Cities, lessons and modern versions...

From: Lessons for a Modern Chicago, New York Times, James Warren

"An estimated 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050. The fittest to survive, the consensus goes, are those metropolitan areas — not just cities — that can combine talent, capital, innovation and cooperation in plotting organic strategies for growth, and not just steal businesses from elsewhere."

"...A new ranking of metropolitan economies, based on employment and per-capita income growth, shows American cities plummeting as Asian and Latin American cities rise. In the past year, only one American city, Austin, Tex., was in the top 35, with Chicago ranking 82nd among 150 metro economies worldwide and trailing 30 cities in the United States.

Panels exploring the revivals of Barcelona, Munich, Seoul and Turin underscored that success involved a determination to work with local, state and federal governments; to internationalize economies; to innovate to revitalize traditional industries; to upgrade workers’ skills with technical training; and to shift to a green economy while boosting investment in high speed rail..."

"...Emily J. Harris, program director for Chicago Metropolis 2020, found the big takeaway from the conference was that economic development strategy must depend on innovation “and not trying to attract firms from elsewhere.” Growth must come from within, the strategy used in Turin, Italy’s Detroit, which parlayed a declining auto sector’s technical savvy into powerhouse design and aerospace centers."

Underdome

Underdome:  a project that identifies a range of positions on energy and public life and assigns to each a corresponding architectural icon.

"The guide’s taxonomy covers the political, spatial, and cultural dimensions of energy, and revolves around four main topics: “Power” asks how governments, corporations, organizations and individuals have the potential to restructure energy performance. “Territory” asks how energy transforms and is transformed by the changing networks of today’s metropolis. “Lifestyle” asks what kind of norms and behavior energy performance schemes imagine. And lastly, “Risk,” as a kind of meta-category that cuts across these other fields, asks how we weigh priorities among a diverse set of interests and contingencies."

interview here

Shanty Towns

image: Jim Wilson and related article: Cities Deal With Surge in Shantytowns by Jesse McKinley

"Like a dozen or so other cities across the nation, Fresno is dealing with an unhappy déjà vu: the arrival of modern-day Hoovervilles, illegal encampments of homeless people that are reminiscent, on a far smaller scale, of Depression-era shantytowns."

"Dozens of homeless men and women here have found more organized shelter at the Village of Hope, a collection of 8-by-10-foot storage sheds built by the nonprofit group Poverello House and overseen by Mr. Stack. Planted in a former junkyard behind a chain-link fence, each unit contains two cots, sleeping bags and a solar-powered light."

The Green Zone

The New Green Zone, Baghdad, Iraq.

from The Guardian:

"The US military released the first tentative artists' impression yesterday. An army source said the barbed wire, concrete blast barriers and checkpoints that currently disfigure the 5 sq mile area would be replaced by shopping malls, hotels, elegant apartment blocks and leisure parks."

"American officials stress that final decisions about reconstruction and development rest with the Iraqi government. Karnowski added that as well as the benefits of renovating and demilitarising an important area of Baghdad, the blueprint would help to create a "zone of influence" around the massive new US Embassy compound being built on the eastern tip of the Green Zone. The $1bn project to move the embassy from Saddam's old presidential palace is planned for completion later this year."

...Crowded...

Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman.

The case is made, the need is clear...the only thing missing (beside the actual leadership and money) is the tools, frameworks and designs.

While new batteries, better cables and technologies I will leave for the scientists, what is the role of architects and urban designers?

-Understanding the infrastructures (energy, transportation, data/information) on multiple scales, relationships, schedules and performance.

-Creating new relationships on the scale of the dwelling by representing the systems, the needs and the opportunities.