URBANmedias

Welcome to the first annual Urbanist Toolkit Bracket Challenge, where the hottest trends in urbanism go head-to-head in a conceptual game that challenges the instincts, tastes, and urban design wisdom of readers.

Here's how it works:

Thirty-two in-form tools of urbanism have been seeded, according to their popularity and utility, into four regional groups: the Ed Koch, the Sidewalk Ballet, the Le Corbusier, and the Dandyhorse. The four #1 seeds -- car share, bike lanes, farmers' markets, and the waterfront promenade -- are paired off against decidedly more obscure options.

 

It's the nature of an elimination tournament: two urban design features enter, one urban design feature emerges victorious. At the moment we have a choice between Bike Lanes and Pedestrian Street.

 

The Pedestrian Street easily trumped the Waterfront Promenade, 69-31, to advance to the finals. On the left side of the bracket, Bike Lanes sent congestion pricing back to the theoretical realm, 60-40, in a match-up that many people found particularly aggravating, for reasons that commenter Quinn Raymond elucidated at the very start of the bracket challenge: "The final question is basically, 'Would you rather stab yourself in the face or the chest?'"

(Confused? Check out the Final Four, the Elite Eight, the Sweet Sixteen, or the initial post for more info on the entries.)

Via Lauren Moss

Rotterdam’s Floating Pavilion by Deltasync and PublicDomain Architects is the first pilot project for a sustainable floating district.

 

In an effort to address the challenges of climate change and sea level rise, the City of Rotterdam has started to build some intriguing floating structures. The first pilot project is a catalyst for climate change-proof architecture called the Floating Pavilion that consists of three connected hemispheres that look like bubbles anchored within the Dutch city’s old harbor.

An initiative of Rotterdam Climate Proof (part of the Rotterdam Climate Initiative), the mixed-use pavilion was designed by Deltasync and Public Domain Architects, and it sets an unprecedented example for innovative, sustainable and climate-proof architecture.

Via Lauren Moss