Archinect - News

A look at some cities revitalizing their blighted rivers

2016-08-24T13:52:00-04:00

Los Angeles wants to rethink its river. [...] And LA isn’t the only metropolis looking to reclaim its once-mocked waterway. Cities around the world are realizing that water can be a cultural and recreational asset, not something to hide or pillage, and it seems no waterway will be wasted for long.

Medellín wins 2016 Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize

2016-03-29T16:34:00-04:00

The Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize 2016 is conferred on Medellín, the second largest city in Colombia after the capital Bogotá. Having overcome challenges of uncontrolled urban expansion and years of violence due to social inequalities, Medellín has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past two decades. Through bold leadership, long-term plans and social innovation, the city’s leaders have tackled its most pressing issues and improved the economy...

The Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize is a bi-annual award give to a city to honor "outstanding achievements and contributions to the creation of liveable, vibrant and sustainable urban communities around the world."

Organized by the Urban Redevelopment Authority and the Centre for Liveable Cities, the prize comes with a $300,000 check written by the Keppel Corporation.

For more on Colombian urbanism, check out these links:

Medellín's "social urbanisation"

2015-05-30T13:12:00-04:00

In other words, the landscapes and cityscapes hung up on the wall of the mayor speak to you. City planners and administrators ought to listen to their cities.

Peter Day spoke with Medellin's mayor, Anibal Gaviria, about how his city has changed since the Escobar years. Specifically, about the importance of "social urbanisation" and the role of urban infrastructure projects.

Medellín made urban escalators famous, but have they had any impact?

2014-07-24T12:50:00-04:00

Medellín has gained much attention for its urban transformation — and the escalators, which won several international prizes for innovation, make up one of the most striking projects. [...] But are the escalators making any real economic or social impact in the neighborhood? To find out, I spent three months in Medellín talking with people in Comuna 13 about what has and hasn’t changed here.

Medellín made urban escalators famous, but have they had any impact?

2014-07-24T12:50:00-04:00

A Tale Of Two Cities: Mixing The Urban Poor Into A Rich Urban Life

2014-07-01T13:19:00-04:00

Skyscrapers and shanties, gleaming malls and rundown markets, palatial houses and the piss-poor guys who build them: Those are the divides in cities like Mumbai, Nairobi and Manila. Rich and poor do not much mingle. But a movement is afoot to change that. It aims to integrate the poor into the urban bloodstream, instead of shunting them from sight. For this "inclusive cities" movement, urban renewal doesn't require razing slums and markets.

11 Reasons the UN Should Make Cities the Focus of Its Forthcoming Sustainable Development Goals

2014-04-17T13:44:00-04:00

Last week I attended the seventh World Urban Forum in Medellín, Colombia, where more than 20,000 city leaders, urbanists, and planners from more than 160 countries met to discuss the future of cities across the globe. [...] Unfortunately, a number of important countries, the U.S. and Canada among them, remain worryingly undecided about joining this widespread call for a city-specific SDG from countries as diverse as Germany, Colombia, and Ghana.

Medellín Miracle or Marketing Ploy?

2014-04-15T13:59:00-04:00

Mainstream sources such as CNN and The New York Times have sung the city’s praises as a stunning success story. However, now that the conference is over, there are signs that there’s trouble in Medellín’s urban planning paradise.

Medellin's Outdoor Escalator Part of Plan to Remake City

2013-01-02T13:07:00-05:00

The Colombian city of Medellín was once the murder capital of the world and ground zero for Pablo Escobar’s cocaine cartel. But Medellín has lately emerged as a hotspot for urban planning and innovative mass transit. The projects are part of a long-term plan to fight poverty and remake the fortunes of the city.

Another hopeful Medellín design initiative previously featured on Archinect: Student Works: INSITU Medellin

Fighting crime and poverty with design and inclusion

2012-05-18T13:18:00-04:00

Around the world, followers of architecture with a capital A have focused so much of their attention on formal experiments, as if aesthetics and social activism, twin Modernist concerns, were mutually exclusive. But Medellín is proof that they’re not, and shouldn’t be. Architecture, here and elsewhere, acts as part of a larger social and economic ecology, or else it elects to be a luxury, meaningless except to itself

Michael Kimmelman visits Medellín, Colombia and explores how architects and urban planners have used the power of public architecture and public space to remake the fortunes of a city. However, he suggests that it isn't just design but also more mundane changes such as participatory budgeting and civic initiatives that linked education and community development to new infrastructure and glamorous architecture.