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Housing And Urbanization

Introduction

In this present scenario, a shift from traditionalism to modernism can be identified in every aspect of human life. Architecture is not an exception. With the gradual change in human life style and continuous change in requirements of day to day life, the cities are also changing its shapes, layouts as well as structure. The focus of the study is to discuss the changing pattern of housing and construction projects considering the process of urbanization. The thesis statement of this essay is to establish a critical discussion as well as elaboration considering the historical awareness of urban projects, strategies for urban change and architectural shift of Housing & Urbanization.

Main Body

Historical awareness related to urban projects

Urban planning is defined as the planning of a new township.  The urban planning is associated with engineering, architecture, social and political resources. There are several professionals from technical background in the urbanisation process where existing parts of the city require revitalisation associating goal setting, data collection, forecasting, design, strategical consultation.

Urban planning is an amalgamation of a number of different disciplines, namely, environmental planning, transport planning, land use planning, housing, in order to incorporate the elements of sustainability, environmental friendliness, social, and economic efficiency in it. The development of linear rural route can be seen as the most important produce in house type where planting is necessary. The houses are detached from each other and height does not go beyond two stories.

Gradually simple societies are replaced by multi-structural and complex societies with religious caste hierarchy systems. A classic example of hierarchical planning is the city of Rome and Athens, where the townships are concentrically planned and designed with maximum importance given to the centre and as one moves farther away from the centre, the degree of importance diminishes. From the 16th-17th century, farm activities became the prime source of livelihood for the communities and societies, and as a result, the cities were designed and planned as monuments, fortifications and wall enclosed buildings.

The modernization of war tactics, citadels and fortifications no longer remain effective and safer defence mechanisms, but these fortified cities still bear the evidence of the time when ‘security’ is perceived within the confinement of walled buildings and these architecture from ancient time stand firmly and harmoniously with new definitions of security equipments. With greater global connectivity, trade routes through sea and oceans were explored in the 18th century. This led to the growth of markets and townships near ports, as these locations gained huge importance for their strategic location as important trading centres across the world. Hence, during the 18th century, the most strategic and powerful were those countries, which had a strong naval army with a control over the sea-routes (Alexander et al. 1987). All colonial invaders, such as the English, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch etc. invaded and captured distant places due to their strong naval army and strategic planning which became shrewder and more tactical over time. Urban Planning transformed into its present form due to the Industrial Revolution, which marked the introduction of mechanization techniques, new forms of architecture and innovations in the automobile sector (Guy, 2006). The scale and structure of a township witnessed a sea change with respect to having broader roads, high rise buildings, spread out cities due to improved transportation networks, large scale industries etc. Non-fertile and barren lands gradually started developing into industrial sites and manufacturing cities called ‘factory cities. But within a short span of time, all these cities turned unhygienic and dirty, as people started accommodating themselves in minimal space with zero attention towards hygiene. The only objective in these townships was bulk industrial production, while the rich lived in grandeur in those parts of the town that had better sanitization. The frequent outbreak of epidemic and deaths resulted in a change in city planning with better sanitation and more aesthetics. Urban planning became the focal point in the late 19th century, when it was observed that there should be some reason behind the uneven and skewed growth of major cities like New York, London, and Paris etc. given the available infrastructure setup. Urban Planning for the last 100 years has not changed much (Hui, 2001). It is not very long that ‘environmental sustainability’ and ‘people’s participation’ have become two most important aspects to be taken into account by urban planners and eventually, town planning will transform into a more inclusive, just and ecologically sustainable practice.

Familiarity of current approaches and challenges in urbanism

Environmentally friendly architecture combines time and design with the unity of aesthetic, socio-economic, technical and technological, natural and ecological requirements depending on the theory of sustainable development (Leyzerovaet al.,2016). The assessment of sustainable system is the scope for the living space, which is based on the requirements of the system. There are two approaches in architects and engineers for developing eco-sustainable architecture. The first approach might be ready with the introduction of the latest technological innovations in the areas of energy management, integrated building management and the use of the latest products in architecture. The second is about the usage of aerial design to curb power consumption and preserving resource as well as the maximum use of natural resources for lighting and spatial. The concept of sustainable development enables the development of new principles and methods in architectural engineering (Conte and Monno, 2016). The energy-efficient architecture of a building can be traced back to such methods. Based on the analysis of foreign and domestic experiences in the planning of energy-efficient residential buildings, a number of requirements can be generated –

Urban needs: It might associate with planning of closed courtyard areas, planning of the buildings according to the alignment under management and Landscaping.

Necessity for ecology: This may be attained by using zero emission materials, no-discharge operating cycle of a civil structure, which makes it possible to protect the environment (reduction of CO2 emissions into the air), usage of renewable energy sources for civil technology and maximum usage of vertical garden for warm regions (Gil and Duarte, 2013).

Architectural and planning requirements: Planning a compact plan for floor to avoid facades of irregularity may result in stylish floor layout to reduce wind load on the adjacent territory, applying additional space in the building for using in unfavourable conditions, planning of large frame structure (eliminating building envelope for reducing heat loss), measurement of the ideal ratio of structure for covered area and that of a building and Measurement of the ideal ratio of building covered area and window opening area in order to decrease the energy input.

Structural needs: Examples are the application of insulated material from thermodynamic action and constructions in the construction of a building, use of a three-layer building envelope and application of localisation for construction and final materials in the construction of a building (Hao and Hong, 2021).

Technical requirements may be applicable to alternative sources of energy in the office buildings, use of natural ventilation system for passing natural air circulation by heat pumps for the needs of the circulation of hot water; use of the decentralised water system for hot water treatment in the lowest level and technical room.

People may try to compatible with ecocentrism in economy with ecological adoption in thinking. The economy has the authority of driving the urban planning towards the sustainable development through switching towards the green life. The paradigm shift towards the sustainable development might formulate some issues. The issues such as replacing anthropocentricism with ecocentrism, inequal society in war propagates against sustainable development and replacement of ecological technologies (Hong et al. 2020). The number of researchers and studies actually grows up during the complex process of this problem. Designing a green building and construction have shown architectural solution to the problem of sustainable development for construction. The association with various fields of engineering has allowed to create an integrated approach of sustainable development.

Strategies for urban change

According toBibri(2018), in this modern era, development of a sustainable city requires effective designing and planning. Urban planners usually look after the areas of development for the cities in this time. This development includes the utilization of vacant land in such a way so that the need of human life can be mitigated without hampering the environmental, economic as well as social functions. In this context, Mora, Deakin and Reid (2019) have added that urban change requires effective strategies and strategic decisions in order to resolve critical problems of urban life. The authors have added that for housing and urbanization proper policies as well as strategies need to be aligned from four dimensions including efficiency dimension, externalities dimension, budgetary dimension along with equity dimension.

 On the other hand, Maeset al.(2019) have mentioned that the main requirement of urban change is to control the pollution due to over population by including sustainable development with green construction and integration of natural ecosystem. In order to develop sustainable cities, the man-made land areas need to be reduced. For that reason, Strategic Urban Planning is effectively required. This aspect focuses on the setting few high-level objectives in order to determine the growth of the desired are for making a well-planned city.

Axelsson and Granath(2018) have identified in their study that in the process of design and development of an urban environment, planning for quarters as well as residential areas seems to be more difficult. The authors have explained that quarters and residential areas requires a 360 degree integration of various factors including sanitation, hygiene, architecture, design, art along with representation of modernized facilities in order to establish a social identity of the property holder. Even though, residence is the primary need of human being; creating, managing and maintaining a social identity provides a mental wellness. Apart from that properly planned and designed residence is directly aligned with the comfortable stay for future. As an example, the soundproof construction is helpful for the future habitats to eliminate the issue of noise pollution; whereas; proper air circulating architecture is helpful in making the place airy. Yuan et al.(2019) have argued that development of residential area needs suitable analysis of the factors including air circulation, intensity of sun light, smoke passing system, drainage system, noise protection, sanitation, transportation, maintaining the level of greenery and dust protection facilities so that the main goal of urbanization can be obtained. Thus, it can be summarized that the main strategy of urban change should be revolving around the design and architecture of the residential areas so that all the need of modern people can be mitigated.

In accordance with the strategy for urban change, the case of Auckland University of Technology can be mentioned. In this case it has been identified that the plan of urbanization has integrated such of an urban planning approach commonly known as master planning. The project aimed at providing a better experience to the students and other stakeholders a suitable campus life, hygienic work and study environment along with comfortable place to live at. Apart from that this project case has intended to implicate a proper connection among the buildings within the campus along with creating enough space for the public by creating meeting areas for enhancing social interaction (Abdelmegidet al., 2021).

Another example of Beaumont Quarter of Auckland can be named in this context. This project has been developed with the architecture of row house which aimed to blend the traditional design of urbanization with the modernized reinterpretation (Marriage, 2021). This project has enlisted its name in the successful housing estate for middle income group. This residential urban city is close to the workplaces of the people who are living in. Apart from that the dominance of private transportation has been excluded with the design of narrow roads which has provided a priority for pedestrianmovement. The strategy of restoring Enerco buildings and preserving old trees has added value to the sustainable urbanization to this project.

Critical discussion to find the gap

From the historical discussion it is clear that a number of planning related to urbanization has taken place. Some of the planning practices have witnessed major modification as well as changes during implementation; whereas, few planning process remained incomplete.  () have opined in this context that in many cases the approved plan has turned out something else due to multiple modification. Thus, it can be stated that effective strategy development in urban planning is required for evaluating the outcome of the implementation; even though the planning and strategic direction is not static.

Herspergeret al.(2018) have criticized the concept of urban planning with rigid strategies as the direction of the planning can be changed at any moment due to the uncertain relationship between theoretical process, goals, definition, actors with architecture and planning.The aspects of uncertainty can be termed as the building blocks for urbanization planning of the cities and housing. Abd Elrahman and Asaad (2021) have added that with certain analysis and critics the difference between theoretical as well as conceptual determinants can help in identifying the gap of projected goal and outcome in real for housing and urbanization in real world.

As per Herspergeret al. (2018), urbanization planning and development has been emerged in practice to meet the gap between the theory as well as practice of urban planning. This approach has mitigated the gap of the issue related to architecture planning and its implementation. With realistic design and architecture along with suitable decision is helpful in  filling the gap of theory and practice.

Design and graphic material in building an argument concerning urban processes and strategies

The urban process has to employ the sustainable development through design at the first stage as it helps in adopting the new strategies for green building. Further, the graphic materials used for the building has to be eco-centric as well as ecological friendly for the environment. The sustainable development for the environment requires to meet the urbanisation process through maintaining the environment friendly criteria of materials and design in graphics. In this regard, the climate should be an integral part of design process for green building. The building energy saving model is used as a comprehensive approach for effectively applying urban climatology. The economic impact of the design adopted from climatologists of the building might be assessed in short-term. The social and environmental impacts can eb evaluated for measuring the long-term sustainability of the green buildings (Abd Elrahman and Asaad,, 20211).

Conclusion

From the above stated discussion, it can be concluded that modern housing and urbanization is a necessary aspect to protect the environment as well as provide the human beings a quality living standard. Increasing number of populations is polluting the cities is leading to urbanization and development of new cities. The modern approaches of the architecture of the housing are being helpful as they are providing the needful elements for urbanization and development of a city. As the study discusses historical awareness of urban projects which has helped in understanding the past and future of the urbanization of the cities, focusing on the present development. Moreover, this study has helped in obtaining required strategies for urban change considering which the overall focus of the study has clearly achieved.

Reference List

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Abdelmegid, M.A., González, V.A., O’Sullivan, M., Walker, C.G., Poshdar, M. and Alarcón, L.F., 2021. Exploring the links between simulation modelling and construction production planning and control: a case study on the last planner system. Production Planning & Control, pp.1-18.

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