The role of user preferences in urban acupuncture: Reimagining leftover spaces in Tehran, Iran (2024)

Urban Acupuncture in Large Cities: Filtering Framework to Select Sensitive Urban Spots in Riyadh for Effective Urban Renewal

Journal of Contemporary Urban Affairs, 2021

New revitalization and regeneration strategies are currently taking place as a scheme for reassessing urban spaces. This paper, as a result, navigates the theory of Urban Acupuncture (UA) as a quick and effective tool that can be adopted in large cities. Using Riyadh city as a case study, it discusses how this tool can be used to achieve maximum results with minimal effort in the most critical places. Riyadh city is the capital of Saudi Arabia and is considered as one of the fastest-growing metropolitan cities in the Arab world. Through time, it has transformed into a city with leftover open spaces and an ever-increasing population. The study commences by exploring the term UA and its principles and similarly presents some of its successful international examples. It thereafter delves on the past and current situation in the city to show some of the challenges it faces. The study aims to develop a filtering framework for selecting a suitable sensitive spot that can be used to apply the concept of UA. A conclusion is made that as a small-scale space approach and a progressive concentrated urban renewal strategy.

Urban Acupuncture as a Method of Open Space Regeneration in Greek Ex-Refugee Areas. The Case of Nikea, Piraeus

Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering

The paper explores the potential of implementing the principles of urban acupuncture in a selected Greek case study, taking into account international experience in the field. The research includes literature review and field work. The area of study is Nikea, an ex-refugee urban area in the Attica metropolitan region. It was founded during the 1930s to host refugees from Asia Minor. The initial Hippodamian grid offers beneficial intermediate communal spaces inside each city block and there are also larger green spaces in proximity. However, the area suffers from urban blight owed largely to the poor quality of preservation of the old refugee housing estates. A mixture of factors contributes to the complex contemporary situation characterized by opportunities and challenges. On the one hand, there is great potential for regenerating the existing intermediate communal spaces and on the other decaying refugee houses and vulnerable households intricate the already convoluted situation....

Public Space as an Urban Acupuncture: Learning From Bandung, Indonesia

JOURNAL OF APPLIED SCIENCE (JAPPS)

Bandung is the capital city of West Java, Indonesia. Since colonial era, Bandung has been designed by Dutch colonizer as tuinstad (garden city) to increase quality of life in this city. It is shown by at least five city garden and several plein (square) built from 1885 to 1925. After colony era, Bandung had been developed, it was also affecting the condition of city garden and squares. It became fenced city parks and squares because of maintenance issue and misconception by local municipality. After decades of degradation of parks and squares, in 2013 new mayor of Bandung Ridwan Kamil, has a vision to bring back again the glory of parks. He believes by revitalizing the parks will increase the quality of life in Bandung and also index of happiness. The parks and squares revitalized by giving specific theme, for example: Superhero Park, Photography Park, Pet Park and so forth. The idea is to attract more people come to park. It is also targeted specific community according to the them...

Urban acupuncture as a tool for today’s re-naturalization of the city: The non-constructible parcels of municipal Beirut through the case study of Saifi district

Architectural Research Addressing Societal Challenges, 2016

As cities struggle to adapt to the changes in society, culture, technology and the economy, new types of urbanism intriguingly manifest themselves as necessary tools for its re-naturalization. Today’s understanding of re-naturalization has shifted from the traditional focus on squares, parks and pavements to a broader concept that recognizes the value of less formal leftover spaces and the daily interactions that occur in them. It is through this manifestation and the emergence of a more dynamic, flexible or adaptive urbanism, that the city could become more responsive to new needs, demands and the preferences of its users. Within the context of a growing urbanization on a territory that can no longer accommodate such growth, and the lack in open and public spaces to respond to users’ needs, Beirut finds within its realm an urban resource that can no longer be ignored. This paper is an inquiry into the role of leftover space and more specifically non-constructible spaces, regarding their values and potentialities for the re-naturalization of the city, based on their contribution to the public realm. At present, Municipal Beirut holds within its urban fabric a high number of residual or leftover spaces that are labeled as non-constructible and the potential of these unexploited urban land resources, resulting mainly of gaps in the laws and regulation system as well as a political and social laissez-faire by the authorities, is yet to be explored. This paper builds on a review of approaches towards the concept of appropriation of urban space and leftover spaces in particular, focusing on re-naturalization as a specific mode of space transformation. By examining the specificities of leftover spaces and the role they could play in relation to urban strategies for small and dense cities such as Municipal Beirut, this paper will attempt to examine the impact of these urban transformations on cities’ urban fabric and the sustainable revitalization this form of urban acupuncture might have on society. Throughout this paper, the re-naturalization process in the form of urban acupuncture, using leftover spaces as a support, will be defined. The identification of the components necessary for activating such residual spaces, the drivers behind the implementation of re-naturalization programs, the redefinition of regulatory and legislative mechanisms as well as the actors that play a role in managing and implementing these programs will be overviewed and defined. Final recommendations proposed regarding urban strategies, operations, tools and re-naturalization programs in relation to non-constructible parcels will be laid out.

Urban acupuncture

From the Guest Editors: Urban Acupuncture

Journal of Urban Technology, 2015

Defining urban acupuncture as an alternative strategy to cure the city problems of Indonesia

Urban acupuncture, an approach to cure the accute problem of the citysuch problems by applying the principles of the traditional Chinese medical treatment called acupuncture is now applied in many big cities such as Curitiba, the capital of Brazilian state of Paraná. This strategy views cities as living, breathing organisms and pinpoints areas in need of repair. The treatment is conducted by revitalizing some small strategic aspects of the problem which could finally trigger other aspects to make good improvement. Public open space is one of the strategic aspects that affect the quality of the city. Through comparative study on the application of urban acupuncture in four successful public open space in the world, this paper attempts to study the strength and weaknesses of the approach and the possibility to be applied in Indonesia.

Urban eco-acupuncture methods: case study in the city of Athens

Proceedings of the International Conference on Changing Cities II: Spatial, Design, Landscape & Socio-economic Dimensions. Porto Heli, Peloponnese, Greece, June 22 - 26, 2015 , 2015

The urban acupuncture theory is related to the creation of small-scale neuralgic interventions in the city that can have a direct impact on the urban morphology and life. Citizen's desires are taken into account in a situational and cultural context that focus on the social cohesion of the urban environment ; via the implementation of sustainable key points in the city, a network of interventions is established that would function as cores of potential energy healing the area. After a brief presentation of the points of the urban acupuncture approach, the second part focuses on the city of Athens as a model for the implementation of three proposed case studies of this theory. The three small-scale interventions aim at the social enhancement, environmental upgrade and creation of functional public spaces, via the activation of missing links in a dense and decaying urban tissue.

Urban Acupuncture: Hybrid Social and Technological Practices for Hyperlocal Placemaking

Journal of Urban Technology, 2015

Urban Blue Acupuncture: An Experiment on Preferences for Design Options Using Virtual Models

Sustainability, 2020