Rethinking land and relation in Berlin’s struggle for housing justice
What would it mean for us to belong to the city rather than for the city to belong to us? And might changing this framework also change how we organize with our neighbours?
building resilient cities
From The Ground Up: Local Efforts to Create Resilient Cities—Excerpt
From the Ground Up: Local Efforts to Create Resilient Cities focuses on the unique ways in which US cities are expanding the scope of global solutions that mitigate and adapt to climate change while creating equitable and livable communities in the process.
There is Unrest in the Urban Forest
The truth is that high urban density and abundant housing are entirely compatible with a lush tree canopy.
The elites can’t stop climate change, but democratic cities can
It is time for the radical democratization of cities, in order for a meaningful and resourceful plan for action from the grassroots to be initiated. Anything less than this is simply a waste of time.
Nature in Cities and Cities in Nature
What is the current relationship of modern cities to nature? Cities are important to nature in a backhanded kind of way: without these relatively compact human settlements we would require a lot of more of what now comprises important open, resource lands on which to live.
Transformation or Gentrification? The Hazy Politics of the 15-Minute City
With increasing interest in the concept likely to persist, the most optimistic reading of the 15-minute city is to view it as a hook on which there is potential to attach a transformative urban socio-ecological agenda, but only if competing capitalist interests can be successfully fended off.
The American Alley, Part 4: Rediscovering the Forgotten Human Scale
It is time that we recognize that the potential for spatially formed, human-scaled, beautiful, and prosperous urban places already lies within every urban block.
The American Alley, Part 3: The End of the American Alley
As ADUs are developed along alleys in the next few years, we are presented with an opportunity: to construct ADUs which front the street and transform the service alley into a minor street, or to construct ADUs which only look into the private lot, simply leaving the alley as it is.
The American Alley, Part 2: Origins of the American Alley
Understanding the alley’s past reveals it for what it is today: a hidden resource for making our cities stronger and more prosperous.
The American Alley, Part 1: A Hidden Resource
It is rare to find a street in America that does not seem to be almost wholly oriented around the movement of cars from one point to another. The street understood as part of the public realm seems to be forever lost, a thing of the past.
Cooler, Cleaner Megacities, One Rooftop Garden at a Time
Gardening on a rooftop is more than just a clever use of limited space, though. Rooftop gardens have substantial positive effects on air pollution and city temperatures.
Urban Walkability Gains a Foothold in the U.S.
Only time will tell, but a city built around 15-minute travel via nonmotorized transportation is one that can upend the way planners think about neighborhoods and mobility, and may ultimately render cars unnecessary in all aspects of personal transportation.