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- crucibles
of hazard - mega-cities
and disasters in transition - the full 544 pages of selected
papers discussing future hazards for big cities.
-
 century
city - Art and Culture in
the Modern Metropolis. This 2001 exhibition examined in detail
9 cities in 9 different eras. The website archive is quite interesting.
[04/04]
- christopher
alexander - read parts I and II of "The City is not a
Tree" at this free branch of the RUDI website.
- cyburbia.org
- resources and discussion board. As of March 2002 this site has
"purged" all architecture links so now it's only planning-related
links. [03/02].
- emerging
world cities in pacific asia - full text of a book about how
asian and oceanic cities are responding to global economic restructuring.
- european
archive of contemporary public space - informative site with
many urban interventions discussed - indexed by city.
- Jan
Gehl - you can read the first achapter of "Life between
Buildings" at the RUDI site.
- levittown:
documents of an ideal american suburb - a photo essay by Peter
Bacon Hales of the University of Illinois.
- new
colonist - a magazine that looks at the city from the point
of view of the footpath (ie small observations in great detail).
- parole
- odd site from the University of Genoa with links to many cutting
edge urban project books, some online.
- rudi
- english resource for urban design information - now they required
paid registration to access most parts of the site - there is
a section with some pretty good free
stuff by the likes of Christopher Alexander and Jan Gehl. [LINK
UPDATE 09/02]
- urban
drift - a 2002 effort, the intent of which was to be, "a
network for the development of trans-cultural urban strategies.
Concentrating on urban voids, gaps and residual, or peripheral
zones and public spaces, members of URBAN DRIFT act as tacticians
for a contemporary urban praxis, developing a discourse within
Berlin as one of the primary cities of flux." Worth a look.
[07/03]
- urban
regeneration - topical links page at the Guardian newspaper.
The links are mainly to english sites.
- mike
davis - all in his head - a criticle article about Mike Davis,
L.A's famous urban critic, in Salon Magazineafter the release
of his book "Ecology of Fear", with links on to similar
articles, 1998.
- plazas
and privately owned public spaces - a city review essay describing
in great detail the deterioration of plaza spaces in Manhatten.
Many photos and links on to articles about the buildings mentioned.
- teen
urbanism - a loudpaper article on urbanism at the turn of
the century. [03/05]
- neighbourhood
lockdown - SF Weekly article (12/99) discusses a proposal
to build the first gated community in the Mission District. "As
of 1997, 20,000 gated communities, comprising an estimated 3 million
units, had sprung up across the country..".
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TOPIC : GATED COMMUNITIES
/ FEAR: |
- paranoid
chic - the aesthetics of surveillance - a loudpaper article
on paranoia and fashion. "The fashionability of surveillance
is nostalgic. It is a will to return to an acutely visual world.
Stripped of any functional surveillance, Paranoid Chic operates
on the level of aesthetic." [LINK
FIX 09/02]
- victory
city - this project dates back to the 1930s and continues
to grow. This high-rise city takes gating to its extreme by. Take
with salt: "In the far distant future, perhaps 100 to 150
million years from now when 90% of the people in the U.S. are
living in Victory Cities, the major portion of all crimes committed
will be concentrated amongst the remaining 10% of the people still
living in the old obsolete cities. This will enable the entire
might of the nation... concentrate on the 10% instead of being
spread thin amongst 100% of the people."
- AURORA
<<Aurora
has been designed specifically for adults. They are the sole target
audience. So, if we have children visiting Aurora we insist on
parental supervision when they are in common areas such as a swimming
pool or health club.>>
A weird new type of ghetto, on sale now on the Gold Coast.
[08/02]
- Architects
Call For Design Review
Institute goes off at obese project homes.
(RAIA 08.02.04)
- Room
for improvement on the fringe
The Oz has a brief look at the McMansion phenomenon, getting the
NSW Government Architect to say, "obviously you can't have
the best designers doing each individual project home". Why
not?
(Oz 07.02.04)
- Carr
in homely protest
Carr thinks McMansions are ugly. The HIA doesn't, and is pissed
about architects.
(Oz 06.02.04)
- Let
there be light - and a tree or two, please
McMansions on the way out at AV Jennings - no more formal dining
rooms, no more federation style. Wow! But their website hints
that ye olde worlde is alive and well. AV
JENNINGS
(SMH 05.02.04)
- 60 Minutes investigated obesity in housing in 2006. They visited the Gold Coast to find the ridiculous...
"MICHELLE: Our first home was 12 squares.
PETER HARVEY: How big is this one, Michelle?
MICHELLE: Ah, 260 — so we've come a fair way." Full transcript and video. [07/06]
- Prince
to build new traditional village - Charles to build second
nostalgic village, harking back to a time when royalty was respected.
(Independent UK 12.01.03)
- at
work in the fields of the mouse
- a review of an ethnography of that newurbanist Disney town called
Celebration, in Florida, designed by Robert Stern. Quote from
a disgruntled local: "I've had enough of this, I've got pixie
dust coming out of my ass!" (Atlantic 09/99)"
- INTBAU
- Prince Charles' views on architecture (make it traditional)
are well represented by INTBAU, of which he is patron. The clunky
acronym stands for International Network for Traditional Building,
Architecture & Urbanism. Contains interesting articles on
the World Trade Centre and Dresden.
[01/03]
- jane
jacobs - a september 2000 interview (she's 83 now) with the
author of "The Death and Life of Great American Cities",
the textbook for the new urbanist movement.
- new
urbanism - New Urban News - a journal into "traditional
neighbourhood development".
- new
urbanism - a PBS special report containing articles and a
forum to accompany a TV program.
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TOPIC : SPRAWL / SUBURBS: |
- Beauty
under threat from land grabs - Auckland sprawl, the RMA,
natural landscape studies. "It is the heritage of New Zealanders
to live in scenic settings" - well that's one way of looking
at the rapid rolling out of lifestyle blocks over the city's outskirts.(NZH
27.7.03)
- divided
we sprawl - An Atlantic Monthly
article looking into the suburban dilemmas faced by the USA. Also
links onwards to other 'sprawl' sites. (12/99)
- Levittown,
The first of the drab american 'burbs,turned fifty in 2002. The
Levit Brothers used to build 35 houses a day. Hardly time for
lunch. [06/02]
- Location
Efficient Mortgages - at a time when the news is telling us
gloomily that there is no hope for Gen Xers looking to buy property
in the inner cities, perhaps we should look offshore. This is
a novel way of thinking about mortgages and combatting sprawl.
- Love
Thy Neighbour - news - Sydney sprawl. <<Contrary
to what we were told, suburbia is no more at home in this great
dry continent than beef or cotton-farming... the attempt to enshrine
it as some kind of inalienable right is about as community-minded
as hosing the concrete in a 100-year dry.>>(SMH
29.11.02)
- NASA
is watching urban sprawl, and it's not pretty. (NASA
article 11.10.02)
- Natural
and anthropogenic hazards in the Sydney sprawl: Is the city sustainable?
- John Handmer 1999 - a well written and illustrated paper about
Sydney's planning history and the problems the city is now facing.
- New
suburbia: crowded land of the giants -
Sydney's McMansions and the Inverse Donut Effect. "Most of
the popular builders offer six or more facades that can be fitted
to the same interior. You can whack on faux French Provincial,
Tuscan, Georgian, Federation, Victoriana, Colonial, American Colonial,
Australian traditional or modern." (SMH 26.08.03)
- Sprawl
- a web installation showing changes in North Canton in Ohio.
Intriguing snippets of audio interviews, panoramas, and text.
"What is the role of suburban expansion at the turn of the
second millennium, and how is it changing the character of the
American landscape and the sense of identity we ascribe to it?"
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TOPIC : TEMPORARY
SPACES : |
- street
protest architecture - dissent space in australia
- Gregory Cowan writes about protest structures. "Subverting
the official and institutional state architecture, which is massive
white and permanent, this architecture of counterculture is instead
light, colourful and spontaneous." BAD SUBJECTS JAN 2004
[04/04]
- City
Alliance - An organisation set up by the World Bank and the
UN in 1999 to reduce poverty in rapidly urbanising countries.
- australian
housing and urban research institute - AHURI - a partially
government-funded institute - not much to read on site.
- a
century of housing - A short history of the house in Sydney,
by Graham Jahn. Sydney Morning Herald 8/2000
- sustainable
urban design and climate - Bureau of Meteorology site explaining
the impact of urban design on climate.
- department
of infrastructure - this link takes you to the Victorian DOI's
urban design resources, in the form of many downloadable pdf files.
- pattern
book - The New South Wales government patternbook for
residential flats is proving to be a web success story (in terms
of traffic at least). [12/03]
- urban
design forum - newsy urban design magazine beaming out of
Melbourne - free to view on site. Contains upcoming conferences
and lots of articles from around the world.
- urban
frontiers program - the University of Western Sydney brings
you this subsite, which intends to, "improve understanding
of, and provide innovative responses to, urban challenges and
opportunities." Many downloads available of newsletters and
essays, many foccussing on Western Sydney. [07/03]
- waitemata
waterfront - Auckland City
Council information on the competition (now closed) for the redevelopment
of the Britomart precinct.
<<The
role of government has diminished while the task of place-making
has largely been handed to the development industry. And, naturally,
the primary concern of developers is not to make fine places, but
to make money. All that government has kept for itself is the right
to make the rules that will establish the broad outlines of the
development. When those rules are broken or eroded, government credibility
suffers and the knee-jerk "anti-development" reaction
is only reinforced.>>
EDITORIAL,
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 12/01/02
<<Today's
suburban castles may become tomorrow's white elephants, as empty
nesters sell up and downsize. House sizes are growing at the rate
of an additional powder room each year.>>
MATTHEW
RYAN OF ACCESS ECONOMICS, SMH 21 FEB 2002
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RECENT
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20.09.07 Adelaide2050 - Group of architects gets together to complain about the state of architecture and planning in Adelaide. Group calls itself Adelaide2050, knocks heads, and sends 46 copies of their visions for the future of Adelaide to prominent pollies and professional bodies. The Adelaide Advertiser hasn't quite read the whole thing, but says that, "a covering letter points to a tendency in Adelaide to plan "pivotal projects in isolation." Speaking on 5AA last month, Architecture 2050 member Mario Dreosti said that their main point was that a lot of land in Adelaide is coming up for development and no one has discussed what is going to happen on those sites. ADELAIDE ADVERTISER 09.09.07 CITY MESSENGER 04.09.07 5AA 23.08.07 (media monitors)Don Bates from Lab has also been in Adelaide advising the locals. ADELAIDE ADVERTISER 26.08.09
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20.09.07 Gehl's back - International Rescuer of Central Cities, Jan Gehl, has been back getting his photo taken crossing streets in Sydney. His council-sponsored study on how to encourage pedestrians into inner Sydney has focussed mainly the roads and pedestrian crossings. Turns out that in downtown Sydney, the council doesn't control the roads, the Roads and Traffic Authority does. The council, "is hoping the authority will be receptive to Professor Gehl's report." Looking at the RTA's reasons for being though, I don't like their chances: " Reason 1. Improving road safety. Reason 2. Testing and licensing drivers and registering and inspecting vehicles. Reason 3. Managing the road network to achieve consistent travel times." The City of Sydney recently failed to get the RTA to lower the inner city speed limit to 40km. SMH 11.09.07 RTA: ABOUT US
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01.08.07 High Rise - Germaine Greer, writing yesterday in the Guardian UK, could be describing Melbourne or Sydney when she writes: "anyone who suggests, as I did in a recent BBC TV programme, that we will have to stop building out from our towns and cities and start building up, will be reviled as cruel and unimaginative. What would be cruel and unimaginative would be to build hundreds of thousands of "affordable" houses round thousands of cul-de-sacs barely big enough to accommodate the cars that will be parked there every night and all weekend, with no infrastructure, no schools, no shops, no health care facilties, no sports grounds - and poor drainage." Can't wait for a response from the IPA/HIA. GUARDIAN UK 31.07.07
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02.07.07 Tank Farm - Auckland City has announced plans to develop the docklands area known as Tank Farm. The masterplanning process, by Architectus, was 'a closely guarded process' according to the NZ Herald. Apparently space has been reserved for an 'iconic building' at the harbour end. TANK FARM NZ HERALD 29.06.07 
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16.05.07 Gehl in Sydney - City shaper Jan Gehl has started his work on central Sydney. He sees the car as the central issue - pedestrians need to reclaim some space and power from it. quote:
Professor Gehl argues walkers should not have to "apply" to cross the road. In a study of London traffic, he found most pedestrians crossed against the lights. "Crossing the road is a human right," he argues.
BRIS TIMES 09.05.07 SMH PROFILE 02.07
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11.05.07 Griffiths Park inferno - As Griffiths Park burnt on Tuesday, Angelenos pondered the vulnerability of their city to natural disasters (again). See it while it's there. In addistion to threatening the barely renovated Griffith Observatory, "the fire also threatened Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House and houses by Richard Neutra, R.M. Schindler, Gregory Ain, Craig Ellwood, Wright's son Lloyd and Raphael Soriano — all of them tucked between Los Feliz Boulevard and the southern boundary of Griffith Park and collectively making up one of the most important concentrations of residential architecture anywhere in the country." LA TIMES 11.05.07
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11.04.07 Gehl hired - Jan Gehl's danish company has been hired to try to make downtown Sydney more pedestrian and bicycle friendly. Their fee is a cool $210,000, or approximately 420,000 medium quality bicycles. $76,000 will be spent on burnin up the biosphere back and forward to Copenhagen. SMH 01.04.07 GEHL ARCHITECTS GEHL PROFILE SMH 18.02.07 COUNCIL ENGAGEMENT
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26.11.06 ersatz urbanity? - Downtowns are being built in suburbs across the U.S. Marketed as "lifestyle centres", Newsweek reports that they, "are meant to look like real towns, with curbed streets, parking meters and themed architecture." NEWSWEEK 04.12.06
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29.10.06 Bypass win - Landscape architects Taylor Cullity Lethlean have just won a landscape award for their Craigieburn bypass pedestrian bridge, a big rusty horseshoe by the looks of things. The bridge was designed in collaboration with Tonkin Zulaikha Greer and Robert Owen. THE AGE 29.10.06 TCL
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29.10.06 Dwelling - The editor of Dwell magazine wanted to find a cheap house in the burbs that suited her. 14,000 miles later she'd found a few. 1.7 million neo-traditional homes are built on subdivisions in the U.S. each year, but not much else. "At some point... homebuilders will have to get hip. Someone, somewhere will have to reinvent the subdivision." WASH POST 18.10.06 A new urbanist subdivision she found dabbling in the contemporary: PROSPECT, COLORADO
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Suburb
to undergo heart transplant
Richard Francis-Jones and FJMT attempt to insert public space
into Chatswood.
(SMH 22.12.03)
The
Big Squeeze: Cities that grow up in style
Auckland has been looking to Portland, Vancouver and Sydney
for waterfront and apartment ideas.
(NZH 09.11.03)
Council
wants to inject life into Hargreaves Mall
Bendigo desparately seeking architect to fix hippy car-free
mall. The architect will, "revive and update it from
the 1970s concept that saw the area closed to traffic."
(Bendigo Advertiser 06.11.03)
Wedge
politics
Melbourne 2030. Contradictions in the metropolitan plan are
aired, and Delahunty goes hammers and Tongs with Yarra. Meanwhile
the city edge keeps on creeping.
(Age 06.11.03)
Making a fine art of urban renewal
Re: Cities. The New York Times spots a trend. Urban renewal
is incorporating cultural institutions as focii.
(SMH 17.09.03)
A
prize example of double standards
Re: Sydney. Gasps at the architecture awards as Hunterford
wins the Premiers award.
(SMH 05.08.03)
Beauty
under threat from land grabs
Re: Auckland sprawl, RMA,
natural landscape studies. "It is the heritage of New
Zealanders to live in scenic settings" - well that's
one way of looking at the rapid rolling out of lifestyle blocks
over the city's outskirts.
(NZH 27.7.03)
10.05.03 Stencils
put a face on the city where otherwise there would be nought
but concrete and asphalt. Check out the incredibly sexy site
of the Melbourne-made STENCIL
REVOLUTION. [Tip by Halley]
Design
panel offers secret style opinions
Re: Auckland City. Council-sponsored design panel to assist
developers get their urban design right.
(NZH 07.04.03)
Time
to put a stop to mindless growth
Re: Sydney. As the state election looms, the city's future
becomes an issue.
(SMH 11.03.03)
Design
panel offers secret style opinions
Re: Auckland City. Council-sponsored
design panel to assist developers get their urban design right.
(NZH 07.04.03)
18.03.03
Frank Sartor's last stand: "We will be attacking all
corners of Kings Cross in terms of making sure it becomes
civilised and safe and pleasant." Yikes. SMH
18.03.03
VCAT
edict troubles Delahunty
Re: Melbourne, NYKA development. 2030 strategy being misinterpreted
(?) by VCAT according to minister.
(AGE 10.03.03) 2nd
article
Green
grass no more
Re: Melbourne. RMIT report slates past governments for
eating green wedges.
(AGE
17.02.03)
Brogden
aims to capitalise on Sydney's urban stress
Re: Sydney. Medium density residential buildings are becoming
an election issue as the State opposition leader gets nostalgic
for the burbs.
(ONLINE OPINION 13.12.02)
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| PRESS
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New
suburbia: crowded land of the giants
Re: Suburbia. The McMansion and the Inverse Donut Effect.
"Most of the popular builders offer six or more facades
that can be fitted to the same interior. You can whack on
faux French Provincial, Tuscan, Georgian, Federation, Victoriana,
Colonial, American Colonial, Australian traditional or modern."
(SMH 26.08.03)
New
blueprint for urban growth
Re: Melbourne. 620,000 new homes by 2030.
(AGE 07.10.02)
Melbourne's
choice: green belt or urban sprawl
Re: Melbourne. Green over grey as state government protects
green wedges.
(AGE 01.10.02)
Crackdown
on ugly flat syndrome
Re: Sydney. Another element in Premier Carr's multi-residential
beautification program deals with ugly garages and a lack
of landscaping.
(SMH 12.09.02)
Liberating
the heart of the city
Re: Melbourne. Visiting Dane Jan Gehl includes Melbourne
in his Reconquered City list - with just 8 other cities.
<< Leaving urban planning to the market leads straight
to the abandoned city.>>
(Age 06.09.02)
As
public life becomes more private, can the city survive?
Re: Melbourne. William Mitchell is in town from MIT, and
wonders about the future of the digital city.
(Age 06.09.02)
Flat-out
developers must realise the whole is more important than its
parts
Re: Sydney. NSW Government Architect Chris Johnson argues
for the Patternbook. (SMH 25.07.02)
Get
the look or you don't get a look-in
Re: Sydney. Review of NSW patternbook for apartment buildings.
"If they can just do the same for commercial buildings
we'll be able to close all those schools of architecture.
Think of the money-and-aggravation that would save" (SMH
23.07.02)
Ponsonby
Road To Get Mainstreet Status Re: Auckland. Ponsonby Road
is to become Auckland's 15th street in the mainstreet revitalisation/
cutification programme. (SCOOP 26.06.02)
Fitzroy
gets set for a new development battle
Re: Melbourne. Ivan Rijavec 8 storey apartment block in Fitzroy
may face a bit of opposition.
(AGE 01.06.02)
Clamp
on city limits
Re: Melbourne. Suburban growth at the current rate will eat
up 21,000 ha. in the next 20 years. 35 housing estates are
under construction or recently finished.
(AGE 28.04.02)
Suburbia
on steroids blamed for rural towns' blandness
Re: Sydney. National Trust conference, the regional ugliness.
(SMH 26.02.02)
Suburban
castles will be under economic siege
Re: Sydney. big houses could be white elephants in the near
future.
(SMH 21.02.02)
The
time to let go of the quarter-acre block is now
Re: Sydney. Pressure on to allow higher density living for
baby boomers about to retire.
(SMH 18.12.01)
EDITORIAL - NOVEMBER 2001 - The cars that ate the city.
[BUTTERPAPER]
September 23, 2001 A City Transformed: Designing 'Defensible
Space'
Re: New York, Anthony Vidler writes about making buildings
safe through the past century.
(NYTimes 23.09.01)
May require registration
Industry
push to kill off 'ugly-duckling' blocks
Re: Melbourne residential development.
(The Age 12.08.01)
Plans
for urban heart surgery
Re: South Melbourne. Council plans with Deakin students
to make connections with the city user-friendly.
(The Age 12.08.01)
Forget
Big Brother; this is reality TV
Re: Victoria, unfettered increase in public space surveillance,
legal definition of privacy.
(The Age 12.08.01)
The
new rules
Re: Victoria, Rescode now enforced, bouquets and brickbats.
(AGE 29.08.01)
Jean-Marie
Lustiger: Megalopolis is image of world to come
Re: Archbishop of Paris speaks about the evils of the megacity
in Melbourne.
(Australian 07.08.01)
Builders
reaching for the skies
Re: Auckland, New residential towers, population projections.
(NZH 04.08.01)
A
matter of size
Re: Sydney, growth of the city, lack of a plan.
(SMH 28.07.01)
How
low can the beige city go?
Re: Sydney, its planning history, mediocre apartment blocks,
the real estate mindset, the new SEPP code giving architects
a new influence.
(SMH 21.07.01)
The next wave: Designs for a better Auckland
Re: Auckland, Perfect Worlds competition, listing of winners.
(NZH 06.07.01)
Australians
return to their cities
Re: Urban population drift in Australian inner cities.
(The Age 04.07.01)
New
heart for Olympic precinct
Re: Sydney - masterplan to revitalise Homebush with residential
development.
(SMH 19.06.01)
A
call to think twice as the craze for taller towers takes off
in Britain's cities
Re: Tussling in London as they try to bring the city into
the nineteenth century.
(Guardian 22.06.01)
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