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mixed used train-tracks/market place... I've used similar videos in my classes and students are usually quite shocked to see how a city like Bangkok, Thailand operates. I've used this as a 'hook' for lessons of population growth, urbanization, economic development, sustainability, megacities and city planning.
Via Seth Dixon
Tags: infographic, food, agriculture, sustainability, urban, urban ecology, locavore, land use, unit 5 agriculture, unit 7 cities.
Via Seth Dixon
The green revolution has impacted almost every sector of the economy. Now, eco-friendly technology is revolutionizing the way we think about architecture. Every part of the architectural process is undergoing huge changes. When people think of green architecture, they often picture simple modifications, such as the substitution of environmentally friendly materials for less sustainable ones. While this can certainly be a viable means of reducing a project’s carbon footprint, it is by no means the only way to make a positive impact. The best green projects are the ones that go above and beyond, completely altering the way people think of architecture as a whole. The following are just a few of the spectacular developments taking place in architecture today. Vertical Gardens Disaster-Resisant Buildings Walkable Roofs Garden Skyscrapers Tags: urban, urban ecology, sustainability, unit 7 cities.
Via Lauren Moss, Seth Dixon
From TD-architects Theo Deutinger Rotterdam. Rome was the first city with one million residents, with that occuring in 5 BC. Over a thousand years later, London and Beijing joined that group as industrialization became the impetus for wide-scale urbanization. Today we are seeing an explosion of "million cities" throughout the world.
Tags: urban, megacities, unit 7 cities.
Via Seth Dixon
Manhole covers are ubiquitous in the modern urban fabric; they are typically drab and purely utilitarian. In Japan, municipalities take pride in the this ordinary piece of the landscape and convert them into extraordinary works of art that reflect the local people, place and culture. Tags: book review, landscape, art, urban, culture, place, EastAsia.
Via Seth Dixon
The green dots on this map representing Starbucks locations which are obviously clustered in major metropolitan centers. Cross-referencing this Starbucks address location with population data, Davenport explains his mapping technique: "By counting the number of people who live within a given distance to each Starbucks, we can measure how well centered Frappuccinos are to the US citizenry. In other words: draw a 1-mile circle around every store, then add up the % of the population living within the circles. Repeat for 2, 3, 4....100 miles." The result of this data is a fabulous logrithmic S-curve which explains much about the American population distribution. Tags: statistics, density, consumption, mapping, visualization, urban.
Via Seth Dixon
The Kauffman Foundation's Samuel Arbesman on his new book, The Half-Life of Facts. This is an interview, Samuel Arbesman,the author of The Half-Life of Facts explains how population density and place matter in forming a creative economic workforce. Urban centers act as drivers of innovation and advancements and attract the more ambitious and daring workers. Additionally, this map on the expansion of the printing press (discussed in the interview) is also a great map to show how technological innovations can spur cultural diffusion. Tags: technology, diffusion, urban, labor, migration, book review.
Via Seth Dixon
Jerry Dobrovolny, Vancouver’s director of transportation, has a lot of nerve trying to spin a tale that the city’s new transportation plan isn’t “focused on a war on the car.” He should walk across the street from city hall to Yuk Yuk’s comedy club... Not everyone (especially not the author of the linked editorial) is a fan of Smart Growth and other urban planning paradigms that promote alternative forms of transportation (categorized in the editorial as anti-vehicle bullying). Questions to Ponder: Does Vancouver's planning seem "anti-vehicle" to you? Are some places "anti-cycling" or "anti-walking?" What would these places look like? What do you see as the best transportation model for our cities? Tags: transportation, urban, planning, sustainability.
Via Seth Dixon
Where can you find the most innovative smart growth projects in America? They’re in places like New Mexico and South Dakota, and they’re transforming their communities. For the tenth year, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Smart Growth Achievement Awards has highlighted the most innovative approaches that communities are using to “strengthen their economies, provide housing and transportation choices, develop in ways that bring benefits to a wide range of residents, and protect the environment.” Here’s EPA’s choices this year for the top 5 smart growth projects in the U.S. (in no particular order). How is the Smart Growth movement changing urbanism in the United States?
Via Lauren Moss, Seth Dixon
As described by Manu Fernandez, "MySociety developed this project that perfectly illustrates the utility of georeferenced data. Mapumental tool displays the travel time to reach a certain point from anywhere in the city, thereby helping to understand the temporal distance mobility, a much more useful and practical information than just physical distance." This type of mapping shows the Space-Time Compression as well as the unevenness of that compression. Why are some areas 'functionally closer?' What makes some places 'functionally farther apart?' How do technology, density and infrastructure influence this phenomenon?
Via Seth Dixon
Apple opened its latest store in New York’s Grand Central Terminal Friday. And it's magnificent. Which brands are culturally important and attract other businesses? Why does agglomeration even work?
Via Seth Dixon
The guest, Harvard economist Ed Glaeser, is the author of the new book Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier. What are the benefits and challenges of living at high densities? How do cities spur economic innovation and collaboration? This 17 minute audio clip (or transcript) is a good primer for the advantages of cities for humanity.
Via Seth Dixon
From the Eiffel Tower, you can pan and zoom to see the whole city. This could be a fantastic 'hook' for an urban geography class. Paris has been the model for so many urban restructuring projects, that this would work nicely as grist for discuss centering on ideas of urbanism (and it's just stunningly gorgeous). Enjoy playing with this as it is very easy to manipulate and control.
Via Seth Dixon
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As upscale, high-rise condos and hipster bars opened nearby, longtime customers joked: Is this really still “the ’hood”? Not anymore. In a gentrifying neighborhood in Washington D.C. that was historically African-American, Fish in the ’Hood was an iconic restaurant that captured the feel of the area. Just this May, the storefront restaurant was renamed Fish in the Neighborhood. Questions to Ponder: Why? Does it matter? What does it mean?
Via Seth Dixon
If you have over 100,000 staples, you can create an startlingly creative rendition of an urban landscape (well, Peter Root could). It is interesting how our cultural and historical context shape what we see as a human landscape. I can't help but think that if I lived 2,000 years ago this uneven jumbled metallic mass wouldn't remind anyone of any place they'd ever been. Tags: art, urban, landscape, unit 7 cities, historical.
Via Seth Dixon
Created by Eirik Evjen. The production of this video was made out of 76,940 single photos. "Norway has recently reached 5 million inhabitants and the capital is growing rapidly. The city scene in Oslo is steadily thickening with taller buildings, more people and the never-ending construction sites. Being by far the most populated city in Norway with 613 000 inhabitants, most Norwegians look to Oslo as a major capital. However, if one compares Oslo to other international capitals, Oslo only ranks as the 112th largest. Oslo is indeed a major capital, just a small one…" Tags: art, urban, Europe, landscape, unit 7 cities.
Via Seth Dixon
Urban Agriculture Sprouts in Brazil’s Favelas - Organic agriculture is a growing trend in big cities around the world, including Latin America, and no... This article nicely ties two commonly taught issues in human geography that aren't the the typical combination: 1) the growth of organic farming and 2) the spread of squatter settlements and slums in the developing world. Tags: agriculture, food, urban, unit 5 agriculture, unit 7 cities.
Via Seth Dixon
TED Talks Map designer Aris Venetikidis is fascinated by the maps we draw in our minds as we move around a city -- less like street maps, more like schematics or wiring diagrams, abstract images of relationships between places. This video touches on numerous themes that are crucial to geographers including: 1) how our minds arrange spatial information, 2) how to best graphically represent spatial information in a useful manner for your audience and 3) how mapping a place can be the impetus for changing outdated systems. This is the story of how a cartographer working to improve a local transportation system map, which in turn, started city projects to improve the infrastructure and public utilities in Dublin, Ireland. This cartographer argues that the best map design for a transport system needs to conform to how on cognitive mental mapping works more so than geographic accuracy (like so many subway maps do). Tags: transportation, urban, mapping, cartography, planning, TED, video, unit 7 cities.
Via Seth Dixon
It is possible in many cities to identify zones with a particular type of land use - eg a residential zone. Often these zones have developed due to a combination of economic and social factors. In some cases planners may have tried to separate out some land uses, eg an airport is separated from a large housing estate. The concentric and sector models in one news article? The BBC is showing once again the possibilities available if only the United States taught more geography in the schools. Tags: urban, models, unit 7 cities, APHG.
Via Seth Dixon
These skylines are not to scale, but are composite skylines to groups together the iconic representations of the particular cities into one. Thanks to APHG teacher Ricard Giddens, here are some U.S. skylines.
Tags: urban, Paris, London, place, tourism.
Via Seth Dixon
Visualisation of the density and function of the built-environment in Greater London 2010. Shows the dominance of the intensifying city-centre, corridors of commercial development and the smaller scale centres in Outer London. This is a fantastic way to visually comprehend the spatial urban patterns and densities of a world city like London.
Via Seth Dixon
http://www.ted.com In James Howard Kunstler's view, public spaces should be inspired centers of civic life and the physical manifestation of the common good.... Kunstler impassionedly argues that American architecture and urban planning are not creating public places that encourage interaction and communal engagement. We should create more distinct places that foster a sense of place that is 'worth fighting for,' as opposed to suburbia which he sees as emblematic of these problems. How should we design cities to create a strong sense of place? What elements are necessary? Warning: He uses some strong language.
Via Seth Dixon
Why cities are the best cure for our planet's growing pains... Debate the merits of this quote from Edward Glaeser: "There's no such thing as a poor urbanized country; there's no such thing as a rich rural country." Is this true? Are there exceptions? What explains these geographic patterns? Is there a causal link between urbanization and economic development?
Via Seth Dixon
Residents and planners around the country are dreaming up innovative ways to create eco-friendly, self-reliant communities. But turning ideas into reality is a tall order. Urban revitalization projects gentrification have been an important part of the American scene since the 1990s. As we reconsider the city, and some of the associated issues with dense living, many are also thinking about the environmental impact of urban life and rethinking how to make neighborhoods more sustainable. This article uses the Denver Lower Downtown (LoDo) neighborhood as its case study for analyzing sustainability with the city.
Via Seth Dixon
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