I would like to introduce you my research project called Time=net.work. The latter has got the purpose to extend complex networks theories to transportation systems under a new time-related point of view. Coupled biological and chemical systems, neural networks, social interacting species, the Internet and the World Wide Web are only a few examples of complex networks, i.e. systems composed by a large number of highly interconnected dynamical units. During the last ten years these kinds of systems have been the subject of many studies related to comprehend their common structural properties and their dynamics.

Complex networks are supposed to be very stable and robust structures in case of failures or deliberate attacks on the system. Moreover, due to their well-known properties, they allow to model several real networks in order to find the key elements for a complete and efficient communication activity between nodes.

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According to Reuters, South Korea will spend around US $ 103 billion through 2030 in developing new renewable energy, in an effort to cut its reliance on fossil fuels and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

As a part of the government’s long-term energy strategy, the plan will come on top of other energy policies and overseas resource development plans. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said that South Korea will lower the portion of fossil energy to 61 percent by 2030 from the current 83 percent, while bumping up the portion of new renewable energy to 11 percent from 2.4 percent.

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In the light of our PerfectCity Charter a new issue is coming up. This time the focus lies on leisure and the cultural life in a city. Those two direct influences on the wellbeing of the inhabitants of a city cannot be defined as easily as all the former issues we discussed in this charter.

Besides all the private facilities (like cinemas, arenas, fairs, clubs etc.) we want to focus on publicly provided services. Thus we would like to introduce a brief description of our understanding of leisure and cultural life.

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As climate change has become reality it is just a matter of time until we face “big changes”. What happens if global warming causes the central and middle regions of the Earth to become uninhabitable for a long period of time?

Having this question in mind and having read a newspaper column by British chemist and inventor James Lovelock, in which Dr. Lovelock predicted disastrous warming, Danny Bloom teamed up with Deng Cheng-hong and set up a website showing designs for self-sufficient Arctic communities.

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We would like to remind you of our current poll. So if you haven’t voted yet, please take a minute to vote for the most important factors of „Social services“ in the city of the future.

By the next weeks we will introduce the new issue “Leisure and cultural life” to you. We will present a list of relevant factors to you and are looking forward to your ideas and proposals on the integral parts.

We all know university cities or college towns. These are defined as communities or small till medium sized town which are dominated by its university population. The university may be large, or there may be several smaller institutions, or the residential population may be small, but college towns in all cases are so dubbed because the educational institution(s) presence pervades economic and social life. Many local residents may be employed by the university - which may be the largest employer in the community, many businesses cater primarily to the university, and indeed the students population may outnumber the local population outright.

With a university dominating a city, there are several advantages a cities benefits from.

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We found a cool article on city structures by Bricoleurbanism, a Canadian blog which focuses on the city, the landscape and the fields that manipulate them from the perspective of urban design and landscape architecture.

The article refers to a publication by the Star, a Canadian newspaper, called ‘Beyond Density’. This publication deals with on the efforts of a Canadian city called Mississauga to create a more vibrant and pedestrian-friendly downtown. To prove the city’s problem – the large scale of the block patterns – the article includes urban forms or fabric drawings of 9 cities in order to compare the scales of the fabric of the street network.

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Walk Score has ranked 2,508 neighborhoods in the largest 40 U.S. cities to help people to find a walkable place to live. Walk score is a  web-based service that helps you to find walkable places to live by calculating a Walk Score for any address. They score the walkability of an address on a scale of 1 to 100 based on access to amenities, groceries, transportation display it graphically (the more green, the more walkable, red being the least).

To get their ranking they have a special methodology. They sampled the Walk Score of 1,123,855 locations in the largest 40 U.S. cities to create walkability heat maps and rank 2,508 neighborhoods.

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This could be a funny alternative to plain old walking. “Liber Toit”, a concept by Aureline Ranson transforms the neighborhood into a giant hamster-like jungle gym! Designed to utilize the full abilities of our bodies, a network of ramps, obstacles, walls, slides and tubes connects locations throughout a city. Instead of sidewalks and stairs, you can climb, crawl, jump and zoom your way to where you are going.

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