You can’t define modern civilization without mentioning its cities. These urban settlements vary in culture, size and specialty, with certain areas becoming more significant throughout the development of a region. Historically, the size or population of a settlement was a general indicator of its importance—the bigger city, the more power it yields—however, with the large rural-to-urban migration of the last century, it has become harder to define what makes a city important. There are many types of urban landscapes, and for architects and planners it is vital to efficiently categorize settlement types in order to successfully develop designs and city plans. The following list provides four key definitions that have emerged in the last century.
Getting around a city of millions is a miracle of design, engineering and cooperation. In conversation, on foot, by bus, train, bike and ferry, Van Alen’s weeklong Spring Festival this June invites participants to experience and consider the present and future of urban mobility.
How can we plan a better city? The answer has confounded architects and urban planners since the birth of the industrial city. One attempt at answering came in the form of a spectacular modernist proposal outside of Amsterdam called the Bijlmermeer. And, as a new two-part episode by 99% Invisible reveals, it failed miserably. But, like all histories, the story is not as simple as it first appears.
Designing public spaces without considering the circulation and parking of bicycles is no longer an option in today's world. Accessibility for the free traffic of cyclists must also be accompanied by adequate security conditions, incorporating these devices in the best possible way to parks, sidewalks, parking lots, and the streetscape as a whole.
Are you designing an urban space, or do the exteriors of your project require a correct link with the circulation of bicycles? Check these support elements that can help you to generate a better city for the urban commuter on wheels.
https://www.archdaily.com/887343/urban-equipment-for-public-spaces-helps-to-build-a-bike-friendly-cityAD Editorial Team
An integral and substantial component of TAW 2018, the International Scientific Conference aims at exploring contemporary research activities and design tactics that deal with the topic of co-habitation from different perspectives and within different fields of interest, directly or indirectly related to architecture, city, and landscape. Through the observation of different tactics adopted by researchers and professionals, the hope is to identify new research and design trajectories.
Videos
What’s best for the left-over spaces from our criss-crossing cities infrastructures?
BOUN Serves as a unit block for UNI in the field of furniture design. It will be a platform for experimentation and conceptual exchange of ideas for furniture designs happening at various levels. The program intends to bring out some extraordinary design ideas and designers across the globe to help them in realizing their great Ideas.
Whether they're pretending facade details are raindrops or peeking out of Ricardo Bofill’s La Muralla Roja, Daniel Rueda and Anna Devis introduce a unique perspective on the city. The Valencia-based duo are #couplegoals, and their Instagram accounts reveal their fun, quirky personalities and love for the built environment.
Scrolling through their feeds, viewers get a glimpse of the couple’s travels through whimsical portraits which celebrate the beauty of architecture. The adorable duo playfully interacts with their surroundings, using the city as their stage and architecture—and each—other as characters.
Design for Philadelphia's iconic Benjamin Franklin Parkway by Paul Crét and Jacques Gréber, 1917
The 2018 Better Philadelphia Challenge | $5,000 First Prize
This international urban design competition for university students is now open for registration. In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Philadelphia's iconic Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the Center / Architecture + Design seeks creative concepts for what a new 'Parkway' could be in a dense and developed 21st century city, connecting neighborhoods with nearby natural and cultural resources.
As urban areas develop, each city forms a unique structural logic. With this structure usually conceived on an ad-hoc basis, political terms such as “metropolitan area” and “neighborhood” are not always useful when analyzing and comparing the performance of cities. In a quest for new analytical tools, Robin Renner has devised an anatomically-based classification system in his new book Urban Being: Anatomy & Identity of the City. Through a thoughtful investigation of existing urban areas from around the globe using satellite images and personal experiences, Urban Being offers an insight into how transportation networks and streetscapes can be best organized to promote a healthy metropolitan environment.
Renner’s analysis ranges from macro-regions that can even cross country borders to the defined spaces between arterial roads in cities, which he calls "urban cells." As the neighborhoods and units in which inhabitants reside, urban cells are important when examining the identity and efficiency of a city. They are defined by both their physical properties and the actions that take place inside of them. Below is a small sample of how Renner analyzes urban cells from the book.
Concéntrico is Logroño’s Architecture and Design Festival. It is open to residents of the city and visitors from elsewhere, and it aims to discover and rediscover spaces of interest in the city’s Historic Center. The Festival invites attendees to tour these spaces through installations that create a connection between inner courtyards, tucked-away spaces and small plazas that, in the day-to-day, tend to go unnoticed.
Shelter Global is pleased to invite architects, planners, students, engineers, designers, thinkers, NGOs and organizations from all over the world to take part in the 2017 Dencity Competition.
Alfred Sauvy published in the French magazine L’Observateur the article “Trois Mondes, Une Planete” (August 1952) talking about the World geopolitical context. It concludes with a sentence based on a famous quotation by E.S. Sieyès expressed during the French Revolution: “Car enfine ce Tiers Monde ignoré, exploité, méprisé come le Tiers Etat, veut, lui aussi, être quelque chose.”
Videos
reSITE Conference, Prague, Forum Karlin. Photo Dorota Velek
On June 16-17, Prague will be hosting one of the leading architecture and urbanist events in Europe. Most of the 49 world renowned experts who will speak at reSITE 2016: Cities in Migration have experienced migration themselves. Coming from 20 countries, they will bring innovative solutions and successful strategies for European and Western cities to come to terms painlessly with the influx of new residents. Carl Weisbrod, Chairman of the City Planning Commission of NYC, Professor Saskia Sassen, sociologist at Columbia University, and Michael Kimmelman, the Architecture Critic for The New York Times will come from New York City. A huge number of speakers will come from Germany. Besides the famous landscape architect, Martin Rein-Cano from Topotek 1, Berlin, we will meet one of the city planner of Munich and the co-founders of the initiative “Refugees Welcome.”
Edmonton’s Infill Design Competition is an opportunity to encourage productive conversations about infill and help the public and development community understand what’s possible for infill design. The competition should demonstrate that infill can augment, rather than detract from the character of our established neighbourhoods. The City of Edmonton is excited to promote and celebrate innovation, context sensitive design, and advance the design ethic for infill development in Edmonton.
The architecture drawing gallery Tulpenmanie invites talented young authors (max 30 years old) from all over the world to submit an unpublished drawing about architecture, landscape and the city. During the next Salone del Mobile Milano 2016 the best works will be part of the exhibition 30<30.
The Architecture Committee of Coalition Climat Montreal invites designers, professionals and students in planning to reflect on the future of Montreal and its "Morph.o.polis" transformation. The competition is part of the "marathon créatif" activities of the public consultation conducted by the OCPM (Office de Consultation Publique de Montréal) whose objective is to identify "concrete, ambitious, achievable initiatives to reduce dependence on fossil fuels in Montreal."
After receiving over 350 registrations from 50 different countries at last years inaugural Dencity Competition, Shelter is pleased to invite back architects, planners, students, engineers, designers, thinkers, NGOs and organizations from all over the world to take part in designing for a better city.
New York City has seen rapid redevelopment that has capitalized on previously undesirable locations. Sitting at the top of these locations are the sites that have access to waterfront. Most of the ventures in these areas are private economic interests that only address public value when there is a direct return on profit. If not taken into consideration many of these waterfronts will be absorbed and, with the constant return of people to the urban core, there lies a need to create public and cultural infrastructure. In a city that is filled with numerous icons, parks, theaters, and museums an aquarium is one of the few remaining public typologies that isn't prevalent within the immediate area.
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