The December edition of the German business magazine brand eins is focusing on design. There we found an interesting article and interview with the Italian architect and urban planner Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani.

The architect compares the urban planning of three different cities: Brasilia, Los Angeles and Venice.

[read more…]

We extended the special edition of our User Interview until the end of January 2008.

We would like to hear your opinion on arenas in and around our cities like the “O2-World” Arena in Berlin or the Köln Arena in general as well as on their influence on regional aspects like infrastructure, employment etc.

After finishing a short questionnaire about arena consisting of 5 questions we would like to get to know you and your ideas a bit better.

Among all submissions which contain comprehensive statements that are supplied until January 31^st the PerfectCity jury will check the 6 projects that are most interesting. These 6 submissions will be published on Perfect City and each author will receive one voucher to the amount of 80 Euro for a concert-ticket 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.

We would like to thank everyone who has already attended our survey and we are looking forward to new interviews and your opinions until January 31^st!

Please take a minute to fill out our User Interview!

PerfectCity Team would like to say thanks to all our readers, authors, blog partners and friends for your support throughout the year.

Your PerfectCity Team

© Lenneke Veerbeek

Every year a lot of cities change their appearance at the end of November (in some cases a lot earlier). Cities mark the beginning of the Christmas season by decorating streets, buildings and public places. A lot of money is spent on creating a cosy, festive and welcoming atmosphere.
 
It does not matter what part of the world you look at; Christmas lights and decoration are all over the Christian countries. Whether you are strolling down a boulevard in Perth, Australia marvelling at the over 100.000 Christmas lights that the city puts up every year and the giant Christmas tree that is over 13 metres tall and decked out with over 750 decorations and more than 2000 lights or you are freezing in the Berlin winter doing some last minute Christmas shopping at the famous Kurfürstendamm – Christmas is all around you.
 
We would like to present to you our most favourite Christmas decorations from all over the world – enjoy:  

[read more…]

After finalizing the PerfectCity poll on Housing, a new one is coming up. This time the principles of City Architecture are of interest. The poll aims to identify the most crucial facets and aspects of City Architecture shaping the city of the future. With your help, PerfectCity is about to find out what you think is most important when thinking about the City of The Future in terms of City Architecture.

The poll consists of a point-based voting meaning that you have 100 points to share between the following factors which are not determined yet. Please help us to evaluate the factors before we put them in the new poll.

These are our suggestions:

• CITY HISTORY
• HOUSEBUILDING
• STATE OF BUILDINGS
• INFRASTRUCTURE (is everything that sustains our quality of life including at least  transportation, built environment, water supply, waste management, building and development constraints)
• HOMOGENEOUS ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
• HETEROGENEOUS ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
• SKYLINE (the view of a silhouette of a city’s tall buildings and structures)
• VISUAL EXITEMENT (is the feeling that people get when they see beautiful or interesting buildings. This maybe because of the scale of the building (as in it is just huge) or it may be because it is very intricate design that leaves a person in awe as to how it was built)

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? Please take a minute and lets us know what you are thinking.

We look forward to your comments and ideas!

The second issue of the PerfectCity Charter "The City of The Future" is now online. It includes the results of the latest poll, which was to find out the most important factors of Housing. The poll results can be found here.

The overall goal is the development of the PerfectCity Charter, which is being developed stepwise in and through discussion and represented by the corresponding dossiers of each issue. The next dossier is Housing and City Architecture Part II focusing on City Architecture. We are looking forward to your suggestions!

Our poll on Housing closes on Monday, 17th december, ending the first part of the second issue of the PerfectCity Charter. Part two will focus on city architecture. As long as part one is still active we like to invite you to vote for the determinating factors which define housing. From now on you still have got four days to participate. Please take a minute to do so.

The next part of "Housing and City Architecture" will start on tuesday, 18th december, and we are looking forward to your ideas and proposals on the integral parts which define "City Architecture". Besides sending your ideas you can vote on that second part from tuesday.

We are looking forward to your comments and ideas.

This year BusinessWeek and Architectural Record joined for the 10th time to recognize successful collaborations of great architects and great business. Although the jury selected only 10 buildings as this year’s winners and finalists, these projects make it clear that architecture can improve any kind of business. Whether it’s a law firm, a federal service, a museum, a manufacturer, a sports team, a performance company, a federal service, or a Web brand conglomerate, smart businesses thrive on smart design solutions.

[read more…]

A short time ago we were discussing on green buildings. After that, the question if people want to pay more for being, living or remaining in green buildings came to our mind. Now there is a survey that shows: The relationship between buildings and climate change is underestimated and consumers do not want to pay additional costs for green buildings.

During the construction and use phase, commercial buildings are responsible for approximately 40% of global CO₂ emissions (in metropolitan areas and mega-cities even up to 70%). Therefore it is urgent to invest in the energy efficiency of buildings for new construction and retrofit. The relationship between the emission of greenhouse gases by real estate and the climate change is still underestimated by the population.    
Consumers refuse, for example, to be involved in energy-saving projects if higher prices and costs are added.

[read more…]