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In his book 'Soft City' David Sim gives examples, tips and tricks for sustainable and inclusive #cities. He shows how you can create a dense and diverse built environment at a human scale. Cities for people!
A review/summary: http://urbanspringtime.blogspot.com/2019/12/soft-city-building-density-for-everyday.html
Due to their increasing popularity cities are under pressure. To accommodate the influx of people, more and more buildings are being built
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Reading blogs, articles and books about urban planning in North America is sometimes a struggle as an European. Not only because of the enormous differences in scale or the different views on politics, economy, taxes, social issues, and so on. But mostly because of the different perspective about happiness, or better: the level of satisfaction. In the Netherlands we build - on average - in higher densities. This density is not so much realized with high-rise, but through more efficient use of the available land and due to a lesser tendency to overscale. Some data: the average house in the Netherlands (floor space) is around 100 square meters (1.076 square feet). When we talk about a big house for families it is around 120 square meters (= 1.291 square feet). The average house size in the United States is around 214 square meters (2.300 square feet). The difference between Europe and the United States has been growing through the years (while the household size has decreased). The average garden in the Netherlands is 125 square meters (1.345 square feet). The average yard in the U.S. in shrinking, but still 850 square meters (9.148 square feet), with big differences between states. Â This smaller footprint is a logical consequence of the fact that building land is more scarce in our country, but I think it has also to do with our Calvinist mindset. Keeping it simple and not ostentatious. The treadmill theory (the richer you get, the more you compare yourself to other rich people and the faster the wheel of desire spins), is probably less common in the Netherlands than at the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. There's a Dutch saying (Doe maar gewoon, dan doe je al gek genoeg!) which would literally translate into something like: ''Just act normal, then you're acting crazy enough as it is!''. So, maybe we are more satisfied with what we have. Or we might have more intrinsic motivators (collecting experiences) then extrinsic motivators (collecting objects).
This mindset is one of the reasons that we have a much more dense built environment. Biggest advantage: a lot of facilities are at walking and bike distance. Fulfilling the needs of people that destinations should be within a 5 or 10 minute walking or cycling radius (see image). And creating densities that make frequent service of transit more financially feasible. This urban design also affects the average distance between an employee’s place of employment and his/her home. In 2015 that was only 22,6 kilometres (= 13,7 miles) in the Netherlands. According to Statista the average amount of time spent traveling to and from paid work is 34 minutes (men) and 22 minutes (women). In 25 percent of the commuting trips the bicycle is the most important means of transport (4% walks). For comparison, for every one-hundred American commuters, five take public transit, three walk and only one rides a bicycle to work or school.
The moral of this story: for a more sustainable, inclusive, diverse city you not only need good urban design and architecture, but also a certain mindset.
More on: Happy City from a Dutch perspective
These kids are charging their telephone on energy-generating swings! And having a great time as well! #Play for power.
Recently the Island Press released two books about bicycle urbanism. Two informative books that provide insight into the myths and advantages of this active means of transport. The focus is on the pioneering work in the Netherlands and Denmark and the struggle with the modal shift in North America. This review list some of the most important lessons.
http://urbanspringtime.blogspot.com/2019/02/bicycle-urbanism.html
A lot of post-war residential areas in Western-Europe are characterized by a spacious design and green appearance. Yet residents and landowners experience this urban design not only as quality, but also often as a problem. People are struggling with the structure, layout and management. As a result, the greenery often has a low quality. You can look at it, but you can’t use it as a vibrant public space. In this article I show the possibilities for creating a more attractive and lively public space in these types of districts. See: http://stadslente.blogspot.com/zuidwest
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Is it Time for 30km/hr Speed Limits in Neighbourhoods?
I live two blocks away from a major thoroughfare in Vancouver called First Avenue. Everyday, my neighbours and I experience cars bombing up and down our streets at speeds up to 60km an hour as they bypass traffic to get downtown or back to the suburbs. They don’t live in my community, and they don’t care who they might hit.
This was a major concern when my son was younger and would run up and down the sidewalk near our home. I had to clutch his hand like a overzealous mama bear, just to keep him from running into the road and getting hit by some BMW blazing up the street to avoid traffic enroute back to Surrey.
Sadly, this civic election some mayoral candidates like Ken Sim of the NPA and Wei Young of Coalition Vancouver, are fighting for the rights of car drivers instead of prioritizing the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users. They have favoured tearing out bike lanes, removing pedestrian crosswalks and cancelling plans to remove Vancouver’s freeway viaducts (which will be replaced by a massive new public park, as well as new cultural spaces).
This goes against Vancouver’s history as a city that prioritizes community spaces and active transportation over car drivers and freeways (we were the only city in North America to not build a freeway downtown). In fact, I would argue for a radically different approach.
It is time to reduce the speed limits in residential neighbourhoods from 50km/hr to 30 km/hr. There is zero need to drive this fast in someone’s community and increase the risk of fatally hitting pedestrians and cyclists. Speed kills. Period.
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Playable cities: a model and a toolbox Children's daily lives are affected mostly by decisions made by parents, teachers and urban planners. Together they influence where, how and how long children play. In recent years, children's outdoor play has declined. For health and pedagogical reasons, it is important that we stimulate outdoor playing. To realize this we need a new approach on public spaces for kids. This approach doesn't start with picking some elements from catalogues of play equipment companies or landscape architects. We should start at the other end by taking into account the bigger picture: the purpose (WHY) and the conditions (HOW) to realize playable cities. Only then, one knows which actions (WHAT) have to be carried out. This new model and toolkit gives you more than 100 specific actions for stimulating active free play in cities around the world. See http://urbanspringtime.blogspot.com/playablecities
Nowadays we make cities to much as a closed system: segregated, regimented, and controlled. Instead of this 'Closed City' we need an 'Open City' where citizens actively hash out their differences and planners experiment with urban forms that make it easier for residents to cope. This is the main message of urban sociologist Richard Sennett in his new book 'Building and Dwelling' that came out this year. A summary: http://urbanspringtime.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-open-city.html
A little girl gives coins to a street musician and get the best surprise in return.
The blog UrbanSpringtime (Stadslente in Dutch) is about the relation between the 'planned city' and 'lived city'. Giving insights in the relation between 'the way a city is planned, designed and made by professionals' and 'the way a city is experienced, practiced and filled in by its users'. The blog in 2017: Most read: https://t.co/ffnHQqPm3R Most handy: https://t.co/TMQ9ciaoqP Most promising: https://t.co/AuWP3PgJQS Most complex: https://t.co/yOJAt2Gy5b
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To encourage the use of public spaces it is important that we improve the accessibility of spaces and locations. One way to do this is by making public transport more attractive. Here are some great examples of bus stops where waiting times are amusing and entertaining: Singapore, London, Baltimore, Richmond, Istanbul and Sopot.
Bicycling Up, Enjoying the City Lounge & Less Space for the Car #Rotterdam is the second largest city in the #Netherlands. Because so much of the city was razed during a World War II carpet bombing, Rotterdam lacks a historic central district. Its newness makes it an interesting comparison to American cities. Even though much of central Rotterdam was built during the era of mass motoring, the city is still taking major steps to shift away from cars and toward transit, biking, and walking.
Making cities walkable and attractive. Great video by @CityParksAll about Urban parks and active transport
Doh Eain (“Our Home”) is a non-for-profit social enterprise aimed at citizen-led heritage conservation and urban renewal in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, also known as Burma. The city has only a few parks and playgrounds, but kilometers of unused and polluted back alleys between the houses, not attracting people but pests and diseases. The alley garden project aims to demonstrate the possibility of utilizing wasteland for recreation and social cohesion. The aim is to demonstrate how Yangon's many alleyways could be used as clean and healthy recreational spaces featuring gardens, street art and children’s play grounds as well as recycling and composting techniques. By simply cleaning up the streets and putting in flowers, plants and color (painting workshops with children) the alleys are turning form a space you want to avoid into a place you want to stay. See also Emilie Röell from Doh Eain at TEDxYangon or this video above.
Young and old playing on 'the partypig' (Aardvark) in #Arnhem (The Netherlands)
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Imagine a world where a safe, usable bike route between neighboring towns isn’t good enough because there are stoplights interrupting it. That world is the Netherlands, where such “inadequacies” are recognized and responded to with full-throated government support. That’s how they build projects like the RijnWaalpad, an 11-mile cycling highway that sails between the southeastern cities of Arnhem and Nijmegen without a single stop.
The first step to evaluating the health and vibrancy of a space might be to sit down. That is, if you can.
