Eva Schwab – författare

Spatial Justice and Informal Settlements: Integral Urban Projects in the Comunas of Medellín links the discourses of informal urbanism and spatial justice in the context of public space-based governmental programmes to upgrade informal settlements in Latin America. It argues for the importance of combining measures for equity and empowerment with positive recognition, i.e. recognition which is based on valuing the social and material achievements of the settlers as a contribution to urban life and culture in its own right. It presents an inquiry into how public open spaces serve the goal of increasing spatial justice and the quality of life in informal settlements. It provides an in-depth study of the Integral Urban Project (Proyecto Urbano Integral/PUI in Spanish) in Comuna 13, a low-income settlement in Medellín, Colombia. Drawing on extensive fieldwork to understand people’s everyday spaces and socio-spatial practices, the book assesses the design, production, use, and management of some of the public open spaces established under the PUI programme. It thus also offers an account of the diversity of everyday open spaces and landscapes in this informal settlement. This book is a valuable contribution to the field of open spaces in informal settlements and spatial justice, especially for scholars, researchers, and graduate students with an interest in urban development and upgrading and related socio-spatial issues in Latin America.

What if urban planning and design were to prioritize rather than merely accommodate the unbuilt environment? Territorial Urbanism Now! calls for a paradigm shift in the conception of urban transformation. It urges us to favor sustainable systems in order to collectively tackle the challenges of climate change. Until now, urban planning and design professionals have integrated green and active mobility systems in the residual spaces available. In the reverse approach envisioned here, these systems become structuring elements of the territory, supported by a much more frugal built environment. The contributions by urbanists, artists, architects, and landscape architects in this publication come from research, practice, and teaching. Paola Viganò, Eric Luiten, Sandra Guinand—in conversation with Ali Madanipour, Chris Younès, Christian Schmid, Eric Wieërs, and Maarten Van Acker—Stefan Rettich, Tommaso Pietropolli, Elena Andonova, Julio de la Fuente, Natalia Gutiérrez, Ward Verbakel, Claudia Bode, Philipp Misselwitz, Davide Curatola Soprana, Beatrice Galimberti, Lilli Lička, Hannes Gröblacher, Johannes Bernsteiner, Stefan Devoldere, Anselm Wagner, Susanne Eliasson, Eva Pfannes, Jesse Honsa, and Stefan Bendiks not only introduce a much-needed paradigm shift, but also show us the premises for its realization.

COURAGE: Transformation of Mobility Spaces—Process, Actors and Design explores ways and measures to promote walking and cycling, improve the quality of the urban environment, and introduce greenery into public spaces. As a practical aid for actual implementation projects, it presents not only spatial analyses of the transformation processes, but also visualizations of data on decision-making processes and the involvement of all stakeholders—from policymakers to citizens. A series of essays contextualizes and reflects on current transformation projects.

Urban design today is facing a multitude of challenges. Using 12 key terms, this book connects these challenges to projects in this field. It introduces concepts. presents possible solutions, and describes implementation processes. A special focus is put on the interaction of the built environment with living systems — an approach that is slowly gaining acceptance within the urban design community and that is setting aside a primarily building-oriented practice in favour of an increased appreciation of public space.Basics of Urbanism defines and illustrates parameters with a clearly territorial approach to urban design. Space between buildings is treated as an essential structure for environmental and social change within small-scale neighbourhoods and blocks, as well as at the level districts and even entire cities. This approach includes forward-thinking temporal aspects as well as the implementation of existing resources in the creation of new spatial qualities.Text in English and German.