Historical events Category
What did the Romans ever do for us? Pompei’s 5 lessons for placemaking…
Posted on February 5, 2015 1 Comment
Download the presentation In looking forwards it is important to learn the lessons of history. Look at Pompei. A city built for efficient mobility. A model of the 1st century with lessons for the 21st century. The grid – no cul de sacs. Built for mobility. Built for commerce. More or less rectilinear – not labyrinthine. […]
Bill Hillier’s Smart London
Posted on October 9, 2014 Leave a Comment
Notes of Bill Hilliers opening talk about the NLA Smarter London exhibition, 8th October 2014. Congratulations to the NLA and CASA for the exhibition. It’s evidence that London is the original smart city – nowhere such a collection of top class practices, imaginative authorities and academic departments developing new ways of doing things, and new […]
Centres and Cities
Posted on April 24, 2014 Leave a Comment
I’m sure you’re right about the link between street morphology and attractiveness to business. Centres seem to do one of three things through time. They either: 1. consolidate and grow (London, Paris) 2. move (Jeddah) 3. implode (Sunderland). Oh, and some places: 4. never have a functioning centre (Skelmersdale, UK New Towns) because they were […]
Ed Glaeser at the American Planning Association
Posted on April 12, 2011 Leave a Comment
Notes from Prof Ed Glaeser’s keynote at the 2011 American Planning Association Conference in Boston, 12th April 2011 A city’s “innovative density” is provided by its urban connections. Historical urban growth and decline Historically, cities grew by water. As transport costs lowered (now 10% of a century ago) people and production did not need to […]
Anna Rose presents “CityScans” at the Harvard GSD
Posted on April 4, 2011 1 Comment
View and download Anna Rose’s presentation On Tuesday, 5th April, Space Syntax director Anna Rose gave a talk at the Harvard GSD on the use of Space Syntax in planning and urban design. She began by describing Berlin’s spatial transformation during the 20th century, showing graphically how the connected heart of pre-war Berlin was then […]
Spatial transformation – Berlin
Posted on February 24, 2011 3 Comments
The following images of Berlin have been prepared by Anna Rose and Christian Schwander at Space Syntax Limited as part of a wider study of the city. They show the pattern of “spatial integration” in Berlin at three key periods in history: 1940, 1989 and 2011. The colours read like a temperature scale, with highest levels […]
Don’t fight fire…
Posted on October 8, 2010 Leave a Comment
World Bank data suggest an urban population in 2050 of approximately 7 billion, of which close to half will be living in unplanned settlements: favelas, barrios, slums. Delegates at this weekend’s Loeb Fellowship 40th Anniversary Reunion are necessarily concerned. When the Fellowship was established in 1970, America was in turmoil with civic unrest across the […]
How Faversham fights – machine guns and pints
Posted on October 4, 2010 Leave a Comment
The last military conflict to take place on British soil occurred near Faversham, Kent on 27th September 1940. On one side: the crew of a downed Junkers 88. On the other: members of the London Irish Rifles. Following a brief but intense exchange of fire, in which no one was killed, all the participants retired […]
The power of the network 