Titles
A-C
80/20: transdisciplinary design as a means of overcoming res...A Paradigm of Ecological Architecture in Vulnerable Contexts...A Protest Garden: Contested space in an urban park in Seattl...A Question of Character: Instruments for Longevity in Repurp...A Story of a Place, Utilizing Indigenous Building Practices ...Adaptive Resilience at the Architectural Scale. Two Compleme...Adaptive Reuse Scenarios In Industrial Heritage Site: An Inv...An Assessment of Universal Accessibility in Institutions of ...Antagonistic Discourses of the Self-Build Urbanization withi...Architecture and Place: Context Specific Approach to Housing...Architecture of SubtractionAuthentic Edinburgh: Discursive Battles in Tourism ContextAutonomous Dialectics: Mapping Desire and Conflict in the Su...Bamboo: The Past Comes to the FutureBeyond Borders: Addressing Global Urbanization ChallengesBeyond the steel recycling paradigm: a value-network explora...Bio-Based Composites for Regenerative Architecture: Terrene,...Birmingham, Alabama USA and its Struggle to Embrace History ...Bottom-up Participatory Practices for Diversity and Resilien...CENEU Park: a public space for ecological restorationChallenges in Participatory Design Research: Review of Empir...Circularity of Traditional Architecture in Kathkuni Building...Cities Facing the Future: Towards the City we Want. Barcelon...Citizen Controlled Urbanism? Dweller Control and Anarchist U...City Making and the Conflict over Bike LanesClimate Refuge/e: Migrant Histories and Present Environmenta...CoaAst: Engaging Communities in Coastal Kenya through Aural ...Community Design and Self-sufficiency for the Provision of T...Concrete heritage in Grenoble: how to remake the city throug...Contemporary FreejContested Histories: The Civil War, the Civil Rights Movemen...(IN)>Tangible Lab: Embodied ICH and Community Engagement in ...
D-G
Danish by Design: How a Cultural Design Ethos can Shape a Ci...Decoding Urban Stress Mapping Criteria In Urban Heritage Cor...Deconstructing the Unintended Outcomes of Community Developm...Denver as the 'Paris on the Platte': The Fate of a 'City Bea...Designing for Descendant Communities: "Do it for the Culture...Designing for Intersectionality: Eco-Feminism, Environmental...Development and marginality in Sant’Erasmo, Palermo. An an...Development of a New Biodegradable Brick Made from Straw and...Dialectic between Natural and Industrial Sites in Post-Extra...Displacement-Immune: A Nontraditional Approach to Site Resea...Empowering vulnerable citizens through service-learning in t...Enabling Component Re-Use in Digital WorkflowsEngaging Student Voices: A Five Year study of the Higher Edu...Erasure of Urban Detritus: The Eradication of Toronto’s Si...Evaluating Factors That Impact the Robustness of Historic Ur...Evolving Urban Landscapes: The Impact of Immigration on Sout...Exploring Indigenous Knowledge in Toronto, CanadaExploring localized production of biomaterials for extreme e...Firgrove Forever: Supporting Legacy Narratives of a Communit...Fluid Boundaries: A Cultural Exploration of Water in Chicago...FoundersKeepers - material circularity within educational fr...Framework For Formulating Geospatial Conflict Analysis Metri...From Waste to Resource: Exploring Ecological Urbanism Throug...Future of the City Centre in Four ContinentsGraded Durability in Earthen Construction: A Sample-informed...
Presenters
Schedule

IN-PERSON Barcelona. Section A

Urban Futures-Cultural Pasts
Who’s Publicness? The Aesthetic Maintenance Politics of Xinhai Ecological Park in Taiwan
H. Yu
11:00 am - 12:30 pm

Abstract

Ecological parks, as public spaces, not only need to fulfill needs such as leisure, nature appreciation, and urban disaster prevention in their planning and design but also consider the aesthetic aspects of their landscapes. Although aesthetics lack of objective standards for evaluation, given that the planning and use of public spaces involve different stakeholders, the ambiguity of aesthetics can lead to controversial views among different parties, resulting in disputes. This study takes the aesthetic controversy of Xinhai Ecological Park in Taiwan as an example, by interviews and textual analysis, explore how different actors justify their aesthetic positions, analyze the “publicness” each actor trying to protect, and how this controversy reveals the discontinuity between park design and maintenance. The study argues that when the ambiguity of aesthetics enters the discussion of public spaces, different actors can use discourse and mobilization to uphold their aesthetic claims or interests, where seemingly divergent aesthetic positions represent the publicness they advocate for. Local residents legitimize their aesthetic claims through the representation of public opinion, while landscape architects claim to be the “guardians of urban aesthetics,” asserting their discursive power in public space aesthetics. This shows the publicness of public spaces is not self-evident but has multiple dimensions in terms of scale and significance. Lastly, the study suggests viewing parks as ongoing processes, where maintenance and management not only passively maintain the status quo but also have the potential to change the original planning and design. Therefore, efforts should be made in both management and citizen participation to fill the gap between design and maintenance.

Biography

Heng Yu – Born in Taipei, Taiwan. Graduated from Department of Geography at National Taiwan University, currently enrolled in Graduate Institute of Building and Planning at National Taiwan University. Research interests include the creation and maintenance of urban nature. The thesis focuses on the transformation of former refuge facilities in the southeastern outskirts of Taipei into ecological parks.