Squeeze is on as Australia's populations boom

Almost 10 million migrants over the next 50 years will swell Australia's population to more than 40 million by 2060 and more than 50 million by 2100, under dramatically higher new projections by the Bureau of Statistics.

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The 10 Smartest Asia/Pacific Cities

All smart cities, including those on this list, are on the journey towards being smarter, but none of them have arrived. Asia Pacific is a region with unique challenges and opportunities in the smart cities arena. China’s cities are growing at an unprecedented pace stressing their infrastructure and creating significant congestion and air contamination challenges. This has lead the national government to support the creation of dozens of new purpose-built smart cities, 100 of which will have over 1 million people in a decade or so.

Japan is home to many innovative technology and automotive companies looking to implement their solutions in Japan and abroad. Yet they have the opposite problem from China in that they have a declining population. What can Japanese cities do to attract creative, entrepreneurial citizens from around the world to infuse innovation and growth into their economies?

Farther south, Australia and New Zealand offer a very high quality of life as measured by most criteria. Yet these cities in general provide poor access to quality, efficient, and green public transit and are often more sprawled than many North American cities. Australian and New Zealand cities will need to grow up more than out, and invest more in multi-modal transit options for their citizens as they continue on the smart cities journey.

Turn Your Car Into a Ferrari

Want to roll like a baller but with the means of a scrub? Benedetto Bufalino has got you covered, then, with this not-at-all-absurd shell that transforms your Volvo into an asphalt-scorching Ferrari.

Star Wars, Star Trek, Starpath!

The spectral blue glow emitted from this British bike path looks like it should be pulsing off of magic crystals inside some miles-deep cavern. But if it saves a rider from road rash or fractured bones, then more power to the folks who made it: Let's get even more parts of the cycle infrastructure lit up like Marie Curie's lab table.

The so-called "Starpath" is a type of solar-enhanced liquid and aggregate made by Pro-Teq Surfacing, a company headquartered southwest of London near the awesomely titled town of Staines-upon-Thames. It's in the prototype phase, with a test path running 460 feet in a Cambridge park called Christ's Pieces. (The British and their delightful names!) The material works by absorbing UV rays during the day and later releasing them as topaz light. In a weird feature, it can somehow adjust its brightness levels similar to the screen of an iPhone; the path gets dimmer on pitch-black nights "almost like it has a mind of its own," says Pro-Teq's owner, Hamish Scott.

For those art urbanophiles out there

Possessing some semblance of city pride is important, just ask anyone from Sydney or Melbourne who's the better city. Melbournians will say "look at our laneways, graffiti and small bars", Sydneysiders will say "well we copied you with our laneways and trendy bars but try beat us with great weather and beaches, plus we had the Olympics and Kathy Freeman!

Once a city has embraced you, spit you out and taken you back in, a special, unbreakable bond is formed, much like zombies and brains, except better. Respect that bond and your walls by hanging up a graphically designed map or skyline. Unfortunately only the some of the world cities have these visually satisfying prints but I'm working on some local adaptations. Hit me up if you're interested.

How Online Mapmakers Are Helping the Red Cross Save Lives in the Philippines

Volunteers across the world are building the digital infrastructure for the organisation's Typhoon Haiyan relief efforts.

Why We Need to Design Streets for Pedestrians, Not Cars

After World War II, a mass-exodus from the city to the suburbs occurred in America. There was an opportunity to spread out. Own a home with a green lawn. And drive your own car. These pursuits became associated with the American Dream. The sprawl that resulted left many Americans siloed. Distanced from each other. No longer connected to the wider community.  

 

If we follow the logic that we are products of our environment, it stands to reason that social isolation fosters a need to further isolate. Our comfort zone leans towards staying at home watching TV rather than sitting on a cafe patio. We crave social interaction so we play World of Warcraft or other multi-player games. Deep at our core we know that we're social creatures who need to be socialized with a broad range of people to be happy. But our environment has made it difficult to run into new people. 

Read more on Good.is

A Terrifying, Fascinating Timelapse of 30 Years of Human Impact on Earth

Since the 1970s, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey have been amassing satellite images of every inch of our planet as part of the Landsat program. Over time, the images reveal a record of change: of cities expanding, lakes and forests disappearing, new islands emerging from the sea off the coast of rising Middle East metropolises like Dubai.

If you could thumb through these historic pictures as if in a flip book, they would show stunning change across the earth's surface, in both our natural environments and our man-made ones. Now, the digital equivalent of that experience is possible – three decades of global change as a GIF – in a project between NASA, the USGS, TIME, Google, and the CREATE Lab at Carnegie Mellon University.

Landsat images taken between 1984 and 2012 have been converted into a seamless, navigable animation built from millions of satellite photos.

Follow the link to a few of the GIFs Google has created showing some of the most startling pockets of change - LINK

Changing of the guard

In a much less fanfare than the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace three new state representatives have been appointed to replace the outgoing members who have completed their terms on the committee. 

Here's the new line up:
Nav Sunner takes over from Alex Frankcombe in WA.
Harry Quartermain takes over from Michael Dixon in NSW.
Sara Vikstrom takes over from Claire Armstrong in TAS.

Placemaking is a sweat!

The 'Fat Jew' aka Fabrizio Goldstein teaches Bikram Yoga at the NYC Second Avenue F-train stop.

The New York subways are notoriously hot and many commuters consider riding the subway in August unbearable, a daily torture that has to be endured to get around the city. One man has used the puffs of hot air from the trains to his advantage and has transformed the underground into a Bikram Yoga Class for the homeless.

Comedian Fabrizio Goldstein, who also goes by the alias 'Fat Jew', is passing on his skills to the destitute, by helping them limber up during the sweaty classes.

More here - Link

PIA calls for clarity on the future of Australian cities

THE Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) has called for clarity from the Federal Government on the future of Australian cities following the dismantling of the Major Cities Unit, which was established by the former Labor Government in 2008 to advice on issues of policy, planning and infrastructure that have an impact on cities.

Read more at Urbanalyst

LEGO Cities

So here I thought that LEGO was for kids! Apparently not the case, or at least it's for big kids. Like these:

Urban App of the Day: Compare Global Cities on the iPad

The free Urban World was developed by the McKinsey Global Institute, a research organization aimed at informing business and policy makers about the global economy. It stems from the institute's myriad research and data.

FourSquare check-ins show the pulse of cities

For years, the location-tracking app FourSquare has been amassing an enviable well of data on how people spend their time, where they go, and what these patterns reveal about their commuting and entertaining behaviors. If you're on one end of the app, checking in on your smart phone at a neighborhood dive bar, the tool is a handy way to broadcast your whereabouts to your friends. From the other end – from FourSquare's point of view – each logged location contributes to a much larger picture of the life of whole business districts and cities.

Foursquare check-ins show the pulse of New York City and Tokyo

The Urban Planning With LEGO

For more read this

What Will Happen to Budapest's 'Ruin Pubs' Once All the Ruin Is Removed?

Szimpla in the Budapest Jewish Quarter

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- The two-story building at 14 Kazinczy Utca isn’t much to look at. Some of its windows have been boarded up and a thick layer of dirt and grime has settled into the crumbling facade. A collection of potted plants sits on a balcony overlooking the street while a bright yellow sign hangs in a doorway below.

You wouldn’t know it from the outside, but this is one of the most popular places to be in Budapest, at least on a Friday or Saturday night.

Push past the front door and a dimly-lit hallway leads to a large, open-air courtyard. Colorful lights strung together with furniture and a bicycle or two hang suspended in the air above and scenes from a black-and-white movie are projected onto the back wall. Off to the side sits an old Trabant, a type of car made in East Germany during the Cold War. The courtyard opens onto a maze of rooms, each decorated differently. In one, ancient-looking computer monitors and television sets are mounted to the walls. In another, a bathtub has been split in half and converted into a makeshift seating area.

Read more here

How to Design a City for Women

Don’t worry this is not about separating the genders, or some post feminist ranty power grab.

In 1999, officials in Vienna, Austria, asked residents of the city's ninth district how often and why they used public transportation. "Most of the men filled out the questionnaire in less than five minutes," says Ursula Bauer, one of the city administrators tasked with carrying out the survey. "But the women couldn't stop writing."

The majority of men reported using either a car or public transit twice a day -- to go to work in the morning and come home at night. Women, on the other hand, used the city’s network of sidewalks, bus routes, subway lines and streetcars more frequently and for a myriad reasons.

"The women had a much more varied pattern of movement," Bauer recalls. "They were writing things like, 'I take my kids to the doctor some mornings, then bring them to school before I go to work. Later, I help my mother buy groceries and bring my kids home on the metro.'"

Women used public transit more often and made more trips on foot than men. They were also more likely to split their time between work and family commitments like taking care of children and elderly parents. Recognizing this, city planners drafted a plan to improve pedestrian mobility and access to public transit.

Read more at Atlantic Cities - Link

WA Young Planners Series

Metropolitan Local Government Reform: The Future of our Councils

PIA’s Young Planners would like to present the first networking event of the Young Planners Series… Metropolitan Local Government Reform: The Future of our Councils. Perth’s metropolitan area is experiencing an unprecedented rate of growth, with the population set to reach 2.3 million by 2026, and may be as high as 3.5 million by 2050. Due to population growth and economic development, and its strategic location relative to the Asian economies, Perth is on the cusp of a period of transformational change.

Placemaking and the City

Cities are back in fashion; on television (Sex in the City), in music (with ‘urban’ now the codeword for black, popular and rhythmic), in architecture (where density generates the most rewarding opportunities), among international agencies (seeking ways of managing post-Fordist and post-industrial societies), and within the planning establishment (with the reversal of ideas on the uses of the city). One of the most important issues facing planning at the beginning of the twenty-first century is how to revitalise cities. Today, cities are seen as assets rather than liabilities. Their role as engines of economic growth is widely accepted and their spheres of influence the city is becoming recognised as fundamental building blocks in the national fabric.

Bench Bombing in Philly

One simple way to transform public space

Read more here - Link

Digital Placemaking - City Fireflies

"What is City Fireflies?

City Fireflies is a simple game that looks like tons of fun: Players cluster in a plaza in front of a large videoscreen showing a grid of 8-bit-looking "enemy" characters, which is superimposed on a live video image of the physical plaza itself. The goal of the game is for the players to physically move around the plaza to sweep the "enemies" off screen. (Or catch them like fireflies, if you prefer.) The game was meant to be casual: easily intuited rules, instant visual feedback, and a porous structure so that players could enter and leave the gamespace at will without disrupting the gameplay. Which meant that the interaction design had to be ultra-casual as well--so transparent that the energy barrier of joining the game was reduced to nearly zero.

The game designers programmed City Fireflies to track a much simpler indicator for each player: the glowing rectangle of light emitted by the smartphone screen itself. It’s the perfect solution: No apps to install or procedures to explain. City Fireflies simply directs players to point their phones at the giant game screen, and start moving around. The instant visual feedback is clear: The phone becomes your "net" for catching and removing the digital avatars onscreen.

[Read more about City Fireflies]

Sensual Streets - 7 Senses Streets

Residential streets are public spaces, at our front door. We engage with them throughout the day - commuting to work, afternoon walks with the dog, putting the bins out. Yet for most of us this space remains a placeholder between the traffic channel and our front fence. It's time to convert them into usable, inspiring place.

The above picture shows how the street is transformed into a tree-lined play and exploration zone, incorporating a sensory garden, community gathering space and improved connections between the street and the parklands that meet the cul-de-sac.


Here's the link to the article written by Tobias Volbert, a Landscape Architect and Project Development Manager at Playscape Creations.
http://www.placefocus.com/Blog/

Book Recommendation

Don't Shoot, One Man, a Street Fellowship, and The End of Violence inInner City America

By David Kennedy  

A recent book by David Kennedy titled Don't Shoot, One Man, a Street Fellowship, and The End of Violence in Inner City America puts a new face on the fight against urban drug and gun violence. In the book, Kennedy discusses his new approach for combating such violence, which he notes has been implemented in cities such as Boston, Cincinnati, Chicago, and Los Angeles. The approach to violent crime detailed in this book involves identifying a small group of worst offenders, arresting the worst of those, usually with Federal assistance, and then holding community dialogue with the rest and informing them that if they do not stop their acts of violence they will meet a similar fate.

Kennedy notes that when these methods, since given the name “Ceasefire”, were enacted, the type of crime targeted dropped noticeably and swiftly.

In addition, he notes that the presence of so much violent crime for so long has severely damaged urban neighbourhoods, both economically and socially. Kennedy points out that none of the economic, social, or racial problems affecting these communities can be addressed until the crime that permeates them is controlled in a lasting manner. However, he does not give any indication of when a community might be ready to move on to those tasks.

The book points out that the structure of violent activity is the same from city to city, regardless of the size, number, or ethnic makeup of gangs. Kennedy details how the majority of violent activity can be directly traced to a small group of core gang members, the most violent of these members can be targeted with policing in cooperation with federal authorities, and the rest can then be targeted with community outreach. Kennedy describes how round-table meetings were held with local, state, and federal police, prosecutors, community activists, and gang members. In these meetings, authorities explained to the gang members the gravity of the charges that could be brought against them if their actions continued, which, he noted, many offenders were unaware of. Community organisers explained the damage that years of criminal activity and accidental killings of children have wrought on communities, and the fear it brings to parents. These meetings also offer support services, such as housing and job opportunities, to replace income from selling drugs or other criminal activities.

Kennedy notes that this approach has been implemented to target various crimes, from shootings to drug markets to domestic violence, in a large number of cities and has been extremely successful. Kennedy's book presents an original perspective on the issue of urban crime, and one which has immediate and significant impact. His book should prove to be pivotal in the fight against crime, and a starting point in rebuilding communities and making urban areas more attractive places to live. 

Buy this book on Amazon

Book Recommendation

Made in Australia: The Future of Australian Cities

By Richard Weller and Julian Bolleter

How do you creatively plan for a population of 62 million by 2100? Australia’s current major city planning frameworks only account for an additional 5.5 million people. Whether we want a ‘Big Australia’ or not, Australia’s 21st century is likely to see rapid and continual growth — and if we want liveable, high functioning cities and regional centres we need to think outside the box. 

Of course, many things could change between now and then but for the purposes of planning we think it is prudent to take this figure seriously. So what does this big number mean? It means we would need to house an extra 40 million Australians over the course of the next 87 years. This means building the equivalent of an extra 10 Sydneys – one every 9 years!

Richard Weller and Julian Bolleter (from the Australian Urban Design Research Centre) offer optimistic and creative solutions for the future with one imperative: what we build this century will make or break our country. The authors explore where these people might live so that Australia remains ecologically resilient, socially amenable and economically productive.

• Part 1 – Big Cities, Big Ideas, Big Australia: Australia; Visionary Cities; and Visionary Infrastructure.
• Part 2 – Australian Cities 2012–56: Sydney; Brisbane and SEQ; Melbourne; Perth; Adelaide; Canberra; Hobart; Darwin; and Growing Pains.
• Part 3 – Australian Cities 2101?: Australian Megaregions and New Cities; The East Coast Megaregion (ECM); The West Coast Megaregion (WCM); and Darwin – The New North.
• Part 4 – Essays: Living with the Land; Back to the Future; Urban Resilience & Adaptation; Urban Metabolism: A way to make Australian cities more efficient?; Infrastructure: Now and then; New Settlements on the Fringe: Understanding contemporary peri-urbanisation; And now for the good news…; Cities as Water Catchments; Coding the City; and Follow the Money.
• Part 5 – Designs: Boyd’s Error: Planning’s curse; Infill Precincts; Mean Streets; A National Green Network for Australia.

 Buy it now from Amazon