Promoting bicycle ridership has become a widespread mission across many regions, ranging from small towns to large cities. In California’s East Bay, the East Bay Bicycle Coalition (EBBC) has grown to be the primary advocacy group to make bicycling more feasible and safer on a large scale. The organization’s “guiding principles” include the following: Make [...]
Rob Spanier, LiveWorkLearnPlay Rob Spanier, Partner and Principal of LiveWorkLearnPlay, began with the analogy that planning is the hardware, and activation is the software. He said that there are ways to activate a community in ways that don’t need to rely upon huge capital investment. So why farmers’ and public markets? Spanier said that markets [...]
Dan Solomon, Mithun | Solomon Dan Solomon, CNU co-founder, author, and Principal at Mithun | Solomon, opened the session by saying that in the context of new urbanism concepts being introduced to developing countries, “We can’t exactly declare victory, but we’ve made our presence strong.” Overall, he explained the urban planning struggles in China. He [...]
After reading articles about residents growing vegetables in their backyards and seeing community gardens sprouting (pun intended) up in dense cities, I have become intrigued by this idea of growing your own produce instead of purchasing it at your local market. Is there a real future for this contemporary practice or will it continue to [...]
Tramways have a greater impact on communities than local governments give them. Tramways connect people and business in a way that no other physical medium can. These electric transportation vessels revitalize and help refurbish and reshape not only businesses and surrounding streets, but also business models and the identities of cities. Nottingham Express Transit or [...]
Climate change has now become the problem the world cannot ignore. Addressing future global warming, and adapting to it now, will require making fundamental changes to the way we live. How we produce, distribute and use energy is key to this. Decentralised energy allows the financial costs and energy losses associated with the long-distance national [...]
This historic industrial building – gone commercial haven – success story begins with “The Biggest Man in Spokane,” Simon Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer, a prominent member of Spokane’s Jewish community, was one of the first in the area to go to Russia in search of investors. His efforts were fruitful after convincing a Dutch mortgage company to [...]
In Greece, during the last few years, a demand for transparency around food and a need to eliminate the intermediaries, mainly due to poor quality of products in combination to high prices, has resulted in a boom of collective action concerning the production and distribution of food. On the other hand, the proliferation of movements [...]
In 2010, Siemens and The Economist published the first reliable index ranking for green cities worldwide. Among many other indexes concerning this subject published in the past few years, this is the first one with a specific chapter for Latin America. The result of this index showed a phenomenon that was clear to everyone but [...]
Global energy demand continues to grow and tidal wave energy generation devices can provide a significant source of renewable energy. Technological developments in offshore engineering, and the rising cost of traditional energy, means that offshore energy resources will be economic in the next few years. Tidal wave energy is a form of hydropower that converts the energy [...]
An Australian’s house provides major evidence to his claim of living a lifestyle that resembles the majority of the country. A quarter acre block with a backyard spacious enough for a BBQ and patio is synonymous with many Australians’ lifestyle. However, this lifestyle has become harder to attain for the current generation of Australians. From the [...]
How can we most effectively prevent crime? America has invested a lot of money in its prison system. In fact, the FY 2013 budget requests $8.6 billion for federal prisons and detentions according to the US Department of Justice. However, there is a different, more contemporary thought process that does not agree with this type [...]
A park that was supposed to be a parking area celebrated on Sunday, 14 of April its 4th year of existence. A small self-organized park in the heart of Athens, Greece has set a very important precedent in the latest urban history of self-managed open spaces for all Greek Cities. The Navarinou Park is located [...]
It is really disappointing that every time we think of schools, a rigid, concrete structure comes to mind. Even in kindergarten, some of us remember playing inside the building, rather than enjoying a large green playground. Hopefully, this won’t have to be the case for our children. A few months ago, the municipality of Thessaloniki, Greece, [...]
The amount of wind power in the world is increasing quickly. The background for this development is improved technology, decreased costs for the units, and increased concern regarding environmental problems of competing technologies such as fossil fuels. The amount of wind power is not spread equally over the world, so in some areas, there is [...]
Our mobility is bound by the linkages available to us and the built environment that surrounds us. But how does our transportation choices in our city affect our health and well being ? This is a question that is gaining prevalence as cities grow, densify and complicate the daily journey of urban dwellers. A report [...]
Thessaloniki, Greece is a city with numerous beautiful spots, great architecture, and a long history. However, many current problems in the city have occurred due to modern style of life. For example, there is a significant lack of green spaces. The ideal average share of green space is estimated at 20 m²∕capita to 10 m²∕capita [...]
In the summer of 2012 I was a fresh graduate from the University of Texas at Austin, trying to make my way into the working world. Having been an Urban Studies student minoring in Architecture, I was hopeful I would be able to find work in which I could apply my passion for urban development, [...]
In the neighbourhood “Polderwijk“ of Zeewolde, The Netherlands, more than a thousand homes, schools and a churches are sustainably heated with green heating that is produced with the production of electricity from biogas. The project is a partnership between the municipality, a local energy company (Essent) and a farm (Van Beek) located 5 km from [...]
When you think of tough neighbourhoods and burroughs like the Bronx in New York, or St Ann’s in Nottingham, you don’t necessarily equate them with energy efficient living. If you consider it living at all, it is most certainly not energy efficient living. However, it is in Nottingham England that city council has made an [...]
