Urban Planning « World Landscape Architecture – landscape architecture webzine

This Week in Landscape | 28 October 2012

Landscape links from around the world this week

Jane Jacobs Defends Urbanism in 1960s New York City Planning | WNYC
A 1962 audio recording of Jane Jacobs, at a Books and Authors Luncheon, explains her current role as a community leader in the fight against what she views as the excesses and excrescences of the arrogant Modernist redesign of city neighborhoods.

Urban forestry project creates jobs | Ear to the Ground
DNR-managed projects can provide jobs and supplement the efforts of volunteers

A Peek Inside The Sad And Artificial World Of Zoo Habitats | Cliff Kuang | Fast Co Design
Zoos are inherently bizarre. The sheer thrill of seeing strange and exotic beasts is often tempered by the reality of the strange and artificial environments they’re kept in, raising the question: Can they really be happy hanging out in those habitats?

The Green Team: Part 4 – Planting for the future | Metropolis Magazine | Zeina Zahalan
Mathews Nielsen latest installment at Metropolis Magazine about the importance of planting correctly.

Keeping the winter landscape interesting | Michele Lerner | Washington Times
…options are more limited in winter. Instead, experts recommend planning for the season in advance.

Sustainable urban infrastructure key as African cities grow | Megan Wait | Engineering News
African cities would grow nearly three times faster than the global average over the next three-and-a-half decades, highlighting the need for efficient, effective and environmentally sustainable urban infrastructure development.

Wuxi Taihu New City | Wuxi China | SOM with Tom Leader Studio

Wuxi Taihu New City is an approximately 500-hectare master plan that reconnects the city with its waterfront and creates dense, walkable neighborhoods oriented around a central park. The master plan, by SOM in collaboration with Tom Leader Studio, involves an extensive open space network to improve quality of life in a rapidly urbanizing region. Taihu Basin, the region surrounding Wuxi, is home to over 50 million people and is one of the most developed regions of China. The Wuxi Taihu New City master plan represents a new model for compact urban development in China that enhances the existing landscape and creates value through parks and a new public waterfront.

Continue reading Wuxi Taihu New City | Wuxi China | SOM with Tom Leader Studio

LESS (Local-area Envisioning and Sustainability-scoring System) | HASSELL

LESS (Local-area Envisioning and Sustainability-scoring System) is a design decision-making framework developed by HASSELL to generate sustainable design solutions that lessen emissions, use of resources and social disparity.
Continue reading LESS (Local-area Envisioning and Sustainability-scoring System) | HASSELL

2050 Ultra Flood Plain | Ayutthaya Thailand | Shma

The goal of modern development has created a clear separation between agricultural and industrial activities, between human and nature, between fluid and solid territories, which become a threat to human living. As we move forwards and slowly detach from nature, we neglect the power of it and forget how we once live with it. Ayutthaya is the city which illustrates such on-going situation clearly, from the day when water was city’s breath to the day when water become city’s catastrophe to local economy, society and environment. In planning for the prospect Ayutthaya we shall try to understand the formation of crisis, in order to determine the new balance between water, Ayutthaya living and Chao Phraya river basin.

2050 Ultra Flood Plain | Ayutthaya Thailand | Shma

Continue reading 2050 Ultra Flood Plain | Ayutthaya Thailand | Shma

Leicester Square City Quarter | London UK | Burns + Nice

Image Credit | Burns + Nice

In June 2007 BURNS + NICE won a design competition for the re-design of Leicester Square, organised by Westminster City Council. The square is the home of British cinema staging over 50 film premières every year as well as a number other large scale events throughout the year. It attracts approximately two million visitors each week. Together with its side streets the square accommodates 250 servicing deliveries every morning, over 35 al fresco dining pitches, the largest cinemas and casinos in the UK and five hotels, with another two large ones planned. In combination these activities make the Leicester Square City Quarter a challenging and multi-layered urban environment.
Continue reading Leicester Square City Quarter | London UK | Burns + Nice