Reconnecting The City

Historic Urban Landscape is a new approach to urban heritage management, promoted by UNESCO, and currently one of the most debated issues in the international preservation community. However, few conservation practitioners have a clear understanding of what it entails, and more importantly, what it can achieve. Examples drawn from urban heritage sites worldwide – from Timbuktu to Liverpool Richly illustrated with colour photographs Addresses key issues and best practice for urban conservation

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Amidst city concrete and suburban sprawl, Americans are discovering new ways to reconnect with the natural world. From community gardens in New York's Lower East Side to homeless shelters in California, the search for a more sustainable future has led grassroots groups to a profound reconnection to place and to the natural world. Studies of the health consequences of renewing a connection with nature support the urgency of providing green surroundings as cities expand and the majority of the earth's population lives in urban areas. Medical research results, from groups as diverse as healthy volunteers, surgery patients, and heart attack survivors, suggest that contact with nature may improve health and well-being. Engagement with nearby natural places also provides restoration from mental fatigue and support for more resilient and cooperative behavior. Aspects of stronger community life are fostered by access to nature, suggesting that there are significant social as well as physical and psychological benefits from connection with the natural world. This volume brings together research from anthropology, sociology, public health, psychology, and landscape architecture to highlight how awareness of locale and a meaningful renewal of attachment with the earth are connected to delight in learning about nature as well as to civic action and new forms of community. Community garden coalitions, organic market advocates, and greenspace preservationists resist the power of global forces, enacting visions of a different future. Their creative efforts tell a story of a constructive and dynamic middle ground between private plots and public action, between human health and ecosystem health, between individual attachment and urban sustainability.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of the intellectual developments in urban conservation. The authors offer unique insights from UNESCO's World Heritage Centre and the book is richly illustrated with colour photographs. Examples are drawn from urban heritage sites worldwide from Timbuktu to Liverpool to demonstrate key issues and best practice in urban conservation today. The book offers an invaluable resource for architects, planners, surveyors and engineers worldwide working in heritage conservation, as well as for local authority conservation officers and managers of heritage sites.

This volume focuses on the implementation of the 2011 UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL approach), designed to foster the integration of heritage management in regional and urban planning and management, and strengthen the role of heritage in sustainable urban development.Earlier publications and research looked at the underlying theory of why the HUL approach was needed and how this theory was developed and elaborated by UNESCO. A comprehensive analysis was carried out in consultation with a multitude of actors in the twenty-first-century urban scene and with disciplinary approaches that are available to heritage managers and practitioners to implement the HUL approach.This volume aims to be empirical, describing, analyzing, and comparing 28 cities taken as case studies to implement the HUL approach. From those cases, many lessons can be learned and much guidance shared on best practices concerning what can be done to make the HUL approach work.Whereas the previous studies served to illustrate issues and challenges, in this volume the studies point to innovations in regional and urban planning and management that can allow cities to avoid major conflicts and to further develop in competitiveness. These accomplishments have been possible by building partnerships, devising financial strategies, and using heritage as a key resource in sustainable urban development, to name but a few effective strategies.For these reasons, this volume is primarily pragmatic, linked to the daily work and challenges of practitioners and administrators, using specific cases to assess what was and is good about current practices and what can be improved, in accordance with the HUL approach and aims.

Imagine waking up to the gentle noises of the city, and moving through your day with complete confidence that you will get where you need to go quickly and efficiently. Soft City is about ease and comfort, where density has a human dimension, adapting to our ever-changing needs, nurturing relationships, and accommodating the pleasures of everyday life. How do we move from the current reality in most cites—separated uses and lengthy commutes in single-occupancy vehicles that drain human, environmental, and community resources—to support a soft city approach? In Soft City David Sim, partner and creative director at Gehl, shows how this is possible, presenting ideas and graphic examples from around the globe. He draws from his vast design experience to make a case for a dense and diverse built environment at a human scale, which he presents through a series of observations of older and newer places, and a range of simple built phenomena, some traditional and some totally new inventions. Sim shows that increasing density is not enough. The soft city must consider the organization and layout of the built environment for more fluid movement and comfort, a diversity of building types, and thoughtful design to ensure a sustainable urban environment and society. Soft City begins with the big ideas of happiness and quality of life, and then shows how they are tied to the way we live. The heart of the book is highly visual and shows the building blocks for neighborhoods: building types and their organization and orientation; how we can get along as we get around a city; and living with the weather. As every citizen deals with the reality of a changing climate, Soft City explores how the built environment can adapt and respond. Soft City offers inspiration, ideas, and guidance for anyone interested in city building. Sim shows how to make any city more efficient, more livable, and better connected to the environment.

Reconnecting the Church is offered as a practical guide to assist pastors and laypeople in understanding the city, engaging, and serving the local community in which the church is located. The book’s purpose is to come along side the local church that wishes to reconnect to its local community, and offer practical ways to accomplish that task. There are 25 chapters each of which describes briefly an aspect of life in the city. At the end of each chapter are practical action/reflection projects. These projects are designed to give the reader first-hand experience of their church’s immediate neighborhood. They are specific tasks, most of which will be done outside the church. Each action is described, and guidance is given for reflection after each project.