Hans Stimmann, Berlin's conservative, luddite city planner will be required to retire this year leaving behind him an incredibly boring record of trophy architecture. NYT View full entry

Dr. Nick Brooks , of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia, (who has done extensive research on the link between environmental and cultural change), says: “What we tend to think of today as civilisation was in large part an accidental by-product of... View full entry

New Scientist breaks down the use of constructing virtual cityscapes and 3D models of real cities, including "satellite imagery, mapping data, building records and images captured from low-flying aircraft," for planning and researching the impact of rapid metropolitan growth. View full entry

This book will probably inspire a firehose-full of these here "clever" titles, but don't let them distract you from the cause behind them. Today...Terror Taxis on Democracy Now with AC and Trevor. Before, and... | thanks to..., powered by the ever-expanding... View full entry

According to the United Nations, sub-Saharan Africa, where 72 percent of the urban population lives in slums, has the highest rate of annual urban growth in the world. By 2030, more than half of Africans will live in cities, making up a larger population than the whole of Europe. Read about it... View full entry

From the inaugural September/October issue of GOOD Magazine, an article by David Benjamin a NY architect about the next generation of American public spaces. Read View full entry

The New York Times takes a peek at the 10th Venice Biennale of Architecture, which opens this weekend, and "is the first to focus on entire cities rather than uncovering the latest architectural trends." And, most promising, writes Ouroussoff, is a distancing from the current obsession with... View full entry

A new tram station in Spain by Subarquitectura is to be opened soon. via Edgar Gonzalez weblog / see the station. View full entry

"The Israeli government says it plans to build 700 new homes in two settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank; the biggest expansion of Jewish settlements to be announced since May." BBC (earlier: a; b) View full entry

A wealthy group of Santa Monica homeowners wants to stop a historic private beach club on public land from going, well, public.la times View full entry

One if not, the busiest and most congested shopping street in London could become a traffic-free zone. The Mayor is proposing a tram running along its total lenght and replacing the "tacky buildings" at the east end into a convention centre. BBC View full entry

In its campaign to get 15 percent of its energy from renewables by 2020, China is starting by bringing solar panels to nomadic villages. The Chinese and Dutch governments subsidize the cost of the panels, and a Shell Group subsidiary manufactures the units. In Xinjiang, 40,000 panels have been... View full entry

The 110-building stretch of postwar rent-controlled apartments in midtown Manhattan -- Peter Cooper and Stuyvesant Town -- are up for sale at 5 billion, making it "the biggest deal for a single American property in modern times." NYtimes View full entry

...New York City officials target an old industrial site in the Bronx to house a new $375m 2,000 bed county jail. But even with some prisoner advocates in support of the new Oak Point plan, they won't be able to build it without a fight. Read View full entry

The cul-de-sac, a 1920s street pattern borrowing from the UK, has begun to hit a few dead-ends in the US. | nytimes View full entry