Archinect - News

Reflections on Binational Urbanism by Ryan Dewey

2016-07-18T20:59:00-04:00

Earlier in my career I was based in Chicago but I was working in Nigeria and also doing some graduate work in the summer in England.

The longest trip I packed for was 60 days in the same suitcase and it covered a month in England and a month in Nigeria.

It was a tough time in my life, but it was also kind of utopian as well because there are certain advantages to being highly mobile.

In Germany today there are 1.8 million Turks. Every year 93.5% of those people travel from Germany to Turkey at least one time, that is nearly 1.7 million Turks across all strata of society who regularly travel between cities in Germany and cities in Turkey.

Looking at the lifestyle of this population, Bernd Upmeyer develops a theory of a new form of urbanism in his book Binational Urbanism. A binational urbanist is someone who because of the practical matters of their lives spend their time living in oscillation between two different countries. This is a thoughtful book with an interesting approach to rese...

Kalasatama, Finland goes carless (and yes, there's an app for that)

2016-03-17T14:21:00-04:00

Abandoned commercial port turned progressive inner city district of Helsinki Kalasatama is being developed purposefully to test out new urban ways of being. First up for this pioneering zone: a Mobility-as-a-Service app, which is basically the Nordic version of Uber except it wants to integrate all forms of public transit into one app. It's currently being tested by fifteen car-free citizens with the hope of making the entire district a non-vehicular-ownership zone by 2030.

Next up for the district, according to a press release: "a sharing economy app that allows residents to trade services; apps developed from data produced by sensors for remote monitoring of street waste containers; and novel sensors that monitor the expiration of foods, intended to reduce food waste." The more residents who want to participate in these test programs, the better: although the current population is hovering around 2,000, city leaders expect it to grow to 20,000 in the next fourteen years.

PSFK's Future of Home Living Experience opens today in NYC

2013-07-23T12:40:00-04:00

PSFK, the popular creative think-tank that runs PSFK.com, will be hosting its Future of Home Living Experience in the new 101 building in Chelsea, New York beginning on July 23, 2013.

Carefully curated by the PSFK team, this free interactive exhibit invites everyone who wants to explore the future of modern home design and urban living. Visitors will be able to explore more than 70 upcoming ideas, products, and design inspiration as well as other special events and tours.

Everything featured in the 5,000 square-foot exhibition space will focus on the unifying design concept of conveying Equilibrium, being On-Demand, and being Adaptive for the constantly evolving lifestyle of the 21st-century urban dweller.

Visitors can pre-register for free at http://psfk-home-living-exhibition.eventbrite.com/