Urbanism Laboratory For Cities And Regions

The conditions of urban development changes radically. Technological transformations such as automation and robotization in industrial production are leading to operating conditions for businesses and employees. Transportation and distribution systems are changing the scale and flow patterns of the urban agglomerations.

The conditions of urban development are currently changing radically. Technological transformations such as automation and robotization in industrial production are leading to new operating conditions for businesses and employees. New transportation and distribution systems are changing the scale and flow patterns of the urban agglomerations. The effects of the general application of information and communication technologies in everyday life are barely to overlook. Globalization and internationalization as well as the processes of European unification have led to increasing competition between urban agglomerations on European and world scales. On the other hand, the social contrasts within these agglomerations are growing. World-wide environmental problems, the necessity for a more efficient use of energy and natural resources as well as a limitation of CO2 emissions mean that we have to make adaptations to our urban structures and building fabric.

The MIT based SENSEable City Lab under Carlo Ratti is one of the research centers that deal with the flow of people and goods, but also of refuse that moves around the world. Experience with large-scale infrastructure projects suggest that more complex and above all flexible answers must be sought to questions of transportation or disposal. This edition, edited by Dietmar Offenhuber and Carlo Ratti, shows how Big Data change reality and, hence, the way we deal with the city. It discusses the impact of real-time data on architecture and urban planning, using examples developed in the SENSEable City Lab. They demonstrate how the Lab interprets digital data as material that can be used for the formulation of a different urban future. It also looks at the negative aspects of the city-related data acquisition and control. The authors address issues with which urban planning disciplines will work intensively in the future: questions that not only radically and critically review, but also change fundamentally, the existing tasks and how the professions view their own roles.

Latin America and the Caribbean constitute the second-most urbanised region in the world, with many cities still growing exponentially. Long-term strategies need to be developed to meet the resulting challenges. How can growing cities be planned without neglecting their urbanity? How can urban spatial growth be managed in tandem with social, environmental, cultural, and economic challenges? Between 2013 and 2018, the Urban Design Lab worked in over twenty emerging cities in Latin America and the Caribbean. They developed dynamic planning tools that trigger transformative urban processes by engaging and empowering local communities. This handbook not only explains the context and emerging problems faced by the cities of Latin America and the Caribbean, but also proposes solutions for typical difficulties encountered within those urban conglomerations. 250 colour, 50 b/w images

While designers possess the creative capabilities of shaping cities, their often-singular obsession with form and aesthetics actually reduces their effectiveness as they are at the mercy of more powerful generators of urban form. In response to this paradox, Designing Urban Transformation addresses the incredible potential of urban practice to radically change cities for the better. The book focuses on a powerful question, "What can urbanism be?" by arguing that the most significant transformations occur by fundamentally rethinking concepts, practices, and outcomes. Drawing inspiration from the philosophical movement known as Pragmatism, the book proposes three conceptual shifts for transformative urban practice: (a) beyond material objects: city as flux, (b) beyond intentions: consequences of design, and (c) beyond practice: urbanism as creative political act. Pragmatism encourages us to consider how we can make deeper and more systemic changes and how urbanism itself can be a design strategy for such transformations. To illuminate how these conceptual shifts operate in vastly different contexts through analysis of transformative urban initiatives and projects in Belo Horizonte, Boston, Cairo, Karachi, Los Angeles, New Delhi, and Paris. The book is a rare integration of theory and practice that proposes essential ways of rethinking city-design-and-building processes, while drawing critical lessons from actual examples of such processes.

Engaged Urbanism showcases the exciting ways in which urbanists are responding to this question and working towards fairer cities. Its authors offer succinct, candid and carefully illustrated commentaries on the trials and successes of risk-taking research, revealing how they collaborate across fields of expertise, inventing or adapting methods to suit bespoke situations. Featuring novel uses and combinations of practice-from activism, architectural design and undercover journalism, to film, sculpture, performance and photography- in a diversity of cities such as Beirut, Johannesburg, Kisumu, London and Rio de Janeiro, Engaged Urbanism demonstrates how some of the greatest challenges for present and future populations are being rigorously and creatively addressed.

"Tracking technologies such as GPS, mobile phone tracking, video and RFID monitoring are rapidly becoming part of daily life. Technological progress offers huge possibilities for studying human activity patterns in time and space in new ways. Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) held an international expert meeting in early 2007 to investigate the current and future possibilities and limitations of the application of tracking technologies in urban design and spatial planning. This book is the result of that expert meeting." --Book Jacket.