Sustainability Category
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 […]
Quality Streetscapes Conference notes
Posted on April 25, 2012 2 Comments
My slides This first part of this presentation introduces a new approach to valuing urban design – one which allows design decisions to be embedded in real estate valuation calculations. The approach connects design to the rateable value of retail, commercial and residential property offerings. It allows investment decisions to be related directly to design […]
Future Cities_Cities of Transaction
Posted on April 16, 2012 7 Comments
Thinking about the future of cities is not a new challenge. From Christopher Wren’s plan for the post-fire rebuilding of London in 1666 to Ebenezer Howards’s Garden City concept, to Le Corbusier, to Bladerunner, human ingenuity has been tasked with anticipating the future. A problem, if we care to admit it, is that these plans […]
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 […]
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.
EPSRC Innovate 11: Working with universities
Posted on October 12, 2011 Leave a Comment
London, 11th October 2011 Tim Stonor Opportunities & barriers Intro Space Syntax Limited an SME working in the Creative Industries, specifically architecture and urban planning. A consulting company. Engaging in projects from high value real estate developments in the City of London to the regeneration of slum settlements. Outside urban space & inside building space. […]
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 […]
Spatial layout, urban movement & human transaction
Posted on April 13, 2011 3 Comments
Download my presentation “Designing mobility for democracy: the role of cities” #demobility Thursday, 14th April 2011 from 1pm to 5pm NYU, Kimmel Center, Eisner & Lubin Auditorium 60 Washington Square South, New York Summary Given the title of this event: “Designing mobility”, I want to turn to the subject of design and the role of […]
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 […]
Eduardo Rojas
Posted on April 11, 2011 Leave a Comment
Notes of a talk by Eduardo Rojas given to MIT Humphrey SPURS Fellows and Harvard Loeb Fellows at Stella Conference Room 7-338 MIT, 11th April 2011. Housing in Latin America 1900 25% urban 1985 4.7 family size 2000 75% urban 4.1 family size 2015 80% urban 3.5 family size Informal sector 1990s 60% new jobs […]
Everyone in LA should have an equal opportunity of being eaten by a mountain lion
Posted on April 11, 2011 Leave a Comment
MIT Media Lab, 8th April 2011 In accepting the 2011 Kevin Lynch Award at MIT, Randy Hester gave a provocative speech about the enduring importance of urban design. Here is my tweetroll from the event. 18:06 At the 2011 Kevin Lynch Award Ceremony @MIT Media Lab, intro by Andres Sevtsuk. 18:30 Randolph T. Hester wins Kevin […]
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 […]
“Loeb Fellows invite…” seminar on Food Systems
Posted on April 3, 2011 1 Comment
Wednesday, 6th April 2011 at 6:30pm Harvard Graduate School of Design, Piper Auditorium 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Space Syntax & the future of urban planning software
Posted on April 3, 2011 3 Comments
Notes from a lecture given at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy 23rd March 2011 View a summary of the presentation on YouTube Opening comments Good afternoon. I am delighted to have this opportunity to report on my progress as this year’s Lincoln Loeb Fellow. My brief today is in two parts: first, to describe my […]
“On your feet, Wellington”
Posted on April 3, 2011 Leave a Comment
An article in the New Zealand Dominion Post, titled “On your feet, Wellington” reports on Space Syntax’s proposals to reconnect the pedestrian infrastructure of the capital.
Carbon emissions & spatial connections
Posted on March 4, 2011 1 Comment
I spoke today to Dr Joyce Rosenthal’s “Environmental Planning & Sustainable Development” class at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. My presentation “Carbon emissions & spatial connections” can be viewed on Slideboom.
The power of the network 