Matt Jones has written a terrific article about the future of cities. He takes inspiration from such diverse sources as 60’s architecture collective Archigram, modern comic books and ubiquitous computing – weaving together a story of how cities and their inhabitants are evolving to face the challenges of the coming times.

Artist Rhys Newman has created a series of birdhouses that can be hung in the same fashion as old shoes draped on wires.

Multi-disciplinary design studio Round have won the Invitation category at the Museums Australia Multimedia and Publication Design Awards. The Melbourne-based studio won the coveted prize for their Walk, Talk and Chalk catalogue.  The catalogue was created for a City of Melbourne exhibition which covered the city’s history of parking enforcement.  Walk, Talk and Chalk is the most highly-attended exhibition the City Gallery has held to date.  Round also received a high commendation for their Urban Arboreal invitation.
[via Grafikcache]

Bicycles are some of the most vulnerable of all vehicles on the modern motorway and while bike lanes are an incredibly effective way to protect the bicyclist’s safety, they are all too rare on today’s roads.  Repainting roads, at an estimated $5,000 to $50,000 a mile, certainly makes accommodations for the quiet, healthy and relatively slow travelers unattractive to local governments.  Some cyclists have taken to creating their own guerrilla bike lanes, but cities are quick to reclaim the roadways.  Most advocates argue that without a breakthrough there won’t be much change in sharing the road.
Enter LightLane, a conceptual product [...]

Dutch design outfit Demakersvan has attempted to remedy the cold industrial feel of the chain link fence by adding an unexpected flourish of beauty to the standard security device. Re-routing the repetitive diamond pattern of the fence into a needlepoint-esque organic design, the “Lace Fence” concept brings some sorely needed beauty into this ubiquitous element of urban space.
[via Dinosaurs & Robots]

Cities can be places of great creative excitement and inspiration, but as anyone who spends a lot of time there can tell you, the urban landscape can be draining as well. Recent research has shown that all the hectic man-made activity occurring on the average city street can lead to a dramatic kind of mental fatigue. The brain, only able to handle a certain number of processes and inputs at any one time ends up using much of its processing power just drowning out all the irrelevant stimuli. It’s been discovered however, that natural setting do not have the same [...]