February 2012
1 post
“…ordinary people can make the extraordinary happen, given the chance.”
– Charles Landry in The Art of City Making
September 2011
3 posts
“Many architects and planners today advocate the necessity of having more public...”
– Doina Petrescu in “How to make a community as well as the space for it”
7 tags
Taking urban sustainability seriously: A call for...
In the last decade of planning and policy making, radical or experimental approaches to the organisation of society and the way we plan, design and manage cities have been rare. What has instead evolved during recent years is a firm consensus that sustainable societies and cities can be achieved within the frames of our current unsustainable path (economic, organizational, consumerist patterns)...
6 tags
August 2011
1 post
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User generated urbanism: Park(ing) day reclaim...
Once more it is time for Park(ing) day, a worldwide event that invites common citizens everywhere to engage in transforming metered parking spots into temporary parks or public spaces. 2011 is the seventh year that Park(ing) day is being organized, gaining more and more participants and becoming more visible and significant. 30 countries, 186 cities and 850 parks where created during Park(ing)...
July 2011
1 post
4 tags
“The sheer physical presence of roads, schools, and houses does not render them...”
– Ali Madanipour in “Why are the design and development of public spaces significant for cities”
June 2011
7 posts
“Audiences judge a play, film or novel according to how it resonates with some...”
– Patsy Healy in Urban complexity and spatial strategies
“Cities are socially determined in their forms and in their processes. Some of...”
– Manuel Castells in European Cities, the Informational Society, and the Global Economy
“First life “-all life forms- , “then spaces, then buildings, the...”
– Jan Gehl
3 tags
from flower to edible gardens: “growing” local...
image source: Grow Local Colorado
Here is a great initiative that is taking urban agriculture to a next level. It is call Grow Local Colorado a group of volunteers dedicated to promoting and “growing” local food, local commuity and local economy. The initiative creates the conditions for community members to come together and plant, maintain and harvest vegetables in previously...
Online Interviews Resilient Cities 2011 Congress →
smartercities:
Interviews from ICLEI’s Resilient Cities 2011 Congress are now online on the www.climate-change.tv website.
ICLEI’s President, Steve Cadman, discusses what resilience is. From the Oceania branch Steve Gawler gives a concise overview of the Rockefeller-funded ACCCRN (Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network) and their ten champion cities. From ICLEI USA, Missy...
3 tags
“The challenge for any strategy making focused around urban areas is that an...”
– Patsy Healy in Urban complexity and spatial strategies
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“The city is “both a social and spatial ‘coming together’ of...”
– Susan Thompson in Diversity, difference and the multi-layered city
May 2011
6 posts
“What matters within cities … revolves around the fact that they are places...”
– taken from Cities for the many not the few by Ash Amin, Doreen B. Massey, N. J. Thrift
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Hijacking space: how public is the public space in...
source: space hijackers
Have you ever asked yourself how public is the public space in your city? I recently came across a very interesting (and somehow crazy) initiative that tries to highlight and criticise the increasing influence that institutions and corporations have towards the way in which many public spaces are being developed and managed. In many cases, such influence has led to the...
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Don't consume the city .. be part of it
Don’t consume the city .. be part of it is the motto of The Bottle the City Project. A simple but very interesting game that makes us reflect on the limited oportunities that we have to be part of the everyday construction of our cities. It is a response to the way in which cities constantely bomb us with the need to consume it, or even condition our use of it based on our purchase...
“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because,...”
– Jane Jacobs
March 2011
1 post
January 2011
1 post
“If people do not have a direct bodily or kinesthetic relation to their city they...”
– Thomas Sieverts in an interview to Sustainable Cities
November 2010
3 posts
4 tags
A city is not a T-shirt
Review of the book “Making Competitive Cities” by citybreaths:
In the era of rapid urbanization, we are all trying to understand how numerous processes and phenomena shape our cities: globalization, post-industrialization, entrepreneurial cities, creative classes, clustering industries, networked societies, etcetera. All cities are in need of grand theories that can function as...
2 tags
“never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the...”
– great quote from the well known cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead … for all of those who believe in the power of community involvement and participation
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October 2010
2 posts
5 tags
short reflection on urban ecosystem services
if green and blue structures in cities are to become significant in cities based on the services that they are capable of provide (Improve air quality, control Micro climate, Noise reduction, Rainwated drainage, Improved water quality, Increased groundwater recharge, Wastewater treatment, Flood protection, etc) we need to engage residents in a dialogue with the ecological processes happening in...
September 2010
8 posts
3 tags
“Urban environments are produced and constructed through social processes made up...”
– On conflicts in the production of urban environments and public space … Mauricio Hernandez B. in Contested public space development: The case of low income neighbourhoods in Xalapa, Mexico
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“Planning, as an explicit exercise of imagining the future, is about “dreaming...”
– Patsy Healey in “The Communicative Turn in Planning Theory and its Implications for Spatial Strategy Formation”
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New approaches to public space:...
Recently I have been finding some interesting initiatives by which some cities are creating new public spaces in areas that were previously underused. Such initiatives are based on what I would call a “Reclaim-Test-Evaluate-Establish” approach of which I will show you an exciting example.
Inspired by New York’s Plaza Program, San Francisco’s “Pavement to...
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“The failures of growth and the sustainable degrowth proposal:
The paradigm of...”
– What would this mean for cities ? - from Crisis or opportunity? Economic degrowth for social equity and ecological sustainability - François Schneider, Giorgos Kallis, Joan Martinez-Alier
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“Cities alter the urban landscape to a point where water hardly reaches soil for...”
– Two very simple, but many times forgotten, ways in which cities affect the environment. By Pavlina Ilieva and Kuo Pao Lian in Learning from Informal Cities, Building for Communities
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Finding sustainable urban models in a very...
Planners, architects, designers are “always” trying to create places that enhance sustainable ways of living, ways that are more environmentally sound, more economical, or more conducive to the building of community. Today we talk a lot about high-density and walkable neighborhoods, transit oriented developments and mix use, waste and water management schemes, self-organized and...
4 tags
“We must overcome the growing perception that new “green” is our...”
– Joshua Prince-Ramus, Randolph Croxton, and Tuomas Toivonen, Special to CNN
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Green buildings - alone - won't save the planet
In some of my posts I try to express my concerns about the growing believe that green technologies or green buildings will solve our environmental problems. Although I do believe that these new technologies can create less impact than many of our existing constructions, I also see their growing promotion as a new business opportunity, one that many are trying to manipulate and take advantage...
August 2010
9 posts
2 tags
“The definition and value of public space in postmodern culture has become...”
– Catharina Gabrielsson in “To Make a Difference: Public Space as a Medium for Art, Architecture and Concepts of the Political”
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Social, cultural and political production of...
Recently I came across the the work of the Atelier d´Architecture Autogérée (AAA), an architecture and urban design studio that describes itself as “an interdisciplinary practice including architects, artists, urban planners, landscape designers, sociologists, activists, students and residents”.
The combination of so many and diverse actors within in their practice is what makes...
“our present environmental crisis has to be recognized and resolved as an...”
– Zev Naveh
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“Broad-based public support for dealing with global environmental challenges...”
– Stephan Barthel, Carl Folke and Johan Colding in Social-ecological memory in urban gardens—Retaining the capacity for management of ecosystem services
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“What matters in cities …. revolves around the fact that they are places of...”
– from the book “Cities for the Many Not the Few” by Ash Amin, Doreen Massey, Nigel Thrift
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"New York City (Steady) State" - A proposal for...
“New York City (Steady) State” is a project and exhibition created by Terreform. A very interesting non-profit design group that promotes green design in cities. The project’s objective is to explore how can the ecological footprint of New York City become co-terminus with its political boundaries. The driving force of the project is that: the city can become completely...
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New York City Asks Residents to transform... →
New York’s Plaza Program is working together with not-for-profit organizations to create neighborhood plazas throughout the City. It is transforming underused streets into vibrant, social public spaces. One of its most significant examples is the redesign of a car-free, pedestrian friendly Times Square
This Program is a key part of the City’s effort to ensure that all New...
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Pocket parks as part of a city development...
By giving importance to the small and nearby green areas of the city, Copenhagen intends to reinforce its strategies towards reducing the city’s CO2 emissions and also contain climate adaptation. The plan “Pocket parks, more trees and more green” intends to prepare Copenhagen for a warmer and wetter future. The local authority aims to create 14 pockets parks and planting 3,000...
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Transforming Neighbourhoods - A collection of...
via irishboyinlondon:
A research project in England designed to involve local communities in decisions and practices related to the development and management of their neighborhoods. The results of the research show that people are keen to tackle the problems that affect their everyday lives, in particular, neighbourhood grime, community safety and providing facilities for young people. These are...
July 2010
14 posts
7 tags
20-minute neighborhoods=interesting, different ......
via summeroffrugality via davidgalestudios:
Although considered as a guide for the future of sustainable urban development there is something about those one-fit-all solutions that I just can’t swallow, especially when they are mainly based on land use and traffic patterns.
The idea which originated in one Portland’s development companies is an interesting one: “all of the...
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“Instead of focusing on neighborhood shortcomings and problems renewal of...”
– extract from the GL. Valby master plan
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architecture & urban design processes with a...
Fantastic Norway is an architecture studio with a unique approach to their planning and design process.Their office initiated with the ambition of “creating an open, including and socially aware architectural practice and to re-establish the architect as an active participant and a constructor of society”. Their uniqueness of their practice is a red caravan which they use in an...
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alternative ways to map a region →
A different approach to mapping a region in which testbedstudio represent some of the relations that exist in the area. It is a “map” of the area Kiruna Narvik in the form of a 123 x 456 cm large hand drawn environmental section that goes beyond technical drawings or plans. The drawing explains how the whole region is composed as a large ecosystem, and enables speculations...
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Physical, Social and Cultural Urban Regeneration →
A 6 year urban regeneration plan in GL.VALBY area in the southwest of Copenhagen that goes beyond well-designed buildings and well-planned spaces.
Together with improvements in the area’s housing stock, roads and other infrastructural issues, the plan offers a social and cultural initiatives that cultivate a sense of place, teaching residents and visitors about the richness of the district by...
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MAPKIBERA - Nairobi's biggest slum is no longer a... →
Bottom-up maps that make a difference
As in many other cities of the world, Kibera Narobi’s biggest slum (1 million people) was a blank spot in the official maps and databases. MAPKIBERA is a bottom up approach that intends to map put everything which happens in the area (health, education, water, sanitation, security, etc). The driver force is the understanding that “without basic...
6 tags
“to effectively address the global environmental problems, we will have to start...”
– Per G. Berg