When we wake up in the morning and the weather is sunny and warm, don’t we feel more happy and eager to go out and face everyday life? Imagine a patient that stays in a hospital room for many days. If they wake up in a room full of sunshine, surely they feel more relaxed [...]
In the course of the last decade, American river cities have sustained continued interest from policy makers and urban planners who have worked to create targeted opportunities for significant long-term investment and economic development. In Cincinnati, this reinvestment has received national attention in terms of how the city has been able to connect environmental design [...]
Melburnians pride themselves on their food culture, and they will go to any lengths to find good food. The city’s multicultural background, coupled with residents’ fascination with global gastronomy trends, has changed not only what city goers eat, but how neighbourhoods and streets are designed and function. Ethnic Restaurants in many established suburbs such as [...]
High-income residential and resort communities line Oahu’s most beautiful beaches: Along the North Shore; Near Kailua and Lanikai Beaches (where President Obama and his family vacationed this winter); Near Waialae Beah Park. Property owners in these and other areas have used greenery, including fast-growing vines and shrubbery, to obscure public easements. This trick of landscape [...]
Against all odds, municipalities, all over Greece, are in a race to propose projects for bioclimatic upgrading of public open spaces such as streets, squares, and parks. The “Bioclimatic upgrading for open public spaces” program is funded by the NSRF development program and guided by the Centre for Renewable Energy and Save (CRES). Its main [...]
When one thinks of a park, one usually imagines a large plot full of trees in the centre of the city with routes for walking or jogging, and shaded sitting areas where people can enjoy the fresh breeze during the hot summer days. But what happens in cities, like Thessaloniki, Greece, in which green spaces [...]
Capacity utilization is a key term in business and an increasingly important term with regards to sustainability. The way in which cities utilise space is becoming a far more pressing issue in today’s world. The various ways space can be used inevitably forecasts a city’s future. In the United Kingdom, Nottingham leads the top twenty [...]
Between the historic French Quarter and Bayou St. John, a former shipping canal and railway sits idle, presenting a tremendous opportunity for redevelopment into recreational space. Plans to convert this right-of-way into an open space greenway are finally close to reality as city officials, urban planners and neighborhood activists prepare to move forward with the [...]
Historically, port cities located their industrial zones near the waterfront for the convenience of transporting goods. Often times, highways or railroads were later constructed near the industrial waterfront. But as contemporary manufacturing and shipping processes are significantly more efficient and require less space (since transportation moved from bulk to shipping containers), these port cities are [...]
During the twilight of the 1880s, Cincinnati, OH, (the Queen City) was internationally celebrated as one of the most prolific centers for beer brewing in the United States. According to Michael D. Morgan, Author of Over the Rhine: When Beer was King, Cincinnati, during this pinnacle era, was chief among the Great American Brewing cities. The city [...]
For many urbanites, putting up with occasional construction is accepted as an unfortunate aspect of city living. In a rapidly developing city like Shanghai, however, it never stops. The construction of an ambitious redevelopment plan in the central area called “The Bund” will continue until 2020. First established as a British settlement area, The Bund [...]
The nongovernmental organization “Our Park” is behind a successful story of synergy between private and public actors, as well as participatory design, for the creation of an open public space in the heart of Athens, Greece. For over a year, “Our Skate Park” in downtown Athens has set a useful and optimistic precedent in urban [...]
New York City, above others, has defined itself through an evolving scholarship connected to its rapidly changing street life. This broad conception of street life has been widely debated and discussed from the standpoint of urban theorists and activists such as Jane Jacobs and William H. Whyte, whose respective works, The Death and Life of [...]
In 1993, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) announced the closure of Naval Air Station Barbers Point, located on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Formally closed in 1999, Barbers Point became the Kalaeloa Community Development District. In 2002, the State Legislature appointed the Hawaiian Community Development Authority (HCDA), an agency that works to revitalize areas [...]
I have lived in Berkeley, California for four-and-a-half years now. Of the many unique characteristics in this region, including the bordering cities of Oakland and Emeryville, the one trend that has stuck out most to me is the sudden changes in landscape design. One block with freshly paved road may be neighbored with old streets [...]
In the last decade, many architectural projects have come to fruition in Thessaloniki, Greece. One that particularly stands out, and has a special place in many young people’s hearts, is the regeneration of the central pier of the city’s port. This project started in 1997 within the framework of the “European Capital of Culture” program [...]
What if visual media could change the urban design industry? What if the main player wasn’t a person or a group, but was a university in Nottingham, England? The possibility is more tangible than one might think. Coupled with the school’s award winning buildings and sustainable designs, Instagram could be used to market the school’s [...]
On the surface, the iconic 200-year-old urban grid of New York City’s Manhattan Island towers over the surrounding hinterland. John Randel Jr., who surveyed & engineered the future of NYC urban growth from 1818-1820, used hand drawn maps that effectively mapped out today’s modern metropolis. But New York City, like all cities, also carries a [...]
The Oahu Urban Garden Center is a University of Hawaii at Manoa led initiative. A community resource, the OUGC invites aspiring green thumbs to participate in “Second Saturdays at the Garden,” a series of monthly classes that improve planters’ know-how. In addition, the OUGC offers expertise in soil analysis; this helps at-home gardeners identify nutrient [...]
When one thinks of Thessaloniki, Greece, often the first thing that comes in mind is the White Tower, a monument that was built around 1450 and today has become the city’s landmark. This is why the regeneration of the White Tower’s square is considered as one of the most important projects that the city can [...]
