This survey is not based solely on quality of life, number of trees or the cost of a month’s rent. Instead, we examine some cities that aim to be both smart and well managed, yet have an undeniably hip vibe. Our pick of cities that are, in a phrase, both great and good:
"Jugaad" is a Hindi term referring to the ingenuity of citizens living in resource-constrained environments, a concept from which New Yorkers might derive some enlightenment. Enter Jugaad Urbanism: Resourceful Strategies for Indian Cities, an exhibition created with the help of curator Kanu Agrawal that opens at New York's Center for Architecture next week.
The exhibition is "design by the people, for the people, of Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Pune," says Agrawal, and showcases everyday innovations of slum-dwelling residents and the designers and architects who work around them.
The peak toll in the first month of operation on State Route 167 in Washington was $5.75. I know, I know, you would never pay such an exorbitant amount when America has taught you that free roads are your birthright. But that money bought Washington drivers a 27-minute time savings. Is a half hour of your time worth $6?
Eric A. Morris in a two-part essay at Freakonomics weighs in favor of toll roads that vary in response to traffic levels as a way out of congestion and posits that this way, we may even love paying for roads that we generally consider free to us.
This video of a transportation system in planning stage somewhere in China is interesting and innovative. It shows that the train doesn’t have to stop for embarking and disembarking passengers thus saving not only energy but also travel time.
“If you are in a shipwreck and all the boats are gone, a piano top . . . that comes along makes a fortuitous life preserver,” Fuller once wrote. “But this is not to say that the best way to design a life preserver is in the form of a piano top. I think that we are clinging to a great many piano tops in accepting yesterday’s fortuitous contrivings.”
The New Yorker has an excellent piece on Buckminister Fuller, the inventor of the geodesic dome displayed in a grand fashion for the U.S. Pavilion for the 1967 World’s Fair in Montreal.
The geodesic dome as you know encloses more space with less material than any other structure and can withstand tremendous pressure (a staple for most sci-fi futuristic movies). But yet they are considered a “massive total failure.” Anyone care to guess why? Anyway, Fuller’s mission was not aimed at selling the Dome but hammering away at people’s stagnant capacity for change.
For a while I lived with a ‘rocker’ roommate who had drums, electric guitar, and the works and regularly practiced his art. He was considerate enough to pipe down when I asked him to and I actually even enjoyed some of it. But I wasn’t sure our neighbors appreciated it much. Heck, we even got the cops sent to us once for a noise violation. So how do we go about avoiding that?
Alexander Gelfand and his percussion-crazy wife found themselves in a similar predicament when neighbors vowed to boot them out of their New York apartment. But they decided to be proactive and soundproof their apartment. They sure have some interesting suggestions and I had never heard of green glue or mass-loaded vinyl before. But of course, it didn’t come cheap:
Our total labor and sheetrock costs were around $4,000, with an additional $3,000 for materials. (We also invested $1,000 to have fiberglass insulation pumped into our walls to give the apartment a smidgen of sound isolation before the real work began.)
So unless you are really serious about your percussion skills, it may not be worthwhile. And of course, your spouse must love it too. There is no way to soundproof a marriage.
Technically this is a blog related to urban planning but at heart, I’ve always been a designer and absolutely love innovative and creative solutions to everyday problems. Unclutterer mentions that this idea was first implemented on yachts where space is at a premium.
When I first saw the ‘storage under the staircase’, my first thought was – how cool is that! This solves the problem of trying to find a place for your shoes near the place where you actually wear them. Isn’t it tedious to haul in your shoes from some inside closet to near the door where you wear them before heading out? I wonder why no one thought of this before with all that space under the stair and the rise of the staircase doubling up as a drawer.