Pay & Sit: biting artistic commentary by Fabian Brunsing on the privatization of public spaces
ideas for cities
This Big City on tumblr is your source for ideas that can make cities better. It is curated by Joe Peach, Leonard Chien and Lucas Lindsey.
Joe founded This Big City in 2009. He lives in London, UK.
Leonard is the Editor of This Big City 城事 and a freelance translator and interpretor. He lives in Taipei, Taiwan.
Lucas is an urbanist, futurist, and blogger. He's the child of a suburban nation, but born again believer in an urban future. He lives in Tallahassee, USA.
If you have an idea you'd like to share, click the submit button!
High-res
Hong Kong Skyline
An illustrated timeline of 40 years of changes to the Hong Kong skyline.
Colombia is not going to be a peripheral country, but a midmost country. The urban mobility, the environmental and political crisis, the resources in every way. The solution that the world builds to its crisis will have to pass through a country like this and that makes us major players of history.
Antonio Yemail on the future of Colombia.
High-res
As protests continue in Brazil, we take a look at how they are part of a global trend toward greater awareness of urban issues.
High-res
Investment in public transport can transform a city beyond the provision of new transport opportunities.
If you’re interested in the transformative potential of transit, come join us on Twitter today at 7PM BST/2PM EDT for #citytalk
All info here. Hope to tweet you!
I'm really interested in green infrastructure, and love that some cities Iike New York have innovated with stuff like the High Line. Are there any other good examples around of innovative urban green spaces?
Asked by little-bigthings
The High Line is hard to beat in terms of obvious visual innovation. Credit has to be given to the Olympic Park in London - a site that for decades was a toxic dump and has now been transformed into a brand new park, albeit of the traditional variety. Innovative green space doesn’t have to be permanent, and cities across the globe are experimenting with parklets and street closures to temporarily bring a bit of calm and green to a city. You can see loads more examples of green space innovation on our Urban Green tag.
- Joe
The High Line
the Real estate: an israeli public space installation that transformed a forgotten, underutilized edge along a major highway into a gathering space. The project’s name is intended to suggest “that the real assets of dense urban cities are outdoor public space.”
Veronica Moss Visits Times Square (by Streetfilms)
HOW HAVE I NEVER SEEN THESE BEFORE?!?!?!
“Cars have been forbidden.”
“Look at all this space. Look at all this wasted space. They could put a parking lot here!”
High-res
How much geography can we do without?
by @Fathom
Just how important is it that metro maps represent geography? This piece came from an interest in how metro maps over the past century have tiptoed between geographic and topological representations—topological meaning to forgo all spatial integrity and instead represent the connectivity of a specific environment. Read more.
Intellectually provocative post that explores the extent to which representing geography adds value to a transit map. How helpful is it to represent the transit lines as an abstraction versus relating them to geographic and topographic constraints? For me this discussion spurs thoughts on bike lane mapping. When you’re powering a bike uphill, topography is suddenly much more valuable, especially as a tourist or new comer to a place that might have picked a different route had my bike lane map indicated topography ahead of time. Since we’re living in the Year of Bikeshare, this seems like an especially poignant question.
High-res
From climate-resistant neighbourhoods to dynamic parking pricing, our latest post looks at ten transformative ideas for creating more sustainable cities.
Looking to build communities in your city? Just add vegetables.
Seriously. Vegetables could be a powerful component for community-building projects in cities. In my latest post I look at a fantastic example of a vegetable-led community-building scheme from London.
High-res
(via This Skatepark Is A Drainage System In Disguise | Gizmodo Australia)
Great duality and efficiency. Infrastructure with social purpose.
High-res
If you haven’t played around with Streetmix then you’re not doing it right. Code for America delivers (yet again!) a nifty little web app that allows you to mix and match a street cross section in real time. Anybody active in urban planning should find this super useful for visualization and alternatives analysis.
High-res
Beautiful infographic that speaks to ongoing, fundamental shifts in the world economy from Western dominance to a more diverse composition that’s increasingly influenced by Asian mega-cities. The graphic’s twist at 2012 visually implies what we already know: we’re living in the midst of an era of change.
If I could ask for anything else from this graphic, it’d be bigger, bolder text. Nonetheless, the point is made.