The UK government thinks it has got to the heart of the housing crisis: the problem is, new homes just aren’t beautiful enough. “Build beautifully and get permission,” says the housing minister, Kit Malthouse. “Build beautifully and communities will actually welcome developers, rather than drive them out of town at the tip of a pitchfork.” — The Guardian
According to housing minister, Kit Malthouse, the key to solving the housing crisis in the UK is “putting beauty at the heart of our housing and communities policy.” On November 3, 2018, the initiative to champion beauty when building better homes was announced through the "Building Better... View full entry
UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Culture Ernesto Ottone R, Thomas Vonier, President of the International Union of Architects (UIA), and Verena Vicentini Andreatta, Municipal Secretary of the City of Rio for Urbanism, on Friday 18 January announced that the city of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) will be the World Capital of Architecture for 2020. — UNESCO
The new World Capital of Architecture initiative is part of a recent partnership between UNESCO and the International Union of Architects (UIA) and allows the designated city to host the triennial UIA World Congress. Under the theme "All the worlds. Just one world," Rio de Janeiro is expected... View full entry
Even today, parking garages are typically underused. In the not-too-distant future, car shares, self-driving cars, increased investment in transit, or simple behavioral change could all shift the amount of parking people think they need. And the U.S. also has far more parking than necessary–in Seattle, for example, there are five parking spaces for every resident. Architects and city planners are increasingly realizing that valuable city space could be put to better use than storing cars. — Fast Company
Parking garages run rampant, especially in Los Angeles. According to Gensler's co-CEO Andy Cohen there are 500 million parking spaces in the United States. “Think about all that real estate, all that attention to parking, that could be revitalized and reused for the future of our cities.”... View full entry
The infamous parking garage. These monumentally sized structures have plagued city infrastructures across the globe. As the automobile still remains the most popular choice of transportation, it's no question we have so many parking garages. Often described as monolithic and bulky many architects... View full entry
The New York Times' latest Op-Doc—part of their series of short, interactive, and virtual reality documentaries—profiles Julio César Cú Cámara, whose job it is to dive into the sewers and water treatment plants of Mexico City. For the past 36 years, Cámara has been a sewage diver... View full entry
To train the model, he identified known locations of tree canopy using lidar data and NAIP imagery over California. Using that as ground truth, the model was trained to classify which pixels contain trees in the corresponding satellite images. The result is a machine-learning model that has learned to identify trees just using four-band high-resolution (~1 meter) satellite or aerial imagery—no lidar required! — Medium
Former New York Times cartographer Tim Wallace describes how his current firm, Santa Fe-based Descartes Labs, has built a machine learning model to identify tree canopy from satellite imagery thus making accurate mapping of trees and urban forests far more accessible to cities worldwide. San... View full entry
With the ‘Bedsteeg’ – a wordplay on the traditional Dutch sleeping accommodation ‘bedstede’ – Roegiers is now bringing attention to residual urban space that can be used to improve living conditions for the homeless. ‘It is about certain basic human needs that have to be met for a homeless person to become strong enough – both mentally and physically – to regain independence,’ he told local newspaper Het Parool. — Pop-Up City
As his graduation project for Amsterdam Academy of Architecture, Patrick Roegiers created a simple cardboard house. Wedged between two existing buildings, covered in water-resistant coating and 3 meters high, the structure is meant to provide homeless people with a warm and dry place to sleep... View full entry
According to the United States’ General Accounting Office, receiverships in housing authorities generally result from “longstanding, severe, and persistent management problems that led to deterioration of housing stock.” NYCHA, who took the public advocate’s top spot for the city’s worst landlord in 2018, faces mounting repair costs in excess of $25 billion and has exhibited failures eliminating mold and lead paint, among a laundry list of other nightmarish woes for its tenants. — Curbed NY
Mayor Bill De Blasio and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have until the 31st of January to agree on how to run the agency. If that does not happen and Ben Carson declares New York City Housing Authority in substantial default, NYCHA which oversees housing for over 400,000 New... View full entry
Now, with 2018 in our collective rear view, it’s time [to] look at what 2019 will bring. Rent stabilization will take center stage in June when the city’s laws are up for renewal, megaprojects throughout the five boroughs will make giant strides, the city’s new tallest residential tower will top out at 1,550 feet, and so much more. — Curbed NY
From the city's new tallest residential building topping out, the dreaded L train shutdown, to Amazon’s HQ2 development in Long Island City, here's a preview of what's to come for New York City's urban landscape in 2019. View full entry
Researchers from Lanzhou University in China have shown that the slime mold Physarum polycephalum is able to solve the Traveling Salesman Problem, a combinatorial test with exponentially increasing complexity, in linear time. Using focused light stimulus as negative feedback to maintain the criteria of the task, the authors demonstrated that this model was able to reliably output a high-quality solution. — Sci-News.com
Through observing physarum polycephalum, nicknamed the "many-headed slime", researchers have used its natural network formation to help solve many spatial design problems. Slime mold has shown itself capable of recreating rail systems, solving mazes, and now, the Traveling Salesman Problem—a... View full entry
For years, suburbia has offered these companies acres of disposable, cheap, anonymous office parks: mostly one- or two-story concrete structures surrounded by loads of surface parking. These sites minimized costs, maximized security and allowed companies to scale up, contract or split into different units quickly — at the same time they promoted sprawl and traffic jams and transformed once-quaint bedroom communities south of San Francisco into phenomenally expensive places to live. — The New York Times
Even though Amazon's search for its new headquarters' locations has ended all the talks and negotiations about the company's potential impact on the cities it will settle in — New York and Crystal City, Virginia—have only begun. In ways, the choice comes as no surprise as tech platforms... View full entry
In dire need of urban planning memes on this last Friday of the year? Have we got a link for you: Planning Peeps has compiled 2018's gems trending among city planners and urbanism disciples. Check out some of our favorites below and visit Parts 1 and 2 of the full list. All images via... View full entry
New York City's cultural history includes a staggering array of musical talent, but only a handful of musicians get their names on street signs.
In its final meeting of the year, the New York City Council voted 48-0 to honor three music icons in their home boroughs: famed hip hop artists Biggie Smalls/Notorious B.I.G. (a.k.a. Christopher Wallace) and the Wu-Tang Clan, as well as folk singer Woody Guthrie.
— Gothamist
Don't program your GPS to take you to Christopher Wallace Way (Brooklyn), the Wu-Tang Clan District (Staten Island), or Woody Guthrie Way (Coney Island/Brooklyn) just yet—Mayor Bill de Blasio still has to sign off on the approved bill. View full entry
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has set multiple ambitious agendas for his desert kingdom. Turning it into a major cultural destination may end up being one of the highest-profile. For part of the plan, the Saudi government has turned to Sotheby’s, the biggest U.S. auction house, and Allan Schwartzman, the co-chairman of its fine art division. — Bloomberg
The largest auction house in the US, Sotheby’s, is in talks with Crown Prince HRH Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to build a cultural center in the northwest deserts of Saudi Arabia, according to Bloomberg. The contemporary art program is to be located in the Al-Ula region, which... View full entry
All architects must be fully responsible for the political conditions and consequences of the projects they accept; any position that would make them only an executant constitutes an insult to their function and their ability to act. — The Funambulist Magazine
"This Monday, we were many in Algeria, in France, and elsewhere to be shocked when we learned that the Wilaya (prefecture) of Algiers had signed a convention with the region of Île-de-France (Paris’ region) whose President is a conservative Republican politician, and French architect Jean... View full entry