Our network

development

Can Ontario deliver the continent's best land-use plan?

January 26, 2012 by Kaid Benfield
with 206 views
0

  I’m fond of saying that the best-conceived plan for managing growth and development in North America is the Places to Grow framework adopted by the province of Ontario, Canada.  Constructed pursuant to enabling legislation adopted by the province in 2005, Places to Grow addresses the future of a New Hampshire-sized region... [read more]

Is Social Media the Key to Making Buildings More Sustainable?

January 23, 2012 by This Big City
with 210 views
0

Can you use social media to better engage your community? Even in construction? [read more]

Is the Earth Squandering Its Future?

January 20, 2012 by Audrey Henderson
with 71 views
0

The Lorax, Dr. Seuss' fictional account of unchecked urban development gone bad, is as relevant today as it was when it originally appeared in print and on television during the 1970s. This post illustrates several of the tragically unlearned lessons of that whimsically-told, yet nonetheless urgently serious cautionary tale. [read more]

Featured Quote: Doina Petrescu on Participatory Design

August 9, 2011 by the polis blog
with 142 views
0

"Driven by desire, participatory design is a 'collective bricolage' in which individuals (clients, users, designers) are able to interrogate the heterogeneity of a situation, to acknowledge their own position and then go beyond it, to open it up to new meanings, new possibilities, to 'collage their own collage onto other collages,' in... [read more]

Free! UC Berkeley Infill Development Podcast Seminar

August 8, 2011 by Donovan Gillman
with 267 views
0

Not quite the same as all our problems here in South Africa, although driving through Johannesburg the last three days its has distinct similarities to American suburbia – and just as empty and pointless! "From UC Berkeley, a seminar series entitled “Infilling California: Tools and Strategies for Infill Development“, sponsored by the... [read more]

UK Proposes National Planning Policy Framework

July 26, 2011 by Ceri Margerison
with 99 views
0

On the 25th July 2011 the draft National Planning Policy Framework was published by Government. After the release of the Natural Environment White Paper in June this year conservation organisations have been highly anticipating the publication of the Framework, which represents the next step in terms of implementing the declarations of... [read more]

The Effect of Place on Energy Use and Climate Change

June 29, 2010 by The Dirt ASLA
with 1,143 views
0

At the Atlantic magazine’s “Future of the City” forum, Shaun Donovan, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and panelists explored how place impacts energy use and climate change. Panelists discussed the future of urban transportation, including technologies and strategies that will define next generation approaches, as well... [read more]

Urban density is good, says Mother Jones; we agree, says Scientific American

June 17, 2010 by Kaid Benfield
with 308 views
0

NIMBY opposition to smart growth is standing in the way of environmental progress, writes Josh Harkinson in Mother Jones.  As an example, he cites a proposed development in Alameda County, California, that would have added some 4,000 homes, none taller than three stories, on the 1,500-acre site of an abandoned naval air base... [read more]

Sustainability and Social Context

May 8, 2010 by Fabian Neuhaus
with 820 views
0

"In nature, organisms and species coexist in an ecosystem, where each species has its own place or niche in the system. The environment contains a limited number and amount of resources, and the various species must compete for access to those resources, where successive adaptations in one group put pressure on another group to catch up... [read more]

Some thoughts on high-speed rail - part 4: Land value creation

April 25, 2010 by David Levinson
with 550 views
0

`The estimated functions show that HSR accessibility has at most a minor effect on house prices" in Taiwan. [Andersson et al., 2010] Examination of local land uses around international high-speed rail stations suggests that were it not for commuter traffic, the effects on land use will not necessarily be localized near the station,... [read more]

Is your city ready for the future?

April 16, 2010 by Adam Christensen
with 257 views
0

Is your city looking a bit rough around the edges? Do you wonder what it will be like in 20 years time? Does it even feel like your city? Click here to view the embedded video. After moving to London 17 years ago it took me a while to feel like this was home and that I had a right to complain or think that things could be done better... [read more]

Constructing a city around the concept of happiness

March 5, 2010 by Kaid Benfield
with 479 views
0

“With our limited resources, we have to invent other ways to measure success. This might mean that all kids have access to sports facilities, libraries, parks, schools, nurseries.”  These are the words of Enrique Peñalosa, who served as mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, for three years, and who has become an evangelist for... [read more]