Nowadays, skateparks seem to be the new form of the traditional town squares we all remember visiting during our childhood and adolescence years. It’s not surprising that more and more people gather in this type of park to meet with their friends, spend their evening and, of course, practice sports like skating, roller-skating, and BMX [...]
In a city of over 20 million people, with about 3500 people living in each square kilometre, finding a space that provides an intimate sense of community may seem next to impossible. Within this urban maze, however, exists a number of places seeking to foster a greater sense of community and neighbourhood. Envisioned by Brearley [...]
Florida is a state of dichotomies. Even after a decade of explosive population growth, much of the Sunshine State remains very rural. Coastal cities like Miami are home to the international super-rich, while just blocks away you can find families struggling to make ends meet. And, maybe most surprisingly, Florida – a state known in [...]
In recent years we have begun to feel the effects of climate change the world over. In America, hurricanes like Superstorm Sandy and Katrina brought urban areas to their knees, killing people, destroying communities, and causing untold billions in damage. In this context, urban analyst and historian James S. Russell’s book The Agile City calls [...]
Apart from the economic crisis that they have been facing for the past five years, Athenians also have to re-think the city center of Athens. More precisely, they have to re-think one of the most prominent axes that unifies Sintagma (Constitution) and Omonia (Concord) central Squares, which are also attached to the famous neoclassical trilogy [...]
In recent decades, public staircases have been subject to a great deal of controversy in most cities, often viewed as places which are commonly associated with dangerous illegal activities such as crime, drug use, and even violence. In Cincinnati, Ohio – these staircases can be found in various urban locations throughout the city – some [...]
Fayetteville, North Carolina. Fayetteville’s forward-looking, 2030 draft “Growth Vision” imagines the city’s evolution: the sprawling, car-dependent home to Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base – characterized by its bedroom communities, “big box” stores, and chain restaurants – will grow into a city of walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods. Is this feasible? Perhaps. The Expansive Cross Creek [...]
Kifisos is a principal watercourse of the Attica basin which springs from mountains of Parnitha and Penteli, run through downtown Athens and eventually discharges into Saronikos Bay. Just before emptying into the sea, for a stretch of 20klm, river Kifisos has been regrettably covered by transportation infrastructure as means to avoid expensive expropriations. At its [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The process of shale gas exhaustion, fracking, has been used since the late 1940s to help get “that last bit” of conventional oil and gas out of the ground. Conventional means that it is easy to get out, not tightly trapped between, or in the rocks, which is essentially the definition of unconventional oil and [...]
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 [...]
