Weird Wednesdays on Urban Planet takes a look at obscure, absurd, and curious things about cities around the world.

It's been in international headlines throughout the past few weeks over false reports that it will be changing its name, but this tiny Austrian hamlet has been "Fucking" (or close to it) since the Dark Ages.

Nestled right near the Austrian-German border, Fucking is home to just over 100 residents. It's credited as being named after  a Bavarian noble named Focko who lived in the area during the 6th century (-ing being an old Germanic suffix meaning "people of"). The first documentation of the settlement was in 1070, when it was called Vucchingen. The next mention, two decades later, was of the local lord, Adalpertus de Fucingin. The name evolved to Fukching in 1303, then Fugkhing in 1532, with the current spelling taking over in the 18th century.

The community got its first international attention during World War II as British and American soldiers had their pictures taken beside the four traffic signs, which simply read "Fucking." British tourists have become very popular in last half century and are notorius for taking lewd photographs and even stealing the signs. The …

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.

From the makers of Walk Score and just in time for "Bike to Work Week" comes Bike Score - the online tool for assessing neighbourhood bikeability. The tool uses data including the locations of bicycle infrastructure, amenities and hills. And Canadian cities are featured too!

With files from the Calgary Herald and Forbes

Image from Bike Score

For more stories from around the planet, check out Spacing on Facebook and Twitter.  Do you have an Urban Planet worthy article you'd like to share? Send the link to urbanplanet@spacing.ca…

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.

Did you ride your bike to school as a kid? According to this piece on NPR, back in 1969 nearly half of children got to school on foot or by bike. Today, that figure is closer to 13%. Reporter David Darlington talks about what has changed - from concerns about liability to sprawling neighbourhood design to a changing understanding of bikes as recreation rather than transportation.

Image from sfbike

For more stories from around the planet, check out Spacing on Facebook and Twitter.  Do you have an Urban Planet worthy article you'd like to share? Send the link to urbanplanet@spacing.ca…

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.

A Friday treat: listen to the sweet sounds of the Copenhagen Philharmonic serenading Danish commuters. (Huffington Post)

Image from Huffington Post

For more stories from around the planet, check out Spacing on Facebook and Twitter.  Do you have an Urban Planet worthy article you'd like to share? Send the link to urbanplanet@spacing.ca…

Like we mentioned a few weeks ago, Spacington has developed a bit of a slum. As displayed above, this once thriving neighborhood has become an area of little growth, dirty abandoned buildings, and a limited amount of available work. We get it, this slum isn't nearly as "slummy" as it could be- there is still a strong mix of wealths, mixed use, and utilized transit- but the neighborhood has lost it's drive.

Usually in the game, a no job logo hovering above a building represents the lack of jobs in a commutable distance. Basically, it takes too long for a Sim to get to work, or they can't find work.

The neighborhood shown above is thriving. The area consistently reinventing itself, changing it's buildings, and doubling it's density. The neighborhood shares the same amount of transit and zoning (high density for the most part) as the previous neighborhood but has a healthy growth thriving workforce.

So give us your thoughts, taken from examples or not: How do we reinvent and begin growth in our semi-slum?

Spacington: Want to see previous posts about Spacington? Click on the "Sim City: Spacington" link in the "RELATED" box just below.

Keep up on the …

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MAY 31st

Spacing magazine presents the CREATIVE MAPPING CONTEST

Do you love maps? Are you an illustrator, graphic designer, or visual storyteller? Spacing wants you to submit your original creative maps inspired by a Canadian city.

To date we have received an amazing assortment of submissions. But we also had a whack-load of requests for late submissions. In the spirit of openness, we've extended the deadline until the end of May.

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Thursday, May 31st, 2012

COST: Free!

WHAT MAKES A MAP CREATIVE (see examples at bottom of page)?
The art of map-making has taken tremendous strides in the digital age. In the last decade, there has been an explosion of maps that are not necessarily meant to be used for directions, but instead are considered works of art and inspired imagination. We want you to create an illustrative map that reflects a Canadian city (or a neighbourhood, community) or is inspired by the urban elements that make up a city (examples: waterfront, transit, cycling, walking, graffiti, parks, architecture, laneways/alleys, streets, traffic, taxis, weather, sewers, infrastructure, etc....)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

HOW TO ENTER: You must register to enter. Send us an email and …

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.

Is a neighbourhood defined by geographical borders or by the set of people that flow in and out of it? This is the hypothesis being tested by researchers at the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Their platform, Livehoods, uses foursquare check in data to map out who is visiting what venues where and when. This information is grouped into patterns which are then used to map neighbourhoods. (Flowing Data)

Image from Flowing Data

For more stories from around the planet, check out Spacing on Facebook and Twitter.  Do you have an Urban Planet worthy article you'd like to share? Send the link to urbanplanet@spacing.ca…

Weird Wednesdays on Urban Planet takes a look at obscure, absurd, and curious things about cities around the world.

While it looks like an unused set for the movie Waterworld, Neft Dashlari isn't just the world's first offshore oil rig, it's elevated platforms have become home to a fairly unique urban community with nothing but waterfront property.

In 1945 the USSR found oil deposits at the bottom of the Caspian Sea, 45 km off the coast of Azerbaijan. They built a giant multiplatform rig in order to drill that location. As more deposits were discovered nearby, the Soviets built an extensive network of over 200 miles of roadways to connect them with the main hub.

By 1958, construction at Neft Dashlari ("Oil Rocks") really picked up. Accomodations were built for the several-thousand workers (who work in stints of one week on the rig, one week off), which include apartment buildings up to nine storeys tall. In addition to housing, the platforms have a library, hospital, bakery, community centre (dvorets kultury, or "Palace of Culture"), and even a tree-filled park.

Though the site is still running, it is in a terrible state of disrepair. Miles of the roadways have now …

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.

What's tall and full and leafy all over? Vancouver's parking garages. Valcent Products recently signed an agreement with several garage owners to build the 6,000-square-foot vertical farm. The "VertiCrop" farming structure will feature 12-foot-high stacks of growing trays that will move around to catch water and sunlight. (Designing Healthy Communities)

Image from Vertical Theory

For more stories from around the planet, check out Spacing on Facebook and Twitter.  Do you have an Urban Planet worthy article you'd like to share? Send the link to urbanplanet@spacing.ca…

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 1979, New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority unveiled a redesign of its iconic subway system map. The redesign was an attempt to bring clarity to the tangle of colours and lines that crisscross the five boroughs. But as Matt Flegenheimer at the New York Times reports, the designers made some serious errors: "On the West Side of Manhattan, beginning near Lincoln Center and extending toward the campus of Columbia University, Broadway is seemingly misplaced. It is west of Amsterdam Avenue at West 66th Street when it should be east. It drifts toward West End Avenue near 72nd Street, where it should intersect with Amsterdam. It overtakes West End Avenue north of the avenue’s actual endpoint near West 107th Street, creating several blocks of fictitious Upper West Side real estate." Designers John Tauranac and Michael Hertz are still fighting over authorship of the design, and its errors.

Image from Design Observer

For more stories from around the planet, check out Spacing on Facebook and Twitter.  Do …