Noah Radford, US Director for Space Syntax and PhD candidate at MIT presents an evidence-based approach to the planning and design of buildings and cities using computer modeling technologies. His talk as part of a series on technology, people, place, and space covers documenting the sense of place in today’s cities. I’m sure Google’s StreetView [...]
Residents of Detroit will not appreciate calling their city an urban wasteland. Unfortunately due to the downturn in the manufacturing economy on this side of the pond, the city bears obvious signs of neglect and rising incidence of abandonment. Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre photograph the ‘ruins of Detroit’ through a series of photo essays [...]
The New York subway is one of those connecting systems that helps us make sense of the complex urbanscape of the Big Apple. Ben Popper at Men’s Vogue shares the evolution of this cartographic beauty that tends to make complex connections decipherable to the common New Yorker (and the confused tourist). The mashup map of [...]
When you hear skyscrapers these days, you instantly think of Dubai but it turns out that Moscow with its 103,000 dollar millionaires isn’t far behind: By 2015, Moscow will boast the 10 tallest office buildings in Europe—and already prime office rents in Moscow are going above $2,000 a square meter, 50 percent higher than the [...]
Urban civilizations continue to evolve and history is testimony that great civilizations have crumbled either due to onslaught of natural disasters or gradual shift in economic trends. Environmental Graffiti takes a look at 5 such cities in the United States that may be endangered. Like before, climate change and changing economies continue to influence the [...]
Just because you can doesn’t always mean you should. “This gleaming hunk of urban development is about to rise on an artificial, perfectly square island off the coast of Dubai” [source]. Dubai has been going crazy creating all these islands off their coast probably because coastal properties enjoy greater demand and thus elicit higher prices. [...]
The current issue of Science has a special focus on cities and urbanization especially in the developing world. Covering a vast range of topics like transportation, housing, pollution, and future trends, this promises to a must-read for all urban planners and urban policy researchers.
The Long Johns (John Bird and John Fortune) on the mechanisms of the market that takes a poor black man sitting on a crumbling porch in rural Alabama to High Structured Enhanced Credit Funds. Hilarious but tragically true.
This time-lapse video depicts 35 years' worth of construction in Tokyo's fashionable Shibuya district in ten seconds.
“The majority of the world’s designers focus all their efforts on developing products and services exclusively for the richest 10% of the world’s customers. Nothing less than a revolution in design is needed to reach the other 90%.” —Dr. Paul Polak, International Development Enterprises Looking beyond our usual perspectives can not only be enlightening but [...]
In today’s age of unpredictable weather and rampant flooding, the Dutch are leading the way with creating amphibious houses. As I mentioned before, we can forget about controlling nature (levees, etc.) and instead focus on adapting our living to minimize damages when weather turns foul.
co-authored by Rohit Pradhan Back in the days when Doordarshan (Indian state television) ruled the airwaves, if you tuned in during the weather forecast, you wouldn’t be completely off the mark if you thought that India’s urban regions comprised solely of Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras – conveniently located in four corners of India. It [...]
Global Cities looks at the changing faces of ten dynamic international cities: Cairo, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mumbai, São Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo.
A practical approach for developing economies – Design for Sustainability.
Ten areas that offer both affordable housing and rapidly rising home values in some of the country’s largest cities. Also, check out the list of biggest Metro areas with the lowest rent. All four Texas metros make the cut.