We seem to have lost the political capacity to grapple with the big picture, the long range, the global scale. To a degree we've even lost the vocabulary. In design circles it's as if the perceived failures of mid 20th-century planning — exemplified by top-down urban renewal and personified by the power-brokering Robert Moses — have induced a kind of conceptual paralysis, an inability to formulate the public sector, or public works, in terms not beholden to a discredited history. — Places Journal

A few days ago, we published one of the finalist entries of the international design ideas competition, Transiting Cities - Low Carbon Futures. The competition was open [...] to develop innovative visions for Latrobe City, in eastern Victoria, Australia to make the transition from a singular economy dominated by the power industry (coal mining and electricity generation) into a diversified economy and prosperous low carbon regional city. — bustler.net

"I'm going to be intolerant of bad architecture," he says, describing how the former head of planning was a highways engineer who "let anything and everything through – including office blocks stacked on top of multistorey car parks.

"My idea of good architecture is about creating place. It's not about providing glitzy iconic buildings, competing one against the other, but how we use the best of what we've got." — guardian.co.uk

In an industry constantly pursuing innovative design that is both environmentally and ethically sound, the implementation of raw materials is directing interior design in 2013.

Natural materials are being sourced and taking on new forms as designers reinvent familiar items with sustainable credentials. — DesignBuild Source

Developer Ditches Gehry Mega-Project for Phased Approach, Starting With Second Residential Tower

The real estate development firm Related’s long-delayed plan to build a $2 billion Frank Gehry-designed hotel, housing and retail complex on Grand Avenue has been off the table for several years. Now, a new proposal is finally coming into focus. — ladowntownnews.com

The main purpose of this community would be to isolate its residents from the propaganda that Beck believes Americans are exposed to in their current society, as well as provide them with freedom and a place to live that doesn’t discriminate based on income.

“Before you send your kids to college, you spend a week with us. We’re gonna tell them exactly, we will show them the truth, we will tell them what they’re going to try to do, and we will deprogram them every summer, if you care.” — rt.com

Earlier this week, we published the winners of the 2013 AIA Institute Honor Awards with eight projects from around the world being recognized in the category "Regional and Urban Design." One of the lucky award winners is Superkilen, an urban park master plan in Copenhagen designed by BIG in collaboration with landscape architects Topotek1 and artists' group Superflex. — bustler.net

“With today’s groundbreaking, we’re taking a major step forward in the transformation and rebirth of the Far West Side of Manhattan,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said from the podium at the corner of 33rd Street and Ninth Avenue. — New York Observer

When I first heard of Paju Bookcity, I imagined a bibliophilic paradise of human-scaled buildings with legible facades nestled side-by-side like volumes on a shelf. When I traveled to the real Paju Bookcity, I found an industrial estate created by companies related to all aspects of book manufacturing, sited north of Seoul in the marshes near the Demilitarized Zone. But if Bookcity is not the fairy tale I envisioned, it is a kind of Cinderella story: this is the industrial park remade. — Places Journal

The American Institute of Architects today selected the 2013 recipients of the Institute Honor Awards, recognizing works that exemplify excellence in architecture, interior architecture and urban design. — bustler.net

Researchers at the Stanford School of Engineering have succeeded in developing the world’s first peel-and-stick thin-film solar cells.

The idea will allow the cells to be applied to almost any surface, with successful tests having been conducted on paper, plastic and window glass. This opens up significant opportunities for alternative applications for solar technology, previously limited by traditional solar cells, which must be mounted on stiff, often heavy, fixed panels. — DesignBuild Source

Young Slovak firm, Nice Architects, has won the first prize in the architectural/urban design competition "Parkhill," aiming to transform the area of a former open air amphitheater in Bratislava, Slovakia. [...]

Nice Architects' winning entry is a collaboration with landscape designers 2ka landscape architects. — bustler.net

Five design teams have been named to receive $15,000 grants to revitalize Syracuse's Near Westside neighborhood as part of the "Movement on Main: Designing the Healthy Main Street" competition. The initiative, sponsored by Syracuse University, plans to redesign the area around Wyoming Street to once again make it an important agent of the community's social and recreational life. — bustler.net

"A block of row houses -- narrow, tall, brick- or stone-faced homes, connected side-by-side -- is my shorthand for city perfection....Blocks of row houses generate a perfect urban scale: large enough to support neighborhood groceries, bars, and shops, but not so dense as to create parking crunches or attract huge stores" — the Stranger