#WeLiveHere2017 aims to turn inanimate buildings into metaphorical sentient structures, with ‘mood lights’ expressing the feelings of Matavai and Turanga Tower residents about their neighbourhood’s redevelopment.
Nic Walker courtesy of #WeLiveHere2017
Residents of two high-rise public housing blocks are being given ‘mood lights’ to express how they feel based on their experience of the process of redeveloping their neighbourhood.
The Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city in Tianjin Binhai New Area, China.
EPA/HOW HWEE YOUNG
Knowing a city’s professional network ratio helps to understand how connected its inhabitants are to other markets, customers and ideas. All support innovation, adaptation and city growth.
So much for context – authorities are allowing large out-of-place buildings in the higher-density retrofitting push.
Linley Lutton
Planners wish to correct past errors by increasing densities, discouraging car dependency and mixing land uses. But imposing imported strategies on Australian cities is producing unhappy results.
City mayors have taken on a prominent role in committing to action on climate change through forums such as the C40.
Henry Romero/Reuters
It’s a good thing that cities aspire to lead the way in acting on climate change in the absence of stronger national action. But a closer look reveals the limitations of current city-based efforts.
Mumbai rains flooded the city for a week, leaving thousands helpless while building collapsed killing dozens on August 31th.
PUNIT PARANJPE / AFP
We asked five architecture experts to name one building or structure they wish had been preserved, but couldn’t resist the tides of decay, development and discrimination.
Around 100 coffee shops known as café con piernas – coffee with legs – operate within a five-kilometre radius of the Santiago CBD.
Babak Fakhamzadeh/flickr
Coffee and sex are both highly marketable commodities. But who would have thought that the capital of one of Latin America’s most socially conservative countries would combine them in its cafes?
The estimated economic value of minimising the damage to public health has been reduced by 80 percent.
Soaring heating costs mean many vulnerable Australians endure cold houses and the associated risks to their health.
Paul Vasarhelyi from www.shutterstock.com
The idea of a hot and sunny land is so baked into our thinking about Australia that we’ve failed to design and build houses that protect us from the cold.
At first glance, old industrial sites, like this one in Carrington Street, don’t look like much. But they provide vital spaces for creative precincts to flourish.
Paul Jones
A new project documents who uses urban industrial lands slated for redevelopment. It reveals a vibrant but largely hidden sector at the interface between creative industries and small manufacturing.
A canine commuter catches up on some sleep on the Paris Metro.
Kevin O'Mara/Flickr
A modest rebalancing of federal tax policy toward build-to-rent housing could fill affordable housing funding gaps. Australian funds are already investing in such a scheme in the US.
Generic plotting of ‘green space’ on an urban plan does not target mental wellbeing unless it is designed to engage us with the sights, sounds and smells of nature.
Zoe Myers
Successful parks and urban green spaces encourage us to linger, to rest, to walk for longer. That, in turn, provides the time to maximise the restorative mental benefits.
The majority of working Australians drive to and from work.
AAP/Dan Himbrechts
Australians are crying out for political leadership. One way our leaders can redeem themselves is by getting to work on a complete shake-up of how we pay for and use transport infrastructure.
Green space, easily accessible to everyone no matter what their income, should be a priority in designing high-density residential areas.
Marcus Jaaske from www.shutterstock.com
Being crowded into poor-quality high-density units harms residents’ health, but design features that are known to promote wellbeing can make a big difference to the lives of low-income households.
Copenhagen is making a great leap forward into the future.
Shutterstock