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Cultural influences on acupuncture
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Urban Acupuncture
There is an interesting theory nowadays called urban acupuncture, which refers to the idea that carefully considered as small-scale architectural interventions have the potential to bring about positive change to a larger urban field. (Deyond, 2012) “Acupuncture” is a Chinese medical treatment procedures involving penetration of the skin with needles to stimulate certain points on the body. In Chinese medicine, doctors proposal that our bodies are able to heal by ourselves, and use some method such like acupuncture and cupping to simulate points to treat patients. Similarly, many modern cities are sick, facing the problem of excess urbanization: cities are full of buildings and become concrete jungles, and large numbers of transportations cause pollutions in the cities. If we take a city as an organism with different kinds of energy inside its “body”, which is similar to human being, urban acupuncture cure the city through changing small parts of the city.
In the first article Urban Acupuncture and the paradoxical logic of systems, Deyond points a concept “leverage points” provided by Donella Meadows. Leverage point is the place in the system where a small change could lead to a large shift in behavior. The idea of leverage point can be used not only in management, but also can be used in urban design. The author points out two leverage points: material stocks and flow, that is, a urban infrastructure built by stocks and flows will have big effect on system operation; and self-organization, that is organism and social system can change themselves by creating new structure and behavior. Deyond gives the example of Urban-think tank (U-TT), an architecture firm, using their projects vertical Gymnasiums (VGs) and Metro Cable to illustrate those two leverage points.
The second article From Product to Process: Building on Urban Think Tank’s Approach to the Informal City introduce a firm named Urban- think tank (U-TT) that focuses on the city problem and tries to start proposal for the city in building projects in conflict zones. They have designed many projects in different parts of the world. Similar to this urban acupuncture is the way that “cures” the city and social problems by making changes of certain part in the city. Although there are cultural and social specificities, cities are facing problems in common. Connecting the formal and informal city is their main aim of activities. They attempt to put together communities, design ideas and urban actors on the ground that are the stakeholders in order to produce high-quality architecture.
Rose, J. K. (1997, November 8). The city beautiful movement. University of Virginia. Retrieved December 28, 2010, from http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/citybeautiful/city.html
Aesthetic control in the city serves a number of purposes. For one, the zero-sum logic of interurban competition incentivizes the purification of urban space and the presentation of ‘cleanliness’ for the purposes of city marketing. As transfer payments decline as a source of revenue for municipal governments, cities are desperately attempting to enhance their international reputation for the purpose of attracting tourism and capital investment. The cleansing of visible poverty from urban space is accomplished through police harassment and displacement of visible poverty and other ‘undesirable’ uses of space(Kennelly 9). The city’s adaptation to market logics also influences the way urban space is produced and presented internally, to its own population. For example, concentrations of homeless people are said to deter visitors and consumers from traveling to and shopping in those parts of the city [BY WHO]. Visible homelessness is also targeted by city authorities because it disrupts attempts to render the city as a landscape (Mitchell 186). Rendering the city as a landscape is a means of presenting the individual with an illusory sense of control and freedom in the complex urban environment where control in fact belongs to the totalizing economy and freedom for some comes at the expense of freedom for others. The illusion of control is in a sense the way citizens are alienated from the constitutive parts and production of the city. Instead of seeing the realities of capital relations, or the activities of labour reproduction required daily to renew the urban workforce, citizens are presented with a stage on which the daily dramas of the “pacified public” can take place (Mitchell 186). On this stage, a certain kind of “legitimate” citizen expects a broad freedom to move through space without resistance or disturbance, such as may come from encountering or being confronted by
Urban sprawl is a widespread concern that impacts land use, transportation, social and economic development, and most importantly our health. Poorly planned development is threatening our health, our environment and our quality of life. Sprawl is blamed for many things such as asthma and global warming, flooding and erosion, extinction of wildlife, and most importantly the public health such as social isolation and obesity due to people driving everywhere. Building offices, homes, shops, schools and other buildings influences the building of roads, transit and other transportation modes. This relationship that can lead to safe, walkable, diverse and lively communities or out of control, poorly planned urban sprawl. Unfortunately sprawl has been winning and the public health is at risk.
Generally, this chapter discussed about examination of three planning theory approaches which is the communicative model, the new urbanism and just city. Each approaches has different planning applicable as well as its strength and weakness. The communicative model is an approaches which highlighted the role of town planner as a medium to negotiate and persuade stakeholder regarding to planning matter. Next, the approaches of new urbanism is more focused on design and build physical features in planning urban development. Last but not least, the just city approaches concern to seek equality distribution of planning benefits toward private sector, government and society.
Individuals have more in common with cities than they may realize. They both are judged and desired due to how successful they tend to be. A strong driver behind a successful city is good design. For urban planners good design may seem simple, but, pointed out by author Jane Jacobs, is not. By providing a strong argument and comparisons in chapter twenty two of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs reveals that cities are difficult to design successfully.
For instance, highly populous and famous cities such as Oslo, New York, Alexandria, and San Francisco hold some of the important architecture projects that have shaped individuals’ lives. Reporter David Owen, in his New Yorker article “Psychology of Space”, argues how the architecture firm Snøhetta utilizes their magic through their projects to build people’s moods, shape their relationships with cities, buildings and other individuals, and create illusions with exhilarating effects. The author’s argument is rhetorically compelling because his arrangement of ideas, selection of words, and supporting evidence maintain his public engaged in the magic of architecture and persuade anyone reading his article that architecture plays a critical role in their lives in numerous
Again, this section will give a working definition of the “urban question’. To fully compare the political economy and ecological perspectives a description of the “urban question” allows the reader to better understand the divergent schools of thought. For Social Science scholars, from a variety of disciplines, the “urban question” asks how space and the urban or city are related (The City Reader, 2009). The perspective that guides the ecological and the social spatial-dialect schools of thought asks the “urban question” in separate distinct terminology. Respected scholars from the ecological mode of thinking, like Burgess, Wirth and others view society and space from the rationale that geographical scope determines society (The City Reader, 2009). The “urban question” that results from the ecological paradigm sees the relationship between the city (space) as influencing the behaviors of individuals or society in the city. On the other hand...
Renzo respects that is it important to not become self referential with design. Therefore, to truly understand the reality of a city, Renzo will never accept a new job without visiting the space first. This is to find the fundamental emotions, which he states is the true source of inspiration (Archinect, 2006). Furthermore, Renzo and his team will make hundreds of models after research to test their theories. “Versions enable us to understand how the pieces will work with each other”, Renzo once said (BMIAA, 2015).
During the last century Copenhagen has seen major changes in the physical construct of the city but who was involved and what changes have occurred? When did these changes occur? Where were the main areas of development? Why was this change needed? And also, was it a successful development? Main case studies for this discussion include Copenhagen’s post-war master plan for it’s city looking at how it seamless integrated its transport systems, pedestrian walkways and businesses along with housing and zooming in further to the Ørestad district and its development which includes various architecture projects by practices such as BIG. By beginning to find answers to these questions through different sources and analysing them not only through words but also by illustrations and diagrams, an understanding of Copenhagen’s development can be begun to be made. Before these questions can be answered a step back should be made reflecting Copenhagen’s history.
The Negative Effects of Urbanization on People and their Environment As our world becomes increasingly globalized, numerous people travel to urban areas in search of economic prosperity. As a consequence of this, cities in periphery countries expand at rates of 4 to 7 percent annually. Many cities offer entrepreneurs the potential for resources, labor, and resources. With prosperity, cities also allow the freedom of a diversity of ways of life and manners (Knox & Marston, 2012). However, in the quest to be prosperous, increasing burdens are placed on our health and the condition of our environment.
In this regard, city authorities all over the world are increasingly adopting energy efficiency measures in a quest to become sustainable into the future. Consequently, this has led to the emergence of the term ‘green cities’ (Aulisi & Hanson, 2004). New York City, viewed by many as an urban, concrete jungle, was recently named the “greenest city" in the United States. This is mainly because most of its residents live in energy-efficient buildings, and use public transport, bicycl...
The theory was proposed by the publication of the book Garden Cities of To-morrow. The author proposed more than harmony between man and nature, in fact he introduced a policy to maintain the social balance, threatened by the sordid conditions of urbanization of English folk layers during the nineteenth century. This concept of urbanization beyond plan forms, functions, financial and administrative resources of an ideal, healthy and beautiful city mainly considers the satisfaction of the masses, controlling their concentration in metropolitan centres. Initially, Howard uses diagrams to warrant the creation of a garden city.
... architectures would led to a more organic organization beneficial to the people that choose to make their lives in this city. Although this model of a sustainable city is not a perfectly closed loop, it lays the foundation for one that is. Over time, with constantly evolving and improving technology and new methods of design from the scale of products to buildings, the gaps in the loop could be closed, and a “true” sustainable city could be fully realized.
We no longer believe in the monumental, the heavy and static, and have enriched our sensibilities with a taste for lightness, transience, and practicality.” 9 The practices of futurism in architecture like using steel, concrete, and glass to express the modernism in the 20th century. However, by comparing today’s futurist architecture practices and conceptual representation, the form and structure become more and more complex due to human new innovation and technology. “The Plug-in City” in Figure 5, designed by Peter Cook in 1964, who is the member of Archigram. It is a digital drawing that proposes a suppositional city with a modular housing which shows a new generation. “Archigram’s radical suggestion to reveal infrastructural elements and reverse traditional building hierarchies,” 10 and they believe there is no limitation of the form and structure, but also the selection of materiality has different symbolic
Nowadays, more than half of the world population lives in cities. Urban populations consume 75% of the world 's natural resources and generate 75% of waste. Cities have become consumers of enormous amounts of natural resources and generating massive environmental