Archives /// Hilary Best
February 8th, 2012
Urban Planet: Walking, talking and texting
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Urban Planet is a daily roundup of blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
Can you walk and text? Researchers at Stony Brook University suggest that while you may be able to multi-task, you likely walk a bit differently when you do. Participants in the study walked 16 per cent slower while talking and 33 per cent slower ...
February 7th, 2012
Urban Planet: White Ribbons in Moscow
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Urban Planet is a daily roundup of blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
In Moscow last week, drivers adorned their vehicles with white flags and ribbons to show their support for protests against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The city's Garden Ring highway was jammed with cars, demonstrating the widespread involvement of the urban middle class in ...
February 6th, 2012
Urban Planet: Pedestrian Desire Lines
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Urban Planet is a daily roundup of blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
Two major road revitalization projects in London, England have planners talking about pedestrian priority and behaviour. As The Economist reports, improvements to Oxford Circus and Exhibition Road have required a fundamental re-examination of pedestrian "desire lines" - the paths individuals choose to take, as ...
February 3rd, 2012
Urban Planet: Super tall
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Urban Planet is a daily roundup of blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
Mark Lamster and Alexandra Lange at Places:The Design Observer discuss Supertall - a recent exhibit on the world's tallest buildings at New York's Skyscraper Museum. The exhibition focuses on buildings built between 2001 and 2016 that are taller than the Empire State Building (100 stories ...
February 2nd, 2012
Urban Planet: Witold Rybcyznski vs Richard Florida
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Urban Planet is a daily roundup of blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
Grist talks to urbanist Witold Rybczynski about his recent efforts to call out Richard Florida for playing "fast and loose" with income statistics for American urban centres. Florida posited a positive relationship between density and household income, using figures for metropolitan areas rather than city ...
February 1st, 2012
Urban Planet: Urban Highway Removal
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Urban Planet is a daily roundup of blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
Anthony Flint at The Atlantic Cities explores the expansion of urban highway removal across more North America centres and notes the cultural tensions that can flare when such a major piece of infrastructure is slated for demolition. Also worth checking out, the Atlantic Cities has ...
January 31st, 2012
Urban Planet: Anamorphic Gardens
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Urban Planet is a daily roundup of blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
The Smithsonian Magazine explores Who to Believe?, a Parisian garden in front of City Hall designed by Francois Abelanet. Playing with the traditions of the French garden and Anamorphosis, Abelanet shows that the view of City Hall is quite different depending on where you stand.
Video from WorldScott
For more stories from around ...
January 30th, 2012
Urban Planet: Citizen Cartography
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Urban Planet is a daily roundup of blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
“The map user has now become the map creator,” says Fraser Taylor, Director of the Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre at Carleton University. In a recent article on This Big City, author Christine McLaren explores the phenomenon of citizen cartographers. With the proliferation of ...











