Urbanist at war

Are cities the best place to live? Are suburbs OK? A fight grows in urban planning, with Harvard at the center

 

 

 

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."

KSA's new cities

New Economic Cities planned for Saudi Arabia...
more here at NY Times article:

Resilient City Design Competition

http://www.resilientcity.org/

"ResilientCity.org is a not-for-profit network of architects, urban planners and designers, engineers, and landscape architects focused on developing creative, practical, and implementable planning and building design strategies that help address one of our century's most important challenges: namely, dealing with the significant future problems that will be associated with the impacts of climate change and energy transition in the context of human settlement"

Smart Mobility

Transportation for America has recently posted some interesting case studies on transportation. What is of interest is their look at excess capacity and the rubric they use in exploring it: increased efficiency, travel options, better information, pricing and payments and trip reduction. How can we learn from their industry and apply these tools for other industries/infrastructures in need of rethinking, redesign...?

From Pyramids to Suburbs...

And the cities just keep coming... Cairo is next and is in need, no doubt. This NY Times article sums up the progress of serveral new cities being built on the edges of civilization...


"Greater Cairo needs 2 million new housing units within the next 10 years..."

"A few miles farther out in the desert is the extreme side of replacement Cairo: an exclusive golf course community called Allegria, already half built, and the planned luxury development of Westown, flanking the main highway from Cairo to Alexandria. Developers are building a replica of downtown Beirut, which will serve as an urban hub for all the gated communities and other developments proliferating in the desert."

St Louis Arch Riverfront Design Comp

The City + The Arch + The River
St. Louis and the International Design Competition to rethink the arch national park, the waterfront and the city.

And the Eco Cities fade?

Keeping up with the progress of these grand plans for Eco-Cities...here is an update from the Times.

Retrofitting Suburbia

Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs
"While there has been considerable attention by practitioners and academics to development in urban cores and new neighborhoods on the periphery of cities, there has been little attention to the redesign and redevelopment of existing suburbs. Here is a comprehensive guidebook for architects, planners, urban designers, and developers that illustrates how existing suburbs can be redesigned and redeveloped. The authors, both architects and noted experts on the subject, show how development in existing suburbs can absorb new growth and evolve in relation to changed demographic, technological, and economic conditions."

Tedx video here

Get a Degree in Ruralism

photo credit

In reading AKASH KAPUR's "letter from India", Agriculture Left to Die at India's Peril, one begs the question of whether urbanists, designers, planners and architects aren't missing the issue by not focusing on RURAL development and only on urban. While the drive is for greater urbanization, and yes, the needs for water, housing and waste management will be of major necessity, but shouldn't we be addressing this in the most "sustainable" of manners, and thus nipping this at the bud? And instead asking, Why are people moving into the cities, and how can we improve the RURAL experience? Thus addressing and supporting issues such as agriculture and food supplies, safe water and sanitation. Does waiting till the critical mass appear in the city makes sense? Or should we not be addressing these issues on a more dispersed scale - that of the rural?

rural desigers...ruralist!

see my earlier related blogposts

Shrinking City

Article: New York Times by David Streitfeld

"a model for a different era". From expansion with development to developing with shrinkage. Flint, Michigan talk about using land banks to covert abandoned, foreclosed properties into natural landscape, saving money, condesing the town and ultimately rethinking the American city.

“If it’s going to look abandoned, let it be clean and green,” he said. “Create the new Flint forest — something people will choose to live near, rather than something that symbolizes failure.”

land banks: (taken from this U. of Michigan site by Jessica de Wit) A land bank is a public authority created to efficiently hold, manage and develop tax-foreclosed property.(1) Land banks act as a legal and financial mechanism to transform vacant, abandoned and tax-foreclosed property back to productive use. Generally, land banks are funded by local governments' budgets or the management and disposition of tax-foreclosed property.(2) In addition, a land bank is a powerful locational incentive, which encourages redevelopment in older communities that generally have little available land and neighborhoods that have been blighted by an out-migration of residents and businesses.(3) While a land bank provides short-term fiscal benefits, it can also act as a tool for planning long-term community development. Successful land bank programs revitalize blighted neighborhoods and direct reinvestment back into these neighborhoods to support their long-term community vision.

Related:
Shrinking Cities in a Global Perspective Program, University of California, Berkeley

USA Today Article

Re-Visioning the City

image and related article

Not since the the middle of the 20th century have architects, planners and visionaries embarked into old territories of imagining new cities. The Post WW II effects along with the following Energy Crisis sparked a number of new templates for how we structure living... I think that time as returned, with the renewed understanding of the planets fragile state and the simple fact that more than half of us on the planet now live in cities.

What are those visions and why? Can one find themes from the array of plans, that might make aware emerging fields of urban theory? Its worth a try.

Paris, France:
urban regeneration
Remaking Paris

-in process of researching...

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."

Sustainable Cities

also see eco-countries

Perhaps during a recession, as things slow down a bit, is the best time to reflect on the Eco-Cities and Resorts (whats the difference these days?). Below are the latest ones I have found:
















Monterrey Bay Shores, California
from Inhabitat: (http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/02/04/monterey-bay-shores-eco-resort/)

The site for the Monterey Bay Shores eco-resort is situated on a defunct sand mine, which had been operating for over 60 years. The sand mine considerably damaged the natural ecosystem, stripping away important topsoil layers and allowing invasive species to infiltrate the area. As part of the resort development, MBS will also restore 85% of the 29 acre site to native flora and fauna. Over 6.7 acres will be dedicated as an endangered species habitat and restored coastline. Additionally, 5 acres will be built as a living roof, leaving only 4% of the site as impervious surface, which is great. All parking is below ground, and even the fire lanes will be constructed from a grass paver, rather than asphalt.















Masdar: Abu Dhabi
from website:
"Welcome to Masdar City - the world's first carbon-neutral, zero-waste city. Currently under construction in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Masdar City will feature all of the modern conveniences, services and benefits of living in one of the great cities of the world, but in a carbon-neutral environment.

Masdar City, soon to become home to 40,000 residents and 50,000 daily commuters, is being built around pedestrians, where open public squares intersect with narrow shaded walkways and connect to homes, schools, restaurants, theatres and shops. The architecture of the city is inspired by the traditional medinas, souks and wind towers of the Arab world

The City is a free zone clean-tech cluster. Academics, researchers, students, entrepreneurs and financers and more than 1,500 visionary companies will have offices, research centers and operations within city walls, benefiting from 100% foreign ownership, zero taxes, zero import tariffs, zero restrictions on capital movement and among the strongest intellectual property protection in the region.

Masdar City is more than a concept - it is happening. Phase One of Masdar City has now begun - The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology is underway and Masdar City will be home to 100 students and faculty by fall 2009.

Dongtan, China
from website: Dongtan will produce its own energy from wind, solar, bio-fuel and recycled city waste. Clean technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells will power public transport. A network of cycle and footpaths will help the city achieve close to zero vehicle emissions. Farmland within the Dongtan site will use organic farming methods to grow food.

Dongtan will be a vibrant city with green ‘corridors’ of public space ensuring a high quality of life for residents. The city is designed to attract employment across all social and economic demographics in the hope that people will choose to live and work there.

Dongtan demonstrates to the world China’s ability to work closely with the environment and has provided a methodology for sustainable communities across China and beyond.

Logrono Montecorvo Eco City, Rioja, Spain
from website: The long, snaking line of interconnected buildings will feature volumes of different heights, skins and window arrangements. But each unit will have an identical or virtually identical layout.

To take housing blocks as an example, a ten-storey northern unit will include three storeys of underground parking, a ground floor for the public and six storeys of apartments. To the south of that, another building will provide one storey of underground parking and three storeys of housing. Bridges will connect the northern and southern buildings. The same layout applies when the buildings serve other functions.

Each unit will have a view to the south, enabling residents to see Logroño and other parts of La Rioja. Given the steepness of the hill, the southern buildings will not block views from the northern buildings.

At its highest point, a funicular will terminate at a museum and viewing point hidden in a research and promotion centre for renewable and energy-efficient technology. This centre will be hidden in the top of one hill. It is unclear how far down the hill the funicular will go, or how many funiculars will serve the city.

Carbon Neutral Zira Island, Azerbaijan
from website: "Zira Island is a 1,000,000 sq meter island In the Caspian Sea that will soon be developed into an incredible eco-community and sustainably built resort. Master-planned by Denmark-based Big Architects, the carbon-neutral eco-island is based on the seven peaks of Azerbaijan and its mountainous ecosystems. Located in the bay of the capital city Baku, Zira Island is a ferry ride away from a growing metropolis and will stand as an example to a region so dependent on oil, that it is possible to live off the wind and sun."
















Green City/Green Mountain, Libya
from article:

The declaration basically says everything the world would want to hear: sustainable development; archaeological conservation; eco-tourism; renewable energy; environmentally responsible town planning; micro-banking; education; biofuels; even production of "the finest quality organic food and drink". In essence, it was a declaration that Libya are now more interested in saving the planet than bankrolling terrorists, and that one day soon the Green Mountain region would be a very nice place to come on holiday - a sort of cross between St Tropez, the garden of Eden, and Waitrose.

To achieve these daunting ambitions, Saif al-Islam has created the Green Mountain Conservation and Development Authority, a curious coalition of international experts in green technology, conservation, agriculture, architecture and whatever else, with responsibility for a 5,500 sq km area littered with Greek, Roman and Byzantine ruins and with 220km of largely unspoilt coast. And leading the whole plan is Britain's ubiquitous architectural troubleshooter, Norman Foster.