Landscape Category
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
Building a Smart City modelling team
Posted on July 4, 2014 1 Comment
. Cities planning their future are increasingly turning to the production of Integrated Urban Models. These are tools that bring together various datasets on different asoects of urban performance, from the behaviour of people to the flows of energy, water and other utilities. The aim is to better predict the future of cities by better understanding […]
New blog for Faversham Yellow Lines campaign
Posted on April 13, 2014 Leave a Comment
Information on the campaign against the painting of yellow lines across Faversham town centre has moved to a new blog. Thank you for all the support so far!
Space Syntax City Projects Walk
Posted on September 6, 2013 2 Comments
On Tuesday afternoon, 3rd September, I led a walking tour of built projects by Space Syntax. Trafalgar Square Royal Festval Hall Tate Modern One New Change New Bloomberg Headquarters (under construction) Willis Building 30 St Mary Axe Heron Plaza (under construction) Liverpool Street Station retail concourse Broadgate, Exchange Square Barbican Arts Centre
Integrated Urban Modelling – Space Syntax’s approach
Posted on September 2, 2013 4 Comments
I’ve written before about the benefits of using science-based models in the planning and design process. I’ve raised concerns about the frequent lack of objective analysis in urban and building projects, and the risks this creates in decision-taking. Basing important decisions on gut instinct and experience, then willing on success with little more than hype, […]
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 […]
Approaching large scale urban design schemes
Posted on November 28, 2011 Leave a Comment
On Friday I gave a presentation at a Design Council CABE event, “Inside Design Review”. My talk, “Approaching large scale urban design schemes“, sets out a framework for thinking about the complexity of major urban development proposals.
The end of ages for transport planning and the birth of an era of transaction planning
Posted on September 6, 2011 Leave a Comment
There is so much interest, from so many different interests, in the future of urban living. This suggests that, whatever else, people suspect that things will change. I’m sure this is right – technology, resource scarcity, population growth, energy shortage and climate change: all are factors that will provoke change. The question is, will these […]
The pull of the park
Posted on June 28, 2011 Leave a Comment
Gosforth Shopping Centre opened in 1979: an internalised world of covered shopping. The centre offered a pedestrian-only alternative to the busy traffic of Gosforth High Street, historically the retail backbone of the town. Although a few storefronts opened onto the High Street, the greater part of the High Street frontage was taken up by the […]
Exhibition – “Chile. Beyond landscape”
Posted on April 7, 2011 Leave a Comment
14th April-17th May 2011 National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania Space Syntax Romania director Christian Beros has curated an exhibition of Chilean architecture. “In the past 20 years, Chilean architecture has earned a place on the covers of some of the most prestigious journals, books and sites recognized by contemporary architecture. The projects presented are […]
The pace of change – is “online” a reflection of “urban”?
Posted on January 21, 2011 2 Comments
One of the challenges in achieving an integration of thinking between hackers and urbanists is the rate of change online. Will the massive experimentation currently underway on the internet continue at a pace, or settle down as norms are established and protocols emerge? Perhaps the same protocols that make it possible for people to live […]
From landscapes of extraction to creative industries of organic matter & waste
Posted on January 14, 2011 1 Comment
Monday, 14th February 2011 at 6pm Stubbins Room, Harvard Graduate School of Design, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 Participants Pablo Rey, Basurama Manolo Mansylla, Trashpatch Robin Nagle, anthropologist of material culture (waste) Scientist doing research in biomaterials (Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering/ Materials Research Science and Engineering Center – School of Engineering and […]
The power of the network 