architizer:

Roads Cover 4.8 square miles of Manhattan

Howler and Yoon, winners of the Audi Urban Future Award image a NYC where roads become soccer fields and solar panels.

Do you know what else Manhattan is largely comprised of? Rooftops… where more solar panels should go. Hint hint…

Just an aside… I like the fact that the top graphic highlights Lower Manhattan and part of Midtown in its 23.2% of households portions considering the devastation of superstorm Sandy back in the fall. I think it’s much more telling of the possibilities for disaster prevention/recovery in the city because of that.

(via urbanresolve)

A major criticism of dense urban centers is a lack of connection to nature. Although the ‘real thing’ can’t be substituted, there are man-made parks that create an experience of nature amongst the concrete jungle. Think Central Park in Manhattan - a contained green space designed to deliberately obscure sight lines to give the illusion of physical and mental escapism from the surrounding urban environment and the fast and sometimes overwhelming pace of city life. Its design intentionally mimics nature with lakes, ponds, and winding paths through trees that contrast the rigidity of Manhattan’s grid of streets. But with less and less sizable expanses of open space in cities for “authentic looking” nature oases, introducing natural elements into a city must be done in a more deliberate way. Unused or underused urban space is reclaimed and natural elements are used as a “building tool” to carefully create an experience of interaction with nature without masquerading as the real thing. Honest design expression in a time calling for resourceful and sustainable solutions to our human needs.

Urban rivers [ x x ]

Taking back to city for the pedestrian. Huzzah!

Parking space parks [ x x x ]

Upon seeing this photo, was anyone else’s first thought “That would make a lovely small dog park for the residents of that building”? Anyone?

H1474 by rskm on Flickr. [via hiromitsu]

(via designed-for-life)

Sydney’s Laneway Art and City Spaces.  

(Source: terfigyelo, via urbanination)

Master planning meets temporary urbanism, and it works!

Sometimes we tend to circumscribe the possibilities of tactical and temporary urbanism to urban spaces of limited size (urban voids) or open spaces expected to be public (parks, plazas, streets, etc.), thinking only of their usefulness as small-scale interventions. However, in the current times of economic crisis in which so many large scale urban developments are stalled or have simply seen the implementation of the plan will take longer than originally envisaged, we cannot afford to maintain these urban spaces waiting better times to return for the developer to complete the plan for years and years. Can we do more than contemplate the fences that enclose these halted building sites?

[via humanscalecities]

Leon Krier`s growth of a city. [via urbanination]

(via Colorful Umbrellas Spotted in Portugal | Senses Lost) [via kkanakos]