Tag: social-urbanism | ArchDaily

Coffee or Tea: Third Places, Kiosks, and the Retail Architecture of Duration

Jonathan Yeung — Sun, 24 May 2026 07:30:00 +0000

"Coffee or tea?" is one of those phrases that follows you across contexts: asked on airplanes, after a meal, in hotel lounges, and in meeting rooms. It sounds like a small question—mere preference, a quick fork in the service script. Yet it also carries a quiet cultural inheritance. Tea arrives with the long history of ritual and domestic pacing, tied to older geographies of trade and everyday etiquette. Coffee arrives with a different lineage of circulation, later industrialized into the modern café and its public-facing rituals. In both cases, the drink is never only a drink; it is a practiced relationship to time and space.

Building at the Edge: New York and Hong Kong’s Competing Waterfront Logics

Jonathan Yeung — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 08:30:00 +0000

Coastal development in major cities has long been a terrain of opportunity and contention—shaped at once by the pursuit of capital (premium views, scarce land, and the promise of reclamation), by civic demands for public access and collective waterfront life, and by contemporary aspirations for sustainability and place-defining urban identity. Precisely because these agendas rarely align, extracting the full potential of waterfront sites is never straightforward.

Urban Banquet at the Curb: Hong Kong’s Third-Space Dining

Jonathan Yeung — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 08:30:00 +0000

Across cities worldwide, architecture unfolds continuously at the scale of people and community—not only through new buildings, renovations, or monumental works. "Third spaces" are especially revealing. Consider the street-side culinary realm: how seating, serving, and lingering occupy the edge of the street often discloses a city's cultural codes and spatial habits. What forms of dining and inhabitation have emerged in response to local climate, regulation, and social custom—and how have they evolved over time?

The Beaten Path: Connecting Towns and Identity through Appalachian Trail Networks

Olivia Poston — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Every year, over a thousand people complete the 2,192-mile (3528-kilometer) Appalachian Trail between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine. Millions more follow the trail for a shorter stretch by spending time at the countless overlooks, walking along the wooded ridges, or meandering through the small town centers, making this network one of the world's most visited and widely recognized trail corridors. However, the proposal for this expansive trail corridor, originally entered in a 1921 Journal of the American Institute of Architects article by Benton MacKaye, was far from a mere recreational outdoor amenity. This "project in regional planning" was a radical critique of the industrializing modernity that sharpened the divide between expanding cities of the Eastern coast and waning towns of the Appalachian mountains.

Environmental Urbanism and Urban Geographies: Medellín 2024-2027 Urban Plan

Alejandro Restrepo Montoya — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 03:30:00 +0000

CityMakers, The Global Community of Architects Who Learn from Exemplary Cities and Their Makers, is working with ArchDaily to publish a series of articles about Barcelona, Medellin, and Rotterdam. The authors are the architects, urban planners, and/or strategists of the projects that have transformed these three cities, which are visited in the "Schools of Cities" and studied in the "Documentary-Courses" made by CityMakers. On this occasion, Alejandro Restrepo Montoya, Director of Urban Planning and Architecture of Medellín, presents his article "Environmental Urbanism and Urban Geographies, Medellín 2024-2027"

How Do You Design for Informality?

Paul Yakubu — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 07:30:00 +0000

Informal architecture is the dominant mode of urbanization in rapidly growing and industrializing cities worldwide. In Delhi, the city with the largest population in India has half of its residents living in informal settlements. Lagos, with a population of over 22 million, also has 60% of its residents living in informal settlements. This pattern is also observed in Cairo, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, and other cities in the global south that face similar challenges of inequality and housing shortages. As their population grows and urbanization progresses, the exploration of informal architecture schemes to address the demand for affordable housing and basic services will only increase. While the primary purpose of design is to provide structure, lessons from informal architecture offer insights into how architects can respond to such schemes.

Socially Just Public Spaces Are Crucial to Flourishing Societies

Grace Mitchell Tada — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 03:30:00 +0000

One of the most radical instances of public space transformation happened recently. During the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, public space transformed into “a medical resource, a distribution hub, an overflow space, a center of protest and resistance, a gym, a senior center, a community center, a daycare center, a schoolyard, a night club, a transportation corridor, an outdoor restaurant, a shopping mall, a children’s playground, an outdoor theater, a music venue, a nature center, and a place of belonging and ‘being at home.’”

Affordable Housing in Portland: 3 Innovative Approaches to Design and Construction

Carla Bonilla Huaroc — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Despite the bad reputation of public housing in the United States, organizations, planners, and architects in Portland, Oregon are determined to create affordable housing that does not sacrifice quality or aesthetic appeal. While Portland has developed a bad reputation regarding its homelessness problem, in the past four years resources have flowed in the right direction, and designers have taken this in stride to design livable and striking buildings, within very restrictive budgets. Through innovative and creative approaches to construction and design, these organizations and designers have utilized federal, state, and city resources to make these types of projects a reality.

Overcoming Barriers: Social Justice in Latin American Architecture

Fabian Dejtiar — Sat, 20 May 2023 07:30:00 +0000

February 20th marks a new edition of the World Day of Social Justice. The theme, "Overcoming barriers and unlocking opportunities", is a perfect occasion to reflect on the importance of equity in all areas of society - and especially from architecture and urbanism. And yes: they both have a fundamental role in building accessible cities and are important tools for addressing the challenges of economic inequality and social exclusion.

The 15-Minute City, Deconstructed

Steve Mouzon — Fri, 10 Mar 2023 03:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Rebuilding and Destigmatizing Rome’s Quarticciolo Neighborhood

Marina Engel — Fri, 30 Dec 2022 03:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

On Community Preservation with Vishaan Chakrabarti in Urban Roots Podcast

Paula Cano — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 05:30:00 +0000

Vishaan Chakrabarti
https://uncertain.substack.com/p/vishaan-chakrabarti-rough-transcript

Timișoara Architecture Biennial 2022 Explores the Concept of “City as a Common Good”

Maria-Cristina Florian — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 06:30:00 +0000

The fourth edition of the Timișoara Architecture Biennial, or Beta, is focusing on the theme of “the City as Common Good”. Through a wide range of events, Beta aims to address topics that are relevant and urgent globally and explore their impact on the local built environment and its response to the needs of the communities. Taking place at various locations in the city of Timișoara, Romania, this year’s festival begins on September 23rd and ends one month later, on October 23rd.

Urban Disparities: How Caste Shapes Cities

Ankitha Gattupalli — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 07:30:00 +0000

Built environments are a reflection of the social order and dynamic ideals of society. Neighborhoods and cities are cultural relics shaped by diverse communities, some of whose voices are heard louder than others. In the past few decades, Indian metropolitans have been booming with urbanization. Holding cities back from being Utopian hubs of growth is spatial inequality. The residential segregation that patterns the cities of India can be understood through the caste system. The issue, however, is largely intersectional. Forces rooted in class, religion, and gender also structure the country's social landscape.

Is There a Solution to Inequality in Latin American Cities?

Victor Delaqua — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 05:00:00 +0000

The concept of equity is different from equality; equity means everyone needs support, but not necessarily in the same way. Therefore, the concept of urban equity allows us to preserve the uniqueness of each region of a municipality, protecting diversity and richness without overlooking infrastructure needs, which directly affect the quality of public space and the basic services required for a private residence - it allows us to design and invest in the city fairly, regardless of the region.

“The Citizen Urbanism Claims an Alternative Urban Model From Latin America”: Ocupa Tu Calle’s Lucia Nogales

Fabian Dejtiar — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 05:00:00 +0000

Lucía Nogales is the general coordinator of Ocupa tu Calle (Occupy your Street) —an UN-Habitat, Avina Foundation-supported initiative promoted by Lima Como Vamos— which focuses on 'citizen urbanism' for inclusive and resilient cities in Latin America.

Ecological Design: Strategies to Protect Latin America and the Caribbean's Vulnerable Cities in the Face of Climate Change

Fabian Dejtiar — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 05:00:00 +0000

Throughout the world's cities, in the midst of current and projected crises-- environmental, health, economic, and otherwise--one question looms: How can we prepare our urban centers' most vulnerable sectors?

Social Urbanism: From the Medellín Model to a New Global Movement

Gabriel Díaz Montemayor — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 03:30:00 +0000

Social Urbanism: Reframing Spatial Design – Discourses from Latin America, a new book by Maria Bellalta, ASLA, dean of the School of Landscape Architecture at the Boston Architectural College, is a welcome addition to the growing number of publications on the social justice-oriented form of urbanism, architecture, and public space emanating from Medellín and Colombia. The achievements of social urbanism have rightfully become synonymous with Medellín in the world of landscape architecture, urban planning and design, and architecture.