Despite all the principles of sustainable urban design, more and more spaces in small town centres are getting dedicated to traffic. Public open spaces (POS) in these towns are mainly reserved for ...car traffic, and social activities have been in decline. All at the expense of transportation space and built-up areas. As a result, there are fewer and fewer POS, which provide well-being and comfort to people, are accessible to all and are also attractively designed, allowing the development of a wide range of activities, and contributing to a town’s good image. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to determine the state of provision of POS in the centres of selected small towns in Slovenia and to assess the image of these town centres. Using various methods and instruments, we tested the hypothesis of whether there is a relationship between POS and the image of town centres. We used a cartographic method and a questionnaire survey, as well as statistical methods, in order to confirm the hypothesis. The study has revealed that groups of morphologically similar small towns are statistically different from each other in terms of observed relationships between POS and the image of the town centre. Therefore, a morphological analysis approach is very important in terms of evaluating the relationship between POS and the image of town centres. In conclusion, recommendations are given for the design of POS in small town centres.
The article presents the redefinition of the continuity and visibility of the elements of building identity in recent buildings, in the context of the architectural regions and landscapes defined by ...Prof. Peter Fister in the 1990s. The mass of »self-build« interventions in the 1980s led to a break in the continuity of the transfer of traditional elements of the built heritage to new buildings - both at the level of the individual building and at the level of the settlement. The article describes the process of discovering and, with the help of modern software tools, evaluating those examples of recent construction where, despite the influence of various trends, it was possible to identify the preservation of traditional building identity elements. The research at the settlement and single building level was carried out in the area of Prebold in the Savinjsko-kozjanska architectural region, while the study of individual buildings included examples of good practice from the whole territory of Slovenia. At the same time, Fister’s »inventory cards« were upgraded in terms of content, which now more systematically define the position of the building within the settlement and its volumetric and planar visual elements, which are the carriers of identity.
The paper presents a study on the quality of architectural education at the Faculty of Architecture (FA) of the University of Ljubljana (UL) and the changes as a result of adopting the new rules, ...criteria and evaluation systems. In order to improve the quality of education at FA, we look at the indicators related to the data on student learning outcomes and the education as a whole. The formal data and the comparison of performance (quality) indicators between 2006 and 2012 are shown. Additionally, the basic scope of the Long-cycle Master's Study Programme in Architecture (MSPA) is presented in terms of content and mobility. The focus of architectural education at the UL FA, which includes practical, artistic and research work, and simulates work in the architectural studio, is on Design Studio course, which is directly complemented by the Architectural Workshop course. The work that includes both the individual approach and team work promotes connections among foreign and Slovenian students. Four cases in point are presented, confirming the significance of creative work within the courses of Design Studio, Architectural Workshop and Master Thesis.
A window view affects a person’s well-being and comfort. The effect of visual contact with nature on people depends on the quality of the outside scenery, which in turn depends on parameters such as ...the number of visible layers, the distance to visual elements and environmental information (content) in the window view. Many studies have concluded that views of nature are preferable, while in urban environments a high-quality window view should include greenery. In our study, a survey was conducted among two groups of students at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana, to find out how the respondents perceived urban imageability in a window view. Using the example of five neighborhoods in Ljubljana (Slovenia), which have different urban planning and design concepts and greeneries, we investigated whether respondents perceived the presence of greenery as an important element of visual comfort. They ranked the quality of window views using eight indicators. The analysis of the ranking of the answers showed that the responses were similar for the two survey approaches (with single-selection and with multiple-selection techniques), except for the perception of surface texture. This indicates a common understanding of the role of greenery and an ambiguity in the perception of what is meant by the term ‘texture’.
Environmental modelling software can be useful for evaluating design interventions and formulating strategies to achieve a specific purpose, such as providing outdoor thermal comfort. It is less ...commonly used in predicting the dispersion of street pollutants. The aim of this research is to test selected morphological patterns with respect to their influence on wind conditions and the transport of traffic pollutants, and to verify the results against previous studies. The objective of the research is to evaluate relations between building typology in interactions with urban atmosphere. The method utilises a wind tunnel simulation with a static line source of emissions. Experiment results show that the exposed urban morphology models display an impact on flow conditions and consequently on the dispersion of traffic pollutants. At the same time, the results highlight the importance of urban aerodynamic perspective, particularly of urban spaces that can be expected to be subject to higher traffic pollutants in terms of urban air pollution.
By applying standard research approach and methodology, this paper describes several key educational and research actions undertaken through the Erasmus+ EU project “Creating the Network of Knowledge ...Labs for Sustainable and Resilient Environments – KLABS”. KLABS is a pioneering joint initiative of eleven Western Balkans and European Union higher education institutions, aimed to provide a systemic response to professional and societal needs by introducing programmes dealing with sustainability of the built environment in the Western Balkan context. Methodologically, attention in sustainability-related curricula development was given not only to contents, but as well to educational and research methods, holistic sustainability interpretations, interconnections between sustainability and resilience to climate change, impacts of cultural-regional specificities, finally the level of offered knowledge, skills and competencies. The paper reviews some universal challenges referring to the integration of sustainability into education in the built environment and explains how these were overcome in specific Western Balkans case.
Tourism and other culture-based types of small business, which are the leitmotif in the planning of the Europark Ruardi, are becoming the guiding motif in the spatial development of urban centres ...that are influenced by dynamic transformation processes. The system should build upon the exploitation of both local and regional environmental features. This would encourage the quest for special environmental features, with an emphasis on their conservation, i.e. sustainable development, and connections in a wider context.
The Europark is seen as a new strategic point of the Zasavje Region (the region of the central Sava Valley), which is linked to other important points in a region relevant for tourism. Due to the "smallness" of the region and/or the proximity of such points, development can be fast and effective. The interaction of different activities in space yields endless opportunities for users, who choose their own goals and priorities in the use of space. Four theme areas of the Europark area planning are envisaged. The organisation of activities is based on the composition of the mosaic field patterns, where green fields intertwine with areas of different, existing and new, urban functions. The fields of urban and recreation programmes are connected with a network of green areas and walking trails, along which theme park settings are arranged.
In the period between the two world wars, the latent tensions between the European nations resulted in the construction of defensive positions on the borderlines of major European countries. Under ...the same conditions, the Italian Kingdom built an extensive fortification line, i.e. the Alpine Wall. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (SHS) replied to it with the Rupnik Line. On the base of the Treaty of Rapallo, a 289-km long demarcation line was built with an exceptional defence infrastructure, which interfered with vast natural areas of exceptional quality that are protected by various nature conservation regimes today. The research presented in this paper is focused on a specific land expropriation. The goal is to understand the historical perspectives and assess the current significance of this fortification system with its impact on the natural environment. The system of spatial assessment of the architectural, urban, regional and spatial planning aspects and landscape interpretation has been developed with the use of spatial planning mapping and other methods. It was tested on the case study of the Žiri Municipality to establish a possible systemic base on which the entirety of the Rapallo border with its defence infrastructures could be mapped and their contemporary role assessed.
Mega-slums are dynamic laboratories for urban pattern making. Instead of surveying about stable urban symbols represented by formal orders and regular geometries, this study explores the semantic ...meaning of informal urbanism associated with chaos or randomness and often ignored by critique and conventions. Slums are forms of 'instant urbanity' that underscore alternative ways of self-organisation, which include bottom-up strategies, autonomous urban dynamics and spatial activation by remaking.
Are slum patterns representing a lack of symbolism or, on contrary, rich, complex, and fluid urban idioms? Urban informality without planning offers immense opportunities to investigate resilient urban forms and languages as complex systems throughout self-ruled structures. Slums are not only the result of urban economic asymmetries and social marginalisation but the elementary construction of survival urbanism, a randomised, agile and transformative pattern system.
Slum making is a form of subsistence urbanity that constructs transitory, elusive or spontaneous geometries. They differ in sizes, magnitudes and geometries regarding cultural, climatic and topographic conditions. Slums are unstable systems in continuous transformation. This essay questions the stigmatisation of informalised urban patterns as 'other' unclassified codes by analysing a selection of twenty mega-slums in the Americas, Africa and Asia regarding semantics, urban and geometrical meanings. Their urban tissues contain various symbols that activate the every-day production of spaces. They can be visible or invisible; passive or active; and formal or informal. A taxonomic tree of slums was developed to compare and map slum regions to describe similarities and differences among the selected case studies. From this analysis, a profound discourse appeared between informal settlements: tissue-patterns at macro level and cell-patterns in micro urbanisation. Does the macro pattern inform the micro, or vice versa?
Lack of financial resources has become one of the main issues in fulfilling social and physical needs in urban development. The declining levels of public resources make the collaboration between ...public and private investors necessary. When facing the challenges of ageing population, shared investment may contribute to the appropriate development of sheltered housing to meet the goals of spatial planning as well as certain standards at the level of urban design. By ensuring appropriate living conditions for all generations such urban PPP projects may contribute to the fulfilment of the public interest. The paper presents practice of PPP implementation in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where local authority with the collaboration of private partners ensured more than 400 sheltered apartments in the last years. Examples show the extension of the idea from the 70s onwards in finding new models of housing for the aging population. The development of new models can be a good example of strengthening the cooperation between public and private partners in the field of urban development practice.
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