Archinect - News

XZero City is Kuwait's contribution to the smart city movement

2022-09-02T12:46:00-04:00

A Dubai-based developer named URB has entered the fray of futuristic community planning in the region after publishing plans for XZero City, a pedestrian-friendly, net-zero carbon community it says will eventually grow to accommodate up to 100,000 people.

Billed as a “new paradigm in green urban living,” the car-free city will spread out over a 16-square-kilometer (6-square-mile) swath in the southern Kuwaiti desert connected by a resilient landscape which serves as the “social glue” to self-sustaining homesteaders occupying one of its initial 30,000 modular residences.

Image courtesy URB

By separating the development into different Commercial, Medical, and Educational hubs, URB says it hopes to provide a high quality of life powered by advanced renewable energy technologies, fed by biosaline agricultural produce and vertical farms, and enhanced by an equestrian track, a nature conservation center, and other attractions marketed vaguely as “edutainment.”

Image courtesy URB

An ecotour...

Jan Gehl's perspective on making "a good urban habitat for homo sapiens"

2015-08-24T14:09:00-04:00

Every time we build something, we manipulate the conditions of people’s lives, but most planners don’t know enough about this manipulation...I have worked very hard to find out what the life is that goes on inside our buildings and how our buildings influence that life...Because if you just do form, then you are doing sculpture, but if you look after the interaction between life and form, you are doing architecture.

It's official: trees are good for your health

2015-07-10T13:02:00-04:00

In a new paper published Thursday, a team of researchers present a compelling case for why urban neighborhoods filled with trees are better for your physical health. [...] they found that “having 10 more trees in a city block, on average, improves health perception in ways comparable to an increase in annual personal income of $10,000 and moving to a neighborhood with $10,000 higher median income or being 7 years younger.”

"We focused on a large urban population center (Toronto, Canada) and related the two domains by combining high-resolution satellite imagery and individual tree data from Toronto with questionnaire-based self-reports of general health perception, cardio-metabolic conditions and mental illnesses from the Ontario Health Study," reads the abstract of the newly published report led by Omid Kardan. The study goes on to say: "Results from multiple regressions and multivariate canonical correlation analyses suggest that people who live in neighborhoods with a higher density of trees on their streets report significantly higher health perception and significantly less cardio-metabolic conditions (controlling for socio-economic and demographic factors)."

To read the full report, click here.

Architects Issue Report Documenting the Connection Between Design and Public Health, Press Releases

2012-12-11T12:33:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) today issued a report: Local Leaders: Healthier Communities Through Design that provides a roadmap for towns and cities looking to help their populations stay healthy by employing design techniques that encourage residents to increase their physical activity.

The report, which was released today at Governing Magazine’s “Summit on Healthy Living,” demonstrates how active lifestyles aided by positive design choices lead to a healthier population. Individuals who live in livable, mixed use communities, with options for transit - weigh less, are more physically active, and experience less chronic disease.

“Architects play a key role in designing healthy environments,” said AIA CEO Robert Ivy, FAIA. “This report shows the benefits our profession can bring to establishing a built environment that encourages exercise and discourages a sedentary lifestyle.”

Key barometers of health suggest America is heading in the wrong direction, namely toward physical inactivity, obesity, and chronic disease. Studies, highlighted in the report, demonstrate that the median improvement in some aspect of physical activity for livable urban communities can be over 160 percent. Studies also show that a community designed for exercise can prevent 90 percent o...