Since the 1980s, the discipline of urbanism in Western Europe has shifted from the abstract regulatory approach of zoning to a more qualitative practice pointing toward the notion of “urban project”. This shift from the more orthodox planning to an urban project strategy focuses on proximity to architecture, requalification of public space and is characterized by the so called “intermediate scale”. The urban renewal of Barcelona for the Olympic Games of 1992, the publication of UR-Urbanismo Revista (1985-1992) and the theoretical and design works of Manuel de Solà-Morales clearly contribute to embody a new approach, shared in a common tradition among different countries such as Belgium, France, Spain and Italy.For the last decade, the persisting economic crisis and the new management strategies have necessitated a review of urbanism practices. At the same time, new environmental issues seem to eclipse the urban project methodology : ecology, metabolism, sustainability and efficiency (smart) has become the main topics. Eco-industrial parks and sustainable neighborhoods are two examples of hi-tech normative urban models shifting the focus from the quality of urban space to the environmental efficiency. Therefore, the anatomic quality of the city, its form and space, seem now to be displaced to a secondary role by ecological matters.How to reconnect the spatial emphasis of urban project approach with current development of smart and green cities? This paper suggests reemphasising the tradition of urban project by using the principles of urban metabolism and focusing on the economy of material flows: water, energy, goods, etc. While urban projects took as point of departure the urban design of architecture, infrastructure and public space for empowering human activity, urban metabolism can expand upon this approach by incorporating environmental concerns into urban design. The scope of the urban project can be redefined beyond the short-term goal of human welfare to a long-term sustainable ecosystem. The UpCycle Zona Franca recent academic experience, focus on the transformation of one of the most privileged industrial areas in the south of Europe, between the port and airport of Barcelona, invite us to bring closer the theoretical approach to a tentative design practice.

The hybridization or cross breeding of the regional spatial transformation creates an urban frontier that expresses the tectonic shifts focusing on urban activities change and population migration. The scalar shift that spans across the regional scale brings what lacks within the inter-linkage of "city" and "world" and look beyond the territorial division at large. In Taiwan, the phenomenon of geographic concentration of specific sector and economic activity in the metropolitan areas imply the underlying characteristic expounded beneath that can be utilized. Size and growth rate of urbanization thru the population concentration highlights the presence of an intense redistribution, creating a frontier land in need of inter liking of a sort. Other spatial paradigms such as networks or nodes may provide unconventional texture and visualizations of this mega-region, which we can develop into a scalable set of strategies that allocate more localized considered operations to emerge. Using industry gross national product data, this paper presents empirical evidence on the relative spatial specialization and linkage within Taipei metropolitan and the urban system. The econometric results indicate that high return in certain two digit service industries cluster around a monocentric core in the north, a fact so familiar to Taipei. The negative effects of isolation are magnified in locations with higher potential in other uses. The low return of other activities responds primarily to local demand displaying no significant spatial variation. The empirical results highlight the need for improved connectivity between the northern and other regions in Taiwan and the need to address two major issues--the need re-examine the management policy for land and industry development and the need to provide the suitable public facilities and services for the changing population structure. Within this realm, we inquire the urban-landscape hybrids that will behave as a protector to preserve the ecologies and natural resources of the frontier as well as furthering the inter-linkage of the urban landscape. As this may become an ordering principle for a new economy, one must accept the new mechanism for organizing the patterns of human settlement as well as the economies of production and distribution. This paper contends the Taiwan experience provides a model for other developing cities and provides a reference in understanding the parameters and management policies.

Complex socio-political, economic, and environmental challenges have increased the demand for more effective data management and information access. The notion of a smart city has recently evolved to mean a city that is well-endowed by information and communication technologies that complement the physical infrastructure, enhancing the city’s social and environmental assets. A city may be defined as “smart” or “intelligent” when investments in human capital, social capital, transportation, and communication infrastructure drive sustainable physical and economic development. Through participatory governance, managed growth should result in a high quality of life and wise natural resource management. Several models for designing a smart city exist, and after analyzing various studies, these models were grouped according to their foci: (1) technological, (2) business, (3) political, and (4) environmental. While the proposed models each have strengths, each model shares four key limitations: (1) limited integration of the local system and global system, (2) scant attention to holistic sustainability, (3) minimal consideration of human factors and human-environment interaction, and (4) inability to address significant urban changes. Takeda’s (1990) four-phase research approach was adopted for this research project, the four phases being Phase I (Awareness), Phase II (Suggestion), Phase III (Development), and Phase IV (Evaluation). The research was conducted in several studies. This paper reports on Study 1, which followed a two-phase exploratory and conceptual approach (Phases I & II), in which an in-depth analysis of several smart city case studies reported in the literature was performed. The purpose was to examine promising smart city models, and critique their effectiveness. Using a literature review, the authors solidified their understanding of smart city design. A taxonomy of key categories of concern when designing a smart city, called the Four-Foci Taxonomy, is proposed in the paper.