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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General @ 28 Aug 2008 08:45 am by Robert Schmidl
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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After having reported on American cities which could be lost or become wastelands in the future, we found a list of 20 cities that are already lost. The WebUrbanist blog, a blog on urban design, travel, architecture and alternative art, has composed a list of 20 abandoned cities from around the world.
There are many reasons why cities get lost; some, like the ghost towns of the American West, have become tourist destinations while others have been condemned or simply forgotten. A list of 20 abandoned cities of the world share an eerie, haunted quality that is part of what makes them so fascinating. When you are interested in more amazing abandoned places by region, visit the WebUrbanist abandonments archive.
These are the 20 lost cities:
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In May, we have reported on a competition by A Vision of Europe called The European prize 2008 for the best urban neighbourhood in Europe.
Now, we got a comment which advised us of the results of the competition (thanks to Bertille Amaudric from Fondation pour l’Architecture).
The International jury of the 2008 Philippe Rotthier European announced the TOP-10 urban neighbourhoods. The 88 selected neighbourhoods come from 30 European countries and from big cities such as Lisbon, Bilbao, Paris, London, Glasgow, Brussels, Berlin, Dresden, Bologna, Palermo, Tirana, Istanbul, etc., as well as from beautiful medium-size cities such as Santiago de Compostela, Hammamet, Gladbeck, Alessandria, Hoje Tarstrup, Knokke, Dorchester, Brandevoort, etc. Among the 88 entries selected, these are the best New Urban Neighbourhood built in Europe in the last 25 years:
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It has pretty much become universally accepted that global warming is having an effect on global ocean levels. With sea levels rapidly rising, millions of coastal and island inhabitants are threatened to loose their homes. Major cities including London, New York and Tokyo are seen as being at huge risk from oceans which could rise by as much as 3ft by the end of this century. To be prepared for this, new solutions must be found.
The ultimate solution to rapidly rising sea levels are so called “Lilypad Islands” by the award-winning Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut. Based on the design of a lilypad, they could be used as a permanent refuge and a new place to live for those whose homes have been covered in water.
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General @ 31 Jul 2008 07:20 am by Robert Schmidl
Urban civilizations continue to evolve and history is testimony that great civilizations have crumbled either due to the onslaught of natural disasters or gradual shift in economic trends. Environmental Graffiti, a blog with an eclectic mix of the most bizarre, funny and interesting environmental news on the planet, takes a look at such cities in the United States that may be endangered. News editor Ben Ray explores cities, which in the distant future could be reclaimed by nature. Like before, climate change and changing economies continue to influence the state of our cities.
In the latest article on Lost Cities of the Future, five American cities were listed. According to Ben Ray, these cities are:
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General @ 24 Jul 2008 08:04 am by Robert Schmidl
As we have reported, we are very much interested into city rankings. Now, another one caught our attention. This time we found a ranking by monthly general interest family magazine Reader’s Digest. Although this ranking is two years old we would like to present it to you because it raises controversy.
In July 2006, Reader’s Digest published an investigation on the courtesy of 35 cities. They sent two undercover reporters, a man and a woman, from Reader’s Digest editions in 35 countries to assess the citizens of their most populous city. In each location they conducted three tests:
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General @ 14 Jul 2008 07:41 am by Robert Schmidl
FDi magazine, a news and foreign direct investment publication owned by The Financial Times Business Group, has a interesting section called “Locations of the future”. In this section they published future predictions for almost every region across the world.
The magazine’s "Cities, Regions and Countries of the Future" competition has been running for five years. Using a process similar to that used by the decision makers who decide the location of large-scale corporate investment projects, fDi magazine has created its own short list of the locations most suited for inward investment. These cities, regions and countries have the basics in place to flourish in the next few years by attracting high levels of inward investment. The magazine creates its short list by asking locations to provide key data and qualitative information in much the same way an investor might approach locations during the screening process used to decide which locations are suitable for new capital investment projects. fDi’s Locations of the Future competition covers each region once every two years.
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