Carbon emissions Category
World Cities Summit: leveraging the science of cities
Posted on September 2, 2021 Leave a Comment
As an architect & urban planner my principal concern is to make cities work for people. This means understanding how their streets connect to either encourage low carbon transport such as walking and public transport. Or, if they’re disconnected, do they lock in car dependence and its carbon impacts?
What will cities look like 30 years from now?
Posted on May 6, 2020 1 Comment
I joined a carbon reduction event yesterday where, by way of introducing ourselves, we were each asked to predict the future: what did we think we would see more of in 2050 – in terms of objects, experiences and services. A neat little ice-breaker if ever there was one. Here are my top-of-the-head responses: 1. […]
Is physical distancing possible on city streets?
Posted on April 28, 2020 Leave a Comment
Until a vaccine is found for COVID-19, and perhaps beyond, it will be important to practise physical distancing in towns and cities. Whether this is possible will come down to the “carrying capacity” of the urban infrastructure: in particular, the relationship between Pedestrian Supply in the form of sufficiently wide footways and Pedestrian Demand in […]
Intelligent mobility: risks & rewards
Posted on October 1, 2017 1 Comment
第一页 技术就是答案 Slide 1 Technology is the answer 1966年，塞德里克·普莱斯说，我喜欢一开始就对新技术进行一点质疑。当然，“技术就是答案”。他也强调：“不过问题是什么？”。 I’d like to begin with a little scepticism about new technology. Of course “Technology is the answer“, said Cedric Price in 1966. He also said, “But what is the question?” 这些问题就是我们试图去获得无人驾驶技术。 What are the questions that we are trying to answer in the pursuit of autonomous […]
A velvet revolution for the Blue House roundabout – Newcastle City Council to think again
Posted on August 23, 2016 Leave a Comment
Massive popular opposition to plans for a disfiguring roundabout leads to the City Council announcing this evening that it will go back to the drawing board. This is a positive development. A working group will now be established to look at alternative plans. Jesmond Local press article YouTube clip of Cllr Bell’s statement
Growth. Are you old school or new school?
Posted on August 23, 2016 Leave a Comment
There are two different schools of thought about how to accommodate urban growth. The first says that cities should build more road capacity to handle private vehicle traffic. The second says that less space should be provided for private vehicles and more investment should be made in public transport and “active travel” i.e. walking and cycling. […]
Sustainability & resilience – a SMART approach
Posted on March 8, 2016 Leave a Comment
1. Aspects of sustainability/resilience: SMART outcomes Social – improvements in formation & retention of social connections Environmental – increases in renewable energy production and reductions in energy demand Economic – increases in land value creation Health – improvements in public health outcomes Education – improvements in achievements/qualifications Safety – reductions in offending & reoffending. Environmental […]
Sustainable cities of the future – sketch
Posted on February 9, 2016 Leave a Comment
Notes for keynote at UK Green Building Council Annual City Summit, Birmingham. 1. Spatial planning & human behaviour implications of sustainability – reduction of transport carbon through shift towards walking, cycling & public transport 2. A massive shift needed in transport + land use planning, urban + landscape design, architecture. Professional inertia. Turning the supertanker. […]
Past, present & future_Space Syntax in practice
Posted on January 11, 2016 1 Comment
[Speaking notes for Tim Stonor’s opening presentation at the First Conference on Space Syntax in China, Beijing, 5th December 2015.] Good morning. It is an honour to be speaking at this important conference alongside so many distinguished speakers and attendees. My talk today will cover the past, present and future of Space Syntax Limited’s experience […]
Integrated Urban Planning – balancing the multiple flows of the city
Posted on September 26, 2015 2 Comments
Notes for the UK-China Sustainable Urbanisation Conference in Chengdu, China on 24th September 2015 My job as an architect and urban planner is to design new towns and cities – as well as new parts of existing urban settlements. This means designing the multiple systems that make up a city. We often think about towns and […]
The Garden Street – the essential, unspoken element of the Garden City
Posted on January 28, 2015 2 Comments
Too often the Garden City is visualised as a place of huge green spaces enfolding small pockets of grey streets. The green and the grey. But why should streets be grey? What about avenues? Boulevards? Rows of trees? Grass verges? Street planting at various scales. And don’t those huge green parks just separate the urbanism? […]
Spatial Layout as Critical Infrastructure
Posted on January 14, 2014 Leave a Comment
Stub…notes for an upcoming conference talk Key issue to be addressed: – Urban-Rural development – Urban Regeneration – Smart Cities. When a network of streets is laid out, planners and designers build in an enormous amount of “embedded potential”: the pattern of movement land use potential safety land value social interaction public health carbon emissions. […]
Smart Cities World Expo – speaking notes
Posted on November 5, 2012 Leave a Comment
Spatial layout influences Human behaviour: 1. Movement 2. Awareness 3. Interaction 4. Transaction. Spatial layout benefits 1. Economy – productivity – innovation – building & campus performance 2. Health – active travel – access to healthcare – building & campus performance 3. Social cohesion – the spatial network creates the social network 4. Safety – property theft – personal attack […]
A short film about Space Syntax
Posted on May 12, 2012 Leave a Comment
Tim Stonor, Managing Director, Space Syntax “The population of the world is increasing and, as it increases, more and more of us are living in cities. As cities have grown in the 20th century they have often grown to disconnect people. Space Syntax has discovered that many of these problems in cities – disconnection, lack […]
Life by a thousand connections
Posted on May 9, 2012 2 Comments
Background The everyday actions of architects and urban planners influence the everyday physical activity of people by creating the networks of streets and public spaces through which people move. Similarly, inside buildings, the layout of space influences the degree to which people move around. The precise mechanisms through which spatial patterns influence behaviour patterns are […]
Notes for AGI Conference talk: Measure, map, model, make
Posted on March 5, 2012 2 Comments
My slides Great placemaking is a process combining art and science. There is a place for both and indeed a need for both. Two problems. First, urban planning is largely an analogue discipline. Too many diagrams and watercolours. Not enough science. And, when science is present, it is seen as an adjunct, not as a […]
AoU Landscape Urbanism notes & questions
Posted on December 15, 2011 2 Comments
These notes accompany a PowerPoint presentation Fragmented urbanism: the rise of Landscape Urbanism & the threat it poses to the continuously connected city TS intro This is a crucial moment for urbanism. In the UK, The Portas Review, highlighting the UK’s threatened high streets. Around the world, cities are growing faster than ever. But cities […]
IBM Smart Cities, Helsinki – latest notes
Posted on October 18, 2011 1 Comment
9.50 Keynote What will the future city look like? The city of transaction How to plan a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable city The effects of the digital revolution on human behaviour patterns Tim Stonor, Architect & Urban Planner, Managing Director, Space Syntax (UK) _____________ Data is not the solution. Turning data into knowledge is […]
IBM Smart Cities, Helsinki
Posted on October 12, 2011 1 Comment
19th October 2011 Tim Stonor “What will the future city look like?” View the presentation Themes to be addressed 1. How to plan a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable city. 2. Effects of the digital revolution on human behaviour patterns. Summary In addressing the question, “What will the future city look like?” I am less […]
The power of the network 