“Since I first visited Singapore around 1994, the population has grown to slightly more than five million, almost double what it was in the early nineties. In that same period, the greenspace — as defined by parks, mini-gardens, and rooftop green gardens — has increased to nearly half of the surface space of the city.”
Check out this urban design equation. Could we persuade city blocks to merge, and create more liveable cities in the process? Our latest post looks at this concept from the perspective of Istanbul. Could it work in your city?
“If we want to make streets safe and create cities for people not traffic, we need to take a new approach. We need bold politicians who make real changes. We need to stop using signage to defend poor urban design and traffic engineering schemes. We need to better understand human behaviour, responding to individual circumstances, places and people and not just predicted traffic volumes.”
“One can objectively judge whether urban architecture is fulfilling the most basic needs of citizens. But what about the social and emblematic functions of architecture? Who gets to say what older buildings with more complex histories symbolize?”
This Big City is an award winning social media organisation sharing ideas for sustainable cities in English, Chinese, Spanish, French and Italian. Our Tumblr is all about short form ideas, and is curated by Editor in Chief Joe Peach.