibits an asymmetric response to the rise and fall of these factors using a panel data of 99 Canadian transit agencies over the period of 2002 – 2016. The results of the dynamic panel model show the effects of transit service and fare to be greater in the long-run. The short-run fare elasticity was found to be -0.24 while the long-run elasticity was -1.1. Furthermore, the demand elasticity with respect to service levels was also found to be inelastic (0.29) in the short-run but elastic (1.3) in the long-run. The cross elasticity of gas prices was estimated to be 0.17. The existence of asymmetry was analyzed using decomposition techniques to separately estimate the coefficients for the rise and fall in each of the determinants. The equality of these coefficients was tested against each other and we found that ridership responded more to an increase in transit supply than a decrease. The importance of these results to policy making are then discussed.

Due to recent technological advancements, technological transition through designing together with living organisms is a growing phenomenon in multiple disciplines as well as in building design. Within this technological transition period, a large number of concepts with varied terms and definitions introduce comprehensive aspects and possible impacts of the unity of living and manufactured components. While many concepts resonate in building design, a blanket term is missing in the existing literature. To identify suitable terms and definitions which either should be adopted or disregarded in the scope of the building design, this paper presents an overview of the existing terminology. In the framework of the research, firstly the descriptions of the innovations, exemplifying the incorporation of living components, were examined in eighty (80) cases related to building design. The most-used terms and definitions lead us to determine the scope of the literature review. Further on, expert opinions, (20) twenty practitioners professionally working with the innovations, were obtained. While the research clarifies the variety in the terminology, the paper underlines the critical importance of the phenomenon in terms of bringing substantial possibilities into building design through multiple functions, domains, disciplines.

This study aims to examine housing typologies for older adults in the light of three qualitatively examined exogenous factors: policy, societal and technological changes. The developments in inpatient and semi-residential care facilities for older adults have been mapped from 1945-2016 using quantitative data. Using this data five transition periods can be distinguished.This research shows that the classification of inpatient, semi-residential and outpatient living may no longer be applicable in its current form. Through exogenous factors new typologies have emerged and this paper proposes a classification as a foundation for further research into housing typologies for older adults.

Transportation infrastructure networks (TINs), and the accessibility that they provide, are argued to be major determinants of land-use change. However, the spatio-temporal extent of their impact on urbanization is unclear and calls for further investigation. This paper empirically investigates the impact of both road and transit networks on urbanization in the Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area (GTHA) from 1971 to 2016, using a traffic analysis zone (TAZ) level panel database of 17,160 observations. It first documents and measures the magnitude, location and rate of urbanization and TINs' development in the region and in relation to each other using descriptive and buffer analyses. It then estimates the share of transport accessibility in urbanization over time and space using fixed effects panel regression models. Our findings demonstrate the significant extent of the ongoing sprawl, the substantial historical and current difference between the potential transit and car travel times, and the stability of the potential car travel times despite improvements to the road network. They also highlight the importance of urban proximity in prompting urbanization and the decreasing impact of transit improvement on urban development in urban areas and over time. A policy implication is that to encourage transit-oriented development, it is more effective to introduce or reinforce connections to activity centers rather than invest in reducing travel times to reach them.

This paper examines homeownership pathways of young adults in Tokyo, Japan, making use of an original data set of qualitative interviews. By analyzing the narratives of young adults, the article argues that in contemporary Tokyo homeownership pathways are diversifying, due to changing gender roles within households, intergenerational responsibilities and an increasingly questionable potential of homeownership to result in asset accumulation. Thus, while still following housing pathways that result in homeownership, young people are both adapting to the conditions of a practically failing but politically and ideologically resilient homeownership system and challenging its boundaries.

Methods of articulating the morphological structure of slums can have considerable potential in better planning for site-specific design or policy responses for these areas in the contemporary city. Although urban morphology traditionally studies landscapes as stratified residues with distinct divisions between lot and boundary, built and unbuilt, the authors find these definitions insufficient to address the complexity of slum morphology. Through this article, the authors’ identify that morphological analysis of informal settlements needs to be sensitive to the dynamics and the absence (or blurring) of physical boundaries. By analyzing the spatial impact of social, economic, and political factors, situational and site factors, building typologies, and configurations of circulation space, an attempt to articulate the morphological structure of slums is made. Aiming to overcome the current polarization in the literature between the formal and informal city, this article adds to the ongoing research on the study of challenges within contemporary cities, by providing new methodologies for studying the morphology of slum urbanization and shaping planning practice.

In large eddy simulations (LES) of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), the choice of inflow method and the specification of surface roughness are crucial for obtaining accurate results. The consistency between inflow conditions and wall boundary condition has been investigated in depth for the RANS approach, whereas it needs further analysis for LES. This paper investigates the combined effect of inflow method and aerodynamic roughness length for LES of the neutral ABL. Three basic inflow generators in combination with three terrain types are evaluated in terms of streamwise homogeneity of the vertical profiles of mean velocity and turbulence kinetic energy. The results show that the precursor method best preserves the homogeneity of the profiles for all roughness lengths considered, with mean absolute deviations up to 0.7% for mean velocity and 3.5% for turbulence kinetic energy at the outlet of the computational domain. Among the synthetic methods, the Vortex Method performs satisfactorily for mean velocity and, to a lesser extent, turbulence kinetic energy, whereas the random flow generation (RFG) method leads to the largest deviations from the target profiles. Finally, the value of the aerodynamic roughness length is found to only weakly influence the performance of the inflow methods considered.

Emerging affordability problems in British housing have accentuated the role of parental support in facilitating entry to homeownership, with financial transfers and in-kind support smoothening transitions for many. This article explores housing trajectories, focusing on how dependency and autonomy are negotiated within and across generations in relation to gifts, loans and in-kind transfers for home purchase. It draws on the experiences of a group of young adults aged 25–35 and those family members who supported them in acquiring a home. We consider the nature of support, and how those giving and receiving it understand this exchange. We show that gifting for homeownership is an ‘ideal gift’, allowing givers to exercise moral control over the receivers by supporting a normalized tenure choice. Managing relationships of indebtedness between kin presupposes negotiations in which the maintenance of autonomy is paramount. The article examines four types of negotiations and their impact on intergenerational relations.

Empirical research provides evidence that, in neighborhoods with higher walkability, individuals make more walking trips. However, it is not clear what the exact nature is of the relationships between neighborhood walkability and walking trips, since a higher walking frequency can be explained in different ways. This study examined whether the extra walking trips in better walkable neighborhoods are related primarily to trip generation, destination choice, or transport mode choice and whether this is the same for different age groups. A neighborhood fixed effects regression analysis was conducted in a first step to obtain a walkability measure for each neighborhood in the Netherlands including systematic as well as unobserved effects. Subsequently, the estimated fixed effects were used as walkability data for a path analysis based on a causal model to test the hypotheses stated. The results of the path analysis show direct relationships of neighborhood walkability with trip generation, destination choice, and transport mode choice, after controlling for the mutual relationships between the activity and trip variables. Comparing different age groups (i.e., children, adults, and elderly), the differences found mostly concerned the relationship between neighborhood walkability and trip generation. We concluded therefore that conditions for walkability are not the same for all age groups.

Community participation is an essential issue in heritage management. The international heritage organisation ICCROM published a guidance document discussing people-centred approaches to heritage management in 2015. Cultural heritage management is recommended to be carried out through a community participation process. Despite the growing literature on community participation in cultural heritage management, little research has been done on comparing Chinese to international approaches. Although in China several pilot projects have conducted effective community participation and achieved excellent outcomes. This paper aims to fill this gap by providing an overview that compares and discusses the similarities and differences between Chinese and international approaches. A systematic literature review of the state-of-the-art was conducted to explore these differences based on four themes: engaged communities, participatory methods, degrees of participation and steps taken within cultural heritage management. This review concludes both Chinese and international practices seek to collaborate with and empower local communities in their approaches, with Chinese pilot cases, such as Tianzifang in Shanghai. However, in general, Chinese cultural heritage management is government-led, in which community participation is happening to a minimal degree. China is encouraged to learn from international practices when developing contextualised management approaches, to better face the challenges of rapid urbanisation.

Urban planning and design play a central role in determining the quality of the built environment and the ways families with children can access and use public space. However, there remains an ongoing need to clarify children’s involvement in planning. This paper carries out a systematic literature review of 30 studies published between 1990-2017 in order to address and review the current state of the art of participatory approaches in urban planning to create child-focused urban environments. This systematic review resulted in (1) a comprehensive, quantitative picture of the current studies focusing on the participation of children; (2) an effective way to conceptualize children in planning; (3) a list of requirements for the successful practice of planning with children and its relation to sustainable communities; (4) discussion of the link between urban planning, methods, approaches, and outcomes for child-focused urban environments; (5) identification of existing gaps in the literature; and (6) examination of the role of policies and the link between policies, urban planning, methods, and approaches for further research.

Community participation is a key part of heritage management. However, in practice, unlike natural heritage, the nature of community participation within cultural heritage is seldom assessed, nor are there theoretical frameworks developed to baseline such assessments. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper developed and tested an assessment framework, to assess community participation within cultural heritage. Based on the conceptualisation of community participation from heritage management policies, a literature review was conducted to develop an assessment framework, including four criteria and 23 indicators. This assessment framework was tested on the management practices of 36 Chinese cultural heritage properties inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List from 1987 to 2018. Using content analysis as a method, this research applied this assessment framework to UNESCO documents, reporting on the state-of-the-practice of heritage management as applied to Chinese World Heritage. The results provide an overview of the current situation on how community participation is positioned within World Heritage management in China. Several World Heritage properties in China have reported relatively high community participation in examples such as Honghe Hani Rice Terraces and Kulangsu. However, most of them demonstrate minimal community participation, such as the Yungang Grottoes and Lushan National Park. Moreover, the assessment framework of community participation in heritage management has been extended and improved, which is relevant to heritage management practices worldwide.

Increasingly the world around us is becoming ‘smart.’ From smart meters to smart production, from smart surfaces to smart grids, from smart phones to smart citizens. ‘Smart’ has become the catch-all term to indicate the advent of a charged technological shift that has been propelled by the promise of safer, more convenient and more efficient forms of living. Most architects, designers, planners and politicians seem to agree that the smart transition of cities and buildings is in full swing and inevitable. However, beyond comfort, safety and efficiency, how can ‘smart design and technologies’ assist to address current and future challenges of architecture and urbanism? Architecture and the Smart City provides an architectural perspective on the emergence of the smart city and offers a wide collection of resources for developing a better understanding of how smart architecture, smart cities and smart systems in the built environment are discussed, designed and materialized. It brings together a range of international thinkers and practitioners to discuss smart systems through four thematic sections: ‘Histories and Futures’, ‘Agency and Control’, ‘Materialities and Spaces’ and ‘Networks and Nodes’. Combined, these four thematic sections provide different perspectives into some of the most pressing issues with smart systems in the built environment. The book tackles questions related to the future of architecture and urbanism, lessons learned from global case studies and challenges related to interdisciplinary research, and critically examines what the future of buildings and cities will look like.