Arts & Culture posts, articles, and infographics

Blink and You Will Miss These Urban Memes

May 17, 2012 by The Dirt ASLA
with 263 views

Street art can be elegant, enigmatic, or just plain goofy. In a new addition to our series of posts on how the built environment can be transformed through new forms of “rebel” or street sports, games, and art work, here are a few new “memes” worth mulling over. Perhaps the urban form of flash-in-the pan Internet... [read more]

How transportation can contribute to community building

May 16, 2012 by Jessica Soulliere
with 48 views

Project for Public Spaces

Project for Public Spaces Director of Transportation Initiatives Gary Toth recently spoke at the Complete Streets Forumin Toronto, Ontario, about the role of transportation alternatives and complete streets in communities and community building.In his speech, posted below, Toth explains that complete streets are to be welcoming... [read more]

It’s a Good Week to be a Bicyclist

May 16, 2012 by Project for Public Spaces
with 96 views

dny3d/Shutterstock

If you’re one of the millions of Americans who prefers to travel around on two wheels, this is a very good week to be you! No matter your reason for riding, there’s something interesting happening in the next few days. Biking is a great way to experience great places: it gets us out in the open air, moving at a speed that allows us to... [read more]

Shipping container "cities" bring creative, funky approach to green construction

May 11, 2012 by Kaid Benfield
with 765 views

This started out as an article on prefabricated modular housing, which can bring the construction price of new homes down considerably and lends itself well to use of green materials and straightforward replication. There’s a multi-part series on green prefab construction, including the history and evolution of the industry... [read more]

Eating in the City: San Francisco's Food Truck Movement

May 10, 2012 by Rashiq Fataar
with 148 views

There were a few things FCT team member Gareth Pearson knew he wanted to see during his recent visit to San Francisco. Food trucks, parklets, and some urban farming projects. He thought he would have to hunt them down, but was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon them by chance. Here he shares the first of a few highlights from his... [read more]

Great city characteristics make us happier. Unless they don't.

May 8, 2012 by Kaid Benfield
with 67 views

I’ve been looking at some research reports, and confirming that some of the qualities associated with great urbanism – good public transit; easy access to cultural activities, recreation and shops; connectedness – are associated positively with human happiness. I first reported (“The Environmental Building Blocks of... [read more]

Future Cities: Imagining, Planning, and Bringing them to Life

May 7, 2012 by This Big City
with 276 views

Ataaullah Jaunoo/flickr

The concept or idea of a New or Future City can be unsettling, perhaps even unappealing. One begins to imagine Koolhaas’s description of the Generic City, “a city of 15 million inhabitants, in or near the tropics, with high-rise apartments, low rise slums and post modern architecture by unknown 100-strong practices.” [read more]

Russian Crowdsourcing Platforms aim to Solve Local Urban Problems

May 4, 2012 by This Big City
with 192 views

Tripp/flickr

Solving problems at the local level, the kind encountered by inhabitants of big cities and regional centers, is becoming more and more feasible thanks to projects based on crowdsourcing technology. Crowdsourcing is getting groups of people involved in the discussion and resolution of all sorts of different problems, ranging from... [read more]

China’s Urbanites Take to the Internet in Droves [Infographic]

May 3, 2012 by Adam Mayer
with 212 views

The good people over at Statista provided us with yet another excellent China infographic, this time about the country’s huge online population. Already, 1 in 5 worldwide internet users is Chinese, yet still less than half of the country’s population is online. Most of those are people living in China’s urban areas, accounting for 73.5%... [read more]

Four Ideas to Lead Cities Into The Future [Video]

May 2, 2012 by Rashiq Fataar
with 327 views

The mayor of Rio shares his insight into what can make the city of the future sustainable. Cool! [read more]

Temporary Cities: The newest Urban Planning trend?

May 2, 2012 by Megan Dalton
with 570 views

Urban planning has traditionally operated on a very long time line. There is something to be said for this approach, which enabled grand visions to be enacted over the generations of a city’s life. However, when poor planning or limited foresight led to problems, the feedback mechanisms and flexibility required to address... [read more]

A place is an experience, and not a brand

April 24, 2012 by David Barrie
with 311 views

From the Barclays Bike Share System, to sponsored subway stations and stadiums, more and more of our public space is becoming 'branded'. David Barrie explains why this is not a good idea. [read more]