August 2010
1 post
Farm technique aids urban runoff -... →
July 2010
4 posts
Loving cities to death
paulcaine:
Andres Duany:
The Gen-Xers also discovered the cities; they’re buying in a proper way. The Millennials are the ones we’re talking about. And they love cities desperately. And they’re loving them to death.
All this happened, more or less.: Unplanning:... →
Charles Siegel, author of Unplanning: Livable Cities and Political Choices, points out the flaws of modern city planning and proposes new models on how we can return (if there ever was) to the golden age of American urban living. One of my favorite plans attempts to regulate automobile traffic…
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Instant cities to be built by Cisco
For the article click here
This raises issues that are both exciting and worrying. At risk of being a luddite, such technological integration to me seem like a major security risk (recall for those that can, it was such a networked system in Battlestar Galactica [the rebooted series] which allowed for a cyclon attack). Not to mention the obvious Orwellian undertones.
In terms of what this mean...
Greatest Dream Cities in Science Fiction and... →
June 2010
12 posts
1 tag
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Thats, SIR Patrick to you
source: BBC
Its official!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/patrick-stewart-gets-a-promotion/article1589711/
Things activists have achieved:
adriennemae:
crookedindifference:
Includes the American Revolution, the abolition of slavery, universal suffrage, public education, public parks, wildlife reserves, integration, coeducation, the eight-hour workday, collective bargaining, health and safety standards, child labor laws, reproductive choice, same-sex partner benefits, public health clinics and multicultural studies. “Never doubt...
5 Daily Actions for Your Well-being →
irishboyinlondon:
5 simple steps you can do evryday to improve your well being and sense of self!
Sir Patrick Stewart, whose brilliance far exceeds...
After touching on mentoring, if I could choose someone myself, it would definatley be Sir Patrick Stewart. Perhaps most noted for his performance as Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation, this great thespian bought to the sci-fi genre a sophsitication and dignity which was one of the reasons that so many rnjoyed the show. But it isn’t merely his acting chops which makes...
Planning Management: Mentoring, or lacking one,...
Mentoring, distinct from a single directional process such as teaching or training, creates a more sophisticated and developed relationship. Here, the mentee takes control, and seeks advice from the mentor. Traditionally, face-to-face mentoring has been the main form, however, with advent of modern technology we are opened to the possibility of virtual mentors. Virtual mentoring, removes the...
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Planning Management: Managing Change
Linking in with risks from the last post, changes represents more variables with which planners would have to deal with. Change management then represents a means of controlling how change occurs, doing so in a systematic and deliberate way as a means to reduce risk and uncertainty - but perhaps more importantly, to increase the likelihood of success. In meshing with other management skills,...
May 2010
16 posts
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Planning Management: Risk and how we manage to...
Planning by its nature seeks to anticipate changes and provide a means to react to them. Thus, one of the greatest challenges facing planners is uncertainty and the risks it causes. Perhaps more at home within financial circles, or business management, planners nevertheless can stand to gain much from the adoption of such practices (and perhaps they already do).
In context, I see risk management...
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An overlooked technology in shaping the city →
In this post, the link between the pill and its effects on the city. I found it an interesting and unique approach, the fact that it never struck me to connect the two made it that much more refreshing to read.
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Planning Management: Collaboration and Partnership
The nature of the planning profession naturally entails the collaboration of a diaspora (always wanted to use that word more often…) of fields. Lets face it, we recognise that the issues we face falls beyond the capacity of any one specialist, and in light of the vogue for an holistic approach a multiplicity of minds is the preferred course. Heck, (I’m not sure how the rest of the...
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Planning Management: toolkit to achieve cultural...
Picking up from last time’s entry, we see the importance of planners to have cultural competency as part of their core skill-set. Afterall, in order to meaningfully serve those within the community (or billion-dollar developments as in the case of the glamorous world of the private sector.), planners need to be able to effectively interface with clients. When all things considered,...
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Planning Management: On cultural competence
Given the reality of the multicultural society we must operate in, it then is perhaps prudent for some sort of cultural competency to be included as part of the core set of skills afforded to planners. Some of the arguments involved against cultural competence skills has been that is is a normative skill which doesn’t necessarily fit in with the institutional structures which planners...
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WHO/Europe:Healthy Cities Program →
I think its about time that the effects urban design has on the health of residents be recognised. With health spending being such a major part of any nation’s budget, seeking a preventative stance from my view forms a much more sustainable approach.
shriyashriyashriya:
Interesting resource - in Europe, the WHO is paying special attention to create ‘healthier cities,’ while this year it...
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Model for Sustinable Conservation
linky to article: http://dirt.asla.org/2010/03/22/rewilding-a-model-for-sustainable-conservation/
In light of the discourse that still surrounds climate change, in which the consequences seems that much more immediate - the issue of biodiversity then can be forgotten. From its conservatory roots, the environmental movement has evolved leaps and bounds.
The problem I have found with rewilding,is...
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People's Way: Urban Mobility in Ahmedabad: Places:...
Photo: Meena Kadri
Transport rates up there as one of the most important of infrastructure issue for planners. Congestion, the word alone conjures up the proverbial metal box and is sufficient to induce [insert stress related symptom here].
Meena Kadri, in her superb article, the detailing of a Bus Rapid Transit - which repurposes existing roads into dedicated busroutes - being implemented in...
Next American City » Magazine » Next Generation... →
The Ruse of the Creative Class | The American... →
eekim:
The line between rock star and researcher and the responsibilities of both: Richard Florida post-Creative Class.
vancouver travel: Princess Hijab - Culture... →
France, Switzerland, Belgium and other European nations have had a difficult time reconciling Islamic communities and their emergent visibility in cities and suburbs. Last November, for instance, the Swiss voted to ban the construction of minarets as part of mosque architecture and France…
April 2010
22 posts
1 tag
Hobbies in Context: I roll a 19 on intelligence...
via flickr
Another masculine pursuit worthy of the mightiest and manliest of men. Dungeons and Dragons, the quintessential spiritual successor to many of today’s role-playing genre, to me embodies much of the skills and requirements that would be good in a planner.
First and foremost, originating before the time of all this new-fangled computer graphics, it requires...
God game: SimCity urban planning taken to... →
I am both terrified and faintly intrigued by the implications of such a city…there is one thing you cannot doubt - his dedication to the game.
churchbells:
wow. i used to play this game as a kid. it is addictive and wonderful, which is why i don’t own it or play it. and this just blows my mind.
“A lot of cities now think that having a big, branded museum is enough to make a...”
– Thomas Werquin, an economist and the president of an association that studies urban planning projects More (via shriyashriyashriya)
Left and Right, cause vs. just adds antagonism.
For a larger version click here Image via informationisbeautiful.net
A very succint look at the different ideological drive behind two contrasting political school of thoughts. I think they have offered a comparatively neutral judgement (of course viewers are free to their judgement, afterall, bar the Swiss, very few of us are truly neutral) of both side’s trait - it doesn’t offer...
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Interview with Mia Lehrer on Revitalizing...
via thedirt.asla.org
Planners sometimes, when sufficiently removed from those they serve, forget in the greater scheme of things - that at the end of the day communities are what that matters. In this excellent interview, Mia Lehrer discuses issues of sustainability, community planning, and the relationships needed to do so....
Visualising Traffic Patterns →
A delicious visualisation of what is an otherwise very mundane matter. The brilliant, almost organic results blurs the line between art and traffic engineering - a veritable feast for the eyes.
The 10 Weirdest Urban Ecosystems on Earth →
(via groversparkman)
Now tell me you’re not intrigued.
Planning Management: Organisation part deux -...
The dignity captured even in a craricature of yore makes some long with a mix of nostalgia and wistfulness the ‘good ol’ days’. It is not my place to judge on that, perhaps folks back then were just more cleverer in covering up their tracks. Anyway, back onto topic. Building on last post on organisational structure, today, we get to see theory meets practice - and it’s...
Planning Management: the organising organisational...
via wondermark.com
Organisational culture represents the different means in which it is ran and managed. Being the wonderful world that it is, things aren’t that simple, with a veritable cornucopia of different styles, different beliefs in how people should be managed. Without this cornucopia, it wouldn’t be terribly interesting. Of course there are overlaps - 4 categories,...
National Geographic News | 'Cities Trap More... →
plantedcity:
Cities (above, Shanghai at night) store more carbon in their trees, buildings, and dirt than do dense tropical rain forests, a September 2009 study says.
Planning Management: Not a very creative title...
via xkcd.com
Creativity is a trait that can be seen as both positive as well a negative. We have those who cherish it, and those who see those with ‘too much’ creativity as unnecessarily disturbing status quo, or even as eccentric. Whatever the institutional views towards it may be, creativity is something that is very important to planning. Today’s post is largely derived...