Microlog
34 Microlog entries tagged with ‘cities’
The world’s biggest cities: How do you measure them?
“Defining the borders of a city is no easy task - and there is no international standard to ensure consistency” [c/o @StudioXNYC]. Interesting ·
Megacities
“By 2050, three-quarters of the world’s population will be urban. That means more — and much bigger — metropolises.” Interesting ·
Will Japan build a backup Tokyo?
I suppose if anyone could do it, they could. Interesting ·
Sketchbook: Melbourne Smart City, for City of Melbourne/C40 Cities (incl. a note on why it’s easier to crowdsource a revolution than a light-rail system)
Another epic post from Dan Hill, this time on the concept of the ‘smart city’, relaying real-time metrics of the city to its inhabitants through various means, as well as the problems inherent on a municipal level with that kind of big thinking. Interesting ·
London From the Outside In: Walking From Heathrow Airport
Inverting the usual pattern of discovering when visiting a new city. How many places could this work for? I can’t imagine it would be too interesting walking to town from Dublin Airport, unless you like industrial estates. Interesting ·
Montrealers unnerved by a city collapsing around them
Decades of infrastructural neglect are catching up with the people of Canada’s second city. Interesting ·
Slide To The Train
Dutch rail bosses have installed a so-called ‘transfer accelerator’ at a train station in Utrecht. It’s basically a slide. Looks like fun, but the potential for having one’s clothing ruined (or worse) is quite high. Interesting ·
Walled Gardens and the Instrumented City
On the encroachment of private spaces in the nominally public ‘instrumented cities’ of cyberspace. Interesting ·
Why don’t more people live in liveable cities?
Because ‘liveable cities’ lists are bullshit; they often confuse ‘aesthetically pleasing’ for ‘interesting’. Arts & Culture ·
Aerotropolis: An Interview with Greg Lindsay
BLDGBLOG’s Geoff Manaugh chats with the co-author of a book that posits airports and their environs as the cities of the future. I’m not sure I’d go that far, but there’s some interesting ideas here. By the way, the book is on my wishlist, hint hint. Interesting ·
Notes on New Songdo City
Another epic post from City of Sound, this time on one of the Far East’s latest ‘instant cities’. It’s incredible really, as if someone’s literally playing Sim City with the landscape there (cf. Blog All Bookmarked Web Pages: Shanghai Diary). Also: I never realised China, South Korea and Japan were in such close proximity as to make a bridge between them a realistic engineering challenge. Please make that happen. Interesting ·
Miracle Above Manhattan
The story of how the High Line evolved from urban relic to a model for future city green spaces. Arts & Culture ·
Yes There Are Grocery Stores in Detroit
Combatting the media’s perception of the Motor City as a blight-ridden hellhole with no redeeming qualities. Indeed, there’s better grocery shopping in Detroit than in the whole of Dublin FFS. Arts & Culture ·
Why progress-bar traffic lights are long overdue
This is a great idea (more about it here) akin to the countdown timers for pedestrians on many traffic lights here in Dublin. Those certainly work for me — but then my mammy raised me right. Interesting ·
Manhattan Elsewhere
What would Manhattan look like if it could be floated to another city? Nice work, but an even more radical thought occurs: what if any city could float? We can already reclaim land from the sea and live on soil where there was recently only water — what’s stopping us from constructing a true floating city? And I don’t mean some humongous ocean liner — I mean a giant man-made island that could be propelled from one sea to another. Rather than a Manhattan Elsewhere, how about a Manhattan Anywhere? Interesting ·
Joe Nishizawa: Japan’s underground photography
I’m a bit of a sucker for links like this. Interesting ·
Urville
An imaginary city that exists only on paper and in the mind of its autistic savant creator. Astonishing [c/o Boing Boing]. Interesting ·
Tokyo Secret City
There’s a secret Murakami-esque network of tunnels running beneath Tokyo, allegedly. Sweet. Interesting ·
Invisible city
“Twenty-four hours in Chongqing, a megalopolis you’ve never heard of.” Surely the whole of China is virtually invisible to the West, not just this corner of it. Very enlightening. (Update 12/04: The Guardian has just posted an accompanying film of Chongqing with the journalist Jonathan Watts.) Interesting ·
Time travel with the London tube map
I’m linking to this if only because I love the fact that there are people out there who care about these things. Interesting ·
Renzo Piano on Paris, peripheries and progress
The notes on peripheries are particularly thought-provoking. I can see the same problems in Dublin’s peripheral sprawl, where giant shopping malls have sprung up, taking the place of true community centres of commerce and interaction in the satellite towns, in a half-hearted effort to patch up the mistakes involved in their conception. Interesting ·
On King Kong, the Empire State and the dynamism of the city
Following up on my own post about the movie, Things Magazine examines it in context with both the real history of New York’s landscape, and with its own cinematic predecessors. Plenty of useful links, too [c/o Kottke]. Arts & Culture ·
Pacific Mall Toronto
Next time I visit TO I’m so checking this place out. Interesting ·
chil.us
A project examining Chicago’s status as a global city, placing it in context with America’s other major metropolises. Be sure to check out the photo-slices. [c/o del.icio.us/fakeisthenewreal] Interesting ·
Hong Kong In Motion
“Photographs of cities can convey something of the texture of the sidewalk, and certainly do a good job conveying skylines or monumental spaces. But it’s harder to capture the flow of a city.” Steven Johnson gave it a go, anyway. Interesting ·
Hong Kong walk signal
Dublin traffic light signals are similar, but the sound patterns for green and red are more distinct. Interesting ·
Goodbye, 38 Routemasters
I never did get a chance to ride on one. Sure, times change and things evolve, but London’s losing a big part of its character. Interesting ·
Story of a street
I love stories like this. Interesting ·
London Map Downloads
A very handy resource. Interesting ·
Hokkaido installs musical roads [c/o Interconnected]
Why is it that the Japanese always come up with the best ideas? Interesting ·
Massimo Vignelli’s subway map of 1972
Arts & Culture ·
Don’t feel bad if you often get lost in cities — network analysis shows their structure is peculiarly difficult to navigate
Interesting ·
Chicago Mile by Mile [c/o del.icio.us/magnetbox]
Interesting ·
Wikipedia entries for Toronto [c/o Accordion Guy]
Interesting ·
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This page lists all Microlog entries by MacDara Conroy tagged with ‘cities’. You will find many more entries sorted by month and by category in the Archives.
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