Future Shift for ‘Big Things’: From Starchitecture via Agritecture to Parkitecture

This article analyses three recent shifts in what called the geography of ‘Big Things’, meaning the contemporary functions and adaptability of modern city centre architecture. We periodise the three styles conventionally into the fashionable ‘Starchitecture’ of the 1990s, the repurposed ‘Agritecture’ of the 2000s and the parodising ‘Parkitecture’ of the 2010s. Starchitecture was the form of new architecture coinciding with the rise of neo-liberalism in its brief era of global urban competitiveness prevalent in the 1990s. After the Great Financial Crash of 2007–2008, the market for high-rise emblems of iconic, thrusting, skyscrapers and giant downtown and suburban shopping malls waned and online shopping and working from home destroyed the main rental values of the CBD. In some illustrious cases, ‘Agritecture’ caused re-purposed office blocks and other CBD accompaniments to be re-purposed as settings for high-rise urban farming, especially aquaponics and hydroponic horticulture. Now, COVID-19 has further undermined traditional CBD property markets, causing some administrations to decide to bulldoze their ‘deadmalls’ and replace them with urban prairie landscapes, inviting the designation ‘Parkitecture’ for the bucolic results. This paper presents an account of these transitions with reference to questions raised by urban cultural scholars such as Jane M. Jacobs and Jean Gottmann to figure out answers in time and space to questions their work poses.

Urban Competitiveness in Developing Economies

Las ciudades del mundo en desarrollo tienen diferentes niveles de competitividad y sostenibilidad a pesar de estar clasificadas en la misma categoría. Cada uno de ellos tiene antecedentes históricos, composición social, situación económica y política, herencia cultural y características geográficas diversas que han definido su lugar en el mundo global. Por esta variedad, así como por necesidades, problemas y desafíos relacionados con el desarrollo urbano, las ciudades han tenido resultados contrastantes: innovación y progreso para alguna de ellas, crisis o estancamiento para algunas otras y retroceso en otras.

Assessment of Social Environment Competitiveness in Terms of Security in the Baltic Capitals

Personal security is one of the many factors that must be assessed comprehensively when planning an urban competitiveness strategy. The aim of this article is to assess the competitive position of the social environment of cities in terms of security with regard to time and other competing cities. Having conducted a systemic and comparative analysis of the concepts published in the scientific literature, we analysed the concepts of sustainable cities and the social environment, reviewed the particularities of urban competitiveness, conducted research into the methods of assessing urban competitiveness, and presented an integrated assessment model (MDK) of social environment competitiveness in terms of security in the Baltic capitals. The following research methodology was used: systemic and comparative analysis of concepts and methods published in the scientific literature, statistical processing and multicriteria assessment methods. The results of the study can be used as a tool to determine the competitive position of a city in terms of time and other competing cities, a tool to identify factors that strengthen or weaken the sustainable competitiveness of cities, a tool to justify strategic decisions of cities, and a tool to determine the effectiveness of the strategic decisions taken.

An Integrated Competitiveness Assessment of the Baltic Capitals Based on the Principles of Sustainable Development

The competition between cities involves the search for different ways and means to create, attract, sustain, and use diverse resources, knowledge, ideas, and innovations to support the economic growth of each individual city and, as a result, to strengthen the city’s position in the urban hierarchy both short-term and long-term. However, for each city, urbanisation does not only mean an increase in competitive economic power but also a number of problems such as pollution, poverty, crime and unemployment. In order to address the challenges posed by the urbanisation processes, the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) issued the 1987 Report that emphasised the need for sustainable socio-economic development that would also consider ecological factors. Given this, the article examines the issue of urban competitiveness on the basis of sustainable development principles. After a systematic and comparative analysis of the concepts published in the scientific literature, this article accomplishes the following: It defines the concept of competitiveness in urban areas; it identifies the inclusion aspects of the sustainable development principles into the assessment of urban competitiveness; it presents the research into urban competitiveness assessment models; and it carries out an integrated competitiveness assessment of the Baltic capitals in the period of 2014–2019 based on the principles of sustainable development by applying the integrated competitiveness assessment model that is based on the principles of sustainable development (MDK).

High-Quality Economic Development in Huaihe Economic Zone Level Measurement and Evaluation

This article constructs a comprehensive evaluation index system from four aspects: economic vitality, innovation efficiency, green development, and people’s lives. Use the entropy method to comprehensively measure the urban competitiveness level of 25 counties and cities in the economic zone, clarify the differences in their high-quality development levels, and use spatial econometric analysis methods to study the spatial agglomeration and dispersion and spatial convergence of regional urban competitiveness. The results show that the following: (1) the overall high-quality development level of the Huaihe River Eco-Economic Zone is not high, and the overall time and space characteristics is “high in the east and low in the west”; (2) there is a positive spatial autonomy in urban competitiveness and the spatial distribution of the Huaihe River, and relevantly, the degree of closeness of spatial associations between cities is generally low; (3) the gap between the level of urban competitiveness in Jiangsu Province is shrinking, the development of other provinces has a time lag effect, and there are differences in the level of urban competitiveness. Finally, to promote the high-quality development of the Huaihe Economic Zone, we must follow the law of the basin and the characteristics of spatial distribution and implement targeted strategies.