This is an urban design, architecture and cities blog exploring design, art, culture, planning, transportation and cultural landscapes. Articles from this blog have been published on ArchDaily, Jan Gehl's blog, Sustainable Cities, Project for Public Spaces, the NOMA magazine and elsewhere.
Why Forests Matter to the Climate While I write this, New York, Baltimore, DC and large parts of the US are under a code red or purple air quality alert casting everything into an otherworldly light from pollution caused by smoke drifting south from massive Canadian wildfires. Another reason to think about forests, their benefits and the risks when they die. Next to the oceans, forests are the…
During my time studying architecture the architect-engineer and Pritzker Prize winner Frei Otto was a full time professor at my alma mater, the University of Stuttgart and his Institute of Institute for Lightweight Structures was a flagship for innovation. He designed structures guided by gravity not ego, and like Buckminster Fuller before him he was guided by the credo of doing more with less. In…
What Makes a Good Third Place? In my brother’s hometown of historic Herrenberg, Germany (population 34,000), running for office—he serves on the city council—involves setting up a stand on the central market square. City hall, a church, and stately half-timbered medieval gabled buildings frame an irregular plaza in the center of town whose spatial quality rivals the Piazza del Campo in Siena,…
The State of Downtown , according to its boosters, the various downtown BIDs, is always good. To many residents, however their downtown is a rather sad affair, at least since the pandemic. The BIDs continue to clean and sweep with their uniformed "ambassadors" which are a familiar site in many US cities, but the clean streets are largely empty. Retail sales are down, hotel and office occupancies…
The arc of history bends towards progress Most people born after the age of Enlightenment take it for granted that progress is inevitable. Science, technology and medicine lead to ever more health, wealth and mobility. Productivity and education increase hand in hand, only the sky is the limit. Democracy unfolded, social justice and civil and women's rights became goals including more people into…
Well, the future for me is already a thing of the past" Bob Dylan, Bye and Bye Most of human history was static. It was the British physicist David Deutsch in his book "The Beginning of Infinity" who first made me understand that the idea one could invent the future would have been ridiculously foreign to people who repeated what their fathers had done, their grandfathers and so forth. The…
To live is to leave traces (Walter Benjamin, German philosopher) "I f architecture is where most of human existence takes place it cannot fail to be a topic of philosophy " (Graham Harman, American philosopher) Anxiety and Challenges I recently participated in a luncheon with the local AIA Fellows. The prevailing topic was AI: how it will change architectural practice, if it will replace…
The Perception In my hometown of Baltimore it is a widespread conviction that the redevelopment of former industrial sites adjacent to downtown such as Harbor East, Harborpoint and the further out Port Covington did nothing but suck the lifeblood out of downtown and even out of neighborhoods. The new developments did not only draw residents and jobs out of the old downtown and its neighboring…
Your work knows no borders—neither should your professional network. With an AIA membership, you gain access to the world’s largest, most influential network of architects and design professionals. And with more than 200 global chapters, you’ll find connections, opportunities, and support no matter where you are in the world. (American Institute of Architects website ) Sri Lanka Architecture…
In a world where much seems to be going backward, it isn’t just the current federal government asking its workers to return to the office. Recent studies show that especially larger firms now require employees to come back. The benefits of working from home (WFH Research*) Fortune 100 employees may need to prepare their good-byes to hybrid work. For the first time since the onset of COVID, more…
The traditional definition of noise is “unwanted or disturbing sound”. Sound becomes unwanted when it either interferes with normal activities such as sleeping, conversation, or disrupts or diminishes one’s quality of life. The fact that you can’t see, taste or smell it may help explain why it has not received as much attention as other types of pollution, such as air pollution, or water…
“By natural law, these things are the common property of all: the air, the running water, the sea, and with it, the shores of the sea.” ( Institutes of Justinian , by the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I, published anno 533) Back to Nature - Not as Easy as it Seems Temporary urban beach on a reclaimed industrial site in Baltimore (Photo: Philipsen) Ahh summer! Pack up the camper or the tents, enjoy…
"The most important thing in life is to never make compromises (...) because accepting compromises means losing. I have seen it in all my friends who build." (Leon Krier per Architecture Viva ) The Back Story Leon Krier who died in June this year at age 79 had admired his eight years older brother Rob who died in 2023 age 85. Both were architects and both derided modernist architecture and current…
“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” (Jane Jacobs) Why the Just City? Our cities are ground zero for the tensions, fissures, shortcomings, and successes of our society. Before the pandemic struck, cities seemed to undergo an unstoppable renaissance. Then COVID-19 brought a sharp reversal from which cities…
Is Housing Overregulated? First, we make the building codes, then they shape our cities, which then shape us. Occasionally, when the codes become too thick and the cost too high, we fight back, as in the quest to lower the cost for multi-family housing by allowing the cheaper wood construction we know from single family homes. Model codes now permit up to six floors in what is aptly called,…
History There is no older architecture anywhere in the Americas and the old towns are quainter even than Quebec City or Montreal. The style is decidedly Hispanic, the people mostly speak Spanish among each other, there is a strong local identity, a blend of native, African, British, Spanish and American cultures. You can get here from the US without a passport, the currency is the US dollar, US…
Transit in Crisis Mass transit has always been an afterthought in the US. Sprawling, low-density American land use patterns which replaced the old streetcar villages never allowed it to be efficient. With some short exceptions, such as the development of streetcar villages at the in the early 20th century or the brief period following the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 , as well as the 1991…
NOTE: The English version of this article can be found here . KI wird Menschen nicht ersetzen, sondern Menschen mit KI werden diejenigen ohne ersetzen (Karim Lakhani, Harvard Business School) Der Tod des Architekten wurde bereits mehrfach angekündigt, verdrängt von Ingenieuren, von CAD, von parametrischem Design und jetzt durch Künstliche Intelligenz. Gleichzeitig können wir als unser virtueller…
AI will not replace humans but humans with AI will replace those without ( Karim Lakhani, Harvard Business School) The death of the architect has been predicted before, killed by engineers, by CAD, by parametric design , and now by AI. At the same time we may achieve immortality as our virtual twin . At architecture conferences sessions addressing AI were packed by people seemingly motivated by…
Missing Guardrails and Signposts There has been a lot of talk about the missing guardrails that would keep government in check and democracy intact. However, there is less discussion about the suddenly missing guideposts and milestones that disappeared overnight. Professionals who are guided not only by rules, codes, and regulations but also by societal values. Firm in the center of turmoil: The…
Invited by ULI to speak about the potential of a failing mall in Baltimore County to become a successful Transit Oriented Development (TOD), and appointed to a Redevelopment Authority which includes a 100 acre failing Mall, motivated me to outline what it takes to transform a mall into an attractive mixed-use, a town-center, or a TOD. A label is no substitute for substance Traditional town center:…
Amazon's requirement to work from the office will not solve the problems of the American downtown that blew up with Covid, the need for cities as places of interaction and innovation notwithstanding. “Amazon is reinforcing the importance of its headquarters’ location in Seattle and signaling that its mission to embrace and foster innovation is not a spatially distributed endeavor but a socially…
This article explores whether the quest for knowledge is the motor of civilization and if knowledge depends on growth . It addresses current cultural pessimism vs the value of rationalism and the scientific method and culminates in some optimistic vision for the future. “The future is open. It is not predetermined and thus cannot be predicted – except by accident. The possibilities that lie in the…
The international chapter of AIA had its annual conference this year in Hong Kong. The conference included presenters from around the world as well as many tours to experience the city and the Territory. I spent a week there. The below impressions are necessarily limited. Towers, mountains and the sea Whether seen form the water, the street or above, Hong Kong is foremost the experience of the…
“We’re often easily distracted by the idea of something new and flashy, but then we learn it’s quite hard to deliver on those promises, and while we’re chasing something flashy, the problems become more entrenched and it becomes harder to deal with them.” ( Shoshanna Saxe , Civil Engineer University of Toronto) The idea that technology will make life not only easier but will also increase…