The digital transformation is accompanied by two simultaneous processes: digital humanities challenging the humanities, their theories, methodologies and disciplinary identities, and pushing computer science to get involved in new fields. But how can qualitative and quantitative methods be usefully combined in one research project? What are the theoretical and methodological principles across all disciplinary digital approaches? This volume focusses on driving innovation and conceptualising the humanities in the 21st century. Building on the results of 10 research projects, it serves as a useful tool for designing cutting-edge research that goes beyond conventional strategies.@en

In the spring of 2021, professors and teachers from around the world taught studio courses and seminars that focused on the destruction and rebuilding of Beirut following the massive explosion that took place in the port on August 4, 2020. Some of these courses were taught collaboratively, others started as an independent project, but students and faculty attended each other’s presentations. Each studio was largely taught online due to the coronavirus crisis, which allowed for easier exchange among the groups. But it also prevented the studios from traveling to the field and closely surveying it. Faculty and students relied on presentations and input by colleagues from Beirut, material that could be found online, and documents that were available, mainly in English/French, which to a certain extent limited perspectives. Mutual interest in one another’s work led to some intriguing observations, including about pedagogical approaches and conceptual foundations. Each studio focused on specific premises, as the teachers chose diverse analytical viewpoints to address the rebuilding. At Delft University of Technology, teachers emphasized Beirut’s status as a port city and on the sea-land continuum as the analytical starting point for the design, and they collaborated with Yale University’s Alan Plattus ran a parallel seminar on the history of port cities. At the American University of Beirut (AUB), the instructors focused on the role of visionary planning for post-disaster rebuilding. In the University of Miami, neighborhood-level interventions inspired the teaching in Jean-François Lejeune upper-level spring studio. Similarly, in the German University in Cairo, Holger Gladys’s design studio focused on interventions at the neighborhood-level, namely the Karantina neighborhood, and its up-scalability to city and regional scales. At Tsinghua University, the design studio of Jian Liu and Yang Tang explored the multiple possibilities of rebuilding Beirut’s port and regenerating the city of Beirut on different scales by way of comprehensive urban design.

The different interventions proposed by the teachers and the different course assignments shaped the students’ analytical viewpoints and designs. Students took different positions and pursued different objectives. Conceptual differences and approaches to research seem to have mattered as much as the location of the studio, notably the proximity to or distance from Beirut. Teachers were inspired by their local school’s philosophy and research approaches. They also were guided by their personal connection to the disaster. The Beirut-based studio focused more on theoretical approaches and abstract implications, possibly an attempt to achieve some distance between the events and the planning. Yet the Beirut-based participants also showed a strong desire to add a memorial component to the design. So, while at first glance it may seem that the Beirut team wanted to keep distance from the disaster, the design response showed extensive knowledge and understanding of the local needs and conditions. Meanwhile the participants in other locations focused on aspects that spoke more strongly to international concerns; however, many of the teams also included teachers and students with advanced knowledge of Lebanon and Beirut, and they brought that expertise to the design.

The organization of the studios, the knowledge of teachers, and the production by students are explored in greater detail in this publication, raising a number of questions for further exploration. What this semester seems to have shown us is that both the form and approach to research and the set-up of teaching design studios have a strong impact on the outcomes, thus, there is a clear relationship between research and design. An explicit understanding of this relationship could help us rethink and refine studio teaching. Educational pedagogies in many fields have been carefully explored and studied; design education is a field that merits further exploration. This book aims to add to the theme of design education by presenting and collaboratively analyzing the six studios that focused on the rebuilding of the port city of Beirut following the 2020 disaster in terms of approach, methodology, teaching format, pedagogy, and more. While exploring the pedagogical aspects of these studios, the publication also considers the unique conditions of Beirut and Lebanon and the international exchange of architectural and planning ideas, including at a time of crisis.

To share the insights gained through our courses, this book is structured in three parts. The first part addresses educational approaches through the lens of teaching about time and concepts. It argues that an understanding of long-term development is relevant for informed future planning. It also argues that we need to understand the conceptual framework that we employ for research and teaching. The second part presents the case of Beirut and explores the syllabi, assignments, and projects developed in all of the participating institutions. The third part engages in a conversation with Beirut-based scholar and educator, Mona Harb, to provide a retrospective reflection on the international collaborations among studios and the lessons which could be learned from it.@en

This booklet contains the inaugural lectures of Fritz Schumacher and Heinrich Tessenow given on the occasion of their appointment respectively as professors at the Technical University in Dresden and The Art Academy in Dresden. The lectures provide novel insights into their understanding of architecture and into their proposals for reform of architectural education. they are proceeded by an introductory essay of the guest editor architectural historian Hartmut Frank.@en

Oil Spaces traces petroleum’s impact through a range of territories from across the world, showing how industrially drilled petroleum and its refined products have played a major role in transforming the built environment in ways that are often not visible or recognized. Over the past century and a half, industrially drilled petroleum has powered factories, built cities, and sustained nation-states. It has fueled ways of life and visions of progress, modernity, and disaster.

In detailed international case studies, the contributors consider petroleum’s role in the built environment and the imagination. They study how petroleum and its infrastructure have served as a source of military conflict and political and economic power, inspiring efforts to create territories and reshape geographies and national boundaries. The authors trace ruptures and continuities between colonial and postcolonial frameworks, in locations as diverse as Sumatra, northeast China, Brazil, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Kuwait as well as heritage sites including former power stations in Italy and the port of Dunkirk, once a prime gateway through which petroleum entered Europe.

By revealing petroleum’s role in organizing and imagining space globally, this book takes up a key task in imagining the possibilities of a post-oil future. It will be invaluable reading to scholars and students of architectural and urban history, planning, and geography of sustainable urban environments.@en

Heritage—natural and cultural, material and immaterial—plays a key role in the development of sustainable cities and communities. Goal 11, target 4, of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasizes the relation between heritage and sustainability. The International LDE Heritage conference on Heritage and Sustainable Development Goals, which took place from 26 to 28 November 2019 at TU Delft in the Netherlands, examined the theories, methodologies, and practices of heritage and SDGs. It asked: How is heritage produced and defined? By whom and in what contexts? What are the conceptions of sustainability, and in what ways are these situational and contextual? How can theoretical findings on heritage and SDGs engage with heritage practice?@en

The book tells the story of the sea-land continuum based on the case of the North Sea — one of the world’s most industrialised seas, in which the Netherlands plays a central role. The space of the North Sea is almost fully planned and has been loaded with the task of increased economic production from new and traditional maritime sectors. At the same time, it has been emptied of cultural signi ficance. Through diverse projects from academia, art, literature, and practice, from analysis to design, the book explores synergies for designing this new spatial realm. Port city expert Carola Hein, professor of the history of architecture & urban planning at Delft University of Technology, and Nancy Couling, associate professor at the Bergen School of Architecture and researcher of the urbanised sea, combine forces with interdisciplinary experts to guide the reader through this complex and fascinating topic. @en

Throughout his career, Herman van Bergeijk built his own unique expertise on the Dutch 19th and early 20th century architectural history. He has become an inspiration for scholars in the Netherlands, Europe and beyond. The extraordinary response of colleagues when asked to contribute a chapter in this Festschrift stands as an example of Herman’s widespread influence. Invitations for keynotes and lectures or courses keep reaching him, and he will continue to teach and write. He has an open invitation to teach in China and still bubbles with ideas for yet another new publication series or journal. Several PhD students continue to rely on his guidance and will keep him engaged at the faculty. Herman thrives on lively discussions, in which he often plays devil’s advocate and tries to be as contrary as possible. I am convinced that we will continue to collaborate and battle on diverse topics, notably the role of history in the design of future architecture. Retirement is just another step in Herman’s career.@en

This volume is the editorial product of the project “Gentrification and Crime. New Configurations and Challenges for the City” started by a public conference held on May 6, 2019 at the Municipal Historical Archive of Palermo. This event was organized by Locus and endorsed by private and public bodies. During the conference, four presentations were given by distinguished academics of main fields investigated: Giovanni Semi, Marco Picone, Adam Asmundo, Antonio La Spina. Journalist Elvira Terranova moderated the event. This publication was born from the desire to investigate gentrification and crime through a multidisciplinary approach. It draws inspiration from the urban sociologist Henri Lefebvre and his fundamental work The Production of Space on how the subject in its corporeality and in its interactions with the other integrates and produces spaces. The people involved in the project stem from different fields: geographers, urban sociologists and criminologists, architects and urban planners, historians, and other representatives of civil society. That being said, given this project’s cross-disciplinary nature, contributors are given some creative freedom to flesh-out their own conceptualizations. As such, it is appropriate to cultivate an understanding of the intellectual framework and foundation underpinning this work.@en

This Open Access book, building on research initiated by scholars from the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for Global Heritage and Development (CHGD) and ICOMOS Netherlands, presents multidisciplinary research that connects water to heritage. Through twenty-one chapters it explores landscapes, cities, engineering structures and buildings from around the world. It describes how people have actively shaped the course, form and function of water for human settlement and the development of civilizations, establishing socio-economic structures, policies and cultures; a rich world of narratives, laws and practices; and an extensive network of infrastructure, buildings and urban form.

The book is organized in five thematic sections that link practices of the past to the design of the present and visions of the future: part I discusses drinking water management; part II addresses water use in agriculture; part III explores water management for land reclamation and defense; part IV examines river and coastal planning; and part V focuses on port cities and waterfront regeneration.

Today, the many complex systems of the past are necessarily the basis for new systems that both preserve the past and manage water today: policy makers and designers can work together to recognize and build on the traditional knowledge and skills that old structure embody. This book argues that there is a need for a common agenda and an integrated policy that addresses the preservation, transformation and adaptive reuse of historic water-related structures. Throughout, it imagines how such efforts will help us develop sustainable futures for cities, landscapes and bodies of water.@en

Port city regions are complex territories where multiscalar markets and globalizing value chains overlap with urban and rural needs and interests. At times and in places where all these interests are aligned, port city regions emerge as strong economic, political and cultural centers that facilitate trade and travel. The ongoing fragmentation and transformation of port territories, governance systems and flexible coalitions of actors in different power positions, influences localities within cities and beyond. Port expansion, river dredging, but also different types of waterfront renewal depend on complex governance systems involving a diverse group of stakeholders. Contrasting visions among the various stakeholders in port city regions require careful assessment and new solutions to overcome barriers and to align the goals of all partners. This is particularly important at the current time when multiple transitions - social, technical, energy - are in play. This special issue calls for papers that take a holistic approach and help identify and analyze port-city-region themes such as a governance from an multi-disciplinary perspective.@en

Editor-in-Chief Cultural heritage is considered as a set of practices able to produce economic and social changes within cities rather than a static repository of listed objects to be preserved. Through a series of call for papers and thematic sections, the journal provides a space of reflection on the ideas, the technologies, the actors and the practices that continuously produce and re-negotiate cultural heritage as a common good - a space for democracy, participation and citizenship.@en

The Studies in International Planning History series brings back to print influential texts from around the world about the study and practice of city and regional planning. The series was initiated by editor Helen Meller and started at publisher Routledge, now continuing by Carola Hein at TU Delft Open. The aim of the series is to make material that is now difficult or impossible to obtain more widely available for the study of the internationalisation of planning ideas and local responses. Each book is a facsimile of the original work, (including an English translation if necessary) with an introductory essay written by an expert in the field putting the text into its contemporary and current context. @en

The Routledge Handbook of Planning History offers a comprehensive interdisciplinary overview of planning history since its emergence in the late 19th century, investigating the history of the discipline, its core writings, key people, institutions, vehicles, education, and practice. Combining theoretical, methodological, historical, comparative, and global approaches to planning history, The Routledge Handbook of Planning History explores the state of the discipline, its achievements and shortcomings, and its future challenges. A foundation for the discipline and a springboard for scholarly research, The Routledge Handbook of Planning History explores planning history on an international scale in thirty-eight chapters, providing readers with unique opportunities for comparison. The diverse contributions open up new perspectives on the many ways in which contemporary events, changing research needs, and cutting-edge methodologies shape the writing of planning history.@en

Inaugural speeches have long been unique moments in the careers of academics in many countries: they offer time to pause, to reflect, and to envision new approaches. Planners, and architects in particular, have used such speeches to tie together insights into design work and education and to offer a programmatic view on their own role in the academic community. This series presents inaugural lectures – translated into English and contextualized with scholarly introductions – to unlock information for comparative research and set the stage for new investigations. For example, scholars can use these works to explore educational activities in the built environment or to study the dissemination of planning and design ideas.@en

This small booklet contains the inaugural speeches of J.H. van den Broek and J.B. Bakema given on the occasion of their appointment as professors at the Technical College of Delft. The speeches provide novel insights into their respective teaching programs, and into the dynamics of their time. An analytical reflection of their work is given by architectural historian Evelien van Es. @en