Daily Magazine

Climate change, overcrowding, and economic straits have all combined to make our cities, as they're currently thought of and designed, untenable.

Which means that architects and policy members have to rethink our strategy of how to shape the city—both buildings and urban space alike. Part of this entails that we make do with the standing infrastructure that we already have. Preserving and rehabilitating the aging relics of global cities proves to be a way of saving energy while enabling newer methods of architectural planning.

Projects such as the High Line have kickstarted a new age of urban regeneration, with initiatives from Tel Aviv to Philadelphia attempting to replicate it success on their own turf. When it comes to urban transformation, size does not matter- the subtleties of thoughtful urban projects shine through at every level.

Visit the link to view a collection of projects that spur innovation and lively spaces.

Via Lauren Moss

"Change on a grand scale ... is hard, but it’s not impossible."   Living Cities, a long-standing collaborative of 22 of the world’s leading foundations and financial institutions, created the Integration Initiative to accelerate the pace of change in U.S. cities.

     

We worked with five cities tackling seemingly intractable challenges such as urban revitalization in Detroit and education and health in Newark.
       

Get the right players to the table.    ...We asked cities to start from the results that they wanted to achieve, and then to determine who needed to be at the table in order to achieve them. Often, this meant bringing people together who were not used to working together.

     

We saw the greatest success when ….strong chairs who had credibility in multiple sectors, were willing to push the group to prioritize, and were committed to changing how their own institutions worked in order to push others to do the same. …achieving their goals required significant behavior change from multiple players who didn’t necessarily see themselves as part of the same systems even though they served largely the same families and neighborhoods. 

       

For example, …a school superintendent and the head of a community development bank …both play an important role in connecting underserved communities to jobs and essential services such as education, training, child care, health care and housing, and ensuring that those opportunities exist in the first place.

      

Also:    Reimagine roles.    …challenge long-held orthodoxies that can limit progress….

         

Build, measure, learn, and declare.     …The most successful cities have adopted a lean “build, measure, learn” approach. They use data to measure, in real time, whether their indicators are trending up, learn whether their approaches are working and then stay or change course as needed.

Via Deb Nystrom, REVELN

Architects and city planners are becoming more and more familiar with the health effects of our built environment.  This to-the-point infographic, designed by Chris Yoon, cites a few ways in which mid-20th century city planning trends have contributed to a growing obesity problem in the United States.  This data has alarmed scientists, planners and city officials into stressing the importance of redesigning the physical spaces so as to encourage physical activity and healthy choices.

 

Via Lauren Moss

As populations continue to move to urban areas, architects must address how their designs will impact the cities they are trying to improve— and those inhabitants whose access to clean air is determined by their proposals. How can architects best use design to repair the health of our cities?

Visit the article link for project links and an overview of some of the innovative ways architecture addresses climate change, air quality, emissions and is rethinking our cities through design, technology and new approaches to sustainable urbanism...

Via Lauren Moss