Urban housing appears to be one of the leading issues when it comes to city design and architecture. More than any other building type it forms the backbone of the urban fabric. More than any other building type it helps to illustrate the relation between the (urban) whole and the (architectural) parts. However, this relation between the individual house and the wider context is not that simple: what really makes for example the difference between the respective streetscapes of -let’s say- Paris or London? What is due to the design of the houses and what to the network structure of the city? The question is therefore how to approach and analyse such a complex topic. 

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The Sick building syndrome (SBS) is a combination of several medical conditions associated with an individual’s place of work. In most cases, there are office buildings which cause these ailments. But there have also been instances in residential buildings. The syndrome usually occurs when much time is spent in a home or building. In many cases the actual cause of the problem cannot be identified. The health problems may be evident with occupants who spend much time in a certain room or area of the structure, or may be a problem throughout the entire structure.

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The Dresden Elbe Valley is an UNESCO World Heritage Site in Dresden, Germany. The valley, spreading some 20 kilometres through the city of Dresden, is one of the both cultural landscapes along the Elbe, a central-european river. This landscape gained  its worth due to the fact that it is part of the urban area as well as part of the natural river banks and slopes.

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These days the green concept, also described as sustainability, is a topic of our everyday life. In general, processes which are earth-friendly, less-wasteful, less toxic and work more with nature than against it are described as “Green”.

After discussing on Green Buildings, I like to continue with this green issue. By recognizing that cities all over the world are providing least-polluting, energy-efficient and healthy living spaces, Green Cities is the topic!

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With the book review on “Green Building: Konzepte für nachhaltige Architektur”, the authors provided a slight insight into the topic of Green Building. Now let’s go on this subject and focus on Green Buildings, that are buildings that can produce a certain amount of energy themselves. 

First of all, what does it mean to build green? Green or sustainable building is the practice of building/creating healthier, environmental-friendlier and more resource-efficient models of construction, renovation, operation, maintenance, and demolition. By considering the complete building life cycle, green buildings can provide great environmental, economic, and social benefits.

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As we have reported in July, PerfectCity has implemented an extended user profile , where you can register to show some personal details and publish your own articles.

In addition to that profile, we will keep track of your user status from now on, which shows your personal contribution to PerfectCity. There will be three different levels of activity:

Those will be visible next to your user image on the site. You will get the the Town (bronze) status for publishing one article and/or three comments, the City (silver) status for three articles and five comments. For the PerfectCity (gold) status you have to publish more than 10 articles and 10 comments.

Please remember that in order to receive a new status through commenting you have to be logged in while writing a comment.

We look forward to your contributions!

Modern arenas have a high impact on image and attractiveness of a city. The O2-World is currently one of the most amazing building projects in Berlin. O2-World is able to switch from a sports stadium to a concert arena within just a couple of hours. This makes the building really flexible and multifunctional.

During the next 10 years a whole new district should be developed around the O2-World, which will create new jobs and housing possibilities for thousands of people. Inspired by the current development of the O2-World Arena Perfect City started the new campaign "Post and Win" in a special edition of our User interview. We would like to hear your opinion on arenas in general as well as on their influence on regional aspects like infrastructure, employment etc. In addition to 5 questions about arenas we would like to get to know you and your ideas a bit better.

Among all submissions which contain comprehensive statements about arenas and are supplied until December 31st the PerfectCity jury will check from an editorial point of view and will select the 6 projects that are most interesting. These 6 submissions will be published on Perfect City and each author will receive one ticket and with a value of 80 Euro for a concert of her/ his choice in an arena close to her/ his place, available to Eurohypo .
 
Additionally there will be a draw of 20 interviews whose authors will get a City Tour Guide ”Top European Cities” which is exclusively available here.

The PerfectCity Charter is on its way with the next Issue Housing and Architecture. As the first dossier has been finalized, a new Poll is coming up. This time the principles of housing are of interest. The goal is to extract the most important factors and determinants in this matter. With regard to basic aspects and rules of housing, the upcoming poll aims to identify what you think is most important when thinking about the City of The Future in terms of housing. Therefore, we have listed several potentially relevant factors below.

• NEIGHBOURHOOD
• HOUSING STANDARDS
• HOUSING INFRASTRUCTURE
• FINANCE AND MANAGEMENT
• ECO HOUSING
• FUNCTION, CONSTRUCTION AND FORM are of equal value and together. None should have priority over the others.
• FUNCTION AND CONSTRUCTION are useful elements whose fulfilment should be a natural matter in building. Only when they are raised to an aesthetic level a building becomes architecture.

What do you think about these, and do you see opportunities to build clusters? Is something missing or redundant? Which factors would you put up for voting in a poll?

We look forward to your comments and ideas!