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Former Indonesian President hopes for better urban planning

According to the Jakarta Post, the former president of Indonesia BJ Habibie came out yesterday suggesting that urban planning laws were not enough and that urban planning requires better implementation.

The Jakarta Post reported that Habibie said

“Don’t assume that having a legal system is enough. It’s not. The main thing is implementation,” he said.

“Humans are the ones who created problems and humans are the ones who have to be able to solve the problems and nobody else,” he said.

The Jakarta Post also went on to report that

Indonesia has law on spatial planning but implementation has been poor. The capital city of Jakarta for example has only around 9.6 percent of open green areas, which is far from what the regulated 30 percent.

Read the full article at the SOURCE: Jakarta Post – Implementation crucial for urban planning: Habibie

Beijing CBD expansion plan to be chosen this year

Beijing City government has placed seven alternative design for the Beijing CBD public display. Beginning yesterday they were opened for public comment as apart of a six-day CBD International Business Festival. A plan will be selected by the end of this year for planning and implementation.

The masterplans were submitted by the SOM, KFP, ADPi, China Academy of Urban Planning & Design, along with three design firms.

The plans calls for a 3 square kilometre expansion of the CBD which doubles the size of the current Beijing CBD. The city government has requested that all new buildings in the new area have a low carbon footprint.

The expansion includes the area from East Third Ring Road near Guomao to the Fourth Ring Road near Sihui Bridge, and will be completed in the next six to eight years. The existing CBD took ten years to complete.

via China Daily – CBD set to double by 2017

via China Daily – Beijing CBD expansion plan to be chosen this year.

IMAGE SOURCE: Flickr – peoloq

Link urban and rural India

Prakash Joshi of the The Times of India reports in Link urban and rural India, says Rahul

“There is one India living in the urban areas, which is completely different from the one in rural India. We have to connect the two so
that the latter also enjoys the fruits of India’s growth,” said AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi at a rally in Panvel on Thursday.

The venue was apt, as Panvel has a mix of both urban and rural India. Within a few kilometres from the main town is rural Panvel, which has witnessed a lot of protests recently. Some have been over land acquisitions for Cidco, the proposed Navi Mumbai SEZ and Mahamumbai SEZ.

City an ‘obese parody’

The Age reports

FEDERAL Labor MP Kelvin Thomson has savaged the Victorian Government’s handling of urban planning in a blistering newsletter to constituents.

Mr Thomson said the State Government’s planning blueprint Melbourne 2030, which aimed to reduce urban sprawl, had failed badly. He attacked State Government plans to increase Melbourne’s boundary by 41,000 hectares.

SOURCE: The Age – City an ‘obese parody’

Ben van Berkel’s design selected for new football stadium in China – UNStudio

UNStudio has won the limited competition for a 40,000 spectator football stadium for the most successful club in the Chinese Super League: Dalian Shide FC. The stadium will be built in the club’s hometown of the city of Dalian, on the southern tip of Liaodong peninsula in Northeast China.

The design for the 38,500 m2 stadium has been inspired by the colourful layering and overlapping of the ancient Chinese cuju football. The design weaves together the collective spirit of the spectators with the public realm and the urban context of the building. The main stadium houses spectator seating, TV broadcasting centre, administration areas, VIP lounge, players facilities and public concourse in a layered envelope which extends on ground level to provide outdoor public areas above decked parking facilities. In addition, the design incorporates two training fields on the 144,000 m2 site.

SOURCE: UNStudio