Urban and Regional Planning and Design Research Works
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Item Constitutional Reforms in Venezuela Foretell a Planning Revolution(Planner's Network, 2007) Irazabal, ClaraItem Venezuela’s Communal Councils and the Role of Planners(Planner's Network, 2008) Irazabal, Clara; Foley, JohnItem Planning by Transnational Institutions: Can Big Be Beautiful?(Planner's Network, 2010) Irazabal, ClaraItem Citizenship, Democracy, and Public Space(Planner's Network, 2008) Irazabal, ClaraItem Bounded Tourism: Plaza Mexico in California(Planner's Network, 2008) Irazabal, Clara; Gomez-Barris, MacarenaItem ¿Reemplazar, discutir o recuperar la noción de barrio? Comentarios Finales(Universidad Católica del Maule, 2019) Irazabal, ClaraItem Espacio, revolución y resistencia: Lugares ordinarios y eventos extraordinarios en Caracas(Organización Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Centros Históricas, 2012) Irazabal, Clara; Foley, JohnItem Ultrapassando o debate entre convergência e divergência urbanas: a arquitetura e o urbanismo em um contexto global(Instituto de Planejamento Urbano e Regional - IPPUR, 2003) Irazabal, ClaraItem Immigration and Integration in Urban Communities: Renegotiating the City(Institute of Urban Studies, University of Winnipeg, 2010) Irazabal, ClaraItem “Revisiting urban planning in Latin America and the Caribbean.”(Columbia Academic Commons, 2009) Irazabal, ClaraThis regional study reviews urban planning conditions and trends in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is one of eight regional studies that will serve as inputs into the various chapters of the 2009 Global Report on Human Settlements. The report is organized into nine chapters. Chapter 1 identifies recent fundamental challenges faced by urban areas in the region. Chapter 2 describes the varying nature of the urban context within which planning takes place, with emphasis on the socio-spatial issues which are of concern to urban planning. Chapter 3 reviews the emergence of contemporary or modern urban planning. A discussion of the nature of the institutional and regulatory framework for urban planning is then provided in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 examines the extent to which the planning process is inclusive of relevant stakeholders and communities (participatory/collaborative planning). Chapter 6 considers the role of urban planning in promoting sustainable urban development. An assessment of planning responses to informality in cities including the emergence of related processes (peri-urbanization, urban sprawl, metropolitanization and rural densification) is undertaken in Chapter 7. In Chapter 8, the effects of infrastructure provision on the spatial structure of cities and the implications for planning are reviewed. Chapter 9 discusses the extent to which monitoring and evaluation of urban plans is an integral part of planning processes. Lastly, the final Chapter focuses on the trends in planning education within the region.Item Golden geese or white elephants? The paradoxes of world heritage sites and community-based tourism development in Agra, India(Taylor & Francis, 2011) Chakravarty, Surajit; Irazabal, ClaraThis study examines the relationship between World Heritage Sites (WHSs) and local community development in Agra, India. We investigate two interrelated themes: the role of planning in developing the tourism potential of the Taj Mahal and other WHSs in Agra, and the impact of the WHS framework on the development of the city. We analyze the weaknesses of the institutions and agencies responsible for Agra’s inability to convert the development potential created by its three WHSs into significant economic, community and infrastructure improvements. The Agra case reveals a set of developmental paradoxes, whereby the restructuring of the tourist industry induced by the designation of WHSs does not lead to proportionate advances in local community development. Several factors were found to be systemic problems, but some recent schemes are worth supporting and expanding. The paradoxes and potential of economic, tourism, and community development in Agra echo those of other developing localities which host WHSs around the world. Following an assessment of problems and challenges, a set of recommendations is directed toward the development of pro-poor, community-based heritage tourism with the aim of informing integrated planning for the community and for heritage and tourism resources in the future.Item Entertainment-Retail Centres in Hong Kong and Los Angeles: Trends and Lessons(Taylor & Francis, 2007) Irazabal, Clara; Chakravarty, SurajitThis paper examines the evolution and recent trends in the design of Entertainment Retail Centres (ERCs) in Los Angeles and Hong Kong. Most of the literature on spaces of consumption and leisure deals with economic reasons for the development of these spaces, and with the social, cultural, and political implications of the phenomenon. There are limitations to this approach that this study addresses. First, there has been a lack of attention to processes of globalization in the analysis of these spaces. Furthermore, a largely US-centred approach has left out an understanding of the significance of the ERC phenomenon in other societies. Secondly, the literature lacks a sufficient appreciation of the particularities of urban planning and design associated with ERCs. A body of work addresses the issues of the organization of space within the mall, and its architectonics. However, these studies are by definition limited to the complex, and not oriented towards the urban setting. This paper seeks to address these gaps by moving towards an understanding of the relationship of entertainment retail spaces to their urban and glocal contexts. It considers ERCs not only for the construction of economics, but also of urban, social, and cultural forces, and simultaneously as agents for the mediation of these forces in the built environment of localized places. The analysis is organized along four related themes—land use, transportation, urban design, and consumption patterns. The conclusion offers lessons that can orient both these global cities’ trajectories and those of the cities that follow in their footsteps.Item Bounded Tourism: Immigrant Politics, Consumption, and Traditions at Plaza Mexico(Taylor & Francis, 2007) Irazabal, Clara; Gomez-Barris, MacarenaConceived and owned by Korean investors, the shopping mall Plaza Mexico in Southern California embodies a unique case of invention and commodification of traditions for locally-bound immigrants and US citizens of Mexican descent, showing the force of the contemporary processes of deterritorialisation and reterritorilisation of identities and the recreations of imagined conceptions of homeland. The Plaza is a unique architectural recreation of Mexican regional and national icons that make its patrons feel ‘as if you were in Mexico’. Plaza Mexico produces a space of diasporic, bounded tourism, whereby venture capitalists opportunistically reinvent tradition within a structural context of constrained immigrant mobility. While most of the contemporary theory of tourism, travel and place emphasise the erosion of national boundaries and the fluidity of territories, the case of Plaza Mexico brings us to appreciate this phenomenon and its opposite as well – the strengthening of national borders and their impact on the (in)mobility of millions of individuals.Item Transnational meanings of La Virgen de Guadalupe: Religiosity, space and culture at Plaza Mexico(Taylor & Francis, 2009) Gomez-Barris, Macarena; Irazabal, ClaraIn this paper, we examine Plaza Mexico in Lynwood, California, a magnet for Latino communities from throughout the greater Los Angeles region, to show immigrants’ use of space to produce transnational communities as coherent. One of the key ways that immigrant identity is formed in this space is through cultural religiosity. Despite the fact that Plaza Mexico is a shopping mall, the place gathers participation from Mexican immigrants and Latinos of other national origins at key times of religious expression during the year. Following what Holloway calls ‘enchanted space’, we analyse the Day of the Dead celebration (2 November) and the Virgen de Guadalupe celebration (during and after 12 December) to discuss the transformation of the mall into a multidimensional place that encompasses secular, religious, cultural and political expressions. We show how Plaza Mexico provides a rich location from which to understand transnational cultural connections and familial transmissions of culture between different generations of immigrants which we term ‘affective connectivity’.Item Beyond ‘Latino New Urbanism’: advocating ethnurbanisms(Taylor & Francis, 2012) Irazabal, ClaraThis paper discusses the notion of Latino New Urbanism (LNU) and reflects on the significance of ethnic-based reformulations of urban practices and living preferences in Los Angeles and the potential these have for the transformation of policy making and development practices in the region and beyond. Can LNU truly avoid the pitfalls of New Urbanism and represent a new way of conceiving urbanism – one that is explicit and inclusive in its ways of recognizing and addressing ethnoracial and class diversity? Can LNU instead be intentionally or unintentionally used to mask some structural social problems that Latina/os face in the US? All of this poses questions related to the assessment of LNU in the context of tensions between structure vs. agency, diluting vs. celebrating ethnoracial differences, and oppressive vs. liberating urban design and community-building practices. Based on those considerations, I offer an alternate notion of multiple and evolving ethnurbanisms.Item Emerging issues in planning: ethno-racial intersections(Taylor & Francis, 2015) Gonzalez, Erualdo R.; Irazabal, ClaraItem Localizing Urban Design Traditions: Gated and Edge Cities in Curitiba(Taylor & Francis, 2019) Irazabal, ClaraGated communities and edge cities are new forms of space production and consumption that promote changes in the character of public space and citizens’ participation in public life. This study unveils the phenomena of their creation as a paradoxical attempt to return to community. Curitiba’s examples of gated communities and edge cities show that, despite being internationally showcased as a model of good planning and urban design, this metropolis has not been immune to the global capital pressures and urban design tendencies occurring in many urban areas throughout the world, thus signalling both the currency and trans-nationality of these issues.Item Gating Tegucigalpa, Honduras: The Paradoxical Effects of "Safer Barrios"(Taylor & Francis, 2019-10-01) Handal, Cristina; Irazabal, ClaraThis paper analyzes the paradoxical political and socio-spatial dynamics created by “Safer Barrios,” a security program that redefines notions of citizenship, governance, participation, and space in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The rapid proliferation of street gates sanctioned by the state under this program is producing understudied effects both within and outside the gates throughout the city, a phenomenon that this study qualitatively analyzes. The findings reveal that these newly gated residential areas demand a more nuanced analysis than that which traditional gated communities have received in the past; this stems from their different constitution and consequences, particularly the program’s unique relationship to and sponsorship by the local government. The program paradoxically fosters a greater sense of community and safety for participants while negatively affecting mobility and sociability for the rest of city residents. The findings hold critical implications for city design, planning, and policy making.Item The High-Rise and The Shack: Rhizomatic Collisions In Caracas’ Torre David(University of British Columbia, Okanagan, 2020) Irazabal, Clara; Sosa, Irene; Schlenker, Lee EvanA 45-story tower in Caracas formerly occupied by some 5,000 squatters, Torre David was touted by international media accounts as the world’s most spectacular “vertical slum.” This, among other sensationalized accounts, failed to consider the paradoxical ways in which Caracas’ formal and informal, urban and architectural trajectories literally collided with each other in Torre David. The modern high-rise and the self-built shack—antagonist spatial typologies in Caracas’ growth—were dramatically superposed in the tower, unleashing hitherto un(fore)seen dynamics. Through site fieldwork, interviews, film production, media analysis, and historical research, we offer a nuanced theorization of Torre David that grapples with its charged tensions between the formal and informal, modern and traditional, modernity and postmodernity, reality and imagination, and capitalism and socialism. We begin our investigation with a historical account of the tower’s construction, abandonment, and ultimate occupation. This is followed by a theoretical positioning of Torre David as a social and physical space ‘in-between’. Ultimately, we argue that these tensions created a rhizomatic socio-spatial field heavily pregnant with both risks and hopes for the people, the government, and the spatial disciplines.Item La arquitectura y la producción de imágenes de tarjeta postal: La invocación de la tradición versus el regionalismo crítico en Curitiba(Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, 2001) Irazabal, Clara