Doctoral Dissertation Research: New Housing Design Models and Sustainable Urban Growth

世界上已经有一半以上的人生活在城市地区。随着城市的持续增长，规划专家和政府官员正在努力设计新的住房和城市发展模式，以更有效地利用公共资源，创造更宜居的城市。特别是，一些专家正在通过设计紧凑、高密度的住房来促进“密集化”，以此作为创造一个更可持续发展的城市和促进社会融合的一种方式。该项目旨在培养一名研究生如何进行严谨的、基于经验的科学实地考察，探讨这些可持续设计实践对城市治理、住房政策和社会关系的影响。了解这些新设计原则的社会影响对于制定更好的政策至关重要，这些政策将创造更强大的城市基础设施，优化公共资源，并为美国公民创造更高质量的生活。加州大学欧文分校博士候选人Melissa Wrapp将在Keith M. Murphy博士的指导下，在公共住房政策的背景下研究可持续城市发展原则的实施。研究人员询问住房设计技术方面的变化如何影响城市化管理，并塑造居民之间以及与地方政府之间的社会关系。她将在开普敦进行为期12个月的人种学田野调查，包括扩展参与性观察，并与市政城市设计师、建筑师和参与公共住房供应的居民进行结构化访谈。非洲大陆正在以世界上最快的速度城市化。由于南非独特的政治和法律历史，它已成为积极试验城市政策的重要场所。这项研究将在南非开普敦进行，那里的市政官员自2012年以来一直在努力实施致密化政策。开普敦是南非竞争最激烈的房地产市场，也是南非种族隔离最严重的城市，这使其成为开展这项研究的理想地点。这项研究将为可持续发展和设计的全球问题的跨学科社会科学研究，特别是在经济和社会不平等的背景下，提供及时的贡献。调查结果还将增加对土地利用模式的社会文化驱动因素的了解，并根据正在进行的城市化改进公共政策的执行。

Already more than half the world lives in urban areas. As urban growth continues planning experts and government officials are working to design new models for housing and urban development that make more efficient use of public resources and create more livable cities. In particular, some experts are promoting "densification" through designing compact, higher-density housing as a way of creating a more sustainable city and fostering social integration. This project, which trains a graduate student in how to conduct rigorous, empirically grounded scientific fieldwork, explores the impact of these sustainable design practices on urban governance, housing policy, and social relations. Understanding the societal impact of these new design principles is critical for developing better policies that will create more robust urban infrastructures, optimize public resources, and create a better quality of life for American citizens.University of California, Irvine doctoral candidate Melissa Wrapp, supervised by Dr. Keith M. Murphy, will examine the implementation of principles of sustainable urban development in the context of public housing policy. The researcher asks how changes in the technical aspects of housing design impact the management of urbanization and shape social relations, both between residents and with local government. She will undertake twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork in Cape Town, which will involve extended participant observation and structured interviews with municipal urban designers, architects, and residents involved in public housing provision. The African continent is urbanizing at one of the fastest rates in the world. Because of South Africa's unique political and legal history, it has become an important site for active experimentation with urban policy. The research will be conducted in Cape Town, South Africa, where municipal officials have worked to implement densification policies since 2012. Cape Town has the most competitive property market in the country, and also has a reputation for being the country's most segregated city, making it an ideal site to situate this research. This study will provide a timely contribution to interdisciplinary social science research on the global issue of sustainable development and design, particularly in contexts of economic and social inequality. Findings will also increase knowledge of socio-cultural drivers in land use patterns and improve the execution of public policy in light of ongoing urbanization.