Archinect - News

Kowloon Walled City: Life in the City of Darkness

2013-04-18T15:57:00-04:00

Kowloon Walled City, located not far from the former Kai Tak Airport, was a remarkable high-rise squatter camp that by the 1980s had 50,000 residents. A historical accident of colonial Hong Kong, it existed in a lawless vacuum until it became an embarrassment for Britain. This month marks the 20th anniversary of its demolition.

Finalists Announced for Breathe, The New Urban Village Project in New Zealand

2013-03-05T16:50:00-05:00

Four finalist entries have been unveiled in the Christchurch, New Zealand urban design competition, Breathe - The New Urban Village Project. The brief called for innovative medium-density housing development designs from collaborative groups containing a designer and a property developer.

A Michigan City Bets on Food for Its Growth

2012-11-15T18:22:00-05:00

The Downtown Market, in effect, is the newest piece of civic equipment built here since the mid-1990s to leverage the same urban economic trends of the 21st century — higher education, hospitals and health care, housing, entertainment, transit, and cleaner air and water — that are reviving most large American cities.

Too many people today conflate density with height.

2012-05-16T23:54:00-04:00

The urban tech districts that are emerging today, from SoMa in San Francisco to New York’s Silicon Alley and London’s Silicon Roundabout, are housed in similarly walkable, low to mid-story neighborhoods.

Richard Florida looks at recent writing by Edward Glaeser, Edward McMahon and Jonah Lehrer regarding the desirability and effects of density. He concludes that there are limits to the usefulness of density as a frame of reference.

Census: LA is the nation's densest urban area, while New York ranks 5th

2012-03-26T20:26:00-04:00

Feeling a little claustrophobic lately? Well, it’s not just you — newly released numbers from the Census Bureau say Angelenos are living in the nation's most densely-populated urban area. New York still has the highest population, but at 7,000 people per square mile, the Los Angeles/Anaheim/Long Beach area takes the density prize.

One Path to Better Jobs - More Density in Cities

2011-09-04T23:38:55-04:00

How great are the benefits of density? Economists studying cities routinely find that after controlling for other variables, workers in denser places earn higher wages and are more productive. Some studies suggest that doubling density raises productivity by around 6 percent while others peg the impact at up to 28 percent.

The man who thinks Manhattan isn’t dense enough

2011-05-20T11:47:20-04:00

The magic of cities comes from their people, but those people must be well served by the bricks and mortar that surround them. Cities need roads and buildings that enable people to live well and to connect easily with one another ... in the most desirable cities, whether they're on the Hudson River or the Arabian Sea, height is the best way to keep prices affordable and living standards high.