Supilinn, Tartu—The Lively Vernacular Against Urban Renewal

Abstract

In today's highly technical and rapidly changing world, the topic of people-friendly living has become increasingly acute. Therefore, great attention is paid to create new spaces (and transform unpleasant ones). In this race to create new spaces, however, vernacular sites that are already people friendly have been forgotten or they are taken for granted. This article explores a neighborhood, which has evolved into a valuable living environment after hundreds of years of development characterized by weak planning and design. Current efforts to regenerate the area may actually ruin the valuable vernacular environment. The authors have worked with this historic area for over 10 years and are familiar with the people and environments in depth. This longitudinal research allows one to observe and compare many different aspects of urban development (urban analysis, people's values, adopted spatial plans, etc.) to provide insights to the question of what characterizes the lively city.

Progress in Research on Sustainable Urban Renewal Since 2000: Library and Visual Analyses

“…This translates into relocation to another part of the city. According to the research by L. Neto, N. Pinto, and M. Burns [42,43], about 1,300,000 residential buildings (which represent 40% of the existing housing stock) in Portugal were built before 1970, and the building ageing index is therefore essential. Renovation policies were implemented to adapt residential buildings to normative requirements [44] and current social needs [45].…”

“…The third most cited article is "Supilinn, Tartu-The lively vernacular against urban renewal: A Lefebvrean critique" [43], written by Nele Nutt, Mart Hiob and Zenia Kotval in 2016 and published in the journal Space and Culture, with about 646 citations. This paper studied many aspects of urban development (urban analysis, human values, adopted space projects, etc.)…”

The Manifestation of Social Representation Theory and Social Capital in a Gentrified Neighbourhood in a Post-Socialist Country, Estonia

“…To date, Supilinn neighbourhood has been studied in terms of gentrification, but there is a gap in exploring the relationship between gentrification and other concepts of social phenomena, including connections to social representation theory and social capital. Previous research regarding Supilinn includes the exploration of the values of architecture and historical milieu in Supilinn neighbourhood by Nutt (2003), Hiob and colleagues (2012); the course and dynamics of gentrification in the region by as well as the issues and specifics of gentrification process within the development of post-socialist countries (Nutt et al , 2013(Nutt et al , 2016. Hiob and Nutt (2016) have studied the gentrification in the context of spatial planning, and the liveability and convenience within the gentrification area have been explored by Nutt (2017).…”

Lived Space of Urban Development: The Everyday Politics of Spatial Production in Nanjing, China

“…Lin & Gaubatz 2017; Ren, 2014), many of the currently existing studies on urban China neglect a holistic and grounded understanding of social and cultural life in the city (exceptions include Meyer, 2009; Zhang, 2002). This study uses ethnographic methods of spatial practices and experiences to better unpack the relationship between spatial production in the city and the colonization of everyday life that Lefebvre theorizes (see also Nutt, Hiob, & Kotval, 2016; Vasudevan, 2017).…”