The Limits of Density →
“The key function of a city is to enable exchange, interaction, and the [creative] combination and recombination of people and ideas. When buildings become so massive that street life disappears, they can damp down and limit just this sort of interaction…
What we need are new measures of density that do not simply count how many people we can physically cram into a space but that account for how well the space is utilized, the kinds of interactions it facilitates.”
Read more at The Atlantic Cities. (via theatlantic, wellandlighthouse)
Mayor Bloomberg announced “Reinvent Green” the City’s first hackathon focused primarily on sustainability and the urban environment. The two-day event, which will take place this summer, invites developers and designers to use the City’s environmental open data sets to create digital tools and apps that empower New Yorkers to engage in more sustainable practices.
Interested participants are encouraged to visit nyc.gov/reinventgreen to sign up to be notified when the application is live.
![Kickstarter:
Walk [Your City] began when a few, civic-minded friends in Raleigh, NC posted a network of signs around town that gave walking directions to cool, local spots. It was a simple way to help citizens navigate their city on foot, but (surprise!) it resonated worldwide.
Now, with hundreds of folks eager to adopt the movement, the team is working to create an open-source, web tool that will allow anyone to make, print, and post their very own neighborhood walking signs. See you on the sidewalks — see them as our Project of the Day.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m20jsiP2b21qzbiclo1_500.jpg)
Walk [Your City] began when a few, civic-minded friends in Raleigh, NC posted a network of signs around town that gave walking directions to cool, local spots. It was a simple way to help citizens navigate their city on foot, but (surprise!) it resonated worldwide.
Now, with hundreds of folks eager to adopt the movement, the team is working to create an open-source, web tool that will allow anyone to make, print, and post their very own neighborhood walking signs. See you on the sidewalks — see them as our Project of the Day.
![The Science of Quieter Cities
Could we design better places where we could all live together without hearing quite so much of each other? And just what would that sound like?
These aren’t questions only for apartment-dwellers. Obnoxious city noise comes from all around us, moving between buildings and through windows and across congested roads. If we don’t tame it„ people may never willingly rearrange themselves into the denser living patterns environmentalists say we need.
“People think, ‘Oh we need electricity from solar panels, we need x-y-z system, we need to use less water,” Thomas Jones, the dean of Cal Poly’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design, says. “But we absolutely have to make living in denser urban environments pleasant to the senses, or we’ll lose the environmental battle.”
Maybe it’s time to start looking at townhouses and bus shelters with the same acoustic care engineers have long given to concert halls and schools. In doing so, it’s possible we could make the city sound not just quieter – but, in a very real way, more pleasant.
Read more at The Atlantic Cities. [Image: Shutterstock]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1ia4wX2PD1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
Could we design better places where we could all live together without hearing quite so much of each other? And just what would that sound like?
These aren’t questions only for apartment-dwellers. Obnoxious city noise comes from all around us, moving between buildings and through windows and across congested roads. If we don’t tame it„ people may never willingly rearrange themselves into the denser living patterns environmentalists say we need.
“People think, ‘Oh we need electricity from solar panels, we need x-y-z system, we need to use less water,” Thomas Jones, the dean of Cal Poly’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design, says. “But we absolutely have to make living in denser urban environments pleasant to the senses, or we’ll lose the environmental battle.”
Maybe it’s time to start looking at townhouses and bus shelters with the same acoustic care engineers have long given to concert halls and schools. In doing so, it’s possible we could make the city sound not just quieter – but, in a very real way, more pleasant.
Read more at The Atlantic Cities. [Image: Shutterstock]
How the world of 1950 looked in 1925: infographicAirships above you, cars below ground; clean pedestrianised streets, beautiful elegant high-rise living… how exotic the far-off year of 1950 must have seemed to readers of Popular Science Monthly in 1925, when the infographic below was published. Rediscovered by the wonderful Retronaut (Slogan: “the past is a foreign country. This is your passport”) it probably says more about 1925 than it does about 1950.
Fascinating!
Popuphood – a new urban initiative and small business incubator in Oakland sets out to revitalize a struggling neighborhood in six weeks by carving out a rent-free space of entrepreneurial spirit.
Dotspotting is the first project Stamen is releasing as part of Citytracking, a project funded by the Knight News Challenge. The goal is to make tools to help people gather data about cities and make that data more legible. The code for Dotspotting is available for download on Github, and licensed for use under the GNU General Public License.
