Category: planning
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Guest Post: From Honolulu to Paris MONU #20
by Gabriele Baleisyte “Nature” or nature? Does natural geography still mater much to today’s city? What is the current relationship between our conception of nature and its role in urban life? Which nature is dominating now; the pure or the second one_- man made nature? During my current stay in Rotterdam, I have heard these questions widely discussed at the 6th International Architecture…
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Hidden Hydrology Redux
Last week, I had the honor recently of presenting at a conference with one of my idols of landscape architecture, Anne Whiston Spirn. Aside from stimulating conversation, she presented the old and new of her work from The Granite Garden through her ongoing work on the Mill Creek Project in Philadelphia, i was reminded of…
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Urban Ecology
I’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Urban Ecology: Science of Cities by Richard T.T. Forman (Cambridge University Press, 2014). Since arrival a couple of days ago, i have not been disappointed, and this shapes up to be one of the most up to date resources for ecological principals applied to urban areas to date.…
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Bio-inspired Design
The latest issue of Zygote Quarterly, an online journal with a focus covers Bio-inspired design, and offers another opportunity to explore this topic (and the back issues as well). A really beautifully illustrated online magazine, ZG is worth delving into in depth, but also sitting back and and in this case, getting into a bit…
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Ecology & Landscape Architecture
A great post on the The Dirt from a couple of months back delves into a topic near and dear to my thoughts on landscape architecture and urbanism – particularly how do we blend science and design in meaningful ways. The article “Teaching Ecological Restoration (Not Restoration Ecology) includes the new Temple University concentration in…
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Get Shaking
One thing of note in Seattle is that it is a city of varied topography, and that this obviously guided the evolution of where settlement occurred, while creating districts and landmark areas (many ending with ‘Hill’). An interesting post related to this topographic urbanism is the seismic stability of my new city. From the Seattle…
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StreetMix – Transportation for the People
Cool video from the Code for America summit and the StreetMix application, which “…is an interactive street section builder that helps community members mockup the streets they’d like to live on and offer these mockups as future plans for city officials and planners.” A screenshot of the tool below shows the initial concept – and…
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Waterscape Urbanism
I was struck by a recent mis-use of the term landscape urbanism in this article from the Atlanta Journal Constitution on the need for climate change inspired floating homes. Quoting Thai landscape architect Danai Thaitakoo on the need for dealing with innundation. “Climate change will require a radical shift within design practice from the solid-state…
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Building a Bike Highway
The video of the presentation for GOOD Ideas for Cities is up, along with a nice write-up from organizer Alissa Walker from GOOD – so enjoy. Also check out some more detail, and download a PDF of the presentation over at the THINK.urban site.