Keys to designing cities for fewer fatalities

“Design measures include:

• Compact cities - short block lengths, concentrated housing and business districts;
• Reduce traffic speeds - traffic-calming measures to slow cars;
• Streets for people, not just cars - pedestrian islands, wide sidewalks, plazas and bike lanes;
• Public transportation safe, affordable, and convenient, and;
• Use data mapping techniques to identify problem spots and target design fixes.”

from: http://www.citylab.com/design/2015/07/the-keys-to-designing-cities-with-fewer-traffic-fatalities/399686/

Transit hub into public space

Using "reclaimed asphalt from cars and devoted it to people," The Porch has revitalized a transit hub into a new public space. 
from: http://www.streetfilms.org/30th-street-stations-the-porch-welcomes-you-to-philadelphia/

Philadelphia's "The Porch" Welcomes You! from STREETFILMS on Vimeo.

http://www.universitycity.org/the-porch

Good advice

from: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/161214861633492648/

Privatization of urban planning?

Can big business plan cities through technology and automation? 

Audi’s goal is to limit “the number of cars on the streets to create more people-friendly urban spaces”  from: http://www.archdaily.com/777791/smart-moves-for-cities-the-urban-mobility-revolution-will-start-with-these-3-projects

Can Google really build a better city by "fix urban problems by starting from scratch and building new cities than trying to revitalize existing towns"?  from: http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/google-s-parent-company-probably-wants-to-build-a-cit-1769181473

But will allowing big business to plan cities lead to privatization of more and more public spaces?  Public open space is usually "the place where cities get 'remade' is in the public rather than private sphere. Part of the problem, then, with privately owned public spaces – open-air squares, gardens and parks that look public but are not – is that the rights of the citizens using them are severely hemmed in”

from: http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/aug/04/pops-privately-owned-public-space-cities-direct-action

This issue will be more important with the rise of public-private partnerships, like in 2009 when Canada was leading by example: “Since 2002, British Columbia has pumped nearly $10 billion (Canadian; US$8.1 billion) into infrastructure financing – 50 percent of it supplied by the private sector.”  from: http://www.planetizen.com/node/38418 

Only time will tell if these spaces are just funded, planned and/or governed by big business.

Connectography

“It turns out that Canada will be the world’s largest food producer as temperatures rise and its permafrost thaws, meaning it will become America’s principal source of both food and freshwater through the massive hydro­canals featured in this map. Americans should embrace the emergence of a genuine North American Union.”

from: http://www.businessinsider.com/5-critical-maps-to-understand

Shared parking?

“One approach to solving urban America’s parking problem is called “shared parking.” If there’s a movie theater right next to an office, for instance, the theater can use some of the spaces at night that get used by office workers during the day, rather than building its own." 

from: https://medium.com/sidewalk-talk/how-shared-parking-can-improve-city-life

"Shared parking typically reduces the total number of spaces by 5 to 15 percent.  In some cases, it may reduce the total parking needed by as much as 25 percent."
from: http://www.timhaahs.com/parkingdatabase



and from: http://www.paradigm21planning.com/Periodic_Table_Pages/68SharedParking.htm

Affordability

"Planners lament the missing middle of the housing market—the options between single-family homes and high-rise developments. Townhouses, duplexes and courtyard apartments all can provide more-affordable options, avoiding costs that come with building higher."



from: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-to-make-city-housing-more-affordable-2016-05-18



"Missing Middle is a range of multi-unit or clustered housing types compatible in scale with single-family homes that help meet the growing demand for walkable urban living."

from: http://missingmiddlehousing.com/

Invest in public transit

"We have overbuilt sprawl. It is going to take a decade to absorb it." There has to be a better way.




Peter Calthorpe - USHSR NYC 2011 from Steven Skemp on Vimeo.

Climate change resiliency

But there are hidden features that make Tåsinge Plads part of this seaside city’s plan to survive the effects of climate change. During heavy rains, the flowerbeds fill with water and wait to drain until the storm runoff subsides. The upside-down umbrellas collect water to be used later to nourish the plantings. And clever landscaping directs stormwater down into large underground water storage tanks. Above those tanks are bouncy floor panels that children love to jump on — when they do, the energy from their feet pumps water through the pipes below.

 from http://citiscope.org/story/2016/why-copenhagen-building-parks-can-turn-ponds

What is urban design anyway?

While architecture focuses on the buildings, urban design focuses on relationships between buildings and on the spaces they create in between each other, often called the "public realm." 

Urban design typically entails spatial relations whereas planning has become the regulatory framework that controls uses, circulation, open space and generally speaking, two dimensional relations between public and private space.

Urban design is typically not about regulation, but is more about designing a specific condition, and the art of designing a meaningful relation between the solid and the void, the building and the space, so that the void becomes as meaningful in its shape as the solid.

(Well illustrated in the figure ground representation of urban space). Urban design includes consideration of networks and non-physical aspects such as visual relations, communication, transport, air flow, infrastructure and the like in such a manner that solids, voids and the various systems form synergies, are sustainable, resilient, and equitable.

from: http://www.sustainablecitiescollective.com/klaus-philipsen/1074316/what-urban-design

The economics of cities

Movable chairs

“The service will operate from a mobile tent. The price of renting a chair or umbrella at English Bay is still to be determined. The park board will receive a 16-to-18-percent share of gross annual revenue. “A beach chair and umbrella rental service pilot program provides an ideal opportunity for the Park Board to test this concept and determine its overall market appeal, perceived value, and viability for both the public and the Park Board.”

 from http://www.straight.com/news/699446/beach-chairs-and-sun-umbrellas-are-coming-english-bay

“People like to sit in public places, and, far more fascinatingly, that if given the option they will almost always move chairs before they sit in them.”

 from http://www.citylab.com/design/2012/10/power-movable-chair/3520/

"People can arrange chairs how they like, to sit nearer or farther apart, and move them around to either sun or shade (click on the video clip above to see moveable seating in action). This choice allows people to exercise their options to sit near an event, or away in the quiet, wherever they may feel more comfortable. Many times, they will leave them right where they are, or move them just a few inches.

 from http://www.pps.org/reference/movable-seating/

Quote of the day

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” —Milton Berle

Streets are for people

"Streets are our most fundamental shared public spaces, but they are also one of the most contested and overlooked. Today, and for most of the last century, we have taken for granted the idea that our streets are primarily zones for cars, parking, and the transporting of goods. This has not been the case, however, throughout most of history. Across many cultures and times – since the beginning of civilization, in fact – the street has held vast social, commercial, and political significance as a powerful symbol of the public realm."

Peak car?

http://www.citylab.com/commute/2016/04/america-fewest-16-year-old-drivers-1960s/477135/

“What is evident is that the cities of tomorrow are likely, in effect, to revert to the cities of yesterday: denser, more neighbourhood-based, with everything you need for work and leisure in one district. There will be less separation of functions, less commuting, less travel generally.”

More pedestrian friendly public spaces

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/28/end-of-the-car-age-how-cities-outgrew-the-automobile

Great places

                                             
Prosperity means places. from Gracen Johnson on Vimeo.

Solar City

http://www.upperrhinevalley.com/en/regions-cities/cities/freiburg




http://madisonfreiburg.org/green/sustainablecity.htm

Before and after

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazing-google-street-view-changes-2016-5



more info here:
http://www.urb-i.com/#!toronto/v9tky

Paving detail - public art example

"As part of the city’s revitalization of the retail portion of Broadway in 1982, eight sets of inlaid bronze shoe prints were designed by artist Jack Mackie and cast by Chuck Greening. They can be found in the middle of the sidewalks on Broadway. Each is about twelve square feet and is arranged to show how to do various dance steps including the tango, waltz, lindy, foxtrot weave, rumba and mambo and two other moves created by the artist himself, Busstop and Obeebo. It is not unusual to see people trying out the dance steps themselves right there in the middle of the street."

http://seattle.cbslocal.com/top-lists/most-iconic-works-of-art-in-seattle/

Biomimicry

"Biomimicry is based on the idea that animals, plants and the Earth’s natural processes are the ultimate engineering feats. The approach looks to replicate nature’s clever ideas (...) stems from the logical conclusion that nature’s systems function well: examples of when they fail are found only in the fossil record."

from: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/apr/20/building-with-nature-cities-that-steal-smart-ideas-from-plants-and-animals

New tool from ESRI

“Big data is junk if you can’t understand, but a map is a pattern made understandable” 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/liyanchen/2013/07/08/billionaire-jack-dangermond-launches-urban-observatory-with-big-data-interactive-maps

Older, smaller, better!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/programs/metromorning/jane-jacobs-1.3565626

and from:
http://blog.preservationleadershipforum.org/2015/03/20/meeks-older-buildings-livable-cities

"Neighborhoods with a mix of older and newer buildings are more diverse in age, race and income. They have “hidden density”—more people and businesses per square foot than areas with just new buildings. They are more walkable and have more creative jobs. They have more new and women- and minority-owned businesses. And they show more activity on evenings and weekends."

Food waste discussion

This is changing but slowly.

http://mashable.com/2016/03/04/ugly-fruit-food-waste/#Um1jgkpGRZq6
and
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/loblaw-imperfect-grocery-1.3473996