Cities can be seen as a construct of various systems or as an organism with various inputs, outputs that adapts to the environmental conditions. Cities have never-ending ‘growing pains’ (or shrinking pains) with a recent pieces of writing showing that no matter whether your in a developed or developing nation, cities continue to change due […]
China | more thought needed about urbanisation
Rapid urbanisation of millions of Chinese has occurred and will continue to occur over the next 25-30 years. There is a change in focus from mega-cities to smaller cities and towns as the country transitions from exports to consumerism based economy. What has changed in a urban design focus have to do with economy? In […]
Dreaming – Compendium and Elon Musk
This week has been an interesting week. I just finished reading Compendium for the Civic Economy – which shows what 25 ideas and communities can do to transform their local economies and I also watched a couple of videos from D11 conference including the one with Elon Musk. The Compendium show cases projects solving problems within […]
Calgary Mayor visits China and travels by public transit
Often you hear of trade delegations coming to China and experiencing the city. Usually its through the window of a bus or van whilst they run from airport to city and around the city going to meetings. So its refreshing to see Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi taking the time to go and travel on subways […]
Accessible Community Facilities are key to making great cities
The National (local UAE newspaper) reported that the Urban Planning Council surveyed 10,882 households in Abu Dhabi and found that communities lacked community facilities and services such as parks, playgrounds, shopping and restaurants (See graph above). What this shows is an pro-active government surveying the population and determining what the residents need. People who live […]