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At this historical moment, the urban planning and design professions are confronted with the twin challenges of unprecedented rapid urbanization on the one hand, and declining post-industrial regions on the other. In this environment, there are many different and often conflicting ideas about urban heritage and its relevance for contemporary urban planning and design. In this paper, we look for commonalities and a way forward from among a range of competing urban design models. We examine the illustrative case study of the geography and landscape of Detroit, USA. We consider seven contemporary urban planning and design ideals that dominate the contemporary planning and design discourse and their different views of the past and urban heritage in relation to the approaches in Detroit. From these, we draw a synthesis approach, making several recommendations and observations with a focus on the capacities of so-called "placemaking" approaches. In this paper, urban heritage is understood and examined as contributing a pattern of infrastructure that provides a helpful supportive framework, and (importantly) a set of structural limitations (e.g., historic plot boundaries), that can serve as a generative resource for new urban planning and design. We conclude that the necessary framework for democratic participation and opportunity within urban space can be provided most directly by leveraging the assets of urban heritage.

Within the realm of contemporary urban design theory and practice, a number of authors have conceptualised the trends and processes of city development and planning into a series of urbanisms. This discussion essay examines the overall tenets of the ‘ReUrbanism paradigm’, a paradigm that has long been present in city planning and development but has received limited analysis and criticism and has not gained a more integrated position within the professional and academic worlds. This paper continues a paradigm development outline, leaning on the characteristics of other urbanisms in order to develop and provide a frame of reference and to contribute to the ongoing build-up of taxonomies about the trajectory of contemporary urban design thought. Focusing on the American representative case of Detroit, the authors of this paper argue for a better understanding of this urban regeneration paradigm, which they characterise as a rational urban planning & design approach in the contemporary age of inner city renewal.

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