Opening the frontier closed area: a mutual benefit zone

The New Urban Question: Urbanism beyond Neo-liberalism - the 4th Conference of the International Forum on Urbanism (IFoU), Zuiderkerk, Amsterdam and Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), The Netherlands, 26-28 November 2009Opening the Frontier Closed Area is an on-going research and speculative project that critically addresses the future development of the Frontier Closed Area – a borderland buffer zone that was established in 1951 to control illegal migration and black-market trade from mainland China. Over time the Closed Area has evolved its own specific ecosystem becoming an anomaly in one of the most densely inhabited and fastest growing urban regions. It is a zone of immense potentials and contradictions: a radical separation between ideologies, economic and political systems, and social and cultural mores. It is a horizon of dreams and desires and a site of intense exchange. The paper will explore the regional context and massive urbanisation processes that have occurred in the Pearl River Delta over the last thirty years and present a proposition for the Closed Area that uses the Zone’s special status to create an urban strategy that is mutually beneficial to both sides of the border.published_or_final_versio

Cultural planning university towns : an emerging pattern language in China

2013-2014 > Academic research: refereed > Refereed conference paperVersion of RecordPublishe

Digital ethnography for social design: Challenges and opportunities in the pandemic

The restrictions on mobility and several social distancing rules during the Pandemic have ruled out the possibility of carrying out traditional ethnographic research. This paper discusses various opportunities that the digital medium has to offer in terms of redefining and constructing a social space within an ethnographic field, establishing a connection and trust with the participants and the ethical considerations. This paper also seeks to discuss the challenges faced and highlights the limitations of the digital medium while conducting ethnographic research with socially marginalised group of women during Covid-19 Pandemic. The paper is based on the analysis of the experiences of conducting ethnographic research with marginalized communities and on the expertise of other digital anthropologists to understand and highlight the changing role of ethnographic research in the time of a Pandemic

Aquatic Urbanisms: Water as Planning and Territorial Instrument Considering The 9 Dash Line Policy

The notion of territoriality, territory and terrain are all derivatives of ‘terra’ or ‘earth.’ As discourse, ‘territory’ has remained largely land centred for its terminologies, means of representation or in its application within urbanization. Water, conversely, is often considered as a resource or as a specific morphological characteristic but rarely as a key object of discourse. China’s claim within the South China Sea and the subsequent creation of newly formed ‘island outposts’, has brought to light the political welding that water holds, as both territorial claim and negotiating instrument. Particularly significant in the context of increasing pressures on development in this urban age. This paper examines how the substitution of ‘terra derived’ concepts with that of ‘hydro’ driven concepts, impact the domains of territoriality in planning and urbanism. Focus is placed on speculative projections of design work that highlights one possible method of reconfiguring the territoriality of the South China Sea. Consequentially this work questions the assumptions and spatial ideologies in the ‘nine-dash line’ policy

Aquatic Urbanisms: Water as Planning and Territorial Instrument Considering The 9 Dash Line Policy

The notion of territoriality, territory and terrain are all derivatives of ‘terra’ or ‘earth.’ As discourse, ‘territory’ has remained largely land centred for its terminologies, means of representation or in its application within urbanization. Water, conversely, is often considered as a resource or as a specific morphological characteristic but rarely as a key object of discourse. China’s claim within the South China Sea and the subsequent creation of newly formed ‘island outposts’, has brought to light the political welding that water holds, as both territorial claim and negotiating instrument. Particularly significant in the context of increasing pressures on development in this urban age.This paper examines how the substitution of ‘terra derived’ concepts with that of ‘hydro’ driven concepts, impact the domains of territoriality in planning and urbanism. Focus is placed on speculative projections of design work that highlights one possible method of reconfiguring the territoriality of the South China Sea. Consequentially this work questions the assumptions and spatial ideologies in the ‘nine-dash line’ policy

Economies of entrepreneurialism and political agency: Urban informality as a design paradigm for resilient future cities

Today, the world faces a multitude of complex societal issues, that need urgent attention for enhanced quality of life and resilient futures. With the help of a study on the daily mobilities of urban marginalised women (UMW) supported by state-of-the-art literature, this paper presents insights into the aspects of urban informality that can inform the design and planning of future cities capable of surviving the situations of crises. By adopting a combination of new technologies along with mobile methods and ethnography, this research centres around the everyday travel experiences of the urban marginalized women from the peri-urban areas of New Delhi who contest their right to access stationery and mobile public spaces. Following the elements of qualitative research, this study examines the socio-spatial environment comprising the daily mobilities of UMW to reveal certain conditions of informality that enable their access and participation in socio-economic activities. In doing so, the paper highlights the significance of various infrastructures emerging from the social conditions of doing things together (social interdependence), belonging to a community and the aspects of self-organisation that are crucial for the sustained functioning of cities. Moreover, it presents a perspective for designers to identify and embrace temporary ways of existing and operating towards resilient cities of the future. With the help of the findings from this study, this paper presents urban informality as a design paradigm for various systems and services of future resilient cities that are more equitable and inclusive, and at the same time adapt to the dynamic uncertain situations of crises by being flexible, adaptable and leaving spaces for the emergence of bottom-up citizen-led initiatives

The pedagogies of morphology and gamification : linking gamification with spatial concepts

Configurative and morphological studies harness indicators to support conceptual and spatial frameworks specific to formal models of cities. However, the presence of new indicators, the scale of territories, and morphological methods are not only revising the praxis of configurative approaches; they collectively impact how and in what way the knowledge transfer occurs within educational settings. This paper explains how the contextual setting of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) as an urban agglomeration (UA) shifts the morphological framework in both its analytic tools and in its design premise. The paper covers the crossover to gamification (gameboarding) as a 'design and test' methodology providing a step-by-step account of rapid and succinct gameboarding phases for morphological studies. With close to 17 speculative models and three years of a collaborative studio, conclusions are drawn on the value of hybridizing morphological education with gamification, challenging uniform planning practices for future development within complex ecosystems

Participatory Design: Re-evaluation as a Socio-material Assembly

School of Design2016-2017 > Academic research: refereed > Refereed conference paperbcw