Cities: The Latest Architecture and News

Cities that rely on the use of private cars experience a variety of problems- long commutes to and from work, endless traffic jams, and an increase in pollution. While it seems like cars are the most reliable option to take us from place to place, city planners are frequently promoting the benefits of public transit, and the development of communities that are centered around many forms of public transportation. Many cities are growing faster than they were initially planned. As a result, roadways have expanded, land is being transformed into massive parking lots, and connections between communities are growing farther apart.

Countries around the world have urban, suburban, and rural problems- and it’s all connected by the problem itself. There are too many highway systems. In some cities that are notoriously known for their traffic jams, like Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Atlanta, there are almost five miles of road per every 1000 residents. This has also impacted how some forms of public transit, like rail cars and busses, operate, significantly reducing their efficiency. So why do we build these superhighways, and how can we fix their congestion?

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As part of a new initiative of the multidisciplinary laboratory based in Mexico, dérive LAB presents "Shared Streets", a project with a focus on urban design that seeks to spatially transform the street so that it is governed by human relations, rather than using traffic control devices; this suggests that the street is not only a space for transportation and mobility but one in which many other social, economic and cultural activities take place.

Foster + Partners, working in collaboration with Petrolina Group, has revealed the design of a new master plan to transform the seafront of Larnaca, Cyprus, into a sustainable and enjoyable area for the city residents, future generations, and new visitors. The resort town of Larnaca aims to redesign one of its main arteries, the Larnaca-Dhekelia Road, to become more pedestrian-friendly, along with its seafront. Foster’s proposal aims to enhance the land’s ecological value and to double the length of the waterfront accessible to the public.

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In 2018, the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) announced that the Japanese city of Osaka won the bid to host the 2025 World Expo, an event expected to draw millions of visitors. The event will open on April 13, 2025, and close on October 13, 2025. This will be Japan’s second time hosting the event, as another World Expo was held in Osaka in 1970. The official theme for this edition is “Designing Future Society for Our Lives.” Architect Sou Fujimoto has been chosen as the Expo Site Design Producer of the event, becoming responsible for designing the master plan and directing the designers of the participating countries. As of March 24, 2023, 153 countries and regions and 8 international organizations have officially confirmed their participation in Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan.

“How do we ensure new parks don’t cause ‘green gentrification,’ which can lead to the exclusion and displacement of underserved communities? How can we ensure we don’t displace the communities that new parks are meant to serve?,” asked Dede Petri, CEO of the Olmsted Network (formerly the National Association of Olmsted Parks), during an Olmsted 200 event.

New parks are meant to be accessible to everyone, but in many urban areas, developer-driven parks mostly attract wealthier Americans. Cities benefit from increased development adjacent to these new parks, bringing in higher tax revenues, but that raises questions about whether these spaces can, in effect, lead to community displacement.

We’re all familiar with the plot of a movie that occurs in a city still standing in a post-apocalyptic era. The streets are empty, except for a few survivors who wander aimlessly, searching for signs of life. Buildings begin to crumble and rust away after years of neglect, public transportation sits idle, and overgrown weeds spring from the cracks in the unmanaged sidewalks and streets. The scene feels eerie because we can’t imagine letting our physical environment sit in decay. It seems impossible that our built environments where we live and work each day suddenly fall silent. It’s a city without a pulse.

Infrastructure is widely known by the population in general, defined simply as a set of fundamental services for the socio-economic development of a region, such as sanitation, transportation, energy, and telecommunication. The commonly presented examples always refer to man-made physical structures. However, a new concept of infrastructure has emerged in recent decades, driven primarily by the urgent need for reconciliation between humans and nature for the survival of species.

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For every car that drives on the road, we need to find a place to put it- but are parking garages the answer? Parking garages are often seen as the antithesis of people-friendly urban planning. Large gray boxes are used solely to store cars that make temporary visits and seem like a poor use of space, especially in cities where land comes at a premium. Because of these garages, urban cores have quickly been transformed into parking districts, where vehicle storage dominates the aesthetic of a business district. Building codes only contribute to the problem, where the number of spaces is passed down as a mandate, even spreading out into suburban areas. Parking garages are everywhere- flanking shopping malls, connecting to residential towers, and surrounding sporting venues.

When Airbnb began nearly 15 years ago, it offered a new and innovative solution to book short-term stays without any hassle. By renting out a spare room or an entire apartment, it provided an alternative to traditional hotel models which were often overpriced and overbooked. Airbnb now faces many critics as the company quickly grew, offering hundreds of thousands of stays around the globe, but not without a handful of negative experiences. Now, planners and policymakers are beginning to see the effects of the abundance of Airbnb listings and how it impacts a growing housing crisis.

Munich – Bavaria’s capital since 1506 – is a city with layers and layers of history. Its many years as a rising architectural epicenter have left an interesting and unique mix of buildings. From Middle Age churches and cathedrals to contemporary synagogues. From skyscrapers to small pavilions. Brutalism to Art Nouveau. Munich’s architecture is truly extensive and marvelous.

Though not acknowledging Munich’s beer wonders would be wrong, the only mention of this substance would be in the stunning buildings (like the new Paulaner HQ by Hierl Architekten) that contain them. Yes, other aspects of the city are grandiose, but let’s focus on Munich’s top attraction: its architecture.

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This article was originally published on Common Edge.

What is the 15-Minute City? It’s every city ever built by humans on this planet until a century ago, but with a catchy new name. If a city’s old parts haven’t been destroyed in the past century, it’s the areas that attract the most tourists. And people will travel across continents and oceans to experience the best of them.

Forty years ago, a few pioneers decided to start building 15-Minute Cities again. Actually, they built 5-minute cities because they didn’t think people would walk for 15 minutes—and, in the early 1980s, they were right, because people were so conditioned to driving everywhere back then. Seaside, Florida, is where it all began. Time magazine called it “the little town that changed the world.” For the first time in the modern history of sprawl, people could toss their car keys in a drawer or hang them on the wall and leave them there for days. When people returned from Seaside vacations, they came back asking, “Why can’t we build this way at home?” And soon, the New Urbanism was born.

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