neat urban planning stuff

[Patrick]

To help slow traffic, planners pick beige



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...BARQ19QUGI.DTL

and, what is being called new 'RURALISM'
http://www.terrain.org/unsprawl/24/
http://www.agritopia.com/

and, the return of streetcar architecture in Portland, Oregon

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/i...rchitectu.html

If you think these are interesting I'll post more as I read them

[vanshnookenraggen]

That Agritopia sounds a lot like the original suburban ideals of Frank Llyod Wright.

Love this stuff, thanks for posting.

Also if y'all don't know you should check out the Van Allen Inst for awesome Urban Planning proposals.

[Patrick]

it sorta does seem broadacre-ish, but somewhat more farmy at the same time

[Patrick]

also, thanks for the link, looks interesting

[czsz]

That Van Allen website is impenetrable. Just because you can make something look cool doesn't mean you should.

[Patrick]

So basically Shanghai is bursting at the seams. The answer, some think, is to build a new city above it. http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat...pt-design.html

[Corey]

^ That's pretty interesting in a futurama/sci-fi sort of way even if it's just a crazy design idea.

[czsz]

Singapore already did it:





http://www.archinnovations.com/news/...-in-singapore/

[Beton Brut]

Lovely! Paul Rudolph would be proud!

[Justin7]

Originally Posted by Patrick

So basically Shanghai is bursting at the seams. The answer, some think, is to build a new city above it. http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat...pt-design.html

When I visit that page it tells me that Shanghai, with an area ten times the size of Tokyo, has a population just 40% higher. I must be missing something.

[czsz]

One of the problems with Chinese urban population and area statistics is that they tend to count entire municipalities, there being no real sub-level measurement for the built-up areas of cities that are within these province-level divisions. This problem is worst for Chongqing, which is part of a vast municipality of 30+ million people recently carved out of Sichuan, leading some to erroneously declare it the largest city in the world.

Despite its density, Shanghai's area is so large relative to its population because most of Shanghai municipality is farmland. Here the purple border is the municipality limit, and the orange is actual built-up area:



Check out the insanely long bridge to nowhere at lower right. Shanghai actually plans to rebuild its container port on those little islands, which have better access to deep water:

[Justin7]

Thanks for the insight, czsz. Makes more sense now.

[vanshnookenraggen]

I wonder what China would look like if they went the American suburbanization route? With that many people I'm sure it would be like our worst suburbs x100.

[vanshnookenraggen]

Wholy crap, I was looking at that bridge on Google Earth and it is just insane. Interesting idea though, I wonder what Boston would look like with a giant bridge out to one of the Harbor Islands that was built up as a giant container port or airport?

Edit: At second glance there are no harbor islands that could really fit the bill for something larger than what already exists. Still an interesting concept.

[czsz]

Edit: At second glance there are no harbor islands that could really fit the bill for something larger than what already exists. Still an interesting concept.

The islands Shanghai built on were basically rocks jutting out of the sea. Almost all of the container port is filled in around them.

[czsz]

Originally Posted by vanshnookenraggen

I wonder what China would look like if they went the American suburbanization route? With that many people I'm sure it would be like our worst suburbs x100.

Get ready, here it comes!

http://www.time.com/time/photoessays...dia/index.html

Fortunately the Chinese prefer their suburbs more Epcot than exurb:

http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/...i_suburbs.html

[Beton Brut]

Originally Posted by czsz

The islands Shanghai built on were basically rocks jutting out of the sea.

There's no Sierra Club (and no Vivien Li) in China.

[vanshnookenraggen]

Originally Posted by czsz

Get ready, here it comes!

http://www.time.com/time/photoessays...dia/index.html

Fortunately the Chinese prefer their suburbs more Epcot than exurb:

http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/...i_suburbs.html

That's impressive in it's own right but still no "American" style suburbs. I'm thinking South Florida, Las Vegas, and Phoenix x100.

I'm sure we could just photoshop that.

[unterbau]

Interesting read about an updated model for urban development economics:
http://emergenturbanism.com/2009/10/...onal-urbanism/

Using the Chelsea Barracks development as a starting point, they describe how the modern development process hinders urbanism, and discuss a possible scenario for a more gradual development process.

[vanshnookenraggen]

I've been a huge fan of Emergent Urbanism for a while but since it hasn't been tested (and probably won't for another decade at least), I have to take it with a grain of salt. Old cities look the way they do because of the economic forces of their day. Cities of today look the way they do because of our own unique economic forces. Trying to force a design of future cities by designing future economic conditions seems foolhardy to me. I say let the dominoes fall as they may and leave the rest up to architects; lord knows they'll need the jobs.