In Tigard, Oregon Kittelson & Associates are taking a page from “desire paths” (natural trails that evolve over time) and creating a network of walking paths to connect the town.

Urban Places is a project that aims to collect a compendium of user-submitted photographs and descriptions of favourite urban spaces.

The City Dark is an upcoming film that looks at light pollution, and the disappearance of the nighttime.

David Byrne has composed an inspiring article where he lays out his version of a perfect city. Combining standout elements from different areas around the planet, Byrne’s imaginary city sounds like a fantastic place to live, and could be used as a real blueprint for future urban planners.

We’ve seen many examples of conceptual vertical farming, and of course high-rise living – but what about a combination of the two? Architects from Tzannes Associates in Sydney have dreamed up just such an idea with their Skyburbs concept design.

The Brooklyn Typology Project is an unbelievably informative and multi-layered work by artist and urban planner Neil Freeman that merges the aesthetics, history and demographics of Brooklyn within a tapestry of web links.
2100 photographs were taken to represent each of Brooklyn’s block groups, and clicking on each photo leads to a storehouse of data about a particular neighborhood- census numbers, the age and type of the neighboring structures, and historical information. All of this is meant to provide insight into the borough’s dense and varied population, layout, and design.
This project and others are gathered on Mr. Freeman’s site- Fake Is [...]

Walk a little too fast and you might miss it, but nestled in the heart of Brooklyn off the Jefferson L train, a group of artists, activists, and golf lovers have turned a tiny slice of abandoned property into a nine-hole miniature golf course called THE PUTTING LOT. While PSFK reported on in it’s eminent opening in May , this golf course isn’t merely for recreational use- it’s become part of a master plan of it’s creators to promote sustainability, urban renewal, and eco-consciousness. Each of the nine putting holes was designed by a different team of artists and architects [...]

With a peculiar sculpture piece based on a system of “Dendroids,” American artist Roxy Paine has created a 130-foot-long by 45-foot-wide stainless-steel sculpture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Roof Garden. It is an interesting combination of concepts – Paine uses both mechanical means and the innate logic of natural forms to create his “Dendroid” tree-like sculptures. Like in nature, these are a series of vascular networks, tree roots, mushrooms, and fungal mycelia. His meticulous research and observation of a variety of tree species help him to understand the nuances of how a tree grows. Paine has said:
“I’ve processed the [...]

Award-winning London architectural practice East have once again proven their expert skill, here creating a new public area for Bermondsey Square in Southwark, South London. The aim of the square is to rekindle a sense of community within the new expansion, linking the surrounding spaces, pedestrian and cycle routes to the day-to-day activities of the area. With the square incorporating an arena for an outdoor cinema, seating, general play and a market, the space not only will help to bring people to Bermondsey, but is also in keeping with the deep heritage of the area [The Bermondsey Antiques Market has [...]

Dating back to 1909, The Plan of Chicago is considered one of the fundamental documents in the history of urban planning, presenting a thoughtful design for a city that incorporated many of the very principles – livability, sustainability and functionality – that we strive for as we rethink our relationship to our metropolitan centers. In honor of its centennial, The Art Institute of Chicago has created an online exhibition titled Without Bounds or Limits that showcases the insights behind this radical vision through a comprehensive collection of archival images and documents that are especially relevant today.
The introduction to the exhibition explains:
The Plan is [...]

When we were in New Orleans recently, Robbie Vitrano took us on a tour of New Orleans. At one junction as he waited, he explained that the land under the raised freeway we were about to go under used to be a park where the citizens of the city would spend their weekends. It was a reminder that while Eisenhower’s Highways Acts created an economic spurt in the US, it also led to the destruction of neighborhoods in cities across America.
Writing in the New York Times, Nicolai Ouroussoff argues that we are at a pivotal time where we could [...]

Streetsfilms point out a useful crosswalk modification they discovered along Seattle’s waterfront. The pedestrian walkway is different than most due to lines of blinking lights that border the crosswalk.  They act as a signal for drivers to be aware and stop for people walking through.
Another useful design tweak is that the crosswalk signal lights are foot activated by stepping on a pad embedded with sensors rather than pressing a button. It’s a simple change from a typical crosswalk, but one that makes crossing a road safer, and a more seamless experience for walkers.
[Streetsblog via Eyebeam Reblog]

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) recently launched a new initiative designed to address the design and management of cities across the UK.  The Sustainable Cities initiative gathers data from two years of research by a team of 30 experts and the English Core Cities group.  The goal to make cities low carbon has grown to a massive project addressing affordable housing, energy security and job generation.  The group has identified climate change as a direct challenge to the efficency of managing a town or city and have created this initiative as a framework of priorities for [...]

Las Vegas is one of many cities trying to develop its downtown. But, as it’s Vegas, it’s not necessarily business as usual. Along with plans to open a new city hall, the mayor has proposed using federal funds to build a museum dedicated to the mob’s involvement in Vegas. Other plans include building a casino resort and an office, retail and residential space, but in the economic downturn, it will be a tough sell. Downtown has never been as popular as the Strip, and has lost business to Indian casinos closer to patrons’ homes.
[via NYT]

Mark Gorton, creator of the Lime Wire file sharing software is now using his talents to improve urban transportation design. Using an open source software program he’s created along with data gathered from the collective population, Gorton aims to make urban transportation safer, more efficient and sustainable.
Wired reports:
The top-down culture of public planning stands to benefit by employing methods he’s lifting from the world of open-source software: crowdsourced development, freely-accessible data libraries, and web forums, as well as actual open-source software with which city planners can map transportation designs to people’s needs. Such modeling software and data existed in the [...]