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As part of the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea Opportunity Area Planning Framework, London's Borough of Wandsworth has its sights on constructing a new pedestrian bridge across the River Thames, between the two very distinct districts of Nine Elms and Pimlico. Quite evidently, the teams currently in... View full entry
[...] Argonne scientists are taking on a challenge not usually associated with sophisticated computing: urban design. They say that for such large-scale developments, expert opinions, or even standard modeling, will no longer do. Instead, we need detailed simulations that will integrate immense amounts of data into one framework and project different scenarios for the designers to consider. Their initial prototype, called LakeSim, focuses on Chicago Lakeside. — nextcity.org
"Giving the boulevard back to the people... makes the streets habitable again," says Sean O’Malley of SWA. — swa group
How does a 10-block neighborhood intervention of volunteers in Highland Park, Los Angeles link to a $325 million streetscape and storm water infrastructure transformation in Shenzhen, China? “This is about giving the street and the boulevard back to the people,” says Sean O’Malley... View full entry
Stellar sustainable design around the world always deserves recognition. The 2014 Canadian National Urban Design Awards program — hosted by RAIC | Architecture Canada, Canadian Institute of Planners, and Canadian Society of Landscape Architects — recently announced this year's winners in acknowledgment of their contributions to the quality of life and sustainability in Canada's cities through architecture and urban design. — bustler.net
Below are the eight top-winning projects: (Pictured above) URBAN ARCHITECTURE: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts - Claire & Marc Bourgie Pavilion of Quebec and Canadian Art (Montreal, QC) By Provencher Roy COMMUNITY INITIATIVES: University of Winnipeg Students' Association bikeLAB (Winnipeg, MB)By... View full entry
Mitchell Joachim; New York has, over the last few centuries, become one of the world’s most densely packed cities. But what if you could redraw the city’s map – and build it from scratch? — BBC
The article features both the High and Low lines, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Vision 42, Million Trees NYC, and Vertical Farms. View full entry
Last but not least, our final list of recipients of the American Institute of Architects 2014 Institute Honor Awards, is for the Regional & Urban Design category.
The AIA Institute Honor Awards acknowledges the best projects in Architecture, in Interior Architecture, and Urban Design.
— bustler.net
Have a look at the Regional & Urban Design winning projects:Denver Union Station Neighborhood Transformation; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (see title picture above)The East River Blueway Plan; WXY architecture + urban design The Creative Corridor: A Main Street Revitalization for... View full entry
Here's our latest feature from the ONE Prize 2013: Stormproof competition, wherein participants had to propose smartly designed resilient cities prepared to face the challenges of severe climate conditions. — bustler.net
Specifically designed for New York City's coast, [CONTAINED] by Ishaan Kumar, Arianna Armelli, and David Sepulveda was a finalist entry in the international competition. Here's a preview of their proposal: For full project details, head over to Bustler. More images can be found in the the... View full entry
Audiotopie was awarded $10,000 from the 2013 Phyllis Lambert Design Montreal Grant in Montreal, Canada earlier this week.
Established in 2007, the annual grant distinguishes young, emerging Montreal designers who have shown excellence in their work and research study that can contribute to the city of Montreal.
— bustler.net
"The $10,000 grant will enable the Audiotopie team, which designs immersive sound works closely connected to physical spaces through creation of sensory experiences, to go on a study trip during which its members will compare sound environments in the underground spaces of three Asian cities." View full entry
"For years, urban designers and architects have claimed happiness as their goal," Montgomery says. "And yet none of the claims have been supported by empirical evidence. Which isn't to say they're not right. It's just to say that we don't know. That we haven't known."
In this spirit of empirical discovery, Montgomery takes readers around the world in search of the places where urban design has (and has not) improved quality-of-life.
— The Atlantic Cities
Human behavior can be extremely difficult to quantify, and determining its exact context even harder. But some cities just seem happier than others, no matter how difficult that status is to qualify. In his book, Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design, Charles Montgomery tries to... View full entry
I step out into the street but realize that I’d better not — there’s a current — and as my hallway fills, I remember the electrical panel in the basement. It shorts out, and I hear the breakers fall. Then there is an explosion outside, and the neighborhood goes dark. — Places Journal
In October 2012, as Hurricane Sandy approached New York, Alexandros Washburn defied evacuation orders and stayed fast in his home in Red Hook, watching as his street flooded and became a "full-fledged river." But he had good reason; the city's chief urban designer wanted to observe first-hand... View full entry
"Beyond the Clouds" is a Smart Harbor competition entry by international award-winning experimental team Zuhal Kol, Carlos Zarco Sanz, and Jose Luis Hidalgo. Their proposal was listed as a finalist [...] earlier this year.
Focused on exploring the potential value of the world's harbors, the competition challenged participants to reimagine existing harbor sites into a modern recreational and tourist area -- with the freedom to interpret the meaning of recreation to their own accord.
— bustler.net
The Brooklyn Tech Triangle could become the next Silicon Valley -- if the strategic plan to bolster the emerging tech hub comes to full fruition. The plan was developed over a six-month period by a multidisciplinary team led by WXY Architecture + Urban Design and the Brooklyn Tech Triangle... View full entry
The canopy can look like a lot of architecture for such a small project, but that’s partly its value: to put Cazucá on the map and create a de facto town square beside the school (made of shipping containers, serving a population in which a quarter of the children are malnourished, I was told by the school’s principal). Now children play soccer under the canopy and clean up the square every day, and there’s a vegetable garden with tomatoes and herbs. — nytimes.com
Contemporary architecture and urban planning seem to address uncritically the conditions and context in which this discourse on health is developing. In most cases, the design disciplines rely on an abstract, scientific notion of health, and very literally adopt concepts such as “population,” “community,” “citizen,” “nature,” “green,” “development,” “city” and “body” into a professionalized, disciplinary discourse that simply echoes the ambiguities characteristic of current debate. — Places Journal
In its latest exhibition and book, Imperfect Health, the Canadian Centre for Architecture critiques what curators Mirko Zardini and Giovanna Borasi call a “new moralistic philosophy: healthism.” Zardini and Borasi trace the long relationship of environmental design to shifting social... View full entry
Academic institutions have a mandate to contribute to public knowledge, but the structures that support the transfer and dissemination of research, and the application of research within urban design practice, are often weak. There is a widening gap between what happens within the academy and what happens on the ground in cities — often a retrograde, generic and ad hoc agglomeration of politically or financially motivated initiatives. — Places Journal
Places interviews Ila Berman, director of architecture at the California College of the Arts, and Mona El Khafif, project coordinator of URBANlab, about research + design initiatives at the lab. The feature includes a slideshow of faculty and student work, including design proposals for... View full entry