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This thesis explores the relationship between space and creative digital production in Shoreditch, East London (2009-2014). It seeks to identify the spatial conditions that, at multiple scales, mediate and support the operation of digital industries in inner-city locations. Drawing on 'productionist' approaches, which examine creative industries as an industry, work is conceptualized as six activities (producing, meeting, networking, learning, displaying, socializing) performed across four spatial settings: the extended workplace, workspaces, industry events, and the neighbourhood. This qualitative case study uses three data collection methods: semi-structured interviews with workers and industry actors, observations of selected settings, and secondary data. The area is an emergent cluster of digital firms known as 'Silicon Roundabout' and 'Tech City', providing a less explored but relevant case. The thesis' contribution is threefold. First, it provides an empirical account of the spatiality of digital work in Shoreditch. This reveals a network of spaces used for work (base, ancillary, and events) suggesting a reconfiguration, and extension, of the 'workplace' in these industries. This spatial extension is limited and associated with spatial requirements of the tasks involved; the office still plays a central role in digital production. Second, the study identifies macro and micro spatial conditions that mediate and support these work patterns across the four spatial settings and advances the conceptualization of functional, social, and symbolic aspects of these relationships, expanding the understanding of why and how place matters in the digital economy. Third, the analysis reveals that 'structured interaction' and micro processes of spatial segregation and exclusion are critical to support a range of work and social practices in digital production. In contrast to influential accounts that associate creative cities with diversity and tolerance, at the scale of these spatial practices, processes of selection and quest for sameness underpin the operation of these industries within urban space(s).

Tehran, the capital of Iran, on the one hand faces extensive deterioration in its inner-city neighbourhoods and on the other hand, faces rapid population growth. The government has adapted urban regeneration as a policy that not only accommodates this growth within the city boundaries, but also tackles the deterioration problems. In this respect, this research compares two urban regeneration models, namely piecemeal and comprehensive redevelopments. In doing so it tries to understand how these two redevelopment models operate in deteriorated neighbourhoods of Tehran. This question is addressed by analysing the implementation and property development aspects of each redevelopment, with a specific focus on developers’ behaviour regarding these two models. At the theoretical level this research compares direct versus indirect planning in urban regeneration interventions from an institutional perspective. This derives from the work of Webster and Lai (2003) where they examined spontaneous planning versus centralised planning and Carmona (2009) where he analysed different modes of planning that on the one hand ranges from plan-based to opportunity-based, and on the other hand, from state-led to market-led modes of planning. Further, by building on the institutional perspective offered by Healy and Barret (1990) and Guy and Henneberry (2000) this thesis utilises the structure and agency approach to unravel the behaviour of property actors. Two neighbourhoods that have undergone redevelopments in Tehran, one piecemeal and one comprehensive, are chosen as case studies. As such, this research is an empirical account of two developments, utilising institutional analysis as a qualitative methodological approach in unravelling the ways in which property actors see the development process and their subsequent actions. Semi-structured interviews with property actors are a critical part of data collection, alongside documents and local and national census, and direct observations. The thesis improves our understanding of the process of built environment production, and the role of the state in the development process. It has demonstrated that the development decision-making cannot be solely understood as the result of economic rationality, as it occurs within institutional contexts structured by dynamic needs and concerns of actors. In advancing institutional analysis, this thesis by focusing on two specific projects, demonstrates the different approaches taken by property developers, development organisations and planners as they engaged differently with the wider structures set by the government through different policies.

This research aims to understand the relation between urban conservation planning and urban design with particular reference to the public spaces of ‘World Heritage' Cities (WHC) in Portugal. It is concerned with investigating the effectiveness of national conservation policies in Portugal in their ability to conserve and enhance the public realm, whilst making use of a combination of research methods customized to each stage and objective of the research. In order to provide a solid theoretical background for the study of planning for public realm conservation in WHC in Portugal, it was necessary to look into the epistemology of conservation and the construction and development of the heritage concept by reviewing international scholarly debates on conservation, and on public spaces and urban design. This research explores the gradual development of a ‘heritage debate’ at the international level and how a succession of events, charters and recommendations feed into theoretical and public debates to guide the development of the heritage conservation framework in Portugal. To identify and assess the effectiveness of conservation planning on the public realm, it enquired into the role of urban design within the urban conservation planning framework, as space, usually public space, is the object of study of urban design (Cohen, 1999). It became clear that effective legislation, technical organization and national planning (ICOMOS, 1967) are fundamental prerequisites to any official strategy of heritage conservation – something which Portugal lacked for a long time. As in other European cities, the trend has been to focus on public spaces renewal as the 'representation of the process of urban regeneration' (Hubbard, 1996: 1442), and whether this representation reflects the quality of the public realm achieved through urban heritage conservation is a matter for the analytical evaluation undertaken in a selected number of public spaces in Évora, Porto and Guimarães, the three illustrative case study cities of this research. The normative goal of the thesis is, ultimately, to contribute to making recommendations in order to improve the local implementation of national conservation policies, in particular through urban design guidelines that could guide local authorities in planning for the public realm conservation of their historic centres.

Recent changes in UK urban policy are important contributors in shifting the way the built environment in the UK is produced. The thesis examines the effect this policy push has on the housebuilding sector, on the types of dwellings and developments produced and the efforts of two major London housebuilders to adapt. Since the mid 1990s, UK governments have emphasised the need to accommodate new housing provision on previously developed land, predominantly in urban areas. This changing business environment forces housebuilders to adapt. Opportunities open up as new inner city markets emerge, whereas obtaining planning permission for sites on previously undeveloped land is becoming increasingly difficult. These new markets and new types of land input require housebuilders to re organise their development practices. New types of dwellings and developments have to be designed, financed, produced and sold. Aggregate statistics for the housebuilding sector reveal that housing development is transforming: dwelling production in metropolitan areas is increasing, the proportion of flats is rising and densities are increasing. The examination of two firms and two of their projects also shows that both firms are responding to their new business environment. The first response puts emphasis on flexibility and has led to sustained growth whereas the other response, focused on spreading development risks geographically and amongst different markets, is proving to be less successful at the moment. Although this transformation is still unfolding, the insights from the research can already prove useful to policy makers and housebuilders. An examination of housebuilding based on ideas deriving from a combination of institutionalist and evolutionary approaches can open new pathways in the way we understand the housebuilding industry and therefore in the way we understand processes of production and consumption of the built environment and the significance of planning policy as an instigator of change.