Category: planning
-
MAD-ness: Huaxi City Centre
There are definitely too many blog references to this project to name… so going straight to the source: “MAD recently organized a collaborative masterplanning project in South West China. Ten young international architects were invited to take part in an urban experiment, to design a new city centre on a scenic natural site close to…
-
Oh Joyless Utopia
This quick one found via Modern Mechanix features a ‘City within a City’, featuring New York’s Interstate Commerce Center, envisioned in 1946 as a dreary, hypermobilized utopian hub. “This unique “in-building highway,” 32 feet wide and three-quarters of a mile long, and rising at a grade of only 6%, will be one of the outstanding…
-
DailyLand: Monterey Eco-Resort
In this modern time there is a metric that is often used to describe certain projects: biggest, brightest, first, etc. One that comes with an immediate dubious reaction is ‘greenest’ – which is a subjective and relatively meaningless term, which even with our current certification systems is a moving and meaningless target. One recent project…
-
Energy Dump
Not a lot festering here in terms of energy links, but a couple of interesting ideas related to our electricity infrastructure – coming from two different worlds. The first takes a look at our existing power structure – namely the ubiquitous grid. From InfraNet Lab, this post announces the ‘Power of Ecosystems/Ecosystems of Power’ –…
-
Transportation Dump
I’ve been doing a ton of research lately on green streets, so that’s cause some focus beyond the general bigger picture of transportation. And with all of the upcoming spending on infrastructure through stimulation – it will be interesting to see how much of this will be green, how much will be grey, or at…
-
Dubai in the Toilet
There’s been a couple of murmurs regarding the failing infrastructure in Dubai, which has now (temporary) closed the famed Jumeirah Beach due to a preponderance of brown trout. Via Times Online: “A noxious tide of toilet paper, raw sewage and chemical waste has transformed Dubai’s most prestigious stretch of shoreline into a foul-smelling health hazard.…
-
Reading List: Drosscape
Early in the life of this (still youthful) blog, I had a short throwaway post about Modes of Representation – and echoed a term I had heard regarding ‘visual masturbation’ – the analogue of the pointless drivel associated with verbal masturbation. While there are still countless examples of both in the design and planning spheres…
-
Stan Allen at the AALU
Stan Allen: Before and After Landscape Urbanism01/27/09 – Architectural Association Lecture :: Taipai Waterfront – images via Stan Allen View the lecture via live streaming available from 5.45pm at http://stream.aaschool.ac.uk/The emergence of landscape urbanism, along with the development of the protocols of digital design, must be counted one of the most significant developments in the…
-
Questioning EcoMetropolitanism
Perhaps I missed the memo regarding a new found integration of ‘wildness’ into our cities as the 2009 topic to watch. Maybe it started with Fritz Haeg’s Animal Estates – jumping to Tomorrow’s Thoughts Today and the idea of City Zoo, shifting to the more expansive concept from _urb about Post Humanist Rewilded Eco Ethical…
-
Welcome to Portlandia
Is Portland European, or is Europe Portlandian? Hmmmm….