Look no further. It seems sprawl was at least partially to blame for Atlanta’s tornado. And that means “directly” to blame. Not in a “sprawl causes people to drive more, which releases more carbon into atmosphere, which causes climate change, which causes wierd weather related results” kinda way. Sweet.
Despite advances in Computer Aided Design (CAD), miniatures continue to remain a usefull tool for both architects and planners. Here are some good examples of models of Manhatten, Shanghai, San Francisco Bay and Chicago.
Here is a great article about urban planning and the work of traffic planners. It is particularily interesting to read because Wired (in my opinion) is a quite liberal publication, but the comments at the end are very diverse. I suggest skimming through the article just to get to the reader comments. They vary from “educated reflections” to “selfish banter”.
This looks like a promising new magazine on the topic of city planning. Their global approach to the issues plaguing our cities is very refreshing. I particularly like their description of planning and architectural resources today :
“Often, the pure pleasure to read reviews of urban planning … written by renowned experts is diminished by the pretentious academic style”
The first issue will deal with industrial renewal.
The new LRT line will have both Calgary’s first overhead and underground stations. Estimated date of completion : 2012.
Check out this video about the next president of the USA speaking on the future of cities in the midwest and the reasons why American cities in general are having trouble moving forward. (as a side note, I love Obamas speeches and was lucky enough to be part of the 200,000 people crowd when he spoke in in Berlin) Although the clip is very brief, I was happy to see Obama mentioning Jacobs before anyone else. Shows how cultured this man is.
My favorite part of the clip? The concluding sentence : “That will be part of the masterplan to rebuild the American economy”
For young urban planners in and around the Paris region this week, be sure to go to the “1ères assises de l’insertion professionnelle des jeunes urbanistes”, a half day conference about the profession and job market for young planning graduates. It will be held this Thursday, December 11th from 1:30 until 5:30 at the following address: Université Paris Sorbonne, 108, boulevard Malesherbes (17ème), amphithéâtre N° 111.
Send an e-mail to jeunesurbanistes.sfu@gmail.com to register.
Here is a link to the summery of the day.
I love watching these TED Talks (“ideas worth spreading”) but I just recently came by this one by James Howard Kunstler that had me literally laughing out loud. I’ve heard of his books (notably “The Geography of Nowhere” which I think I will be ordering. I can see no better way to explain how funny this speech is then to spell out, with absolutly no context, some of the best moments.
0:27: The immersive ugliness of our everyday environments in America is entropy made visible.
4:20 : To create a place of character and quality, you have to be able to define space. If you stand at the Wal-Mart over here and try and look at the Target store over here, you can’t see it because of the curvature of the earth.
While completing my internship in Berlin, I learned quite a bit about the IBA (Internationale Bauausstellungen) (link in german), a German program of urban regeneration that took place in Berlin from 1979 until 1987. What I didn’t know at the time is that this particular venture in Berlin was neither the first nor the last of its kind in Germany. The first was in 1901 (!). One of the latest, and the subject of an exhibition at La Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, in Paris, was the IBA Emscher Park in the Ruhr area. Dating from 1999, the objective of this particular IBA was to reconvert a previously industrial dominated region into a mixed use residential area. Although the project seemed very interesting, and the difficulties affronted in its completion must have been numerous, I was very disappointed with the way in which it was displayed in this exhibit. I went down expecting to learn a little bit about the urbanism itself and ended up leaving after 15 minutes of flashing images and weird noises.
I’m now going to have to update the “About the author” page on my blog to reflect the fact that I’m technically no longer a student. I completed my Internship at DPZ – Europe (Berlin), completed (and defended) my thesis and have moved on to looking for work. I’ve been so busy lately, since I just finished moving to Paris, that I haven’t been able to post anything on my blog. Well since I have more time on my hands I guess I can start blogging again. I figure I should talk about my thesis topic.
