The architecture/planning interface

摘要

Many could argue that there is nothing new in the theme of this special issue. As Bonnie Johnson and Nils Gore show in their contribution, the interdisciplinary interface has existed since planning joined architecture 100 years ago as a foundational force in the built environment. Such 'commentators' might further point to important existing outlets, such as the journal Built Environment (Alexandrine Press, Oxford) and the Journal of Architectural and Planning Research (JAPR) (Locke Science Publishing, Chicago). The former, published online from 2003, promotes quarterly issues, each individually themed, though none has fully probed the architecture/planning nexus. The JAPR was launched in 1984 and is now in its 33rd volume. A contents appraisal from 2001 to 2015 indicates that it has aroused worldwide interest in foci ranging from the technical microscale in architecture (e.g. window size and room quality; kitchen and bathroom design for the disabled) through the structural and strategic levels in planning (e.g. mega-rich cities, geography of place) to an essentially philosophical discourse (e.g. imagery, time and landscape). In between, subjects such as children, health, religion, art, work, technology and the environment receive due consideration. In the last 16 years, the journal has hosted 14 themed issues on several topics, including public participation, immigrant needs, computational building simulation, and crime. During the twenty-first century, however, there has not been one devoted to the architecture/planning interface as now proposed in the Architectural Science Review (ASR) and there have been few such individual papers besides.