Elusive happiness: screening France’s new towns after 1968

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Schilling
Keyword(s):  
Town Planning ◽  
Social Experiment ◽  
Double Reading ◽  
New Town ◽  
Town Council ◽  
New Towns ◽  
High Rise ◽  
Architectural Principles ◽  
Planning Discourse

Modern French town planning discourse was predicated on the idea that better architecture made for better, happier citizens, with rational architectural principles as the means to a fully realised modernity. After 1968, French filmmakers looked to the suburban new towns to voice the ambiguities and contradictions of rapid urbanisation. In Le Chat (Granier-Deferre, 1972), an ageing couple enter a downward social and psychological spiral as new high-rise construction menaces their decrepit suburban villa. The rough-and-ready La Ville bidon (Jacques Baratier, 1976) shows the struggle of junkmen and their marginalised families to resist expropriation at the hands of a town council that aims to develop a new town on a massive dumpsite. A spoof of streamlined post-modern living, Le Couple témoin (William Klein, 1978) parodies new town rhetoric under the guise of social experiment. The chapter concludes with a double reading of Eric Rohmer’s Les Nuits de la pleine lune (1984) and L’Ami de mon amie (1987) which by turns laud the new towns for their blend of leisure and work and deride their programmed aspect. Dysphoric and euphoric elements of suburban living are related to class-based investments and to the elusive prospect of happiness.

International Initiatives and Building a Legacy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin E. Larsen
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Community Building ◽  
Town Planning ◽  
World War ◽  
Building Projects ◽  
New Town ◽  
New Towns ◽  
Planning Experts ◽  
Town Building

This chapter considers Clarence Samuel Stein's legacy as a community architect, along with his postwar engagement in international initiatives in town planning. In the years after World War II, Stein found himself turning his attention toward international translations of his new town ideas. Communications with international architects, housers, and planners characterized this period, with a focus on specific projects, such as the new towns of Chandigarh in India and Stevenage in Great Britain, and broader community building concepts with housing and planning experts in places as diverse as Sweden and Israel. This chapter discusses Stein's travels in Europe to new towns as he completed documentation of his own visionary work in what would become Toward New Towns for America. It also describes Stein's involvement in town building projects in India and Israel and concludes with an assessment of his legacy in the areas of investment housing and communitarian regionalism and the influence of his community building concepts ranging from the Regional City to the Radburn Idea.

scholarly journals An analysis of key factors affecting New Town Planning with a human-centred approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (53) ◽  
pp. 131-145
Author(s):  
Maliheh Izadi ◽  
Hamidreza Varesi ◽  
Mehdi Jafari Vardanjani
Keyword(s):  
New Urbanism ◽  
Town Planning ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
New Town ◽  
New Towns ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
Humanistic Approach ◽  
Scientific Technical

Abstract Since new towns are to meet the needs of the metropolitan population, it is required to acquaint the populations with the new scientific-technical methods and take one more step towards civilisation. Given that the New Town seeks to provide the latest facilities for citizens, a human-oriented approach can be proposed. New Urbanism with a humanistic approach requires coherent and dynamic planning. New structures and the various needs of the New Towns require comprehensive and integrated planning to utilise recent facilities to lead New Towns toward a human-centred attitude. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to analyse the key factors affecting the planning of New Towns with a humanistic approach. The method in this research is a descriptive-analytical survey. In the first step of the research, a list of primary factors involved in planning new cities was identified as research variables, using documentary sources and previous research. Then the research variables were analysed based on the Delphi method. Accordingly, 34 variables were provided in five domains for 50 experts in urban planning issues in the form of questionnaires to be analysed in matrices. The findings of the study are demonstrated in five aspects: cultural-social, physical-spatial, economic, environmental, and governance topics, with 34 components. The results show that citizenship rights, social capital, transparency, accountability, law, participation, consensus, quality of performance and managerial effectiveness, efficiency, economic welfare, sustainable active economy, meeting economic needs, quality of texture, and spirituality have the highest impact and the lowest affectedness on the realisation of human-centred New Urbanism. The results can be useful and effective by establishing integrity and fundamental theoretical principles in planning, implementation and strategic control of New Towns.

Patronage of urban commercial clusters: A network-based extension of the Huff model for balancing location and size

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 508-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andres Sevtsuk ◽  
Raul Kalvo
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Configuration ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Spatial Networks ◽  
Urban Network ◽  
Household Level ◽  
New Town ◽  
New Towns ◽  
Public Facilities ◽  
User Access ◽  
Retail Demand

We introduce a version of the Huff retail expenditure model, where retail demand depends on households’ access to retail centers. Household-level survey data suggest that total retail visits in a system of retail centers depends on the relative location pattern of stores and customers. This dependence opens up an important question—could overall visits to retail centers be increased with a more efficient spatial configuration of centers in planned new towns? To answer this question, we implement the model as an Urban Network Analysis tool in Rhinoceros 3D, where facility patronage can be analyzed along spatial networks and apply it in the context of the Punggol New Town in Singapore. Using fixed household locations, we first test how estimated store visits are affected by the assumption of whether shoppers come from homes or visit shops en route to local public transit stations. We then explore how adjusting both the locations and sizes of commercial centers can maximize overall visits, using automated simulations to test a large number of scenarios. The results show that location and size adjustments to already planned retail centers in a town can yield a 10% increase in estimated store visits. The methodology and tools developed for this analysis can be extended to other context for planning and right-sizing retail developments and other public facilities so as to maximize both user access and facilities usage.

scholarly journals Analyzing the Spatiotemporal Uncertainty in Urbanization Predictions

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 512
Author(s):  
Jairo Alejandro Gómez ◽  
ChengHe Guan ◽  
Pratyush Tripathy ◽  
Juan Carlos Duque ◽  
Santiago Passos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Growth ◽  
Geographical Information Systems ◽  
Growth Models ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Public Utility ◽  
Town Planning ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
New Town ◽  
Spatiotemporal Uncertainty

With the availability of computational resources, geographical information systems, and remote sensing data, urban growth modeling has become a viable tool for predicting urbanization of cities and towns, regions, and nations around the world. This information allows policy makers, urban planners, environmental and civil organizations to make investments, design infrastructure, extend public utility networks, plan housing solutions, and mitigate adverse environmental impacts. Despite its importance, urban growth models often discard the spatiotemporal uncertainties in their prediction estimates. In this paper, we analyzed the uncertainty in the urban land predictions by comparing the outcomes of two different growth models, one based on a widely applied cellular automata model known as the SLEUTH CA and the other one based on a previously published machine learning framework. We selected these two models because they are complementary, the first is based on human knowledge and pre-defined and understandable policies while the second is more data-driven and might be less influenced by any a priori knowledge or bias. To test our methodology, we chose the cities of Jiaxing and Lishui in China because they are representative of new town planning policies and have different characteristics in terms of land extension, geographical conditions, growth rates, and economic drivers. We focused on the spatiotemporal uncertainty, understood as the inherent doubt in the predictions of where and when will a piece of land become urban, using the concepts of certainty area in space and certainty area in time. The proposed analyses in this paper aim to contribute to better urban planning exercises, and they can be extended to other cities worldwide.

scholarly journals New Towns Development: A Wave of the Future Planning Practices in Nepal

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 139-152
Author(s):  
Kedar Dahal ◽  
Krishna Prasad Timalsina
Keyword(s):  
Urban Development ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
Action Plans ◽  
City Development ◽  
New Town ◽  
New Towns ◽  
Town Development

 Increasing urbanization has been a major challenge to tackle issues relating to population growth, housing, infrastructure development and urban management in Nepal. Initiatives have been taking by the stakeholders of urban sectors in different course of action plans. New town development, smart city development, preparation and implementation of various strategic plans and action plans are some of the initiatives undertaken by the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of Nepal. At present, the Ministry of Urban Development is preparing intervening plans and programmes to 40 towns for planned urban development in Nepal. Some of these towns are already in pace of development and some others are in infancy stages. Balance urban development strategy so far is a strategy of government of Nepal however theory of political economy of development is inherently coming in selection of the towns, and basically in implementing the plans. Therefore, most of the prepared action plans are in question of effective implementation. Among the prioritized new towns of Nepal, some of these towns particularly smart cities are in very infancy stages of infrastructure development in which ‘smartness’ itself falls into huge dilemma. Therefore, more challenges are added in implementing the smart cities into action plan. However, new towns of Hilly and Tarai-Madhesh area will definitely provide the opportunities to cater population and create more opportunities. In this context, this study focus on the new town development and their spatial distribution in Nepal through the collection of primary information and review of previous literature.

scholarly journals Analysis success factors of the new cities establishment (case study: Pardisan town)

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (04) ◽  
pp. 1231-1242
Author(s):  
Narjes Ghaempanah ◽  
Mohammad-Taghi Rahnamaei
Keyword(s):  
Research Method ◽  
Field Data ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Urban District ◽  
New Town ◽  
New Towns ◽  
The Town ◽  
Topsis Model

New towns and cities are proposed as the places for absorbing the population overflow and limiting the population growth in metropolises. In Iran, these towns and cities are built very close to the metropolises, and gradually, they are being used only as dormitories. The new town of Pardisan is built 13 kilometers southwest of Qom as the largest new town of the urban district of Qom in order to organize the residence system and absorb the population overflow of the metropolis of Qom and reduce its problems. This paper studies the function of the Pardisan new town as the absorber of the population overflow of Qom and also the residents’ satisfaction with this town. The research method adopted by this study is based on the library, documentary, and field data, and also interviews and collection of data by questionnaires and TOPSIS model. The results of this research indicate that many of the families living in the Pardisan town constitute the population overflow of the metropolis of Qom; Among the most important reasons for the migration of families to the Pardisan town is the low cost of land and residence, and 4.67 percent of the residents do not like to live in this town. This unsuccess is mostly due to lack of job and activity in this town, and therefore, the residents are less satisfied with the town.

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