A sample of what we do ..

Ombretta,  Fei Ray are all UK based, in Schools of Architecture, although our main specialism is in urban design. We all share a deep interest in what happens in space and have had long and strong associations with IAPS in the past. We firmly believe that placemaking ought to bring together design and social science disciplines in a meaningful, collaborative spirit. IAPS is the perfect ground for this to happen and our Network aims to establish a balanced and informed collaboration between the two. (figure 1)

A. Our research projects include the study of special environments with the aim to provide design and policy guidance to retrofit them or plan new ones:

• An investigation of how typological processes benefit sense of place in the Turkish context (Gokce and Chen, 2016);
• A study into the characteristics that make a street liveable in Shanghai;
• An examination of the neglected and hidden alleys in Kuala Lumpur with a vision to integrate them into the urban system; (figure 2)
• An interrogation of public spaces in piecemeal developed traditional villages in China;
• The impact of the concept of neighbhourood unit on city design (Mehaffy, Porta, Romice, 2014);
• An overview of urban design and its impact on life across city scales (Romice et al, 2016);
• A study of the form of gentrified neighbourhoods in London (under revision. Venerandi, Zanella, Romice, Porta, EPB);

B.The comparative study of study of urban forms across geographies and time-periods:

• Typo-morphological analysis of Chinese cities with the outcome of an urban design guide for such cities (Chen and Romice, 2009; Chen and Thwaites, 2013); (figure 3)
• Patterns of change in main street networks across time and space (Porta, Romice, Maxwell, Russell, Baird, 2014). (figure 4, 5)

C. The use of urban morphology in progressive, resilient design:

• Designing cities around the ideas of change, efficiency and resilience (see all on: Masterplanning for change, in refs below) (figure 6, 7)