Abstract
This paper develops a conceptual framework of transitional edges to enhance understanding of the social value of urban street edges. Building from theoretical principles associated with socio-spatial understandings of urban realms, transitional edges conceptualise urban street edges as integrations of their social, spatial and material dimensions. This is captured in a tripartite structure highlighting socially relevant properties of transitional edges that act along them (extent), across them (laterality) and within them (locality). This provides a foundation for developing an approach to practical application based on identification and evaluation of transitional edges as assemblages of territorialised segments. To progress this, a developmental study of a length of Sharrow Vale Road in Sheffield, UK was carried out to explore how theoretical principles of the transitional edge conceptual framework could be translated for practical application. This reveals the potential of transitional edges to highlight that locally focused small-scale change and adaptation may be significant to the social potential of urban street edges. As a result, the current study sets out theoretical and practical foundations for a conceptual framework of transitional edges which will support development of an extensive funded programme of transitional edge case study research.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alexander, C., S. Ishikawa, M. Silverstein, M. Jacobson, I. Fiksdahl-King, and S. Angel. 1977. A Pattern Language. New York: Oxford University Press.
Altman, I. 1975. The Environment and Social Behaviour: Privacy, Personal Space, Territoriality and Crowding. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Arefi, M., and C. Kickert (eds.). 2019. The Palgrave Handbook of Bottom-Up Urbanism. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bentley, I., A. Alcock, P. Murrain, S. McGlynn, and G. Smith. 1985. Responsive Environments. London: The Architectural Press.
Biddulph, M. 2007. Introduction to Residential Layout. London: Butterworth-Heinemann, Elsevier.
Bosselmann, P. 2008. Urban Transformation: Understanding city design and form. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Boys Smith, N. 2016. Heart in the Right Street. London: Create Streets.
Carmona, M., T. Heath, T. Oc, and S. Tiesdell. 2003. Public Spaces Urban Places: The Dimensions of Urban Design. Oxon: Architectural Press.
Casey, E. 1998. The Fate of Place: A Philosophical Journey. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Chiesi, L. 2016. Territoriality as Appropriation of Space: How ‘engaging with space’ Frames Sociality. In Cultural Sustainability and Regional Development: Theories and Practices of Territorialisation, ed. J. Dessin, E. Battiglini, and L. Hornings. London: Routledge.
Cooper-Marcus, C., and W. Sarkissia. 1986. Housing as if People Mattered: Site Design Guidelines for Medium-Density Family Housing. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Cresswell, T. 2015. Place: An Introduction. Chichester: Wiley.
Crozier, S. (ed.). 2018. The Grimsey Review 2. London: The Grimsey Review Team.
Cuthbert, A. 2007. Urban Design: Requiem for an Era—Review and Critique of the Last 50 Years. Urban Design International 12: 177–223.
DeLanda, M. 2006. A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity. New York: Continuum.
Deleuze, G. and F. Guattari. 1987. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (trans: Massumi, B.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Dovey, K. 1993. Putting Geometry in its Place: Toward a Phenomenology of the Design Process. In Dwelling, Seeing and Designing: Toward a Phenomenological Ecology, ed. D. Seamon. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Dovey, K. 2005. The Silent Complicity of Architecture. In Habitus: A Sense of Place, 2nd ed, ed. J. Hillier and J. Rooksby. London: Ashgate.
Dovey, K. 2010. Becoming Places: Urbanism/Architecture/Identity/Power. Abbingdon: Routledge.
Dovey, K., and K. Polakit. 2010. Urban Slippage: Smooth and Striated Streetscapes in Bangkok. In Becoming Places: Urbanism/Architecture/Identity/Power, ed. K. Dovey. Abbingdon: Routledge.
Dovey, K., and S. Wood. 2015. Public/Private Interfaces: Type, Adaptation, Assemblage. Journal of Urbanism 8 (1): 1–16.
Dovey, K., F. Rao, and E. Pafka. 2018. Agglomoration and Assemblage: Deterritorialising Urban Theory. Urban Studies 55 (2): 263–273.
Epstein, R. 1998. Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty with the Common Good. Reading, MA: Perseus Books.
Ewin, R., and O. Clemente. 2013. Measuring Urban Design: Metrics for Liveable Places. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Franck, K.A., and Q. Stevens. 2007. Loose Space: Possibility and Diversity in Urban Life. London: Routledge.
Gehl, J. 1977. The Interface Between Public and Private Territories in Residential Areas. Melbourne: University of Melbourne Press.
Gehl, J. 2006. Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space, 6th ed. Copenhagen: Danish Architectural Press.
Gehl, J. 2010. Cities for People. Washington: Island Press.
Gehl, J., and L. Gemzoe. 2004. Public Spaces, Public Life. Copenhagen: Danish Architectural Press.
Gehl, J., and B. Svarre. 2013. How to Study Public Life. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Glaser, M., van ‘t Hoff, H. Karssenberg, J. Laven, and J. van Teeffelen. 2012. The City at Eye Level: lessons for street plinths. Delft: Eburon.
Habraken, N.J. 1998. The Structure of the Ordinary: Form and Control in the Built Environment. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Harvey, C., and L. Aultmann-Hall. 2016. Measuring Urban Streets for Liveability: A Review of Approaches. The Professional Geographer 68 (1): 149–158.
Heffernan, E., T. Heffernan, and W. Pan. 2014. The Relationship Between the Quality of Active Frontages and Public Perceptions of Public Spaces. Urban Design International 19 (1): 92–102.
Hoogland, C. 2000. Semi-private Zones as a Facilitator of Social Cohesion. MA thesis. Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen.
Jacobs, J. 1961. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House.
Jacobs, A.B. 1993. Great Streets. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Kickert, C.C. 2016. Active Centers—Interactive Edges: The Rise and Fall of Ground Floor Frontages. Urban Design International 21 (1): 55–77.
Lefebrve, H. 1991. The Production of Space. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Macdonald, E. 2005. Street-Facing Dwelling Units and Liviability: The Impacts of Emerging Building Types in Vancouver’s New High-density Residential Neighbourhoods. Journal of Urban Design 10 (1): 13–38.
Madanipour, A. 2003. Public and Private Spaces of the City. London: Routledge.
Madanipour, A., K. Miciukiewicz, and G. Vigar. 2018. Master Plans and Urban Change: The Case of Sheffield City Centre. Journal of Urban Design 23 (4): 465–481.
Malpas, J. 1999. Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Malpas, J. 2006. Heidegger’s Topology: Being, Place, World. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Martin, M. 1996. Back-Alley as Community Landscape. Landscape Journal 15 (2): 138–153.
Mehta, V. 2014. Evaluating Public Space. Journal of Urban Design 19 (1): 53–88.
Mehta, V., and B. Mahato. 2019. Measuring the Robustness of Neighbourhood Business Districts. Journal of Urban Design 24 (1): 99–118.
Moughtin, C. 2003. Urban Design: Street and Square, 3rd ed. Oxford: Architectural Press.
Muminovic, M. 2015. Places as Assemblages: Paradigm Shift or Fashionable Nonsense? Athens Journal of Architecture 1: 295–309.
Nooraddin, H. 2002. In-Between Space: Towards Establishing New Methods in Street Design. Global Built Environment Review 2 (1): 50–57.
Newman, O. 1972. Defensible Space: Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. New York: Macmillan.
Porta, S., and J.L. Renne. 2005. Linking Urban Design to Sustainability: Formal Indicators of Social Urban Sustainability Field Research in Perth, Western Australia. Urban Design International 10: 51–64.
Porqueddu, E. 2018. Toward the Open City: Design and Research for Emergent Urban Systems. Urban Design International 10: 236–248.
Radovic, D. and M. Muminovic. 2011. Spatial Expressions of Local Identity in the Times of Rapid Globalisation: A Case Study of the Yanasen Area in Tokyo. Proceedings: IAPS International Network Symposium, Daegu, South Korea.
Rudlin, D., and N. Falk. 1999. Sustainable Urban Neighbourhood: Building the 21st Century Home. Oxford: Architectural Press.
Simpson, J., M. Freeth, K.J. Simpson, and K. Thwaites. 2018. Visual Engagement With Urban Street Edges: Insights Using Mobile Eye-Tracking. Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability 12 (3): 259–278.
Simpson, J., K. Thwaites, and M. Freeth. 2019. Understanding Visual Engagement with Urban Street Edges Along Non-Pedestrianised and Pedestrianised Streets Using Mobile Eye-Tracking. Sustainability 11 (15): 4251.
Stravides, S. 2007. Heterotopias and the Experience of Porous Urban Space. In Loose Space: Possibility and diversity in urban life, ed. K.A. Franck and Q. Stevens. London: Routledge.
Urban Task Force. 1999. Towards an Urban Renaissance: Final Report of the Urban Task Force. London: E and FN Spon.
Whyte, W.H. 1988. City: Rediscovering the Centre. New York: Doubleday.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Thwaites, K., Simpson, J. & Simkins, I. Transitional edges: a conceptual framework for socio-spatial understanding of urban street edges. Urban Des Int 25, 295–309 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41289-020-00115-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41289-020-00115-9