Archinect - News

On the impact of newer buildings on urban air pollution

2024-10-25T17:47:00-04:00

In hermetically sealed buildings, less fresh air gets in. [...] Eventually, this polluted indoor air – which is making more than a third of the planet sick – is expelled into the surrounding environment. This raises the question of how buildings pollute the air around them, what pollutants they produce, and whether this expelled air is sufficiently diluted once outdoors.

As the article mentions, the World Health Organization had previously pointed to a "lack of monitoring of air pollution levels, sources and consequences on public health" as a present danger for cities.

To fix it, authors César Martín-Gómez and Arturo H. Ariño of the Universidad de Navarra say: "A detailed understanding of how buildings contribute to pollution in cities is essential. This will give public authorities, decision-makers and managers the tools to establish strategies to, for example, minimise pollution through devices similar to the catalytic converters required on all combustion-powered vehicles. Eventually, we may even be able to recover useful components of domestic air, such as waste methane, which could be redirected to energy generation."

You can read more about the compounding effects of poor indoor air quality via our 2021 feature on urban air pollution here.

'Cool roofs' found to be most effective in combatting urban heat, Bartlett study says

2024-07-31T20:17:00-04:00

Researchers at the University College London have put forth a new argument in favor of a simple solution to combating the issue of extreme heat in cities without air conditioning. The so-called “cool roof” method they found had the best mitigation performance metrics over others surveyed (green roofs, A/C, solar panels, and street-level plant integrations), reducing heat by between 1.3 and 2 degrees Celsius when applied in the right conditions.

Lead author Dr. Oscar Brousse of the UCL Bartlett School Environment, Energy & Resources said: “We comprehensively tested multiple methods that cities like London could use to adapt to and mitigate warming temperatures, and found that cool roofs were the best way to keep temperatures down during extremely hot summer days. Other methods had various important side benefits, but none were able to reduce outdoor urban heat to nearly the same level.”

The findings will of course have bearings on public health and urban design efforts outside of Lo...

The NYT picks up on the 'gender mainstreaming' movement in urban planning

2024-07-25T19:32:00-04:00

A new planned community is built on the urban design philosophy known as ‘gender mainstreaming.’ [...] Ms. Kail acknowledges that the parameters of gender mainstreaming are in flux. Where there used to be “a focus on the everyday life of white, middle-class women and their children,” she said, over the past decade or so, a new crop of urban planners has widened the lens, just as she’s stepping out of it.

Vienna (the city previously declared by the Times to be a "renters utopia") owes a tremendous thanks to Eva Kail for its apparent equity strides. Though recently retired, the urban planner touts the new Aspern Seestadt development and its "female face" as the embodiment of the movement to infuse gender-conscious urban design concepts to socially engineer cities and suburbs into places of empowerment for women and other traditionally marginalized groups and classes.

The leading cities to embrace the movement toward "gender mainstreaming" include Stockholm, Glasgow, and Barcelona. In line with this movement, the UN-Habtitat also quietly announced the launch of its 'Women-led Cities' initiative last June.

Cities depend on water. Here's the best solutions for urban designers to ensure their security

2024-06-17T19:51:00-04:00

More cities will likely face these kinds of shortages as climate change, deforestation and ecosystems degradation increasingly threaten the natural systems that maintain water supplies. But nature offers solutions, too. By protecting, restoring and sustainably managing forests within their watersheds, cities can improve water quality and quantity in a cost-effective way. And they can make water sources more resilient to a changing climate.

The most recent ASLA survey of U.S.-based landscape architects confirmed the industry’s positive response to this critical demand, including that a total of 42% of respondents have said they are pursuing climate projects worth more than $1 million and another 29% saying the value of this work was over $10 million.

Mexico's recent presidential election is another barometer, as the environmental engineer and former CDMX mayor Claudia Sheinbaum’s ability to tackle the looming water crisis there proved a decisive factor in her historic victory. (A catastrophic 'Day Zero', however, still looms right around the corner.)

UIC researchers predict nearly half of all American cities will experience 'massive' depopulation trends by 2100

2024-01-17T12:05:00-05:00

The implications of this massive decline in population will bring unprecedented challenges, possibly leading to disruptions in basic services like transit, clean water, electricity and internet access. Simultaneously, increasing population trends in resource-intensive suburban and periurban cities will probably take away access to much needed resources in depopulating areas, further exacerbating their challenges.

Almost half (43%) of the 30,000 cities surveyed recently by the University of Illinois Chicago are expected to lose population while another 40% — among the country’s larger metros such as New York City and Phoenix — will experience growth through the end of this century.

Lead author Sybil Derrible told Scientific American: “The takeaway is that we need to shift away from growth-based planning, which is going to require an enormous cultural shift in the planning and engineering of cities.” Declining birth rates, income tax burdens, rising home prices, and the effects of climate change are all pivotal factors in causing the demographic change.

Asphalt Art Initiative expands pedestrian safety program to these 25 North American Cities

2023-11-14T15:53:00-05:00

Another round of funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies' Asphalt Art Initiative has been announced in an effort to improve the pedestrian safety of 25 different cities in North America.

Grants of up to $25,000 were awarded also in Mexico and Canada for the first time in the program’s history. This fourth round will bring the total number of cities impacted by the program to 90. The initiative says they chose from a field of 200 applicants, and that each selected project will be installed by the end of 2024.

Mexico City, San Francisco, Calgary, and Portland are among the larger metros of the group, which also includes smaller American cities like Stamford, Connecticut, and Anderson, South Carolina.

A 2021 Asphalt Art Initiative installation in Pittsburgh, PA. Lead artists: Tim Englehardt and Randi Stewart. Image: Sean Carroll

The latest grantees, divided into three respective categories, are:

"Improve a challenging intersection using curb extensions and other tools"

United States: An...

NPR on sponge cities, Kongjian Yu, and the future of flood mitigation

2023-10-10T13:46:00-04:00

Almost all of China's medium and large cities are now susceptible to floods. And [Kongjian] Yu says 60% of them experience flooding every year. Extreme weather from climate change is exacerbating the problem. So Yu has been evangelizing a solution he calls "sponge cities." That is, urban landscapes that are softer and purposely designed to absorb more water. Gareth Doherty, an associate professor of landscape architecture at Harvard University, says the concept is revolutionary.

The contributions of Turenscape founder Kongjian Yu to the development of the so-called “Sponge City” concept date to the mid-90s, stemming from a near-death experience in his childhood home of Jinhua. He says that by the end of the decade, roughly 80% of Chinese cities will now be adequately equipped by the measures. However, just under 10% of the country's mid- to large-sized cities had any plans to implement the concept by the start of the year, according to Reuters.

The need for better stormwater strategies has since been proven in New York City and other low-lying American metros, too, with $2.6 billion worth of funding specifically included in the 2021 Federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill to combat the problem. Copenhagen is seen as a world leader in the concept after experiencing a tumultuous 2011 cloudburst that led to a two-part system of expanded sewers and over 300 surface catchment projects.

Still, Yu says the reliance on concrete and technological solutions remains a...

The American Bird Conservancy and Yale University issue comprehensive study on the impact of bird-friendly architecture nationwide

2023-08-14T14:47:00-04:00

A comprehensive new study linking the implementation of bird-friendly glass technology to the improvement of wildlife safety has been released by the American Bird Conservancy, offering architects what they say is a first-of-its-kind primer on an issue that still lags in the design of buildings nationally despite its popular civic and environmental appeals.

The study was published in conjunction with the Law, Ethics and Animals Program (LEAP) at Yale University Law School. Yale had previously undertaken its own Bird-Friendly Building Initiative (the study’s commissioner) and now hopes to use its findings to promote a range of policy recommendations in addition to increasing awareness as to the benefits of using fritted glass, reducing the persistence of visually uninterrupted glass curtain walls, installing window screens, and cutting down light pollution, and other practical design changes.

New York City is used as one case study, leading a group of other American cities like Alexa...

These are the global cities with the most skyscrapers

2022-09-22T14:15:00-04:00

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has released data chronicling the prevalence of buildings with total heights taller than 150 meters (492 feet) in major metropolitan areas across the world.

The statistics speak to several yearslong industry-wide trends as well as a preference for the recently-halted practice of (extremely) tall-building in China, which had more entries in the Top 25 (10, excluding Hong Kong) than the United States, Canada, and Australia put together.

Dubai has by far the largest stock of 300-meter (984 feet) or more structures at 28. New York, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen are the only cities with 10 or more in the same category. Australia’s largest city, Sydney, had fewer overall entries than the Philippines city of Makati, despite hosting a population almost tenfold its size. London was one of only two UK metros listed.

The new overall Top...

Vienna is back on top of the EIU list of the world’s most livable cities

2022-06-28T17:32:00-04:00

After two years, Vienna has overtaken Auckland as the world’s most livable city, according to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The EIU said that Auckland’s position on the index dipped to the 34th spot this year because of higher Covid-19 infection rates and strict border controls in 2021. Although lockdowns ended in New Zealand in December, well-vaccinated cities in Europe and Canada had begun easing restrictions earlier.

The Austrian capital was joined by Copenhagen, Zurich, Geneva, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam as the other European cities on the list. Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, Osaka, and Melbourne rounded out the Top 10 of the 172-city sampling.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine also impacted the makeup of the list, as did the Chinese government’s political crackdowns on Hong Kong, causing a loss of connectivity and cultural freedoms which dropped the city to 62nd overall.

Cities are finding newer and more creative ways to incorporate electric vehicles into their transit schemes

2021-10-04T14:20:00-04:00

But where cities are succeeding, they’re finding that electrifying public transit can solve more than just climate problems. It can clean the air, reduce traffic jams and, ideally, make getting around town easier for ordinary people, which is why some politicians have staked their reputations on revamping transit. In many cases, city governments have been able to take climate action faster than their national governments.

The effort to reduce car traffic mirrors those taking shape in U.S. cities like New York and San Francisco. The cost of doing so has in a way become its own problem, as the infrastructure required to support expansive EV fleets in large metropolitan areas has proven to be a challenge for many of the places that have mandates for electrification coming due in the next two decades. The widespread adaptation of electric vehicles and trams could reduce emissions by 37 million metric tons a year in American cities alone.

The University of Calgary School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape is proud to announce the “CBDX: CITIES FOR ALL” competition

2020-11-07T09:00:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by the University of Calgary School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape

This international design ideas competition—the first in the CBDX series—asks, What does a city for all look like? How does it operate and function? How can it come into being? What place, structure, thing, system, process, or relationship must be forged to engender a more just and equitable ‘city for all’? And in particular—this is perhaps the most crucial question—the competition asks, How are these aims navigated by, through, and with the current uncertainty wrought by the ongoing global pandemic and the long-term existential threats of environmental degradation and climate change?

This is the year a wide-ranging set of inequities—that have always been there—have been brought to bear. The only difference is that now a significantly larger percentage of the public, and wider society, has become aware of how urgent addressing these issues are. As various movements have demonstra...

Norman Foster on the impact of pandemics on our cities

2020-09-24T13:23:00-04:00

Predicting the future of cities is risky, especially if one heeds the words of the American baseball legend, Yogi Berra, that “the future ain’t what it used to be”. In the period since the start of the pandemic it might seem as if everything is different, but in the long term, I would suggest that rather than changing anything, it has merely hastened and magnified trends that were already apparent before the virus struck.

In his opinion piece for The Guardian, architect Norman Foster ponders how current and past pandemics have influenced and will continue to shape the infrastructure, and subsequently culture, of our cities. Foster briefly touches on a number of trendy topics, including electric vehicles, ride sharing, drone delivery, remote work, and urban farming.

Urban planners take action to defund the police by calling for the American Planning Association to respond

2020-09-23T14:16:00-04:00

2020 has brought an increase in activism as the public reached its final tipping point from the racial and social injustices happening across the nation. With the inexcusable deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, and others caused by police brutality, individuals across industries have taken note and voiced their concerns. With forms of allyship sweeping the nation, architects, academics, and urban planners have expressed their opinions and action plans. Although dismantling racial inequalities and systemic racism within the profession will not happen overnight, groups put their experience and training into action to respond to these injustices.

In early August, Brentin Mock of CityLab in Pittsburgh reported on the responses of "several hundred" urban planners as they call for the American Planning Association to support defunding the police. Housing/food planner Sara Draper-Zievet, who is one of the eight co-authors of the letter, spoke with Mock on their steps ...

COVID-19’s spatial impacts: Big or small?

2020-04-27T21:00:00-04:00

What will be the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the built environment? Of course, anything can happen and we should be skeptical of anyone offering predictions for what even tomorrow might bring, but that has not stopped architectural thinkers from positing the world as it might come to be.

A case in point, two dueling perspectives were recently published that offer differing visions of how our cities, daily lives, and homes might change in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Writing in The Los Angeles Times, author and architecture critic Sam Lubell highlights six aspects of daily life—modular construction, adaptive reuse, lightweight architecture, healthy buildings, work, and public spaces—that are likely to be impacted by the crisis.

Previously on Archinect: 2,500-bed hospital conversion at NYC’s Javits Center opens. Photo By: K.C. Wilsey, FEMA.

Among the least discussed arenas so far that might find new relevance amid the COVID-19 crisis, according to Lubell, is modular co...

San Francisco Bay Area issues "Shelter in Place" directive covering 6.7 million residents

2020-03-16T21:42:00-04:00

Cities around the world are taking necessary precautions to help contain and mitigate the widespread effects of the coronavirus strain COVID-19. And although the United States has slowly increased its efforts to keep the virus at bay, some cities handling looming uneasiness and building panic over the virus better than others.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the afternoon of March 16th San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced both the city and surrounding six county area had issued a new public health order to "Shelter in Place." While requiring residents to stay indoors as much as possible, the initiative also provides flexibility for residents to, "go outside [...], and in fact, health officers encouraged people to run, hike and walk their dogs, as long as they do it alone or with close family, and keep six feet away from others. Trails and parks are open, but people cannot gather in groups."

San Francisco's announcement follows the recent decision by California Gov. Ga...

Data suggests that most cities with 2020 emission reduction targets have not hit them yet

2019-12-11T15:24:00-05:00

For nations and cities across the world, 2020 was set to be a milestone year in their fight against climate change. It’s the first in a series of globally earmarked emission-reduction waypoints—2020, 2030, 2050—with 2020 planned as an initial benchmarking moment, a time to see progress towards meeting targets aimed at limiting global warming. Now, the year is nearly here, and early signs of overall progress should signal concern.

Quartz looked at the environmental data of selected cities that had set emission reduction targets for 2020 and analyzed the progress made thus far. According to the outlet, "only 20% of those targets have completed or are more than half-way towards their goal."

Among the high-achieving cities regarding their 2020 goals are Toronto, Cape Town, Barcelona, Moscow, Boston, and Bangkok. Very little or no progress in reducing emissions was made in Reykjavik, Dubai, Vancouver, Milan, and Montreal.

How do you critique a city? What is city criticism, and why is it important?

2019-10-29T11:18:00-04:00

Criticism: Everyone in architecture experiences it regularly. The importance of this consistent facet of the profession provides ongoing possibilities for discourse and improvement. However, like other areas where criticism plays a necessary part of establishing a significant impression or progression within society, it’s not always easy to have others detract or contradict the ideas embodied by your work.

Colin Marshall of the Guardian brings up a specific category within criticism that has particular relevance today, "the city critic." Marshall argues, "In our increasingly urban world, perhaps city criticism should be recognized as distinct and necessary." So, where does "city criticism" differ from "architecture criticism," and why should it be recognized as an integral part of understanding the built environment?

Jane Jacobs. Image via Wikipedia Commons.

Marshall speaks with critics and editors alike to help further understand and decipher what this distinct subject of criticis...

Understanding the difference between cities proper and the metro areas that surround them

2019-08-27T16:30:00-04:00

When tracking the performance of cities across the United States, various factors come into play. Growth in population and employment are often the first to be researched and analyzed. However, not all cities are seen and discussed in the same light. CityLab co-founder and editor-at-large, Richard Florida, writes a new series that dives into understanding contemporary urbanism by researching cities and their economic performance.

In the first installment of this four-part series, Florida explains the importance of making this distinction between cities proper and metropolitan areas through population and job growth. "The reality is that most studies that purport to talk about cities are really talking about the performance of broader metropolitan areas, which are made of up core or principal cities and their surrounding suburbs and exurbs. Looking at cities by themselves is important and useful for several reasons."

He continues to point out, "there is lots of talk these days abou...

Architect Kimberly Dowdell uses her hometown of Detroit as a catalyst for teaching equitable urban design practices

2019-08-14T17:00:00-04:00

In her lecture, entitled “Diverse City: How Equitable Design and Development will Shape Urban Futures,” Dowdell drew on her experiences growing up in Detroit and her work in real estate development.

Earlier this year, architect, Detroit native, and current National Organization of Minority Architects president Kimberly N. Dowdell presented a lecture discussing the importance of equity in design and development. With her multi-disciplinary background in real estate development, education, and architecture, Dowdell explains, "equity, if I boil it down to its most essential element, is making it right,"adding, "Cities can experience trauma, and when you make it right, they can become more resilient."

Thanks to coverage of the lecture by Danielle J. Kranchalk from The Harvard Crimson, we get a view into Dowdell's presentation at Harvard GSD, which showcased her strategy for revitalizing various Detroit neighborhoods.

Her passion and commitment for creating thriving cities are marked by an approach that prioritizes what can be done to think outside the box. As Dowdell poignantly explains, "both people and cities go through cycles of trauma, equity, and resilience." She continues t...

A fine-grained look at America's urban "heatscapes"

2019-08-13T18:37:00-04:00

As the United States suffers through a summer of record-breaking heat, new research shows that temperatures on a scorching summer day can vary as much as 20 degrees across different parts of the same city, with poor or minority neighborhoods often bearing the brunt of that heat.

Using a series of dramatic, color-coded maps, The New York Times highlights the growing disparity between exactly which neighborhoods in America feel the ever-increasing urban heat island effect. The report details stark temperature differences between the neighborhoods of several major cities, where temperatures can vary by as much as 20-degrees, depending on layout, urban design, and topography.

In Baltimore, for example, temperatures can range from 87-degrees in the city's wealthy suburban districts, where tree-lined streets and yards help to mitigate the heat island effect, to upwards of 101-degrees in the city's working class inner core neighborhoods, where tightly-clustered row houses and surface parking lots amplify the sun's power.

In Portland, Oregon, the temperature discrepancy between the city's leafy, park-adjacent westside and the industrial areas surrounding the airport in the northeast follows a similar trajectory. The city's massive Forest Park produces, according ...

What makes a city vertical?

2019-07-18T13:38:00-04:00

Which is the world's most vertical city? You might think of Hong Kong, given its famous skyscraper skyline, but by different measures of verticality other cities come out on top

"According to building data research company Emporis," writes Matthew Keegan for the Guardian Cities series, "Seoul in South Korea has more high-rise buildings, with 16,359. Emporis defines a high-rise as a building at least 35m, or 12 storeys tall. In second place is Moscow, Russia, with 12,317 high-rises, followed by Hong Kong in third place, with 7,913."

Oslo's city center goes (almost) car-free

2019-07-11T07:30:00-04:00

[Oslo] has just phased out the last on-street parking spaces in the city centre, giving an edge to transit, pedestrians and cyclists without banning cars. The initiative included incentives for cyclists such as new bike lanes, including better lighting and snow removal, along with subsidies for electric bikes and cargo cycles. Council also expanded transit services and lowered fares.

London, Berlin, Paris, Toronto, and an increasing number of cities are aiming to reduce traffic congestion, polluted air, and valuable urban space occupied by parked cars through policy changes that promote walkability, pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly (and in certain cases, car-light or even car-free) city centers, and an overall improved quality of life.

Oslo became a closely monitored model of a hybrid approach: after the proposal of a complete ban of cars in the capital's center was met with fierce opposition from business owners, who feared decreased commerce, the city decided to close off only certain streets to motor traffic but replace the more than 700 downtown parking spots with bike lanes, greenery, and pedestrian-oriented infrastructure.

"Cities, like Oslo, have been built for cars for several decades, and it’s about time we change it," Hanne Marcussen, Oslo’s vice mayor of urban development, told Fast Company. “I think it is important that we all think about what kind o...

The booming business of building cities from scratch

2019-07-10T15:22:00-04:00

“We’re in the midst of new cities fever,” says Prof Sarah Moser. The head of the new cities lab at McGill University has documented more than 100 cities that have sprung up across Asia and Africa since the early 2000s for her forthcoming Atlas of New Cities.

The Guardian kicks off its new Cities from scratch series with an overview of noteworthy planned metropolises that are replacing big swaths of desert, jungle, or sea across Asia and Africa.

While some new cities started out ambitiously but had to eventually give up on key features, others took some years to overcome the 'ghost city' label. And there's no shortage of prominent newcomers.

How can cities become "heat-proof" and how does this affect the built environment?

2019-07-02T18:57:00-04:00

On top of climate change, cities grow hotter and hotter due to an increase in urban heat island effect. According to Philip Oldfield's Guardian piece, "What would a heat-proof city look like?," there are four solutions cities can implement to decrease rising temperatures. Oldfield explains green roofs/vertical gardens, reflective roofs, water treatments (ponds, pools, misters), and dynamic shades would aide in mitigating increased temperatures. However, before understanding these solutions, it is essential to point out what causes this rising heat phenomenon.

Built environments worsen summer temperatures thanks to specific design elements and building materials. Asphalt and concrete absorb heat and bounce sun rays back onto street surfaces and surrounding areas. Tall buildings and glass skyscrapers create "urban canyons" which trap heat at ground level. Traffic and automobile dependency also contribute to heat emissions making city streets sizzling p...

The ABC's of Gentrification

2019-05-07T19:19:00-04:00

When bad things happen, we look around for someone to blame. And when it comes to gentrification, which is loosely defined as somebody not like you moving into your neighborhood, there’s no shortage of things to blame.

Depending on where you live it isn't difficult to notice specific changes happening within your neighborhood. From trendy housing developments, boutique shops, and independent cafes gentrification affects more than a neighborhood's curb appeal. A buzzword many have become familiar with these shifts in housing and businesses have appeared as controversial hot topics in politics and urban planning. However, what exactly does gentrification mean? If gentrification is something seen by all, why is it that so few understand the variables and details that go into this process?

For residents who have lived in older neighborhoods gentrification is understood as sever change and displacement. With the urban landscape continually changing all over the globe major cities are becoming denser and denser by the minute. Residents are being pushed out and forced to adjust to changes they're expected to understand. Thanks to the City Observatory, a website providing a data-driven analysis of cities...

The New York Times uses neural network to map every building in the U.S.

2018-10-12T13:25:00-04:00

The New York Times has made a map of every building in the United States. Using a neural network to analyze satellite imagery, the team's program then traced the shape of buildings across the country. Users can enter a city, zip code, or address, and explore these areas in detail.

It's pretty fun to play with, but the tool also helps illuminate the underlying patterns of cities and places that make them feel the way they do. Looking at these different patterns, we can detect the imprints of geology, the effects of suburbanization, the intentional designs of cities, and the traces of culture embedded within. By looking at the physical infrastructure, the maps tell us so much more about people’s connections, stories, and experiences relating to a specific environment.

Take a look here.

Rebuilding the American City: Patty Heyda on "the politics behind the design"

2018-02-07T12:42:00-05:00

How do you restore community? Do you honor local context? Or do you bulldoze everything and try to start again?

Few places embody that choice more starkly than Botanical Heights, the St. Louis neighborhood formerly known as McRee Town. Looking east from Thurman Avenue, one sees gated blocks of large, suburban-style new construction. To the west, homeowners are rehabbing existing properties and redeveloping vacant parcels. The old commercial district bustles with shops, restaurants and a Montessori school.

“As architects and urban designers, we tend to focus on form,” said Patty Heyda, associate professor in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. “But there are so many forces, especially in our increasingly privatized economy, that underlie those formal decisions. What are the politics behind the designs?”

In "Rebuilding the America City" (2016), Heyda and co-author David Gamble, of Harvard University, offer Botanical Heights as a case study...

A new urbanism in the Global South

2017-08-16T15:43:00-04:00

But what is the repertoire of concepts, ideas and visions that inform the work of urban planners in the Global South — in Asia, Latin America and Africa? Are they still under the spell of their colonial and postcolonial masters? Or have they developed their own ideas and their own yardsticks, commensurate with the respective culture of their country and region?

"This insight leads to the most important quality of sustainable urban planning in countries of the Global South," urban planning expert Einhard Schmidt-Kallert writes in his commentary piece on Citiscope, arguing that "Planners need to develop urban planning visions that take into consideration the needs of all citizens, of the urban middle class as well as those of the urban poor in informal settlements. Those visions need to translate these needs into a comprehensive concept plan for an entire city, thus overcoming fragmentation and segregation."

Lille, France and Sydney, Australia named as World Design Capital 2020 finalists

2017-07-12T14:59:00-04:00

The World Design Organization today announced that Lille, France and Sydney, Australia have made the shortlist to become World Design Capital 2020, for their effective use of design to drive economic, social, cultural, and environmental development in their cities. City visits will be conducted prior to final WDC 2020 selection, to better assess the scope and capacity of each of the cities’ proposed programs. The winner will be announced on 14 October 2017 in Torino, Italy during WDO’s 30th General Assembly.

"Once an industrial center facing economic upheaval, Lille aims to engage its 2.1 million inhabitants (including companies, local authorities, research and training centers, cultural destinations and civic spaces) in collaborative design-driven projects. Under the theme, Eldorado: the greatest design experiment, it places design at the heart of its economic, societal and environmental transformation.

Sydney, in collaboration with Parramatta and other surrounding suburbs, wil...