Urban Planning « World Landscape Architecture – landscape architecture webzine

The National Creative Cluster | Beijing China | Sasaki Associates

Since the beginning of the 21st century, Beijing has made huge strides to solidify its position as one of the world’s great cities. It is a city that is modernizing rapidly— skyscrapers are rising out of fallow fields, a new transportation system is extending the reach of the city, and environmental initiatives are improving air and water quality. Fresh ideas are also emerging, while still embracing the rich traditions of the past. Near Songzhuang, a quiet village on the outskirts of Beijing, a unique opportunity exists to create a new urban district dedicated entirely to the cultivation of new ideas. The National Creative Cluster (NCC) is envisioned as the country’s preeminent knowledge hub, making the district a center for China’s innovative home-grown talent, and a destination for the world’s most creative thinkers. Sasaki’s master plan for NCC – selected in May 2012 for implementation – focuses on five structuring principles that underscore and support the overarching philosophy of the district: to bring industries with shared values and complementary skills and technologies together to help spark new ideas.

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Storm Surge Defense Alternatives | Catherine Seavitt Nordenson

Catherine Seavitt Nordenson says environmentally friendly ‘soft infrastructure’ mitigates flood damage without sending harm elsewhere. The flooding caused by Superstorm Sandy prompted calls from New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other officials to consider building storm surge barriers to protect Lower Manhattan from future catastrophes. But, such a strategy could make things even worse for outlying areas that were hit hard by the hurricane, City College of New York Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture Catherine Seavitt Nordenson warns.

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Guide to using Pinterest to curate images in design offices and schools

Pinterest is a great way to curate images for the office image library and projects. Starting is as easy as setting up a user account and then creating ‘Boards‘ which are like categories for your images so for landscape office you might start with ‘Boards’ like trees, plants, urban parks, squares, stone, and so on and then start collating images by uploading from your computer, phone or ‘pinning’ images from websites. You just need to remember that the images you are ‘pinning’ are public for everyone on the web to see which can be good for publicising your work or what your working on, but you might want to keep it in-house which I’ll cover later.

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Al Maryah Island | Abu Dhabi UAE | Broadway Malyan

The concept masterplan for Al Maryah Island (formerly Sowwah Island) recently renamed by the Abu Dhabi Municipality, in recognition of its economic and historical importance and geographic location, has been approved.The Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council (UPC) has approved the plan, which covers over 3.5 million sqm of mixed-use development across commercial, residential, retail, hospitality and community uses, and will become the center of Abu Dhabi’s New Central Business District (CBD).

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e(CO)stratègia | Barcelona Spain | Taller Sau

The competition was about rethinking the border between the natural park of Collserola and the City of Barcelona. It has been divided this edge in 16 parts and call it doors. There has been proposals for each door, related to the particular context and situation of this part of the edge.
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