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!

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

urbanlaunchpad: 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

urbanlaunchpad:

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. 

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.    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.